Sallust: SPURIA

I. Scio ego, quam difficile, atque asperum factu sit, consilium dare regi aut imperatori, postremo cuiquam mortali, cuius opes in excelso sunt: quippe quum et illis consultorum copiae adsint; neque de futuro quisquam satis callidus satisque prudens sit. Quinetiam saepe prava magis, quam bona consilia prospere eveniunt: quia plerasque res fortuna ex lubidine sua agitat.

1. I know, for my part, how difficult and harsh to do it is, to give counsel to a king or an emperor, finally to any mortal whose powers are on high: indeed since to them also there is a plenty of counselors at hand; nor is anyone about the future sufficiently shrewd and sufficiently prudent. Nay even, often crooked rather than good counsels turn out prosperously: because very many things Fortune agitates according to her own whim.

Sed mihi studium fuit adolescentulo rempublicam capessere: atque in ea cognoscenda multam, magnamque curam habui: non ita, uti magistratum modo caperem, quem multi malis artibus adepti erant; sed etiam uti rempublicam domi, militiaeque, quantumque armis, viris, opulentia posset, cognitam haberem. Itaque mihi multa cum animo agitanti consilium fuit, famam, modestiamque meam post tuam dignitatem habere, et cuius rei lubet periculum facere, dum quid tibi ex eo gloria accederit. Idque non temere, aut fortuna tua decrevi, sed quia in te, praeter ceteras, artem unam egregie mirabilem comperi, semper tibi maiorem in advorsis, quam in secundis rebus animum esse.

But for me, when a very young man, there was zeal to take on the republic: and in coming to know it I had much and great care: not so that I should merely seize a magistracy, which many had obtained by evil arts; but also that I might have the republic, at home and in the military, and to what extent it could by arms, men, and opulence, known. Therefore, as I was turning many things over in my mind, my plan was to place my reputation and modesty after your dignity, and to make trial of whatever matter you please, provided that some glory accrues to you therefrom. And I decided this not rashly, nor on account of your fortune, but because in you, beyond the rest, I have discovered one art singularly admirable: that your spirit is always greater in adverse than in prosperous affairs.

Sed per deos immortales illa res clarior est, quod et prius defessi sint homines laudando atque admirando munificentiam tuam, quam tu faciendo quae gloria digna essent.

But by the immortal gods, that matter is more illustrious: that men were sooner wearied with praising and admiring your munificence than you with doing things that were worthy of glory.

II. Equidem mihi decretum est, nihil ego, quae visa sunt, de republica tibi scripsi, quia mihi consilium et ingenium meum amplius aequo probaretur sed inter labores militiae, interque proelia, victorias, imperium, statui admonendum te de negotiis urbanis. Namque tibi si id modo in pectore consilii est, uti te ab inimicorum impetu vindices, quoque modo contra advorsum consulem beneficia populi retineas, indigna virtute tua cogites. Sin in te ille animus est, qui iam a principio nobilitatis factionem disturbavit, plebem romanam ex gravi servitute in libertatem restituit, in praetura inimicorum arma inermis disiecit, domi militiaeque tanta et tam praeclara facinora fecit, uti ne inimici quidem queri quidquam audeant, nisi de magnitudine tua; quin accipe tu ea, quae dicam de summa republica, quae profecto aut tu vera invenies, aut certe haud procul a vero.

2. Indeed I had it decreed for myself—nothing did I write to you about the republic, the things that seemed good—because my counsel and my talent might be approved beyond what is fair; but amid the labors of military service, and among battles, victories, command, I resolved that you must be admonished about urban affairs. For if there is in your breast only this plan, to vindicate yourself from the onrush of enemies, and somehow, against an adverse consul, to retain the benefactions of the people, you are thinking things unworthy of your virtue. But if that spirit is in you which already from the beginning shattered the faction of the nobility, restored the Roman plebs from grievous servitude into liberty, in your praetorship, unarmed, scattered the arms of enemies, at home and in the field did such great and so preeminent deeds that not even enemies dare to complain of anything, except about your magnitude; nay, receive what I shall say about the supreme interest of the republic, which assuredly you will either find true, or certainly not far from the truth.

