Cicero: ORATORIA

[1] Si quis vestrum, patres conscripti, exspectat quas sim provincias decreturus, consideret ipse secum qui mihi homines ex provinciis potissimum detrahendi sint; non dubitabit quid sentire me conveniat, cum, quid mihi sentire necesse sit, cogitarit. Ac si princeps eam sententiam dicerem, laudaretis profecto; si solus, certe ignosceritis; etiamsi paulo minus utilis vobis sententia videretur, veniam tamen aliquam dolori meo tribueritis. Nunc vero, Patres conscripti, non parva adficior voluptate, vel quod hoc maxime rei publicae conducit Syriam Macedoniamque decerni, ut dolor meus nihil a communi utilitate dissentiat, vel quod habeo auctorem P. Servilium, qui ante me sententiam dixit, virum clarissimum et cum in universam rem publicam, tum etiam erga meam salutem fide ac benevolentia singulari.

[1] If any of you, conscript fathers, is expecting which provinces I am about to decree, let him consider with himself which men ought especially to be withdrawn by me from their provinces; he will not hesitate what it is fitting for me to think, when he has reflected what it is necessary for me to think. And if, as the first, I were to deliver that opinion, you would assuredly praise me; if alone, you would certainly pardon me; even if the opinion should seem to you a little less useful, yet you would grant some indulgence to my grief. Now indeed, Patres conscripti, I am affected with no small delight, either because it especially conduces to the commonwealth that Syria and Macedonia be assigned, so that my sorrow may not differ at all from the common utility, or because I have as an author P. Servilius, who gave his opinion before me, a most illustrious man, and both toward the whole commonwealth and also toward my own safety of singular faith and benevolence.

[2] Quodsi ille, et paulo ante, et quotienscumque ei locus dicendi ac potestas fuit, Gabinium et Pisonem, duo rei publicae portenda ac paene funera, cum propter alias causas, tum maxime propter illud insigne scelus eorum et importunam in me crudelitatem, non solum sententia sua, sed etiam verborum gravitate esse notandos putavit, quonam me animo in eos esse oportet, cuius illi salutem pro pignore tradiderunt ad explendas suas cupiditates? Sed ego in hac sententia dicenda non parebo dolori meo, non iracundiae serviam. Quo animo unus quisque vestrum debet esse in illos, hoc ero; praecipuum illum et proprium sensum doloris mei, quem tamen vos communem semper vobis mecum esse duxistis, a sententia dicenda amovebo, ad ulciscendi tempora reservabo.

[2] But if he, both a little before, and whenever there was to him a place and a power of speaking, judged that Gabinius and Piso—two portents of the republic and almost its funerals—not only for other causes, but most of all for that signal crime of theirs and their unconscionable cruelty toward me, were to be branded not only by his opinion, but also by the gravity of his words, with what spirit ought I to be toward those men, whose my safety they handed over as a pledge to fill up their lusts? But I, in delivering this opinion, will not yield to my grief, I will not be a servant to wrath. With that mind with which each one of you ought to be toward them, with that I shall be; that special and proper sense of my grief, which you have nevertheless always deemed to be common to you together with me, I will remove from the giving of my opinion, I will reserve it for times of avenging.

II.

[3] Quattuor sunt provinciae, Patres conscripti, de quibus adhuc intellego sententias esse dictas, Galliae duae, quas hoc tempore uno imperio videmus esse coniunctas et Syria et Macedonia, quas vobis invitis et oppressis pestiferi illi consules pro perversae rei publicae praemiis occupaverunt. Decernandae nobis sunt lege Sempronia duae. Quid est quod possimus de Syria Macedoniaque dubitare?

[3] There are four provinces, Conscript Fathers, about which thus far I understand that opinions have been given: the two Gauls, which at this time we see to be joined under one command, and Syria and Macedonia, which those pestiferous consuls, with you unwilling and oppressed, seized as rewards for a perverted commonwealth. Two must be decreed by us under the Sempronian law. What is there that we can doubt about Syria and Macedonia?

Mitto quod eas ita partas habent ii, qui nunc obtinent, ut non ante attigerint, quam hunc ordinem condemnarint, quam auctoritatem vestram e civitate exterminarint, quam fidem publicam, quam perpetuam populi Romani salutem, quam me ac meos omnis foedissime crudelissimeque vexarint.

I pass over the fact that those who now hold them have them so procured that they did not so much as touch them until they had condemned this order, until they had exterminated your authority from the state, until they had broken the public faith and the perpetual safety of the Roman people, until they had most foully and most cruelly vexed me and all mine.

[4] Omnia domestica atque urbana mitto, quae tanta sunt ut numquam Hannibal huic urbi tantum mali optarit, quantum illi effecerint ; ad ipsas venio provincias. Quarum Macedonia, quae erat antea munita plurimorum imperatorum non turribus, sed tropaeis, quae multis victoriis erat iam diu triumphisque pacata, sic a barbaris quibus est propter avaritiam pax erepta vexatur, ut Thessalonicenses, positi in gremio imperii nostri, relinquere oppidum et arcem munire cogantur, ut via illa nostra, quae per Macedoniam est usque ad Hellespontum militaris, non solum excursionibus barbarorum sic infesta, sed etiam castris Thraeciis distincta ac notata. Ita gentes eae, quae, ut pace uterentur, vim argenti dederant praeclaro nostro imperatori, ut exhaustas domos replere possent, pro empta pace bellum nobis per iustum intulerunt.

[4] I pass over all domestic and urban matters, which are so great that never did Hannibal wish so much ill for this city as they have brought about; I come to the provinces themselves. Of which Macedonia, which formerly was fortified not by towers but by the trophies of many commanders, which by many victories and triumphs had long since been pacified, is so harassed by barbarians, from whom, because of avarice, peace has been snatched away, that the Thessalonians, set in the bosom of our empire, are compelled to abandon their town and fortify the citadel, and that that military road of ours, which through Macedonia runs as far as the Hellespont, is not only so infested by the raids of the barbarians, but even studded and marked with Thracian camps. Thus those nations who, in order to enjoy peace, had given a sum of silver to our illustrious emperor, so that they might be able to refill their exhausted homes, in place of purchased peace have brought war upon us under color of right.

III.

[5] Iam vero exercitus noster ille superbissimo dilectu et durissima conquisitione collectus omnis interiit. Magno hoc dico cum dolore. Miserandum in modum milites populi Romani capti, necati, deserti, dissipati sunt, incuria, fame, morbo, vastitate consumpti, ut, quod est indignissimum, scelus imperatoris poena exercitus expiatum esse videatur.

[5] And indeed that army of ours, gathered by a most arrogant levy and the harshest conscription, has altogether perished. I say this with great grief. In a pitiable manner the soldiers of the Roman people have been captured, killed, abandoned, scattered, consumed by neglect, hunger, disease, and devastation, so that—what is most unworthy—the crime of the emperor seems to have been expiated by the punishment of the army.

Atque hanc Macedoniam, domitis iam gentibus finitimis barbariaque compressa, pacatam ipsam per se et quietam tenui praesidio atque exigua manu etiam sine imperio per legatos nomine ipso populi Romani tuebamur; quae nunc consulari imperio atque exercitu ita vexata est, vix ut se possit diuturna pace recreare, cum interea quis vestrum hoc non audivit, quis ignorat, Achaeos ingentem pecuniam pendere L.Pisoni quotannis, vectigal ac portorium Dyrrachinorum totum in huius unius questum esse conversum, urbem Byzantiorum, vobis atque huic imperio fidelissimam, hostilem in modum esse vexatam? Quo ille, posteaquam nihil exprimere ab egentibus, nihil ulla vi a miseris extorquere potuit, cohortis in hiberna misit; iis praeposuit quos putavit fore diligentissimos satellites scelerum, ministros cupiditatum suarum.

And this Macedonia, with the neighboring nations now tamed and the barbarism compressed, we used to defend, pacified and quiet in itself, with a slight garrison and a small force, even without imperium, through legates, by the very name of the Roman people; which now, by consular imperium and an army, has been so harried that scarcely can it restore itself by long peace—while meanwhile, who of you has not heard this, who is ignorant, that the Achaeans pay a vast sum to L. Piso every year, that the entire tax and portorium of the Dyrrachians has been converted into the profit of this one man, that the city of the Byzantines, most faithful to you and to this imperium, has been harried in the manner of an enemy? Whereupon he, after he could squeeze nothing from the needy, extort nothing by any force from the wretched, sent cohorts into winter quarters; over them he set those whom he thought would be the most diligent henchmen of his crimes, the ministers of his cupidity.

[6] Omitto iuris dictionem in libera civitate contra leges senatusque consulta; caedes relinquo; libidines praetereo, quarum acerbissimum extat indicium et ad insignem memoriam turpitudinis et paene ad iustum odium imperii nostri, quod constat nobilissimas virgines se in puteos abiecisse et morte voluntaria necessariam turpitudinem depulisse. Nec haec idcirco omitto, quod non gravissima sint, sed quia nunc sine teste dico.

