Sallust: Oratio Philippi

1 Maxume vellem, patres conscripti, rem publicam quietam esse aut in periculis a promptissumo quoque defendi, denique prava incepta consultoribus noxae esse. Sed contra seditionibus omnia turbata sunt et ab eis quos probibere magis decebat; postremo, quae pessumi et stultissumi decrevere, ea bonis et sapientibus faciunda sunt.

1 I would most of all wish, Conscript Fathers, that the commonwealth be quiet, or, if in dangers, that it be defended by the most prompt of men; finally, that perverse undertakings be a harm to their advisers. But on the contrary, all things have been thrown into confusion by seditions—and by those who ought rather to have forbidden them; in the end, the things which the worst and most foolish have decreed must be carried out by the good and the wise.

2 Nam bellum atque arma, quamquam vobis invisa, tamen quia Lepido placent, sumunda sunt, nisi forte cui pacem praestare et bellum pati consilium est.

2 For war and arms, although hateful to you, yet because they are pleasing to Lepidus, must be taken up, unless perhaps it is someone’s counsel to provide peace and to suffer war.

3 Pro di boni, qui hanc urbem omissam cura nostra adhuc tegitis, M. Aemilius, omnium flagitiosorum postremus, qui peior an ignavior sit deliberari non potest, exercitum opprimundae libertatis habet et se e contempto metuendum effecit; vos mussantes et retractantes verbis et vatum carminibus pacem optatis magis quam defenditis, neque intellegitis mollitia decretorum vobis dignitatem, illi metum detrahi.

3 Good gods, who still shelter this city, neglected by our care, M. Aemilius, the most flagitious of all, about whom it cannot be determined whether he is worse or more craven, holds an army for the oppressing of liberty and has made himself, from one contemned, to be feared; you, muttering and drawing back, by words and the vatic songs, wish for peace rather than defend it, nor do you understand that by the softness of your decrees dignity is taken from you, fear from him.

4 Atque id iure; quoniam ex rapinis consulatum, ob seditionem provinciam cum exercitu adeptus est, quid ille ob bene facta cepisset, cuius sceleribus tanta praemia tribuistis?

4 And that by right; since from rapine he obtained the consulship, on account of sedition a province with an army, what would that man have taken for good deeds, to whose crimes you have bestowed such great rewards?

5 At scilicet eos, qui ad postremum usque legatos, pacem, concordiam, et alia huiuscemodi decreverunt, gratiam ab eo peperisse! Immo despecti et indigni re publica habiti praedae loco aestumantur, quippe metu pacem repetentes, quo habitam amiserant.

5 But of course those who down to the very end decreed envoys, peace, concord, and other things of this sort, are supposed to have won favor from him! Nay rather, regarded as despised and unworthy of the republic, they are reckoned as booty, since, in fear, they seek peace again by the very fear through which they had lost the peace they had held.

6 Equidem a principio, cum Etruriam coniurare, proscriptos arcessi, largitionibus rem publicam lacerari videbam, maturandum putabam et Catuli consilia cum paucis secutus sum; ceterum illi qui gentis Aemiliae bene facta extollebant et ignoscundo populi Romani magnitudinem auxisse, nusquam etiam tum Lepidum progressum aiebant, cum privata arma opprimundae libertatis cepisset, sibi quisque opes aut patrocinia quaerundo consilium publicum corruperunt.

6 For my part, from the beginning, when I saw Etruria conspiring, the proscribed being summoned back, and the republic being lacerated by largesses, I thought there must be a hastening, and I followed Catulus’s counsels with a few; but those who were extolling the good deeds of the Aemilian house and that, by pardoning, they had augmented the greatness of the Roman people, kept saying that Lepidus had not advanced at all even then, when he had taken up private arms for the crushing of liberty, and, each man seeking resources or patronages for himself, they ruined the public counsel.

7 At tum erat Lepidus latro cum calonibus et paucis sicariis, quorum nemo diurna mercede vitam mutaverit; nunc est pro consule cum imperio non empto sed dato a vobis, cum legatis adhuc iure parentibus, et ad eum concurrere homines omnium ordinum corruptissumi, flagrantes inopia et cupidinibus, scelerum conscientia exagitati, quibus quies in seditionibus, in pace turbae sunt. Hi tumultum ex tumultu, bellum ex bello serunt, Saturnini olim, post Sulpici, dein Mari Damasippique, nunc Lepidi satellites.