III. Sed quoniam Cn. Pompeius, aut animi pravitate, aut quia nihil eo maluit, quam quod tibi obesset, ita lapsus est, ut hostibus tela in manus iaceret; quibus ille rebus rempublicam conturbavit, eisdem tibi restituendum est. Primum omnium, summam potestatem moderandi, de vectigalibus, sumtibus, iudiciis, senatoribus paucis tradidit; plebem romanam, cuius antea summa potestas erat, ne aequis quidem legibus, in servitute reliquit. Iudicia tametsi, sicut antea, tribus ordinibus tradita sunt; tamen iidem illi factiosi regunt, dant, adimunt, quae lubet: innocentes circumveniunt; suos ad honorem extollunt; non facinus, non probrum aut flagitium obstat, quo minus magistratus capiant: quod commodum est, trahunt, rapiunt: postremo, tanquam urbe capta, lubidine ac licentia sua, pro legibus utuntur.

3. But since Gnaeus Pompeius, either by perversity of mind, or because he preferred nothing so much as what would harm you, slipped thus far, that he cast weapons into the hands of the enemies; by the same things with which he threw the republic into confusion, by these same you must restore it. First of all, the highest power of regulating, concerning revenues, expenses, courts, he handed over to a few senators; the Roman plebs, whose supreme power once was, he left in servitude, not even with equitable laws. Although the courts, as before, have been entrusted to the three orders; nevertheless those same factious men rule, grant, take away what they please: they entrap the innocent; they raise their own to honor; no crime, no disgrace or scandal stands in the way, to prevent them from seizing magistracies: what is advantageous, they drag, they snatch: finally, as though the city were captured, they use their own lust and license in place of laws.

Ac me quidem mediocris dolor angeret, si virtute partam victoriam, more suo, per servitium exerceret; sed homines inertissumi, quorum omnis vis, virtusque in lingua sita est, forte, atque alterius socordia dominationem oblatam insolentes agitant. Nam, quae seditio, ac dissensio civilis tot tamque illustres familias ab stirpe avertit? Aut quorum unquam victoria animus tam praeceps tamque immoderatus fuit?

And indeed a moderate pain would vex me, if he were enforcing, in his usual manner, a victory gained by virtue, by means of servitude; but the most inert men, whose whole force and virtue lie in the tongue, by chance, and by another’s sluggishness, insolently brandish the proffered domination. For what sedition and civil dissension has uprooted so many and such illustrious families from the stock? Or in whose victory has the spirit ever been so headlong and so immoderate?

IV. Lucius Sulla, cui omnia in victoria lege belli licuerunt, tametsi supplicio hostium partes suas muniri intellegebat; tamen, paucis interfectis, ceteros beneficio quam metu retinere maluit. At hercule nunc cum Catone, Lucio Domitio, ceterisque eiusdem factionis, quadraginta senatores, multi praeterea cum spe bona adolescentes, sicuti hostiae, mactati sunt: quum interea importunissuma genera hominum tot miserorum civium sanguine satiari nequiverunt: non orbi liberi, non parentes exacta aetate, non gemitus virorum, luctus mulierum, immanem eorum animum inflexit, qui, acerbius in dies male faciundo ac dicundo, dignitate alios, alios civitate eversum irent.

4. Lucius Sulla, to whom in victory everything was permitted by the law of war, although he understood that by the punishment of enemies his own party would be fortified; nevertheless, with a few slain, he preferred to hold the rest by beneficence rather than by fear. But, by Hercules, now—with Cato, Lucius Domitius, and the others of the same faction—forty senators, and many youths besides with good hope, have been slaughtered like sacrificial victims: while meanwhile the most ruthless kinds of men have not been able to be sated with the blood of so many wretched citizens: neither bereaved children, nor parents of an advanced age, nor the groans of men, the mourning of women, have bent their monstrous spirit, they who, more bitterly day by day in evil-doing and evil-speaking, were going to overthrow some in dignity, others in citizenship.

Nam quid ego de te dicam, cuius contumeliam homines ignavissumi vita sua commutare volunt? Scilicet neque illis tantae voluptati est (tametsi insperantibus accidit) dominatio, quanto moerori tua dignitas: quin optatius habent, ex tua calamitate periculum libertatis facere, quam per te populi romani imperium maxumum ex magno fieri. Quo magis tibi etiam atque etiam animo prospiciendum est, quonam modo rem stabilias communiasque. Mihi quidem quae mens subpetit, eloqui non dubitabo: ceterum tui erit ingenii probare, quae vera atque utilia factu putes.

For what am I to say about you, whose affront the most slothful men wish to barter for their very life? Surely neither is domination (although it befell them unexpectedly) so great a delight to them as your dignity is a grief; indeed they deem it preferable to make a peril of liberty out of your calamity, rather than that through you the empire of the Roman people, from great, become greatest. Wherefore all the more you must again and again look ahead in mind how you may stabilize and fortify the state. For my part, whatever counsel my mind supplies, I will not hesitate to speak; but it will belong to your talent to approve those things which you judge true and useful to do.

