Cicero: ORATORIA

[1] Si quis antea, iudices, mirabatur quid esset quod, pro tantis opibus rei publicae tantaque dignitate imperi, nequaquam satis multi cives forti et magno animo invenirentur qui auderent se et salutem suam in discrimen offerre pro statu civitatis et pro communi libertate, ex hoc tempore miretur potius si quem bonum et fortem civem viderit, quam si quem aut timidum aut sibi potius quam rei publicae consulentem. nam ut omittatis de unius cuiusque casu cogitando recordari, uno aspectu intueri potestis eos qui cum senatu, cum bonis omnibus, rem publicam adflictam excitarint et latrocinio domestico liberarint, maestos sordidatos reos, de capite, de fama, de civitate, de fortunis, de liberis dimicantis; eos autem qui omnia divina et humana violarint vexarint perturbarint everterint, non solum alacris laetosque volitare, sed etiam fortissimis atque optimis civibus periculum moliri, de se nihil timere.

[1] If anyone before, judges, was wondering what the cause was that, despite such great resources of the commonwealth and such a dignity of the imperium, by no means sufficiently many citizens of stout and great spirit were found who would dare to offer themselves and their safety into peril for the condition of the state and for the common liberty, from this time let him rather marvel if he shall see any good and brave citizen, than if he shall see someone either timid or consulting for himself rather than for the commonwealth. For, to leave off recalling by pondering the case of each individual, with one glance you can behold those who, together with the senate, together with all the good men, have raised up the afflicted commonwealth and have freed it from domestic brigandage, sad, in sordid garb, defendants, fighting for their life, for their reputation, for their citizenship, for their fortunes, for their children; but those who have violated, harried, disturbed, overthrown all divine and human things, not only flitting about brisk and joyful, but even contriving danger for the bravest and best citizens, fearing nothing for themselves.

[2] in quo cum multa sunt indigna, tum nihil minus est ferendum quam quod iam non per latrones suos, non per homines egestate et scelere perditos, sed per vos nobis, per optimos viros optimis civibus periculum inferre conantur, et quos lapidibus, quos ferro, quos facibus, quos vi manu copiis delere non potuerunt, hos vestra auctoritate, vestra religione, vestris sententiis se oppressuros arbitrantur. ego autem, iudices, qua voce mihi in agendis gratiis commemorandoque eorum qui de me optime meriti sunt beneficio esse utendum putabam, ea nunc uti cogor in eorum periculis depellendis, (ut) iis potissimum vox haec serviat quorum opera et mihi et vobis et populo Romano restituta est.

[2] in which, although many things are unworthy, yet nothing is less to be endured than that now, not by their own bandits, not by men ruined by destitution and crime, but through you against us, through the best men upon the best citizens, they try to bring danger; and those whom they could not destroy with stones, with iron, with torches, by force, by hand, by troops, these they suppose they will crush by your authority, your religion, your sentences. But I, judges, the voice which I thought I ought to use in the rendering of thanks and in commemorating the benefaction of those who have deserved best of me, that voice I am now compelled to use in warding off their dangers, (so that) this voice may most especially serve those by whose work both I and you and the Roman people have been restored.

[II]

[2]

[3] et quamquam a Q. Hortensio, clarissimo viro atque eloquentissimo, causa est P. Sesti perorata, nihilque ab eo praetermissum est quod aut pro re publica conquerendum fuit aut pro reo disputandum, tamen adgrediar ad dicendum, ne mea propugnatio ei potissimum defuisse videatur per quem est perfectum ne ceteris civibus deesset. atque ego sic statuo, iudices, a me in hac causa atque hoc extremo dicendi loco pietatis potius quam defensionis, querelae quam eloquentiae, doloris quam ingeni partis esse susceptas.

[3] And although by Q. Hortensius, a most illustrious and most eloquent man, the case of P. Sestius has been fully pled, and nothing was omitted by him which either had to be lamented on behalf of the republic or argued on behalf of the defendant, nevertheless I will set about speaking, lest my championing seem to have been lacking most of all to him by whose agency it has been brought to pass that it not be lacking to the other citizens. And thus I determine, judges, that by me in this case and in this final place of speaking the parts have been undertaken of piety rather than of defense, of complaint rather than of eloquence, of sorrow rather than of talent.

[4] itaque si aut acrius egero aut liberius quam qui ante me dixerunt, peto a vobis ut tantum orationi meae concedatis quantum et pio dolori et iustae iracundiae concedendum putetis; nam neque officio coniunctior dolor ullius esse potest quam hic meus susceptus ex hominis de me optime meriti periculo, neque iracundia magis ulla laudanda (est) quam ea quae me inflammat eorum scelere qui cum omnibus meae salutis defensoribus bellum esse sibi gerendum iudicaverunt.

[4] therefore, if I shall act either more sharply or more freely than those who have spoken before me, I ask of you to concede to my oration so much as you think ought to be conceded both to pious grief and to just wrath; for neither can anyone’s grief be more conjoined with duty than this mine, undertaken from the peril of a man who has merited best of me, nor is any irascibility more to be praised than that which inflames me at the wickedness of those who have judged that a war must be waged by themselves with all the defenders of my safety.

[5] sed quoniam singulis criminibus ceteri responderunt, dicam ego de omni statu P. Sesti, de genere vitae, de natura, de moribus, de incredibili amore in bonos, de studio conservandae salutis communis atque oti; contendamque, si modo id consequi potero, ut in hac confusa atque universa defensione nihil ab me quod ad vestram quaestionem, nihil quod ad reum, nihil quod ad rem publicam pertineat praetermissum esse videatur. et quoniam in gravissimis temporibus civitatis atque in ruinis eversae atque adflictae rei publicae P. Sesti tribunatus est a Fortuna ipsa conlocatus, non adgrediar ad illa maxima atque amplissima prius quam docuero quibus initiis ac fundamentis haec tantae summis in rebus laudes excitatae sint.

[5] but since the others have answered the individual charges, I will speak about the entire status of P. Sestius—about his kind of life, his nature, his morals, his incredible love toward good men, his zeal for preserving the common safety and peace; and I will strive, if only I can attain it, that in this composite and universal defense nothing may seem to have been omitted by me that pertains to your inquiry, nothing that pertains to the defendant, nothing that pertains to the commonwealth. And since, in the most grievous times of the state and amid the ruins of an overthrown and afflicted commonwealth, the tribunate of P. Sestius was placed by Fortune herself, I will not approach those greatest and most ample topics before I have shown by what beginnings and foundations these praises—so great in matters of the highest moment—were aroused.

[III]

[3]

[6] parente P. Sestius natus est, iudices, homine, ut plerique meministis, et sapiente et sancto et severo; qui cum tribunus plebis primus inter homines nobilissimos temporibus optimis factus esset, reliquis honoribus non tam uti voluit quam dignus videri. eo auctore duxit honestissimi et spectatissimi viri, C. Albini, filiam, ex qua hic est puer et nupta iam filia. duobus gravissimis (ac plenissimis) antiquitatis viris sic probatus fuit ut utrique eorum et carus maxime et iucundus esset.

[6] P. Sestius was born, judges, of a parent—a man, as most of you remember, both sapient and holy and severe; who, when he had been made tribune of the plebs, first among the most noble men in the best times, wished not so much to use the remaining honors as to seem worthy of them. With him as authorizer he took to wife the daughter of Gaius Albinus, a most honorable and most highly regarded man, from whom there is this boy and a daughter now married. By two most grave (and most complete) men of old-time integrity he was so approved that to each of them he was both most dear and most pleasant.

ademit Albino soceri nomen mors filiae, sed caritatem illius necessitudinis et benivolentiam non ademit: hodie sic hunc diligit ut vos facillime potestis ex hac vel adsiduitate eius vel sollicitudine et molestia iudicare.

The death of his daughter has taken from Albinus the title of father-in-law, but it has not taken away the charity of that relationship and benevolence: today he so loves this man as you can most easily judge from this, either from his assiduity or from his solicitude and trouble.

[7] duxit uxorem patre vivo optimi et calamitosissimi viri filiam, L. Scipionis. clara in hoc P. Sesti pietas exstitit et omnibus grata, quod et Massiliam statim profectus est, ut socerum videre consolarique posset fluctibus rei publicae expulsum, in alienis terris iacentem, quem in maiorum suorum vestigiis stare oportebat, et ad eum filiam eius adduxit, ut ille insperato aspectu complexuque si non omnem at aliquam partem maeroris sui deponeret, et maximis (pro illa necessitudine studiis et) officiis et illius aerumnam, quoad vixit, et filiae solitudinem sustentavit. possum multa dicere de liberalitate, de domesticis officiis, de tribunatu militari, de provinciali in eo magistratu abstinentia; sed mihi ante oculos obversatur rei publicae dignitas, quae me ad sese rapit, haec minora relinquere hortatur.

[7] he married, while his father was alive, the daughter of a most excellent and most calamitous man, L. Scipio. In this the pietas of P. Sestius stood out and was pleasing to all: for he straightway set out to Massilia, so that he might see and console his father-in-law, driven out by the waves of the commonwealth, lying in foreign lands, who ought to be standing in the footsteps of his ancestors; and he brought to him his daughter, that by the unexpected sight and embrace he might, if not all, yet lay aside some part of his grief; and by the greatest services (with zeal proportioned to that bond) he sustained both his hardship, so long as he lived, and the daughter’s solitude. I can say many things about his liberality, about domestic duties, about his military tribunate, about his provincial abstinence in that magistracy; but the dignity of the commonwealth looms before my eyes, which draws me to itself and urges me to leave these lesser matters.

[8] quaestor hic C. Antoni, conlegae mei, iudices, fuit sorte, sed societate consiliorum meus. impedior non nullius offici, ut ego interpretor, religione quo minus exponam quam multa P. Sestius, cum esset cum conlega meo, senserit, ad me detulerit, quanto ante providerit. atque ego de Antonio nihil dico praeter unum: numquam illum illo summo timore ac periculo civitatis neque communem metum omnium nec propriam non nullorum de ipso suspicionem aut infitiando tollere aut dissimulando sedare voluisse.

[8] he was quaestor to Gaius Antonius, my colleague, judges, by lot, but by a partnership of counsels, mine. I am hindered, by the scruple of no small duty, as I interpret it, from setting forth how many things P. Sestius, when he was with my colleague, perceived, reported to me, how far in advance he provided. And I say nothing about Antonius except one thing: that never, amid that highest fear and peril of the commonwealth, did he wish either to remove the common fear of all nor the private suspicion of certain persons about himself by denying, or to soothe it by dissembling.

in quo conlega sustinendo atque moderando si meam in illum indulgentiam coniunctam cum summa custodia rei publicae laudare vere solebatis, par prope laus P. Sesti esse debet, qui ita suum consulem observavit ut et illi quaestor bonus et nobis omnibus optimus civis videretur.

in sustaining and moderating that colleague, if you were truly accustomed to praise my indulgence toward him, joined with the highest guardianship of the commonwealth, nearly equal praise ought to be for P. Sestius, who so observed his own consul that he seemed both to him a good quaestor and to us all the best citizen.

[IV]

[4]

[9] idem, cum illa coniuratio ex latebris atque ex tenebris erupisset palamque armata volitaret, venit cum exercitu Capuam, quam urbem propter plurimas belli opportunitates ab illa impia et scelerata manu temptari suspicabamur; C. Mevulanum, tribunum militum Antoni, Capua praecipitem eiecit, hominem perditum et non obscure Pisauri et in aliis agri Gallici partibus in illa coniuratione versatum; idemque C. Marcellum, cum is non Capuam solum venisset, verum etiam se quasi armorum studio in maximam familiam coniecisset, exterminandum ex illa urbe curavit. qua de causa et tum conventus ille Capuae, qui propter salutem illius urbis consulatu conservatam meo me unum patronum adoptavit, huic apud me P. Sestio maximas gratias egit, et hoc tempore eidem homines nomine commutato coloni decurionesque, fortissimi atque optimi viri, beneficium P. Sesti testimonio declarant, periculum decreto suo deprecantur. recita, quaeso, L.

[9] Likewise, when that conspiracy had burst forth from its lurking-places and from the shadows and was openly flitting about armed, he came with an army to Capua, which city we suspected would be attempted by that impious and criminal band on account of its very many opportunities for war; he cast headlong out of Capua C. Mevulanus, a military tribune of Antonius, a ruined fellow and one not obscurely engaged at Pisaurum and in other parts of the Gallic territory in that conspiracy; and likewise he saw to it that C. Marcellus, since he had come not only to Capua but had even thrown himself, as if from zeal for arms, into a very great household, be banished from that city. For which cause both then that assembly at Capua, which, on account of the safety of that city preserved by my consulship, adopted me as its sole patron, rendered the greatest thanks to this man P. Sestius in my presence, and at this time the same men, with the name changed, the colonists and the decurions—most brave and best men—declare the benefaction of P. Sestius by their testimony, they deprecate his peril by their decree. Read, I pray, L.

[10] Sesti, quid decrerint Capuae decuriones, ut iam puerilis tua vox possit aliquid significare inimicis vestris, quidnam, cum se conroborarit, effectura esse videatur. Decvrionvm decreta. non recito decretum officio aliquo expressum vicinitatis aut clientelae aut hospiti publici aut ambitionis aut commendationis gratia, sed recito memoriam perfuncti periculi, praedicationem amplissimi benefici, vocem offici praesentis, testimonium praeteriti temporis.

[10] Sestius, what the decurions at Capua have decreed, so that already your boyish voice may be able to signify something to your enemies, what, when it has strengthened itself, it seems it will accomplish. The Decurions’ decrees. I do not read a decree pressed out by some duty of neighborhood or clientage or public hospitality or for the sake of canvassing or commendation, but I read a remembrance of a danger undergone, a proclamation of a most ample benefaction, the voice of present duty, the testimony of past time.

[11] atque illis temporibus eisdem, cum iam Capuam metu Sestius liberasset, urbem senatus atque omnes boni deprehensis atque oppressis domesticis hostibus me duce ex periculis maximis extraxissent, ego litteris P. Sestium Capua arcessivi cum illo exercitu quem tum secum habebat; quibus hic litteris lectis ad urbem confestim incredibili celeritate advolavit. atque ut illius temporis atrocitatem recordari possitis, audite litteras et vestram memoriam ad timoris praeteriti cogitationem excitate. Litterae Ciceronis consvlis.

[11] and in those same times, when now Sestius had freed Capua from fear, and the city, the senate, and all good men, the domestic enemies having been detected and crushed, had, with me as leader, drawn it out of the greatest dangers, I by letters summoned P. Sestius from Capua with that army which he then had with him; and upon these letters being read, he flew at once to the city with incredible celerity. And that you may be able to recall the atrocity of that time, listen to the letters and rouse your memory to the thought of the fear now past. Letters of Cicero the consul.

[V] hoc adventu P. Sesti tribunorum plebis novorum, qui tum extremis diebus consulatus mei res eas quas gesseram vexare cupiebant, reliquaeque coniurationis impetus et conatus sunt retardati.

[5] by this advent of P. Sestius, the impetus and attempts of the new tribunes of the plebs—who then, in the last days of my consulship, were eager to vex the affairs which I had carried out—and of the remaining conspiracy were retarded.

[12] ac postea quam est intellectum, (M.) Catone tribuno plebis, fortissimo atque optimo cive, rem publicam defendente, per se ipsum senatum populumque Romanum sine militum praesidio tueri facile maiestate sua dignitatem eorum qui salutem communem periculo suo defendissent, Sestius cum illo exercitu summa celeritate est Antonium consecutus. hic ego quid praedicem quibus hic rebus consulem ad rem gerendam excitarit, quos stimulos admoverit homini studioso fortasse victoriae, sed tamen nimium communem Martem belli casumque metuenti? longum est ea dicere, sed hoc breve dicam: si M. Petrei non excellens animus et amor rei publicae, non praestans in re publica virtus, non summa auctoritas apud milites, non mirificus usus in re militari exstitisset, neque adiutor ei P. Sestius ad excitandum Antonium, cohortandum, accusandum, impellendum fuisset, datus illo in bello esset hiemi locus, neque umquam Catilina, cum e pruina Appennini atque e nivibus illis emersisset atque aestatem integram nanctus Italiae callis et pastorum stabula praeoccupare coepisset, sine multo sanguine ac sine totius Italiae vastitate miserrima concidisset.

[12] And after it was understood, with (M.) Cato, tribune of the plebs, a most brave and best citizen, defending the commonwealth, that the senate and Roman people, by their own majesty, could easily, without a garrison of soldiers, protect the dignity of those who had defended the common safety at their own peril, Sestius with that army, with utmost speed, overtook Antonius. Here—what am I to proclaim—by what means this man roused the consul to conduct the affair, what goads he applied to a man perhaps zealous for victory, yet nevertheless too greatly fearing the common Mars of war and its chance? It is long to tell these things, but this briefly I will say: if the outstanding spirit and love of the commonwealth of M. Petreius, his preeminent virtue in public affairs, his highest authority among the soldiers, his wondrous experience in military matters, had not existed, and if there had not been for him an aider in P. Sestius for arousing Antonius, for exhorting, accusing, impelling him, room would have been given to winter in that war, and never would Catiline, when he had risen out of the hoarfrost of the Apennine and from those snows and, having gotten an entire summer, had begun to preoccupy the passes of Italy and the shepherds’ stalls, have fallen without much bloodshed and without the most wretched devastation of all Italy.

[13] hunc igitur animum attulit ad tribunatum P. Sestius, ut quaesturam Macedoniae relinquam et aliquando ad haec propiora veniam; quamquam non est omittenda singularis illa integritas provincialis, cuius ego nuper in Macedonia vidi vestigia non pressa leviter ad exigui praedicationem temporis, sed fixa ad memoriam illius provinciae sempiternam. verum haec ita praetereamus ut tamen intuentes et respectantes relinquamus:

[13] Therefore P. Sestius brought this spirit to his tribunate, that I should leave the quaestorship of Macedonia and sometime come to these nearer matters; although that singular provincial integrity is not to be omitted, of which I lately in Macedonia saw vestiges not lightly pressed for the vaunting of a brief span of time, but fixed for the sempiternal memory of that province. But let us pass over these things thus, yet leave them in view and with a backward glance:

[VI] ad tribunatum, qui ipse ad sese iam dudum vocat et quodam modo absorbet orationem meam, contento studio cursuque veniamus.

[6] let us come to the tribunate, which itself has long now been calling to itself and in a certain manner absorbs my oration, with strained zeal and at a run.

[14] de quo quidem tribunatu ita dictum (est) a Q. Hortensio ut eius oratio non defensionem modo videretur criminum continere, sed etiam memoria dignam iuventuti rei publicae capessendae auctoritatem disciplinamque praescribere. sed tamen, quoniam tribunatus totus P. Sesti nihil aliud nisi meum nomen causamque sustinuit, necessario mihi de isdem rebus esse arbitror si non subtilius disputandum, at certe dolentius deplorandum. qua in oratione si asperius in quosdam homines invehi vellem, quis non concederet ut eos, quorum sceleris furore violatus essem, vocis libertate perstringerem?

[14] Concerning which tribunate indeed it was so spoken by Q. Hortensius that his oration seemed not only to contain a defense of the charges, but even to prescribe to the youth, for undertaking the commonwealth, an authority and a discipline worthy of memory. But nevertheless, since the entire tribunate of P. Sestius supported nothing other than my name and cause, I think it is of necessity for me about these same matters, if not to dispute more subtly, yet certainly to lament more dolorously. In which speech, if I should wish to inveigh more harshly against certain men, who would not concede that I should with the liberty of my voice lash those by whose frenzy of crime I had been violated?

sed agam moderate et huius potius tempori serviam quam dolori meo: si qui occulte a salute nostra dissentiunt, lateant; si qui fecerunt aliquid aliquando atque eidem nunc tacent et quiescunt, nos quoque simus obliti; si qui se offerunt, insectantur, quoad ferri poterunt, perferemus, neque quemquam offendet oratio mea nisi qui se ita obtulerit ut in eum non invasisse sed incucurrisse videamur.

but I will proceed moderately and will serve this present time rather than my own grief: if any secretly dissent from our welfare, let them lie hidden; if any have done something at some time and the same now are silent and keep quiet, let us too be forgetful; if any present themselves, assail, so long as they can be borne, we will endure; nor will my oration offend anyone except one who has offered himself in such a way that we seem not to have invaded him but to have run into him.

[15] sed necesse est, ante quam de tribunatu P. Sesti dicere incipiam, me totum superioris anni rei publicae naufragium exponere, in quo conligendo ac reficienda salute communi omnia reperientur P. Sesti facta, dicta, consilia versata.

[15] but it is necessary, before I begin to speak about the tribunate of P. Sestius, that I set forth the entire shipwreck of the republic in the previous year, in the gathering together of which and in the refitting of the common safety all the deeds, words, and counsels of P. Sestius will be found to have been busied.

[VII] fuerat ille annus tam in re publica, iudices, cum in magno motu et multorum timore intentus (est) arcus in me unum, sicut vulgo ignari rerum loquebantur, re quidem vera in universam rem publicam, traductione ad plebem furibundi hominis ac perditi, mihi irati, sed multo acrius oti et communis salutis inimici. hunc vir clarissimus mihique multis repugnantibus amicissimus, Cn. Pompeius, omni cautione, foedere, exsecratione devinxerat nihil in tribunatu contra me esse facturum: quod ille nefarius ex omnium scelerum conluvione natus parum se foedus violaturum arbitratus (est), nisi ipsum cautorem alieni periculi suis propriis periculis terruisset.

[7] that year had been such in the commonwealth, judges, when, amid great commotion and the fear of many, the bow (was) drawn upon me alone, as the crowd ignorant of affairs were saying, but in truth upon the entire commonwealth, by the transfer to the plebs of a man furious and profligate, angry at me, but much more keenly an enemy of peace (otium) and of the common safety. This man the most illustrious, and to me, though many resisted, most friendly, Cn. Pompeius, had bound by every caution, covenant, and imprecation, that he would do nothing in his tribunate against me: but that nefarious wretch, born from the confluence of all crimes, thought he would violate the pact too little, unless he had frightened the very guarantor of another’s peril by his own proper perils.

[16] hanc taetram immanemque beluam, vinctam auspiciis, adligatam more maiorum, constrictam legum sacratarum catenis, solvit subito lege curiata consul, vel, ut ego arbitror, exoratus vel, ut non nemo putabat, mihi iratus, ignarus quidem certe et imprudens impendentium tantorum scelerum et malorum. qui tribunus plebis felix in evertenda re publica fuit nullis suis nervis—qui enim in eius modi vita nervi esse potuerunt hominis fraternis flagitiis, sororiis stupris,

[16] this foul and monstrous beast, bound by the auspices, fastened by the custom of the ancestors, constricted by the chains of sacrosanct laws, the consul suddenly released by a Curiate law—either, as I judge, won over, or, as more than one thought, angry with me—surely indeed ignorant and imprudent of such great crimes and evils impending. he, as tribune of the plebs, was “fortunate” in overturning the republic by no sinews of his own—for what sinews could there have been in the life of such a man, with fraternal disgraces, sisterly defilements,

[17] omni inaudita libidine exsanguis?—sed fuit profecto quaedam illa rei publicae fortuna fatalis, ut ille caecus atque amens tribunus plebis nancisceretur—quid dicam? consules? hocine ut ego nomine appellem eversores huius imperi, proditores vestrae dignitatis, hostis bonorum omnium, qui ad delendum senatum, adfligendum equestrem ordinem, exstinguenda omnia iura atque instituta maiorum se illis fascibus ceterisque insignibus summi honoris atque imperi ornatos esse arbitrabantur?

[17] bloodless from every unheard-of lust?—but there was indeed a certain fatal fortune of the republic, such that that blind and insane tribune of the plebs chanced to get—what shall I say? consuls? Is it that I should by this name call the overturners of this imperium, betrayers of your dignity, enemies of all good men, who, for destroying the senate, for crushing the equestrian order, for extinguishing all the laws and institutions of the ancestors, supposed that they were adorned with those fasces and the other insignia of the highest honor and imperium?

quorum, per deos immortalis, si nondum scelera vulneraque inusta rei publicae vultis recordari, vultum atque incessum animis intuemini: facilius eorum facta occurrent mentibus vestris, si ora ipsa oculis proposueritis.

of whom, by the immortal gods, if you are not yet willing to recall the crimes and the wounds branded upon the republic, look upon their countenance and gait in your minds: their deeds will more easily occur to your thoughts, if you set their very faces before your eyes.

[VIII]

[8]

[18] alter unguentis adfluens, calamistrata coma, despiciens conscios stuprorum ac veteres vexatores aetatulae suae, puteali et faeneratorum gregibus inflatus, a quibus compulsus olim, ne in Scyllaeo illo aeris alieni tamquam [in] fretu ad columnam adhaeresceret, in tribunatus portum perfugerat, contemnebat equites Romanos, minitabatur senatui, venditabat se operis atque ab iis se ereptum ne de ambitu causam diceret praedicabat, ab isdemque se etiam invito senatu provinciam sperare dicebat; eamque nisi adeptus esset, se incolumem nullo modo fore arbitrabatur.

[18] another, overflowing with unguents, with calamistrated hair, looking down on those conscious of his debaucheries and the old tormentors of his boyhood, puffed up by the Puteal and by the packs of usurers, by whom once he had been driven, lest in that Scyllaean strait of debt, as if [in] a strait, he should cling to the column, to take refuge in the harbor of the tribunate, was scorning the Roman equestrians, was threatening the senate, was peddling himself for services and was proclaiming that he had been snatched away by them so that he should not plead a case on a charge of ambitus, and from these same, even with the senate unwilling, he said he hoped for a province; and unless he obtained that, he thought that he would by no means remain unscathed.

[19] alter, o di boni, quam taeter incedebat, quam truculentus, quam terribilis aspectu! unum aliquem te ex barbatis illis, exemplum imperi veteris, imaginem antiquitatis, columen rei publicae diceres intueri. vestitus aspere nostra hac purpura plebeia ac paene fusca, capillo ita horrido ut Capua, in qua ipsa tum imaginis ornandae causa duumviratum gerebat, Seplasiam sublaturus videretur.

[19] the other, O good gods, how foully he strode, how truculent, how terrible to behold! you would say you were gazing upon some one of those bearded men, an exemplar of the old imperium, an image of antiquity, the pillar of the commonwealth. clothed roughly in this our plebeian and almost dusky purple, with hair so bristling that he seemed about to carry off the Seplasia from Capua itself—the very city in which he was then holding the duumvirate for the sake of adorning an image.

nam quid ego de supercilio dicam, quod tum hominibus non supercilium, sed pignus rei publicae videbatur? tanta erat gravitas in oculo, tanta contractio frontis, ut illo supercilio annus ille niti tamquam (vade) videretur.

for what should I say about the brow, which then to people seemed not a brow, but a pledge of the Republic? so great was the gravity in the eye, so great the contraction of the forehead, that on that eyebrow that year seemed to lean, as if (vade) it did.

[20] erat hic omnium sermo: 'est tamen rei publicae magnum firmumque subsidium; habeo quem opponam labi illi atque caeno; vultu me dius fidius conlegae sui libidinem levitatemque franget; habebit senatus in hunc annum quem sequatur; non deerit auctor et dux bonis.' mihi denique homines praecipue gratulabantur, quod habiturus essem contra tribunum plebis furiosum et audacem cum amicum et adfinem tum etiam fortem et gravem consulem.

[20] this was everyone’s talk: 'still, there is for the Republic a great and firm subsidy; I have someone to set against that slide and slime; by good faith, by his very look he will break his colleague’s libido and levity; the senate will have, for this year, someone to follow; there will not be lacking an author and leader for the good.' men, finally, were especially congratulating me, because I was going to have, against a frenzied and audacious tribune of the plebs, a consul who was not only a friend and kinsman but also brave and grave.

[IX] atque eorum alter fefellit neminem. quis enim clavum tanti imperi tenere et gubernacula rei publicae tractare in maximo cursu ac fluctibus posse arbitraretur hominem emersum subito ex diuturnis tenebris lustrorum ac stuprorum, vino, ganeis, lenociniis adulteriisque confectum? cum is praeter spem in altissimo gradu alienis opibus positus esset, qui non modo tempestatem impendentem intueri temulentus, sed ne lucem quidem insolitam aspicere posset. alter multos plane in omnis partis fefellit;

[9] and of them one deceived no one. For who would think that a man, suddenly emerged from the long darkness of dens of vice and debaucheries, worn out by wine, banquets, panderings, and adulteries, could hold the helm of so great a command and handle the rudders of the republic at full speed and amid billows? when he, beyond expectation, had been set in the highest rank by others’ resources—he who, being drunken, was unable not only to look upon the impending storm, but not even to behold the unwonted light. the other plainly deceived many, in all parties;

[21] erat enim hominum opinioni nobilitate ipsa, blanda conciliatricula, commendatus. omnes boni semper nobilitati favemus, et quia utile est rei publicae nobilis homines esse dignos maioribus suis, et quia valet apud nos clarorum hominum et bene de re publica meritorum memoria, etiam mortuorum. quia tristem semper, quia taciturnum, quia subhorridum atque incultum videbant, et quod erat eo nomine ut ingenerata familiae frugalitas videretur, favebant, gaudebant, et ad integritatem maiorum spe sua hominem vocabant materni generis obliti.