[6] I omit the jurisdiction in a free commonwealth against the laws and the decrees of the senate; I leave aside the slaughters; I pass over the lusts, whose most bitter indication stands forth, and amounts to a conspicuous remembrance of turpitude and almost to a just hatred of our imperium, in that it is agreed that the most noble maidens threw themselves into wells and by voluntary death repelled the enforced turpitude. Nor do I on that account omit these, because they are not most grave, but because I now speak without a witness.

IV. Ipsam vero urbem Byzantiorum fuisse refertissimam atque ornatissimam signis quis ignorat? Quae illi, exhausti sumptibus bellisque maximis, cum omnis Mithridaticos impetus totumque Pontum armatum affervescentem in Asiam atque erumpentem, ore repulsum et cervicibus interclusum suis sustinerent, tum, inquam, Byzantii et postea signa illa et reliqua urbis ornanemta sanctissime custodita tenuerunt;

4. But who is ignorant that the city of the Byzantines itself was most replete and most ornate with statues? When they, exhausted by expenditures and by the greatest wars, as they withstood every Mithridatic onset and all of armed Pontus, seething toward Asia and bursting forth, repelled at its mouth and choked at their own necks, then, I say, the Byzantines both then and afterwards held those statues and the remaining ornaments of the city most scrupulously guarded;

[7] te imperatore infelicissimo et taeterrimo Caesonine Calventi civitas libera et pro eximiis suis beneficiis a senatu et a populo Romano liberata, sic spoliata atque nudata est, ut, nisi C. Vergilius legatus, vir fortis et innocens, intervenisset, unum signum Byzantii ex maximo numero nullum haberent. Quod fanum in Achaia, qui locus aut lucus in Graecia tota tam sanctus fuit, in quo ullum simulacrum, ullum ornamentum reliquum sit? Emisti a foedissimo tribuno plebis tum in illo naufragio huius urbis, quam tu idem, qui gubernare debueras, everteras, tum, inquam, emisti grandi pecunia, ut tibi de pecuniis creditis ius in liberos populos contra senatus consulta et contra legem generi tui dicere liceret.

[7] with you as general, most ill‑fated and most loathsome, Caesoninus Calventius, a free city—and, for its extraordinary services, freed by the senate and the Roman people—was so despoiled and laid bare that, if Gaius Vergilius, the legate, a brave and blameless man, had not intervened, they would have had not a single statue left at Byzantium out of their very great number. What shrine in Achaia, what place or grove in all Greece was so sacred that any simulacrum, any ornament remains in it? You bought—then, in that shipwreck of this city, which you, the very man who ought to have steered it, capsized—then, I say, you bought for a large sum of money the right to pronounce jurisdiction over loaned monies upon free peoples, against the decrees of the senate and against the law of your son‑in‑law.

Id emptum ita vendidisti, ut aut ius non diceres aut bonis civis Romanos everteres.

You sold that purchase in such a way that either you would not pronounce the law, or you would overturn Roman citizens in their goods.

[8] Quorum ego nihil dico, patres conscripti, nunc in hominem ipsum, de provincia disputo. Itaque omnia illa, quae et saepe audistis et tenetis animis, etiamsi non audiatis, praetermitto; nihil de hac eius urbana, quam ille praesens in mentibus vestris oculisque defixit, audacia loquor; nihil de superbia, nihil de contumacia, nihil de crudelitate disputo. Laeteant libidines eius illae tenebricosae, quas fronte et supercilio, non pudore et temperantia contegebat; de provincia quod agitur, id disputo.

[8] Of which I say nothing, Conscript Fathers; for now, as to the man himself, I argue about the province. And so all those things which you have often heard and which you hold in your minds, even if you do not hear them, I pass over; I say nothing of this urban audacity of his, which, being present, he fixed in your minds and eyes; I dispute nothing about pride, nothing about contumacy, nothing about cruelty. Let those tenebrous lusts of his exult, which he used to cover with his brow and supercilious look, not with modesty and temperance; what is at issue concerning the province, that I argue.

Huic vos non summittetis, hunc diutius manere patiemini? cuius, ut provinciam tetigit, sic fortuna cum improbitate certavit, ut nemo posset, utrum protervior an infelicior esset, iudicare.

Will you not submit yourselves to this man; will you allow this one to remain longer? in whose case, as soon as he touched the province, Fortune contended with his improbity, so that no one could judge whether he was more insolent or more unfortunate.

[9] An vero in Syria diutius est Semiramis illa retinenda? Cuius iter in provinciam fuit eius modi, ut rex Ariobarzanes consulem vestrum ad caedem faciendam tamquam aliquem Thraecem conduceret. Deinde adventus in Syriam primus equitatus habuit interitum, post concisae sunt optimae cohortes.

[9] Or indeed is that Semiramis to be kept longer in Syria? Her journey into the province was of such a sort that King Ariobarzanes hired your consul for the doing of a slaughter, as if he were some Thracian. Then, at the first advent into Syria, the cavalry met destruction; after that the finest cohorts were cut to pieces.

Igitur in Syria imperatore illo nihil aliud umquam actum est nisi pactiones pecuniarum cum tyrannis, decisiones, direptiones, latrocinia, caedes, cum palam populi Romani imperator instructo exercitu dexteram tendens non ad laudem milites hortaretur, sed omnia sibi et empta et emenda esse clamaret.

Accordingly, in Syria under that commander nothing else was ever done except pactions of monies with tyrants, exactions, direptions, latrociny, slaughters, while, openly, the commander of the Roman people, with the army drawn up and stretching forth his right hand, would not exhort the soldiers to glory, but would shout that everything for himself was both bought and to be bought.

[10] Iam vero publicanos miseros (me etiam miserum illorum ita de me meritorum miseriis ac dolore!) tradidit in servitutem Iudaeis et Syris, nationibus natis servituti. Statuit ab initio, et in eo perseveravit, ius publicano non dicere; pactiones sine ulla iniuria factas rescidit, custodias sustulit, vectigalis multos ac stipendiarios liberavit; quo in oppido ipse esset aut quo veniret, ibi publicanum aut publicani servum esse vetuit. Quid multa?

[10] Now indeed he handed over the wretched publicans (I too am wretched at the miseries and pain of those who have so deserved from me!) into servitude to the Jews and the Syrians, nations born for servitude. He decreed from the beginning, and persisted in it, not to pronounce law for a publican; he rescinded bargains made without any injustice, he removed guards, he freed many tributaries and stipendiaries; in whatever town he himself was, or to which he came, there he forbade that there be a publican or a publican’s slave. Why say more?

crudelis haberetur, si in hostis animo fuisset eo, quo fuit in civis Romanos, eius ordinis praesertim, qui est semper pro dignitate sua benignitate magistratuum sustentatus.

he would be held cruel, if he had had toward enemies the mind which he had toward Roman citizens, especially of that order which has always, in proportion to its dignity, been sustained by the benignity of magistrates.

[11] Itaque, Patres conscripti, videtis non temeritate redemptionis aut negotii gerendi inscitia, sed avaritia, superbia, crudelitate Gabini paene adflictos iam atque eversos publicanos; quibus quidem vos in his angustiis aerarii tamen subveniatis necesse est. Etsi iam multis non potestis, qui propter illum hostem senatus, inimicissimum ordinis equestris bonorumque omnium non solum bona, sed etiam honestatem miseri deperdiderunt, quos non parsimonia, non continentia, non virtus, non labor, non splendor tueri potuit contra illius helluonis et praedonis audaciam.

[11] And so, Conscript Fathers, you see that the publicans have been almost already afflicted and overthrown not by temerity of redemption or by ignorance of conducting business, but by the avarice, superb haughtiness, and cruelty of Gabinius; whom indeed it is necessary that you nevertheless come to the aid in these straits of the treasury. And yet now you cannot aid many, who, on account of that enemy of the Senate, most hostile to the equestrian order and to all good men, the wretches have lost not only their goods, but even their honesty; whom neither parsimony, nor continence, nor virtue, nor labor, nor splendor could protect against the audacity of that glutton and brigand.

[12] Quid? qui se etiam nunc subsidiis patrimonii aut amicorum liberalitate sustentant, hos perire patiemur? An, si qui frui publico non potuit per hostem, hic tegitur ipsa lege censoria; quem is frui non sinit, qui est, etiamsi non appellatur, hostis, huic ferri auxilium non oportet?

[12] What? Those who even now sustain themselves by the subsidies of their patrimony or by the liberality of friends—shall we allow these to perish? Or, if someone has been unable to enjoy the public revenue because of an enemy, this man is covered by the censorial law itself; to him whom that person does not allow to enjoy it—who is, even if he is not so named, an enemy—ought help not to be brought?

Retinete igitur in provincia diutius eum, qui de sociis cum hostibus, de civibus cum sociis faciat pactiones, qui hoc etiam se pluris esse quam collegam putet, quod ille vos tristia voltuque deceperit, ipse numquam se minus quam erat, nequam esse simularit. Piso autem alio quodam modo gloriatur se brevi tempore perfecisse, ne Gabinius unus omnium nequissimus existimaretur.