V. In duas partes ego civitatem divisam arbitror, sicut a maioribus accepi, in Patres, et plebem. Antea in Patribus summa auctoritas erat, vis multo maxuma in plebe. Itaque saepius in civitate secessio fuit; semperque nobilitatis opes deminutae sunt, et ius populi amplificatum.

5. I judge the commonwealth divided into two parts, as I have received from the ancestors: into the Fathers and the plebs. Formerly the highest authority was in the Fathers, the force by much the greatest in the plebs. And so rather often there was secession in the state; and always the opes of the nobility were diminished, and the right of the people was amplified.

Sed plebes eo libere agitabat, quia nullius potentia super leges erat; neque divitiis, aut superbia, sed bona fama factisque fortibus nobilis ignobilem anteibat: humillumus quisque in armis, aut militia, nullius honestae rei egens, satis sibi, satisque patriae erat. Sed, ubi eos paullatim expulsos agris, inertia, atque inopia incertas domos habere subegit; coepere alienas opes petere, libertatem suam cum republica venalem habere. Ita paullatim populus, qui dominus erat, et cunctis gentibus imperitabat, dilapsus est: et, pro communi imperio, privatim sibi quisque servitutem peperit.

But the plebs acted so freely because no one’s power was above the laws; and not by riches or pride, but by good fame and by brave deeds, the noble outstripped the ignoble: the very humblest man, in arms or in military service, lacking in no honorable thing, was sufficient for himself and sufficient for his fatherland. But, when, with them gradually expelled from their fields, idleness and want compelled them to have uncertain homes, they began to seek others’ wealth, to hold their own liberty, together with the republic, venal. Thus little by little the people, who had been lord and exercised command over all nations, fell to pieces; and, in place of a common imperium, each man in private begot slavery for himself.

Haec igitur multitudo primum malis moribus imbuta, deinde in artes, vitasque varias dispalata, nullo modo inter se congruens, parum mihi quidem idonea videtur ad capessendum rempublicam. Ceterum, additis novis civibus, magna me spes tenet, fore, ut omnes expergiscantur ad libertatem: quippe quum illis libertatis retinendae, tum his servitutis amittendae cura orietur. Hos ego censeo, permixtos cum veteribus novos in coloniis constituas: ita et res militaris opulentior erit, et plebes bonis negotiis impedita malum publicum facere desinet.

Therefore this multitude, first imbued with bad morals, then scattered into various arts and lives, in no way congruent among themselves, seems to me indeed hardly suitable for taking in hand the republic. Moreover, with new citizens added, a great hope holds me that it will come about that all will awaken to liberty: indeed, since in those a care for retaining liberty will arise, and in these for losing servitude. These men I advise that you establish, the new mixed with the old, in colonies: thus both the military affair will be more opulent, and the plebs, occupied with good businesses, will cease to do public harm.

VI. Sed non inscius, neque imprudens sum, quum ea res agetur, quae saevitia, quaeve tempestates hominum nobilium futurae sint; quum indignabuntur omnia, funditus misceri, antiquis civibus hanc servitutem imponi, regnum denique ex libera civitate futurum, ubi unius munere multitudo ingens in civitatem pervenerit. Equidem ego sic apud animum meum statuo, malum facinus in se admittere, qui incommodo reipublicae gratiam sibi conciliet: ubi bonum publicum etiam privatim usui est, id vero dubitare adgredi, socordiae, atque ignaviae duco. Marco Livio Druso semper consilium fuit, in tribunatu summa ope niti pro nobilitate: neque ullam rem in principio agere intendit, nisi illi auctores fierent.

6. But I am not unknowing, nor imprudent, when that matter shall be undertaken, what savagery, and what tempests of noble men there will be; when they will be indignant that all things are being mixed to the very bottom, that this servitude is being imposed upon the ancient citizens, that a kingship, in fine, will arise out of a free civitas, when by the favor of one man a huge multitude has come into citizenship. For my part I thus determine in my mind: he admits an evil crime in himself who wins favor for himself by the disadvantage of the republic; but where the public good is even of private use, to hesitate to undertake that I deem sloth and cowardice. Marcus Livius Drusus always had this plan, in his tribunate, to strive with utmost effort on behalf of the nobility; nor did he intend to do any matter at the outset, unless they should become its authors and backers.

Sed homines factiosi, quibus dolus atque malitia fide cariora erant, ubi intellexerunt, per unum hominem maxumum beneficium multis mortalibus dare, videlicet et sibi quisque conscius, malo atque infido animo esse, de Marco Livio Druso iuxta, ac de se, existumaverunt. Itaque metu, ne per tantam gratiam solus rerum potiretur, contra eum nixi, sua ipsius consilia disturbaverunt. Quo tibi, imperator, maiore cura fideque, amici et multa praesidia paranda sunt.