[21] for he was, in the opinion of men, commended by nobility itself, a flattering little conciliatrix. all good men always favor nobility, both because it is useful for the republic that noble men be worthy of their ancestors, and because the memory of illustrious men who have deserved well of the republic, even of the dead, carries weight among us. because they saw him always gloomy, because taciturn, because somewhat rough and uncultivated, and because he was of such a name that an ingenerate frugality of the family seemed to be present, they favored, they rejoiced, and, to the integrity of his ancestors, by their own hope they summoned the man, forgetful of the maternal lineage.

[22] ego autem,—vere dicam, iudices,— tantum esse in homine sceleris, audaciae, crudelitatis, quantum ipse cum re publica sensi, numquam putavi. nequam esse hominem et levem et falsa opinione [errore] hominum ab adulescentia commendatum sciebam; etenim animus eius vultu, flagitia parietibus tegebantur. sed haec obstructio nec diuturna est neque obducta ita ut curiosis oculis perspici non possit.

[22] But I,—I will speak truly, judges,— never thought there to be in the man so much crime, audacity, cruelty as I myself, together with the Republic, experienced. That the man was worthless and fickle, and from youth commended by the false opinion [error] of men, I knew; for indeed his spirit was covered by his countenance, his flagitious acts by walls. But this obstruction is neither long-lasting nor so overlaid that it cannot be seen through by curious eyes.

[X] videbamus genus vitae, desidiam, inertiam; inclusas eius libidines qui paulo propius accesserant intuebantur; denique etiam sermo nobis ansas dabat quibus reconditos eius sensus tenere possemus.

[10] we were seeing the mode of life, sloth, inertia; those who had approached a little nearer were observing his pent-up libidinous appetites; finally even conversation was giving us handles by which we could grasp his hidden sentiments.

[23] laudabat homo doctus philosophos nescio quos, neque eorum tamen nomina poterat dicere, sed tamen eos laudabat maxime qui dicuntur praeter ceteros esse auctores et laudatores voluptatis; cuius et quo tempore et quo modo non quaerebat, verbum ipsum omnibus (viribus) animi et corporis devorarat; eosdemque praeclare dicere aiebat sapientis omnia sua causa facere, rem publicam capessere hominem bene sanum non oportere, nihil esse praestabilius otiosa vita, plena et conferta voluptatibus; eos autem qui dicerent dignitati esse serviendum, rei publicae consulendum, offici rationem in omni vita, non commodi esse ducendam, adeunda pro patria pericula, vulnera excipienda, mortem oppetendam, vaticinari atque insanire dicebat.

[23] the learned man used to praise I‑know‑not‑what philosophers, nor yet could he say their names; yet he especially praised those who are said beyond the rest to be the authors and lauders of pleasure; of which, and at what time, and in what manner, he did not inquire—the word itself he had devoured with all the (forces) of mind and body; and he used to say that the same men declare excellently that the wise man does everything for his own sake, that a man of sound mind ought not to undertake the republic, that nothing is more excellent than a life of leisure, full and crammed with pleasures; but those who said that dignity must be served, that the commonwealth must be consulted, that in the whole of life the reckoning of duty, not of advantage, must be held, that dangers for the fatherland must be approached, wounds received, death met—he said they were vaticinating and raving.

[24] ex his adsiduis eius cotidianisque sermonibus, et quod videbam quibuscum hominibus in interiore parte aedium viveret, et quod ita domus ipsa fumabat ut multa eius (consorti)onis indicia redolerent, statuebam sic, boni nihil ab illis nugis exspectandum, mali quidem certe nihil pertimescendum. sed ita est, iudices, ut, si gladium parvo puero aut si imbecillo seni aut debili dederis, ipse impetu suo nemini noceat, sin ad nudum vel fortissimi viri corpus accesserit, possit acie ipsa et ferri viribus vulnerare: cum hominibus enervatis atque exsanguibus consulatus tamquam gladius esset datus, qui per se pungere neminem umquam potuissent, ii summi imperi nomine armati rem publicam contrucidarunt. foedus fecerunt cum tribuno plebis palam, ut ab eo provincias acciperent quas ipsi vellent, exercitum et pecuniam quantam vellent, ea lege, si ipsi prius tribuno plebis adflictam et constrictam rem publicam tradidissent: id autem foedus meo sanguine ictum sanciri posse dicebant.

[24] From these assiduous and quotidian speeches of his, and because I saw with what sort of men he lived in the interior part of the house, and because the house itself so smoked that it reeked of many tokens of his association, I determined thus: nothing of good was to be expected from those trifles, and assuredly nothing of evil to be greatly dreaded. But so it is, judges: if you should give a sword to a small boy, or to a feeble old man or a debilitated person, by its own impetus it harms no one; but if it should come naked to the body even of a most valiant man, it can wound by its very edge and by the strength of the steel. When to enervated and bloodless men the consulship was given as if it were a sword—men who by themselves could never have pricked anyone—they, armed with the name of the highest imperium, butchered the commonwealth. They made a pact with a tribune of the plebs openly, that from him they would receive the provinces which they themselves wanted, an army and as much money as they wanted, on this condition: if they themselves first had handed over to the tribune of the plebs the republic afflicted and bound fast; and they said that that pact could be struck and sanctioned with my blood.

[25] qua re patefacta—neque enim dissimulari tantum scelus poterat nec latere—promulgantur uno eodemque tempore rogationes ab eodem tribuno de mea pernicie et de provinciis consulum nominatim.

[25] With this matter laid bare—for so great a crime could neither be dissimulated nor lie hidden—rogations are promulgated at one and the same time by that same tribune, concerning my ruin and concerning the provinces of the consuls, by name.

[XI] hic tum senatus sollicitus, vos, equites Romani, excitati, Italia cuncta permota, omnes denique omnium generum atque ordinum cives summae rei publicae a consulibus atque a summo imperio petendum esse auxilium arbitrabantur, cum illi soli essent praeter furiosum illum tribunum duo rei publicae turbines, qui non modo praecipitanti patriae non subvenirent, sed eam nimium tarde concidere maererent. flagitabatur ab his cotidie cum querelis bonorum omnium tum etiam precibus senatus, ut meam causam susciperent, agerent aliquid, denique ad senatum referrent: non modo negando, sed etiam inridendo amplissimum quemque illius ordinis insequebantur.

[11] then the senate was anxious, you, Roman knights, were aroused, all Italy wholly stirred; finally all the citizens of every kind and order judged that aid for the highest concern of the republic should be sought from the consuls and from the supreme command, whereas those two alone, besides that frenzied tribune, were two whirlwinds of the republic, who not only did not come to the aid of the fatherland as it was plunging headlong, but grieved that it was collapsing too slowly. They were being demanded of daily—by the complaints of all good men and even by the prayers of the senate—that they take up my cause, do something, finally refer the matter to the senate; they pursued every most distinguished man of that order not only by refusing, but even by mocking.

[26] hic subito cum incredibilis in Capitolium multitudo ex tota urbe cunctaque Italia convenisset, vestem mutandam omnes meque iam omni ratione, privato consilio, quoniam publicis ducibus res publica careret, defendendum putarunt. erat eodem tempore senatus in aede Concordiae, quod ipsum templum repraesentabat memoriam consulatus mei, cum flens universus ordo cincinnatum consulem orabat; nam alter ille horridus et severus consulto se domi continebat. qua tum superbia caenum illud ac labes amplissimi ordinis preces et clarissimorum civium lacrimas repudiavit!

[26] here suddenly, when an incredible multitude had come together on the Capitol from the whole city and all Italy, all thought that the dress should be changed (mourning assumed), and that I, now by every method, by private counsel—since the commonwealth was lacking public leaders—must be defended. At the same time the senate was in the Temple of Concord, which temple itself recalled the memory of my consulship, when the whole order, weeping, was beseeching the curly‑haired consul; for that other one, rough and severe, was deliberately keeping himself at home. With what arrogance then did that mire and blot repudiate the prayers of the most august order and the tears of the most illustrious citizens!

me ipsum ut contempsit helluo patriae! nam quid ego patrimoni dicam, quod ille tum cum quaestum faceret amisit? venistis ad senatum, vos, inquam, equites Romani et omnes boni veste mutata, vosque pro meo capite ad pedes lenonis impurissimi proiecistis, cum, vestris precibus ab latrone illo repudiatis, vir incredibili fide, magnitudine animi, constantia, L. Ninnius, ad senatum de re publica rettulit, senatusque frequens vestem pro mea salute mutandam censuit.

How the glutton of the fatherland despised me myself! For what shall I say of the patrimony, which he then lost when he was turning a profit? You came to the senate—you, I say, Roman equites, and all good men—with your garb changed, and you threw yourselves for my head at the feet of the most impure pimp, when, your prayers having been rejected by that robber, a man of incredible fidelity, greatness of spirit, and constancy, L. Ninnius, brought a motion to the senate concerning the republic, and a full senate judged that attire was to be changed for my safety.

[XII]

[12]

[27] O diem illum, iudices, funestum senatui bonisque omnibus, rei publicae luctuosum, mihi ad domesticum maerorem gravem, ad posteritatis memoriam gloriosum! quid enim quisquam potest ex omni memoria sumere inlustrius quam pro uno civi et bonos omnis privato consensu et universum senatum publico consilio mutasse vestem? quae quidem tum mutatio non deprecationis est causa facta, sed luctus: quem enim deprecarere, cum omnes essent sordidati, cumque hoc satis esset signi esse improbum, qui mutata veste non esset?

[27] O that day, judges, funereal to the senate and to all good men, lugubrious to the commonwealth, for me heavy to domestic mourning, to the memory of posterity glorious! For what, indeed, can anyone take from the whole memory more illustrious than that, for the sake of one citizen, both all good men by private consensus and the whole senate by public counsel changed their dress? And indeed that change then was made not for the sake of deprecation, but of mourning: for whom could you entreat, when all were in mourning attire, and when this was sign enough that a man was depraved, that he had not changed his dress?

hac mutatione vestis facta tanto in luctu civitatis, omitto quid ille tribunus omnium rerum divinarum humanarumque praedo fecerit, qui adesse nobilissimos adulescentis, honestissimos equites Romanos, deprecatores salutis meae iusserit, eosque operarum suarum gladiis et lapidibus obiecerit: de consulibus loquor, quorum fide res publica niti debuit.

with this change of dress made amid so great a mourning of the state, I pass over what that tribune, a predator of all things divine and human, did—who ordered the most noble young men, the most honorable Roman equites, intercessors for my safety, to be present, and cast them to the swords and stones of his hired hands: I speak of the consuls, on whose good faith the republic ought to have leaned.

[28] exanimatus evolat ex senatu, non minus perturbato animo atque vultu quam si annis ante paucis in creditorum conventum incidisset; advocat contionem, habet orationem talem consul qualem numquam Catilina victor habuisset: errare homines si etiam tum senatum aliquid in re publica posse arbitrarentur; equites vero Romanos daturos illius diei poenas quo me consule cum gladiis in clivo Capitolino fuissent; venisse tempus iis qui in timore fuissent—coniuratos videlicet dicebat—ulciscendi se. si dixisset haec solum, omni supplicio esset dignus; nam oratio ipsa consulis perniciosa potest rem publicam labefactare; quid fecerit videte.

[28] Breathless he flies out from the senate, with a mind and countenance no less perturbed than if, a few years before, he had fallen into a convention of creditors; he summons the assembly, the consul delivers such a speech as Catiline, even as victor, would never have delivered: that men err if even then they think the senate can do anything in the Republic; that the Roman equestrians will pay the penalties for that day on which, with me as consul, they had been with swords on the Capitoline slope; that the time has come for those who had been in fear—the conspirators, forsooth, he said—to avenge themselves. If he had said only these things, he would be worthy of every punishment; for the consul’s very oration, pernicious as it is, can shake the Republic; see what he did.

[29] L. Lamiam, qui cum me ipsum pro summa familiaritate quae mihi cum patre eius erat unice diligebat, tum pro re publica vel mortem oppetere cupiebat, in contione relegavit, edixitque ut ab urbe abesset milia passuum ducenta, quod esset ausus pro civi, pro bene merito civi, pro amico, pro re publica deprecari.

[29] L. Lamia—who, both on account of the greatest familiarity which I had with his father, loved me myself uniquely, and also was eager even to meet death for the Republic—he banished in an assembly, and he issued an edict that he be absent from the city two hundred miles, because he had dared to plead for a citizen, for a well‑deserving citizen, for a friend, for the Republic.

[XIII] quid hoc homine facias, aut quo civem importunum aut quo potius hostem tam sceleratum reserves? qui, ut omittam cetera quae sunt ei cum conlega immani impuroque coniuncta atque communia, hoc unum habet proprium, ut ex urbe expulerit, relegarit non dico equitem Romanum, non ornatissimum atque optimum virum, non amicissimum rei publicae civem, non illo ipso tempore una cum senatu et cum bonis omnibus casum amici reique publicae lugentem, sed civem Romanum sine ullo iudicio ut edicto ex patria consul eiecerit.

[13] What are you to do with this man, or for what would you reserve such a troublesome citizen, or rather such a so-criminal enemy? who—so that I may omit the rest, which are conjoined and common to him with his colleague, a monstrous and impure man—has this one thing as his own: that he has expelled from the city, has relegated—I do not say a Roman eques, not a most adorned and best man, not a citizen most friendly to the commonwealth, not one who at that very time was, together with the senate and with all the good men, lamenting the misfortune of his friend and of the commonwealth—but that, as though by an edict, the consul has cast out from his fatherland a Roman citizen without any judgment.

[30] nihil acerbius socii et Latini ferre soliti sunt quam se, id quod perraro accidit, ex urbe exire a consulibus iuberi: atque illis erat tum reditus in suas civitates, ad suos Lares familiaris, et in illo communi incommodo nulla in quemquam propria ignominia nominatim cadebat. hoc vero quid est? exterminabit civis Romanos edicto consul a suis dis penatibus?

[30] nothing more bitter were the allies and the Latins accustomed to bear than that they, a thing which very rarely happens, be ordered by the consuls to go out from the city; and yet for them there was then a return to their own communities, to their own household Lares, and in that common inconvenience no particular ignominy fell by name upon anyone. But what is this indeed? Will the consul by an edict banish Roman citizens from their own household gods, the Penates?

expellet ex patria? deliget quem volet, damnabit atque eiciet nominatim? hic si umquam vos eos qui nunc estis in re publica fore putasset, si denique imaginem iudiciorum aut simulacrum aliquod futurum in civitate reliquum credidisset, umquam ausus esset senatum de re publica tollere, equitum Romanorum preces aspernari, civium denique omnium novis et inauditis edictis ius libertatemque pervertere?

will he expel from the fatherland? will he select whom he wishes, condemn and eject by name? if this man had ever supposed that you, who now are in the commonwealth, would exist, if finally he had believed that any image of judicature or some simulacrum would be left remaining in the state for the future, would he ever have dared to remove the senate from public affairs, to spurn the prayers of the Roman equestrians, and finally, by new and unheard-of edicts, to overturn the right and the liberty of all citizens?

[31] etsi me attentissimis animis summa cum benignitate auditis, iudices, tamen vereor ne quis forte vestrum miretur quid haec mea oratio tam longa aut tam alte repetita velit, aut quid ad P. Sesti causam eorum qui ante huius tribunatum rem publicam vexarunt delicta pertineant. mihi autem hoc propositum est ostendere, omnia consilia P. Sesti mentemque totius tribunatus hanc fuisse, ut adflictae et perditae rei publicae quantum posset mederetur. ac si in exponendis vulneribus illis de me ipso plura dicere videbor, ignoscitote; nam et illam meam cladem vos et omnes boni maximum esse rei publicae vulnus iudicastis, et P. Sestius est reus non suo, sed meo nomine: qui cum omnem vim sui tribunatus in mea salute consumpserit, necesse est meam causam praeteriti temporis cum huius praesenti defensione esse coniunctam.

[31] Although you listen to me with most attentive minds and with the highest benignity, judges, yet I fear lest perhaps someone of you wonder what this speech of mine, so long or so far fetched, is aiming at, or how the offenses of those who before this man’s tribunate vexed the republic pertain to the case of P. Sestius. But my purpose is to show that all the counsels of P. Sestius and the mind of his whole tribunate were this: to heal, as far as he could, the afflicted and ruined republic. And if, in setting forth those wounds, I shall seem to say more about myself, pardon it; for both you and all good men have judged that that disaster of mine was the greatest wound of the republic, and P. Sestius is a defendant not in his own, but in my name: since he expended all the force of his tribunate on my safety, it is necessary that my cause of the past time be conjoined with this man’s present defense.

[XIV]

[14]

[32] erat igitur in luctu senatus, squalebat civitas publico consilio veste mutata, nullum erat Italiae municipium, nulla colonia, nulla praefectura, nulla Romae societas vectigalium, nullum conlegium aut concilium aut omnino aliquod commune consilium quod tum non honorificentissime de mea salute decrevisset: cum subito edicunt duo consules ut ad suum vestitum senatores redirent. quis umquam consul senatum ipsius decretis parere prohibuit? quis tyrannus miseros lugere vetuit?

[32] therefore the senate was in mourning, the commonwealth was in rough garb, by public counsel with the garment changed; there was no municipality of Italy, no colony, no prefecture, no society of tax‑farmers at Rome, no collegium or council or, in general, any common council which had not at that time most honorifically decreed concerning my safety: when suddenly the two consuls issue an edict that the senators should return to their own attire. What consul ever forbade the senate to obey its own decrees? What tyrant forbade the wretched to mourn?

Parumne est, Piso, ut omittam Gabinium, quod tantum homines fefellisti ut neglegeres auctoritatem senatus, optimi cuiusque consilia contemneres, rem publicam proderes, consulare nomen adfligeres? etiamne edicere audebas ne maererent homines meam, suam, rei publicae calamitatem, ne hunc suum dolorem veste significarent? Sive illa vestis mutatio ad luctum ipsorum sive ad deprecandum valebat, quis umquam tam crudelis fuit qui prohiberet quemquam aut sibi maerere aut ceteris supplicare?

Is it not enough, Piso—let me omit Gabinius—that you have deceived men to such a degree as to neglect the authority of the senate, to contemn the counsels of every best man, to betray the commonwealth, to cast down the consular name? Did you even dare to issue an edict that men should not mourn my calamity, their own, the commonwealth’s, that they should not signify this their grief by their dress? Whether that change of dress availed for their own mourning or for deprecation, who was ever so cruel as to forbid anyone either to grieve for himself or to supplicate the others?

[33] quid? sua sponte homines in amicorum periculis vestitum mutare non solent? pro te ipso, Piso, nemone mutabit?

[33] What? Do men not, of their own accord, in the perils of friends, change their garb? For you yourself, Piso, will no one change his garb?

ne isti quidem quos legatos non modo nullo senatus consulto, sed etiam repugnante senatu tibi tute legasti? ergo hominis desperati et proditoris rei publicae casum lugebunt fortasse qui volent: civis florentissimi benivolentia bonorum et optime de salute patriae meriti periculum, coniunctum cum periculo civitatis, lugere senatui non licebit? idemque consules, si appellandi sunt consules quos nemo est quin non modo ex memoria sed etiam ex fastis evellendos putet, pacto iam foedere provinciarum, producti in circo Flaminio in contionem ab illa furia ac peste patriae, maximo cum gemitu vestro, illa omnia quae tum contra me contraque rem publicam (agebantur) voce ac sententia sua comprobaverunt.

not even those men whom as legates you yourself appointed for yourself, not only with no decree of the senate but even with the senate opposing? therefore the fall of a desperate man and a betrayer of the republic perhaps those who wish will mourn; but the peril of a most flourishing citizen, backed by the benevolence of the good and most excellently deserving concerning the safety of the fatherland, joined with the peril of the state, will it not be permitted to the senate to mourn? and likewise the consuls—if they are to be called consuls, whom everyone thinks ought to be torn out not only from memory but even from the Fasti—already by a pact of the provinces, brought forth in the Circus Flaminius into a public assembly by that Fury and plague of the fatherland, with your very great groan, approved by their voice and judgment all those things which then against me and against the republic (were being transacted).

[XV] isdemque consulibus sedentibus atque inspectantibus lata lex est, ne avspicia valerent, ne qvis obnvntiaret, ne qvis legi intercederet, vt omnibvs fastis diebvs legem ferri liceret, vt lex Aelia, lex Fvfia ne valeret: qua una rogatione quis est qui non intellegat universam rem publicam esse deletam?

[15] and, the same consuls sitting and looking on, a law was passed, that the auspices should not have force, that no one should announce unfavorable omens, that no one should intercede against a law, that on all fasti days it should be permitted to bring a bill, that the Lex Aelia and the Lex Fufia should not be in force: by this single rogation, who is there who does not understand that the entire commonwealth has been blotted out?

[34] isdemque consulibus inspectantibus servorum dilectus habebatur pro tribunali Aurelio nomine conlegiorum, cum vicatim homines conscriberentur, decuriarentur, ad vim, ad manus, ad caedem, ad direptionem incitarentur. isdemque consulibus arma in templum Castoris palam comportabantur, gradus eiusdem templi tollebantur, armati homines forum et contiones tenebant, caedes lapidationesque fiebant; nullus erat senatus, nihil reliqui magistratus: unus omnem omnium potestatem armis et latrociniis possidebat, non aliqua vi sua, sed, cum duo consules a re publica provinciarum foedere retraxisset, insultabat, dominabatur, aliis pollicebatur, terrore ac metu multos, pluris etiam spe et promissis tenebat.

[34] with the same consuls looking on, a levy of slaves was being held before the tribunal of Aurelius, under the name of the collegia, while men were being enrolled street by street, divided into decuries, urged on to force, to hands, to slaughter, to direption. With the same consuls, arms were being openly carried into the temple of Castor, the steps of that same temple were being taken away, armed men held the forum and the assemblies, killings and stonings were happening; there was no senate, nothing of the remaining magistracy: one man possessed by arms and latrociny the whole power of everyone, not by any force of his own, but, after he had drawn back the two consuls from the republic by a pact of provinces, he insulted, lorded it, made promises to others, held many by terror and fear, even more by hope and promises.

[35] quae cum essent eius modi, iudices, cum senatus duces nullos ac pro ducibus proditores aut potius apertos hostis haberet, equester ordo reus a consulibus citaretur, Italiae totius auctoritas repudiaretur, alii nominatim relegarentur, alii metu et periculo terrerentur, arma essent in templis, armati in foro, eaque non silentio consulum dissimularentur sed et voce et sententia comprobarentur, cum omnes urbem nondum excisam et eversam sed iam captam atque oppressam videremus: tamen his tantis malis tanto bonorum studio, iudices, restitissemus, sed me alii metus atque aliae curae suspicionesque moverunt.

[35] Since these things were of such a kind, judges, when the senate had no leaders, and instead of leaders had traitors or rather open enemies, when the equestrian order was summoned as defendant by the consuls, the authority of all Italy was repudiated, some were by name relegated, others were terrified by fear and peril, there were arms in the temples, armed men in the forum, and these things were not glossed over by the consuls in silence but were approved both by voice and by vote, when we all saw the city not yet razed and overturned but already captured and oppressed: yet, against these so great evils, by the so great zeal of the good men, judges, we would have stood firm; but other fears and other cares and suspicions moved me.

[XVI]

[16]

[36] exponam enim hodierno die, iudices, omnem rationem facti et consili mei, neque huic vestro tanto studio audiendi nec vero huic tantae multitudini, quanta mea memoria numquam ullo in iudicio fuit, deero. nam si ego in causa tam bona, tanto studio senatus, consensu tam incredibili bonorum omnium, tam parato (populo), tota denique Italia ad omnem contentionem expedita, cessi tribuni plebis, despicatissimi hominis, furori, contemptissimorum consulum levitatem audaciamque pertimui, nimium me timidum, nullius animi, nullius consili fuisse confiteor.

[36] for I will set forth today, judges, the whole rationale of my deed and my counsel, nor will I be lacking either to this your so great zeal for hearing or indeed to this multitude so great as within my memory there has never been in any trial. For if I, in a cause so good, with so great zeal of the senate, with the altogether incredible consensus of all the good men, with the (people) so prepared, finally with all Italy expedited for every contention, yielded to the frenzy of a tribune of the plebs, a most despicable man, if I feared the levity and audacity of the most contemptible consuls, I confess that I was overly timid, of no spirit, of no counsel.

[37] quid enim simile fuit in Q. Metello? cuius causam etsi omnes boni probabant, tamen neque senatus publice neque ullus ordo proprie neque suis decretis Italia cuncta susceperat. ad suam enim quandam magis ille gloriam quam ad perspicuam salutem rei publicae (respiciens rem gesserat), cum unus in legem per vim latam iurare noluerat: denique videbatur ea condicione tam fortis fuisse ut cum patriae caritate constantiae gloriam commutaret.

[37] For what was similar in the case of Q. Metellus? Although all the good men approved his cause, nevertheless neither the Senate publicly nor any order in its own right nor had all Italy by its own decrees undertaken it. For he had conducted the affair looking rather to a certain personal glory than to the manifest safety of the commonwealth (looking to this he had carried on the matter), since he alone had been unwilling to swear to a law carried by force; finally, he seemed under that condition to have been so brave as to exchange the fatherland’s affection for the glory of constancy.

erat autem res ei cum exercitu C. Mari invicto, habebat inimicum C. Marium, conservatorem patriae, sextum iam illum consulatum gerentem; res erat cum L. Saturnino, iterum tribuno plebis, vigilante homine, et in causa populari si non moderate at certe populariter abstinenterque versato. cessit, ne aut victus a fortibus viris cum dedecore caderet, aut victor multis et fortibus civibus rem publicam orbaret. meam causam senatus palam,

and moreover his affair was with the undefeated army of Gaius Marius, he had as an enemy Gaius Marius, the conservator of the fatherland, now holding that 6th consulship; the affair was with Lucius Saturninus, tribune of the plebs again, a vigilant man, and in a popular cause, if not with moderation, yet certainly in a popular and self-restrained fashion engaged. He yielded, lest either, conquered by brave men, he should fall with disgrace, or, as victor, he should bereave the commonwealth of many and brave citizens. my cause the senate openly,

[38] equester ordo acerrime, cuncta Italia publice, omnes boni proprie enixeque susceperant. eas res gesseram quarum non unus auctor sed dux omnium voluntatis fuissem, quaeque non modo ad singularem meam gloriam sed ad communem salutem omnium civium et prope gentium pertinerent; ea condicione gesseram ut meum factum semper omnes praestare tuerique deberent.

[38] the equestrian order most vigorously, all Italy publicly, and all good men personally and strenuously had taken it up. I had conducted those affairs of which I had been not the sole author but the leader of the will of all, and which pertained not only to my singular glory but to the common safety of all citizens and almost of the nations; I had carried them out on such a condition that all should always be bound to warrant and to defend my deed.

[XVII] erat autem mihi contentio non cum victore exercitu, sed cum operis conductis et ad diripiendam urbem concitatis; habebam inimicum non C. Marium, terrorem hostium, spem subsidiumque patriae, sed duo importuna prodigia, quos egestas, quos aeris alieni magnitudo, quos levitas, quos improbitas tribuno plebis constrictos addixerat;

[17] however, my contention was not with a victorious army, but with hired hands and those incited to plunder the city; I had not Gaius Marius as an enemy, the terror of foes, the hope and support of the fatherland, but two inopportune prodigies, whom poverty, whom the magnitude of their debt, whom levity, whom depravity had, bound, consigned to the tribune of the plebs;

[39] nec mihi erat res cum Saturnino, qui quod a se quaestore Ostiensi per ignominiam ad principem et senatus et civitatis, M. Scaurum, rem frumentariam tralatam sciebat, dolorem suum magna contentione animi persequebatur, sed cum scurrarum locupletium scorto, cum sororis adultero, cum stuprorum sacerdote, cum venefico, cum testamentario, cum sicario, cum latrone; quos homines si, id quod facile factu fuit et quod fieri debuit quodque a me optimi et fortissimi cives flagitabant, vi armisque superassem, non verebar ne quis aut vim vi depulsam reprehenderet aut perditorum civium vel potius domesticorum hostium mortem maereret. sed me illa moverunt: omnibus in contionibus illa furia clamabat se quae faceret contra salutem meam facere auctore Cn. Pompeio, clarissimo viro mihique et nunc et quoad licuit amicissimo; M. Crassus, quocum mihi omnes erant amicitiae necessitudines, vir fortissimus, ab eadem illa peste infestissimus esse meis fortunis praedicabatur; C. Caesar, qui a me nullo meo merito alienus esse debebat, inimicissimus esse meae saluti ab eodem cotidianis contionibus dicebatur.

