Pompey threw his shield over his instrument. He used his
influence freely. The Egyptian spoils furnished a fund to corrupt the
judges. The speech for the prosecution was so weak as to invite a failure,
and Gabinius was acquitted by a majority of purchased votes. "You ask me
how I endure such things," Cicero bitterly wrote, in telling the story to
Atticus; "well enough, by Hercules, and I am entirely pleased with myself.
We have lost, my friend, not only the juice and blood, but even the color
and shape, of a commonwealth. No decent constitution exists in which I can
take a part. How can you put up with such a state of things? you will say.
Excellently well. I recollect how public affairs went awhile ago, when I
was myself in office, and how grateful people were to me. I am not
distressed now, that the power is with a single man. Those are miserable
who could not bear to see me successful. I find much to console me." [8]
"Gabinius is acquitted," he wrote to his brother.--"The verdict is so
infamous that it is thought he will be convicted on the other charge; but,
as you perceive, the constitution, the Senate, the courts, are all nought.
There is no honor in any one of us.--Some persons, Sallust among them, say
that I ought to have prosecuted him. I to risk my credit with such a jury!
what if I had acted, and he had escaped then! but other motives influenced
me.
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