But the factious men, to whom deceit and malice were dearer than good faith, when they understood that, through one man, a very great benefaction was being given to many mortals—evidently, each one being conscious to himself that he was of an evil and untrustworthy mind—judged concerning Marcus Livius Drusus just as they did concerning themselves. And so, from fear that by such great favor he alone would gain possession of affairs, they strove against him and disturbed his very own plans. Wherefore, for you, commander, with the greater care and good faith, friends and many safeguards must be provided.

VII. Hostem advorsum obprimere, strenuo homini haud difficile est: occulta pericula neque facere, neque vitare, bonis in promtu est. Igitur, ubi eos in civitatem adduxeris; quoniam quidem revocata plebes erit, in ea re maxume animum excercitato, uti colantur boni mores, concordia inter veteres et novos coalescat.

7. To crush an enemy face-to-face is not difficult for a strenuous man: to contrive covert perils, nor to avoid them, is not at the ready for good men. Therefore, when you shall have led them into the state; since indeed the plebs will have been recalled, in that matter exercise your mind especially, that good mores be cultivated, and that concord may coalesce between the old and the new.

Sed multo maxumum bonum patriae, civibus, tibi, liberis, postremo humanae genti, pepereris, si studium pecuniae aut sustuleris, aut, quoad res feret, minueris: aliter neque privata res, neque publica, neque domi, neque militiae, regi potest. Nam ubi cupido divitiarum invasit, neque disciplina, neque artes bonae, neque ingenium ullum satis pollet; quin animus magis, aut minus mature, postremo tamen subcumbit. Saepe iam audivi, qui reges, quae civitates, et nationes, per opulentiam magna imperia amiserint, quae per virtutem inopes ceperant.

But by far the greatest good for the fatherland, for the citizens, for yourself, for your children, and, finally, for the human race you will have brought forth, if you either remove the zeal for money, or, so far as circumstances bear, diminish it: otherwise neither private affairs nor public, neither at home nor in military service, can be ruled. For when the desire of riches has invaded, neither disciplina, nor good arts, nor any talent has strength enough; rather the mind, sooner or later, in the end nevertheless succumbs. I have often heard how kings, states, and nations, through opulence, have lost great empires which, being poor, they had seized through virtue.

Id adeo haud mirandum est: nam ubi bonus deteriorem divitiis magis clarum, magisque acceptum videt, prime aestuat, multaque in pectore volvit: sed ubi gloria honorem magis in dies, virtutem opulentia vincit, animus ad voluptatem a vero deficit. Quippe gloria industria alitur: ubi eam demseris, ipsa per se virtus amara, atque aspera est. Postremo, ubi divitiae clarae habentur, ibi omnia bona vilia sunt, fides, probitas, pudor, pudicitia: nam ad virtutem una, et ardua via est; ad pecuniam, qua quique lubet, nititur; et malis, et bonis rebus ea creatur.

This indeed is not at all to be wondered at: for when a good man sees an inferior more famed by riches and more well-received, at first he seethes, and turns many things over in his breast; but when glory and honor more and more from day to day go to wealth, and opulence conquers virtue, the spirit deserts truth for pleasure. For glory is nourished by industry: when you take that away, virtue by itself is bitter and harsh. Finally, when riches are held illustrious, there all good things are cheap—faith, probity, shame, chastity: for to virtue there is one, and arduous, way; to money each one strives by whatever way he pleases; and it is engendered both by bad and by good things.

Ergo in primis auctoritatem pecuniae demito: neque de capite, neque de honore ex copiis quisquam magis, aut minus iudicaverit; sicut neque praetor, neque consul, ex opulentia, verum ex dignitate creetur. Sed de magistratu facile populi iudicium fit. Iudices a paucis probari, regnum est; ex pecunia legi, inhonestum.

Therefore, first of all, remove the authority of money: neither concerning status nor concerning honor let anyone be judged more or less from resources; just as neither praetor nor consul should be elected from opulence, but from dignity. But about magistracy the people’s judgment is easy. For judges to be approved by a few is kingship; to be chosen from money is dishonorable.

Quare omnes primae classis iudicare placet, sed numero plures, quam iudicant. Neque Rhodios, neque alias civitates unquam suorum iudiciorum poenituit: ubi promiscue dives, et pauper, ut cuique fors tulit, de maxumis rebus iuxta, ac de minumis disceptat. Sed de magistratibus creandis haud mihi quidem absurde placet lex, quam Caius Gracchus in tribunatu promulgaverat; ut ex confusis quinque classibus sorte centuriae vocarentur.