[39] nor had I a case with Saturninus, who, because he knew that the grain-supply had been transferred from himself, the Ostian quaestor, in disgrace to the leader of both the senate and the commonwealth, M. Scaurus, pursued his grievance with great vehemence of spirit, but with the courtesan of wealthy buffoons, with the adulterer of his sister, with a priest of debaucheries, with a poisoner, with a testamentary schemer, with an assassin, with a brigand; which men, if—what was easy to do and ought to have been done and what the best and bravest citizens were demanding of me—I had overcome by force and arms, I did not fear that anyone would either blame force repelled by force, or mourn the death of ruined citizens, or rather of domestic enemies. But these things moved me: in all the assemblies that Fury kept shouting that what she was doing against my safety she was doing with Gn. Pompeius as author, a most illustrious man and to me both now and, so long as it was permitted, most friendly; M. Crassus, with whom I had all ties of friendship, a most valiant man, was being proclaimed by that same pest to be most hostile to my fortunes; C. Caesar, who by no desert of mine ought to have been alienated from me, was said by that same person in daily assemblies to be most inimical to my welfare.

[XVIII] quid ergo? inimici oratio, vana praesertim, tam improbe in clarissimos viros coniecta me movit? me vero non illius oratio, sed eorum taciturnitas in quos illa oratio tam improba conferebatur; qui tum, quamquam ob alias causas tacebant, tamen hominibus omnia timentibus tacendo loqui, non infitiando confiteri videbantur.

[18] What then? Did the oration of an enemy, vain especially, hurled so shamelessly against most illustrious men, move me? In truth, not his oration, but the taciturnity of those against whom that most shameless oration was being directed; who then, although they were silent for other causes, nevertheless to men fearing everything seemed by keeping silence to speak, by not denying to confess.

illi autem aliquo tum timore perterriti, quod acta illa atque omnis res anni superioris labefactari a praetoribus, infirmari a senatu atque a principibus civitatis putabant, tribunum popularem a se alienare nolebant, suaque sibi propiora esse pericula quam mea loquebantur.

but they, panic-stricken then by some fear, because they thought that those acts and the whole business of the previous year were being made to totter by the praetors, and to be weakened by the senate and by the leading men of the state, did not wish to alienate from themselves a popular tribune, and they kept saying that their own dangers were nearer to themselves than mine.

[41] sed tamen et Crassus a consulibus meam causam suscipiendam esse dicebat, et eorum fidem Pompeius implorabat neque se privatum publice susceptae causae defuturum esse dicebat; quem virum studiosum mei, cupidissimum rei publicae conservandae, domi meae certi homines ad eam rem positi monuerunt ut esset cautior, eiusque vitae a me insidias apud me domi positas esse dixerunt; atque hanc eius suspicionem alii litteris mittendis, alii nuntiis, alii coram ipsi excitaverunt, ut ille, cum a me certe nihil timeret, ab illis, ne quid meo nomine molirentur, sibi cavendum putaret. ipse autem Caesar, quem maxime homines ignari veritatis mihi esse iratum putabant, erat ad portas, erat cum imperio; erat in Italia eius exercitus, inque eo exercitu ipsius tribuni plebis, inimici mei, fratrem praefecerat.

[41] but yet both Crassus said that my cause ought to be undertaken by the consuls, and Pompey implored their good faith and said that he, though a private citizen, would not, in public, be lacking to the cause that had been undertaken; that man—devoted to me, most desirous of preserving the commonwealth—certain men stationed at my house for that purpose warned to be more cautious, and said that ambushes against his life had been set by me at my house; and this suspicion of his some stirred up by sending letters, others by messengers, others in person themselves, so that he, since he certainly feared nothing from me, thought he must take precautions against them, lest they attempt anything in my name. but Caesar himself, whom men ignorant of the truth especially supposed to be angry with me, was at the gates, was with imperium; his army was in Italy, and in that army he had put in command the brother of that very tribune of the plebs, my enemy.

[XIX]

[19]

[42] haec ergo cum viderem,—neque enim erant occulta,—senatum, sine quo civitas stare non posset, omnino de civitate esse sublatum; consules, qui duces publici consili esse deberent, perfecisse ut per ipsos publicum consilium funditus tolleretur; eos qui plurimum possent opponi omnibus contionibus falso, sed formidolose tamen, auctores ad perniciem meam; contiones haberi cotidie contra me; vocem pro me ac pro re publica neminem mittere; intenta signa legionum existimari cervicibus ac bonis vestris falso, sed putari tamen; coniuratorum copias veteres et effusam illam ac superatam Catilinae importunam manum novo duce et insperata commutatione rerum esse renovatam:—haec cum viderem, quid agerem, iudices?

[42] therefore when I saw these things,—for they were not hidden,—that the senate, without which the commonwealth could not stand, had been altogether removed from the commonwealth; that the consuls, who ought to be leaders of the public counsel, had brought it to pass that through themselves the public counsel was utterly abolished; that those who could do the most were being set up in all the public assemblies, falsely indeed, yet in a terrifying way, as promoters of my destruction; that assemblies were being held daily against me; that no one was sending a voice on behalf of me and of the commonwealth; that the standards of the legions were thought to be aimed at your necks and your goods—falsely, yet believed nevertheless; that the old forces of the conspirators and that unrestrained and overcome band of Catiline had been renewed with a new leader and by an unhoped-for change of affairs:—when I saw these things, what was I to do, judges?

[43] scio enim tum non mihi vestrum studium, sed meum prope vestro defuisse. contenderem contra tribunum plebis privatus armis? vicissent improbos boni, fortes inertis; interfectus esset is qui hac una medicina sola potuit a rei publicae peste depelli.

[43] For I know that then it was not your zeal that failed me, but that mine almost failed yours. Should I, a private citizen, contend with arms against a tribune of the plebs? Would the good have conquered the wicked, the brave the inert? The man would have been slain who could be driven away from the pest of the commonwealth by this one sole remedy.

quid deinde? quis reliqua praestaret? cui denique erat dubium quin ille sanguis tribunicius, nullo praesertim publico consilio profusus, consules ultores et defensores esset habiturus?

What then? Who would furnish the rest? And to whom, finally, was it doubtful that that tribunician blood, poured out, particularly with no public counsel, would be going to have the consuls as avengers and defenders?

cum quidam in contione dixisset aut mihi semel pereundum aut bis esse vincendum. quid erat bis vincere? id profecto, ut, (si) cum amentissimo tribuno plebis decertassem, cum consulibus ceterisque eius ultoribus dimicarem.

when someone in the assembly had said that either I must perish once or be victorious twice. What was it to win twice? This assuredly: that, (if) after I had fought it out with the most frenzied tribune of the plebs, I would then have to contend with the consuls and the rest of his avengers.

[44] ego vero, vel si pereundum fuisset ac non accipienda plaga mihi sanabilis, illi mortifera qui imposuisset, semel perire tamen, iudices, maluissem quam bis vincere; erat enim illa altera eius modi contentio ut neque victi neque victores rem publicam tenere possemus. quid, si in prima contentione vi tribunicia victus in foro cum multis bonis viris concidissem? senatum consules, credo, vocassent, quem totum de civitate delerant; ad arma vocassent, qui ne vestitu quidem defendi rem publicam sissent; a tribuno plebis post interitum dissedissent, qui eandem horam meae pestis et suorum praemiorum esse voluissent.

[44] I indeed, even if it had been necessary to perish, and not to accept a blow—one that would have been for me curable, for him who had inflicted it death‑bringing—would nevertheless, judges, have preferred to perish once rather than to conquer twice; for that second contest was of such a kind that neither the vanquished nor the victors could hold the republic. What then, if in the first contest, overpowered by tribunician force, I had fallen in the forum with many good men? The consuls, I suppose, would have called the senate, whom they had entirely erased from the state; they would have called to arms, they who had not even permitted the republic to be defended by dress; they would have dissented from the tribune of the plebs after the death—men who had wished the same hour to be that of my ruin and of their own rewards.

[XX]

[20]

[45] Vnum autem mihi restabat illud quod forsitan non nemo vir fortis et acris animi magnique dixerit: 'restitisses, repugnasses, mortem pugnans oppetisses.' de quo te, te, inquam, patria, testor et vos, penates patriique dei, me vestrarum sedum templorumque causa, me propter salutem meorum civium, quae mihi semper fuit mea carior vita, dimicationem caedemque fugisse. etenim si mihi in aliqua nave cum meis amicis naviganti hoc, iudices, accidisset, ut multi ex multis locis praedones classibus eam navem se oppressuros minitarentur nisi me unum sibi dedidissent, si id vectores negarent ac mecum simul interire quam me tradere hostibus mallent, iecissem ipse me potius in profundum, ut ceteros conservarem, quam illos mei tam cupidos non modo ad certam mortem, sed in magnum vitae discrimen adducerem. Cum vero in hanc rei publicae navem,

[45] But one thing remained for me, that which perhaps some man of stout and keen spirit and of great soul would say: ‘you should have stood firm, you should have resisted, you should have met death fighting.’ Concerning this, you—you, I say, fatherland—I call you to witness, and you, the Penates and the gods of my fatherland, that for the sake of your seats and temples, for the safety of my fellow citizens, which has always been to me dearer than my own life, I fled combat and bloodshed. For indeed, if this, judges, had befallen me as I was sailing on some ship with my friends—that many from many places, pirates with fleets, threatened that they would overwhelm that ship unless they surrendered me alone to them—if the passengers refused this and preferred to perish together with me rather than hand me over to the enemies, I myself would rather have cast myself into the deep, in order to preserve the others, than lead those so devoted to me not only to certain death, but into great peril of life. But when into this ship of the commonwealth,

[46] ereptis senatui gubernaculis fluitantem in alto tempestatibus seditionum ac discordiarum, armatae tot classes, nisi ego essem unus deditus, incursurae viderentur, cum proscriptio, caedes, direptio denuntiaretur, cum alii me suspicione periculi sui non defenderent, alii vetere odio bonorum incitarentur, alii inviderent, alii obstare sibi me arbitrarentur, alii ulcisci dolorem aliquem suum vellent, alii rem ipsam publicam atque hunc bonorum statum otiumque odissent et ob hasce causas tot tamque varias me unum deposcerent, depugnarem potius cum summo non dicam exitio, sed periculo certe vestro liberorumque vestrorum, quam id quod omnibus impendebat unus pro omnibus susciperem ac subirem?

[46] with the helm wrested from the Senate, the state drifting on the deep in the tempests of seditions and discords, so many armed fleets seemed about to make an incursion unless I alone were surrendered, while proscription, slaughter, and depredation were being threatened; while some, from suspicion for their own danger, would not defend me, others were stirred by an old hatred of the good, others envied, others judged that I stood in their way, others wished to avenge some private pain, others hated the republic itself and this condition of the good and tranquility, and for these causes so many and so various demanded me alone—should I rather fight it out with the greatest—I will not say destruction, but certainly danger—of you and your children, than, one for all, take up and undergo that which was impending over all?

[XXI]

[21]

[47] 'victi essent improbi.' at cives, at ab eo privato qui sine armis etiam consul rem publicam conservarat. sin victi essent boni, qui superessent? nonne ad servos videtis rem venturam fuisse?

[47] 'The wicked would have been conquered.' But—citizens!—and by that private person who, even as consul, had preserved the republic without arms. But if the good had been conquered, who would have been left? Do you not see that the matter would have come down to the slaves?

an mihi ipsi, ut quidam putant, fuit mors aequo animo oppetenda? quid? tum mortemne fugiebam?

Or for me myself, as some think, was death to be met with equanimity? What? Was I then fleeing death?

an erat res ulla quam mihi magis optandam putarem? aut ego illas res tantas in tanta improborum multitudine cum gerebam, non mihi mors, non exsilium ob oculos versabatur? non haec denique a me tum tamquam fata in ipsa re gerenda canebantur?

Or was there any thing that I would have thought more to be desired for me? Or when I was conducting those so great affairs amid so great a multitude of the wicked, was not death, was not exile turning before my eyes? Were not these things, finally, being sung by me then as if fates, in the very business to be carried out?

an erat mihi in tanto luctu meorum, tanta diiunctione, tanta acerbitate, tanta spoliatione omnium rerum quas mihi aut natura aut fortuna dederat, vita retinenda? tam eram rudis, tam ignarus rerum, tam expers consili aut ingeni? nihil audieram, nihil videram, nihil ipse legendo quaerendoque cognoveram?

Or, in so great grief of my own, so great a disjunction, so great an acerbity, so great a spoliation of all the things which either Nature or Fortune had given me, was life to be retained? Was I so raw, so ignorant of affairs, so lacking in counsel or ingenuity? Had I heard nothing, seen nothing, had I myself learned nothing by reading and by inquiring?

nesciebam vitae brevem esse cursum, gloriae sempiternum? cum esset omnibus definita mors, optandum esse ut vita, quae necessitati deberetur, patriae potius donata quam reservata naturae videretur? nesciebam inter sapientissimos homines hanc contentionem fuisse, ut alii dicerent animos hominum sensusque morte restingui, alii autem tum maxime mentis sapientium ac fortium virorum, cum e corpore excessissent, sentire ac vigere?

Did I not know that the course of life is brief, but of glory sempiternal? since death was defined for all, that it was to be chosen that life, which was owed to necessity, should seem rather donated to the fatherland than reserved to nature? Did I not know that among the most sapient men there had been this contention: that some said the souls and senses of men are extinguished by death, but others that then most of all the minds of wise and brave men, when they had departed from the body, sense and thrive?

quorum alterum fugiendum non esse, carere sensu, alterum etiam optandum, meliore esse sensu. denique,

of which the one is not to be fled from, to lack sense; the other even to be desired, to be of better sense. finally,

[48] cum omnia semper ad dignitatem rettulissem nec sine ea quicquam expetendum esse homini in vita putassem, mortem, quam etiam virgines Athenis, regis, opinor, Erechthei filiae, pro patria contempsisse dicuntur, ego vir consularis tantis rebus gestis timerem? praesertim cum eius essem civitatis ex qua C. Mucius solus in castra Porsennae venisset eumque interficere proposita sibi morte conatus esset; ex qua P. Decius primum pater, post aliquot annos patria virtute praeditus filius se ac vitam suam instructa acie pro salute populi Romani victoriaque devovisset; ex qua innumerabiles alii partim adipiscendae laudis, partim vitandae turpitudinis causa mortem in variis bellis aequissimis animis oppetissent; in qua civitate ipse meminissem patrem huius M. Crassi, fortissimum virum, ne videret victorem vivus inimicum, eadem sibi manu vitam exhausisse qua mortem saepe hostibus obtulisset.

[48] Since I had always referred everything to dignity and had thought that nothing ought to be sought by a man in life without it, should I, a consular man with such great deeds accomplished, fear death, which even the virgins at Athens, the daughters, I think, of King Erechtheus, are said to have despised for the fatherland? especially since I was of that city from which Gaius Mucius alone came into the camp of Porsenna and, with death proposed to himself, attempted to kill him; from which Publius Decius—first the father, after some years the son, endowed with his fatherly virtue—devoted himself and his life, the battle-line drawn up, for the safety of the Roman people and for victory; from which innumerable others, partly for the sake of acquiring praise, partly for shunning turpitude, met death in various wars with most equable spirits; in which city I myself remembered that the father of this Marcus Crassus, a most brave man, lest he should see his enemy victorious while alive, drained out his life with the same hand with which he had often offered death to enemies.

[XXII]

[22]

[49] haec ego et multa alia cogitans hoc videbam, si causam publicam mea mors peremisset, neminem umquam fore qui auderet suscipere contra improbos civis salutem rei publicae; itaque non solum si vi interissem, sed etiam si morbo exstinctus essem, fore putabam ut exemplum rei publicae conservandae mecum simul interiret. quis enim umquam me a senatu populoque Romano tanto omnium bonorum studio non restituto,—quod certe, si essem interfectus, accidere non potuisset,—ullam rei publicae partem cum sua minima invidia auderet attingere? servavi igitur rem publicam discessu meo, iudices: caedem a vobis liberisque vestris, vastitatem, incendia, rapinas meo dolore luctuque depuli, et unus rem publicam bis servavi, semel gloria, iterum aerumna mea.

[49] Thinking these things and many others, I saw this: if my death had destroyed the public cause, there would never be anyone who would dare to undertake, against wicked citizens, the safety of the Republic; and so I thought that not only if I had perished by violence, but even if I had been extinguished by illness, the precedent of conserving the Republic would perish along with me. For who indeed would ever—me not restored by the Senate and Roman People through the so great zeal of all good men, —which certainly, if I had been slain, could not have happened,—dare to touch any part of the Republic with the least ill-will to himself? I preserved therefore the Republic by my departure, judges: slaughter from you and your children, devastation, burnings, rapine I drove off by my own pain and grief, and I alone saved the Republic twice, once by my glory, a second time by my affliction.

neque enim in hoc me hominem esse infitiabor umquam, ut me optimo fratre, carissimis liberis, fidissima coniuge, vestro conspectu, patria, hoc honoris gradu sine dolore caruisse glorier; quod si fecissem, quod a me beneficium haberetis, cum pro vobis ea quae mihi essent vilia reliquissem? hoc meo quidem animo summi in patriam amoris mei signum esse debet certissimum, quod, cum abesse ab ea sine summo dolore non possem, hunc me perpeti quam illam labefactari ab improbis malui.

nor indeed will i ever deny myself to be human in this, such that i would boast that i have, without pain, gone without my best brother, my dearest children, my most faithful wife, your sight, my fatherland, this rank of honor; but if i had done so, what benefaction would you have from me, since on your behalf i would have left behind those things which were cheap to me? this, at least in my mind, ought to be the surest sign of my highest love toward my fatherland: that, since i could not be absent from it without the utmost pain, i preferred to endure this rather than that she be undermined by the wicked.

[50] memineram, iudices, divinum illum virum atque ex isdem quibus nos radicibus natum ad salutem huius imperi, C. Marium, summa senectute, cum vim prope iustorum armorum profugisset, primo senile corpus paludibus occultasse demersum, deinde ad infimorum ac tenuissimorum hominum Minturnensium misericordiam confugisse, inde navigio perparvo, cum omnis portus terrasque fugeret, in oras Africae desertissimas pervenisse. atque ille vitam suam, ne inultus esset, ad incertissimam spem et ad rei publicae (interitum) reservavit: ego qui, quem ad modum multi in senatu me absente dixerunt, periculo rei publicae vivebam, quique ob eam causam consularibus litteris de senatus sententia exteris nationibus commendabar, nonne, si meam vitam deseruissem, rem publicam prodidissem? in qua quidem nunc me restituto vivit mecum simul exemplum fidei publicae; quod si immortale retinetur, quis non intellegit immortalem hanc civitatem futuram?

[50] I remembered, judges, that divine man, born from the same roots as we for the safety of this empire, Gaius Marius, in extreme old age, when he had fled the well-nigh just force of arms, first hid his senile body, sunk in the marshes, then fled for refuge to the mercy of the lowest and poorest Minturnians, and thence by a very small vessel, while he was shunning every harbor and land, came to the most desert shores of Africa. And he reserved his life, lest he be unavenged, for the most uncertain hope and for the (destruction) of the commonwealth: I, who, as many in the senate said in my absence, was living at the peril of the commonwealth, and who for that reason by consular letters, by the senate’s decree, was being commended to foreign nations—would I not, if I had abandoned my life, have betrayed the commonwealth? In which indeed now, with me restored, the example of public faith lives together with me; and if this is kept immortal, who does not understand that this state will be immortal?

[XXIII]

[23]

[51] nam externa bella regum, gentium, nationum iam pridem ita exstincta sunt ut praeclare cum iis agamus quos pacatos esse patiamur; denique ex bellica victoria non fere quemquam est invidia civium consecuta. domesticis malis et audacium civium consiliis saepe est resistendum, eorumque periculorum est in re publica retinenda medicina; quam omnem, iudices, perdidissetis, si meo interitu senatui populoque Romano doloris sui de me declarandi potestas esset erepta. qua re moneo vos, adulescentes, atque hoc meo iure praecipio, qui dignitatem, qui rem publicam, qui gloriam spectatis, ne, si quae vos aliquando necessitas ad rem publicam contra improbos civis defendendam vocabit, segniores sitis et recordatione mei casus a consiliis fortibus refugiatis.

[51] for external wars of kings, peoples, nations have long since been so extinguished that we deal excellently with those whom we allow to be pacified; and, in fine, from military victory hardly anyone has been followed by the envy of fellow citizens. to domestic evils and the counsels of audacious citizens there must often be resistance, and the remedy of those dangers lies in the commonwealth’s being maintained; all of which, judges, you would have lost, if by my death the power had been snatched from the senate and Roman people of declaring their grief about me. wherefore I warn you, young men, and by this my right I enjoin you—you who look to dignity, to the commonwealth, to glory—not, if ever some necessity shall call you to defend the commonwealth against wicked citizens, to be more remiss and, by the recollection of my case, to shrink back from brave counsels.

[52] primum non est periculum ne quis umquam incidat in eius modi consules, praesertim si erit iis id quod debetur persolutum. deinde numquam iam, ut spero, quisquam improbus consilio et auxilio bonorum se oppugnare rem publicam dicet illis tacentibus, nec armati exercitus terrorem opponet togatis; neque erit iusta causa ad portas sedenti imperatori qua re suum terrorem falso iactari opponique patiatur. numquam (autem) erit tam oppressus senatus ut ei ne supplicandi quidem ac lugendi sit potestas, tam captus equester ordo ut equites Romani a consule relegentur.

[52] first, there is no danger that anyone will ever fall upon consuls of that kind, especially if that which is owed to them shall have been paid in full. then never again, as I hope, will any wicked man say that he is attacking the Republic with the counsel and assistance of the good, while those men are silent, nor will he set the terror of armed armies against the wearers of the toga; nor will there be a just cause for a general sitting at the gates to allow his own terror to be falsely vaunted and set in opposition. never (however) will the senate be so oppressed that it does not have even the power of supplicating and mourning, nor the equestrian order so captured that Roman knights are relegated by a consul.

quae cum omnia atque etiam multo alia maiora, quae consulto praetereo, accidissent, videtis me tamen in meam pristinam dignitatem brevi tempore doloris interiecto rei publicae voce esse revocatum.

when all these things, and even many other greater ones, which I purposely pass over, had happened, you see me nevertheless, after a brief interval of grief interposed, to have been called back by the voice of the Republic to my pristine dignity.

[XXIV]

[24]

[53] sed ut revertar ad illud quod mihi in hac omni est oratione propositum, omnibus malis illo anno scelere consulum rem publicam esse confectam, primum illo ipso die, qui mihi funestus fuit, omnibus bonis luctuosus, cum ego me (e) complexu patriae conspectuque vestro eripuissem, et metu vestri periculi, non mei, furori hominis, sceleri, perfidiae, telis minisque cessissem, patriamque, quae mihi erat carissima, propter ipsius patriae caritatem reliquissem, cum meum illum casum tam horribilem, tam gravem, tam repentinum non solum homines sed tecta urbis ac templa lugerent, nemo vestrum forum, nemo curiam, nemo lucem aspicere vellet: illo, inquam, ipso die—die dico? immo hora atque etiam puncto temporis eodem mihi reique publicae pernicies, Gabinio et Pisoni provincia rogata est. pro di immortales, custodes et conservatores huius urbis atque imperi, quaenam illa in re publica monstra, quae scelera vidistis!

[53] but so that I may return to that which in this whole oration has been proposed for me—that in that year the commonwealth was consumed by every evil through the crime of the consuls—first, on that very day, which was deadly for me, mournful to all good men, when I had torn myself from the embrace of my fatherland and from your sight, and, from fear of your danger, not mine, had yielded to the frenzy of a man, to wickedness, to perfidy, to weapons and threats, and had left my fatherland, which was most dear to me, on account of the love of that very fatherland, when that calamity of mine—so horrible, so grave, so sudden—not only men but the roofs of the city and the temples were mourning, none of you wished to look upon the forum, none upon the curia, none upon the light: on that, I say, very day—day do I say? nay rather in the same hour and even point of time, destruction for me and for the commonwealth, a province was voted to Gabinius and to Piso. O immortal gods, guardians and conservators of this city and of the Empire, what monsters in the state, what crimes did you behold!

civis erat expulsus is qui rem publicam ex senatus auctoritate cum omnibus bonis defenderat, et expulsus non alio aliquo, sed eo ipso crimine; erat autem expulsus sine iudicio, vi, lapidibus, ferro, servitio denique concitato; lex erat lata vastato ac relicto foro et sicariis servisque tradito, et ea lex quae ut ne ferretur senatus fuerat veste mutata.

The citizen was expelled—he who had defended the commonwealth by the authority of the senate together with all the good men—and expelled not on some other charge, but on that very charge; moreover, he was expelled without trial, by violence, by stones, by steel, with the slave-class at last incited; a law was carried, with the forum laid waste and abandoned and handed over to assassins and slaves—and that a law against which, so that it might not be carried, the senate had changed its dress.

[54] hac tanta perturbatione civitatis ne noctem quidem consules inter meum (interitum) et suam praedam interesse passi sunt: statim me perculso ad meum sanguinem hauriendum, et spirante etiam re publica ad eius spolia detrahenda advolaverunt. omitto gratulationes, epulas, partitionem aerari, beneficia, spem, promissa, praedam, laetitiam paucorum in luctu omnium. vexabatur uxor mea, liberi ad necem quaerebantur, gener, et Piso gener, a Pisonis consulis pedibus supplex reiciebatur, bona diripiebantur eaque ad consules deferebantur, domus ardebat in Palatio: consules epulabantur.

[54] with so great a perturbation of the commonwealth, the consuls did not allow even a night to intervene between my (death) and their prey: immediately, with me stricken, they swooped in to drain my blood, and while the republic was even still breathing, to tear off its spoils. I omit the congratulations, the banquets, the partition of the treasury, benefactions, hope, promises, plunder, the joy of a few amid the mourning of all. My wife was harassed, my children were sought out for slaughter, my son-in-law, and Piso the son-in-law, as a suppliant was being cast away from the feet of the consul Piso, my goods were being plundered and they were being carried to the consuls, my house was burning on the Palatine: the consuls were feasting.

quod si meis incommodis laetabantur, urbis tamen periculo commoverentur.

But even if they rejoiced at my misfortunes, they would nevertheless be moved by the city’s peril.

[XXV]

[25]

[55] sed ut a mea causa iam recedam, reliquas illius anni pestis recordamini—sic enim facillime perspicietis quantam vim omnium remediorum a magistratibus proximis res publica desiderarit—legum multitudinem, cum earum quae latae sunt, tum vero quae promulgatae fuerunt. nam latae quidem sunt consulibus illis—tacentibus dicam? immo vero etiam adprobantibus; ut censoria notio et gravissimum iudicium sanctissimi magistratus de re publica tolleretur, ut conlegia non modo illa vetera contra senatus consultum restituerentur, sed (ab) uno gladiatore innumerabilia alia nova conscriberentur, ut remissis senis et trientibus quinta prope pars vectigalium tolleretur, ut Gabinio pro illa sua Cilicia, quam sibi, si rem publicam prodidisset, pactus erat, Syria daretur, et uni helluoni bis de eadem re deliberandi et rogata (lege potestas per nov)am legem fieret provinciae commutandae.

[55] but to withdraw now from my own case, recall the remaining plagues of that year—thus you will most easily perceive how great a force of all remedies the republic missed from the magistrates then in office—the multitude of laws, both of those which were carried and indeed of those which were promulgated. for the following were actually carried under those consuls—shall I say, keeping silent? nay rather even approving—: that the censorial censure and the most weighty judgment of a most sacred magistracy concerning the republic be removed; that the collegia not only those old ones be restored against the senatorial decree, but that by (ab) one gladiator countless other new ones be enrolled; that, with the sixths and the thirds remitted, nearly a fifth part of the revenues be taken away; that to Gabinius, instead of that Cilicia of his which he had bargained for himself, if he should betray the republic, Syria be given; and that to one glutton the power be made, by a new law, both of deliberating twice about the same matter and, by a law asked, (lege potestas per nov)am legem to have his province changed.

[XXVI]

[26]

[56] Mitto eam legem quae omnia iura religionum, auspiciorum, potestatum, omnis leges quae sunt de iure et de tempore legum rogandarum, una rogatione delevit; mitto omnem domesticam labem: etiam exteras nationes illius anni furore conquassatas videbamus. lege tribunicia Matris magnae Pessinuntius ille sacerdos expulsus et spoliatus sacerdotio est, fanumque sanctissimarum atque antiquissimarum religionum venditum pecunia grandi Brogitaro, impuro homini atque indigno illa religione, praesertim cum eam sibi ille non colendi, sed violandi causa adpetisset; appellati reges a populo qui id numquam ne a senatu quidem postulassent; reducti exsules Byzantium condemnati tum cum indemnati cives e civitate eiciebantur.

[56] I pass over that law which, by a single rogation, erased all the rights of religions, of auspices, of powers, all the laws that are about the right and the timing of proposing laws; I pass over every domestic defilement: we saw even foreign nations battered by the frenzy of that year. By a tribunician law that priest of the Great Mother at Pessinus was expelled and despoiled of his priesthood, and the fane of the most sacred and most ancient religions was sold for a great sum of money to Brogitarus, a foul man and unworthy of that religion, especially since he had sought it not for the sake of worshiping it, but of violating it; men were hailed as kings by the people who had never asked for that, not even from the senate; exiles condemned to Byzantium were brought back at the very time when uncondemned citizens were being cast out of the state.