Therefore keep him longer in the province, the man who makes pacts about the allies with the enemies, and about the citizens with the allies; who even thinks himself to be worth more than his colleague for this reason, that that man deceived you by doleful looks and countenance, while he himself has never pretended to be other than he was—a good‑for‑nothing. Piso, however, boasts in quite another way that he has accomplished in a short time that Gabinius should not be thought the sole most worthless of all.

VI.

[13] Hos vos de provinciis, si non aliquando deducendi essent, deripiendos non putaretis, et has duplicis pestes sociorum, militum cladis, publicanorum ruinas, provinciarum vastitates, imperii maculas teneretis? At idem vos anno superiore hos eosdem revocabatis, cum in provincias pervenissent. Quo tempore si liberum vestrum iudicium fuisset nec totiens dilata res nec ad extremum e manibus erepta, restituissetis, id quod cupiebatis, vestram auctoritatem, iis, per quos erat amissa, revocatis, et iis ipsis praemiis extortis, quae erant pro scelere atque eversione patriae consecuti.

[13] Would you not think that these men ought to be snatched from the provinces, if they were not at some time to be led away, and would you hold on to these twofold plagues upon the allies—the slaughters of the soldiers, the ruins of the publicans, the devastations of the provinces, the stains of the empire? But you, in the previous year, were recalling these same men, when they had reached their provinces. At which time, if your judgment had been free and the matter had not so often been deferred nor at the last snatched from your hands, you would have restored, that which you were desiring, your authority, by recalling those by whom it had been lost, and by wrenching away from them the very rewards which they had obtained for their crime and the overthrow of the fatherland.

Qua e poena si tum aliorum opibus, non suis, invitissimis vobis evolarunt, at aliam multo maiorem gravioremque subierunt.

From which punishment, if then by the resources of others, not their own, with you most unwilling, they flew out, yet they underwent another much greater and more grave.

[14] Quae enim homini, in quo aliqui si non famae pudor, at supplicii timor est, gravior poena accidere potuit quand non credi litteris iis, quae rem publicam bene gestam in bello nuntiarent? Hoc statuit senatus, cum frequens supplicationem Gabinio denegavit, primum homini sceleribus flagitiis contaminatissimo nihil esse credendum, deinde a proditore atque eo, quem praesentem hostem rei publicae cognosset, bene rem publicam geri non potuisse, postremo ne deos quidem immortalis velle aperiri sua templa et sibi subplicari hominis impurissimi et sceleratissimi nomine. Itaque ille alter aut ipse est homo doctus et a suis Graecis, subtilius eruditus, quibuscum iam in exostra helluatur,(antea post siparium solebat), aut amicos habet prudentiores quam Gabinius, cuius nullae litterae proferuntur.

[14] For what heavier punishment could befall a man in whom there is at least, if not a shame of reputation, yet a fear of punishment, than that no credence is given to those letters which would announce that the republic had been well managed in war? This the Senate determined, when, in full attendance, it denied a public supplication to Gabinius: first, that nothing is to be believed to a man most defiled by crimes and disgraces; next, that by a traitor, and one whom it had recognized as a present enemy of the republic, the republic could not have been well conducted; finally, that not even the immortal gods wish their temples to be opened and that supplications be made to them in the name of a most impure and most criminal man. And so that other fellow either is himself a learned man and, by his Greeks, more subtly educated, with whom he now gorges himself on the exostra, (formerly he used to do so behind the curtain), or he has friends more prudent than Gabinius, of whom no letters are produced.

VII.

[15] Hosce igitur imperatores habebimus? quorum alter non audet nos certiores facere cur imperator appellatur, alterum, si tabellarii non cessarint, necesse est paucis diebus paenitat audere. Cuius amici si qui sunt, aut si beluae tam immani tamque taetrae possunt ulli esse amici, has consololatione utantur, etiam T. Albucio supplicationem hunc ordinem denegasse.

[15] So then shall we have these commanders? One of whom does not dare to make us more certain why he is called imperator, the other—if the couriers have not delayed—must, within a few days, repent of having dared. Let his friends, if there are any, or if a beast so immense and so foul can have any friends, use this consolation: that even to T. Albucius this order denied a supplication.

Quod est primum dissimile, res in Sardinia cum mastrucatis latrunculis a propraetore una cohorte auxiliaria gesta et bellum cum maximis Syriae gentibus et tyrannis consulari exercitu imperioque confectum. Deinde Albucius, quod a senatu petebat, ipse sibi in Sardinia ante decreverat. Constabat enim Graecum hominem ac levem in ipsa provincia quasi triumphasse, itaque hanc eius temeritatem senatus supplicatione denegata notavit.

Which, in the first place, is dissimilar: an affair in Sardinia with mastruca-clad brigands was conducted by a pro-praetor with one auxiliary cohort, whereas a war with the greatest peoples of Syria and with tyrants was brought to completion by a consular army and imperium. Next, Albucius had already decreed for himself in Sardinia what he was asking from the senate. For it was agreed that this Greek and flighty man had, in the very province, as it were, celebrated a triumph; and so the senate, the supplication having been denied, marked this rashness of his.

[16] Sed fruatur sane hoc solacio atque hanc insignem ignominiam, quoniam uni praeter se inusta sit, putet esse leviorem, dum modo, cuius exemplo se consolatur, eius exitum expectet, praesertim cum in Albucio nec Pisonis libidines nec audacia Gabini fuerit ac tamen hac una plaga conciderit, ignominia senatus.

[16] But let him indeed enjoy this solace and, since it has been branded upon one man besides himself, think this signal ignominy to be lighter—provided only that he await the outcome of him by whose example he consoles himself—especially since in Albucius there were neither the lusts of Piso nor the audacity of Gabinius, and yet by this single stroke he collapsed: the ignominy of the Senate.

[17] Atqui duas Gallias qui decernit consulibus duobus, hos retinet ambo; qui autem alteram Galliam et aut Syriam aut Macedoniam, tamen alterum retinet et in utriusque pari, scelere disparem condicionem facit."Faciam, inquit, illas praetorias, ut Pisoni et Gabinio succedatur statim". Si hic sinat! Tum enim tribunus intercedere poterit, nunc non potest. Itaque ego idem, qui nunc consulibus iis, qui designati erunt, Syriam Macedoniamque decerno, decernam easdem praetorias, ut et praetores annuas provincias habeant, et eos quam primum videamus, quos animo aequo videre non possumus.

[17] And yet he who decrees the two Gauls to two consuls keeps both of these; but he who decrees one Gaul and either Syria or Macedonia nevertheless keeps the other, and, though the crime is equal in each, makes their condition unequal. "I will make those praetorian," he says, "so that Piso and Gabinius may be succeeded at once." If this man should allow it! For then a tribune will be able to intercede; now he cannot. Therefore I, the same man who now decree Syria and Macedonia to those consuls who will be designated, will decree the same as praetorian, so that the praetors too may have annual provinces, and that we may see as soon as possible those whom we cannot see with an even mind.

Sed mihi credite, numquam succedetur illis, nisi cum ea lege referetur, qua intercedi de provinciis non licebit. Itaque, hoc tempore amisso, annus est integer vobis exspectandus, quo interiecto civium calamitas, sociorum aerumna, sceleratissimorum hominum impunitas propagatur.

But believe me, they will never be succeeded, unless a measure is brought forward with that provision by which it will not be permitted to intercede concerning the provinces. Therefore, with this time lost, a whole year must be awaited by you; and, that interval interposed, the calamity of citizens, the distress of allies, the impunity of the most criminal men is prolonged.

[18] Quodsi essent illi optimi viri, tamen ego mea sententia C.Caesari succedendum nondum putarem. Qua de re dicam, Patres conscripti, quae sentio, atque illam interpellationem mei familiarissimi, qua paulo ante interrupta est oratio mea, non pertimescam. Negat me vir optimus inimiciorem Gabinio debere esse quam Caesari; omnem illam tempestatem, cui cesserim, Caesare impulsore atque adiutore esse excitatam.

[18] But even if those men were most excellent men, yet in my opinion I would not think that C. Caesar ought yet to be succeeded. About which matter I will say, Conscript Fathers, what I feel, and I will not be frightened by that interpellation of my very familiar friend, by which a little before my speech was interrupted. The most excellent man says that I ought not to be more inimical to Gabinius than to Caesar; that whole tempest, to which I yielded, was stirred up with Caesar as instigator and helper.

Cui si primum sic respondeam, me communis utilitatis habere rationem, non doloris mei, possimne probare, cum id me facere dicam, quod exemplo fortissimorum et clarissimorum civium facere possim? An Ti. Gracchus (patrem dico, cuius utinam filii ne degenerassent a gravitate patria!) tantam laudem est adeptus, quod tribunus plebis solus ex toto illo collegio L. Scipioni auxilio fuit, inimicissimus et ipsius et fratris eius Africani, iuravitque in contione se in gratiam non redisse, sed alienum sibi videri dignitate imperii, quo duces essent hostium Scipione triumphante ducti, eodem ipsum duci, qui triumphasset?