Wherefore it pleases me that all of the first class should judge, but in number more than those who judge now. Nor have the Rhodians, nor other states, ever repented of their own judgments: where, without distinction, rich and poor, as fortune has borne to each, adjudicate concerning the greatest matters equally as about the least. But concerning the creating of magistrates, the law does not at all seem absurd to me, which Caius Gracchus had promulgated in his tribunate: that from the five classes, mingled together, the centuries should be called by lot.

Ita coaequati dignitate, pecunia, virtute anteire alius alium properabit.

Thus, equalized in dignity, one will hasten to go before another in money and in virtue.

VIII. Haec magna remedia contra divitias statuo. Nam perinde omnes res laudantur, atque adpetuntur, ut earum rerum usus est: malitia praemiis excercetur.

8. I set these great remedies against riches. For all things are lauded, and desired, in proportion to the use of those things: malice is exercised by rewards.

Ubi ea demseris, nemo omnium gratuito malus est. Ceterum avaritia bellua fera, immanis, intoleranda est: quo intendit, oppida, agros fana, atque domos vastat: divina cum humanis permiscet: neque exercitus, neque moenia obstant, quominus vi sua penetret: fama, pudicitia, liberis, patria, atque parentibus cunctos mortales spoliat. Verum, si pecuniae decus ademeris, magna illa vis avaritiae facile bonis moribus vincetur.

When you have taken these away, no one at all is wicked gratuitously. Moreover, avarice is a feral beast, monstrous, intolerable: wherever it aims, it devastates towns, fields, shrines, and homes: it commingles divine with human things: neither armies nor walls obstruct, so as to prevent it from penetrating by its own force: it despoils all mortals of fame, pudicity, children, fatherland, and parents. Yet, if you remove the honor of money, that great force of avarice will easily be conquered by good morals.

Atque haec ita sese habere, tametsi omnes aequi, atque iniqui memorent, tamen tibi cum factione nobilitatis haud mediocriter certandum est: cuius si dolum caveris, alia omnia in proclivi erunt. Nam hi, si virtute satis valerent, magis aemuli bonorum, quam invidi essent: quia desidia, et inertia, et stupor eos atque torpedo invasit; strepunt, obtrectant, alienam famam bonam suum dedecus existumant.

And that these things are so, although all, both fair and unfair, recount, nevertheless you must contend to no mediocre degree with the faction of the nobility: if you beware its deceit, all other things will be on the down-slope. For these men, if they were strong enough in virtue, would be more emulous of the good than envious: because sloth, and inertia, and stupor and torpor have invaded them; they make a din, they detract, they reckon another’s good fame to be their own disgrace.

IX. Sed, quid ego plura, quasi de ignotis, memorem? Marci Bibuli fortitudo atque animi vis in consulatum erupit: hebes lingua, magis malus quam callidus ingenio. Quid ille audeat, cui consulatus maxumum imperium maxumo dedecori fuit?

9. But why should I recount more, as if about unknowns? The fortitude of Marcus Bibulus and the force of spirit burst forth into the consulship: dull in tongue, more bad than clever in ingenium. What would he dare, for whom the consulship, the greatest imperium, was for the greatest disgrace?

An Lucii Domitii magna vis est, cuius nullum membrum a flagitio aut facinore vacat: lingua vana, manus cruentae, pedes fugaces; quae honeste nominari nequeant, inhonestissuma? Unius tamen Marci Catonis ingenium versutum, loquax, callidum haud contemno. Parantur haec disciplina Graecorum; sed virtus, vigilantia, labos, apud Graecos nulla sunt.

Or has Lucius Domitius great force, of whom no limb is free from flagitiousness or crime: an idle tongue, bloody hands, fugacious feet; and those parts which cannot be named honorably, most dishonorable? Yet the genius of one Marcus Cato—versatile, loquacious, crafty—I do not despise. These things are prepared by the discipline of the Greeks; but virtue, vigilance, labor, among the Greeks are nothing.

Quippe, quum domi libertatem suam per inertiam amiserint, censesne eorum praeceptis imperium haberi posse? Reliqui de factione sunt inertissumi nobiles; in quibus, sicut in statua, praeter nomen, nihil est additamenti. Lucius Postumius, et Marcus Favonius, mihi videntur quasi magnae navis supervacua onera esse: ubi salvi pervenere, usui sunt; si quid advorsi coortum est, de illis potissumum iactura fit, quia pretii minumi sunt.

