Sallust: Oratio Macri

Si, Quirites, parum existumaretis quid inter ius a maioribus relictum uobis et hoc a Sulla paratum seruitium interesset, multis mihi disserundum fuit, docendique quas ob iniurias et quotiens a patribus armata plebes secessisset utique uindices parauisset omnis iuris sui tribunos plebis. Nunc hortari modo relicuom est et ire primum uia qua capessundam arbitror libertatem. Neque me praeterit quantas opes nobilitatis solus, inpotens, inani specie magistratus, pellere dominatione incipiam, quantoque tutius factio noxiorum agat quam soli innocentes.

If, Quirites, you were reckoning too little what difference there is between the right left to you by your ancestors and this servitude prepared by Sulla, I would have had to discourse at length, and to teach for what injuries and how often the plebs, armed, seceded from the Fathers, and in any case had provided avengers of all its right, the tribunes of the plebs. Now it only remains to exhort, and to go first by the road by which I judge liberty must be seized. Nor does it escape me with how great resources of the nobility I, alone, powerless, with the empty semblance of a magistracy, am beginning to drive them from their domination, and how much more safely the faction of the guilty acts than the innocent standing alone.

Sed praeter spem bonam ex uobis, quae metum uicit, statui certaminis aduorsa pro libertate potiora esse forti uiro quam omnino non certauisse.

But, besides the good hope from you, which conquered fear, I have determined that the adversities of contest for liberty are preferable for a brave man than not to have contended at all.

Quamquam omnes alii, creati pro iure uostro, uim cunctam et imperia sua gratia aut spe aut praemiis in nos conuortere, meliusque habent mercede delinquere quam gratis recte facere. Itaque omnes concessere iam in paucorum dominationem, qui per militare nomen, aerarium, exercitus, regna, prouincias occupauere et arcem habent ex spoliis uostris; cum interim, more pecorum, uos, multitudo, singulis habendos fruendosque praebetis, exuti omnibus quae maiores reliquere, nisi quia uobismet ipsi per suffragia, ut praesides olim, nunc dominos destinatis. ltaque concessere illuc omnes; at mox, si uostra receperitis, ad uos plerique : raris enim animus est ad ea quae placent defendunda; ceteri ualidiorum sunt.

Although all others, created for your right, turn all force and their commands, by favor or hope or rewards, against us, and they consider it better to delinque for a wage than to do right for free. And so all have now yielded into the domination of a few, who, under the military name, have seized the treasury, the armies, kingdoms, provinces, and hold a citadel from your spoils; while meanwhile, after the manner of cattle, you, the multitude, offer yourselves to be had and enjoyed by individuals, stripped of all the things which your ancestors left—save that you yourselves by your suffrages appoint, as once guardians, now masters. Therefore all have withdrawn thither; but soon, if you recover what is yours, most will come back to you: for a defending spirit for the things one approves is rare; the rest belong to the stronger.

An dubium habetis num officere quid uobis uno animo pergentibus possit, quos languidos socordisque pertimuere? Nisi forte C. Cotta, ex factione media consul, aliter quam metu iura quaedam tribunis plebis restituit. Et quamquam L. Sicinius, primus de potestate tribunicia loqui ausus, mussantibus uobis circumuentus erat, tamen prius illi inuidiam metuere quam uos iniuriae pertaesum est.

Or do you hold it doubtful whether anything can obstruct you, proceeding with one mind—you whom they feared even when languid and slothful? Unless perhaps C. Cotta, consul from the middle faction, restored certain rights to the tribunes of the plebs otherwise than from fear. And although L. Sicinius, the first to dare to speak about tribunician power, was hemmed in while you were muttering, nevertheless they feared ill-will sooner than you grew weary of injustice.

Quod ego nequeo satis mirari, Quirites; nam spem frustra fuisse intellexistis. Sulla mortuo, qui scelestum imposuerat seruitium, finem mali credebatis : ortus est longe saeuior Catulus. Tumultus intercessit Bruto et Mamerco consulibus.