To which, if I first answer thus, that I have regard to the common utility, not to my own grief, could I not make this good, since I say that I am doing what I can do by the example of the bravest and most illustrious citizens? Or did Tiberius Gracchus (I mean the father, whose sons—would that they had not degenerated from their father’s gravity!) obtain so great praise because, as tribune of the plebs, he alone out of that whole college was a help to Lucius Scipio, though he was most inimical both to him and to his brother Africanus, and he swore in a public assembly that he had not returned into favor, but that it seemed alien to him from the dignity of imperium that, to the same place where the leaders of the enemy had been led while Scipio was triumphing, the very man who had triumphed should himself be led?

[19] Quis plenior inimicorum fuit C. Mario? L. Crassus, M. Scaurus alieni, inimici omnes Metelli. At ii non modo illum inimicum ex Gallia sententiis suis non detrahebant, sed ei propter rationem Gallici belli provinciam extra ordinem decernebant.

[19] Who was fuller of enemies than Gaius Marius? Lucius Crassus, Marcus Scaurus were alien to him; all the Metelli, enemies. Yet they not only did not, by their opinions, drag that enemy from Gaul, but even, on account of the rationale of the Gallic war, decreed to him a province out of order.

Bellum in Gallia maximum gestum est; domitae sunt a Caesare maximae nationes, sed nondum legibus,nondum iure certo, nondum satis firma pace devinctae. Bellum adfectum videmus, et, vere ut dicam, paene confectum, sed ita ut, si idem extrema persequitur qui inchoavit, iam omnia perfecta videamus, si succeditur, periculum sit ne instauratas maximi belli reliquias ac renovatas audiamus.

A very great war has been waged in Gaul; the greatest nations have been subdued by Caesar, but not yet bound by laws, not yet by a settled right, not yet by a sufficiently firm peace. We see the war advanced, and, to speak truly, almost completed, but on this condition: that, if the same man who began it pursues the final stages, we may now see everything perfected; if he is succeeded, there is danger lest we hear that the remnants of a very great war have been reestablished and renewed.

[20] Ergo ego senator inimicus, si ita vultis, homini, amicus esse, sicut semper fui, rei publicae debeo. Quid? si ipsas inimicitias, depono rei publicae causa, quis me tandem iure reprehendet, praesertim cum ego omnium meorum consiliorum atque factorum exempla semper ex summorum hominum consiliis atque factis mihi censuerim petenda.

[20] Therefore I, a senator, an enemy—if you so wish—to the man, ought to be a friend, as I always have been, to the Republic. What? If I lay down the very enmities for the sake of the Republic, who then will by right reprehend me, especially since I have always judged that the examples of all my counsels and deeds must be sought by me from the counsels and deeds of the highest men.

IX.

[21] An vero M. ille Lepidus, qui bis consul et pontifex maximus fuit, non solum memoriae testimonio, sed etiam annalium litteris et summi poetae voce laudatus est, quod, cum M. Fulvio collega, quo die censor est factus, homine inimicissimo, in Campo statim rediit in gratiam, ut commune officium censurae communi animo ac voluntate defenderent? Atque, ut vetera, quae sunt innumerabilia, mittam, tuus pater, Philippe, nonne uno tempore cum suis inimicissimis in gratiam rediit? Quibus eum omnibus eadem res publica reconciliavit, quae alienarat.

[21] Or indeed, that Marcus Lepidus, who was twice consul and pontifex maximus, was he not praised not only by the testimony of memory, but also by the writings of the annals and by the voice of the greatest poet, because, with his colleague Marcus Fulvius—on the very day he was made censor—a most inimical man, he immediately returned into favor on the Campus, so that they might defend the common duty of the censorship with a common mind and will? And, to pass over the old examples, which are innumerable, your father, Philippus, did he not at one time return into favor with his most bitter enemies? With all of whom the same republic reconciled him which had alienated him.

[22] Multa praetereo, quod intueor coram haec lumina atque ornamenta rei publicae, P. Servilium et M. Lucullum. Utinam etiam L.Lucullus illic adsideret! Quae fuerunt inimicitiae in civitate graviores quam Luculorum atque Servili?

[22] I pass over many things, because I behold in person these lights and ornaments of the republic, P. Servilius and M. Lucullus. Would that even L.Lucullus were seated there! What enmities in the state have been graver than those of the Luculli and of Servilius?

Quas in viris fortissimis non solum extinxit rei publicae utilitas dignitasque ipsorum, sed etiam ad amicitiam consuetudinemque traduxit. Quid? Q. Metellus Nepos nonne consul in templo iovis Optimi Maximi permotus cum auctoritate vestra, tum illius P.Servili incredibili gravitate dicendi, absens mecum summo suo beneficio rediit in gratiam?

Which enmities, in the bravest men, not only did the utility of the commonwealth and their own dignity extinguish, but even translated into friendship and consuetude. What? Did not Q. Metellus Nepos, as consul in the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, moved both by your authority and by that P. Servilius’s incredible gravity of speaking, though I was absent, return into favor with me by his utmost beneficence?

An ego possum huic esse inimicus, cuius litteris, fama, nuntiis celebrantur aures cotidie meae novis nominibus gentium, nationum, locorum?

Can I be an enemy to this man, whose letters, fame, and reports daily fill my ears with new names of peoples, nations, and places?

[23] Ardeo, mihi credite, Patres conscripti (id quod vosmet de me existimatis et facitis ipsi) incredibili quodam amore patriae, qui me amor et subvenire olim impendentibus periculis maximis cum dimicatione capitis, et rursum, cum omnia tela undique esse intenta in patriam viderem, subire coegit atque excipere unum pro universis. Hic me meus in rem publicam animus pristinus ac perennis cum C. Caesare reducit, reconciliat, restituit in gratiam.

[23] I burn, believe me, Conscript Fathers (the very thing which you yourselves judge about me and practice yourselves), with a certain incredible love of the fatherland, which love both once compelled me to come to the aid of the greatest impending dangers, with a contest touching my head (a capital risk), and again, when I saw all missiles from every side aimed at the fatherland, to undergo and to take it upon myself alone on behalf of all. This my former and perennial spirit toward the Republic, together with Gaius Caesar, brings me back, reconciles me, restores me into favor.

[24] Quod volent denique homines existiment, nemini ego possum esse bene merenti de re publica non amicus. Etenim, si iis, qui haec omnia flamma ac ferro delere voluerunt, non inimicitias solum, sed etiam bellum indixi atque intuli, cum partim mihi illorum familiares, partim etiam me defendente capitis iudiciis essent liberati, cur eadem res publica, quae me in amicos inflammare potuit, inimicis placare non possit? Quod mihi odium cum P. Clodio fuit, nisi quod perniciosum patriae civem fore putabam, qui turpissima libidine incensus duas res sanctissimas, religionem et pudicitiam, uno scelere violasset?

[24] Let men, finally, esteem what they will; I cannot fail to be a friend to anyone who has well deserved of the commonwealth. For indeed, if against those who wished to destroy all these things with flame and iron I declared and waged not only enmities but even war—though some of them were my familiars, and others too, with me defending, were acquitted in capital trials—why can that same commonwealth, which could inflame me against friends, not appease enemies? What hatred had I with P. Clodius, except that I thought he would be a citizen pernicious to the fatherland, who, enkindled by most shameful lust, with one crime had violated two most sacred things, religion and chastity?

Num est igitur dubium ex iis rebus, quas is egit agitque cotidie, quin ego in illo oppugnando rei publicae plus quam otio meo, non nulli in eodem defendendo suo plus otio quam communi prospexerint?

Is there then any doubt, from those things which he has done and does every day, that I, in assailing that man, have looked out for the commonwealth more than for my own leisure, while some, in defending that same man, have looked out for their own leisure more than for the common good?

[25] Ego me a C. Caesare in re publica dissensisse fateor et sensisse vobiscum : sed nunc isdem vobis adsentior, cum quibus antea sentiebam. Vos enim, ad quos litteras L. Piso de suis rebus non audet mittere, qui Gabini litteras insigni quadam nota atque ignominia nova condemnastis, C. Caesari supplicationes decrevistis numero ut nemini uno ex bello, honore ut omnino nemini. Cur igitur exspectem hominem aliquem, qui me cum illo in gratiam reducat?

[25] I confess that I have dissented from Gaius Caesar in public affairs and have felt with you : but now I assent to you the same, with whom I was previously of the same opinion. For you—unto whom Lucius Piso does not dare to send letters about his own affairs, who condemned the letters of Gabinius with a certain conspicuous censure and a new ignominy—have decreed to Gaius Caesar supplications in a number such as to no one from a single war, and in an honor such as to absolutely no one. Why, then, should I await some man to bring me back into grace with him?

Reduxit ordo amplissimus et ordo is, qui est et publici consili et meorum omnium consiliorum auctor et princeps. Vos sequor, Patres conscripti, vobis obtempero, vobis adsentior, qui, quamdiu C. Caesaris consilia in re publica non maxime diligebatis, me quoque cum illo minus coniunctum videbatis; posteaquam rebus gestis mentes vestras voluntatesque mutastis, me non solum comitem esse sententiae vestrae, sed etiam laudatorem vidistis.