Indeed, since at home they have lost their liberty through inertia, do you suppose that by their precepts authority can be held? The rest of the faction are the laziest nobles; in whom, as in a statue, apart from the name, there is nothing of additament. Lucius Postumius and Marcus Favonius seem to me to be like the superfluous burdens of a great ship: when they have come safe through, they are of use; if anything adverse has arisen, the jettison is made of them first and foremost, because they are of the least price.

Nunc, quoniam, sicut mihi videor, de plebe renovanda, corrigendaque disserui, de senatu, quae tibi agenda videntur, dicam.

Now, since, as it seems to me, I have discoursed about the plebs to be renewed and corrected, I will speak about the senate, what things seem to you to be done.

X. Postquam mihi aetas ingeniumque adolevit, haud ferme armis, atque equis, corpus exercui, sed animum in litteris agitavi; quod natura firmius erat, id in laboribus habui. Atque ego in ea vita, multa legendo atque audiendo ita comperi, omnia regna, item civitates, nationes, usque eo prosperum imperium habuisse, dum apud eos vera consilia valuerunt: ubicumque gratia, timor, voluptas, ea corrupere, post paullo imminutae opes, deinde ademtum imperium, postremo servitus imposita est.

10. After my age and native genius had matured, I hardly at all exercised my body with arms and horses, but I drove my mind in letters; that which was stronger by nature, I put to labors. And in that way of life, by reading and by hearing much, I thus discovered that all kingdoms, likewise city-states and nations, had prosperous rule so long as true counsels prevailed among them: wherever favor, fear, and pleasure corrupted these, a little afterward their resources were diminished, then their rule was taken away, and at last servitude was imposed.

Equidem ego sic apud animum meum statuo: cuicumque in sua civitate amplior illustriorque locus, quam aliis est, ei magnam curam esse reipublicae. Nam ceteris, salva urbe, tantummodo libertas tuta est; qui per virtutem sibi divitias, decus, honorem pepererunt, ubi paullum inclinata respublica agitari coepit, multipliciter animus curis, atque laboribus fatigatur; aut gloriam, aut libertatem, aut rem familiarem defensat: omnibus locis adest, festinat; quanto in secundis rebus florentior fuit, tanto in advorsis asperius, magisque anxie agitat. Igitur ubi plebes senatui, sicuti corpus animo, obedit, eiusque consulta exsequitur, Patres consilio valere decet, populo supervacanea est calliditas.

Indeed I for my part thus determine in my mind: whosoever in his own city has a more ample and more illustrious place than others, for him there should be great care of the republic. For to the rest, with the city safe, only liberty is secure; but those who through virtue have won for themselves riches, renown, honor, when the republic, a little inclined, begins to be shaken, their spirit is wearied in manifold ways with cares and labors; he defends either glory, or liberty, or the family estate: he is present in all places, he hastens; the more he was flourishing in prosperous affairs, by so much the more harshly and more anxiously is he tossed in adverse ones. Therefore, when the plebs obeys the senate, as the body the soul, and carries out its decrees, it befits the Fathers to prevail by counsel; for the people, cunning is superfluous.

Itaque maiores nostri, quum bellis asperrumis premerentur, equis, viris, pecunia amissa, nunquam defessi sunt armati de imperio certare. Non inopia aerarii, non vis hostium, non advorsa res, ingentem eorum animum subegit, quin, quae virtute ceperant, simul cum anima retineret. Atque ea magis fortibus consiliis, quam bonis proeliis, patrata sunt.

Therefore our ancestors, when they were pressed by the roughest wars, with horses, men, and money lost, never, in arms, grew weary of contending for empire. Neither the lack of the treasury, nor the force of the enemies, nor adverse fortune subdued their mighty spirit, but that they might retain, together with their life, the things which they had taken by virtue. And these were accomplished more by stout counsels than by good battles.

Quippe apud illos una respublica erat, ei omnes consulebant; factio contra hostes parabatur; corpus atque ingenium, patriae, non suae quisque potentiae, exercitabat.

Indeed among them there was one commonwealth, and for it all took counsel; faction was prepared against the enemies; each man exercised his body and his ingenuity for the fatherland, not for his own power.

Ac hoc tempore contra, homines nobiles, quorum animos socordia atque ignavia invasit, ignari laboris, hostium, militiae, domi factione instructi, per superbiam cunctis gentibus moderantur. Itaque Patres, quorum consilio antea dubia respublica stabiliebatur, obpressi, ex aliena lubidine huc atque illuc fluctuantes agitantur; interdum alia, deinde alia decernunt: ut eorum, qui dominantur, simultas ac arrogantia fert, ita bonum, malumque publicum existumant.

