[48]
Say now, if you can,
if the business, if the cause permits you to, that Cluvius has spoken falsely. Has
Cluvius spoken falsely? Truth itself lays its hand upon me, and compels me to stop, and
dwell on this point for a short time. Whence was all this lie drawn, and where was it
forged? Roscius, forsooth, is a deep and crafty man. He began to think of this from the
first. Since, said he to himself, Fannius claims fifty thousand sesterces from me, I will ask Caius Cluvius, a Roman knight, a most
accomplished man, to tell a lie for my sake; to say that a settlement was made which was
not made; that a hundred thousand sesterces were given by
Flavius to Fannius, which were not given. This is the first idea of a wicked mind, of a
miserable disposition, of a man of no sense. What came next?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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