The most distinguished order brought me back, and that order which is both the author and chief of public counsel and of all my counsels. I follow you, Conscript Fathers, I obey you, I assent to you, you who, so long as you did not greatly esteem C. Caesar’s counsels in the commonwealth, saw me also less closely conjoined with him; after you changed your minds and wills by his deeds accomplished, you saw me not only a companion of your judgment, but even a praiser.

IX.

[26] Sed quid est quod in hac causa maxime homines admirentur et reprehendant meum consilium, cum ego idem antea multa decreverim, quae magis ad hominis dignitatem quam ad rei publicae necessitatem pertinerent? Supplicationem quindecim dierum decrevi sententia mea. Rei publicae satis erat tot dierum quot C. Mario ; dis immortalibus non erat exigua eadem gratulatio quae ex maximis bellis.

[26] But what is it that in this case men especially admire and reprehend in my counsel, since I myself before have decreed many things which pertained more to the dignity of the man than to the necessity of the republic? I decreed, by my motion, a supplication of 15 days. For the republic it was enough of as many days as to Gaius Marius ; for the immortal gods the same gratulation as from the greatest wars was not insignificant.

Ergo ille cumulus dierum hominis est dignitati tributus.

Therefore that accumulation of days was granted to the man’s dignity.

[27] In quo ego, quo consule referente primum decem dierum est supplicatio decreta Cn. Pompeio Mithridate interfecto et confecto Mithridatico bello, et cuius sententia primum duplicata est supplicatio consularis (mihi enim estis adsensi, cum, eiusdem Pompei litteris recitatis, confectis omnibus maritimis terrestribusque bellis, supplicationem dierum decem decrevistis), sum Cn. Pompei virtutem et animu magnitudinem admiratus, quod, cum ipse ceteris omnibus esset omni honore antelatus, ampliorem honorem alteri tribuerat quam ego decrevi, res ipsa tributa est dis immortalibus et maiorum institutis et utilitati rei publicae, sed dignitas verborum, honos et novitas et numerus dierum Caesaris ipsius laudi gloriaeque concessus est.

[27] In which matter I—under whose consulship, upon his bringing it forward, a thanksgiving of ten days was first decreed to Cn. Pompeius when Mithridates was slain and the Mithridatic war completed, and by whose opinion the consular thanksgiving was first doubled (for you agreed with me when, the letters of that same Pompey having been read, with all the maritime and terrestrial wars completed, you decreed a thanksgiving of ten days)—have admired the virtue and greatness of spirit of Cn. Pompeius, because, though he himself had been preferred before all others in every honor, he had bestowed upon another a greater honor than I decreed: the thing itself was attributed to the immortal gods and to the institutions of the ancestors and to the utility of the republic, but the dignity of the words, the honor and the novelty and the number of days were conceded to the praise and glory of Caesar himself.

[28] Relatum est ad nos nuper de stipendio exercitus; non decrevi solum, sed etiam ut vos decerneretis laboravi; multa dissentientibus respondi; scribendo adfui. Tum quoque homini plus tribui quam nescio cui necessitati. Illum enim arbitrabar etiam sine hoc subsidio pecuniae retinere exercitum praeda ante parta et bellum conficere posse; sed decus illud et ornamentum triumphi minuendum nostra parsimonia non putavi.

[28] It was reported to us recently about the stipend of the army; I not only decreed, but I also labored that you should decree; I responded much to the dissentients; I assisted by writing. Then too I granted more to the man than to I-know-not-what necessity. For I judged that he, even without this monetary subsidy, could keep the army by booty previously procured and could bring the war to a close; but I did not think that that honor and ornament of a triumph should be diminished by our parsimony.

Actum est de decem legatis, quos alii omnino non dabant, alii exempla quaerebant, alii tempus differebant, alii sine ulli verborum ornamentis dabant; in ea quoque re sic sum locutus, ut omnes intellegerent me id, quod rei publicae causa sentirem, facere uberius propter ipsius Caesaris dignitatem.

It was brought to issue concerning the ten legates: some were not granting them at all, others were seeking exempla (precedents), others were deferring the time, others were granting without any ornaments of words; in this matter also I spoke thus, so that all might understand that what I felt for the sake of the Republic I was doing more liberally on account of Caesar’s very own dignity.

XII.

12.

[29] At ego idem nunc in provinciis decernendis, qui illas omnes res egi silentio, interpellor, cum in superioribus causis hominis ornamenta valuerint, in hac me nihil aliud nisi ratio belli, nisi summa utilitas rei publicae, moveat. Nam ipse Caesar quid est cur in provincia commorari velit, nisi ut ea, quae per eum adfecta sunt, perfecta rei publicae tradat? Amoenitas eum, credo, locorum, urbium pulchritudo, hominum nationumque illarum humanitas et lepos, victoriae cupiditas, finium imperii propagatio retinet.

[29] But I, the same man, now in decreeing the provinces—who carried on all those matters in silence—am interrupted, whereas in the earlier causes the ornaments of the man prevailed; in this one nothing else moves me except the rationale of war, except the highest utility of the Republic. For what reason should Caesar himself wish to linger in the province, unless to hand over to the Republic, as perfected, those things which through him have been undertaken? The amenity, I suppose, of the places, the beauty of the cities, the humanitas and charm of those peoples and nations, the desire of victory, the propagation of the borders of the empire—these detain him.

Quid illis terris asperius, quod incultius oppidis, quid nationibus immanius, quid porro tot victoriis praestabilius, quid Oceano longius inveniri potest? An reditus in patriam habet aliquam offensionem? utrum apud populum, a quo missus, an apud senatum, a quo ornatus est?

What is harsher than those lands, what more uncultivated in respect to towns, what more immanely cruel toward the nations, what moreover more pre-eminent with so many victories, what can be found farther than the Ocean? Or does a return to the fatherland have any offense? Is it with the people, by whom he was sent, or with the senate, by whom he was adorned?

an dies auget eius desiderium, an magis oblivionem, ac laurea illa magnis periculis parta amittit longo intervallo viriditatem? Quare, si qui hominem non diligunt, nihil est quod eum de provincia devocent; ad gloriam devocant, ad triumphum, ad gratulationem, ad summum honorem senatus, equestris ordinis gratiam, populi caritatem.

does the passage of days augment his desire, or rather oblivion, and does that laurel, won by great dangers, lose its viridity through a long interval? Wherefore, if there are any who do not love the man, there is nothing that would call him away from the province; they call him away to glory, to triumph, to congratulation, to the highest honor of the senate, to the favor of the equestrian order, to the affection of the people.

[30] Sed si ille hac tam eximia fortuna propter utilitatem rei publicae frui non properat, ut omnia illa conficiat, quid ego, senator, facere debeo, quem, etiamsi ille aliud vellet, rei publicae consulere oporteret?

[30] But if he does not hasten to enjoy this so exceptional fortune on account of the utility of the commonwealth, so that he may bring all those things to completion, what should I, a senator, do—I who, even if he should wish otherwise, ought to take counsel for the commonwealth?

Ego vero sic intellego, Patres conscripti, nos hoc tempore in provinciis decernendis perpetuae pacis habere oportere rationem. Nam quis hoc non sentit omnia alia esse nobis vacua ab omni periculo atque etiam suspicione belli?

I for my part thus understand, Conscript Fathers, that at this time, in assigning the provinces, we ought to have regard to perpetual peace. For who does not perceive this, that all other things are for us free from every peril and even suspicion of war?

[31] Iam diu mare videmus illud immensum, cuius fervore non solum maritumi cursus, sed urbes etiam et viae militares iam tenebantur, virtute Cn. Pompei sic a populo Romano ab Oceano usque ad ultimum Pontum tamquam unum aliquem portum tutum et clausum teneri; nationes eas, quae numero hominum ac multitudine ipsa poterant in provincias nostras redundare, ita ab eodem esse partim recisas, partim repressas, ut Asia, quae imperium antea nostrum terminabat, nunc tribus novis provinciis ipsa cingatur. Possum de omni regione, de omni genere hostium dicere. Nulla gens est quae non aut ita sublata sit, ut vix extet, aut ita domita, ut quiescat, aut ita pacata, ut victoria nostra imperioque laetetur.

[31] For a long time now we see that immense sea, by whose seething not only the maritime routes, but even cities and the military roads were already being held, to be kept by the valor of Cn. Pompeius by the Roman people from the Ocean to the farthest Pontus as though one single harbor, safe and closed; those nations which by the number of their men and their very multitude were able to overflow into our provinces to have been by that same man partly cut off, partly repressed, so that Asia, which previously bounded our empire, is now itself girdled by three new provinces. I can speak of every region, of every kind of enemy. There is no nation which has not either been so taken away that it scarcely exists, or so subdued that it keeps quiet, or so pacified that it rejoices in our victory and in our empire.

