other was true-born,
and yet it was the true-born who lived in the country? And is it such a
disgrace to live in the country? It is well that you did not live in old
times when they took a Dictator from the plow; when the men who made
Rome what it is cultivated their own land, but did not covet the land of
others. 'Ah! but,' you say, 'the father intended to disinherit him.'
Why? 'I cannot say.' Did he disinherit him? 'No, he did not.' Who
stopped him? 'Well, he was thinking of it.' To whom did he say so? 'To
no one.' Surely," cries Cicero, "this is to abuse the laws and justice
and your dignity in the basest and most wanton way, to make charges
which he not only cannot but does not even attempt to establish."

Shortly after comes a lively description of the prosecutor's demeanor.
"It was really worth while, if you observed, gentlemen, the man's utter
indifference as he was conducting his case. I take it that when he saw
who was sitting on these benches, he asked whether such an one or such
an one was engaged for the defense. Of me he never thought, for I had
never spoken before in a criminal case. When he found that none of the
usual speakers were concerned in it, he became so careless that when the
humor took him, he sat down, then walked about, sometimes called a
servant, to give him orders, I suppose, for dinner, and certainly
treated this court in which you are sitting as if it were an absolute
solitude. At last he brought his speech to an end. I rose to reply. He
could be seen to breathe again that it was I and no one else. I noticed,
gentlemen, that he continued to laugh and be inattentive till I
mentioned Chrysogonus. As soon as I got to him my friend roused himself
and was evidently astonished. I saw what had touched him, and repeated
the name a second time, and a third. From that time men have never
ceased to run briskly backwards and forwards, to tell Chrysogonus, I
suppose, that there was some one in the country who ventured to oppose
his pleasure, that the case was being pleaded otherwise than as he
imagined it would be; that the sham sale of goods was being exposed, the
confederacy grievously handled, his popularity and power disregarded,
that the people were giving their whole attention to the cause, and that
the common opinion was that the transaction generally was disgraceful.

"Then," continued the speaker, "this charge of parricide, so monstrous
is the crime, must have the very strongest evidence to su