12.
[26]
Had then those Roman knights, whom we ourselves have seen who have lately flourished in the
republic, and in the courts, so much courage and so much vigour as to refuse belief to Marcus
Scaurus when a witness; and are you afraid to disbelieve the evidence of the Volcae and of the
Allobroges? If it was not right to give credence to a hostile witness, was Crassus more
hostile to Marcellus, or Scaurus to Fimbria, on account of any political differences, or any
domestic quarrels, than the Gauls are to Fonteius? For of the Gauls, those even who stand on
the best ground have been compelled once and again, and sorely against their will, to furnish
cavalry, money, and corn; and of the rest, some have been deprived of their land in ancient
wars, some have been overwhelmed and subdued in war by this very man.
[27]
If those men ought not to be believed who appear to say anything covetously
with a view to some private gain, I think that the Caepios and Metelli proposed to themselves
a greater gain from the condemnation of Quintus Pompeius, as by that they would have got rid
of a formidable adversary to all their views, than all the Gauls hoped for from the disaster
of Marcus Fonteius, in which that province believed that all its safety and liberty consisted.
If it is proper to have a regard to the men themselves, (a thing which in truth in the case
of witnesses ought to be of the greatest weight,) is any one, the most honourable man in all
Gaul to be compared, I will not say with the most
honourable men of our city, but even with the meanest of Roman citizens? Does Induciomarus
know what is the meaning of giving evidence? Is he affected with that awe which moves every
individual among us when he is brought into that box?
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