XIII.

13.

[32] Bellum Gallicum, Patres conscripti, C. Caesare imperatore gestum est, antea tantum modo repulsum. Semper illas nationes nostri imperatores refutandas potius bello quan lacessandas putaverunt. Ipse ille C. Marius, cuius divina atque eximia virtus magnis populi Romani luctibus funeribusque subvenir, influentis in Italiam Gallorum maximas copias repressit, non ipse ad eorum urbes sedesque penetravit.

[32] The Gallic War, Conscript Fathers, was waged under the imperator Gaius Caesar, whereas before it had only been repelled. Our commanders have always thought that those nations ought rather to be repelled by war than provoked. That very Gaius Marius himself, whose divine and exceptional virtue brought relief to the great griefs and funerals of the Roman people, checked the very great forces of the Gauls flowing into Italy, yet he himself did not penetrate to their cities and seats.

Modo ille meorum laborum, periculorum, consiliorum socius, C. Pomptinus, fortissimus vir, ortum repente bellum Allobrogum atque hac scelerata coniuratione excitatum proeliis fregit, eosque domuit, qui lacessierant, et ea victoria contentus re publica metu liberata quievit. C.Caesaris longe aliam video fuisse rationem. Non enim sibi solum cum iis, quos iam armatos contra populum Romanum videbat, bellandum esse duxit, sed totam Galliam in nostram dicionem esse redigendam.

Only lately that associate of my labors, dangers, and counsels, C. Pomptinus, a most brave man, broke by battles the war of the Allobroges that had suddenly arisen and had been stirred up by this wicked conspiracy, and he subdued those who had provoked, and, content with that victory, with the republic freed from fear, he kept quiet. I see that C. Caesar’s policy was far different. For he considered that he must wage war not only with those whom he already saw armed against the Roman people, but that all Gaul must be reduced into our dominion.

[33] Itaque cum acerrimis Germanorum et Helvetiorum nationibus et maximis proeliis felicissime decertavit, ceteras conterruit, compulit, domuit, imperio populi Romani parere adsuefecit et, quas regiones quasque gentes nullas nobis antea litterae, nulla vox, nulla fama notas fecerat, has noster imperator nosterque exercitus et populi Romani arma peragrarunt. Semitam tantum Galliae tenebamus antea, Patres conscripti; ceterae partes a gentibus aut inimicis huic imperio aut infidis aut incognitis aut certe immanibus et barbaris et bellicosis tenebantur; quas nationes nemo umquam fuit quin frangi domarique cuperet. Nemo sapienter de re publica nostra cogitavit iam inde a principio huius imperii, quin Galliam maxime timendam huic imperio putaret; sed propter vim ac multitudinem gentium illarum numquam est antea cum omnibus dimicatum; restitimus semper lacessati.

[33] And so with the very keenest nations of the Germans and the Helvetii, and in the greatest battles, he contended most successfully to a decision; he terrified the rest, compelled them, subdued them, accustomed them to obey the imperium of the Roman people, and those regions and those peoples which no writings, no voice, no report had previously made known to us, these our general and our army and the arms of the Roman people traversed. We held only a footpath of Gaul before, Conscript Fathers; the other parts were held by peoples either enemies to this imperium, or unfaithful, or unknown, or certainly monstrous and barbarous and warlike—nations which there has never been anyone who did not wish to see broken and tamed. No one who thought wisely about our res publica, from the very beginning of this imperium, failed to judge Gaul to be especially to be feared by this imperium; but on account of the force and multitude of those peoples, never before was there fighting with all of them; we always resisted when provoked.

Nunc denique est perfectum ut imperii nostri terrarumque illarum idem esset extremum.

Now at last it has been perfected that the extremity of our empire and of those lands is the same.

XIV.

14.

[34] Alpibus Italiam munierat antea natura non sine aliquo divino numine. Nam, si ille aditus Gallorum immanitati multitudineque patuisset, numquam haec urbs summo imperio domicilium ac sedem praebuisset. Quam iam licet considant.

[34] Nature had previously fortified Italy by the Alps, not without some divine numen. For, if that approach had lain open to the savagery and multitude of the Gauls, this city would never have provided a domicile and seat for the highest imperium. In which now they are permitted to take their seats.

Nihil est enim ultra altitudinem montium usque ad Oceanum, quod sit Italiae pertimescendum. Sed tamen una atque altera aestas vel metu vel spe vel poena vel praemiis vel armis vel legibus potest totam Galliam sempiternis vinculis adstringere. Impolitae vero res et acerbae si erunt relictae, quamquam sunt accisae, tamen efferent se aliquando et ad renovandum bellum revirescent.

For there is nothing beyond the altitude of the mountains all the way to the Ocean that Italy need dread. But yet one or two summers, either by fear or by hope or by punishment or by rewards or by arms or by laws, can bind all Gaul in sempiternal bonds. But if unpolished and harsh matters are left behind, although they have been excised, nevertheless they will at some time carry themselves out and regain strength to renew the war.

[35] Quare sit in eius tutela Gallia, cuius fidei, virtuti, felicitati commendata est. Qui si Fortunae muneribus amplissimis ornatus saepius eius deae periculum facere nollet, si in patriam, si ad deos penatis, si ad eam dignitatem, quam in civitate sibi propositam videt, si ad iucundissimos liberos, si ad clarissimum generum redire properaret, si in Capitolium invehi victor cum illa insigni laude gestiret, si denique timeret casum aliquem, qui illi tantum addere iam non potest quantum auferre, nos tamen oporteret ab eodem illa omnia, a quo profligata sunt, confici velle. Cum vero ille suae gloriae iam pridem, rei publicae nondum satis fecerit, et malit tamen tardius ad suorum laborum fructus pervenire quam non explere susceptum rei publicae munus, nec imperatorem incensum ad rem publicam bene gerendam revocare nec totam Gallici belli rationem prope iam explicatam perturbare atque impedire debemus.

[35] Therefore let Gaul be in his tutelage, to whose fidelity, virtue, and felicity it has been commended. Who, if he, adorned with the most ample gifts of Fortune, should not wish too often to make a trial of that goddess, if he should hasten to return into his fatherland, to the household gods, to that dignity which he sees set before him in the state, to his most pleasant children, to his most illustrious son-in-law, if he should long to be borne into the Capitol as victor with that signal praise, if finally he should fear some mishap which now cannot add so much to him as it can take away, nevertheless it would behoove us to wish that all those things be completed by the same man by whom they have been brought low. But since he has long since satisfied his own glory, not yet sufficiently the republic, and yet prefers to arrive more slowly at the fruits of his labors than not to fulfill the undertaken duty to the republic, we ought neither to call back a commander inflamed for conducting the republic well nor to disturb and impede the whole plan of the Gallic war, now almost unfolded.

XV.

15.

[36] Nam illae sententiae virorum clarissimorum minime probandae sunt, quorum alter ulteriorem Galliam decernit cum Syria, alter citeriorem. Qui ulteriorem, omnia illa, de quibus disserui paulo ante perturbat; simul ostendit eam se tenere legem, quam esse legem neget, et quae pars provinciae sit, cui non possit intercedi, hanc se avellere, quae defensorem habeat, non tangere; simul et illud facit ut, quod illi a populo datum sit, id non violet, quod senatus dederit, id senator properet auferre. Alter belli Gallici rationem habet, fungitur officio boni senatoris, legem quam non putat, eam quoque servat; praefinit enim successori diem.

[36] For those opinions of most illustrious men are least to be approved, of whom the one assigns Further Gaul together with Syria, the other Hither Gaul. He who assigns the Further, disturbs all those things about which I discoursed a little before; at the same time he shows that he holds as binding that law which he declares not to be a law, and that part of the province to which it is not possible to intercede, this he plucks away; that which has a defender, he does not touch. At the same time he also brings it about that what was given to that man by the people he does not violate, but what the senate has given, this a senator hastens to take away. The other has regard to the plan of the Gallic war, discharges the duty of a good senator, even keeps the law which he does not think to be a law; for he sets a day for a successor.

Quo mihi nihil videtur magis a dignitate disciplinaque maiorum dissidere, quam ut, qui consul Kalendis ianuariis habere provinciam debet, is ut eam desponsam, non decretam habere videatur.

Wherefore nothing seems to me more at odds with the dignity and discipline of the ancestors than that the man who, as consul, ought to have a province on January 1 should seem to have it as betrothed, not decreed.

[37] Fuerit toto in consulatu sine provincia, cui fuerit, antequam designatus est, decreta provincia. Sortietur an non? Nam et non sortiri absurdum est, et, quod sortitus sis, non habere.

[37] Let him have been, for the whole of his consulship, without a province, he to whom a province had been decreed before he was designated. Will he draw lots or not? For both not to draw lots is absurd, and not to have what you have drawn by lot.

Proficiscetur paludatus? Quo? Quo pervenire ante certam diem non licebit.

Will he set out wearing the paludamentum? Where? To a place it will not be permitted to reach before a fixed day.

ianuario, Februario, provinciam non habebit; Kalendis ei denique Martiis nascetur repente provincia.

