For P. Sulla |
Translator: C. D. Yonge
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55 |
At litterae sunt Fausti ,per quas ille precibus a P . Sulla petit ut emat gladiatores et ut hos ipsos emat , neque solum ad Sullam missae sed ad L . Caesarem , Q . Pompeium , C . Memmium , quorum de sententia tota res gesta est . ' At praefuit familiae Cornelius , libertus eius . ' Iam si in paranda familia nulla suspicio est , quis praefuerit nihil ad rem pertinet ; sed tamen munere servili obtulit se ad ferramenta prospicienda , praefuit vero numquam , eaque res omni tempore per Bellum , Fausti libertum , administrata est .
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But there are letters of Faustus's extant, in which he begs and prays Publius Sulla to buy gladiators, and to buy this very troop: and not only were such letters sent to Publius Sulla, but they were sent also to Lucius Caesar, to Quintus Pompeius, and to Gains Memmius, by whose advice the whole business was managed. But Cornelius was appointed to manage the troop. If in the respect of the purchase of this household of gladiators no suspicion attaches to the circumstances, it certainly can make no difference that he was appointed to manage them afterwards. But still, he in reality only discharged the servile duty of providing them with arms; but he never did superintend the men themselves; that duty was always discharged by Balbus, a freedman of Faustus. |
56 |
At enim Sittius est ab hoc in ulteriorem Hispaniam missus ut eam provinciam perturbaret . Primum Sittius , iudices , L . Iulio C . Figulo consulibus profectus est aliquanto ante furorem Catilinae et suspicionem huius coniurationis ; deinde est profectus non tum primum sed cum in isdem locis aliquanto ante eadem de causa aliquot annos fuisset , ac profectus est non modo ob causam sed etiam ob necessariam causam , magna ratione cum Mauretaniae rege contracta . Tum autem , illo profecto , Sulla procurante eius rem et gerente plurimis et pulcherrimis P . Sitti praediis venditis aes alienum eiusdem dissolutum est , ut , quae causa ceteros ad facinus impulit , cupiditas retinendae possessionis , ea Sittio non fuerit praediis deminutis .
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But Sittius was sent by him into further Spain; in order to excite sedition in that province. In the first place, O judges, Sittius departed, in the consulship of Lucius Julius and Caius Figulus, some time before this mad business of Catiline's, and before there was any suspicion of this conspiracy. In the second place, he did not go there for the first time, but he had already been there several years before, for the same purpose that he went now. And he went not only with an object but with a necessary object having some important accounts to settle with the king of Mauritania. But then, after he was gone, as Sulla managed his affairs as his agent he sold many of the most beautiful farms of Publius Sittius, and by this means paid his debts; so that the motive which drove the rest to this wickedness, the desire, namely, of retaining their possessions, did not exist in the case of Sittius, who had diminished his landed property to pay his debts. |
57 |
Iam vero illud quam incredibile , quam absurdum , qui Romae caedem facere , qui hanc urbem inflammare vellet , eum familiarissimum suum dimittere ab se et amandare in ultimas terras ! Vtrum quo facilius Romae ea quae conabatur efficeret , si in Hispania turbatum esset ? At haec ipsa per se sine ulla coniunctione agebantur . An in tantis rebus , tam novis consiliis , tam periculosis , tam turbulentis hominem amantissimum sui , familiarissimum , coniunctissimum officiis , consuetudine , usu dimittendum esse arbitrabatur ? Veri simile non est ut , quem in secundis rebus , quem in otio secum semper habuisset , hunc in adversis et in eo tumultu quem ipse comparabat ab se dimitteret .
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But now, how incredible, how absurd is the idea that a man who wished to make a massacre at Rome, and to burn down this city, should let his most intimate friend depart, should send him away into the most distant countries! Did he so in order the more easily to effect what he was endeavoring to do at Rome, if there were seditions in Spain?—“But these things were done independently, and had no connection with one another.” Is it possible, then, that he should have thought it desirable, when engaged in such important affairs, in such novel and dangerous, and seditious designs, to send away a man thoroughly attached to himself, his most intimate friend, one connected with himself by reciprocal good offices and by constant intercourse? It is not probable that he should send a way, when in difficulty, and in the midst of troubles of his own raising, the man whom he had always kept with him in times of prosperity and tranquillity. |
58 |
Ipse autem Sittius —non enim mihi deserenda est causa amici veteris atque hospitis —is homo est aut ea familia ac disciplina ut hoc credi possit , eum bellum populo Romano facere voluisse ? ut , cuius pater , cum ceteri deficerent finitimi ac vicini , singulari exstiterit in rem publicam nostram officio et fide , is sibi nefarium bellum contra patriam suscipiendum putaret ? cuius aes alienum videmus , iudices , non libidine , sed negoti gerendi studio esse contractum , qui ita Romae debuit ut in provinciis et in regnis ei maximae pecuniae deberentur ; quas cum peteret , non commisit ut sui procuratores quicquam oneris absente se sustinerent ; venire omnis suas possessiones et patrimonio se ornatissimo spoliari maluit quam ullam moram cuiquam fieri creditorum suorum .
