[99]
If Sthenius had been accused while present, if
he had been detected in a manifest crime, still, as his accuser did not appear,
Sthenius ought not to have been condemned. In truth, if a defendant could be
condemned though his accuser did not appear, I should not have come from Vibo to
Velia in a little boat through the
weapons of fugitive slaves, and pirates, and through yours, at a time when all that
haste of mine at the peril of my life was to prevent your being taken out of the
list of defendants if I did not appear on the appointed day. If then in this trial
of yours that was the most desirable thing by you,—namely, for me not to
appear when I was summoned, why did you not think that it ought also to serve
Sthenius that his accuser had not appeared? He so managed the matter that the end
entirely corresponded to the beginning; the same man against whom he had received an
accusation while he was absent, he condemns now when the accuser is absent.
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