Which I cannot marvel at enough, Quirites; for you understood that hope had been in vain. With Sulla dead, who had imposed a criminal servitude, you believed there was an end of the evil: a far more savage Catulus arose. A tumult intervened with Brutus and Mamercus as consuls.

Dein C. Curio ad exitium usque insontis tribuni dominatus est. Lucullus superiore anno quantis animis ierit in L Quintium uidistis. Quantae denique nunc mihi turbae concitantur!

Then Gaius Curio carried on domination even to the very destruction of an innocent tribune. Last year you have seen with what spirit Lucullus went against Lucius Quintius. What tumults, finally, are now being stirred up against me!

Quae profecto in cassum agebantur, si prius quam uos seruiundi finem, illi dominationis facturi erant; praesertim cum his ciuilibus armis dicta alia, sed certatum utrimque de dominatione in uobis sit. Itaque cetera ex licentia aut odio aut auaritia in tempus arsere; permansit una res modo, quae utrimque quaesita est et erepta in posterum, uis tribunicia, telum a maioribus libertati paratum. Quod ego uos moneo quaesoque ut animaduortatis, neu nomina rerum ad ignauiam mutantes, otium pro seruitio appelletis.

Which indeed would have been carried on in vain, if they were going to make an end of their domination before you made an end of being in servitude; especially since, with these civil arms, one thing was said, but on both sides the contest was for domination over you. And so the rest flared for a time out of license or hatred or avarice; one thing alone persisted, which on both sides was sought and torn away for the time to come: the tribunician force, a weapon prepared by our ancestors for liberty. This I warn you of and beg you to take note of, and do not, changing the names of things into cowardice, call slavery “peace.”

Quo iam ipso frui, si uera et honesta flagitium superauerit, non est condicio : fuisset, si omnino quiessetis. Nunc animum aduortere et, nisi uiceritis, quoniam omnis iniuria grauitate tutior est, artius habebunt.

To enjoy that very thing now, if a disgrace shall have overcome the true and the honorable, is not the condition: it would have been, if you had altogether kept quiet. Now turn your mind, and, unless you shall have conquered, since every injury is safer under the pretext of gravity, they will hold you more tightly.

"Quid censes igitur?" aliquis uostrum subiecerit. Primum omnium, omittendum morem hunc quem agitis, impigrae linguae, animi ignaui, non ultra contionis locum memores libertatis; deinde--ne uos ad uirilia illa uocem, quo tribunos plebei, modo patricium magistratum, libera ab auctoribus patriciis suffragia maiores uostri parauere--cum uis omnis, Quirites, in uobis sit et quae iussa nunc pro aliis toleratis, pro uobis agere aut non agere certe possitis, Iouem aut alium quem deum consultorem expectatis? Magna illa consulum imperia et patrum decreta uos exsequendo rata efficitis, Quirites; ultroque licentiam in uos auctum atque adiutum properatis.

"What do you judge then?" someone of you will interject. First of all, you must lay aside this habit you practice—of a nimble tongue, a craven spirit, mindful of liberty no farther than the place of assembly; then—so that I do not summon you to those manly deeds by which your ancestors prepared tribunes of the plebs, only lately a patrician magistracy, and suffrages free from patrician authorizers—since all the force, Quirites, is in you, and what commands you now endure for others, you can surely either do for yourselves or not do, do you await Jupiter or some other god as counselor? Those great commands of the consuls and the decrees of the fathers you make valid by executing them, Quirites; and moreover you hasten to have the license against you increased and supported.

Neque ego uos ultum iniurias hortor, magis uti requiem cupiatis; neque discordias, ut illi criminantur, sed earum finem uolens iure gentium res repeto; et, si pertinaciter retinebunt, non arma neque secessionem, tantummodo ne amplius sanguinem uostrum praebeatis censebo. Gerant habeantquc suo modo imperia, quaerant triumphos, Mithridatem, Sertorium et reliquias exulum persequantur cum imaginibus suis; absit periculum et labos quibus nulla pars fructus est. Nisi forte repentina ista frumentaria lege munia uostra pensantur; qua tamen quinis modiis libertatem omnium aestumauere, qui profecto non amplius possunt alimentis carceris.