[57] Rex Ptolomaeus, qui, si nondum erat ipse a senatu socius appellatus, erat tamen frater eius regis qui, cum esset in eadem causa, iam erat a senatu honorem istum consecutus, erat eodem genere eisdemque maioribus, eadem vetustate societatis, denique erat rex, si nondum socius, at non hostis; pacatus, quietus, fretus imperio populi Romani regno paterno atque avito regali otio perfruebatur—: de hoc nihil cogitante, nihil suspicante, eisdem operis suffragium ferentibus, est rogatum ut sedens cum purpura et sceptro et illis insignibus regiis praeconi publico subiceretur, et imperante populo Romano, qui etiam bello victis regibus regna reddere consuevit, rex amicus nulla iniuria commemorata, nullis rebus repetitis, cum bonis omnibus publicaretur.

[57] King Ptolemy—who, if he had not yet himself been styled an ally by the senate, was nevertheless the brother of that king who, being in the same case, had already obtained that honor from the senate, who was of the same stock and the same ancestors, with the same antiquity of alliance; in fine, he was a king, if not yet an ally, yet not an enemy; peaceful, quiet, relying on the imperium of the Roman people, he was enjoying in his paternal and ancestral kingdom a royal otium—: while he was thinking nothing of this, suspecting nothing, with the same hirelings carrying the vote, it was proposed that, as he sat with purple and scepter and those royal insignia, he be subjected to the public herald; and, with the Roman people commanding—who are even accustomed to restore kingdoms to kings conquered in war—the friendly king, with no injury alleged, no claims for restitution pressed, be put up for public sale along with all his goods.

[XXVII]

[27]

[58] multa acerba, multa turpia, multa turbulenta habuit ille annus; tamen illi sceleri quod in me illorum immanitas edidit haud scio an recte hoc proximum esse dicamus. Antiochum Magnum illum maiores nostri magna belli contentione terra marique superatum intra montem Taurum regnare iusserunt: Asiam, qua illum multarunt, Attalo, ut is regnaret in ea, condonaverunt. Cum Armeniorum rege Tigrane grave bellum nuper ipsi diuturnumque gessimus, cum ille iniuriis in socios nostros inferendis bello prope nos lacessisset.

[58] that year had many bitter things, many disgraceful things, many turbulent things; nevertheless, next to that crime which their savagery perpetrated against me, I do not know whether we should rightly place this. Our ancestors, when that Antiochus the Great had been overcome by a great contention of war on land and sea, ordered him to reign within Mount Taurus: Asia, of which they mulcted him, they granted to Attalus, that he might reign in it. With Tigranes, king of the Armenians, we ourselves lately waged a grave and long war, since he, by inflicting injuries upon our allies, had almost challenged us to war.

hic et ipse per se vehemens fuit et acerrimum hostem huius imperi Mithridatem pulsum Ponto opibus suis regnoque defendit, et a (L.) Lucullo, summo viro atque imperatore, pulsus animo tamen hostili cum reliquis suis copiis in pristina mente mansit. hunc Cn. Pompeius cum in suis castris supplicem abiectum vidisset erexit, atque insigne regium, quod ille de suo capite abiecerat, reposuit et certis rebus imperatis regnare iussit, nec minus et sibi et huic imperio gloriosum putavit constitutum a se regem quam constrictum videri.

he too was vehement in himself and defended Mithridates, the fiercest enemy of this empire, driven from Pontus, with his own resources and kingdom; and though he had been routed by Lucius Lucullus, a consummate man and general, yet with a hostile spirit he remained, with his remaining forces, in his former resolve. this man Gnaeus Pompeius, when he saw him prostrate as a suppliant in his own camp, raised up, and replaced the royal insignia—which he had cast from his own head—and, certain terms being imposed, ordered him to reign; and he thought it no less glorious both for himself and for this empire to have a king established by himself than to have him seem constrained.

[59] qui et ipse hostis fuit populi Romani et acerrimum hostem in regnum recepit, qui conflixit, qui signa contulit, qui de imperio paene certavit, regnat hodie et amicitiae nomen ac societatis, quod armis violarat, id precibus est consecutus: ille Cyprius miser, qui semper amicus, semper socius fuit, de quo nulla umquam suspicio durior aut ad senatum aut ad imperatores adlata nostros est, vivus, ut aiunt, est et videns cum victu ac vestitu suo publicatus. em cur ceteri reges stabilem esse suam fortunam arbitrentur, cum hoc illius funesti anni prodito exemplo videant per tribunum aliquem et sescentas operas se fortunis spoliari et regno omni posse nudari!

[59] who both himself was an enemy of the Roman people and received the most bitter enemy into his kingdom, who fought, who joined standards, who almost contended for sovereignty, reigns today, and the name of friendship and of alliance, which he had violated by arms, he has obtained by entreaties: that wretched Cypriot, who was always a friend, always an ally, about whom no suspicion ever more severe was brought either to the senate or to our commanders, is, as they say, alive and seeing, with his very sustenance and clothing confiscated by the state. See why the other kings may think their fortune stable, when, with this example of that baleful year brought to light, they see that through some tribune and six hundred agents they can be despoiled of their fortunes and stripped of their entire kingdom!

[XXVIII]

[28]

[60] at etiam eo negotio M. Catonis splendorem maculare voluerunt ignari quid gravitas, quid integritas, quid magnitudo animi, quid denique virtus valeret, quae in tempestate saeva quieta est et lucet in tenebris et pulsa loco manet tamen atque haeret in patria splendetque per sese semper neque alienis umquam sordibus obsolescit. non illi ornandum M. Catonem sed relegandum, nec illi committendum illud negotium sed imponendum putaverunt, qui in contione palam dixerint linguam se evellisse M. Catoni, quae semper contra extraordinarias potestates libera fuisset. sentient, ut spero, brevi tempore manere libertatem illam, atque hoc etiam, si fieri potuerit, esse maiorem, quod cum consulibus illis M. Cato, etiam cum iam desperasset aliquid auctoritate sua profici posse, tamen voce ipsa ac dolore pugnavit, et post meum discessum iis Pisonem verbis flens meum et rei publicae casum vexavit ut illum hominem perditissimum atque impudentissimum paene iam provinciae paeniteret.

[60] But they even wished by that business to blemish the splendor of M. Cato, ignorant what gravity, what integrity, what greatness of spirit, what finally virtue availed—qualities which in a savage tempest are serene, and shine in the darkness, and, though driven from their place, yet remain and cling to the fatherland, and shine by themselves always, nor ever grow dingy by the sordidnesses of others. They thought M. Cato was not to be adorned but to be banished, and that business not to be entrusted to him but imposed upon him—men who in the assembly openly said that they had torn out M. Cato’s tongue, which had always been free against extraordinary powers. They will perceive, as I hope, in a short time that that liberty remains, and, if it can be, is even greater, because with those consuls M. Cato, even when he had now despaired that anything could be achieved by his authority, nevertheless fought with his very voice and grief; and after my departure, weeping over my misfortune and that of the commonwealth, he assailed Piso with such words that that most profligate and most shameless man was almost already repenting of his province.

[61] 'cur igitur rogationi paruit?' quasi vero ille non in alias quoque leges, quas iniuste rogatas putaret, iam ante iurarit! non offert se ille istis temeritatibus, ut, cum rei publicae nihil prosit, se civi rem publicam privet. consule me cum esset designatus tribunus plebis, obtulit in discrimen vitam suam; dixit eam sententiam cuius invidiam capitis periculo sibi praestandam videbat; dixit vehementer, egit acriter; ea quae sensit prae se tulit; dux, auctor, actor rerum illarum fuit, non quo periculum suum non videret, sed in tanta rei publicae tempestate nihil sibi nisi de patriae periculis cogitandum putabat.

[61] 'why then did he obey the bill?' as though indeed he had not already before sworn with respect to other laws too, which he thought had been proposed unjustly! he does not offer himself to those rashnesses, to the end that, when it would profit the commonwealth nothing, he should deprive the commonwealth of himself as a citizen. with me consul, when he had been designated tribune of the plebs, he exposed his life to peril; he delivered that opinion whose odium he saw must be discharged by him at the peril of his head; he spoke vehemently, he acted sharply; he bore openly what he felt; he was the leader, author, and actor of those matters—not because he did not see his own danger, but because in so great a tempest of the commonwealth he thought that for himself nothing ought to be thought upon except the dangers of the fatherland.

[XXIX]

[29]

[62] consecutus est ipsius tribunatus. quid ego de singulari magnitudine animi eius ac de incredibili virtute dicam? meministis illum diem cum, templo a conlega occupato, nobis omnibus de vita eius viri et civis timentibus, ipse animo firmissimo venit in templum, et clamorem hominum auctoritate impetum improborum virtute sedavit.

[62] He attained that very tribunate. What am I to say of the singular magnitude of his spirit and of his incredible virtue? You remember that day when, with the temple occupied by a colleague, while all of us were fearing for the life of that man and citizen, he himself, with a most steadfast mind, came into the temple, and by his authority he stilled the clamor of men, and by his virtue he checked the assault of the wicked.

adiit tum periculum, sed adiit ob eam causam quae quanta fuerit iam mihi dicere non est necesse. at si isti Cypriae rogationi sceleratissimae non paruisset, haereret illa nihilo minus rei publicae turpitudo; regno enim iam publicato de ipso Catone erat nominatim rogatum; quod ille si repudiasset, dubitatis quin ei vis esset adlata, cum omnia acta illius anni per unum illum labefactari viderentur?

he then approached peril, but he approached it for that cause, the magnitude of which it is now not necessary for me to say. but if he had not complied with that most criminal Cyprian rogation, that turpitude to the republic would have stuck no less; for with the kingdom already made public property, there was a provision by name about Cato himself; and if he had repudiated that, do you doubt that violence would have been brought against him, since all the acts of that year seemed to be made to totter through that one man?

[63] atque etiam hoc videbat, quoniam illa in re publica macula regni publicati maneret, quam nemo iam posset eluere, quod ex malis boni posset in rem publicam pervenire, id utilius esse per se conservari quam per alios (dissipari). atque ille etiam si alia quapiam vi expelleretur illis temporibus ex hac urbe, facile pateretur. etenim qui superiore anno senatu caruisset, quo si tum veniret me tamen socium suorum in re publica consiliorum videre posset, is aequo animo tum, me expulso et meo nomine cum universo senatu tum sententia sua condemnata, in hac urbe esse posset? ille vero eidem tempori cui nos, eiusdem furori, eisdem consulibus, eisdem minis insidiis periculis cessit.

[63] and he also saw this, since that stain in the republic of the kingdom made public property would remain, which no one now could wash away, that whatever good could reach the republic out of evils, it was more useful to be conserved by himself than (dissipated) by others. and he, even if by some other force he were expelled from this city in those times, would have borne it easily. for he who in the previous year had gone without the senate—into which, if then he should come, he could nevertheless see me as an associate of his counsels in the republic—could he then, with me expelled and my name together with the whole senate then condemned, and his own opinion condemned, be able to be in this city with equanimity? he indeed yielded to the same time as we did, to the same frenzy, under the same consuls, to the same threats, plots, dangers.

luctum nos hausimus maiorem, dolorem ille animi non minorem.

we drained a greater mourning, he no lesser pain of mind.

[XXX]

[30]

[64] his de tot tantisque iniuriis in socios, in reges, in civitates liberas consulum querela esse debuit: in eius magistratus tutela reges atque exterae nationes semper fuerunt. ecquae vox umquam est audita consulum? quamquam quis audiret, si maxime queri vellent?

[64] About these so many and so great injustices against allies, against kings, against free cities, there ought to have been a complaint from the consuls: under the tutela of that magistracy kings and foreign nations have always been. Has any voice of the consuls ever been heard? Although who would listen, even if they were most eager to complain?

de Cyprio rege quererentur qui me civem, nullo meo crimine, patriae nomine laborantem, non modo stantem non defenderunt sed ne iacentem quidem protexerunt? cesseram, si alienam a me plebem fuisse vultis, quae non fuit, invidiae; si commoveri omnia videbantur, tempori; si vis suberat, armis; si societas magistratuum, pactioni; si periculum civium, rei publicae.

Should they complain about the Cyprian king, who, me a citizen, with no crime of mine, laboring in the name of the fatherland, not only did not defend me standing but did not even protect me when lying prostrate? I had yielded—if you wish that the plebs had been alien from me, which it was not—to envy; if everything seemed to be stirred, to the time; if force was present, to arms; if there was a partnership of magistrates, to a pact; if there was danger to the citizens, to the Republic.

[65] cur, cum de capite civis—non disputo cuius modi civis—et de bonis proscriptio ferretur, cum et sacratis legibus et duodecim tabulis sanctum esset ut ne cui privilegium inrogari liceret neve de capite nisi comitiis centuriatis rogari, nulla vox est audita consulum, constitutumque est illo anno, quantum in illis duabus huius imperi pestibus fuit, iure posse per operas concitatas quemvis civem nominatim tribuni plebis concilio ex civitate exturbari?

[65] Why, when on the caput of a citizen—I do not dispute of what sort of citizen—and on his goods a proscription was being brought forward, although by sacred laws and by the Twelve Tables it had been ordained that it was not permitted to impose a privilege on anyone, nor to put the question concerning the caput except in the Centuriate Comitia, was no voice of the consuls heard, and was it established in that year, so far as was in those two pests of this imperium, that by right, through stirred-up gangs of workmen, any citizen by name could be driven out of the state by the concilium of a tribune of the plebs?

[66] quae vero promulgata illo anno fuerint, quae promissa multis, quae conscripta, quae sperata, quae cogitata, quid dicam? qui locus orbi terrae iam non erat alicui destinatus? cuius negoti publici cogitari, optari, fingi curatio potuit quae non esset attributa atque discripta?

[66] But what, in truth, had been promulgated in that year, what promised to many, what drafted, what hoped for, what cogitated—what am I to say? What place on the orb of the earth now was not destined for someone? The management of what public business could be conceived, desired, fashioned, which had not been assigned and apportioned?

quod genus imperi aut quae provincia, quae ratio aut flandae aut conflandae pecuniae non reperiebatur? quae regio orave terrarum erat latior in qua non regnum aliquod statueretur? quis autem rex erat qui illo anno non aut emendum sibi quod non habebat, aut redimendum quod habebat arbitraretur?

what kind of command or what province, what method either of minting or of melting-together money was not being found? what region or shore of the lands was broader on which some kingdom was not being set up? and what king was there who in that year did not think either that what he did not have must be bought for himself, or that what he had must be redeemed?

quis provinciam, quis pecuniam, quis legationem a senatu petebat? damnatis de vi restitutio, consulatus petitio ipsi illi populari sacerdoti comparabatur. haec gemebant boni, sperabant improbi, agebat tribunus plebis, consules adiuvabant.

who was seeking a province, who money, who a legation from the senate? for those condemned under the charge of violence, restitution was arranged; the canvassing for the consulship was being prepared for that very popularist priest himself. these things the good groaned over, the wicked hoped for; the tribune of the plebs was driving it, the consuls were aiding.

[XXXI]

[31]

[67] hic aliquando, serius quam ipse vellet, Cn. Pompeius invitissimis iis qui mentem optimi ac fortissimi viri suis consiliis fictisque terroribus a defensione meae salutis averterant, excitavit illam suam non sopitam, sed suspicione aliqua retardatam consuetudinem rei publicae bene gerendae. non est passus ille vir, qui sceleratissimos civis, qui acerrimos hostis, qui maximas nationes, qui reges, qui gentis feras atque inauditas, qui praedonum infinitam manum, qui etiam servitia virtute victoriaque domuisset, qui omnibus bellis terra marique compressis imperium populi Romani orbis terrarum terminis definisset, rem publicam everti scelere paucorum, quam ipse non solum consiliis sed etiam sanguine suo saepe servasset: accessit ad causam publicam, restitit auctoritate sua reliquis rebus, questus est de praeteritis. fieri quaedam ad meliorem spem inclinatio visa est.

[67] Here at length, later than he himself wished, Cn. Pompeius—despite the extreme unwillingness of those who by their counsels and fictitious terrors had turned aside the mind of a most excellent and most valiant man from the defense of my safety—roused that his habit of managing the commonwealth well, not asleep, but delayed by some suspicion. That man, who had subdued by virtue and victory the most criminal citizens, the keenest enemies, the greatest nations, kings, peoples savage and unheard-of, the boundless band of pirates, and even slave-hosts, who, when all wars on land and sea were compressed, had defined the empire of the Roman people by the boundaries of the whole world, did not allow the republic—which he himself had often saved not only by counsels but even by his own blood—to be overturned by the crime of a few: he joined himself to the public cause, by his authority he withstood the remaining measures, he complained of what had been done in the past. A certain inclination toward a better hope seemed to be coming to pass.

[68] decrevit senatus frequens de meo reditu Kalendis Iuniis, dissentiente nullo, referente L. Ninnio, cuius in mea causa numquam fides virtusque contremuit. intercessit Ligus iste nescio qui, additamentum inimicorum meorum. res erat et causa nostra eo iam loci ut erigere oculos et vivere videretur.

[68] The senate, in full attendance, decreed concerning my return on the Kalends of June, with no one dissenting, upon the report of L. Ninnius, whose faith and virtue in my cause never so much as trembled. That Ligus—some fellow, I know not who—an additament of my enemies, interceded. The affair and our cause had now come to such a point that it seemed to lift up its eyes and to live again.

quisquis erat qui aliquam partem in meo luctu sceleris Clodiani attigisset, quocumque venerat, quod iudicium cumque subierat, damnabatur: inveniebatur nemo qui se suffragium de me tulisse confiteretur. decesserat ex Asia frater meus magno squalore, sed multo etiam maiore maerore. huic ad urbem venienti tota obviam civitas cum lacrimis gemituque processerat.

Whoever there was who had touched any part in my mourning over the Clodian crime, wherever he had come, whatever judgment he had undergone, was condemned: there was found no one who would confess that he had cast a suffrage concerning me. My brother had departed from Asia in great squalor, but with a much greater sorrow. As he was coming to the city, the whole citizenry went forth to meet him with tears and groaning.

loquebatur liberius senatus; concurrebant equites Romani; Piso ille, gener meus, cui fructum pietatis suae neque ex me neque a populo Romano ferre licuit, a propinquo suo socerum suum flagitabat; omnia senatus reiciebat, nisi de me primum consules rettulissent.

The senate was speaking more freely; the Roman equestrians were flocking together; that Piso, my son-in-law, to whom it was permitted to reap no fruit of his piety either from me or from the Roman people, was clamoring to his kinsman for his father-in-law; the senate was rejecting everything, unless the consuls had first brought a motion about me.

[XXXII]

[32]

[69] quae cum res iam manibus teneretur, et cum consules provinciarum pactione libertatem omnem perdidissent,—qui, cum in senatu privati ut de me sententias dicerent flagitabant, legem illi se Clodiam timere dicebant: cum hoc non possent iam diutius sustinere, initur consilium de interitu Cn. Pompei. quo patefacto ferroque deprenso, ille inclusus domi tam diu fuit quam diu inimicus meus in tribunatu. de meo reditu octo tribuni promulgaverunt; ex quo intellectum est non mihi absenti crevisse amicos, in ea praesertim fortuna in qua non nulli etiam quos esse putaveram non erant, sed eos voluntatem semper eandem, libertatem non eandem semper habuisse; nam ex novem tribunis quos tunc habueram unus me absente defluxit, qui cognomen sibi ex Aeliorum imaginibus arripuit, quo magis nationis eius esse quam generis videretur.

[69] and when this matter was now held in hand, and when the consuls had lost all liberty by a paction of the provinces,—men who, when private, were clamoring in the senate to declare opinions about me, said that they feared that law of Clodius: since they could no longer sustain this, a plan is entered upon concerning the destruction of Cn. Pompey. When this was laid open and the steel seized, he was shut up at home as long as my enemy was in the tribunate. About my return eight tribunes promulgated; from which it was understood that it was not that friends had grown for me in my absence—especially in that condition in which some, even those whom I had supposed to be so, were not—but that they had always the same good-will, not always the same liberty; for out of the nine tribunes whom I then had, one defected from me in my absence, who snatched for himself a cognomen from the images of the Aelii, so that he might seem rather to be of that nation than of that lineage.

[70] hoc igitur anno magistratibus novis designatis, cum omnes boni omnem spem melioris status in eorum fidem convertissent, princeps P. Lentulus auctoritate ac sententia sua, Pisone et Gabinio repugnantibus, causam suscepit, tribunisque plebis octo referentibus praestantissimam de me sententiam dixit. qui cum ad gloriam suam atque ad amplissimi benefici gratiam magis pertinere videret causam illam integram ad suum consulatum reservari, tamen rem talem per alios citius quam per se tardius confici malebat.

[70] Therefore in this year, with new magistrates designated, when all the good men had turned all hope of a better status into their good faith, as chief P. Lentulus, by his authority and his opinion, with Piso and Gabinius resisting, undertook the cause, and, with eight tribunes of the plebs bringing the matter forward, pronounced a most preeminent opinion about me. And although he saw that it would pertain more to his own glory and to the gratitude for a most ample benefaction that that cause be reserved intact for his own consulship, nevertheless he preferred that such a matter be completed sooner through others rather than later through himself.

[XXXIII]

[33]

[71] hoc interim tempore P. Sestius, iudices, designatus iter ad C. Caesarem pro mea salute suscepit; pertinere et ad concordiam civium putavit et ad perficiundi facultatem animum Caesaris a causa non abhorrere. quid egerit, quantum profecerit, nihil ad causam. equidem existimo, si ille, ut arbitror, aequus nobis fuerit, nihil ab hoc profectum, sin iratior, non multum; sed tamen sedulitatem atque integritatem hominis videtis.

[71] In the meantime P. Sestius, judges, as designate undertook a journey to Gaius Caesar for my safety; he thought it pertained both to the concord of the citizens and to the capacity of bringing the matter to completion that Caesar’s mind was not averse from the cause. What he did, how much he advanced, is nothing to the case. For my part I think, if he, as I suppose, was equitable toward us, nothing was effected by this man; but if more irate, not much; yet nevertheless you see the assiduity and integrity of the man.

ingredior iam in Sesti tribunatum, nam hoc primum iter designatus rei publicae causa suscepit; abiit ille annus; respirasse homines videbantur nondum re, sed spe rei publicae reciperandae. exierunt malis ominibus atque exsecrationibus duo vulturii paludati. quibus utinam ipsis evenissent ea quae tum homines precabantur!

I now enter upon Sestius’s tribunate, for this was the first journey he, as a designate, undertook for the sake of the Republic; that year went by; men seemed to have caught their breath, not yet in reality, but in the hope of the Republic’s being recovered. They went out under evil omens and execrations—two vultures in military cloaks. Would that the very things which men were then praying for had befallen them!

neque nos provinciam Macedoniam cum exercitu neque equitatum in Syria et cohortis optimas perdidissemus.

nor would we have lost the province of Macedonia with an army, nor the cavalry in Syria and the best cohorts.

[72] ineunt magistratum tribuni plebis, qui omnes se de me promulgaturos confirmarant. ex iis princeps emitur ab inimicis meis is quem homines in luctu inridentes Gracchum vocabant, quoniam id etiam fatum civitatis fuit ut illa ex vepreculis extracta nitedula rem publicam conaretur adrodere. alter vero, non ille Serranus ab aratro, sed ex deserta Gavi Oleli area calatis Gaviis in Calatinos Atilios insitus, subito, nominibus in tabulas relatis, nomen suum de tabula sustulit.

[72] The tribunes of the plebs enter upon their magistracy, all of whom had affirmed that they would promulgate on my behalf. Of these, the chief was bought by my enemies—he whom men, laughing in their mourning, used to call “Gracchus,” since it was also the fate of the civitas that that dormouse, dragged out of the little bramble-bushes, should try to gnaw the res publica. But another—no Serranus from the plough, rather from the deserted threshing-floor of Gavius Olelius, with the Gaviuses “called in,” grafted into the Calatinus Atilii—suddenly, after the names had been entered on the tablets, removed his own name from the tablet.

veniunt Kalendae Ianuariae. vos haec melius scire potestis, equidem audita dico: quae tum frequentia senatus, quae exspectatio populi, qui concursus legatorum ex Italia cuncta, quae virtus, actio, gravitas P. Lentuli consulis fuerit, quae etiam conlegae eius moderatio de me. qui cum inimicitias sibi mecum ex rei publicae dissensione susceptas esse dixisset, eas se patribus conscriptis dixit et temporibus rei publicae permissurum.

the Kalends of January come. you can know these things better; for my part I speak what I have heard: what thronging of the senate there then was, what the expectation of the people, what a concourse of envoys from all Italy, what the virtue, action, and gravity of P. Lentulus, the consul, was, and also what moderation his colleague showed concerning me. who, when he had said that enmities with me had been undertaken by him from a dissension about the Republic, said that he would remit these to the Conscript Fathers and to the times of the Republic.

[XXXIV]

[34]

[73] tum princeps rogatus sententiam L. Cotta dixit id quod dignissimum re publica fuit, nihil de me actum esse iure, nihil more maiorum, nihil legibus; non posse quemquam de civitate tolli sine iudicio; de capite non modo ferri, sed ne iudicari quidem posse nisi comitiis centuriatis; vim fuisse illam, flammam quassatae rei publicae perturbatorumque temporum; iure iudiciisque sublatis, magna rerum permutatione impendente, declinasse me paulum et spe reliquae tranquillitatis praesentis fluctus tempestatemque fugisse; qua re, cum absens rem publicam non minus magnis periculis quam quodam tempore praesens liberassem, non restitui me solum sed etiam ornari a senatu decere. disputavit etiam multa prudenter, ita de me illum amentissimum et profligatissimum hostem pudoris et pudicitiae scripsisse quae scripsisset, iis verbis rebus sententiis ut, etiam si iure esset rogatum, tamen vim habere non posset; qua re me, qui nulla lege abessem, non restitui lege, sed revocari senatus auctoritate oportere.

[73] Then, when asked for his opinion as the first, L. Cotta said that which was most worthy of the commonwealth: that nothing regarding me had been done by right, nothing by the ancestral custom (mos maiorum), nothing by the laws; that no one can be removed from the state without a trial; that concerning the caput (civil status) not only could a measure not be brought, but not even adjudicated, except in the Centuriate Assemblies; that that had been mere force, the flame of a shaken commonwealth and of disturbed times; with law and courts removed, and with a great permutation of affairs impending, I had swerved a little and, in hope of remaining tranquility, had fled the waves and storm of the present; wherefore, since while absent I had freed the commonwealth from dangers no less great than at a certain time when present, it was fitting that I be not only restored but even adorned by the senate. He also argued many things prudently—that that most demented and most profligate enemy of modesty and chastity had written what he had written about me, in such words, matters, and judgments that, even if it had been proposed in due form, nevertheless it could not have binding force; wherefore I, who was absent under no law, ought not to be restored by a law, but to be recalled by the authority of the senate.

[74] hunc nemo erat quin verissime sentire diceret. sed post eum rogatus Cn. Pompeius, adprobata laudataque Cottae sententia, dixit sese oti mei causa, ut omni populari concitatione defungerer, censere ut ad senatus auctoritatem populi quoque Romani beneficium erga me adiungeretur. Cum omnes certatim aliusque alio gravius atque ornatius de mea salute dixisset fieretque sine ulla varietate discessio, surrexit, ut scitis, Atilius hic Gavianus; nec ausus est, cum esset emptus, intercedere; noctem sibi ad deliberandum postulavit.

[74] there was no one who did not say that he judged most truly. But after him, when asked, Gnaeus Pompeius, with Cotta’s opinion approved and praised, said that he, for the sake of my leisure, in order that I might be done with all popular concitation, judged that to the authority of the senate there should be joined also the benefaction of the Roman people toward me. When all, vying with one another, and each more weightily and more ornately than the other, had spoken about my safety, and a division was taking place without any variety, there rose, as you know, this Atilius Gavianus; nor did he dare, since he had been bought, to intercede; he asked for a night for deliberation for himself.

clamor senatus, querelae, preces, socer ad pedes abiectus. ille se adfirmare postero die moram nullam esse facturum. creditum est; discessum est.

the clamor of the senate, complaints, prayers, the father-in-law cast at his feet. He affirmed that on the next day he would make no delay. It was believed; the meeting was adjourned.

illi interea deliberatori merces longa interposita nocte duplicata est. consecuti dies pauci omnino Ianuario mense per quos senatum haberi liceret; sed tamen actum nihil nisi de me.

Meanwhile, for that man, the deliberator, the fee—with a long night interposed—was doubled. There followed only a few days in the month of January on which it was permitted for the senate to be held; but nevertheless nothing was transacted except concerning me.