In January, in February, he will not have a province; finally, for him, on the Kalends of March a province will suddenly be born.

[38] Ac tamen his sententiis Piso in provincia permanebit. Quae cum gravia sint, nihil gravius illo, quod multari imperatorem deminutione provinciae contumeliosum est, neque solum summo in viro, sed etiam mediocri in homine id ne accidat providendum. XVI.

[38] And yet, under these sentences, Piso will remain in the province. Although these are weighty, nothing is more weighty than this: that to fine a commander by a diminution of his province is an insult, and provision must be made that this not befall not only a man of the highest rank, but even a man of middling condition. 16.

Ego vos intellego, Patres conscripti, multos decrevisse eximios honores C. Caesari et prope singularis, Si, quod ita meritus erat, grati, sin etiam, ut quam coniunctissimus huic ordini esset, sapientes ac divini fuistis. Neminem umquam est hic ordo complexus honoribus et beneficiis suis, qui ullam dignitatem praestabiliorem ea, quam per vos esset adeptus, putarit. Nemo umquam hic potuit esse princeps, qui maluerit esse popularis.

I understand you, Conscript Fathers, to have decreed many outstanding and almost singular honors to Gaius Caesar—if, because he so deserved it, you were grateful; but even if you did it so that he might be as closely conjoined as possible to this order, you were wise and divine. This order has never embraced anyone with its honors and benefactions who has thought any dignity preferable to that which he had obtained through you. No one here has ever been able to be the foremost man who has preferred to be a populist.

Sed homines, aut propter indignitatem suam diffisi ipsi sibi, aut propter reliquorum obtrectationem ab huius ordinis coniunctione depulsi, saepe ex hoc portu se in illos fluctus prope necessario contulerunt. Qui si ex illa iactatione cursuque populari, bene gesta re publica, referunt aspectum in curiam atque huic amplissimae dignitati esse commendati volunt, non modo non repellendi sunt, verum etiam expetendi.

But men, either, because of their own indignity, diffident of themselves, or, because of the detraction of the rest, driven away from conjunction with this order, have often from this harbor betaken themselves, almost of necessity, into those waves. If they, from that tossing and popular course, with the commonwealth well conducted, bring back their gaze to the Curia and wish to be commended to this most ample dignity, they are not only not to be repelled, but indeed even to be sought after.

[39] Monemur a fortissimo viro atque optimo post hominum memoriam consule, ut provideamus ne citerior Gallia nobis invitis alicui decernatur post eos consules, qui nunc erunt designati, perpetuoque posthac ab iis, qui hunc ordinem oppugnent, populari ac turbulenta ratione teneatur. Quam ego plagam etsi non contemno, Patres conscripti, praesertim monitus a sapientissimo consule et diligentissimo custode pacis atque otii, tamen vehementius arbitror pertimescendum, si hominum clarissimorum ac potentissimorum aut honorem minuero aut studium erga hunc ordinem repudiaro. Nam ut C. iulius, omnibus a senatu eximiis ac novis rebus ornatus, per manus hanc provinciam tradat ei cui minime vos velitis, per quem ordinem ipse amplissimam sit gloriam consecutus, ei ne libertatem quidem relinquat, adduci ad suspicandum nullo modo possum.

[39] We are admonished by a most brave man and the best consul within the memory of men, to provide that Hither Gaul not be assigned to someone against our will after those consuls who will now be designated, and that thereafter it not be held perpetually by those who assail this order, by a popular and turbulent method. Which blow, although I do not make light of it, Conscript Fathers—especially being warned by the wisest consul and the most diligent guardian of peace and repose—yet I judge to be more vehemently to be feared if I diminish the honor of the most illustrious and most powerful men, or repudiate their zeal toward this order. For that Gaius Julius, adorned by the Senate with all exceptional and novel distinctions, should hand this province over, through his agency, to him whom you would least wish; and that, toward the order through which he himself has attained the most ample glory, he should not even leave liberty—I can in no way be induced to suspect.

Postremo, quo quisque animo futurus sit, nescio; quid sperem video; praestare hoc senator debeo, quantum possum, ne quis vir clarus aut potens huic ordini iure irasci posse videatur. Atque haec, si inimicissimus essem C. Caesari, sentirem tamen rei publicae causa.

Finally, what spirit each person will have, I do not know; what I may hope, I see; I, as a senator, ought to guarantee this, as far as I can, that no illustrious or potent man seem able by right to be angry with this order. And these things, even if I were the most hostile to Gaius Caesar, I would nevertheless feel for the sake of the Republic.

XVII.

17.

[40] Sed non alienum esse arbitror, quo minus saepe aut interpeller a non nullis aut tacitorum existimatione reprehendar, explicare breviter quae mihi sit ratio et causa cum Caesare. Ac primum illud tempus familiaritatis et consuetudinis, quae mihi cum illo, quae fratri meo, quae C. Varroni, consobrino nostro, ab omnium nostrum adulescentia fuit, praetermitto. Posteaquam sum penitus in rem publicam ingressus, ita dissensi ab illo, ut in disiunctione sententiae coniuncti tamen amicitia maneremus.

[40] But I do not deem it alien, so that I may the less often either be interrupted by certain persons or be blamed by the judgment of the silent, to explain briefly what rationale and cause I have with Caesar. And first I pass over that period of familiarity and consuetude which I had with him, which my brother had, which C. Varro, our cousin, had, from the youth of us all. After I had entered deeply into the republic, I dissented from him in such a way that, though in a disjunction of opinion, we nevertheless remained conjoined in friendship.

[41] Consul ille egit eas res, quarum me participem esse voluit; quibus ego si minus adsentiebar, tamen illius mihi iudicium gratum esse debebat. Me ille ut quinqueviratum acciperem rogavit ; me in tribus sibi coniunctissimis consularibus esse voluit; mihi legationem, quam vellem, quanto cum honore vellem, detulit. Quae ego omnia non ingrato animo, sed obstinatione quadam sententiae repudiavi.

[41] That consul conducted those affairs, of which he wished me to be a participant; in which, if I assented the less, nevertheless his judgment ought to be pleasing to me. He asked me that I accept the quinquevirate ; he wished me to be among three consulars most closely joined to himself; to me he conferred a legation, whichever I wished, with as much honor as I wished. Which all I repudiated, not with an ungrateful mind, but with a certain obstinacy of opinion.

Quam sapienter non disputo; multis enim non probabo; constanter quidem et fortiter certe, qui cum me firmissimis opibus contra scelus inimicorum munire et popularis impetus populari praesidio propulsare possem, quamvis excipere fortunam, subire vim atque iniuriam malui, quam aut a vestris sanctissimis mentibus dissidere aut de meo statu declinare. Sed non is solum gratus debet esse, qui accepit beneficium, verum etiam is, cui potestas accipiendi fuit. Ego illa ornamenta, quibus ille me ornabat, decere me et convenire iis rebus, quas gesseram, non putabam; illum quidem amico animo me habere eodem loco quo principem civium, suum generum, sentiebam.

How wisely I do not dispute; for I shall not win approval with many; yet certainly consistently and bravely I acted, for although I could fortify myself with the firmest resources against the crime of my enemies and repel popular onsets by popular protection, I preferred, however, to accept fortune, to undergo violence and injustice, rather than either to dissent from your most holy minds or to deviate from my own standing. But not only ought he to be grateful who has received a benefaction, but also he to whom there was the power of receiving. I did not think those ornaments with which he was adorning me befitted me or were congruent with the things I had carried out; indeed I perceived that he, with a friendly spirit, held me in the same rank as the prince of the citizens, his son-in-law.

[42] Traduxit ad plebem inimicum meum, sive iratus mihi, quod me secum ne in beneficiis quidem videbat posse coniugi, sive exoratus. Ne haec quidem fuit iniuria. Nam postea me, ut sibi essem legatus, non solum suasit, verum etiam rogavit.

[42] He led my enemy before the plebs, either being angry with me, because he saw that I could not be joined with him even in benefactions, or being prevailed upon. Not even this was an injury. For afterwards he not only urged me, but even requested that I should be his legate.

Ne id quidem accepi; non quo alienum mea dignitate arbitrarer, sed quod tantum rei publicae sceleris impendere a consulibus proximis non suspicabar. Ergo adhuc magis est mihi verendum ne mea superbia in illius liberalitate quam ne illius iniuria in nostra amicitia reprendatur.

I did not accept that either; not because I judged it alien to my dignity, but because I did not suspect that so great a crime against the republic was impending from the next consuls. Therefore it is even more to be feared by me, lest my pride be reprehended in his liberality rather than his injury be reprehended in our amity.

XVIII.

18.

