Let them be quiet then, and allow me to set this down as so
 much gain, said to turn to something else. They will not allow me to do so. For some one or
 other gives them a lift, and says that he, as a private person, had given him money. But this
 cannot possibly be endured. He who reads things from those public documents which have been in
 the power of the prosecutor, ought not to carry any weight with him; but, nevertheless, a formal
 trial appears to take place when the documents themselves, of whatever character they may be,
 are produced. But when a man, whom not one of you has ever seen, whom no living mortal has ever
 heard of only says, “I gave,” will you hesitate, O judges, to save a most noble citizen from
 this most unknown of Phrygians? And this very man was lately disbelieved by three honourable and
 worthy Roman knights, when in a case in which a man's liberty was at stake, he said that the man
 who was claimed was his own kinsman. How has it come about that the man who was not considered a
 trustworthy witness as to his own blood and family is a credible authority concerning a public
 injury? And when this Dorylaean was lately carried out to
 burial in the presence of a great multitude and numerous assembly of you, Laelius tried to
 excite odium against Lucius Flaccus by imputing his death to him. You are acting unjustly, O
 Laelius, if you think that it is our risk whether your comrades live or die; especially as I
 think that this instance proceeded from your own carelessness. For you gave a Phrygian, a man
 who had never seen a fig-tree, a whole basket of figs; and his death was to some extent a relief
 to you, for you lost a very voracious guest. But what good did it to Flaccus, as he was well
 enough till he came forward here, and who died after he had put out his sting and delivered his
 evidence? But that prop of your cause, Mithridates, was retained as a witness by us and examined
 two whole days; and, after he had said all that he wished, departed reproved, convicted, and
 broken down, and now walks about in a breastplate. That learned and sagacious man is afraid that
 Lucius Flaccus may burden himself with a crime, now that he cannot escape him as a witness; so
 that he, who, before the evidence was given, restrained himself when he might have got something
 by the deed, is likely now to add the guilt of an enormous crime to the charge of covetousness,
 which is only supported by false evidence. But since Quintus Hortensius has
 spoken at great length and with great acuteness concerning this witness, and respecting the
 whole charge which has reference to Mithridates, we, as we originally intended, will proceed to
 the other points. The principal man in stirring up all the Greeks,—he who is sitting with the
 prosecutors,—Heraclides of Temnos, a silly chattering fellow, but (in his own opinion) so
 learned, that he calls himself even their tutor, and so ambitious, that he salutes all of you
 and of us every day. Old as he is, he has not yet been able to get admission into the senate of
 Temnos; and he, the man who professes himself able to teach the art of speaking to others, has
 himself been convicted in some very discreditable trials. Of
 similar good fortune was Nicomedes, who came with him as a deputy, who was not allowed to enter
 the senate on any terms, but had been convicted of theft, and of defrauding his partner. For
 Lysanias, the chief man of the deputation, obtained the rank of senator; but as he showed
 himself rather too much devoted to the riches of the republic, he was convicted of peculation,
 and lost his property and his title of senator. These three men tried to render the accounts of
 even our own treasury false. For they returned themselves as having nine slaves, when they had
 in reality come without one single companion. I see at the first framing of the decree Lysanias
 was present, he, whose brother's property was sold by public order during the praetorship of
 Flaccus, because he did not pay what he owed to the people. Besides him there is Philippus, the
 son-in-law of Lysanias; and Hermobius, whose brother also, by name Poles, was convicted of
 embezzling the public money. These men say that they gave Flaccus and those who were with him fifteen thousand drachmas. I
 have to do with a most active city, and one which is an admirable hand at keeping its accounts;
 a city in which not a farthing can be disposed of without the intervention of five praetors,
 three quaestors, and four bankers, who are elected in that city by the burgesses. Of all that
 number not one has been brought hither as a witness; and when they return that money as having
 been given to Flaccus by name, they say that they gave him also a still larger sum, entered as
 having been given for the repair of a temple. But this is not a very consistent story; for
 either everything ought to have been kept secret or else everything ought to have been returned
 without any disguise. When they enter the money as having been given to Flaccus, naming him
 expressly, they fear nothing, they apprehend nothing. When they return the money as having been
 given for a public work, then all of a sudden those same men begin to be afraid of the very man
 whom they had despised before. If the praetor gave the money, as it is set down, he drew it from
 the quaestor, the quaestor from the public bank, the public bank derived it either from revenue
 or from tribute. All this will never be like a crime, unless you explain to me the whole
 business both with respect to the persons and to the accounts.