[3]
Therefore, O judges, I come
now to plead the cause in this trial on a very different plan from the one I adopted at first.
For then the hope of our cause depended on the arguments I could use in our defence; now it
rests on the confession of our adversary;—then I relied on our witnesses; now I rely
on theirs. And about them I was formerly anxious, lest, if they were wicked men, they should
speak falsely,—lest, if they were thought honest men, they should establish their
case; now I am very much at ease on the subject. For, if they are good men, they assist me by
saying that on their oaths, which I, not being on my oath, am urging in accusation. But if
they are not so respectable, they do me no injury, since, if they are believed, then the very
facts which we urge in accusation are believed; and if credit be not given to them, then
credit is refused to the witnesses of our adversary.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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