s not so insane as to be
unable to avoid or conceal any indications of the action, so as to be
discovered and to give ground for an accusation. On the other hand,
there is that common topic, that audacity is joined to rashness, not
to prudence. Besides, there comes the topic suited to amplification,
that we are not to wait for his confessing; that offences are proved
by arguments; and here, too, precedents will be adduced. And thus much
about arguments.

XXXIV. But if there is also a sufficiency of witnesses, the first
thing will be to praise the party accused, and to say that he himself
has taken care not to be convicted by argument; that he could not
escape from witnesses: then each of the witnesses must be praised,
(and we have stated already what are the things for which people
can be praised;) and in the next place, it must be urged that it is
possible for it to be quite justifiable not to yield to a specious
argument, (inasmuch as such an one is often false,) but quite
impossible to refuse belief to a good and trusty man, unless there is
some fault in the judge. And then, too, if the witnesses are obscure
or insignificant, we must say that a man's credit is not to be
estimated by his fortune, but that those are the most trustworthy
witnesses on every point who have the easiest means of knowing the
truth of the matter under discussion. If the fact of an examination of
slaves under torture having taken place, or a demand that such should
take place, will assist the cause, then in the first place the general
character of such examinations must be extolled: we must speak of
the power of bodily pain; of the opinion of our ancestors, who would
certainly have abolished the whole system if they had not approved of
it; of the customs of the Athenians and Rhodians, very wise men, among
whom (and that is a most terrible thing) even freemen and citizens
are tortured; of the principles also of the most prudent of our own
countrymen, who though they are unwilling to allow slaves to be
examined against their masters, still did allow of such examination in
the case of incest and conspiracy,--and in fact such an examination
took place in my consulship. That declamation which men are in the
habit of using to throw discredit on such examinations must be laughed
out of court, and called studied and childish. Then a belief must be
inculcated that the examination has been conducted with care, and
without any partiality; and the answer