and did you by your own sentence approve of the man who you thought was stripped of his character and of all his fortunes? I had fears indeed, O Caius Aquillius, that I could not stand my ground in this cause with a mind sufficiently fortified and resolute. I thought thus, that, as Hortensius was going to speak against me, and as Philip was going to listen to me carefully, I should through fear stumble in many particulars. I said to Quintus Roscius here, whose sister is the wife of Publius Quinctius, when he asked of me, and, with the greatest earnestness, entreated me to defend his relation, that it was very difficult for me, not only to sum up a cause against such orators, but even to attempt to speak at all. When he pressed it more eagerly, I said to the man very familiarly, as our friendship justified, that a man appeared to me to have a very brazen face, who, while he was present, could attempt to use action in speaking, but those who contended with him himself, even though before that they seemed to have any skill or elegance, lost it, and that I was afraid lest something of the same sort would happen to me when I was going to speak against so great an artist.
Then Roscius said many other things with a view to encourage me, and in truth, if he were to say nothing he would still move any one by the very silent affection and zeal which he felt for his relation. In truth, as he is an artist of that sort that he alone seems worthy of being looked at when he is on the stage, so he is also a man of such a sort that he alone seems to deserve never to go thither. “But what,” says he, “if you have such a cause as this, that you have only to make this plain, that there is no one in two or three days at most can walk seven hundred miles? Will you still fear that you will not be able to argue this point against Hortensius?”
“No,” said
I. “But what is that to the purpose?” “In
truth,” said he, “that is what the cause turns upon.”
“How so?” He then explains to me an affair of that sort, and at the
same time an action of Sextus Naevius, which, if that alone were alleged, ought to be
sufficient. And I beg of you, O Caius Aquillius, and of you the assessors, that you will
attend to it carefully. You will see, in truth, that on the one side there were engaged
from the very beginning covetousness and audacity, that on the other side truth and
modesty resisted as long as they could. You demand to be allowed to take possession of
his goods according to the edict. On what day I wish to hear you yourself, O Naevius. I
want this unheard-of action to be proved by the voice of the very man who has committed
it. Mention the day, Naevius. The twentieth of February. Right, how far is it from hence
to your estate in
O incredible thing! O inconsiderate covetousness! O winged messenger! The agents and
satellites of Sextus Naevius come from