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Ad Donatum

10.

But after considering the public roads full of pitfalls, after battles of many kinds scattered abroad over the whole world, after exhibitions either bloody or infamous, after the abominations of lust, whether exposed for sale in brothels or hidden within the domestic walls--abominations, the audacity of which is greater in proportion to the secrecy of the crime,--possibly you may think that the Forum at least is free from such things, that it is neither exposed to exasperating wrongs, nor polluted by the association of criminals. Then turn your gaze in that direction: there you will discover things more odious than ever, so that thence you will be more desirous of turning away your eyes, although the laws are carved on twelve tables, and the statutes are publicly prescribed on brazen tablets. Yet wrong is done in the midst of the laws themselves; wickedness is committed in the very face of the statutes; innocence is not preserved even in the place where it is defended. By turns the rancour of disputants rages; and when peace is broken among the togas, ¹ the Forum echoes with the madness of strife. There close at hand is the spear and the sword, and the executioner also; there is the claw that tears, the rack that stretches, the fire that burns up,--more tortures for one poor human body than it has limbs. And in such cases who is there to help? One's patron? He makes a feint, and deceives. The judge? But he sells his sentence. He who sits to avenge crimes commits them, and the judge becomes the culprit, in order that the accused may perish innocently. Crimes are everywhere common; and everywhere in the multiform character of sin, the pernicious poison acts by means of degraded minds. One man forges a will, another by a capital fraud makes a false deposition; on the one hand, children are cheated of their inheritances, on the other, strangers are endowed with their estates. The opponent makes his charge, the false accuser attacks, the witness defames, on all sides the venal impudence of hired voices sets about the falsification of charges, while in the meantime the guilty do not even perish with the innocent. There is no fear about the laws; no concern for either inquisitor or judge; when the sentence can be bought off for money, it is not cared for. It is a crime now among the guilty to be innocent; whoever does not imitate the wicked is an offence to them. The laws have come to terms with crimes, and whatever is public has begun to be allowed. What can be the modesty, what can be the integrity, that prevails there, when there are none to condemn the wicked, and one only meets with those who ought themselves to be condemned?

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Ad Donatum (CSEL)

§ 10

Sed tibi post insidiosas uias, post dispersas orbe toto multiplices pugnas, post spectacula uel cruenta uel turpia, post libidinum probra uel lupanaribus prostituta uel domesticis parietibus obsaepta, quorum quo secretior culpa, maior audacia est, forum fortasse uideatur immune, quod ab iniuriis lacessentibus liberum nullis malorum contactibus polluatur. illuc aciem tuam flecte¹: plura illic quae detesteris inuenies, magis oculos tuos inde deuertes. incisae sint licet leges duodecim tabulis et publico aere praefixo iura. proscripta sint: inter leges ipsas delinquitur, inter iura peccatur, innocentia nec illic, ubi defenditur, reseruatur. saeuit² inuicem discordantium rabies et inter togas pace³ rupta forum⁴ litibus mugit insanum. hasta illic et gladius et carnifex⁵praestoest⁶, ungula effodiens, eculeus extendens, ignis exurens, ad hominis corpus unum supplicia plura quam membra. quis inter haec uero subueniat? patronus? sed praeuaricatur et decipit. iudex? sed sententiam uendit. qui sedet crimina ⁷P. 12 uindicaturus admittit, et ut reus innocens pereat, fit nocens iudex. flagrant⁸ ubique delicta et passim multiformi genere peccandi per improbas⁹ mentes nocens uirus operatur. hic testamentum subicit, ille falsum capitali fraude¹⁰ conscribit: hic arcentur hereditatibus liberi, illic bonis donantur alieni : inimicus insimulat, «alumniator inpugnat, testis infamat. utrubique grassatur in mendacium criminum prostitutae uocis uenalis audacia, cum interim nocentes nec cum innocentibus pereunt. nullus de legibus metus est, de quaesitore, de iudice pauor nullus: quod potest redimi non timetur. esse iam inter nocentes innoxium crimen est: malos quisquis non imitatur offendit. consensere iura peccatis et coepit licitum esse quod publicum est. quis illic rerum pudor, quae esse possit integritas, ubi qui damnent improbos desunt, soli tibi qui damnentur occurrunt?