ins of salt. Nothing that
these wretched Gauls could say against a Roman citizen ought to be
accepted in evidence! "All the Romans," he says, "who have been in the
province wish well to Fonteius. Would you rather believe these
Gauls--led by what feeling? By the opinion of men! Is the opinion, then,
of your enemies of greater weight than that of your fellow-citizens, or
is it the greater credibility of the witnesses? Would you prefer, then,
unknown men to known--dishonest men to honest--foreigners to your own
countrymen--greedy men to those who come before you for nothing--men of
no religion to those who fear the gods--those who hate the Empire and
the name of Rome to allies and citizens who are good and faithful?"[134]
In every word of this he begs the question so as to convince us that his
own case was weak; and when he makes a final appeal to the pity of the
judges we are sure that Fonteius was guilty. He tells the judges that
the poor mother of the accused man has no other support than this son,
and that there is a sister, one of the virgins devoted to the service of
Vesta, who, being a vestal virgin, cannot have sons of her own, and is
therefore entitled to have her brother preserved for her. When we read
such arguments as these, we are sure that Fonteius had misused the
Gauls. We believe that he was acquitted, because we are told that he
bought a house in Rome soon afterward; but we feel that he escaped by
the too great influence of his advocate. We are driven to doubt whether
the power over words which may be achieved by a man by means of natural
gifts, practice, and erudition, may not do evil instead of good. A man
with such a tongue as that of Cicero will make the listener believe
almost whatever he will; and the advocate is restrained by no horror of
falsehood. In his profession alone it is considered honorable to be a
bulwark to deception, and to make the worse appear the better cause.
Cicero did so when the occasion seemed to him to require it, and has
been accused of hypocrisy in consequence. There is a passage in one of
the dialogues, De Oratore, which has been continually quoted against him
because the word "fibs" has been used with approval. The orator is told
how it may become him to garnish his good story with little white
lies--"mendaciunculis."[135] The advice does not indeed refer to facts,
or to evidence, or to arguments. It goes no farther than to suggest that
amount of exaggeration which is used by