7 But then Lepidus was a brigand with calones and a few sicarii, of whom none would have traded his life for a day’s wage; now he is proconsul with imperium not bought but given by you, with legates still lawfully obeying, and to him there run together men of all orders most corrupt, ablaze with want and cupidity, harried by the consciousness of crimes, for whom repose is in seditions, and in peace they are riots. These sow tumult from tumult, war from war—once the satellites of Saturninus, afterwards of Sulpicius, then of Marius and Damasippus, now of Lepidus.

8 Praeterea Etruria atque omnes reliquiae belli arrectae, Hispaniae armis sollicitae, Mitbridates in latere vectigalium nostrorum quibus adhuc sustentamur, diem bello circumspicit; quin praeter idoneum ducem nihil abest ad subvortundum imperium.

8 Moreover Etruria and all the remnants of war are aroused, the Spains are agitated by arms, Mithridates, on the flank of our revenues by which up to now we are sustained, is watching for a day to make war; indeed, apart from a suitable leader, nothing is lacking for subverting the empire.

9 Quod ego vos oro atque obsecro, patres conscripti, ut animadvortatis neu patiamini licentiam scelerum quasi rabiem ad integros contactu procedere; nam ubi malos praemia secuntur, haud facile quisquam gratuito bonus est.

9 Which I beg and beseech you, Conscript Fathers, that you take cognizance of, and do not allow the license of crimes, as if rabies, to advance by contact to the untainted; for when rewards follow the wicked, scarcely is anyone good gratuitously.

10 An expectatis dum exercitu rursus admoto ferro atque flamma urbem invadat? Quod multo propius est ab eo quo agitat statu, quam ex pace et concordia ad arma civilia.

10 Or do you wait until, the army again brought up, he invades the city with iron and flame? Which is much nearer from the state toward which he is driving, than is the passage from peace and concord to civil arms.

11 Quae ille advorsum divina et humana omnia cepit, non pro sua aut quorum simulat iniuria, sed legum ac libertatis subvortundae. Agitur enim ac laceratur animi cupidine et noxarum metu, expers consili, inquies, haec atque illa temptans, metuit otium, odit bellum, luxu atque licentia carendum videt atque interim abutitur vostra socordia.

11 The measures which he has undertaken against all things divine and human, not on behalf of his own injury nor of those whose wrong he feigns, but for the subversion of the laws and of liberty. For he is driven and torn by passion of mind and by fear of his crimes, bereft of counsel, restless, trying this and that; he dreads leisure, he hates war, he sees that luxury and license must be foregone, and meanwhile he abuses your sluggishness.

12 Neque mihi satis consili est, metum an ignaviam an dementiam eam appellem, qui videmini tanta mala quasi fulmen optare se quisque ne attingat, sed prohibere ne conari quidem.

12 Nor have I sufficient counsel, whether I should call it fear or cowardice or dementia, you who seem each to wish that such great evils, like lightning, may not touch you, yet not even to prohibit them from being attempted.

13 Et quaeso considerate quam convorsa rerum natura sit; antea malum publicum occulte, auxilia palam instruebantur et eo boni malos facile anteibant: nunc pax et concordia disturbantur palam, defenduntur occulte; quibus illa placent in armis sunt, vos in metu. Quid expectatis? Nisi forte pudet aut piget recte facere.

13 And I beg, consider how inverted the nature of things is; formerly a public evil was covertly, helps were openly marshalled, and thereby the good easily outstripped the bad: now peace and concord are disturbed openly, defended covertly; those to whom those things are pleasing are in arms, you in fear. What do you expect? Unless perhaps you are ashamed or it irks you to do rightly.

14 An Lepidi mandata animos movere? Qui placere ait sua cuique reddi et aliena tenet, belli iura rescindi, cum ipse armis cogat, civitatem confirmari, quibus ademptam negat, concordiae gratis tribuniciam potestatem restitui, ex qua omnes discordiae accensae.

14 Do Lepidus’s mandates move your spirits? He who says it pleases that each be given back his own and yet holds what is another’s, that the rights of war be rescinded, while he himself compels by arms, that citizenship be confirmed to those from whom he denies it has been taken away, that for concord’s sake the tribunician power be restored, from which all discords have been kindled.

15 Pessume omnium atque impudentissume, tibine egestas civium et luctus curae sunt? Cui nihil est domi nisi armis partum aut per iniuriam! Alterum consulatum petis, quasi primum reddideris, bello concordiam quaeris quo parta disturbatur, nostri proditor, istis infidus, hostis omnium bonorum!