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But is Sittius himself (for I must not desert the cause of my old friend and host) a man of such a character, or of such a family and such a school as to allow us to believe that he wished to make war on the republic? Can we believe that he, whose father when all our other neighbours and borderers revolted from us behaved with singular duty and loyalty to our republic, should think it possible himself to undertake a nefarious war against his country? A man whose debts we see were contracted not out of luxury but from a desire to increase his property which led him to involve himself in business and who, though he owed debts at Rome, had very large debts owing to him in the provinces and in the confederate kingdoms and when he was applying for them he would not allow his agents to be put in any difficulty by his absence but preferred having all his property sold and being stripped himself of a most beautiful patrimony, to allowing any delay to take place in satisfying his creditors. |
59 |
A quo quidem genere , iudices , ego numquam timui , cum in illa rei publicae tempestate versarer . Illud erat hominum genus horribile et pertimescendum qui tanto amore suas possessiones amplexi tenebant ut ab eis membra citius divelli ac distrahi posse diceres . Sittius numquam sibi cognationem cum praediis esse existimavit suis . Itaque se non modo ex suspicione tanti sceleris verum etiam ex omni hominum sermone non armis , sed patrimonio suo vindicavit .
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And of men of that sort I never, O judges, had any fear when I was in the middle of that tempest which afflicted the republic. The sort of men who were formidable and terrible were those who clung to their property with such affection that you would say it was easier to tear their limbs from them than their lands but Sittius never thought that there was such a relationship between him and his estates, and therefore he cleared himself, not only from all suspicion of such wickedness as theirs, but even from being talked about not by arms, but at the expense of his patrimony. |
60 |
Iam vero quod obiecit Pompeianos esse a Sulla impulsos ut ad istam coniurationem atque ad hoc nefarium facinus accederent , id cuius modi sit intellegere non possum . An tibi Pompeiani coniurasse videntur ? Quis hoc dixit umquam , aut quae fuit istius rei vel minima suspicio ? ' Diiunxit , ' inquit , ' eos a colonis ut hoc discidio ac dissensione facta oppidum in sua potestate posset per Pompeianos habere . ' Primum omnis Pompeianorum colonorumque dissensio delata ad patronos est , cum iam inveterasset ac multos annos esset agitata ; deinde ita a patronis res cognita est ut nulla in re a ceterorum sententiis Sulla dissenserit ; postremo coloni ipsi sic intellegunt , non Pompeianos a Sulla magis quam sese esse defensos .
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But now, as to what he adds, that the inhabitants of Pompeii were excited by Sulla to join that conspiracy and that abominable wickedness, what sort of statement that I am quite unable to understand. Do the people of Pompeii appear to have joined the conspiracy? Who has ever said so? or when was there the slightest suspicion of this fact? “He separated then,” says he, “from the settlers, in order that when he had excited dissensions and divisions within, he might be able to have the town and nation of Pompeii in his power.” In the first place, every circumstance of the dissension between the natives of Pompeii and the settlers was referred to the patrons of the town, being a matter of long standing, and having been going on many years. In the second place, the matter was investigated by the patrons in such a way, that Sulla did not in any particular disagree with the opinions of the others. And lastly, the settlers themselves understand that the natives of Pompeii were not more denuded by Sulla than they themselves were. |
61 |
Atque hoc , iudices , ex hac frequentia colonorum , honestissimorum hominum , intellegere potestis , qui adsunt , laborant , hunc patronum , defensorem , custodem illius coloniae si in omni fortuna atque omni honore incolumem habere non potuerunt , in hoc tamen casu in quo adflictus iacet per vos iuvari conservarique cupiunt . Adsunt pari studio Pompeiani , qui ab istis etiam in crimen vocantur ; qui ita de ambulatione ac de suffragiis suis cum colonis dissenserunt ut idem de communi salute sentirent .
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And this, O judges, you may ascertain from the number of settlers, most honourable men, here present; who are here now, and are anxious and above all things desirous that the man, the patron, the defender, the guardian of that colony, (if they have not been able to see him in the safe enjoyment of every sort of good fortune and every honour,) may at all events, in the present misfortune by which he is attacked, be defended and preserved by your means. The natives of Pompeii are here also with equal eagerness, who are accused as well as he is by the prosecutors; men whose differences with the settlers about walks and about votes have not gone to such lengths as to make them differ also about their common safety. |
62 |
Ac ne haec quidem P . Sullae mihi videtur silentio praetereunda esse virtus , quod , cum ab hoc illa colonia deducta sit , et cum commoda colonorum a fortunis Pompeianorum rei publicae fortuna diiunxerit , ita carus utrisque est atque iucundus ut non alteros demovisse sed utrosque constituisse videatur .
