Claudius Caesar: CLAVDII CAESARIS ORATIO

Equidem primam omnium illam cogitationem hominum, quam | maxime primam occursuram mihi provideo, deprecor, ne | quasi novam istam rem introduci exhorrescatis, sed illa | potius cogitetis, quam multa in hac civitate novata sint, et | quidem statim ab origine urbis nostrae in quod formas | statusque respublica nostra diducta sit. |

Indeed that very first thought of all men, which | I foresee will most especially be the first to occur to me, I deprecate, that | you not shudder as if that thing were being introduced as something new, but this | rather you would consider: how many things in this civitas have been innovated, and | indeed straightway from the origin of our city, into what forms | and statuses our commonwealth has been divided. |

Quondam reges hanc tenuere urbem, nec tamen domesticis succes|soribus eam tradere contigit. Supervenere aileni et quidem exter | ni, ut Numa Romulo succescerit ex Sabinis veniens, vicinus qui | dem, sed tunc externus, ut Anco Marcio Priscus Tarquinius. Is | propter temeratum sanguinem, quod patre Demaratho Co | rinthio natus erat et Tarquiniensi matre generosa, sed inopi | ut quae tali marito necesse habuerit succumbere, cum domi re | pelleretur a gerendis honoribus, postquam Romam migravit, | regnum adeptus est.

Once kings held this city, nor yet did it befall to hand it over to domestic succes|cessors. Outsiders supervened, and indeed exter | nals, as Numa succeeded Romulus, coming from the Sabines, a neighbor inde | ed, but then an outsider; as to Ancus Marcius, there was Priscus Tarquinius. He | on account of tainted blood, because he had been born of a father Demaratus of Co | rinthian stock and a Tarquinian mother noble but indige | nt—as one who, with such a husband, had of necessity to succumb—when at home he was being re | pelled from holding honors, after he migrated to Rome, | obtained the kingship.

Huic quoque et filio nepotive eius (nam et | hoc inter auctores discrepat) insertus Servius Tullius, si nostros | sequimur, captiva natus Ocresia; Si Tuscos, Caeli quondam Vi | vennae sodalis fidelissimus omnisque eius casus comes, post | quam varia fortuna exactus cum omnibus reliquis Caeliani |exercitus Etruria excessit, montem Caelium occupavit et a duce suo | Caelio ita appellitatus, mutatoque nomine (nam Tusce Mastarna | ei nomen erat) ita appellatus est, ut dixi, et regnum summa cum rei | p. utilitate optinuit. Deinde postquam Tarquini Superbi mores in | visi civitati nostrae esse coeperunt, qua ipsius qua filiorum eius, | nempe pertaesum est mentes regni, et ad consules, annuos magis | tratus, administratio rei p. translata est. |

To him also, and to his son or grandson (for even | this among the authors is in disagreement), there was inserted Servius Tullius—if we follow our own [writers], born of the captive Ocresia; if we follow the Tuscans, once the most faithful comrade of Caeles Vi | benna and the companion of all his fortunes—after | when, driven by varied fortune, he, together with all the rest of the Caeliani | army, departed from Etruria, he occupied the Caelian hill and was so named from his leader | Caeles, and with his name changed (for in Tuscan his name was Mastarna) | he was so called, as I have said, and he held the kingship with the greatest utility to the com | monwealth. Then, after the ways of Tarquinius Superbus began to be in | hateful to our state, both his own and those of his sons eius, | plainly men’s minds were wearied of kingship, and to the consuls, annual magis | istracies, the administration of the commonwealth was transferred. |

Quid nunc commemorem dictaturae hoc ipso consulari impe | ium valentius repertum apud maiores nostros quo in as | perioribus bellis aut in civili motu difficiliore uterentur? | aut in auxilium plebis creatos tribunos plebei? Quid a consa | libus ad decemviros translatum imperium, solutoque postea decemvirali regno ad consules rusus reditum?

What am I now to recount of the dictatorship, found among our ancestors as more powerful than this very consular imperium, which they would use in harsher wars or in a more difficult civil commotion? or of the tribunes of the plebs created for the aid of the plebs? What of the imperium transferred from the consuls to the decemvirs, and, the decemviral kingship afterward dissolved, the return again to the consuls?

Quid in plu | ris distributum consulare imperium, tribunosque militum | consulari imperio appellatos, qui seni et saepe octoni crearen | tur? Quid communicatos postremo cum plebe honores non imperii | solum, sed sacerdotiorum quoque? Iam si narrem bella, a quibus | coeperint maiores nostri, et quo processerimus, vereor, ne nimio | insolentior esse videar, et quaesisse iactationem gloriae pro | lati imperi ultra Oceanunar.

What of the consular imperium distributed among more | persons, and the military tribunes styled with consular imperium, who were crea | ted six and often eight? What of honors at last shared with the plebs, not of imperium | only, but of priesthoods as well? Now if I should narrate the wars, from which | our elders began, and to what point we have advanced, I fear lest I may seem too | insolent, and to have sought an ostentation of the glory of a pro | longed empire beyond Ocean.