[XXXV]

[35]

[75] Cum omni mora, ludificatione, calumnia senatus auctoritas impediretur, venit tandem concilio de me agendi dies, viii Kal. Febr. princeps rogationis, vir mihi amicissimus, Q. Fabricius, templum aliquanto ante lucem occupavit.

[75] While by every delay, mockery, and calumny the authority of the senate was being impeded, at length the day came for holding the assembly to deal with me, 8 days before the Kalends of February; the chief proposer of the bill, a man most friendly to me, Q. Fabricius, occupied the temple somewhat before dawn.

quietus eo die Sestius, is qui est de vi reus; actor hic defensorque causae meae nihil progreditur, consilia exspectat inimicorum meorum. quid? illi quorum consilio P. Sestius in iudicium vocatur, quo se pacto gerunt?

Sestius was quiet on that day, the man who is a defendant on a charge of violence; the actor here and defender of my cause advances nothing, he awaits the counsels of my enemies. What? Those men at whose counsel P. Sestius is summoned to trial—how do they conduct themselves?

Cum forum, comitium, curiam multa de nocte armatis hominibus ac servis plerisque occupavissent, impetum faciunt in Fabricium, manus adferunt, occidunt non nullos, vulnerant multos. venientem in forum virum optimum et constantissimum,

When they had occupied the Forum, the Comitium, and the Curia deep in the night with armed men and with very many slaves, they make an attack on Fabricius, they lay hands on him, they kill not a few, they wound many. coming into the Forum, a most excellent and most steadfast man,

[76] M. Cispium, tribunum plebis, vi depellunt, caedem in foro maximam faciunt, universique destrictis gladiis et cruentis in omnibus fori partibus fratrem meum, virum optimum, fortissimum meique amantissimum, oculis quaerebant, voce poscebant. quorum ille telis libenter in tanto luctu ac desiderio mei non repugnandi, sed moriendi causa corpus obtulisset suum, nisi suam vitam ad spem mei reditus reservasset. subiit tamen vim illam nefariam consceleratorum latronum et, cum ad fratris salutem a populo Romano deprecandam venisset, pulsus e rostris in comitio iacuit, seque servorum et libertorum corporibus obtexit, vitamque tum suam noctis et fugae praesidio non iuris iudiciorumque defendit.

[76] they drive off M. Cispio, tribune of the plebs, by force; they make a very great slaughter in the forum, and all, with swords drawn and blood-stained, in all parts of the forum were seeking with their eyes and demanding with their voice my brother—an excellent man, most brave, and most loving toward me. He would gladly have offered his body to their weapons, in so great grief and longing for me, not for the sake of resisting but of dying, had he not reserved his life for the hope of my return. Nevertheless he endured that nefarious violence of robbers stained with crime, and, when he had come to the Roman people to deprecate the safety of his brother, driven from the Rostra he lay in the Comitium, and covered himself with the bodies of slaves and freedmen, and then defended his life by the protection of night and flight, not by law and judgments.

[77] meministis tum, iudices, corporibus civium Tiberim compleri, cloacas refarciri, e foro spongiis effingi sanguinem, ut omnes tantam illam copiam et tam magnificum apparatum non privatum aut plebeium, sed patricium et praetorium esse arbitrarentur

[77] you remember then, judges, the Tiber being filled with the bodies of citizens, the sewers stuffed full, the blood being sponged from the forum, so that all would reckon that that so great abundance and so magnificent an apparatus was not private or plebeian, but patrician and praetorian.

[XXXVI] nihil neque ante hoc tempus neque hoc ipso turbulentissimo die criminamini Sestium. 'atqui vis in foro versata est.' certe; quando enim maior? lapidationes persaepe vidimus, non ita saepe, sed nimium tamen saepe gladios: caedem vero tantam, tantos acervos corporum exstructos, nisi forte illo Cinnano atque Octaviano die, quis umquam in foro vidit?

[36] you accuse Sestius of nothing, neither before this time nor on this most turbulent day itself. 'and yet violence was at work in the Forum.' certainly; when indeed was it ever greater? stonings we have very often seen, not so often—yet too often—swords: but such slaughter, such great heaps of bodies piled up, unless perhaps on that day of Cinna and Octavius, who ever saw in the Forum?

qua ex concitatione animorum? nam ex pertinacia aut constantia intercessoris oritur saepe seditio, culpa atque improbitate latoris commodo aliquo (proposito) imperitis aut largitione, oritur ex concertatione magistratuum, oritur sensim ex clamore primum, deinde aliqua discessione contionis, vix sero et raro ad manus pervenitur: nullo vero verbo facto, nulla contione advocata, nulla (lata) lege concitatam nocturnam seditionem quis audivit?

from what agitation of minds? for from the pertinacity or constancy of a vetoing magistrate sedition often arises; from the fault and improbity of the proposer, by some advantage (proposed) to the inexperienced or by largess; it arises from the contention of magistrates; it arises gradually from shouting at first, then from some breaking up of the assembly; only late and rarely does it come to blows: but with no word spoken, no assembly convened, no (passed) law, who has ever heard of a nocturnal sedition stirred up?

[78] an veri simile est ut civis Romanus aut homo liber quisquam cum gladio in forum descenderit ante lucem, ne de me ferri pateretur, praeter eos qui ab illo pestifero ac perdito civi iam pridem rei publicae sanguine saginantur? hic iam de ipso accusatore quaero, qui P. Sestium queritur cum multitudine in tribunatu et cum praesidio magno fuisse, num illo die fuerit? certe non fuit.

[78] Or is it verisimilar that a Roman citizen, or any free man whatsoever, descended with a sword into the forum before daybreak, so that he might not allow a measure concerning me to be carried—anyone, that is, besides those who for some time now have been fattened on the blood of the commonwealth by that pestiferous and profligate citizen? Here now I ask about the accuser himself, who complains that P. Sestius, in his tribunate, was with a multitude and with a great guard—was he present on that day? Certainly he was not.

Victa igitur est causa rei publicae, et victa non auspiciis, non intercessione, non suffragiis, sed vi, manu, ferro. nam si obnuntiasset Fabricio is praetor qui se servasse de caelo dixerat, accepisset res publica plagam, sed eam quam acceptam gemere posset; si intercessisset conlega Fabricio, laesisset rem publicam, sed (tribunicio) iure laesisset. gladiatores tu novicios, pro exspectata aedilitate suppositos, cum sicariis e carcere emissis ante lucem inmittas?

Therefore the cause of the commonwealth was conquered, and conquered not by auspices, not by intercession, not by suffrages, but by force, by hand, by iron. For if that praetor who said that he had kept watch of the sky had given notice of unfavorable omens against Fabricius, the republic would have received a blow, but one which, once received, it could groan over; if Fabricius’s colleague had interceded, he would have harmed the republic, but he would have harmed it by (tribunician) right. Do you unleash novice gladiators, put in as a substitute for the long-expected aedileship, together with assassins released from prison, before dawn?

magistratus templo deicias, caedem maximam facias, forum purges? et cum omnia vi et armis egeris, accuses eum qui se praesidio munierit, non ut te oppugnaret, sed ut vitam suam posset defendere?

do you cast the magistrates down from the temple, make a very great slaughter, purge the forum? and when you have done everything by force and arms, do you accuse the man who has fortified himself with a presidio, not in order to attack you, but so that he might be able to defend his life?

[XXXVII]

[37]

[79] atqui ne ex eo quidem tempore id egit Sestius ut a suis munitus tuto in foro magistratum gereret, rem publicam administraret. itaque fretus sanctitate tribunatus, cum se non modo contra vim et ferrum sed etiam contra verba atque interfationem legibus sacratis esse armatum putaret, venit in templum Castoris, obnuntiavit consuli: cum subito manus illa Clodiana, in caede civium saepe iam victrix, exclamat, incitatur, invadit; inermem atque imparatum tribunum alii gladiis adoriuntur, alii fragmentis saeptorum et fustibus; a quibus hic multis vulneribus acceptis ac debilitato corpore et contrucidato se abiecit exanimatus, neque ulla alia re ab se mortem nisi opinione mortis depulit. quem cum iacentem et concisum plurimis vulneribus extremo spiritu exsanguem et confectum viderent, defetigatione magis et errore quam misericordia et modo aliquando caedere destiterunt.

[79] And yet not even from that time did Sestius aim to, fortified by his own, safely in the forum bear his magistracy and administer the commonwealth. Therefore, relying on the sanctity of the tribunate, since he thought himself armed by the sacred laws not only against force and steel but even against words and interfation, he came into the Temple of Castor and announced unfavorable auspices to the consul: when suddenly that Clodian band, already often victorious in the slaughter of citizens, shouts out, is stirred up, attacks; some assail the unarmed and unprepared tribune with swords, others with fragments of the railings and with cudgels; by whom, after he had received many wounds and his body had been debilitated and butchered, he threw himself down as if lifeless, nor by any other means did he drive off death from himself except by the supposition of death. And when they saw him lying and mangled with very many wounds, bloodless and spent with his last breath, they at length ceased their hacking rather from exhaustion and mistake than from pity and moderation.

[80] et causam dicit Sestius de vi? quid ita? quia vivit. at id non sua culpa: plaga una illa extrema defuit, quae si accessisset reliquum spiritum exhausisset.

[80] And does Sestius plead his case on a charge of violence? Why so? Because he lives. But that is not by his own doing: that one final blow was lacking, which, if it had been added, would have drained the remaining breath.

accusa Lentidium; non percussit locum; male dic Titio, Sabino homini Reatino, cur tam temere exclamarit occisum. ipsum vero quid accusas? num defuit gladiis?

accuse Lentidius; he did not hit the mark; speak ill of Titius, a Sabine man of Reate, for why he so rashly cried out that he had been slain. but why do you accuse the man himself? did he lack swords?

num repugnavit? num, ut gladiatoribus imperari solet, ferrum non recepit?

Did he resist? Did he, as is usually ordered to gladiators, not receive the steel?

[XXXVIII] an haec ipsa vis est, non posse emori? an illa, quod tribunus plebis templum cruentavit? an quod, cum esset ablatus primumque resipisset, non se referri iussit?

[38] Or is the violence itself this, to be unable to die? Or that a tribune of the plebs bloodied a temple? Or that, when he had been carried off and had first come to his senses, he did not order himself to be brought back?

Vbi est crimen? quid reprehenditis?

Where is the crime? What do you reprehend?

[81] hic quaero, iudices: si illo die gens ista Clodia quod facere voluit effecisset, si P. Sestius, qui pro occiso relictus est, occisus esset, fuistisne ad arma ituri? fuistisne vos ad patrium illum animum maiorumque virtutem excitaturi? fuistisne aliquando rem publicam a funesto latrone repetituri?

[81] Here I ask, judges: if on that day that Clodian clan had accomplished what it wished to do, if P. Sestius, who was left for dead, had been slain, would you have gone to arms? would you have roused in yourselves that paternal spirit and the virtue of your forefathers? would you at some point have reclaimed the Republic from the baleful brigand?

an etiam tum quiesceretis, cunctaremini, timeretis, cum rem publicam a facinerosissimis sicariis et a servis esse oppressam atque conculcatam videretis? cuius igitur mortem ulcisceremini, si quidem liberi esse et habere rem publicam cogitaretis, de eius virtute vivi quid vos loqui, quid sentire, quid cogitare, quid iudicare oporteat, dubitandum putatis?

Or would you even then keep quiet, hesitate, be afraid, when you saw the republic oppressed and trampled underfoot by the most criminal assassins and by slaves? Whose death, then, would you avenge, if indeed you were thinking to be free and to have a republic? About his virtue in life, what you ought to say, to feel, to think, to judge, do you think there should be any doubting?

[82] at vero ipsi illi parricidae, quorum ecfrenatus furor alitur impunitate diuturna, adeo vim facinoris sui perhorruerant ut, si paulo longior opinio mortis Sesti fuisset, Gracchum illum suum transferendi in nos criminis causa occidere cogitarint. sensit rusticulus non incautus—neque enim homines nequam tacere potuerunt—suum sanguinem quaeri ad restinguendam invidiam facinoris Clodiani; mulioniam paenulam arripuit, cum qua primum Romam ad comitia venerat; messoria se corbe contexit. Cum quaererent alii Numerium, alii Quintium, gemini nominis errore servatus est.

[82] But indeed those very parricides, whose unbridled frenzy is nourished by long-continued impunity, so shuddered at the violence of their own crime that, if the report of Sestius’s death had lasted a little longer, they were thinking to kill that Gracchus of theirs for the sake of transferring the charge onto us. A not-incautious rustic perceived it—for the worthless men could not keep silent—that his blood was being sought to quench the ill-will arising from Clodius’s crime; he snatched up a muleteer’s cloak, with which he had first come to Rome for the elections; he covered himself with a harvesting basket. While some were looking for Numerius, others for Quintius, he was saved by the error of the twin name.

atque hoc scitis omnes, usque adeo hominem in periculo fuisse quoad scitum est Sestium vivere; quod ni esset patefactum paulo citius quam vellem, non illi quidem morte mercennarii sui transferre potuissent invidiam in quos putabant, sed acerbissimi sceleris infamiam grato quodam scelere minuissent.

and this you all know, that the man was to such an extent in peril until it was known that Sestius was alive; and if this had not been laid open a little sooner than I would wish, they indeed would not have been able, by the death of their hireling, to transfer the odium onto those whom they supposed, but they would have lessened the infamy of a most bitter crime by a certain welcome crime.

[83] ac si tum P. Sestius, iudices, in templo Castoris animam quam vix retinuit edidisset, non dubito quin, si modo esset in re publica senatus, si maiestas populi Romani revixisset, aliquando statua huic ob rem publicam interfecto in foro statueretur. nec vero illorum quisquam quos a maioribus nostris morte obita positos in illo loco atque in rostris conlocatos videtis esset P. Sestio aut acerbitate mortis aut animo in rem publicam praeponendus; qui cum causam civis calamitosi, causam amici, causam bene de re publica meriti, causam senatus, causam Italiae, causam rei publicae suscepisset, cumque auspiciis religionique parens obnuntiaret quod senserat, luce palam a nefariis pestibus in deorum hominumque conspectu esset occisus sanctissimo in templo, sanctissima in causa, sanctissimo in magistratu. eius igitur vitam quisquam spoliandam ornamentis esse dicet, cuius mortem ornandam monumento sempiterno putaretis?

[83] and if then P. Sestius, judges, in the temple of Castor had given forth the life which he scarcely retained, I do not doubt that, if only there were a senate in the commonwealth, if the majesty of the Roman people had revived, at some time a statue would be set up in the Forum to this man, slain on behalf of the republic. Nor indeed would any of those whom you see, placed by our ancestors, death having been undergone, in that place and set upon the Rostra, be to be preferred to P. Sestius either for the bitterness of his death or for his spirit toward the commonwealth; who, when he had undertaken the cause of a calamitous citizen, the cause of a friend, the cause of one who had deserved well of the commonwealth, the cause of the senate, the cause of Italy, the cause of the republic, and, in obedience to the auspices and to religion, was announcing as unfavorable what he had perceived, in daylight, openly, by nefarious plagues, in the sight of gods and men, was slain—in the most holy temple, in the most holy cause, in the most holy magistracy. Will anyone, then, say that his life ought to be despoiled of its ornaments, whose death you would have thought ought to be adorned with an everlasting monument?

[XXXIX]

[39]

[84] 'homines,' inquit, 'emisti, coegisti, parasti.' quid uti faceret? senatum obsideret? civis indemnatos expelleret?

[84] 'men,' he says, 'you purchased, you mustered, you prepared.' What was he to use them for? To besiege the senate? To expel uncondemned citizens?

bona diriperet? aedis incenderet? tecta disturbaret?

would he plunder property? would he set temples on fire? would he tear down the roofs?

templa deorum immortalium inflammaret? tribunos plebis ferro e rostris expelleret? provincias quas vellet quibus vellet venderet?

should he set on fire the temples of the immortal gods? should he expel the tribunes of the plebs from the rostra by the sword? should he sell the provinces, whichever he wished, to whomever he wished?

reges appellaret? rerum capitalium condemnatos in liberas civitates per legatos nostros reduceret? principem civitatis ferro obsessum teneret?

would he appeal to kings? would he lead back those condemned on capital charges into free cities through our legates? would he hold the chief of the state beset with iron?

haec ut efficere posset, quae fieri nisi armis oppressa re publica nullo modo poterant, idcirco, credo, manum sibi P. Sestius et copias comparavit. 'at nondum erat maturum; nondum res ipsa ad eius modi praesidia viros bonos compellebat.' pulsi nos eramus, non omnino ista manu sola, sed tamen non sine ista: vos taciti maerebatis.

in order that he might be able to bring these things to pass, which could in no way be done unless the republic were oppressed by arms, for that reason, I believe, P. Sestius procured for himself a band and forces. 'but it was not yet mature; the situation itself did not yet compel good men to defenses of that sort.' we had been driven out, not entirely by that band alone, yet not without that one: you were mourning in silence.

[85] captum erat forum anno superiore, aede Castoris tamquam arce aliqua (a) fugitivis occupata: silebatur. omnia hominum cum egestate tum audacia perditorum clamore, concursu, vi, manu gerebantur: perferebatis. magistratus templis pellebantur, alii omnino aditu ac foro prohibebantur: nemo resistebat.

[85] the forum had been captured in the previous year, the Temple of Castor, as if some citadel, (a) occupied by fugitives: there was silence. all things were being transacted by the shouting, the rallying, the force, the hand, of men as much by poverty as by the audacity of the profligate: you were putting up with it. magistrates were driven from the temples, others were altogether forbidden access and the forum: no one was resisting.

gladiatores ex praetoris comitatu comprensi, in senatum introducti, confessi, in vincla coniecti a Milone, emissi a Serrano: mentio nulla. forum corporibus civium Romanorum constratum caede nocturna: non modo nulla nova quaestio, sed etiam vetera iudicia sublata. tribunum plebis plus viginti vulneribus acceptis iacentem moribundumque vidistis: alterius tribuni plebis divini hominis—dicam enim quod sentio et quod mecum sentiunt omnes—divini, insigni quadam, inaudita, nova magnitudine animi, gravitate, fide praediti, domus est oppugnata ferro, facibus, exercitu Clodiano

gladiators seized from the praetor’s retinue, brought into the senate, they confessed, were thrown into chains by Milo, were released by Serranus: no mention. the forum was strewn with the bodies of Roman citizens by a nocturnal slaughter: not only was there no new inquisition, but even the old trials were removed. you saw a tribune of the plebs, after receiving more than twenty wounds, lying and dying; the house of another tribune of the plebs, a divine man—for I will say what I feel and what all feel with me—divine, endowed with a certain remarkable, unheard-of, new greatness of mind, with gravity and with faith, was attacked with steel, with torches, by the Clodian army.

[XL]

[40]

[86] et tu hoc loco laudas Milonem et iure laudas. quem enim umquam virum tam immortali virtute vidimus? qui nullo praemio proposito praeter hoc, quod iam contritum et contemptum putatur, iudicium bonorum, omnia pericula, summos labores, gravissimas contentiones inimicitiasque suscepit, qui mihi unus ex omnibus civibus videtur re docuisse, non verbis, et quid oporteret a praestantibus viris in re publica fieri et quid necesse esset: oportere hominum audacium, eversorum rei publicae, sceleri legibus et iudiciis resistere; si leges non valerent, iudicia non essent, si res publica vi consensuque audacium armis oppressa teneretur, praesidio et copiis defendi vitam et libertatem necesse esse.

[86] and you in this place praise Milo, and you praise him by right. For what man have we ever seen of so immortal a virtue? who, with no reward set forth except this—which is now thought worn down and despised—the judgment of the good, undertook all dangers, the highest labors, the gravest contentions and enmities, who seems to me alone out of all citizens to have taught by deed, not by words, both what it was fitting should be done by outstanding men in the republic and what was necessary: that the crimes of audacious men, overthrowers of the republic, ought to be resisted by laws and judgments; if the laws did not have force, if there were no trials, if the commonwealth were held oppressed by force and by the consensus of the audacious, by arms, then that life and liberty must be defended by protection and by forces.

hoc sentire prudentiae est, facere fortitudinis; et sentire vero et facere perfectae cumulataeque virtutis.

To perceive this is prudence, to do it is fortitude; and indeed both to perceive and to do is perfect and accumulated virtue.

[87] adiit ad rem publicam tribunus plebis Milo—de cuius laude plura dicam, non quo aut ipse haec dici quam existimari malit aut ego hunc laudis fructum praesenti libenter impertiam, praesertim cum verbis consequi non possim, sed quod existimo, si Milonis causam accusatoris voce conlaudatam probaro, vos in hoc crimine parem Sesti causam existimaturos: adiit igitur T. Annius ad causam rei publicae sic ut civem patriae reciperare vellet ereptum. simplex causa, constans ratio, plena consensionis omnium, plena concordiae. conlegas adiutores habebat; consulis alterius summum studium, alterius animus paene placatus, de praetoribus unus alienus, senatus incredibilis voluntas, equitum Romanorum animi ad causam excitati, erecta Italia.

[87] Milo, tribune of the plebs, addressed himself to the republic—of whose praise I shall say more, not because either he himself would prefer these things to be said rather than to be esteemed, or I would gladly impart this fruit of praise to one present, especially since I cannot attain it by words, but because I think that, if I shall prove Milo’s cause, commended by the accuser’s own voice, you will in this charge consider Sestius’s cause equal: T. Annius approached the cause of the republic in such a way as to wish to recover for the fatherland a citizen who had been snatched away. A simple cause, a constant rationale, full of the consensus of all, full of concord. He had his colleagues as helpers; of the consuls, the highest zeal of one, the spirit of the other almost appeased; as for the praetors, one was alien; the incredible good will of the senate; the minds of the Roman equestrians stirred to the cause; Italy uplifted.

duo soli erant empti ad impediendum; qui si homines despecti et contempti tantam rem sustinere non potuissent, se causam quam susceperat nullo labore peracturum videbat. agebat auctoritate, agebat consilio, agebat per summum ordinem, agebat exemplo bonorum ac fortium civium: quid re publica, quid se dignum esset, quis ipse esset, quid sperare, quid maioribus suis reddere deberet, diligentissime cogitabat.

two alone had been bought to hinder; and if these men, despised and scorned, had not been able to sustain so great a matter, he saw that he would complete the cause he had undertaken with no toil. he acted by authority, he acted by counsel, he acted through the highest order, he acted by the example of good and brave citizens: what would be worthy of the republic, what would be worthy of himself, who he himself was, what to hope, what he ought to render to his ancestors, he was most diligently considering.

[XLI]

[41]

[88] huic gravitati hominis videbat ille gladiator se, si moribus ageret, parem esse non posse; ad ferrum, faces, ad cotidianam caedem, incendia, rapinas se cum exercitu suo contulit; domum oppugnare, itineribus occurrere, vi lacessere et terrere coepit. non movit hominem summa gravitate summaque constantia; sed quamquam dolor animi, innata libertas, prompta excellensque virtus fortissimum virum hortabatur vi vim, oblatam praesertim saepius, ut frangeret et refutaret, tanta moderatio fuit hominis, tantum consilium, ut contineret dolorem neque eadem se re ulcisceretur qua esset lacessitus, sed illum tot iam in funeribus rei publicae exsultantem ac tripudiantem legum, si posset, laqueis constringeret.

[88] To this man’s gravity that gladiator saw that he could not be equal, if he were to act by morals; he betook himself, with his army, to the sword, to torches, to daily slaughter, arsons, and rapines; he began to besiege the house, to waylay on the roads, to provoke by force and to terrify. He did not move the man of the highest gravity and the highest constancy; but although grief of mind, innate liberty, and prompt and excellent virtue urged the bravest man to break and refute force by force, especially as it was offered again and again, such was the man’s moderation, such his counsel, that he restrained his pain and did not avenge himself by the same means by which he had been provoked, but would bind that fellow, now exulting and capering amid so many funerals of the commonwealth, with the snares of the laws, if he could.

[89] descendit ad accusandum. quis umquam tam proprie rei publicae causa, nullis inimicitiis, nullis praemiis, nulla hominum postulatione aut etiam opinione id eum umquam esse facturum? fracti erant animi hominis; hoc enim accusante pristini illius sui iudici turpitudinem desperabat.

[89] He descended to prosecute. Who ever, so properly for the cause of the republic, with no enmities, no rewards, with no postulation of men nor even the opinion that he would ever do it? The man’s spirits were broken; for with this man accusing he despaired concerning the turpitude of that former judgment of his.

ecce tibi consul, praetor, tribunus plebis nova novi generis edicta proponunt; 'ne reus adsit, ne citetur, ne quaeratur, ne mentionem omnino cuiquam iudicum aut iudiciorum facere liceat!' quid ageret vir ad virtutem, dignitatem, gloriam natus vi sceleratorum hominum conroborata, legibus iudiciisque sublatis? cervices tribunus plebis privato, praestantissimus vir profligatissimo homini daret? an causam susceptam adfligeret?

Behold, for you, the consul, the praetor, the tribune of the plebs publish new edicts of a new kind: 'let the defendant not be present, let him not be summoned, let him not be sought out, let it be permitted to no one to make any mention at all of judges or of trials!' What should a man born for virtue, dignity, glory do, when the force of criminal men was reinforced and the laws and courts removed? Should the tribune of the plebs offer his neck to a private person—should a most preeminent man give it to a most profligate man? Or should he dash down the cause he had undertaken?

an se domi contineret? et vinci turpe putavit et deterreri (et clam eripi: id egit) ut, quoniam sibi in illum legibus uti non liceret, illius vim neque in suo neque in rei publicae periculo pertimesceret.

Or should he keep himself at home? And he thought it shameful both to be conquered and to be deterred (and to be stealthily snatched away: that he contrived), so that, since it was not permitted him to employ the laws against that man, he would not dread that man’s violence, with peril neither to himself nor to the commonwealth.

[XLII]

[42]

[90] quo modo igitur hoc in genere praesidi comparati accusas Sestium, cum idem laudes Milonem? an qui sua tecta defendit, qui ab aris focis ferrum flammamque depellit, qui sibi licere vult tuto esse in foro, in templo, in curia, iure praesidium comparat: qui vulneribus, quae cernit cotidie toto corpore, monetur ut aliquo praesidio caput et cervices et iugulum ac latera tutetur, hunc de vi accusandum putas? quis enim nostrum,

[90] How, then, do you accuse Sestius in this kind of procured protection, while you at the same time praise Milo? Or does he who defends his own house, who drives off iron and flame from his altars and hearths, who wishes it to be permitted him to be safe in the forum, in the temple, in the curia, lawfully procure a protection: he who, admonished by the wounds which he daily beholds over his whole body, is warned to safeguard with some protection his head and neck and jugular and sides—do you think this man should be accused under the head of violence? For who of us,

[91] iudices, ignorat ita naturam rerum tulisse ut quodam tempore homines nondum neque naturali neque civili iure descripto fusi per agros ac dispersi vagarentur, tantumque haberent quantum manu ac viribus per caedem ac vulnera aut eripere aut retinere potuissent? qui igitur primi virtute et consilio praestanti exstiterunt, ii perspecto genere humanae docilitatis atque ingeni dissupatos unum in locum congregarunt eosque ex feritate illa ad iustitiam atque ad mansuetudinem transduxerunt. tum res ad communem utilitatem, quas publicas appellamus, tum conventicula hominum, quae postea civitates nominatae sunt, tum domicilia coniuncta, quas urbis dicimus, invento et divino iure et humano moenibus saepserunt.

[91] judges, who of us is ignorant that the nature of things has so borne it that at a certain time men, with neither natural nor civil law yet set down, spread over the fields and dispersed, were wandering, and had only so much as by hand and by forces, through slaughter and wounds, they could either snatch away or retain? therefore those who first stood forth preeminent in virtue and counsel, having perceived the kind of human docility and ingenium, gathered the scattered into one place and led them across from that ferocity to justice and to mildness. then the things for the common utility, which we call public, then the assemblies of men, which afterwards were named states, then the joined dwellings, which we call cities, they fenced round with ramparts, with both divine and human law having been discovered.

[92] atque inter hanc vitam perpolitam humanitate et illam immanem nihil tam interest quam ius atque vis. Horum utro uti nolumus, altero est utendum. vim volumus exstingui, ius valeat necesse est, id est iudicia, quibus omne ius continetur; iudicia displicent aut nulla sunt, vis dominetur necesse est.

[92] and between this life polished by humanity and that savage one, nothing so differs as right and force. Of these, if we are unwilling to employ the one, the other must be employed. We want violence to be extinguished; right must prevail, that is, judgments, by which all right is contained; if judgments are displeasing or there are none, force must needs dominate.

hoc vident omnes: Milo et vidit et fecit, ut ius experiretur, vim depelleret. altero uti voluit, ut virtus audaciam vinceret; altero usus necessario est, ne virtus ab audacia vinceretur. eademque ratio fuit Sesti, si minus in accusando—neque enim per omnis fuit idem fieri necesse—at certe in necessitate defendendae salutis suae praesidioque contra vim et manum comparando.