And at this time, on the contrary, noble men, whose minds torpor and sloth have invaded, ignorant of labor, of enemies, of military service, equipped at home with faction, through pride moderate (i.e., govern) all nations. And so the Fathers, by whose counsel formerly the doubtful commonwealth was stabilized, oppressed, tossed here and there by another’s caprice, are driven about; at times they decree one thing, then another: as the rivalry and arrogance of those who dominate carries, so they esteem the public good and the public ill.

XI. Quod si aut libertas, aequa omnium, aut sententia obscurior esset, maioribus opibus respublica, et minus potens nobilitas esset. Sed quoniam coaequari gratiam omnium difficile est (quippe quum illis maiorum virtus partam reliquerit gloriam, dignitatem, clientelas; cetera multitudo, pleraque insititia sit); sententia eorum a metu libera. Ita occulte sibi quisque alterius potentia carior erit.

11. But if either liberty, equal for all, or the opinion (i.e., vote) were more obscured, the republic would have greater resources, and the nobility would be less powerful. But since it is difficult to equalize the favor of all (for indeed to those men the virtue of their ancestors has left the glory won, dignity, clienteles; the rest of the multitude is for the most part ignorance), their opinion is free from fear. Thus, covertly, each person will hold another’s power dearer to himself.

Libertas iuxta bonis et malis, strenuis et ignavis, optabilis est. Verum eam plerique metu deserunt, stultissumi mortales. Quod in certamine dubium est, quorsum accidat, id per inertiam in se, quasi victi, recipiunt.

Liberty is equally desirable to the good and the bad, to the strenuous and the slothful. But most, most foolish mortals, desert it from fear. What in a contest is doubtful, whither it may happen to turn, that they, through inertia, take upon themselves, as though vanquished.

Igitur duabus rebus confirmari posse senatum puto: si numero auctus per tabellam sententiam feret. Tabella obtentui erit, quo magis animo libero facere audeat: in multitudine, et praesidii plus, et usus amplior est. Nam fere his tempestatibus, alii iudiciis publicis, alii privatis suis atque amicorum negotiis implicati, haud sane reipublicae consiliis adfuerunt: neque eos magis occupatio, quam superba imperia distinuere.

Therefore I think the senate can be confirmed by two things: if, augmented in number, it will bring its opinion by ballot. The tablet will be for a cover, whereby he may dare to act with a freer mind: in a multitude there is both more of protection, and a more ample use. For generally in these times, some, entangled in public trials, others in private business of their own and of their friends, have by no means been present at the counsels of the republic: nor has preoccupation so much as haughty commands kept them away.

Homines nobiles cum paucis senatoris quos additamenta factionis habent, quaecumque libuit probare, reprehendere, decernere, ea, uti lubido tulit, facere. Verum ubi, numero senatorum aucto, per tabellam sententiae dicentur; hae illi superbiam suam dimittent, ubi iis obediundum erit, quibus antea crudelissume imperitabant.

Men of nobility, together with a few senators whom they hold as additaments of their faction, have been able to approve, reprehend, decree whatever they pleased, and to do these things as their libido bore them. But when, the number of senators having been increased, opinions will be declared by ballot, then those men will let go their own arrogance, when they must obey those over whom previously they used most cruelly to play the commander.

XII. Forsitan, imperator, perfectis litteris desideres, quem numerum senatorum fieri placeat; quoque modo in multa et varia officia distribuantur; et quoniam iudicia primae classis mittenda putem, quae descriptio, qui numerus in quoque genere futurus sit.

12. Perhaps, emperor, when the letters are finished you may desire to know what number of senators it would be pleasing to establish; also in what way they should be distributed into many and various offices; and, since I think the courts of the first class ought to be dispatched, what distribution, what number there will be in each category.

Eam hi omnia generatim describere, haud difficile factu fuit; sed prius laborandum visum est de summa consilii, idque tibi probandum verum esse: si hoc itinere uti decreveris, cetera in promtu erunt. Volo ego consilium meum prudens, maxumeque usui esse; nam ubicumque tibi res prospere cedet, ibi mihi bona fama eveniet. Se me illa magis cupido exercet, uti quocumque modo, et quam primum respublica adiuvetur.

For these men to describe all these things generally was not difficult to do; but it seemed that one must first labor about the sum of the counsel, and that must be proved to you to be true: if you decide to use this route, the rest will be in prompt readiness. I wish my plan to be prudent, and most of all to be of use; for wherever matters shall turn out prosperously for you, there good fame will accrue to me. But that desire rather impels me, that in whatever way, and as soon as possible, the republic may be helped.

