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In the first place, these two
colleagues of the Antonii and Dolabella, Nucula and Lento, the dividers of all
Italy according to that law which
the senate pronounced to have been carried by violence; one of whom has been a
writer of farces, and the other an actor of tragedies. Why should I speak of
Domitius the Apulian? whose property we have lately seen advertised, so great is
the carelessness of his agents. But this man lately was not content with giving
poison to his sister's son, he actually drenched him with it. But it is
impossible for these men to live in any other than a prodigal manner, who hope
for our property while they are squandering their own. I have seen also an
auction of the property of Publius Decius, an illustrious man; who, following
the example of his ancestors, devoted himself for the debts of another. But at
that auction no one was found to be a purchaser. Ridiculous man to think it
possible to escape from debt by selling other people's property! For why should
I speak of Trebellius? on whom the furies of debts seem to have wreaked their
vengeance; for we have seen one table1 avenging another.
1 It is impossible to give the force of the original here, which plays on the word tabula. The Latin is vindicem enim novarum tabularum novam tabulam vidimus; novae tabulae meaning, as is well known, a law for the abolition of debts, nova tabula in the singular, an advertisement of (Trebellius's) property being to be sold.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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