Rem, facias, rem. . . .

Are there any courtrooms left in which he would get away with a quotation from Horace? I'm pretty sure it's verboten in this state. I remember someone being held in contempt a few years ago for using some simple "legal Latin" in court. I wonder if Bishop Trautman were ever a judge?

In any event, the gist of the bit above is that if you can acquire wealth ("stuff") honestly, all well and good. If not, get it any way you can. Not a very nice assumption to make about the character of the witness.

And, no, I am, alas, not an expert on Horace. Or even very adept at translating him. My own copies of his books are in English. That just happens to be one of the very few things I recognize from the original.