Nor do I urge you to avenge injuries, but rather that you should desire repose; nor do I seek discords, as they accuse, but wishing their end I reclaim my rights by the law of nations; and, if they persistently retain them, I shall propose not arms nor secession, only that you no longer offer your blood. Let them bear and hold commands in their own fashion, let them seek triumphs, let them pursue Mithridates, Sertorius, and the remnants of the exiles with their images; let peril and labor be far off, in which you have no share of the fruit. Unless perhaps your duties are compensated by that sudden grain law; by which, however, they have priced the freedom of all at five modii, which assuredly cannot amount to more than the rations of a prison.

Namque ut illis exiguitate mors prohibetur, senescunt uires, sic neque absoluit cura familiari tam parua res, et ignaui cuiusque tenuissumas spes frustratur. Quae tamen quamuis ampla, quoniam seruiti pretium ostentaretur, cuius torpedinis erat decipi et uostrarum rerum ultro iniuriae gratiam debere? Cauendus dolus est.

For indeed, just as for them death is warded off by exiguity and their powers senesce, so neither does so small a thing absolve familial care, and it frustrates the most tenuous hopes of every coward. Which, however ample it might be, since it would be ostentatiously displayed as the price of servitude—what torpor would it be to be deceived and to owe thanks for an injury to your own affairs proffered unasked? Deceit must be guarded against.

Namque alio modo neque ualent in uniuorsos neque conabuntur. Itaque simul conparant delenimenta et differunt uos in aduentum Cn. Pompei, quem ipsum, ubi pertimuere, sublatum in ceruices suas, mox dempto metu lacerant. Neque eos pudet, uindices uti se ferunt libertatis, tot uiros sine uno aut remittere iniuriam non audere, aut ius non posse defendere.

For indeed in another way they are neither strong against the whole body nor will they attempt it. And so at once they prepare blandishments and defer you to the advent of Cn. Pompey, whom, when they have been afraid, they lift upon their own necks, but soon, with fear removed, they lacerate. Nor are they ashamed, though they display themselves as avengers of liberty, that so many men, without a single one, either do not dare to remit an injury, or cannot defend right.

Mihi quidem satis spectatum est Pompeium, tantae gloriae adulescentem, malle principem uolentibus uobis esse quam illis dominationis socium, auctoremque in primis fore tribuniciae potestatis. Verum, Quirites, antea singuli ciues in pluribus, non in uno cuncti praesidia habebatis, neque mortalium quisquam dare aut eripere talia unus poterat.

To me indeed Pompey has been sufficiently observed—a youth of such great glory—to prefer to be a princeps with you willing rather than a partner in domination with those men, and that he will be, among the first, an author of the tribunician power. But, Quirites, formerly individual citizens had safeguards in several persons, not all of you in one; nor could any one of mortals, alone, either grant or snatch away such things.

Itaque uerborum satis dictum est; neque enim ignorantia res claudit. Verum occupauit nescio quae uos torpedo, qua non gloria mouemini neque flagitio, cunctaque praesenti ignauia mutauistis, abunde libertatem rati, [scilicet] quia tergis abstinetur et huc ire licet atque illuc, munera ditium dominorum. Atque haec eadem non sunt agrestibus, sed caeduntur inter potentium inimicitias donoque dantur in prouincias magistratibus.

It is enough, then, to have said about words; for indeed it is not ignorance that closes off the matter. Rather, some I-know-not-what numbing torpedo has seized you, by which you are moved neither by glory nor by disgrace, and you have exchanged everything for present cowardice, reckoning liberty ample enough, [namely] because the lash is kept off your backs and it is permitted to go here and there—the gifts of wealthy masters. And these same indulgences are not for the countryfolk, but they are cut down amid the enmities of the powerful and are given as a gift to magistrates for the provinces.

Ita pugnatur et uincitur paucis; plebes, quodcumque accidit, pro uictis est et in dies magis erit, si quidem maiore cura dominationem illi retinuerint quam uos repetiueritis libertatem.

Thus it is fought and victory is won by a few; the plebs, whatever happens, counts as among the conquered, and will be more so day by day, if indeed they shall have retained their domination with greater care than you shall have sought to recover your liberty.