15 Worst of all and most impudent, is the want of the citizens and their mourning a care to you? You, for whom there is nothing at home except what has been gotten by arms or through injustice! You seek a second consulship, as though you had repaid the first; you seek concord by war, by which what was won is being disturbed—betrayer of us, faithless to those men, enemy of all good men!

Ut te neque hominum neque deorum pudet, quos per fidem aut periurio violasti!

That you are ashamed neither before men nor before the gods, whom you have violated, whether under a pledge or by perjury!

16 Qui quando talis es, maneas in sententia et retineas arma te hortor, neu prolatandis seditionibus, inquies ipse, nos in sollicitudine attineas; neque te provinciae neque leges neque di penates civem patiuntur; perge qua coeptas, ut quam maturrume merita invenias.

16 Since you are such as you are, I exhort you to remain in your resolve and to retain your arms, and not, by prolonging seditions, you being unruly yourself, to detain us in solicitude; neither the provinces nor the laws nor the Penate gods endure you as a citizen; proceed where you have begun, so that you may find your deserts as soon as possible.

17 Vos autem, patres conscripti, quo usque cunctando rem publicam intutam patiemini et verbis arma temptabitis? Dilectus advorsus vos habiti, pecuniae publice et privatim extortae, praesidia deducta atque imposita, ex lubidine leges imperantur, cum interim vos legatos et decreta paratis. Quanto mehercule avidius pacem petieritis, tanto bellum acrius erit, cum intelleget se metu magis quam aequo et bono sustentatum.

17 You, however, conscript fathers, how long will you, by delaying, suffer the Republic to be unsafe and try to meet arms with words? Levies have been held against you, moneys, publicly and privately, have been extorted, garrisons have been led out and imposed, laws are commanded at whim, while meanwhile you prepare envoys and decrees. The more, by Hercules, you seek peace avidly, the more keen will the war be, when he understands that he has been sustained more by fear than by equity and good (conscience).

18 Nam qui turbas et caedem civium odisse ait et ob id armato Lepido vos inermos retinet, quae victis toleranda sunt ea, cum facere possitis, patiamini potius censet; ita illi a vobis pacem, vobis ab illo bellum suadet.

18 For the man who says he hates disturbances and the slaughter of citizens, and on that account, with Lepidus armed, keeps you unarmed, judges that you should rather suffer those things which are to be borne by the conquered, though you are able to act; thus he urges peace for him from you, and war for you from him.

19 Haec si placent, si tanta torpedo annuos obrepsit, ut obliti scelerum Cinnae, cuius in urbem reditu decus ordinis huius interiit, nihilo minus vos atque coniuges et liberos Lepido permissuri sitis, quid opus decretis, quid auxilio Catuli? Quin is et alii boni rem publicam frustra curant.

19 If these things are pleasing, if so great a torpor has crept over your spirits that, forgetful of the crimes of Cinna, at whose return into the city the honor of this order perished, you are nonetheless going to hand over yourselves and your wives and children to Lepidus, what need is there of decrees, what of Catulus’s aid? Nay, he and other good men care for the commonwealth in vain.

20 Agite ut lubet, parate vobis Cethegi atque alia proditorum patrocinia, qui rapinas et incendia instaurare cupiunt et rursus advorsum deos penatis manus armare. Sin libertas et vera magis placent, decernite digna nomine et augete ingenium viris fortibus.

20 Go on as you please; prepare for yourselves the patronage of Cethegus and other traitors, who desire to restore rapine and conflagrations and again to arm hands against the household gods, the Penates. But if liberty and what is true please you more, decree things worthy of the name, and augment the spirit in brave men.

21 Adest novus exercitus, ad hoc coloniae veterum militum, nobilitas omnis, duces optumi ; fortuna meliores sequitur; iam illa quae socordia nostra collecta sunt, dilabentur.

21 A new army is at hand, in addition to this the colonies of the veteran soldiers, all the nobility, the best leaders ; Fortune follows the better; now those things which have been collected by our sluggishness will slip away.

22 Quare ita censeo: quoniam M. Lepidus exercitum privato consilio paratum cum pessumis et hostibus rei publicae contra huius ordinis auctoritatem ad urbem ducit, uti Ap. Claudius interrex cum Q. Catulo pro consule et ceteris, quibus imperium est, urbi praesidio sint operamque dent nequid res publica detrimenti capiat.

22 Wherefore I so opine: since M. Lepidus, by private counsel, is leading to the city an army prepared, together with the worst men and the enemies of the republic, against the authority of this order, let Ap. Claudius, interrex, with Q. Catulus, proconsul, and the rest who hold imperium, be a guard to the city and give effort that the republic take no detriment.