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And even this virtue of Publius Sulla appears to me to be one which ought not to be passed over in silence;—that though that colony was originally settled by him, and though the fortune of the Roman people has separated the interests of the settlers from the fortunes of the native citizens of Pompeii, he is still so popular among, and so much beloved by both parties, that he seems not so much to have dispossessed the one party of their lands as to have settled both of them in that country. |
63 |
At enim et gladiatores et omnis ista vis rogationis Caeciliae causa comparabatur . Atque hoc loco in L . Caecilium , pudentissimum atque ornatissimum virum , vehementer invectus est . Cuius ego de virtute et constantia , iudices , tantum dico , talem hunc in ista rogatione quam promulgarat non de tollenda , sed de levanda calamitate fratris sui fuisse ut consulere voluerit fratri , cum re publica pugnare noluerit ; promulgarit impulsus amore fraterno , destiterit fratris auctoritate deductus . Atque in ea re per L . Caecilium Sulla accusatur in qua re est uterque laudandus . Primum Caecilius —quid ? ' id promulgavit in quo res iudicatas videbatur voluisse rescindere , ut restitueretur Sulla . ' Recte reprehendis ; status enim rei publicae maxime iudicatis rebus continetur ; neque ego tantum fraterno amori dandum arbitror ut quisquam , dum saluti suorum consulat , communem relinquat . At nihil de iudicio ferebat , sed poenam ambitus eam referebat quae fuerat nuper superioribus legibus constituta . Itaque hac rogatione non iudicum sententia , sed legis vitium corrigebatur . Nemo iudicium reprehendit , cum de poena queritur , sed legem . Damnatio est enim iudicum , quae manebat , poena legis , quae levabatur .
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“But the gladiators, and all those preparations for violence, were got together because of the motion of Caecilius.” And then he inveighed bitterly against Caecilius, a most virtuous and most accomplished man, of whose virtue and constancy, O judges, I will only say thus much,—that he behaved in such a manner with respect to that motion which he brought forward, not for the purpose of doing away with, but only of relieving his brother's misfortune, that though he wished to consult his brother's welfare, he was unwilling to oppose the interests of the republic; he proposed his law the impulse of brotherly affection, and he abandoned it because he was dissuaded from it by his brother's authority. And Sulla is accused by Lucius Caecilius, in that business in which both of them deserve praise. In the first place Caecilius, for having proposed a law in which he appeared to wish to rescind an unjust decision; and Sulla, who reproved him, and chose to abide by the decision. For the constitution of the republic derives its principal consistency from formal legal decisions. Nor do I think that any one ought to yield so much to his love for his brother as to think only of the welfare of his own relations, and to neglect the common safety of all. He did not touch the decision already given, but he took away the punishment for bribery which had been lately established by recent laws. And, therefore, by this motion he was seeking, not to rescind a decision, but to correct a defect in the law. When a man is complaining of a penalty, it is not the decision with which he is finding fault but the law. For the conviction is the act of judges, and that is let stand; the penalty is the act of the law, and that may be lightened. |
64 |
Noli igitur animos eorum ordinum qui praesunt iudiciis summa cum gravitate et dignitate alienare a causa . Nemo labefactare iudicium est conatus , nihil est eius modi promulgatum , semper Caecilius in calamitate fratris sui iudicum potestatem perpetuandam , legis acerbitatem mitigandam putavit . Sed quid ego de hoc plura disputem ?
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Do not therefore, alienate from your cause the inclinations of those orders of men which preside over the courts of justice with the greatest authority and dignity. No one, has attempted to annul the decision which has been given; nothing of that sort has been proposed. What Caecilius always thought while grieved at the calamity which had befallen his brother, was, that the power of the judges ought to be preserved unimpaired, but that the severity of the law required to be mitigated. |
65 |
Dicerem fortasse , et facile et libenter dicerem , si paulo etiam longius quam finis cotidiani offici postulat L . Caecilium pietas et fraternus amor propulisset , implorarem sensus vestros , unius cuiusque indulgentiam in suos testarer , peterem veniam errato L . Caecili ex intimis vestris cogitationibus atque ex humanitate communi . Lex dies fuit proposita paucos , ferri coepta numquam , deposita est in senatu . Kalendis Ianuariis cum in Capitolium nos senatum convocassemus , nihil est actum prius , et id mandatu Sullae Q . Metellus praetor se loqui dixit Sullam illam rogationem de se nolle ferri . Ex illo tempore L . Caecilius egit de re publica multa ; agrariae legi , quae tota a me reprehensa et abiecta est , se intercessorem fore professus est , improbis largitionibus restitit , senatus auctoritatem numquam impedivit , ita se gessit in tribunatu ut onere deposito domestici offici nihil postea nisi de rei publicae commodis cogitarit .
