Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 1 Haines 1919.djvu/223

 ''referred to Rome, what will result? The heirs designate will set sail, while the disinherited will remain in possession, procrastinate from day to day, look about for delays, and so put off the courts on various pretexts. It is winter time and the wintry sea is rough; he has been unable to appear. Winter over, it is the equinoctial gales, fitful and sudden, that have delayed him. The spring is past: the summer is hot and the sun scorches voyagers, and the man is seasick. The fall follows: the fruit will be in fault and debility the excuse.''

4. "I am imagining and inventing this? What, has not this actually occurred in this case? Where is the defendant who ought to have been here this long while past to plead his cause? 'He is on his way.' On what way, prithee? 'He is coming from Asia.' And so he is still in Asia? 'It is a long way and he has made haste.' Is it on shipboard, or horseback, or by imperial post that he makes such headlong halts? Meanwhile, as soon as the trial is fixed, you are asked, Caesar, for a first adjournment, which is granted: the trial is fixed a second time, a second time an adjournment of two months is asked for. The two months expired on the last ides, and since then several days have gone by. Has he come at last? If not yet come, is he, at all events, near? If not yet near, has he at least set out from Asia? If he has not yet set out, does he at least think of setting out? What else does he think of but keeping in his hands ''the goods of others, plundering the proceeds, stripping the estate, wasting the whole property? He is not so foolish as to prefer coming'' 159