[56]
As Roscius could have executed a release
to Flavius in his own name, so as to prevent you from preferring any claim; so, as he
only exacted his own share, and left you your right to prefer a claim unimpaired, he
ought not to share what he got with you—unless, indeed, you, by a perversion
of all justice, are able to rob him of what is his, though you are not able to extort
your own rights from another. Saturius persists in his opinion, that whatever a partner
claims for himself becomes the property of the partnership. But if that be true, how
great (plague take it!) was the folly of Roscius, who, by the advice and influence of
lawyers, made a mutual agreement with Fannius, very carefully, that he should pay him
half of whatever he got from Flavius; if indeed, without any security or mutual
agreement, nevertheless, Fannius owed it to the partnership; that is to say, to Roscius
[The rest of this speech is lost.]
