§1oportuisse an ita dissolvit ut omnes alii dissolverunt? nam ita ego defendo M. Fonteium, iudices, itaque contendo post legem Valeriam latam te quaestore usque ad T. Crispinum quaestorem aliter neminem solvisse; hunc omnium superiorum, huius autem omnis qui postea fuerint auctoritatem dico secutos.
...should have been done, or did he pay in the same manner as all others have paid? For this is how I defend Marcus Fonteius, judges, and thus I contend that after the passage of the Valerian law, from the time you were quaestor down to the quaestorship of Titus Crispinus, no one else paid in any other way; I say that he followed the authority of all his predecessors, and that all who came after followed his authority.
§2quid accusas, quid reprendis? nam quod in tabulis dodrantariis et quadrantariis, quas ait ab Hirtuleio institutas, Fontei officium desiderat, non possum existimare utrum ipse erret an vos in errorem inducere velit.
What do you accuse, what do you censure? For as to his finding a neglect of duty on the part of Fonteius in the three-quarter and one-quarter accounts, which he says were established by Hirtuleius, I cannot judge whether he is in error himself or wishes to lead you into error.
quaero enim abs te, M. Plaetori, possitne tibi ipsi probata esse nostra causa, si, qua in re abs te M. Fonteius accusatur, auctorem habet eum quem tu maxime laudas Hirtuleium; qua in re autem laudas Hirtuleium, Fonteius idem fecisse reperitur.
For I ask you, Marcus Plaetorius, whether our cause can be approved by you yourself, if, in the very matter in which Marcus Fonteius is accused by you, he has as his authority that Hirtuleius whom you most highly praise; while in the very matter in which you praise Hirtuleius, Fonteius is found to have done the same.
reprehendis solutionis genus; eodem modo Hirtuleium dissolvisse publicae tabulae coarguunt.
You censure the method of payment; the public accounts prove that Hirtuleius paid in the same way.
laudas illum quod dodrantarias tabulas instituerit; easdem Fonteius instituit et eodem genere pecuniae.
You praise him because he established the three-quarter accounts; Fonteius established the same, and with the same kind of money.
nam ne forte sis nescius et istas tabulas existimes ad diversam veteris aeris alieni rationem pertinere, ob unam causam et in uno genere sunt institutae.
For, lest you should happen to be ignorant and think that those accounts relate to a different system of old debt, they were established for one single reason and in one single class.
nam cum publicanis qui Africam, qui Aquileiense portorium
For when the publicans who farmed Africa, who farmed the customs of Aquileia...
§3cite nemo, nemo, inquam, iudices, reperietur qui unum se in quaestura M. Fonteio nummum dedisse, aut illum ex ea pecunia quae pro aerario solveretur detraxisse dicat; nullius in tabulis ulla huius furti significatio, nullum in eis nominibus intertrimenti aut deminutionis vestigium reperietur.
...cite, no one, no one, I say, judges, will be found to say that he gave a single coin to Marcus Fonteius during his quaestorship, or that Fonteius embezzled any of that money which was to be paid on behalf of the treasury; no trace of this theft will be found in anyone's accounts, no vestige of loss or reduction in those entries.
atqui homines, si qui in hoc genere quaestionis accusati sunt, reprehensos videmus primum testibus; difficile est enim eum qui magistratui pecuniam dederit non aut induci odio ut dicat aut cogi religione; deinde si qua gratia testes deterrentur, tabulae quidem certe incorruptae atque integrae manent.
And yet we see that men, if any have been accused in this kind of inquiry, are convicted first of all by witnesses; for it is difficult for one who has given money to a magistrate not to be led by hatred to speak, or compelled by religious oath; secondly, if by any favor witnesses are deterred, the accounts at least certainly remain uncorrupted and intact.
fac omnis amicissimos Fonteio fuisse, tantum hominum numerum ignotissimorum atque alienissimorum pepercisse huius capiti, consuluisse famae; res ipsa tamen ac ratio litterarum confectioque tabularum habet hanc vim ut ex acceptis et datis quidquid fingatur, aut surripiatur, aut non constet, appareat.
Suppose that all were most friendly to Fonteius, that so great a number of utterly unknown and unrelated men spared his life and consulted his reputation; yet the matter itself, the system of writing, and the compilation of the accounts have this power, that whatever is forged, or stolen, or does not balance in receipts and expenditures, is made manifest.
acceptas populo Romano pecunias omnis isti rettulerunt; si protinus aliis aeque magnas aut solverunt aut dederunt, ut, quod acceptum populo Romano est, id expensum cuipiam sit, certe nihil potest esse detractum.
These men entered all the money received for the Roman people; if they immediately paid or gave equal amounts to others, so that what was received for the Roman people was paid out to someone, certainly nothing could have been embezzled.
sin aliquid domum tulerunt, ex eorum arca, e ra
But if they carried anything home, from their chest, from their...
§4deorum hominumque fidem! testis non invenitur in ducentiens et triciens sestertio! quam multorum hominum? sescentorum amplius.
By the faith of gods and men! No witness is found in a matter of twenty-three million sesterces! Among how many men? More than six hundred.
quibus in terris gestum negotium est? illo, illo, inquam, loco quem videtis.
In what land was the business transacted? In that, that very place, I say, which you see.
extra ordinemne pecunia est data? immo vero nummus nullus sine litteris multis commotus est.
Was the money given out of the ordinary course? On the contrary, indeed, not a single coin was moved without many written records.
quae est igitur ista accusatio, quae facilius possit Alpis quam paucos aerari gradus ascendere, diligentius Rutenorum quam populi Romani defendat aerarium, libentius ignotis quam notis utatur, alienigenis quam domesticis testibus, planius se confirmare crimen libidine barbarorum quam nostrorum hominum litteris arbitretur?
What, then, is that accusation of yours, which can cross the Alps more easily than climb the few steps of the treasury, which defends the treasury of the Ruteni more diligently than that of the Roman people, which more willingly employs unknown than known witnesses, foreign than domestic, and thinks that it proves the charge more clearly by the caprice of barbarians than by the written records of our own men?
§5duorum magistratuum, quorum uterque in pecunia maxima tractanda procurandaque versatus est, triumviratus et quaesturae, ratio sic redditur, iudices, ut in eis rebus quae ante oculos gestae sunt, ad multos pertinuerunt, confectae publicis privatisque tabulis sunt, nulla significatio furti, nulla alicuius delicti suspicio reperiatur.
Of two magistracies, in both of which he was engaged in handling and managing very large sums of money—namely, the triumvirate and the quaestorship—the account is so rendered, judges, that in those matters which were carried on before your eyes, concerned many people, and were drawn up in public and private accounts, no sign of theft, no suspicion of any crime is found.
§6Hispaniensis legatio consecuta est turbulentissimo rei publicae tempore, cum adventu L. Sullae maximi exercitus in Italiam cives vi dissiderent, non iudiciis ac legibus; atque hoc rei publicae statu desperato qualis
The legation to Spain followed at a most turbulent time for the republic, when, upon the arrival of Lucius Sulla with a very large army in Italy, the citizens were divided by violence, not by judicial decisions and laws; and in this desperate state of the republic, what kind...
§7si nulla pecunia numerata est, cuius pecuniae quinquagesima est?
If no money was paid, of what money is there a fiftieth part?
§8frumenti maximus numerus e Gallia, peditatus amplissimae copiae e Gallia, equites numero plurimi e Gallia.
The greatest quantity of grain from Gaul, the most abundant forces of infantry from Gaul, cavalry greatest in number from Gaul.