[43] Ecce illa tempestas caligo bonorum et subita atque improvisa formido, tenebrae rei publicae, ruina atque incendium civitatis, terror iniectus Caesari de eius actis, metus caedis bonis omnibus, consulum scelus, cupiditas, egestas, audacia! Si non sum adiutus, non debui; si desertus, sibi fortasse providit; si etiam oppugnatus, ut quidam aut putant aut volunt, violata amicitia est, accepi iniuriam; inimicus esse debui, non nego. sed, si idem ille tum me salvum esse voluit cum vos me ut carissimum filium desiderabatis, et si vos idem pertinere ad causam illam putabatis, voluntatem Caesaris a salute mea non abhorrere, et si illius voluntatis generum eius habeo testem, qui idem Italiam in minicipiis, populum Romanum in contione, vos mei semper cupidissimos in Capitolio ad meam salutem incitavit, si denique Cn. Pompeius idem mihi testis de voluntate Caesaris et sponsor est illi de mea, nonne vobis videor et ultimi temporis recordatione et proximi memoria medium illud tristissimum tempus debere, si ex rerum natura non possim evellere, ex animo quidem certe excidere?

[43] Behold that storm: the gloom of the good and a sudden and unpremeditated dread, the darkness of the commonwealth, the ruin and conflagration of the city, terror injected into Caesar about his acts, fear of slaughter for all good men, the consuls’ crime, cupidity, indigence, audacity! If I was not aided, I ought not to have been; if I was deserted, perhaps he provided for himself; if even attacked, as some either think or wish, friendship was violated, I received an injury; I ought to have been an enemy, I do not deny. But if that same man then wished me to be safe when you were longing for me as for a dearest son, and if you likewise thought it pertained to that cause that Caesar’s will was not at variance with my safety, and if I have as witness of his will his son-in-law, who likewise incited Italy in the municipia, the Roman people in a contio, you—always most desirous of me—on the Capitol, to my safety, if finally Gnaeus Pompeius is likewise to me a witness about Caesar’s will and to him a sponsor about mine, do I not seem to you, both by the recollection of the last time and the memory of the nearest, to have that middle, most sorrowful time, if I cannot wrench it from the nature of things, at least certainly drop out from my mind?

[44] Ego vero, si mihi non licet per aliquos ita gloriari, me dolorem atque inimicitias meas rei publicae concessisse, si hoc magni cuiusdam hominis et persapientis videtur, utar hoc, quod non tam ad laudem adipiscendam quam ad vitandam vituperationem valet, hominem me esse gratum et non modo tantis beneficiis, sed etiam mediocri hominum benivolentia commoveri. XIX. A viris fortissimis et de me optime meritis quibusdam peto, ut, si ego illos meorum laborum atque incommodorum participes esse nolui, ne illi me suarum inimicitiarum socium velint esse, praesertim cum mihi idem illi concesserint, ut etiam acta illa Caesaris, quae neque oppugnavi antea, neque defendi, meo iam iure possim defendere.

[44] Indeed I, if it is not permitted me, in the eyes of some, thus to glory, that I have conceded my grief and my enmities to the commonwealth, if this seems the part of a certain great and very wise man, I will use this claim, which avails not so much for acquiring laud as for avoiding vituperation: that I am a grateful man, and am moved not only by such great benefactions, but even by moderate human benevolence. 19. From certain most brave men, who have deserved exceedingly well of me, I ask this: if I was unwilling that they be partners of my labors and inconveniences, let them not wish me to be a companion of their enmities, especially since those same men have granted me that I may now, by my own right, even defend those acts of Caesar which I neither attacked before nor defended.

[45] Nam summi civitatis viri, quorum ego consilio rem publicam conservavi et quorum auctoritate illam coniunctionem Caesaris defugi, iulias leges et ceteras illo consule rogatas iure latas negant; idem illam proscriptionem capitis mei contra salutem rei publicae, sed salvis auspiciis rogatam esse dicebant. Itaque vir summa auctoritate, summa eloquentia dixit graviter casum illum meum funus esse rei publicae, sed funus iustum et indictum. Mihi ipsi omnino perhonorificum est discessum meum funus dici rei publicae; reliqua non reprendo, sed mihi ad id, quod sentio, adsumo.

[45] For the highest men of the state, by whose counsel I preserved the commonwealth and by whose authority I shunned that conjunction of Caesar, deny that the Julian laws and the others proposed with that man as consul were carried in due form of law; the same men were saying that that proscription of my head was proposed against the safety of the commonwealth, but with the auspices intact. And so a man of the highest authority, of the highest eloquence, said weightily that that mischance of mine was the funeral of the commonwealth, but a just and proclaimed funeral. For myself it is altogether most honorific that my departure is called the funeral of the commonwealth; the rest I do not reprove, but I assume to myself that which accords with what I think.

Nam, si illud iure rogatum dicere ausi sunt, quod nullo exemplo fieri potuit, nulla lege licuit, quia nemo de caelo servarat, oblitine erant tum, cum ille, qui id egerat, plebeius est lege curiata factus, dici de caelo servatum? Qui si plebeius omnino esse non potuit, qui tribunus plebis potuit esse? et, cuius tribunatus si ratus est, nihil est quod inritum ex actis Caesaris possit esse, eius non solum tribunatus sed etiam perniciosissimae res, auspiciorum religione conservata, iure latae videbuntur?

For, if they dared to say that that was duly proposed, which could be done with no precedent, and was permitted by no law, because no one had watched the sky, had they forgotten that then, when the man who had done it was made a plebeian by a curiate law, it was said that the sky had been watched? And if he could not be a plebeian at all, how could he be tribune of the plebs? And, if his tribunate is ratified, there is nothing that can be void from Caesar’s acts; will not only his tribunate, but even the most pernicious measures, with the religion of the auspices preserved, seem to have been lawfully carried?

[46] Quare aut vobis statuendum est legem Aeliam manere, legem Fufiam non abrogatam, non omnibus fastis legem ferri licere, cum lex feratur, de caelo servari, obnuntiari, intercedi, licere, censorium iudicium ac notionem et illud morum severissimum magisterium non esse nefariis legibus de civitate sublatum, si patricius tribunus plebis fuerit, contra leges sacratas, si plebeius, contra auspicia fuisse, aut mihi concedant homines oportet in rebus bonis non exquirere ea iura, quae ipsi in perditis non exquirant, praesertim cum ab illis aliquotiens condicio C. Caesari lata sit, ut easdem res alio modo ferret, qua condicione auspicia requirebant, leges comprobabant, in Clodio auspiciorum ratio sit eadem, leges omnes sint eversae ac perditae civitatis.

[46] Wherefore either you must determine that the Aelian Law remains, that the Fufian Law has not been abrogated, that it is not permitted for a law to be carried on all fasti-days, that, when a law is being carried, it is permitted to take observations from the sky, to make obnuntiation, to intercede, that the censorial judgment and notio and that most severe magisterium of morals have not been removed from the state by nefarious laws; that, if he was a patrician, the tribunate of the plebs was against the Sacred Laws, if a plebeian, it was against the auspices; or men ought to concede to me that in good causes one should not ferret out those legalities which they themselves do not ferret out in ruinous ones—especially since by those men a condition was more than once proposed to Gaius Caesar, that he should carry the same measures in another manner, under which condition they required auspices and approved the laws—while in the case of Clodius, though the reasoning about the auspices is the same, let all the laws be overthrown and the commonwealth ruined.

XX.

20.

[47] Extremum illud est. Ego, si essent inimicitiae mihi C. Caesare, tamen hoc tempore rei publicae consulere, inimicitias in aliud tempus reservare deberem; possem etiam summorum virorum exemplo inimicitias rei publicae causa deponere. Sed cum inimicitiae fuerint numquam, opinio iniuriae beneficio sit extincta, sententia mea, Patres conscripti, si dignitas agitur Caesaris, homini tribuam, si honos quidam, senatus concordiae consulam, si auctoritas decretorum vestrorum, constantiam ordinis in eodem ornando imperatore servabo, si perpetua ratio Gallici belli, rei publicae providebo, si aliquod meum privatum officium, me non ingratum esse praestabo.

[47] This is the last point. I, even if there were enmities between me and Gaius Caesar, ought at this time to consult for the republic, to reserve enmities for another time; I could also, by the example of the highest men, lay down enmities for the sake of the republic. But since there have never been enmities, the opinion of an injury has been extinguished by a benefice, my vote, Conscript Fathers, if Caesar’s dignity is at stake, I will grant to the man; if it is some honor, I will have regard for the concord of the senate; if it is the authority of your decrees, I will maintain the constancy of the order in adorning the same commander; if it is the perpetual policy of the Gallic war, I will provide for the republic; if it is some private duty of mine, I will show that I am not ungrateful.

Atque hoc velim probare omnibus, Patres conscripti; sed levissime feram si forte aut iis minus probaro, qui meum inimicum repugnante vestra auctoritate texerunt, aut iis, si qui meum cum inimico suo reditum in gratiam vituperabunt, cum ipsi et cum meo et cum suo inimico in gratiam non dubitarint redire.

And this I would wish to be approved by all, Conscript Fathers; but I shall bear it most lightly if by chance I am less approved either by those who protected my enemy in defiance of your authority, or by those—if there be any—who will vituperate my return into favor with their enemy, since they themselves have not hesitated to return into favor both with my enemy and with their own.