Sed illoc potius revertar. Civitatem |

But I will rather return to that. The state |

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. . . . . . . . . ill sane|novo . . . Divus Aug. . . . . . no . . . . i set patruus Ti. | Caesar omnem florem ubique coloniarum et municipiorum, bo | norum scilicet virorum et locupletium, in hac curia esse voluit. | Quid ergo?

. . . . . . . . . that indeed|new . . . the Deified Augustus . . . . . no . . . . i set his uncle Tiberius | Caesar wanted all the flower everywhere of the colonies and of the municipalities, of good | men, namely, and of the wealthy, to be in this curia. | What then?

Non Italicus senator provinciali potior est? Iam | vobis cum hanc partem censurae meae adprobare coepero, quid |de ea re sentiam, rebus ostendam. Sed ne provinciales quidem, | si modo ornare curiam poterint, reiciendos puto.

Is not an Italic senator preferable to a provincial? Now | to you, when I shall have begun to approve this part of my censorship, what |I think about that matter, I will show by deeds. But not even provincials, | if only they can adorn the Curia, do I think to be rejected.

Ornatissima ecce colonia valentissimaque Viennensium quam|longo iam tempore senatores huic curiae confert? Ex qua colo | nia inter paucos equestris ordinis ornamentum, L. Vestinum, fa|miliarissime diligo et hodieque in rebus meis detineo; cuius libe | ri fruantur quaeso primo sacerdotiorum gradu, post modo cum | annis promoturi dignitatis suae incrementa. Vt dirum nomen la | tronis taceam, et odi illud palaestricum prodigium, quod ante in do | mum consulatum intulit, quam colonia sua solidum civitatis Roma | nec benificium consecuta est.

Behold the most adorned and most mighty colony of the Viennenses, which|for how long a time now has it been contributing senators to this curia? From which col | ony, among the few, an ornament of the equestrian order, L. Vestinus, I most in|timately cherish and even today keep employed in my affairs; whose chil | dren, I pray, may enjoy the first grade of the priesthoods, afterwards in due course with | years to advance the increments of their dignity. That I may pass over the dire name of a ban | dit, I also loathe that palaestric prodigy, which brought a consulship into his | house before his colony obtained the solid benefit of Roman citi | zenship.

Idem de fratre eius possum dicere, | miserabili quidem indignissimoque hoc casu, ut vobis utilis | senator esse non possit. |

I can say the same about his brother, | indeed in this miserable and most unworthy case, | so that he cannot be a useful senator to you. |

Tempus est iam, Ti. Caesar Germanice, detegere te patribus conscriptis | quo tendat oratio tua: iam enim ad extremos fines Galliae Nar | bonensis venisti. |

It is now time, Ti. Caesar Germanicus, to disclose to the Conscript Fathers | whither your oration is tending: for already you have come to the farthest bounds of Narbonensian Gaul. |

Tot ecce insignes iuvenes, quot intueor, non magis sunt paenitendi | senatores, quam paenitet Persicum, nobilissimum virum, ami | cum meum, inter imagines maiorum suorum Allobrogici no | men legere. Quod si haec ita esse consentitis, quid ultra desidera | tis, quam ut vobis digito demonstrem solum ipsum ultra fines | provinciae Narbonensis iam vobis senatores mittere, quando | ex Luguduno habere nos nostri ordinis viros non paenitet? | Timide quidem, p. c. egressus adsuetos familiares que vobis pro| vinciarum terminos sum, sed destricte iam comatae Galliae | causa agenda est.

Behold, so many distinguished youths as I gaze upon are no more to be regretted as senators than Persicus, a most noble man, my friend, regrets to read among the images of his ancestors the name Allobrogicus. | If you agree that these things are so, what more do you desire than that I point out to you with my finger that the very soil beyond the borders of the Narbonensian province is now sending you senators, since it does not repent us to have men of our order from Lugdunum? | Timidly indeed, Conscript Fathers, I have stepped beyond the boundaries of the provinces to which you are accustomed and which are familiar to you, but now the cause of long‑haired Gaul must be argued plainly. |

In qua si quis hoc intuetur, quod bello per de | cem annos exercuerunt Divom Iulium, idem opponat centum | annorum immobilem fidem obsequiumque multis trepidis re | bus nostris plusquam expertum. Illi patri meo Druso Germaniam | subigenti tutam quiete sua securamque a tergo pacem praes | titerunt, et quidem cum adcensus novo tum opere et in ad sue | to Gallis ad bellum avocatus esset. Quod opus quam ar | duum sit nobis nunc cum maxime, quam vis nihil ultra quam | ut publice notae sint facultates nostrae, exquiratur, nimis | magnos experimento cognoscimus.

In this matter, if anyone regards this, that they waged war upon the deified Julius for ten years, let him set against it the immovable loyalty and obedience of one hundred years, more than proved in many of our anxious crises. Those men furnished to my father Drusus, while he was subduing Germany, a peace safe by their quiet and secure at his back; and indeed when he had been drawn to the census—a then new undertaking—and also diverted to war in a manner habitual to the Gauls. How arduous that work is for us now most of all, although nothing more is sought than that our resources be publicly known, we learn by experience to be excessively great.