All see this: Milo both saw and did it, that he might test the law and repel force. He wished to use the one, that virtue might conquer audacity; the other he used of necessity, lest virtue be conquered by audacity. And the same rationale was Sestius’s, if less in accusing—for it was not necessary that the same thing be done by all—yet certainly in the necessity of defending his own safety and in providing a safeguard against force and violence.

[XLIII]

[43]

[93] O di immortales! quemnam ostenditis exitum nobis? quam spem rei publicae datis?

[93] O immortal gods! what outcome do you show to us? what hope do you give to the Republic?

quotus quisque invenietur tanta virtute vir qui optimam quamque causam rei publicae amplectatur, qui bonis viris deserviat, qui solidam laudem veramque quaerat? cum sciat duo illa rei publicae paene fata, Gabinium et Pisonem, alterum haurire cotidie ex pacatissimis atque opulentissimis Syriae gazis innumerabile pondus auri, bellum inferre quiescentibus, ut eorum veteres inlibatasque divitias in profundissimum libidinum suarum gurgitem profundat, villam aedificare in oculis omnium tantam tugurium ut iam videatur esse illa villa quam ipse tribunus plebis pictam olim in contionibus explicabat, quo fortissimum ac summum civem in invidiam homo castus ac non cupidus vocaret;

How few will there be found a man of such virtue as to embrace whatever is the best cause of the republic, to devote himself to good men, to seek solid and true praise? when he knows those two almost dooms of the republic, Gabinius and Piso—the former draining daily from the most pacified and most opulent treasuries of Syria an innumerable weight of gold, waging war upon the quiescent, so that he may pour their ancient and inviolate riches into the most bottomless whirlpool of his lusts; building a villa before the eyes of all, so great a “cottage” that now that villa seems to be that very villa which he himself, as tribune of the plebs, once displayed painted in the assemblies, whereby the chaste and not greedy man would call the bravest and highest citizen into envy;

[94] alterum Thracibus ac Dardanis primum pacem maxima pecunia vendidisse, deinde, ut illi pecuniam conficere possent, vexandam iis Macedoniam et spoliandam tradidisse, eundemque bona creditorum, civium Romanorum, cum debitoribus Graecis divisisse, cogere pecunias maximas a Dyrrachinis, spoliare Thessalos, certam Achaeis in annos singulos pecuniam imperavisse neque tamen ullo in publico aut religioso loco signum aut tabulam aut ornamentum reliquisse; illos sic inludere quibus omne supplicium atque omnis iure optimo poena debetur, reos esse hos duos quos videtis. omitto iam Numerium, Serranum, Aelium, quisquilias seditionis Clodianae; sed tamen hi quoque etiam nunc volitant, ut videtis, nec, dum vos de vobis aliquid timebitis, illi umquam de se pertimescent.

[94] the other, to the Thracians and Dardanians, first sold peace for a very great sum of money, then, so that they might be able to raise the money, handed over Macedonia to them to be harassed and despoiled, and the same man divided the goods of the creditors, Roman citizens, with the Greek debtors, compelled the greatest sums from the Dyrrachines, despoiled the Thessalians, imposed upon the Achaeans a fixed money payment in each single year, and yet left in no public or sacred place any statue or painting or ornament; thus do they make sport of those to whom every punishment and every penalty is most justly owed—these two whom you see are the culprits. I pass over now Numerius, Serranus, Aelius, the refuse of the Clodian sedition; yet these too even now flit about, as you see, nor, so long as you fear anything on your own account, will they ever greatly fear for themselves.

[XLIV]

[44]

[95] nam quid ego de aedili ipso loquar, qui etiam diem dixit et accusavit de vi Milonem? neque hic tamen ulla umquam iniuria adducetur ut eum tali virtute tantaque firmitate animi se in rem publicam fuisse paeniteat; sed qui haec vident adulescentes quonam suas mentis conferent? ille qui monumenta publica, qui aedis sacras, qui domos inimicorum suorum oppugnavit excidit incendit, qui stipatus semper sicariis, saeptus armatis, munitus indicibus fuit, quorum hodie copia redundat, qui et peregrinam manum facinerosorum concitavit et servos ad caedem idoneos emit et in tribunatu carcerem totum in forum effudit, volitat aedilis, accusat eum qui aliqua ex parte eius furorem exsultantem repressit: hic qui se est tutatus sic ut in privata re deos penatis suos, in re publica iura tribunatus atque auspicia defenderet, accusare eum moderate a quo ipse nefarie accusatur per senatus auctoritatem non est situs.

[95] for what shall I say of the aedile himself, who even named a day and prosecuted Milo on a charge of violence? nor yet will this man ever by any injustice be induced to repent that with such virtue and so great firmness of mind he has devoted himself to the commonwealth; but the young men who see these things—to what will they direct their minds? that fellow who assailed public monuments, who attacked sacred temples, who besieged, demolished, burned the houses of his enemies; who was always thronged with assassins, hedged about with armed men, furnished with informers—of whom today there is an overflowing abundance; who both stirred up a foreign band of criminals and bought slaves fit for slaughter, and in his tribunate poured the whole prison into the forum—he, as aedile, flits about, he prosecutes the man who in some part checked his exultant frenzy: whereas this man, who defended himself in such a way that in a private matter he was guarding his own household Penates, and in a public matter the rights of the tribunate and the auspices, is not allowed to arraign with moderation him by whom he himself is impiously accused under the authority of the Senate.

[96] nimirum hoc illud est quod de me potissimum tu in accusatione quaesisti, quae esset nostra 'natio optimatium'; sic enim dixisti. rem quaeris praeclaram iuventuti ad discendum nec mihi difficilem ad perdocendum; de qua pauca, iudices, dicam, et, ut arbitror, nec ab utilitate eorum qui audient, nec ab officio vestro, nec ab ipsa causa P. Sesti abhorrebit oratio mea.

[96] Surely this is that point which you, in the prosecution, asked most especially concerning me—what our 'nation of the Optimates' was; for thus you spoke. You inquire into a matter splendid for the youth to learn and not difficult for me to teach thoroughly; about which I shall say a few things, judges, and, as I think, my speech will not be out of keeping either with the advantage of those who will hear, or with your duty, or with the very case of P. Sestius.

[XLV] duo genera semper in hac civitate fuerunt eorum qui versari in re publica atque in ea se excellentius gerere studuerunt; quibus ex generibus alteri se popularis, alteri optimates et haberi et esse voluerunt. qui ea quae faciebant quaeque dicebant multitudini iucunda volebant esse, populares, qui autem ita se gerebant ut sua consilia optimo cuique probarent, optimates habebantur.

[45] two kinds have always existed in this commonwealth of those who were engaged in public affairs and strove to carry themselves more excellently in it; of these kinds the one wanted both to be called and to be the populares, the other the optimates. those who wished the things they did and said to be pleasing to the multitude were populares; but those who so conducted themselves that their counsels were approved by every best man were held to be optimates.

[97] quis ergo iste optimus quisque? numero, si quaeris, innumerabiles, neque enim aliter stare possemus; sunt principes consili publici, sunt qui eorum sectam sequuntur, sunt maximorum ordinum homines, quibus patet curia, sunt municipales rusticique Romani, sunt negoti gerentes, sunt etiam libertini optimates. numerus, ut dixi, huius generis late et varie diffusus est; sed genus universum, ut tollatur error, brevi circumscribi et definiri potest.

[97] Who, then, are these “best men”? In number, if you ask, innumerable—for otherwise we could not stand; there are the principals of the public counsel, there are those who follow their sect, there are men of the highest orders, to whom the curia lies open, there are municipal and rustic Romans, there are those conducting business, there are even freedman optimates. Their number, as I said, is broadly and variously diffused; but the whole kind, that error may be removed, can be briefly circumscribed and defined.

omnes optimates sunt qui neque nocentes sunt nec natura improbi nec furiosi nec malis domesticis impediti. esto igitur ut ii sint, quam tu 'nationem' appellasti, qui et integri sunt et sani et bene de rebus domesticis constituti. Horum qui voluntati, commodis, opinionibus in gubernanda re publica serviunt, defensores optimatium ipsique optimates gravissimi et clarissimi cives numerantur et principes civitatis.

All are Optimates who are neither guilty nor by nature depraved nor frenzied nor hindered by domestic evils. Let those, therefore, be the ones whom you have called a 'nation,' who are both unblemished and sound and well established in their domestic affairs. Those who, in the governing of the republic, serve the will, the interests, the opinions of these men are counted as defenders of the Optimates and as themselves Optimates, most weighty and most illustrious citizens and leading men of the state.

[98] quid est igitur propositum his rei publicae gubernatoribus quod intueri et quo cursum suum derigere debeant? id quod est praestantissimum maximeque optabile omnibus sanis et bonis et beatis, cum dignitate otium. hoc qui volunt, omnes optimates, qui efficiunt, summi viri et conservatores civitatis putantur; neque enim rerum gerendarum dignitate homines ecferri ita convenit ut otio non prospiciant, neque ullum amplexari otium quod abhorreat a dignitate.

[98] What, then, is proposed to these governors of the republic, which they ought to look upon and toward which they ought to direct their course? That which is most outstanding and most to be desired by all who are sane and good and blessed: leisure with dignity. All who want this are optimates; those who bring it about are thought to be the highest men and preservers of the commonwealth; for it is not fitting that men be so carried away by the dignity of conducting affairs that they do not look out for leisure, nor to embrace any leisure which recoils from dignity.

[XLVI] huius autem otiosae dignitatis haec fundamenta sunt, haec membra, quae tuenda principibus et vel capitis periculo defendenda sunt: religiones, auspicia, potestates magistratuum, senatus auctoritas, leges, mos maiorum, iudicia, iuris dictio, fides, provinciae, socii, imperi laus, res militaris, aerarium.

[46] But the foundations of this dignified leisure are these, these the members, which must be maintained by the leading men and defended even at the peril of life: religions, auspices, the powers of the magistrates, the authority of the senate, laws, the ancestral custom, the courts, jurisdiction, good faith, provinces, allies, the renown of the empire, the military art, the treasury.

[99] harum rerum tot atque tantarum esse defensorem et patronum magni animi est, magni ingeni magnaeque constantiae. etenim in tanto civium numero magna multitudo est eorum qui aut propter metum poenae, peccatorum suorum conscii, novos motus conversionesque rei publicae quaerant, aut qui propter insitum quendam animi furorem discordiis civium ac seditione pascantur, aut qui propter implicationem rei familiaris communi incendio malint quam suo deflagrare. qui cum tutores sunt et duces suorum studiorum vitiorumque nacti, in re publica fluctus excitantur, ut vigilandum sit iis qui sibi gubernacula patriae depoposcerunt, enitendumque omni scientia ac diligentia ut, conservatis iis quae ego paulo ante fundamenta ac membra esse dixi, tenere cursum possint et capere oti illum portum et dignitatis.

[99] To be a defender and patron of so many and so great matters is a mark of greatness of spirit, of great ingenium, and of great constancy. For in so great a number of citizens there is a large multitude of those who either, because of fear of punishment, being conscious of their misdeeds, seek new agitations and revolutions of the commonwealth; or who, on account of a certain inbred frenzy of mind, are fed by civic discords and sedition; or who, because of the entanglement of their private estate, prefer to be burned up in a common conflagration rather than in their own. When such men have found protectors and leaders of their pursuits and vices, waves are stirred up in the republic, so that there must be wakefulness on the part of those who have demanded for themselves the helm of the fatherland, and there must be striving with every knowledge and diligence, so that, with those things preserved which I a little before said were the foundations and members, they may be able to hold their course and make port in that haven of leisure and of dignity.

[100] hanc ego viam, iudices, si aut asperam atque arduam aut plenam esse periculorum aut insidiarum negem, mentiar, praesertim cum id non modo intellexerim semper, sed etiam praeter ceteros senserim.

[100] This way, judges, if I were to deny that it is either rough and arduous or full of dangers or of insidious plots, I would be lying, especially since I have not only always understood this, but have also felt it beyond the rest.

[XLVII] maioribus praesidiis et copiis oppugnatur res publica quam defenditur, propterea quod audaces homines et perditi nutu impelluntur et ipsi etiam sponte sua contra rem publicam incitantur, boni nescio quo modo tardiores sunt et principiis rerum neglectis ad extremum ipsa denique necessitate excitantur, ita ut non numquam cunctatione ac tarditate, dum otium volunt etiam sine dignitate retinere, ipsi utrumque amittant.

[47] the commonwealth is besieged by greater garrisons and forces than it is defended, because bold and profligate men are propelled at a mere nod and even, spontaneously, of their own accord, are incited against the commonwealth, while the good are somehow more tardy, and, the beginnings of affairs being neglected, at the end are at last aroused by necessity itself, so that sometimes by procrastination and tardiness, while they wish to retain ease even without dignity, they themselves lose both.

[101] propugnatores autem rei publicae qui esse voluerunt, si leviores sunt, desciscunt, si timidiores, desunt: permanent illi soli atque omnia rei publicae causa perferunt qui sunt tales qualis pater tuus, M. Scaure, fuit, qui a C. Graccho usque ad Q. Varium seditiosis omnibus restitit, quem numquam ulla vis, ullae minae, ulla invidia labefecit; aut qualis Q. Metellus, patruus matris tuae, qui cum florentem hominem in populari ratione, L. Saturninum, censor notasset, cumque insitivum Gracchum contra vim multitudinis incitatae censu prohibuisset, cumque in eam legem quam non iure rogatam iudicarat iurare unus noluisset, de civitate maluit quam de sententia demoveri; aut, ut vetera exempla, quorum est copia digna huius imperi gloria, relinquam, neve eorum aliquem qui vivunt nominem, qualis nuper Q. Catulus fuit, quem neque periculi tempestas neque honoris aura potuit umquam de suo cursu aut spe aut metu demovere.

[101] But those who have wished to be champions of the Republic, if they are rather flighty, defect; if more timid, they fail: those alone stand fast and endure everything for the Republic’s sake who are such as your father, M. Scaurus, was, who from C. Gracchus down to Q. Varius resisted all the seditious, whom no force, no threats, no odium ever shook; or such as Q. Metellus, your mother’s uncle, who, when as censor he had marked a flourishing man on the popular side, L. Saturninus, and when by his censorial power he had forbidden the engrafted Gracchus, against the violence of an incited multitude, and when, as to that law which he had judged to have been asked not according to right, he alone was unwilling to swear, chose to be removed from the state rather than from his judgment; or, that I may leave aside ancient examples, of which there is a supply worthy of the glory of this imperium, and lest I name any of those who are alive, such as lately Q. Catulus was, whom neither the tempest of danger nor the breeze of honor could ever divert from his course either by hope or by fear.

[XLVIII]

[48]

[102] haec imitamini, per deos immortalis, qui dignitatem, qui laudem, qui gloriam quaeritis! haec ampla sunt, haec divina, haec immortalia; haec fama celebrantur, monumentis annalium mandantur, posteritati propagantur.

[102] Imitate these, by the immortal gods, you who seek dignity, who seek laud, who seek glory! these things are ample, these divine, these immortal; these are celebrated by fame, are consigned to the monuments of the annals, are propagated to posterity.

est labor, non nego; pericula magna, fateor;
multae insidiae sunt bonis
verissime dictum est; sed te
id quod multi invideant multique expetant inscitiast,
inquit,
postulare, nisi laborem summa cum cura ecferas.
nollem idem alio loco dixisset, quod exciperent improbi cives,
oderint, dum metuant;
praeclara enim illa praecepta dederat iuventuti.

there is labor, I do not deny; great perils, I confess; many snares lie in wait for good men—most truly has it been said;
but that you
demand that which many envy and many desire is ignorance,
he says,
unless you carry the labor through with the highest care.
I would not that he had said the same in another place, something which wicked citizens would seize upon:
let them hate, so long as they fear;
for he had given those most excellent precepts to the youth.

[103] sed tamen haec via ac ratio rei publicae capessendae olim erat magis pertimescenda, cum multis in rebus multitudinis studium aut populi commodum ab utilitate rei publicae discrepabat. tabellaria lex ab L. Cassio ferebatur: populus libertatem agi putabat suam; dissentiebant principes et in salute optimatium temeritatem multitudinis et tabellae licentiam pertimescebant. agrariam Ti. Gracchus legem ferebat: grata erat populo; fortunae constitui tenuiorum videbantur; nitebantur contra optimates, quod et discordiam excitari videbant et, cum locupletes possessionibus diuturnis moverentur, spoliari rem publicam propugnatoribus arbitrabantur.

[103] But yet this way and method of undertaking the republic was formerly more to be dreaded, since in many matters the zeal of the multitude or the convenience of the people diverged from the utility of the republic. A ballot law was being proposed by L. Cassius: the people thought their own liberty was at stake; the leading men dissented and, with regard to the safety of the Optimates, greatly feared the rashness of the multitude and the license of the ballot. Ti. Gracchus was proposing an agrarian law: it was pleasing to the people; the fortunes of the poorer seemed to be being established; the Optimates struggled against it, because they saw both that discord was being stirred up and that, since the wealthy were being displaced from their long-held possessions, the republic was being despoiled of its defenders.

frumentariam legem C. Gracchus ferebat: iucunda res plebei, victus enim suppeditabatur large sine labore; repugnabant boni, quod et ab industria plebem ad desidiam avocari putabant et aerarium exhauriri videbant.

Gaius Gracchus was proposing a grain law: a pleasant thing to the plebeians, for victuals were being supplied lavishly without labor; the good men were opposing it, because they both thought that the plebeians were being diverted from industry to idleness and saw the treasury being exhausted.

[XLIX]

[49]

[104] multa etiam nostra memoria, quae consulto praetereo, fuerunt in ea contentione ut popularis cupiditas a consilio principum dissideret. nunc iam nihil est quod populus a delectis principibusque dissentiat: nec flagitat rem ullam neque novarum rerum est cupidus et otio suo et dignitate optimi cuiusque et universae rei publicae gloria delectatur. itaque homines seditiosi ac turbulenti, quia nulla iam largitione populum Romanum concitare possunt, quod plebes perfuncta gravissimis seditionibus ac discordiis otium amplexatur, conductas habent contiones, neque id agunt ut ea dicant aut ferant quae illi velint audire qui in contione sunt, sed pretio ac mercede perficiunt ut, quicquid dicant, id illi velle audire videantur.

[104] many things also within our memory, which I deliberately pass over, were in that contention, namely that popular cupidity was at variance with the counsel of the leading men. now there is nothing in which the people dissents from the select and the chiefs: neither does it demand any matter nor is it desirous of revolutionary novelties, and it takes delight in its own leisure, and in the dignity of each of the best men, and in the glory of the entire commonwealth. and so seditious and turbulent men, because now by no largess can they stir up the Roman people, inasmuch as the plebs, having been through the gravest seditions and discords, embraces leisure, have hired assemblies, and they do not aim at this—to say or to carry measures which those who are in the assembly would wish to hear—but by price and pay they bring it about that, whatever they say, those men seem to wish to hear it.

[105] num vos existimatis Gracchos aut Saturninum aut quemquam illorum veterum qui populares habebantur ullum umquam in contione habuisse conductum? nemo habuit; ipsa enim largitio et spes commodi propositi sine mercede ulla multitudinem concitabat. itaque temporibus illis, qui populares erant, offendebant illi quidem apud gravis et honestos homines, sed populi iudiciis atque omni significatione florebant.

[105] Do you suppose that the Gracchi or Saturninus or any of those ancients who were accounted “popular” leaders ever had a hired assembly? No one ever did; for the very largess and the hope of the advantage set forth, without any wage at all, stirred up the multitude. And so, in those times, those who were popular men did indeed give offense among grave and honorable men, but in the judgments of the people and by every signification they flourished.

his in theatro plaudebatur, hi suffragiis quod contenderant consequebantur, horum homines nomen, orationem, vultum, incessum amabant. qui autem adversabantur ei generi, graves et magni homines habebantur; sed valebant in senatu multum, apud bonos viros plurimum, multitudini iucundi non erant; suffragiis offendebatur saepe eorum voluntas; plausum vero etiam si quis eorum aliquando acceperat, ne quid peccasset pertimescebat. ac tamen, si quae res erat maior, idem ille populus horum auctoritate maxime commovebatur.

these men were applauded in the theater, these by suffrages obtained what they had contended for, men loved their name, speech, countenance, bearing. those, however, who opposed that sort were held to be grave and great men; but they were strong in the senate much, with good men most of all; to the multitude they were not agreeable; their will was often thwarted in the suffrages; indeed, even if any one of them had at some time received applause, he grew greatly afraid lest he had committed something amiss. and yet, if there was any matter of greater moment, that same people was especially stirred by the authority of these men.

[L]

[50]

[106] nunc, nisi me fallit, in eo statu civitas est ut, si operas conductorum removeris, omnes idem de re publica sensuri esse videantur. etenim tribus locis significari maxime de (re publica) populi Romani iudicium ac voluntas potest, contione, comitiis, ludorum gladiatorumque consessu. quae contio fuit per hos annos, quae quidem esset non conducta sed vera, in qua populi Romani consensus non perspici posset?

[106] Now, unless I am mistaken, the state is in such a condition that, if you remove the hired gangs of the contractors, all would seem about to feel the same regarding the (commonwealth). For indeed in three places the judgment and will of the Roman people about the (commonwealth) can be most clearly signified: in a contio, at the comitia, in the gathering of the games and of the gladiators. What contio has there been through these years, which was not hired but genuine, in which the consensus of the Roman people could not be perceived?

habitae sunt multae de me a gladiatore sceleratissimo, ad quas nemo adibat incorruptus, nemo integer; nemo illum foedum vultum aspicere, nemo furialem vocem bonus audire poterat. erant illae contiones perditorum hominum necessario turbulentae.

many assemblies about me were held by a most wicked gladiator, to which no one came uncorrupted, no one untainted; no one could look upon that foul face, no good man could hear that furial voice. those gatherings of men in perdition were necessarily turbulent.

[107] habuit de eodem me P. Lentulus consul contionem: concursus est populi Romani factus; omnes ordines, tota in illa contione Italia constitit. egit causam summa cum gravitate copiaque dicendi tanto silentio, tanta adprobatione omnium, nihil ut umquam videretur tam populare ad populi Romani auris accidisse. productus est ab eo Cn. Pompeius, qui se non solum auctorem meae salutis, sed etiam supplicem populo Romano (praebuit). huius oratio ut semper gravis et grata in contionibus fuit, sic contendo numquam neque sententiam eius auctoritate neque eloquentiam iucunditate fuisse maiore.

[107] The consul P. Lentulus held an assembly about that same matter—me: a concourse of the Roman people was made; all orders, all Italy took its stand in that assembly. He pled the cause with the highest gravity and with a copiousness of speaking, with such silence, with such approbation of all, that nothing ever seemed to have fallen upon the ears of the Roman people so popular. By him Cn. Pompeius was brought forward, who presented himself not only as the author of my safety, but even as a suppliant to the Roman people (he proffered himself). His speech—as it was always weighty and welcome in assemblies—so I maintain that never were either the authority of his opinion or the pleasantness of his eloquence greater.

[108] quo silentio sunt auditi de me ceteri principes civitatis! quos idcirco non appello hoc loco ne mea oratio, si minus de aliquo dixero, ingrata, si satis de omnibus, infinita esse videatur. cedo nunc eiusdem illius inimici mei de me eodem ad verum populum in campo Martio contionem!

[108] With what silence the other leading men of the state were listened to concerning me! whom for that reason I do not name in this place, lest my oration, if I have said too little about someone, seem ungrateful; if enough about all, seem infinite. Bring forward now that same enemy of mine’s assembly about me as well, to the true people on the Campus Martius!

quis non modo adprobavit, sed non indignissimum facinus putavit illum non dicam loqui, sed vivere ac spirare? quis fuit qui non eius voce maculari rem publicam, seque si eum audiret scelere adstringi arbitraretur?

Who was there who not only did not approve, but thought it nothing less than the most most unworthy crime that that man—not to say to speak, but to live and breathe? Who was there who did not judge that the Republic was stained by his voice, and that he himself, if he listened to him, would be bound with crime?

[LI]

[51]

[109] venio ad comitia, sive magistratuum placet sive legum. leges videmus saepe ferri multas. omitto eas quae feruntur ita vix ut quini, et ii ex aliena tribu, qui suffragium ferant reperiantur.

[109] I come to the comitia, whether of magistracies or of laws, as you please. We often see many laws being carried. I pass over those which are brought forward so scarcely that five—and they from an alien tribe—are found to cast a vote.

de me, quem tyrannum atque ereptorem libertatis esse dicebat illa ruina rei publicae, dicit se legem tulisse. quis est qui se, cum contra me ferebatur, inisse suffragium confiteatur? Cum autem de me eodem ex senatus consulto comitiis centuriatis ferebatur, quis est qui non profiteatur se adfuisse et suffragium de salute mea tulisse?

As for me, whom that ruin of the republic used to say was a tyrant and a robber of liberty, he says he brought a law concerning me. Who is there who admits that, when a measure was being proposed against me, he entered into the suffrage? But when, concerning me, in accordance with the same senatorial decree, it was being proposed in the centuriate comitia, who is there who does not profess that he was present and cast a vote on my safety?

Vtra igitur causa popularis debet videri: in qua omnes honestates civitatis, omnes aetates, omnes ordines una consentiunt, an in qua furiae concitatae tamquam ad funus rei publicae convolant?

Which cause, then, ought to seem popular: the one in which all the honorable estates of the city, all ages, all orders with one accord consent, or the one in which Furies, stirred up, flock as if to the funeral of the Republic?

[110] an sicubi aderit Gellius, homo et fratre indignus, viro clarissimo atque optimo consule, et ordine equestri, cuius ille ordinis nomen retinet, ornamenta confecit, id erit populare? 'est enim homo iste populo Romano deditus.' nihil vidi magis; qui, cum eius adulescentia in amplissimis honoribus summi viri, L. Philippi vitrici, florere potuisset, usque eo non fuit popularis ut bona solus comesset; deinde ex impuro adulescente et petulante, postea quam rem paternam ab idiotarum divitiis ad philosophorum reculam perduxit, Graeculum se atque otiosum putari voluit, studio litterarum se subito dedidit. nihil sane (Actaei) iuvabant anagnostae, libelli pro vino etiam saepe oppignerabantur; manebat insaturabile abdomen, copiae deficiebant.

[110] Or if anywhere Gellius will be present, a man unworthy even of his brother—a most illustrious man and an excellent consul—and who, with regard to the equestrian order, whose name he retains, has exhausted its ornaments, will that be “popular”? “For this fellow is devoted to the Roman people.” Nothing more, truly; who, though his adolescence could have flourished under the most ample honors of that most eminent man, his stepfather L. Philippus, was so far from being popular that he ate up the estate all by himself; then, from a foul and petulant youth, after he had brought the paternal property down from the wealth of simpletons to the threadbare rag of philosophers, he wanted to be thought a little Greekling and idle, and suddenly surrendered himself to the study of letters. The anagnostae (Actaean) certainly helped nothing; little books were even often pawned for wine; an insatiable abdomen remained, the resources were failing.

itaque semper versabatur in spe rerum novarum, otio et tranquillitate rei publicae consenescebat.

and so he was always busied in the hope of revolution, he was growing old in the leisure and tranquility of the republic.

[LII] ecquae seditio umquam fuit in qua non ille princeps? ecqui seditiosus cui ille non familiaris? ecquae turbulenta contio cuius ille non concitator?

[52] was there ever any sedition in which he was not the ringleader? any seditious man to whom he was not a familiar associate? any turbulent assembly of which he was not the agitator?

cui bene dixit umquam bono? bene dixit? immo quem fortem et bonum civem non petulantissime est insectatus?

to what good man did he ever speak well? spoke well? nay rather, what brave and good citizen has he not most petulantly assailed?

qui, ut credo, non libidinis causa, sed ut plebicola videretur, libertinam duxit uxorem. is de me suffragium tulit,

who, as I believe, not for the sake of libido, but so that he might seem a plebeian-champion, married a freedwoman as his wife. he cast a vote concerning me,

[111] is adfuit, is interfuit epulis et gratulationibus parricidarum; in quo tamen est me ultus, cum illo ore inimicos est meos saviatus. qui quasi mea culpa bona perdiderit, ita ob eam ipsam causam est mihi inimicus, quia nihil habet. Vtrum ego tibi patrimonium eripui, Gelli, an tu comedisti?

[111] he was present, he took part in the banquets and congratulations of the parricides; in which, however, he has taken vengeance on me, when with that mouth he has kissed my enemies. who, as if he had lost his goods by my fault, is for that very reason my enemy, because he has nothing. Was it I who snatched away your patrimony, Gellius, or did you eat it up?

quid? tu meo periculo, gurges ac vorago patrimoni, helluabare, ut, si ego consul rem publicam contra te et gregalis tuos defendissem, in civitate esse me nolles? te nemo tuorum videre vult, omnes aditum, sermonem, congressum tuum fugiunt: te sororis filius Postumius, adulescens gravis, senili iudicio, notavit, cum in magno numero tutorem liberis non instituit.

