1I can now write you a full account of how much labour I have spent on the public case of the province of Baetica. 2For it was complex, and was pleaded several times with great variety. 2Why the variety, why several hearings? 2Caecilius Classicus, a vile and openly wicked man, had conducted his proconsulship there no less violently than corruptly, in the same year as Marius Priscus in Africa. 3Now Priscus came from Baetica, Classicus from Africa. 3Hence a saying of the Baeticans — for resentment often makes people witty too — went the rounds, and not without humour: 'I gave a bad one and got a bad one back.' 4But Marius was prosecuted by one city officially and by many private individuals, whereas the whole province fell upon Classicus.
4He forestalled the prosecution by death, whether accidental or self-inflicted. 4For his death was notorious, yet uncertain: for while it seemed credible that he had wished to depart from life since he could not be defended, it seemed strange that he should have escaped by death the shame of condemnation when he had felt no shame in committing acts that deserved condemnation. 6Nonetheless Baetica persisted in its prosecution even of the dead man. 6This had been provided for by the laws, but had fallen into disuse and was then revived after a long interval. 6The Baeticans went further, in that they also indicted Classicus' associates and agents at the same time, and demanded an inquiry against them by name.
7I appeared for the Baeticans, and with me Lucceius Albinus, a copious and polished speaker; 7though we had long had a mutual regard, from this partnership in duty I began to love him more ardently. 8Glory, it is true, especially in literary pursuits, has something that cannot be shared; yet between us there was no rivalry, no contention, since we both strove under an equal yoke not for ourselves but for the case, whose magnitude and importance seemed to demand that we should not take on so great a burden in single hearings. 9We feared that the day, our voices and our lungs would fail us if we embraced so many charges and so many defendants in a single bundle, as it were; 9then, that the attention of the judges might be not only wearied but even confused by many names and many cases; 9next, that the influence of the individuals, combined and intermingled, might gain for each of them the strength of all; 9finally, that the most powerful might slip away through the punishment of others, the lowliest being handed over as a kind of scapegoat.
10For favour and self-interest hold sway most of all when they can lurk beneath some show of severity. 11We had in mind that famous example of Sertorius, who ordered the strongest and the weakest soldier to pull the horse's tail — you know the rest. 11For we too saw that so numerous a column of defendants could be overcome only if it were picked off one by one. 12We decided first of all to show that Classicus himself was guilty: this was the most suitable way to pass on to his associates and agents, since associates and agents could not be proved guilty unless he was guilty. 12Two of these we joined with Classicus at once, Baebius Probus and Fabius Hispanus, both powerful through influence, Hispanus through eloquence as well.
12And as far as Classicus was concerned, the work was brief and easy. 13He had left a record in his own hand of what he had received from each transaction, from each case; 13he had also sent boastful and bragging letters to Rome to a little lady friend, in these very words: 'Hurrah, hurrah, I am coming back to you a free man; 13I have already raised four million sesterces, having sold off part of the Baeticans.' 14Over Hispanus and Probus there was much sweat. 14Before I came to their charges, I thought it necessary to work hard to establish that acting as an agent was itself a crime: had I not done so, I would have proved them agents to no purpose.
15For their defence was not to deny the facts but to beg pardon on the ground of necessity; 15for they were provincials, they said, and were compelled by fear to obey every command of the proconsuls. 16Claudius Restitutus, who replied to me, a practised and alert man, ready for anything however sudden, often says that never had such darkness, such confusion been cast over him as when he saw the points snatched away and wrested from him on which he rested all his confidence for his defence. 17The outcome of our plan was this: the senate decided that the property Classicus had possessed before his province should be separated from the rest, the former to be left to his daughter, the latter to those he had despoiled.
17It was added that the money he had paid to his creditors should be recovered. 17Hispanus and Probus were banished for five years; 17so serious did that appear which at first was doubted to be a crime at all. 18A few days later we prosecuted Claudius Fuscus, Classicus' son-in-law, and Stilonius Priscus, who had been tribune of a cohort under Classicus, with differing results: Priscus was banned from Italy for two years, and Fuscus was acquitted. 19In the third hearing we thought it most convenient to gather several together, lest, if the inquiry were drawn out too long, the justice and severity of the judges should flag through a kind of surfeit and weariness; 19and besides, there remained the lesser defendants, deliberately kept for this stage, with the exception, however, of Classicus' wife, who, though entangled in suspicions, did not seem sufficiently convicted by the proofs; 20for Classicus' daughter, who was also among the accused, was not even touched by suspicion.
