[42]
All men shunned him with contempt and
hatred,—all men avoided him as some inhuman and mischievous beast or pestilence.
Still, audacious, infamous, guilty as he was, Habitus, O judges, would never have accused him,
if he had been able to avoid doing so without danger to his own life. Oppianicus was his
enemy; still he was his step-father: his mother was cruel to him and hated him; still she was
his mother. Lastly, no one was ever so disinclined to prosecutions as Cluentius was by nature,
by disposition, and by the constant habits of his life. But as he had this alternative set
before him, either to accuse hint, as he was bound to do by justice and piety, or else to be
miserably and wickedly murdered himself, he preferred accusing him any way he could, to dying
in that miserable manner.
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