What? Were you, to my peril, you whirlpool and abyss of patrimony, gorging yourself, so that, if I as consul had defended the republic against you and your cronies, you would not wish me to be in the state? No one of your own wants to see you; all flee your approach, your discourse, your congress: your sister’s son Postumius, a weighty young man, with a senile (old-man’s) judgment, marked you, when, though there was a great number, he did not appoint you as guardian for his children.

sed elatus odio et meo et rei publicae nomine, quorum ille utri sit inimicior nescio, plura dixi quam dicendum fuit in furiosissimum atque egentissimum ganeonem.

but, carried away by hatred and in my own name and in that of the commonwealth—of which of the two he is the more inimical, I do not know—I said more than ought to have been said against a most frenzied and most destitute glutton.

[112] illuc revertor: contra me cum sit actum, capta urbe atque oppressa, Gellium, Firmidium, Titium, eiusdem modi furias illis mercennariis gregibus duces et auctores fuisse, cum ipse lator nihil ab horum turpitudine, audacia, sordibus abhorreret. at cum de dignitate mea ferebatur, nemo sibi nec valetudinis excusationem nec senectutis satis iustam putavit; nemo fuit qui se non rem publicam mecum simul revocare in suas sedis arbitraretur.

[112] I return to that point: when action was taken against me, with the city seized and oppressed, Gellius, Firmidius, Titius—furies of the same sort—were leaders and authors to those mercenary bands, since the proposer himself recoiled not at all from their turpitude, audacity, and filth. But when a measure concerning my dignity was being proposed, no one deemed for himself an excuse either of ill-health or of old age sufficiently just; there was no one who did not consider that he was, together with me, at the same time recalling the commonwealth into its own seats.

[LIII]

[53]

[113] videamus nunc comitia magistratuum. fuit conlegium nuper tribunicium, in quo tres minime, vehementer duo populares existimabantur. ex iis qui populares non habebantur, quibus in illo genere conductarum contionum consistendi potestas non erat, duo a populo Romano praetores video esse factos; et, quantum sermonibus vulgi et suffragiis intellegere potui, prae se populus Romanus ferebat sibi illum in tribunatu Cn. Domiti animum constantem et egregium et Q. Anchari fidem ac fortitudinem, etiam si nihil agere potuissent, tamen voluntate ipsa gratum fuisse.

[113] let us now look at the elections of the magistrates. There was recently a tribunician collegium, in which three were scarcely, but two were strongly, deemed populares. Of those who were not held to be populares—who in that kind of hired assemblies did not have the power of standing forth—I see that two were made praetors by the Roman People; and, so far as I could understand from the talk of the crowd and from the suffrages, the Roman People was openly declaring for itself that, in his tribunate, the mind of Cn. Domitius was steadfast and outstanding, and that the good faith and bravery of Q. Ancharius, even if they had been able to accomplish nothing, nevertheless by their very intention had been welcome.

iam de C. Fannio quae sit existimatio videmus: quod iudicium populi Romani in honoribus eius futurum sit, nemini dubium esse debet. quid?

now as to Gaius Fannius, we see what the estimation is: no one ought to doubt what the judgment of the Roman People will be concerning his honors. What then?

[114] populares illi duo quid egerunt? alter, qui tamen se continuerat, tulerat nihil, senserat tantum de re publica aliud atque homines exspectabant, vir et bonus et innocens et bonis viris semper probatus, quod parum videlicet intellexit in tribunatu quid vero populo probaretur, et quod illum esse populum Romanum qui in contione erat arbitrabatur, non tenuit eum locum in quem, nisi popularis esse voluisset, facillime pervenisset. alter, qui ita se in populari ratione iactarat ut auspicia, legem Aeliam, senatus auctoritatem, consulem, conlegas, bonorum iudicium nihili putaret, aedilitatem petivit cum bonis viris et hominibus primis sed non praestantissimis opibus et gratia: tribum suam non tulit, Palatinam denique, per quam omnes illae pestes vexare rem publicam dicebantur, perdidit, nec quicquam illis comitiis quod boni viri vellent nisi repulsam tulit.

[114] What did those two populares do? The one, who nevertheless had restrained himself, had brought forward nothing; he had only held an opinion about the commonwealth other than men expected—a man both good and innocent and always approved by good men—because, evidently, in his tribunate he too little understood what truly was approved by the people, and because he supposed the Roman People to be that crowd which was in the contio; he did not hold that standing which, unless he had wished to be a popularis, he would most easily have attained. The other, who had so vaunted himself on the popularis line that he reckoned the auspices, the Aelian Law, the authority of the Senate, the consul, his colleagues, the judgment of good men as nothing, sought the aedileship with good men and leading men, but not with the most outstanding in resources and favor: he did not carry his own tribe; the Palatine, finally, through which all those plagues were said to harry the commonwealth, he lost; nor did he bring from that comitia anything which good men would wish, except a repulse.

videtis igitur populum ipsum, ut ita dicam, iam non esse popularem, qui ita vehementer eos qui populares habentur respuat, eos autem qui ei generi adversantur honore dignissimos iudicet.

you see therefore the people themselves, so to speak, now to be no longer “popular,” since they so vehemently reject those who are reckoned “populars,” but judge those who are adversaries to that kind to be most worthy of honor.

[LIV]

[54]

[115] veniamus ad ludos; facit enim, iudices, vester iste in me animorum oculorumque coniectus ut mihi iam licere putem remissiore uti genere dicendi. comitiorum et contionum significationes sunt interdum verae, sunt non numquam vitiatae atque corruptae; theatrales gladiatoriique consessus dicuntur omnino solere levitate non nullorum emptos plausus exilis et raros excitare; ac tamen facile est, cum id fit, quem ad modum et a quibus fiat, et quid integra multitudo faciat videre. quid ego nunc dicam quibus viris aut cui generi civium maxime plaudatur?

[115] Let us come to the games; for, judges, that directed casting of your minds and eyes upon me makes me now think it permitted to use a more relaxed kind of speaking. The significations of the comitia and of assemblies are sometimes true, are sometimes vitiated and corrupted; the theatrical and gladiatorial gatherings are said in general, by the levity of some, to be wont to stir up bought applause, meager and rare; and yet it is easy, when that happens, to see how and by whom it is done, and what the untainted multitude does. What shall I now say about the men to whom, or to what class of citizens, applause is most given?

neminem vestrum fallit. sit hoc sane leve, quod non ita est, quoniam optimo cuique impertitur; sed, si est leve, homini gravi leve est, ei vero qui pendet rebus levissimis, qui rumore et, ut ipsi loquuntur, favore populi tenetur et ducitur, plausum immortalitatem, sibilum mortem videri necesse est.

It escapes none of you. Let this, to be sure, be a light thing, which it is not, since it is imparted to every most excellent man; but, if it is light, it is light to a grave man; yet for the man who hangs on the very lightest matters, who is held and led by rumor and, as they themselves say, by the favor of the people, applause must seem immortality, a hiss death.

[116] ex te igitur, Scaure, potissimum quaero, qui ludos apparatissimos magnificentissimosque fecisti, ecquis istorum popularium tuos ludos aspexerit, ecquis se theatro populoque Romano commiserit. ipse ille maxime ludius, non solum spectator sed actor et acroama, qui omnia sororis embolia novit, qui in coetum mulierum pro psaltria adducitur, nec tuos ludos aspexit in illo ardenti tribunatu suo nec ullos alios nisi eos a quibus vix vivus effugit. semel, inquam, se ludis homo popularis commisit omnino, cum in templo virtutis honos habitus esset virtuti, Gaique Mari, conservatoris huius imperi, monumentum municipi eius et rei publicae defensori sedem ad salutem praebuisset.

[116] therefore from you, Scaurus, most especially I ask, you who put on most well-appointed and most magnificent games, whether any of those populares looked upon your games, whether any committed himself to the theater and to the Roman people. That very man, a player most of all, not only a spectator but an actor and an acroama, who knows all his sister’s embolia, who is brought into a gathering of women as a psaltria, did not look upon your games in that blazing tribunate of his, nor any others except those from which he scarcely escaped alive. Once, I say, the populist fellow committed himself at all to the games, when in the Temple of Virtue honor had been paid to Virtue, and, for Gaius Marius, the conservator of this empire, the monument of his municipium had provided for the defender of the commonwealth a seat for Safety.

[LV]

[55]

[117] quo quidem tempore quid populus Romanus sentire se ostenderet utroque in genere declaratum est: primum cum audito senatus consulto rei ipsi atque absenti senatui plausus est ab universis datus, deinde cum senatoribus singulis spectatum e senatu redeuntibus: cum vero ipse qui ludos faciebat consul adsedit, stantes ei manibus passis gratias agentes et lacrimantes gaudio suam erga me benivolentiam ac misericordiam declararunt. at cum ille furibundus incitata illa sua vaecordi mente venisset, vix se populus Romanus tenuit, vix homines odium suum a corpore eius impuro atque infando represserunt; voces quidem et palmarum intentus et maledictorum clamorem omnes profuderunt.

[117] at which time indeed it was made clear, in both respects, what the Roman People showed that they felt: first, when, the senatorial decree having been heard, applause was given by all both to the very matter itself and to the absent Senate; then, when the senators individually were returning from the Senate to view the show: but when the consul himself, who was putting on the games, sat down, standing with hands outspread, giving thanks to him and weeping for joy, they declared their benevolence and mercy toward me. But when that man, frenzied, had come with that his crazed and crack-brained mind incited, the Roman People scarcely restrained themselves, scarcely did men repress their hatred from his impure and unspeakable body; indeed they all poured forth cries and an outstretching of palms and a clamor of maledictions.

[118] sed quid ego populi Romani animum virtutemque commemoro, libertatem iam ex diuturna servitute dispicientis, in eo homine cui tum petenti iam aedilitatem ne histriones quidem coram sedenti pepercerunt? nam cum ageretur togata 'simulans,' ut opinor, caterva tota clarissima concentione in ore impuri hominis imminens contionata est:
huic, Tite,tua post principia atque exitus vitiosae vitae—!
sedebat exanimatus, et is qui antea cantorum convicio contiones celebrare suas solebat cantorum ipsorum vocibus eiciebatur. et quoniam facta mentio est ludorum, ne illud quidem praetermittam, in magna varietate sententiarum numquam ullum fuisse locum, in quo aliquid a poeta dictum cadere in tempus nostrum videretur, quod aut populum universum fugeret aut non exprimeret ipse actor.

[118] But why do I commemorate the spirit and the virtue of the Roman people, now discerning liberty after long servitude, in the case of that man to whom, when he was already then seeking the aedileship, not even the actors, as he sat in their presence, spared him? For when the togata ‘Simulans’ was being performed, as I suppose, the whole troupe, with a very clear concerted outcry, looming before the foul man’s face, harangued thus:
to this man, Titus, after the beginnings and the endings of your vicious life—!
He sat stunned, and he who formerly was wont to hold his assemblies with the clamor of singers was being driven out by the voices of the singers themselves. And since mention has been made of the games, I will not omit this either: amid the great variety of sentiments there was never any passage in which something said by a poet seemed to fall upon our time that either escaped the notice of the whole people or was not brought out by the actor himself.

[119] et quaeso hoc loco, iudices, ne qua levitate me ductum ad insolitum genus dicendi labi putetis, si de poetis, de histrionibus, de ludis in iudicio loquar.

[119] And I beg at this point, judges, that you not think me, led by any levity, to be slipping into an unusual genus of speaking, if I speak in court about poets, about stage-players, about the games.

[LVI] non sum tam ignarus, iudices, causarum, non tam insolens in dicendo, ut omni ex genere orationem aucuper et omnis undique flosculos carpam atque delibem. scio quid gravitas vestra, quid haec advocatio, quid ille conventus, quid dignitas P. Sesti, quid periculi magnitudo, quid aetas, quid honos meus postulet. sed mihi sumpsi hoc loco doctrinam quandam iuventuti, qui essent optimates.

[56] I am not so ignorant, judges, of causes, nor so insolent in speaking, as to angle for an oration out of every kind and to pluck little blossoms on every side and sip them. I know what your gravity, what this advocatio, what that conventus, what the dignity of P. Sestius, what the magnitude of the peril, what age, what my honor demands. But I have taken upon myself at this point a certain instruction for the youth, as to who the Optimates are.

in ea explicanda demonstrandum est non esse popularis omnis eos qui putentur. id facillime consequar, si universi populi iudicium verum et incorruptum et si intimos sensus civitatis expressero.

in explaining this, it must be demonstrated that not all those who are thought to be popular truly are. I shall most easily attain this if I set forth the true and incorrupt judgment of the entire people and if I express the inmost feelings of the commonwealth.

[120] quid fuit illud quod, recenti nuntio de illo senatus consulto quod factum est in templo virtutis ad ludos scaenamque perlato, consessu maximo summus artifex et me hercule semper partium in re publica tam quam in scaena optimarum, flens et recenti laetitia et mixto dolore ac desiderio mei, egit apud populum Romanum multo gravioribus verbis meam causam quam egomet de me agere potuissem? summi enim poetae ingenium non solum arte sua, sed etiam dolore exprimebat. qua enim (vi):
qui rem publicam certo animo adiuverit,statuerit, steterit cum Achivis—
vobiscum me stetisse dicebat, vestros ordines demonstrabat!

[120] what was that, that, when the fresh report about that senatorial decree which was passed in the Temple of Virtue had been carried to the games and the stage, in a very great gathering the consummate artist—and, by Hercules, always of the best parts in the commonwealth as upon the stage—weeping, with fresh joy and with grief mingled and longing for me, pleaded before the Roman People my cause in far weightier words than I myself could have pleaded about myself? for he was expressing the genius of the greatest poet not only by his art but also by pain. for with what (force):
who shall have aided the commonwealth with a steady mind, shall have taken his stand, shall have stood with the Achaeans—
he was saying that I had stood with you; he was pointing out your orders!

revocabatur ab universis—
re dubiahaut dubitarit vitam offerre nec capiti pepercerit.
haec quantis ab illo clamoribus agebantur!

he was being recalled by all—
in a doubtful affair he did not at all hesitate to offer his life and did not spare his head.
with what great clamors were these things being acted by that man!

[121] Cum iam omisso gestu verbis poetae et studio actoris et exspectationi nostrae plauderetur:
summum amicum summo in bello—
nam illud ipse actor adiungebat amico animo et fortasse homines propter aliquod desiderium adprobabant:
summo ingenio praeditum.

[121] When now, with gesture laid aside, there was applause for the poet’s words and the actor’s zeal and our expectation:
the highest friend in the highest war—
for the actor himself was adding that with a friendly spirit, and perhaps men were approving it on account of some longing:
endowed with the highest genius.

[LVII] iam illa quanto cum gemitu populi Romani ab eodem paulo post in eadem fabula sunt acta!
O pater—
me, me ille absentem ut patrem deplorandum putabat, quem Q. Catulus, quem multi alii saepe in senatu patrem patriae nominarant. quanto cum fletu de illis nostris incendiis ac ruinis, cum patrem pulsum, patriam adflictam deploraret, domum incensam eversamque, sic egit ut, demonstrata pristina fortuna, cum se convertisset,
haec omnia vidi inflammari
fletum etiam inimicis atque invidis excitaret!

[57] now how much with the groan of the Roman people were those scenes acted by that same man a little after in the same play!
O father—
me, me, he thought, though I was absent, ought to be lamented as a father, I whom Q. Catulus, whom many others had often in the senate named father of the fatherland. with what weeping over those our fires and ruins, as he bewailed the father driven out, the fatherland afflicted, the home burned and overthrown, thus did he act that, after his former fortune was displayed, when he had turned,
I saw all these things set ablaze
he stirred tears even in enemies and the envious!

[122] pro di immortales! quid? illa quem ad modum dixit idem!

[122] O immortal gods! What? How that same man spoke those lines!

quae mihi quidem ita et acta et scripta videntur esse ut vel a Q. Catulo, si revixisset, praeclare posse dici viderentur; is enim libere reprehendere et accusare populi non numquam temeritatem solebat aut errorem senatus:
O ingratifici Argivi, immunes Graii, immemores benefici!
non erat illud quidem verum; non enim ingrati, sed miseri, quibus reddere salutem a quo acceperant non liceret, nec unus in quemquam umquam gratior quam in me universi; sed tamen illud scripsit disertissimus poeta pro me, egit fortissimus actor, non solum optimus, de me, cum omnis ordines demonstraret, senatum, equites Romanos, universum populum Romanum accusaret:
Exsulare sinitis, sistis pelli, pulsum patimini!
quae tum significatio fuerit omnium, quae declaratio voluntatis ab universo populo Romano in causa hominis non popularis, equidem audiebam: existimare facilius possunt qui adfuerunt.

which indeed seem to me both to have been acted and written in such a way that they would seem able to be said splendidly even by Q. Catulus, if he had come back to life; for he was accustomed freely to reprehend and accuse at times the temerity of the people or the error of the senate:
O ungrateful Argives, exempt Greeks, unmindful of a benefaction!
that, indeed, was not true; for they were not ingrates, but wretched, to whom it was not permitted to return the safety which they had received from the one who gave it, nor was any one man ever more grateful to anyone than all of them to me; but nevertheless that line the most eloquent poet wrote on my behalf, the bravest actor—indeed the best—performed it about me, when he was pointing out all the orders and accusing the senate, the Roman equites, the entire Roman people:
You allow him to be exiled, you set him forth to be driven out, you suffer him expelled!
what then was the indication of all, what the declaration of will from the whole Roman people in the cause of a man not popular, I for my part kept hearing; those who were present can more easily judge.

[LVIII]

[58]

[123] et quoniam huc me provexit oratio, histrio casum meum totiens conlacrimavit, cum ita dolenter ageret causam meam ut vox eius illa praeclara lacrimis impediretur; neque poetae, quorum ego semper ingenia dilexi, tempori meo defuerunt; eaque populus Romanus non solum plausu sed etiam gemitu suo comprobavit. Vtrum igitur haec Aesopum potius pro me aut Accium dicere oportuit, si populus Romanus liber esset, an principes civitatis? nominatim sum appellatus in Bruto:
tullius, qui libertatem civibus stabiliverat.

[123] And since my speech has carried me hither, the actor so often wept over my misfortune, as he pleaded my cause so dolorously that that renowned voice of his was hindered by tears; nor did the poets—whose talents I have always cherished—fail my need; and the Roman people ratified these things not only with applause but even with their own groan. Therefore, ought Aesopus or Accius rather to have said these things on my behalf, if the Roman people were free, or the chiefs of the state? I was named explicitly in the Brutus:
tullius, who had stabilized liberty for the citizens.

miliens revocatum est. Parumne videbatur populus Romanus iudicare id a me et a senatu esse constitutum quod perditi cives sublatum per nos criminabantur?

It was recalled a thousand times. Did it not seem enough that the Roman people judged that that had been constituted by me and by the senate which profligate citizens were indicting as removed by us?

[124] maximum vero populi Romani iudicium universi consessu gladiatorio declaratum est; erat enim munus Scipionis, dignum et eo ipso et illo Metello cui dabatur. id autem spectaculi genus erat quod omni frequentia atque omni genere hominum celebratur, quo multitudo maxime delectatur. in hunc consessum P. Sestius tribunus plebis, cum ageret nihil aliud in eo magistratu nisi meam causam, venit et se populo dedit non plausus cupiditate, sed ut ipsi inimici nostri voluntatem universi populi viderent: venit, ut scitis, a columna Maenia: tantus est ex omnibus spectaculis usque a Capitolio, tantus ex fori cancellis plausus excitatus, ut numquam maior consensio aut apertior populi Romani universi fuisse ulla in causa diceretur.

[124] But the greatest judgment of the Roman People was declared by the universal gladiatorial assembly; for it was Scipio’s munus, worthy both of himself and of that Metellus to whom it was being given. Now that kind of spectacle was one celebrated with every throng and every class of men, by which the multitude is most delighted. Into this assembly Publius Sestius, tribune of the plebs, when in that magistracy he did nothing other than conduct my cause, came and offered himself to the people, not from a craving for applause, but so that even our enemies might see the will of the entire people: he came, as you know, from the Maenian Column; so great an applause was stirred up from all the viewing-stands all the way from the Capitol, so great from the railings of the Forum, that it could be said that never was there a greater or more open consensus of the whole Roman People in any cause.

[125] Vbi erant tum illi contionum moderatores, legum domini, civium expulsores? Aliusne est aliquis improbis civibus peculiaris populus, cui nos offensi invisique fuerimus?

[125] Where then were those moderators of the assemblies, lords of the laws, expellers of citizens? Is there some other populace, peculiar to wicked citizens, to whom we have been offensive and odious?

[LIX] equidem existimo nullum tempus esse frequentioris populi quam illud gladiatorium, neque contionis ullius neque vero ullorum comitiorum. haec igitur innumerabilis hominum multitudo, haec populi Romani tanta significatio sine ulla varietate universi, cum illis ipsis diebus de me actum iri putaretur, quid declaravit nisi optimorum civium salutem et dignitatem populo Romano caram esse universo?

[59] I for my part think there is no time more crowded with the populace than that gladiatorial one, neither at any public assembly nor indeed at any elections. Therefore this innumerable multitude of men, this so great a signification of the Roman people, unanimous as a whole and without any variance, when in those very days it was supposed that action would be taken concerning me, what did it declare except that the safety and dignity of the best citizens are dear to the Roman people in its entirety?

[126] at vero ille praetor, qui de me non patris, avi, proavi, maiorum denique suorum omnium, sed Graeculorum instituto contionem interrogare solebat, 'velletne me redire,' et, cum erat reclamatum semivivis mercennariorum vocibus, populum Romanum negare dicebat, is, cum cotidie gladiatores spectaret, numquam est conspectus cum veniret. emergebat subito, cum sub tabulas subrepserat, ut
mater, te appello
dicturus videretur; itaque illa via latebrosior, qua spectatum ille veniebat, Appia iam vocabatur; qui tamen quoquo tempore conspectus erat, non modo gladiatores sed equi ipsi gladiatorum repentinis sibilis extimescebant.

[126] But indeed that praetor, who, concerning me, was accustomed to ask the assembly not by the practice of his father, grandfather, great‑grandfather—finally of all his ancestors—but by the usage of the Greeklings, “whether it wished me to return,” and, when there was a shouting down with the half‑alive voices of hirelings, used to say that the Roman people refused—he, although he watched the gladiators every day, was never seen when he came. He would pop up suddenly, after he had crept under the benches, so that he seemed about to say,
mater, te appello
and so that more skulking path by which he would come to see the show was now called the Appian Way; yet whenever he was seen, not only the gladiators but the very horses of the gladiators were terrified by sudden hissings.

[127] videtisne igitur quantum (intersit) inter populum Romanum et contionem? dominos contionum omni odio populi notari, quibus autem consistere in operarum contionibus non liceat, eos omni populi Romani significatione decorari?
tu mihi etiam M. Atilium Regulum commemoras, qui redire ipse Carthaginem sua voluntate ad supplicium quam sine iis captivis a quibus ad senatum missus erat Romae manere maluerit, et mihi negas optandum reditum fuisse per familias comparatas et homines armatos?

[127] Do you see then how great the difference (it is) between the Roman People and a mass-assembly? that the masters of assemblies are marked by every hatred of the people, but those to whom it is not permitted to take their stand in the assemblies of hireling work-gangs are adorned by every signification of the Roman People?
You even bring up to me M. Atilius Regulus, who preferred to return of his own will to Carthage to punishment rather than to remain at Rome without those captives by whom he had been sent to the senate, and you deny to me that a return was to be desired through marshaled familiae and armed men?

[LX] vim scilicet ego desideravi, qui, dum vis fuit, nihil egi, et quem, si vis non fuisset, nulla res labefactare potuisset.

[60] Violence, of course, I desired—I, who, while violence existed, did nothing; and I, whom, if violence had not existed, no thing could have shaken.

[128] hunc ego reditum repudiarem, qui ita florens fuit ut verear ne quis me studio gloriae putet idcirco exisse ut ita redirem? quem enim umquam senatus civem nisi me nationibus exteris commendavit? cuius umquam propter salutem nisi meam senatus publice sociis populi Romani gratias egit?

[128] Should I repudiate this return, which was so flourishing that I fear lest someone think that I, from zeal for glory, went out for that very reason, so that I might return thus? For what citizen has the senate ever commended to foreign nations except me? For whose safety, except mine, has the senate ever publicly given thanks to the allies of the Roman people?

de me uno patres conscripti decreverunt ut, qui provincias cum imperio obtinerent, qui quaestores legatique essent, salutem et vitam custodirent: in una mea causa post Romam conditam factum est ut litteris consularibus ex senatus consulto cuncta ex Italia omnes qui rem publicam salvam vellent convocarentur. quod numquam senatus in universae rei publicae periculo decrevit, id in unius mea salute conservanda decernendum putavit. quem curia magis requisivit, quem forum luxit?

Concerning me alone the enrolled Fathers decreed that those who held provinces with imperium, those who were quaestors and legates, should guard my safety and life: in my single case, after Rome was founded, it came to pass that by consular letters, from a senatorial decree, from all Italy all who wished the commonwealth to be safe were convened. That which the Senate never decreed in the peril of the entire commonwealth, this it judged should be decreed for preserving the safety of one—my own. Whom did the Curia seek more, whom did the Forum lament?

quem aeque ipsa tribunalia desideraverunt? omnia discessu meo deserta, horrida, muta, plena luctus et maeroris fuerunt. quis est Italiae locus in quo non fixum sit in publicis monumentis studium salutis meae, testimonium dignitatis?

Whom did the tribunals themselves miss as much? All things, by my departure, were deserted, horrid, mute, full of grief and mourning. What place of Italy is there in which there is not fixed upon public monuments the zeal for my safety, a testimony of dignity?

[LXI]

[61]

[129] nam quid ego illa de me divina senatus consulta commemorem? vel quod in templo Iovis optimi maximi factum est, cum vir is qui tripertitas orbis terrarum oras atque regiones tribus triumphis adiunctas huic imperio notavit, de scripto sententia dicta, mihi uni testimonium patriae conservatae dedit; cuius sententiam ita frequentissimus senatus secutus est ut unus dissentiret hostis, idque ipsum tabulis publicis mandaretur ad memoriam posteri temporis sempiternam: vel quod est postridie decretum in curia populi ipsius Romani, et eorum qui ex municipiis convenerant admonitu, ne quis de caelo servaret, ne quis moram ullam adferret; si quis aliter fecisset, eum plane eversorem rei publicae fore idque senatum gravissime laturum, et ut statim de eius facto referretur. qua gravitate sua cum frequens senatus non nullorum scelus audaciamque tardasset, tamen illud addidit, ut, si diebus quinque quibus agi de me potuisset non esset actum, redirem in patriam dignitate omni reciperata.

[129] for why should I commemorate those divine senatorial decrees about me? either that which was done in the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, when the man who by three triumphs marked as joined to this imperium the three-part shores and regions of the orb of lands, delivered his opinion from a written text and gave to me alone a testimony that the fatherland had been preserved; and a most numerous senate followed his opinion in such a way that one dissenter—an enemy—was found, and this very thing was committed to the public tablets for the everlasting memory of after time: or that which on the next day was decreed in the Curia by the Roman people themselves, and at the admonition of those who had gathered from the municipalities, that no one should observe the sky (take auspices), that no one should bring any delay; if anyone should do otherwise, he would plainly be an overthrower of the commonwealth, and that the senate would take it most gravely, and that report should at once be made concerning his act. By this its own gravity, although a full senate had slowed the crime and audacity of some, nevertheless it added this, that, if within five days during which it could have been possible to take action concerning me action had not been taken, I should return into my fatherland with all dignity recovered.

[LXII] decrevit eodem tempore senatus ut iis qui ex tota Italia salutis meae causa convenerant agerentur gratiae, atque ut idem ad res redeuntes ut venirent rogarentur.

[62] at the same time the senate decreed that thanks should be given to those who had assembled from all Italy for the sake of my safety, and that those same men, as they returned to their affairs, should be asked to come.

[130] haec erat studiorum in mea salute contentio ut ii qui a senatu de me rogabantur eidem senatui pro me supplicarent. atque ita in his rebus unus est solus inventus qui ab hac tam impensa voluntate bonorum palam dissideret, ut etiam Q. Metellus consul, qui mihi vel maxime ex magnis contentionibus rei publicae fuisset inimicus, de mea salute rettulerit: qui excitatus cum summa auctoritate P. Servili (tum incredibili) quadam gravitate dicendi, cum ille omnis prope ab inferis evocasset Metellos et ad illius generis, quod sibi cum eo commune esset, dignitatem propinqui sui mentem a Clodianis latrociniis reflexisset, cumque eum ad domestici exempli memoriam et ad Numidici illius Metelli casum vel gloriosum vel gravem convertisset, conlacrimavit vir egregius ac vere Metellus totumque se P. Servilio dicenti etiam tum tradidit, nec illam divinam gravitatem plenam antiquitatis diutius homo eiusdem sanguinis potuit sustinere et mecum absens beneficio suo rediit in gratiam.

