1It usually gives you pleasure if anything has been done in the senate worthy of that order. 1For although you have withdrawn from love of quiet, concern for the majesty of the state still sits in your mind. 1Hear, then, what has been done in these last days, a matter famous for the distinction of the person, salutary for the severity of the example, everlasting for the magnitude of the affair. 2Marius Priscus, accused by the Africans whom he had governed as proconsul, abandoned his defence and asked for judges. 2Cornelius Tacitus and I, appointed to act for the provincials, thought it consistent with our duty to make known to the senate that Priscus, by his monstrous cruelty, had gone beyond crimes for which judges could be granted, since he had taken money for condemning innocent people, and even for putting them to death.
3Catius Fronto replied and pleaded that nothing should be investigated beyond the law on extortion, and, as a man most skilled at moving tears, he filled all the sails of his speech with a sort of wind of pity. 4Great was the dispute, great the shouting on both sides, some saying that the senate's jurisdiction was confined by the law, others that it was free and unrestricted, and that the defendant must be punished as much as he had offended. 5Finally the consul-elect, Julius Ferox, an upright and blameless man, proposed that Marius should be granted judges for the time being, but that those to whom he was said to have sold the punishment of innocent men should be summoned.
6This proposal not only prevailed, but after so much disagreement it was the only one with general support; and it was observed from experience that favour and pity have sharp and vehement first impulses, but gradually settle down, quenched as it were by reflection and reason. 7Hence it happens that what many defend amid confused shouting, no one is willing to say when the rest are silent; 7for when you are separated from the crowd, a view opens up of things which the crowd conceals. 8Those who had been ordered to appear came, Vitellius Honoratus and Flavius Marcianus; 8of these, Honoratus was charged with having bought for three hundred thousand sesterces the exile of a Roman knight and the death penalty for seven of his friends, Marcianus with having bought for seven hundred thousand several punishments for a single Roman knight; 8for he had been beaten with clubs, condemned to the mines and strangled in prison.
9But a timely death removed Honoratus from the senate's inquiry; Marcianus was brought in while Priscus was absent. 9And so Tuccius Cerialis, an ex-consul, demanded by his right as a senator that Priscus should be informed, either because he thought he would be more pitiable, or because he would be more odious, if he were present, or – as I most believe – because it was most just that a shared crime should be defended by both, and, if it could not be refuted, punished in both. 10The matter was postponed to the next meeting of the senate, the very sight of which was most august. 10The emperor presided – for he was consul –; besides, it was January, a month crowded both in other respects and especially with senators; 10moreover, the importance of the case, the expectation and talk increased by the delay, and the eagerness inborn in mortals to learn of great and unusual things, had drawn everyone from all sides.
11Imagine what anxiety we felt, what fear, we who had to speak on so grave a matter in that assembly in the presence of Caesar. 11I have pleaded in the senate more than once, and indeed nowhere am I usually heard more kindly: yet then everything, being new, stirred me with a new fear. 12Besides the things I have mentioned above, the difficulty of the case kept coming before my mind: there stood a man lately a consular, lately one of the Seven for feasts, now neither. 13It was therefore extremely burdensome to accuse a man already condemned, whom, just as the atrocity of the charge weighed him down, so pity, as for a condemnation already completed, protected.
14However, I gathered my mind and my thoughts as best I could, and began to speak, with the approval of my hearers no less than my own anxiety. 14I spoke for almost five hours; 14for to the twelve water-clocks, very generous ones, which I had been allotted, four more were added. 14So much did the very things that had seemed hard and hostile when I was about to speak prove favourable as I spoke. 15Caesar indeed showed me such interest, and such concern too – for it is too much to say anxiety –, that he several times reminded my freedman, who was standing behind me, that I should spare my voice and lungs, when he thought I was straining harder than my slender frame could bear.
15Claudius Marcellinus replied to me on behalf of Marcianus. 16The senate was then dismissed and recalled for the next day; 16for no speech could now be begun without being cut off by the onset of night. 17On the following day Salvius Liberalis spoke for Marius, a man subtle, methodical, keen and eloquent; 17and in that case he brought out all his skills. 17Cornelius Tacitus replied most eloquently and, as is the outstanding quality of his oratory, with majesty. 18Catius Fronto spoke again for Marius, remarkably, and, as that stage of the proceedings now demanded, spent more time on entreaties than on defence. 18Evening closed his speech, though not so as to break it off.
18So the presentation of evidence ran over into a third day. 18This in itself was fine and in the old manner, that the senate should be adjourned by nightfall, summoned for three days, kept in session for three days. 19Cornutus Tertullus, consul-elect, an excellent man and most steadfast on behalf of truth, proposed that the seven hundred thousand which Marius had received should be paid into the treasury, that Marius should be banished from Rome and Italy, and Marcianus from Africa as well. 19At the end of his proposal he added that, since Tacitus and I had performed the advocacy laid upon us diligently and courageously, the senate considered that we had acted in a manner worthy of the role entrusted to us.
20The consuls-elect agreed, as did all the ex-consuls as far as Pompeius Collega: he proposed that the seven hundred thousand should be paid into the treasury and Marcianus banished for five years, but that Marius should be left to the penalty for extortion which he had already suffered. 21There were many on each side, perhaps even more for this proposal, as being either laxer or milder. 21For some even of those who had seemed to agree with Cornutus were following this man, who had spoken after them. 22But when the division was taking place, those who had been standing by the consuls' chairs began to go over to Cornutus' proposal.
22Then those who had been letting themselves be counted with Collega crossed to the other side; 22Collega was left with a few. 22Afterwards he complained much about those who had urged him on, especially about Regulus, who had deserted him over a proposal which Regulus himself had dictated. 22Regulus has in any case so fickle a temperament that he dares a great deal and fears a great deal. 23That was the end of a most important inquiry. 23There remains, however, a not unimportant piece of public business, Hostilius Firminus, legate of Marius Priscus, who was implicated in the case and severely and vehemently harassed. 23For it was proved, both by Marcianus' accounts and by a speech which Marcianus had made in the council of the people of Lepcis, that he had lent his services to Priscus for a most shameful task and had bargained with Marcianus for fifty thousand denarii, and that he had moreover received ten thousand sesterces himself, under a most disgraceful heading indeed, as a perfumer's fee, a heading not out of keeping with the life of a man always groomed and smoothed with pumice.
24On Cornutus' proposal it was decided that his case should be referred to the next meeting of the senate; 24for at that time, whether by chance or from a guilty conscience, he had been absent. 25You have the news from the city; 25write in return the news from the country. 25How are your young trees doing, your vines, your crops, how are your dainty sheep? 25In short, unless you send back an equally long letter, there is no reason for you to expect anything afterwards but a very short one. 25Farewell.