1What have you given me to defend, my good accuser? 1and what have you given these men to suspect? 1'He was afraid of being disinherited.' 1I hear that, but no one says for what reason he should have been afraid. 1'His father had it in mind.' 1Make it plain. 1There is nothing; 1not with whom he discussed it, whom he informed, what put it into your heads to suspect this. 1When you accuse in this way, Erucius, are you not saying openly: 'I know what I have received, I do not know what to say; 1I looked only to this one thing, that Chrysogonus said no one would act as counsel for that man; 1that about the purchase of the property and about that partnership there was no one who would dare to say a word at this time'?
1This false belief drove you into that blunder; 1by Hercules, you would not have said a word if you had thought that anyone would answer you. 59It was worth your while, judges, if you noticed, to observe his carelessness in prosecuting. 59I believe that when he had seen what men were sitting on these benches, he asked whether this man or that was going to defend; 59that about me he did not even have a suspicion, because I had never before pleaded a public case. 59After he found that there was no one among those who are able and accustomed to do so, he began to be so careless that, whenever it came into his head, he would sit down, then stroll about, sometimes even call his slave, to order his dinner, I suppose; in short, he treated your bench and this gathering as if it were utter solitude.
59At last he finished his speech and sat down; 59I stood up.