1In these last few days Julius Bassus has stood trial, a man who has had many troubles and is famous for his misfortunes. 1He was accused under Vespasian by two private individuals; 1referred to the senate, he was long in suspense, and at last was acquitted and vindicated. 2He feared Titus as a friend of Domitian, and was banished by Domitian; 2recalled by Nerva and allotted Bithynia, he came back to face trial, prosecuted no less fiercely than he was loyally defended. 2He had a variety of sentences proposed, but more of them, as it were, on the lenient side. 3Pomponius Rufus spoke against him, a well-prepared and forceful man; 3Rufus was followed by Theophanes, one of the envoys, the firebrand and source of the prosecution.
4I replied. 4For Bassus had charged me to lay the foundations of the whole defence, to speak of his distinctions, which were great owing both to the fame of his family and to his very dangers, to speak of the conspiracy of the informers, which they ran for profit, and to speak of the reasons why he had offended every great intriguer, such as that very Theophanes. 5He had also wanted me to meet the charge by which he was most hard-pressed. 5For on the other charges, although they sounded more serious, he deserved not only acquittal but even praise; 6what weighed him down was that, being a simple and incautious man, he had accepted certain things from the provincials as a friend — for he had been quaestor in the same province.
6These the prosecutors called thefts and plunder, while he himself called them gifts. 6But the law forbids the acceptance even of gifts. 7What was I to do here, what line of defence was I to take? 7Deny it? 7I was afraid it would look plainly like theft, if I were afraid to admit it. 7Besides, to deny an obvious fact was to aggravate the charge, not to wash it away, especially since the defendant himself had left nothing open to his advocates. 7For he had told many people, and even the emperor, that he had accepted only small presents, and those only on his birthday or at the Saturnalia, and had sent presents to most of the givers.
8Should I then ask for pardon? 8I would have cut the defendant's throat, conceding that he had offended so badly that he could not be saved except by pardon. 8Should I defend it as rightly done? 8I would not have helped him, but would have shown myself shameless. 9In this difficulty I decided to hold a middle course: I think I held it. 9Night broke off my speech, as it usually does battles. 9I had spoken for three hours and a half; an hour and a half remained. 9For since by law the prosecution had received six hours and the defendant nine, the defendant had divided the time between me and the man who was to speak after me in such a way that I should use five hours and he the rest.
10The success of my speech urged me to be silent and stop; 10for it is rash not to be content with good fortune. 10Besides, I was afraid that my bodily strength might fail me in a renewed effort, which is harder to resume than to continue. 11There was also a danger that the rest of my speech would suffer both coldness, as having been laid aside, and tedium, as having been taken up again. 11For just as torches keep their fire alive by constant shaking but rekindle it with great difficulty once it has been let go, so both the speaker's warmth and the listener's attention are preserved by continuity, and grow faint with a break and a kind of slackening.
12But Bassus begged me with many entreaties, almost with tears, to use up my time. 12I obeyed and put his interest before my own. 12It turned out well: I found the senate's minds so alert, so fresh, that they seemed stimulated rather than sated by my earlier speech. 13Lucceius Albinus followed me, so fittingly that our speeches are thought to have had the variety of two and the continuity of one. 14Herennius Pollio replied insistently and weightily, and then Theophanes again. 14For he did this too, like everything else, most impudently, in that after two men who were both ex-consuls and eloquent he claimed time for himself, and generous time at that.
14He spoke into the night and even after dark, when lamps had been brought in. 15The next day Homullus and Fronto spoke wonderfully for Bassus; 15the fourth day was taken up with the evidence. 16Baebius Macer, consul-elect, proposed that Bassus be held guilty under the law of extortion, Caepio Hispo that judges be assigned to him with his rank left intact; 16both rightly. 17'How can that be,' you say, 'when they proposed such different things?' 17Because, of course, it was consistent for Macer, looking to the law, to condemn a man who had accepted gifts against the law, while Caepio, believing that the senate was allowed — as indeed it is — both to soften laws and to tighten them, not without reason granted pardon for an act which was forbidden indeed, but not unusual.
18Caepio's proposal prevailed; indeed, as he rose to give it, he was cheered, as men usually are when they sit down. 18From this you can judge with what unanimity it was received while he was speaking, since it was so popular when he only seemed about to speak. 19Yet opinion is divided into two parties, in the city as in the senate. 19For those who liked Caepio's proposal criticise Macer's as rigid and harsh; 19those who liked Macer's call the other lax and even inconsistent; 19for they say it is inconsistent to keep in the senate a man to whom you have assigned judges. 20There was also a third proposal: Valerius Paulinus, agreeing with Caepio, proposed in addition that the matter of Theophanes should be raised once he had reported on his embassy.
20For he was alleged to have done many things during the prosecution that fell under that very law under which he had accused Bassus. 21But the consuls, although this proposal was remarkably popular with the greater part of the senate, did not pursue it. 22Paulinus nevertheless won a reputation for both justice and firmness. 22When the senate was dismissed, Bassus was greeted by a great crowd of people, with great shouting, with great joy. 22He had been made popular by the old story of his dangers revived, by a name known for its perils, and by a sad and unkempt old age in a tall frame. 23Meanwhile you will have this letter as a forerunner; you will wait for the speech, full and richly laden.
23You will wait a long time; 23for it must not be revised lightly and in haste, given so great a subject. 23Farewell.