[130] such was the contention of zeal for my safety that those who were being asked by the senate about me were themselves supplicating that same senate on my behalf. And thus in these matters there was found one single man who openly dissented from this so lavish goodwill of the good men, to such a degree that even Q. Metellus, consul, who from the great contests of the commonwealth had been perhaps most of all an enemy to me, brought a motion concerning my safety: who, roused by the very high authority of P. Servilius—then with an incredible, certain gravity of speaking—when he had almost evoked all the Metelli from the underworld and had bent back his mind from the Clodian brigandages to the dignity of that family, which he had in common with him as a kinsman, and when he had turned him to the memory of a domestic example and to the case of that Metellus called “Numidicus,” whether glorious or grievous, the distinguished man and truly a Metellus burst into tears, and he even then wholly yielded himself to P. Servilius as he spoke, nor could a man of the same blood any longer withstand that divine gravity full of antiquity, and, though absent, by his good office he returned into favor with me.

[131] quod certe, si est aliqui sensus in morte praeclarorum virorum, cum omnibus Metellis tum vero uni viro fortissimo et praestantissimo civi gratissimum, fratri suo, fecit, socio laborum, periculorum, consiliorum meorum.

[131] which assuredly, if there is any perception in death for illustrious men, was most gratifying to all the Metelli, but indeed to one man in particular, a most brave man and most preeminent citizen—his brother, a partner of my labors, perils, and counsels.

[LXIII] reditus vero meus qui fuerit quis ignorat? quem ad modum mihi advenienti tamquam totius Italiae atque ipsius patriae dextram porrexerint Brundisini, cum ipsis Nonis Sextilibus idem dies adventus mei fuisset reditusque natalis, idem carissimae filiae, quam ex gravissimo tum primum desiderio luctuque conspexi, idem etiam ipsius coloniae Brundisinae, idem salutis, cumque me domus eadem optimorum et doctissimorum virorum, (M.) Laeni Flacci et patris et fratris eius, laetissima accepisset, quae proximo anno maerens receperat et suo praesidio periculoque defenderat. cunctae itinere toto urbes Italiae festos dies agere adventus mei videbantur, viae multitudine legatorum undique missorum celebrabantur, ad urbem accessus incredibili hominum multitudine et gratulatione florebat, iter a porta, in Capitolium adscensus, domum reditus erat eius modi ut summa in laetitia illud dolerem, civitatem tam gratam tam miseram atque oppressam fuisse.

[63] And as for what my return was, who is ignorant? how, upon my arriving, the Brundisians, as though they were the right hand of all Italy and of my very fatherland itself, extended their right hand to me, since on the very Nones of Sextilis (August) the same day was both my arrival and the natal day of my return, the same of my dearest daughter, whom I then first beheld after most grievous longing and lamentation, the same also of the colony of Brundisium itself, the same of safety; and when that same house of most excellent and most learned men, (M.) Laenius Flaccus and both his father and his brother, received me most joyfully, which the previous year had received me in mourning and had defended me by its own protection and peril. All the cities of Italy along the whole route seemed to be keeping festival days for my arrival, the roads were thronged by the multitude of embassies sent from every side, the approach to the city blossomed with an incredible multitude of people and with congratulation, the journey from the gate, the ascent to the Capitol, the return home were of such a kind that, amid the highest rejoicing, I grieved at this: that a state so grateful had been so wretched and oppressed.

[132] habes igitur quod ex me quaesisti, qui essent optimates. non est 'natio,' ut dixisti; quod ego verbum agnovi; est enim illius a quo uno maxime P. Sestius se oppugnari videt, hominis eius qui hanc 'nationem' deleri et concidi cupivit, qui C. Caesarem, mitem hominem et a caede abhorrentem, saepe increpuit, saepe accusavit, cum adfirmaret illum numquam, dum haec natio viveret, sine cura futurum. nihil profecit de universis: de me agere non destitit; me oppugnavit, primum per indicem Vettium, quem in contione de me et de clarissimis viris interrogavit,—in quo tamen eos civis coniunxit eodem periculo et crimine, ut a me inierit gratiam quod me cum amplissimis et fortissimis viris congregavit.

[132] you have therefore what you asked of me, who the optimates were. It is not a 'nation,' as you said; which word I recognized; for it belongs to that man by whom alone P. Sestius sees himself most assailed, that man who desired this 'nation' to be wiped out and cut to pieces, who often rebuked Gaius Caesar, a mild man and abhorrent from slaughter, and often accused him, asserting that he would never, so long as this nation lived, be without care. He accomplished nothing against them all in general; as for me, he did not cease to proceed; he attacked me, first through the informer Vettius, whom he questioned in a public assembly about me and about most illustrious men,—in which, however, he linked those citizens with me in the same danger and charge, so that he entered into favor with me because he grouped me with the most distinguished and bravest men.

sed postea mihi nullo meo merito,

but afterwards, to me, with no merit of my own,

[LXIV]

[64]

[133] nisi quod bonis placere cupiebam, omnis est insidias sceleratissime machinatus. ille ad eos a quibus audiebatur cotidie aliquid de (me) ficti adferebat; ille hominem mihi amicissimum, Cn. Pompeium, monebat ut meam domum metueret atque a me ipso caveret; ille se sic cum inimico meo copularat ut illum meae proscriptionis, quam adiuvabat, Sex. Clodius, homo iis dignissimus quibuscum vivit, tabulam esse, se scriptorem esse diceret; ille unus ordinis nostri discessu meo, luctu vestro palam exsultavit.

[133] except that I was eager to please the good, he most wickedly contrived every kind of ambush. he kept bringing to those by whom he was being listened to every day some fabrication about (me); he kept warning a man most friendly to me, Cn. Pompeius, to fear my house and to beware of me myself; he had so coupled himself with my enemy that Sext. Clodius— a man most worthy of those with whom he lives—would say that that man was the tablet of my proscription, which he was aiding, and that he himself was the writer; he alone, of our order, at my departure and your mourning, openly exulted.

de quo ego, cum cotidie rueret, verbum feci, iudices, numquam; neque putavi, cum omnibus machinis ac tormentis, vi, exercitu, copiis oppugnarer, de uno sagittario me queri convenire. Acta mea sibi ait displicere. quis nescit?

about whom I, though he was crashing down every day, judges, never said a word; nor did I think, when I was being besieged with all machines and engines, by force, by an army, by troops, that it was fitting for me to complain about one archer. he says my acts displease him. who does not know?

qui legem meam contemnat, quae dilucide vetat gladiatores biennio quo quis petierit aut petiturus sit dare.

who contemns my law, which clearly forbids to give gladiators within the two-year period in which someone has sought office or is going to seek it.

[134] in quo eius temeritatem satis mirari, iudices, non queo. facit apertissime contra legem; facit is qui neque elabi ex iudicio iucunditate sua neque emitti gratia potest, neque opibus et potentia leges ac iudicia perfringere. quae res hominem impellit ut sit tam intemperans iste nimia gloriae cupiditate?

[134] in this I cannot sufficiently marvel at his temerity, judges. He acts most openly against the law; and it is a man doing so who can neither slip out of the trial by his own charm nor be released by favor, nor override the laws and the courts with wealth and power. What is it that impels the man—that fellow—to be so intemperate, by an excessive cupidity for glory?

familiam gladiatoriam, credo, nactus est speciosam, nobilem, gloriosam; norat studia populi, videbat clamores et concursus futuros. hac exspectatione elatus homo flagrans cupiditate gloriae tenere se non potuit quin eos gladiatores induceret, quorum esset ipse pulcherrimus. si ob (eam) causam peccaret, pro recenti populi Romani in se beneficio populari studio elatus, tamen ignosceret nemo: cum vero ne de venalibus quidem homines electos, sed ex ergastulis emptos nominibus gladiatoriis ornarit, et sortito alios Samnitis alios provocatores fecerit, tanta licentia, tanta legum contemptio nonne quem habitura sit exitum pertimescit?

a gladiatorial family, I suppose, he has gotten hold of—splendid, noble, glorious; he knew the enthusiasms of the people, he saw the shouts and the gatherings that would ensue. Uplifted by this expectation, a man blazing with a lust for glory could not hold himself back from bringing in those gladiators, among whom he himself would be the most handsome. If for that (cause) he were to sin, carried away by popular zeal in return for the recent kindness of the Roman people toward him, still no one would pardon him; but since he has not even chosen men from among those for sale, but has bought them from slave-prisons and decked them out with gladiatorial names, and by lot has made some Samnites, others Provocatores, does he not dread what outcome such license, such contempt of the laws, is going to have?

[135] sed habet defensiones duas: primum 'do,' inquit, 'bestiarios: lex scripta de gladiatoribus.' Festive! accipite aliquid etiam acutius. dicet se non gladiatores, sed unum gladiatorem dare et totam aedilitatem in munus hoc transtulisse.

[135] But he has two defenses: first, “I give,” he says, “beast-fighters; the law was written about gladiators.” Witty! Take something even keener as well. He will say that he is not giving gladiators, but one gladiator, and that he has transferred the whole aedileship into this one munus.

praeclara aedilitas! unus leo, ducenti bestiarii. verum utatur hac defensione: cupio eum suae causae confidere; solet enim tribunos plebis appellare et vi iudicium disturbare, cum diffidit.

A splendid aedileship! One lion, two hundred bestiarii. But let him use this defense: I desire him to trust in his own cause; for he is accustomed to appeal to the tribunes of the plebs and to disturb the judgment by force when he loses confidence.

quem non tam admiror, quod meam legem contemnit hominis inimici, quam quod sic statuit, omnino consularem legem nullam putare. Caeciliam Didiam, Liciniam Iuniam contempsit. etiamne eius quem sua lege et suo beneficio ornatum, munitum, armatum solet gloriari, C. Caesaris, legem de pecuniis repetundis non putat esse legem?

I do not so much marvel at him for contemning my law, as that of a personal enemy, as that he thus lays it down—to think that there is absolutely no consular law at all. He has contemned the Caecilian-Didian, the Licinian-Junian. Does he even not deem to be a law the law of Gaius Caesar on monies to be reclaimed (extortion)—of that man whom he is wont to boast he has adorned, fortified, armed by his own law and his own beneficium?

et aiunt alios esse qui acta Caesaris rescindant, cum haec optima lex et ab illo socero eius et ab hoc adsecula neglegatur!

and they say there are others who would rescind Caesar’s acts, when this best law is neglected both by that man, his father-in-law, and by this adsequacious henchman!

[LXV] et cohortari ausus est accusator in hac causa vos, iudices, ut aliquando essetis severi, aliquando medicinam adhiberetis rei publicae. non ea est medicina, cum sanae parti corporis scalpellum adhibetur atque integrae, carnificina est ista et crudelitas: ei medentur rei publicae qui exsecant pestem aliquam tamquam strumam civitatis.

[65] and the accuser even dared to exhort you, judges, in this case, to be at one time severe, at another to apply medicine to the republic. That is not medicine, when a scalpel is applied to a healthy and intact part of the body; that is but butchery and cruelty: they heal the republic who excise some pest as though a wen of the state.

[136] sed ut extremum habeat aliquid oratio mea, et ut ego ante dicendi finem faciam quam vos me tam attente audiendi, concludam illud de optimatibus eorumque principibus ac rei publicae defensoribus, vosque, adulescentes, et qui nobiles estis, ad maiorum vestrorum imitationem excitabo, et qui ingenio ac virtute nobilitatem potestis consequi, ad eam rationem in qua multi homines novi et honore et gloria floruerunt cohortabor.

[136] but so that my oration may have some conclusion, and so that I may make an end of speaking before you do of listening to me so attentively, I will conclude that point about the Optimates and their chiefs and the defenders of the commonwealth, and I will rouse you, young men—both you who are noble to an imitation of your ancestors, and you who by talent and virtue can attain nobility—to that course in which many “new men” have flourished both in honor and in glory.

[137] haec est una via, mihi credite, et laudis et dignitatis et honoris, a bonis viris sapientibus et bene natura constitutis laudari et diligi; nosse discriptionem civitatis a maioribus nostris sapientissime constitutam; qui cum regum potestatem non tulissent, ita magistratus annuos creaverunt ut consilium senatus rei publicae praeponerent sempiternum, deligerentur autem in id consilium ab universo populo aditusque in illum summum ordinem omnium civium industriae ac virtuti pateret. senatum rei publicae custodem, praesidem, propugnatorem conlocaverunt; huius ordinis auctoritate uti magistratus et quasi ministros gravissimi consili esse voluerunt; senatum autem ipsum proximorum ordinum splendorem confirmare, plebis libertatem et commoda tueri atque augere voluerunt.

[137] this is the one way, believe me, both of praise and of dignity and of honor: to be praised and loved by good men, wise and well-constituted by nature; to know the ordering of the state most wisely established by our ancestors; who, since they would not endure the power of kings, so created annual magistracies that they set the council of the Senate over the commonwealth as perpetual; and that into that council men should be chosen by the whole people, and that access into that highest order should lie open to the industry and the virtue of all citizens. They placed the Senate as guardian, president, and champion of the commonwealth; they wished that the magistrates employ the authority of this order, and be, as it were, ministers of the most weighty counsel; and that the Senate itself confirm the splendor of the orders next in rank, and protect and increase the liberty and the advantages of the plebs.

[LXVI]

[66]

[138] haec qui pro virili parte defendunt optimates sunt, cuiuscumque sunt ordinis; qui autem praecipue suis cervicibus tanta munia atque rem publicam sustinent, hi semper habiti sunt optimatium principes, auctores et conservatores civitatis. huic hominum generi fateor, ut ante dixi, multos adversarios, inimicos, invidos esse, multa proponi pericula, multas inferri iniurias, magnos esse experiundos et subeundos labores; sed mihi omnis oratio est cum virtute non cum desidia, cum dignitate non cum voluptate, cum iis qui se patriae, qui suis civibus, qui laudi, qui gloriae, non qui somno et conviviis et delectationi natos arbitrantur. nam si qui voluptatibus ducuntur et se vitiorum inlecebris et cupiditatium lenociniis dediderunt, missos faciant honores, ne attingant rem publicam, patiantur virorum fortium labore se otio suo perfrui. qui autem bonam famam bonorum,

[138] those who defend these things to the best of their manly power are the Optimates, of whatever order they are; but those who especially sustain such duties and the commonwealth upon their own necks have always been held the chiefs of the Optimates, the authors and conservators of the state. To this kind of men, I confess, as I said before, there are many adversaries, enemies, enviers; many dangers are proposed to them, many injuries inflicted, great labors to be tested and undergone; but my whole discourse is with Virtue, not with sloth, with Dignity, not with pleasure, with those who think themselves born for their fatherland, for their fellow citizens, for praise, for glory, not for sleep and banquets and delectation. For if any are led by pleasures and have surrendered themselves to the enticements of vices and the panderings of desires, let them dismiss honors, let them not touch the commonwealth; let them allow themselves to enjoy their own leisure by the labor of brave men. But those who the good repute of the good,

[139] quae sola vere gloria nominari potest, expetunt, aliis otium quaerere debent et voluptates, non sibi. sudandum est iis pro communibus commodis, adeundae inimicitiae, subeundae saepe pro re publica tempestates: cum multis audacibus, improbis, non numquam etiam potentibus dimicandum. haec audivimus de clarissimorum virorum consiliis et factis, haec accepimus, haec legimus.

[139] those who seek after good repute among the good—which alone can truly be named glory—ought to seek leisure and pleasures for others, not for themselves. They must sweat for the common good, enmities must be incurred, storms must often be undergone for the commonwealth: it must be fought with many audacious, wicked, and sometimes even powerful men. These things we have heard about the counsels and deeds of the most illustrious men, these we have received, these we have read.

neque eos in laude positos videmus qui incitarunt aliquando populi animos ad seditionem, aut qui largitione caecarunt mentis imperitorum, aut qui fortis et claros viros et bene de re publica meritos in invidiam aliquam vocaverunt. levis hos semper nostri homines et audacis et malos et perniciosos civis putaverunt. at vero qui horum impetus et conatus represserunt, qui auctoritate, qui fide, qui constantia, qui magnitudine animi consiliis audacium restiterunt, hi graves, hi principes, hi duces, hi auctores huius dignitatis atque imperi semper habiti sunt.

nor do we see those set in praise who at some time have incited the minds of the people to sedition, or who by largess have blinded the minds of the inexperienced, or who have called brave and renowned men, men who have deserved well of the commonwealth, into some envy/odium. Our people have always thought these men frivolous, and audacious, and bad, and pernicious citizens. But truly those who have checked the onsets and attempts of such men, who by authority, by faith, by constancy, by greatness of spirit have resisted the counsels of the audacious—these have always been held weighty, leaders, commanders, authors of this dignity and command.

[LXVII]

[67]

[140] ac ne quis ex nostro aut aliquorum praeterea casu hanc vitae viam pertimescat, unus in hac civitate, quem quidem ego possum dicere, praeclare vir de re publica meritus, L. Opimius, indignissime concidit; cuius monumentum celeberrimum in foro, sepulcrum desertissimum in litore Dyrrachino relictum est. atque hunc tamen flagrantem invidia propter interitum C. Gracchi [semper] ipse populus Romanus periculo liberavit: alia quaedam civem egregium iniqui iudici procella pervertit. ceteri vero aut, repentina vi perculsi ac tempestate populari, per populum tamen ipsum recreati sunt atque revocati, aut omnino invulnerati inviolatique vixerunt.

[140] and lest anyone, from our case or from that of others besides, take fright at this way of life, there is but one man in this citizen‑body—whom indeed I can name—who merited excellently of the commonwealth, L. Opimius, who fell most undeservedly; whose most celebrated monument is in the Forum, while his most deserted sepulcher has been left on the Dyrrachian shore. And yet this man, blazing with envious ill‑will on account of the death of Gaius Gracchus, the Roman People themselves [always] freed from danger: some other squall of an unfair judgment overturned the distinguished citizen. The rest, however, either—struck down by sudden violence and by a popular tempest—were nevertheless restored and recalled by the People themselves, or else lived altogether unwounded and inviolate.

at vero ii qui senatus consilium, qui auctoritatem bonorum, qui instituta maiorum neglexerunt et imperitae aut concitatae multitudini iucundi esse voluerunt, omnes fere rei publicae poenas aut praesenti morte aut turpi exsilio dependerunt.

But indeed those who neglected the counsel of the Senate, the authority of the good, and the institutions of the ancestors, and wished to be pleasing to an unskilled or incited multitude, nearly all paid the commonwealth’s penalties either with immediate death or with shameful exile.

[141] quod si apud Atheniensis, homines Graecos, longe a nostrorum hominum gravitate diiunctos, non deerant qui rem publicam contra populi temeritatem defenderent, cum omnes qui ita fecerant e civitate eicerentur; si Themistoclem illum, conservatorem patriae, non deterruit a re publica defendenda nec Miltiadi calamitas, qui illam civitatem paulo ante servarat, nec Aristidi fuga, qui unus omnium iustissimus fuisse traditur; si postea summi eiusdem civitatis viri, quos nominatim appellari non est necesse, propositis tot exemplis iracundiae levitatisque popularis tamen suam rem publicam illam defenderunt,—quid nos tandem facere debemus, primum in ea civitate nati unde orta mihi gravitas et magnitudo animi videtur, tum in tanta gloria insistentes ut omnia humana leviora videri debeant, deinde ad eam rem publicam tuendam adgressi quae tanta dignitate est ut eam defendentem occidere (optatius) sit quam oppugnantem rerum potiri?

[141] But if among the Athenians, Greek men, far removed from the gravity of our own men, there were not lacking those who defended the republic against the people’s temerity, though all who did so were being cast out of the city; if that Themistocles, preserver of the fatherland, was not deterred from defending the republic, nor the calamity of Miltiades, who a little before had saved that city, nor the flight of Aristides, who is handed down as the most just of all; if afterwards the greatest men of that same city, whom it is not necessary to name individually, with so many examples of popular irascibility and levity set before them, nevertheless defended that their republic,—what then ought we to do, first, we who were born in that city whence, as it seems to me, gravity and magnanimity took their origin, then standing upon so great a glory that all human things ought to seem lighter, and finally having set ourselves to the safeguarding of that republic which is of such dignity that to die while defending it is (more preferable) than, while assailing it, to become master of affairs?

[LXVIII]

[68]

[142] homines Graeci quos antea nominavi, inique a suis civibus damnati atque expulsi, tamen, quia bene sunt de suis civitatibus meriti, tanta hodie gloria sunt non in Graecia solum sed etiam apud nos atque in ceteris terris, ut eos a quibus illi oppressi sint nemo nominet, horum calamitatem dominationi illorum omnes anteponant. quis Carthaginiensium pluris fuit Hannibale consilio, virtute, rebus gestis, qui unus cum tot imperatoribus nostris per tot annos de imperio et de gloria decertavit? hunc sui cives e civitate eiecerunt: nos etiam hostem litteris nostris et memoria videmus esse celebratum.

[142] the Greek men whom I named before, unjustly condemned and expelled by their fellow citizens, nevertheless, because they have well deserved of their cities, are today of such great glory not in Greece only but also among us and in the other lands, that no one names those by whom they were oppressed, and everyone prefers the calamity of these men to the domination of those. Who among the Carthaginians was of greater value than Hannibal in counsel, virtue, and exploits, he who alone contended with so many of our commanders through so many years for command and for glory? His own citizens cast this man out of the city: we, even though he was an enemy, see him celebrated by our letters and our memory.

[143] qua re imitemur nostros Brutos, Camillos, Ahalas, Decios, Curios, Fabricios, maximos, Scipiones, Lentulos, Aemilios, innumerabilis alios qui hanc rem publicam stabiliverunt; quos equidem in deorum immortalium coetu ac numero repono. amemus patriam, pareamus senatui, consulamus bonis; praesentis fructus neglegamus, posteritatis gloriae serviamus; id esse optimum putemus quod erit rectissimum; speremus quae volumus, sed quod acciderit feramus; cogitemus denique corpus virorum fortium magnorum hominum esse mortale, animi vero motus et virtutis gloriam sempiternam; neque hanc opinionem si in illo sanctissimo hercule consecratam videmus, cuius corpore ambusto vitam eius et virtutem immortalitas excepisse dicatur, minus existimemus eos qui hanc tantam rem publicam suis consiliis aut laboribus aut auxerint aut defenderint aut servarint esse immortalem gloriam consecutos.

[143] Wherefore let us imitate our Bruti, Camilli, Ahalas, Decii, Curii, Fabricii, the Maximi, the Scipios, the Lentuli, the Aemilii, innumerable others who have stabilized this commonwealth; whom indeed I place in the fellowship and number of the immortal gods. Let us love the fatherland, obey the senate, have regard for the good; let us neglect the fruits of the present, let us serve the glory of posterity; let us think that to be the best which will be the most upright; let us hope for what we wish, but let us bear what shall have happened; let us consider, finally, that the body of brave men, of great men, is mortal, but that the motions of the spirit and the glory of virtue are everlasting; nor, if we see this opinion consecrated in that most holy Hercules, whose body having been burned, immortality is said to have taken up his life and his virtue, let us think the less that those who by their counsels or labors have either increased, or defended, or preserved this so great a commonwealth have attained immortal glory.

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[144] sed me repente, iudices, de fortissimorum et clarissimorum civium dignitate et gloria dicentem et plura etiam dicere parantem horum aspectus in ipso cursu orationis repressit. video P. Sestium, meae salutis, vestrae auctoritatis, publicae causae defensorem, propugnatorem, actorem, reum; video hunc praetextatum eius filium oculis lacrimantibus me intuentem; video Milonem, vindicem vestrae libertatis, custodem salutis meae, subsidium adflictae rei publicae, exstinctorem domestici latrocini, repressorem caedis cotidianae, defensorem templorum atque tectorum, praesidium curiae, sordidatum et reum; video P. Lentulum, cuius ego patrem deum ac parentem statuo fortunae ac nominis mei, fratris liberorumque nostrorum, in hoc misero squalore et sordibus; cui superior annus idem et virilem patris et praetextam populi iudicio togam dederit, hunc hoc anno in hac toga rogationis iniustissimae subitam acerbitatem pro patre fortissimo et clarissimo civi deprecantem.

[144] but suddenly, judges, as I was speaking about the dignity and glory of the bravest and most illustrious citizens and preparing to say even more, the sight of these men checked me in the very course of my speech. I see P. Sestius—the defender, champion, promoter of my safety, of your authority, of the public cause—on trial; I see this son of his in the praetexta, looking at me with weeping eyes; I see Milo, the avenger of your liberty, the guardian of my safety, a support of the afflicted commonwealth, the extinguisher of domestic banditry, the restrainer of daily slaughter, the defender of temples and homes, the bulwark of the Curia, in mourning garb and a defendant; I see P. Lentulus—whose father I deem the god and parent of my fortune and name, and of my brother’s and our children’s—in this wretched squalor and mourning; to whom the previous year gave both his father’s virile toga and, by the people’s verdict, the praetexta, and this year I see him, in this toga, pleading against the sudden harshness of a most unjust bill on behalf of his father, a most brave and most illustrious citizen.

[145] atque hic tot et talium civium squalor, hic luctus, hae sordes susceptae sunt propter unum me, quia me defenderunt, quia meum casum luctumque doluerunt, quia me lugenti patriae, flagitanti senatui, poscenti Italiae, vobis omnibus orantibus reddiderunt. quod tantum est in me scelus? quid tanto opere deliqui illo die cum ad vos indicia, litteras, confessiones communis exiti detuli, cum parui vobis?

[145] And this squalor of so many and such citizens, this mourning, these sordid garments have been assumed on account of me alone, because they defended me, because they grieved over my misfortune and grief, because they restored me to a fatherland in mourning, to a senate clamoring, to an Italy demanding, with you all beseeching. What so great a crime is there in me? What did I offend to such a degree on that day when I brought before you the evidence, the letters, the confessions of our common destruction, when I obeyed you?

ac si scelestum est amare patriam, pertuli poenarum satis: eversa domus est, fortunae vexatae, dissipati liberi, raptata coniunx, frater optimus, incredibili pietate, amore inaudito, maximo in squalore volutatus est ad pedes inimicissimorum; ego pulsus aris focis deis penatibus, distractus a meis, carui patria, quam, ut levissime dicam, certe protexeram; pertuli crudelitatem inimicorum, scelus infidelium, fraudem invidorum.

and if it is criminal to love the fatherland, I have borne enough of punishments: my house has been overthrown, my fortunes harried, my children scattered, my wife seized; my best brother, of incredible piety, with unheard-of love, was wallowing in the greatest squalor at the feet of my bitterest enemies; I, driven from altars, hearths, and the household gods, torn from my own, was deprived of my fatherland, which, to speak most lightly, I had certainly protected; I endured the cruelty of enemies, the crime of the faithless, the fraud of the envious.

[146] si hoc non est satis, quod haec omnia deleta videntur reditu meo, multo mihi, multo, inquam, iudices, praestat in eandem illam recidere fortunam quam tantam importare meis defensoribus et conservatoribus calamitatem. an ego in hac urbe esse possim, his pulsis qui me huius urbis compotem fecerunt? non ero, non potero esse, iudices; neque hic umquam puer, qui his lacrimis qua sit pietate declarat, amisso patre suo propter me, me ipsum incolumem videbit, nec, quotienscumque me viderit, ingemescet ac pestem suam ac patris sui se dicet videre.

[146] if this is not enough, that all these things seem to be effaced by my return, far better for me—far better, I say, judges—to fall back into that same fortune than to import so great a calamity upon my defenders and preservers. Or can I be in this city, with these men expelled who made me a participant of this city? I will not be, I cannot be, judges; nor will this boy here ever, who by these tears declares with what piety he is endowed, his father lost on my account, see me myself unscathed; nor, whenever he should see me, will he groan and say that he beholds his own plague and that of his father.

ego vero hos in omni fortuna, quaecumque erit oblata, complectar, nec me ab iis quos meo nomine sordidatos videtis umquam ulla fortuna divellet; neque eae nationes quibus me senatus commendavit, quibus de me gratias egit, hunc exsulem propter me sine me videbunt. sed haec di immortales,

I for my part will embrace these men in every fortune, whatever shall be offered, nor will any fortune ever tear me from those whom you see, on my account, clad in mourning; nor will those nations to whom the Senate commended me, to whom it gave thanks on my behalf, see this exile, on account of me, without me. But these things the immortal gods,

[147] qui me suis templis advenientem receperunt stipatum ab his viris et P. Lentulo consule, atque ipsa res publica, qua nihil est sanctius, vestrae potestati, iudices, commiserunt. vos hoc iudicio omnium bonorum mentis confirmare, improborum reprimere potestis, vos his civibus uti optimis, vos me reficere et renovare rem publicam. qua re vos obtestor atque obsecro ut, si me salvum esse voluistis, eos conservetis per quos me reciperavistis.

[147] who, as I was arriving, received me into their temples, escorted by these men and by P. Lentulus, consul, and entrusted the republic itself, than which nothing is more sacred, to your power, judges. You by this judgment can confirm the minds of all good men, repress the wicked; you can employ these citizens as the best; you can refashion and renew the republic. Wherefore I adjure and beseech you that, if you have willed me to be safe, you preserve those through whom you recovered me.