Libertatem gloria cariorem habeo, atque ego te oro, hortorque, ne clarissumus imperator, gallica gente subacta, populi romani summum atque invictum imperium tabescere vetustate, ac per summam discordiam dilabi, patiaris.

I hold liberty dearer than glory, and I beg and exhort you, most illustrious emperor, that, with the Gallic nation subdued, you not allow the supreme and unconquered empire of the Roman people to waste away with age and to slip apart through utmost discord.

Profecto, si id accidat, neque tibi nox, neque dies, curam animi sedaverit, quin insomniis exercitus, furibundus, atque amens alienata mente feraris. Namque mihi pro vero constat, omnium mortalium vitam divino numine invisi; neque bonum, neque malum facinus cuiusquam pro nihilo haberi: sed ex natura, diversa praemia bonos, malosque sequi. Interea forte ea tardius procedunt: suus cuique animus ex conscientia spem praebet.

Assuredly, if that should happen, neither night nor day will have soothed the care of your mind, but you will be harried by insomnias, frenzied and mad, borne along with an alienated mind. For it is established to me as true that the life of all mortals is odious to the divine numen; neither a good nor an evil deed of anyone is held as nothing: but by nature, diverse rewards follow the good and the wicked. Meanwhile perhaps these things proceed more slowly: each one’s spirit, from conscience, provides hope.

XIII. Quod si tecum patria, atque parentes possent loqui, scilicet haec tibi dicerent: "O Caesar, nos te genuimos fortissumi viri, in optuma urbe decus, praesidiumque nobis, hostibus terrorem: quae multis laboribus et periculis ceperamus, ea tibi nascenti cum anima simul tradidimus, patriam maxuma in terris; domum familiamque in patria clarissumam; praeterea bonas artes, honestas divitias; postremo omnia honestamenta pacis et praemia belli. Pro his amplissumis beneficiis non flagitium a te, neque malum facinus, petimus; sed uti libertatem eversam restituas: qua re patrata, profecto per gentes omnes fama virtutuis tuae volitabit.

13. But if your fatherland and your parents could speak with you, surely they would say these things to you: "O Caesar, we begot you, a most brave man, in the best city, an ornament and a protection to us, a terror to enemies: what we had taken by many labors and dangers, these we handed over to you at your birth together with your life—your fatherland, greatest on the earth; a house and family most illustrious in the fatherland; besides good arts, honorable riches; finally all the honors of peace and the prizes of war. For these most ample benefactions we seek from you not a shameful act nor an evil deed, but that you restore the overthrown liberty: which thing accomplished, surely through all nations the fame of your virtue will fly about."

Namque hac tempestate, tametsi domi militiaeque praeclara facinora egisti, tamen gloria tua cum multis viris fortibus aequalis est: si vero urbem amplissumo nomine, ex maxumo imperio, prope iam ab occasu restitueris, quis te clarior, quis maior, in terris fuerit? Quippe si morbo iam, aut fato huic imperio secus accidat; cui dubium est, quin per orbem terrarum vastitas, bella, caedes, oriantur? Quod si tibi bona lubido fuerit, patriae, parentibus gratificandi; postero tempore, republica restituta, super omnis mortales gloria agnita, tuaque unius mors vita clarior erit.

For at this season, although at home and in warfare you have achieved most illustrious deeds, yet your glory is equal with many brave men: but if indeed you shall restore the city of most ample name, from the greatest empire, now almost from its setting, who would be more renowned than you, who greater, upon earth? For if now by disease, or by fate, it should befall otherwise to this empire, who doubts that devastation, wars, slaughters will arise through the orb of lands? But if there shall be to you a good desire of gratifying country and parents; at a later time, the commonwealth having been restored, glory acknowledged above all mortals, your single death will be more illustrious than life.

Nam vivos interdum fortuna, saepe invidia fatigat: ubi anima naturae cessit, demtis obtrectationibus, ipsa se virtus magis magisque extollit."

For the living are sometimes wearied by fortune, often by envy: when the soul has yielded to nature, with detractions removed, virtue itself exalts itself more and more."

Quae mihi utilia factu visa sunt, quaeque tibi usui fore credidi, quam paucissumis potui, perscripsi. Ceterum deos immortalis obtestor, uti, quocumque modo ages, ea res tibi reique publicae prospere eveniat.

Those things which seemed to me useful to do, and those which I believed would be of use to you, I have written out as briefly as I could. Moreover I adjure the immortal gods, that, in whatever way you will act, this matter may turn out prosperously for you and for the republic.