נגד פלאקוס ט״זAgainst Flaccus 16
א׳
1[128] But this as we shall see was a lighter evil compared with another still greater. For they were not simply in the position of subjects who suddenly attacked him and by mutual agreement addressed themselves to accusing him. On the contrary, throughout the greater part of his time of governorship of the country, they were above all others his bitterest enemies. Lampo had been put on his trial for impiety to Tiberius Caesar and as the trial had dragged on for two years he had broken down under it.
ב׳
2[129] For the ill-will of his judge had concocted postponements and delays, as he wished, even if he was acquitted on the charge, to keep hanging over him for as long as possible the fear of the uncertain future, and so render his life more painful than death.
ג׳
3[130] Afterwards when he appeared to have won his case he declared that he was the victim of an outrageous attack upon his property. For he was forced to act as gymnasiarch and protested that he had not sufficient means to meet the great expenses of the office. The excuse may be due to meanness and illiberality in spending his money, or it may be that he really had not the means, and though before the test he had pretended to be quite rich he was shown under examination to be not very wealthy, owning in fact hardly anything beyond the proceeds of his iniquitous deeds.
ד׳
4[131] For he stood beside the governors when they were giving judgement, and took the minutes of the cases which he introduced in virtue of this position. He would then expunge some of the evidence or deliberately pass it over and sometimes insert statements which had not been made, sometimes, too, tamper with the documents by remodelling and rearranging them and turning them upside-down, while he picked up money at every syllable, or rather at every jot and tittle, like the paper-porer that he was.
ה׳
5[132] Frequently the whole people, truly and appropriately, denounced him as a pen-murderer, whose writings had done multitudes to death and made more miserable than the dead multitudes of the living, who, when they might have won their case and enjoyed abundance, had suffered a defeat and poverty utterly undeserved, both purchased by their enemies from this cheapjack and vendor of other people’s property.
ו׳
6[133] For it was impossible that the governors who had the management of so large a territory should keep in mind the perpetual flood of new cases private and public, particularly as they not only acted as judges but received the calculations of revenues and tributes, the scrutiny of which took up the greater part of the year.
ז׳
7[134] But Lampo, who was commissioned to guard the most vital trust, justice and the verdicts based with all sanctity on justice, traded on the short memory of the judges and recorded defeat for those who should have had victory and for those who should have been defeated a victory in return for the accursed fee, better described as hire, which he received.