"Let him not think that, if I am to be employed here, the judges can be bribed without infinite danger to all concerned.

In undertaking this cause of the Sicilians, I undertake also the cause of the people of Rome at large.

It is not only that one wretched sinner should be crushed, which is what the Sicilians want, but that this terrible injustice should be stopped altogether, in compliance with the wishes of the people."[104] When we remember how this was spoken, in the presence of those very judges, in the presence of Hortensius himself, in reliance only on the public opinion which he was to create by his own words, we cannot but acknowledge that it is very fine.
After that he again turns upon Caecilius.

"Learn from me," he says, "how many things are expected from him who undertakes the accusation of another.

If there be one of those qualities in you, I will give up to you all that you ask."[105] Caecilius was probably even now in alliance with Verres.