20And so, when I came to her name in the last hearing — for there was not the same reason at the end as at the beginning to fear that the authority of the whole prosecution might be weakened by this — I thought it most honourable not to press one who did not deserve it, and I said this very thing both freely and in various ways. 21For at one moment I asked the envoys whether they had told me anything that they were confident could be proved by the facts; 21at another I asked the senate's advice whether it thought that I ought, if I had any ability in speaking, to aim it like a weapon at the throat of an innocent woman; 21finally I closed the whole topic with this conclusion: 'Someone will say, "Are you passing judgement, then?"
21No, I am not judging; but I do remember that I was assigned as advocate from among the judges.' 22This was the end of a case with a great many defendants, some being acquitted, more condemned and even banished, some for a term, others for life. 23In the same decree of the senate our industry, good faith and steadfastness were approved with the fullest testimony, a worthy and the only fitting reward for so great a labour. 24You can imagine how tired we are, who had to plead so often, to dispute so often, to examine, support and refute so many witnesses. 25Then again, how hard, how irksome it was to refuse the friends of so many defendants when they asked in private, and to resist them openly when they opposed us!
25I will relate one of the things I said. 25When some of the judges themselves protested loudly to me on behalf of a defendant of great influence, I said: 'He will be no less innocent if I have said everything.' 26You will gather from this how many disputes, how many offences too, we incurred, though only for a short time; 26for good faith at the moment offends those whom it resists, but afterwards it is looked up to and praised by those very people. 26I could not have brought you more fully into the scene itself. 27You will say: 'It was not worth it; 27for what have I to do with so long a letter?' 27Then do not keep asking what is happening at Rome.
27And yet remember that a letter is not long which has embraced so many days, so many hearings, and finally so many defendants and cases. 28All of which I think I have gone through no less briefly than carefully. 28I was rash to say 'carefully': something occurs to me that I had passed over, and late indeed, but though out of its place, it shall be given. 28Homer does this, and many others following his example; 28it is besides very elegant, though that is not why I shall do it. 29One of the witnesses, whether angry at having been summoned against his will, or suborned by one of the defendants to disarm the prosecution, charged Norbanus Licinianus, envoy and investigator, with collusion in the case of Casta — she was Classicus' wife.
30It is laid down by law that the defendant's case should be completed first and then the inquiry into the colluder held, evidently because the good faith of a prosecutor is best judged from the prosecution itself. 31Yet neither the order of the law, nor his title as envoy, nor his duty as investigator protected Norbanus; 31so great was the hatred that blazed up against a man otherwise wicked, who had exploited the times of Domitian like many others, and who had been chosen by the province on this occasion to investigate not as a good and trustworthy man but as an enemy of Classicus — he had been banished by him —.
32He demanded that a day be granted him and that the charges be set out; 32he obtained neither, and was forced to reply at once. 32He replied — the man's evil and perverse character makes me doubt whether boldly or steadfastly — but certainly with the greatest readiness. 33Many charges were brought against him which did him more harm than the collusion; 33indeed two consulars, Pomponius Rufus and Libo Frugi, damaged him with their testimony, alleging that under Domitian he had assisted the accusers of Salvius Liberalis before the judge. 34He was condemned and banished to an island. 34So when I was prosecuting Casta I pressed nothing harder than the fact that her accuser had fallen on a charge of collusion; 34but I pressed it in vain; 34for a contrary and novel thing happened: with the accuser condemned for collusion, the defendant was acquitted.
35You ask what we were doing while this was going on? 35We informed the senate that we had learned the public case from Norbanus and must learn it again from the beginning if he were proved a colluder, and so, while he was on trial, we sat still. 35Afterwards Norbanus attended every day of the inquiry and maintained the same steadfastness, or audacity, right to the end. 36I ask myself whether I have left anything out again, and again I almost did. 36On the last day Salvius Liberalis severely rebuked the rest of the envoys for not having prosecuted all the defendants the province had entrusted to them, and, vehement and eloquent as he is, brought them into danger.
36I protected these excellent men, who are also most grateful: at any rate they declare that they owe it to me that they escaped that whirlwind. 37This will be the end of the letter, truly the end; 37I shall not add a single letter, even if I realise that I have still passed over something. 37Farewell.