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But why need I say more on this topic? I might speak perhaps, and I would speak willingly and gladly, if affection and fraternal love had impelled Lucius Caecilius a little beyond the limits which regular and strict duty requires of a man; I would appeal to your feelings, I would invoke the affection which every one feels for his own relations; I would solicit pardon for the error of Lucius Caecilius, from your own inmost thoughts and from the common humanity of all men. The law was proposed only a few days; it was never begun to be put in train to be carried; it was laid on the table in the senate. On the first of January, when we had summoned the senate to meet in the Capitol, nothing took precedence of it; and Quintus Metellus the praetor said, that what he was saying was by the command of Sulla; that Sulla did not wish such a motion to be brought forward respecting his case. From that time forward Caecilius applied himself to many measures for the advantage of the republic; he declared that he by his intercession would stop the agrarian law, which was in every part of it denounced and defeated by me. He resisted infamous attempts at corruption; he never threw any obstacles in the way of the authority of the senate. He behaved himself in his tribuneship in such a manner, that, laying aside all regard for his own domestic concerns, he thought of nothing for the future but the welfare of the republic. |
66 |
Atque in ipsa rogatione ne per vim quid ageretur , quis tum nostrum Sullam aut Caecilium verebatur ? nonne omnis ille terror , omnis seditionis timor atque opinio ex Autroni improbitate pendebat ? Eius voces , eius minae ferebantur , eius aspectus , concursatio , stipatio , greges hominum perditorum metum nobis seditionesque adferebant . Itaque P . Sulla hoc importunissimo cum honoris tum etiam calamitatis socio atque comite et secundas fortunas amittere coactus est et in adversis sine ullo remedio atque adlevamento permanere .
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And even in regard to this very motion, who was there of us who had any fears of Sulla or Caecilius attempting to carry any point by violence? Did not all the alarm that existed at that time, all the fear and expectation of sedition, arise from the villainy of Autronius? It was his expressions and his threats which were bruited abroad; it was the sight of him, the multitudes that thronged to him, the crowd that escorted him, and the bands of his abandoned followers, that caused all the fear of sedition which agitated us. Therefore, Publius Sulla, as this most odious man was then his comrade and partner, not only in honour but also in misfortune, was compelled to lose his own good fortune, and to remain under a cloud without any remedy or alleviation. |
67 |
Hic tu epistulam meam saepe recitas quam ego ad Cn . Pompeium de meis rebus gestis et de summa re publica misi , et ex ea crimen aliquod in P . Sullam quaeris et , si furorem incredibilem biennio ante conceptum erupisse in meo consulatu scripsi , me hoc demonstrasse dicis , Sullam in illa fuisse superiore coniuratione . Scilicet ego is sum qui existimem Cn . Pisonem et Catilinam et Vargunteium et Autronium nihil scelerate , nihil audacter ipsos per sese sine P . Sulla facere potuisse .
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At this point you are constantly reading passages from my letter, which I sent to Cnaeus Pompeius about my own achievements, and about the general state of the republic; and out of it you seek to extract some charge against Publius Sulla. And because I wrote that an attempt of incredible madness, conceived two years before, had broken out in my consulship, you say that I, by this expression, have proved that Sulla was in the former conspiracy. I suppose I think that Cnaeus Piso, and Catiline, and Vargunteius were not able to do any wicked or audacious act by themselves, without the aid of Publius Sulla! |
68 |
De quo etiam si quis dubitasset antea an id quod tu arguis cogitasset , ut interfecto patre tuo consul descenderet Kalendis Ianuariis cum lictoribus , sustulisti hanc suspicionem , cum dixisti hunc , ut Catilinam consulem efficeret , contra patrem tuum operas et manum comparasse . Quod si tibi ego confitear , tu mihi concedas necesse est hunc , cum Catilinae suffragaretur , nihil de suo consulatu , quem iudicio amiserat , per vim recuperando cogitavisse . Neque enim istorum facinorum tantorum , tam atrocium crimen , iudices , P . Sullae persona suscipit .
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But even if any one had had a doubt on that subject before, would he have thought (as you accuse him of having done) of descending, after the murder of your father, who was then consul, into the Campus on the first of January with the lictors? This suspicion, in fact you removed yourself, when you said that he had prepared an armed band and cherished violent designs against your father, in order to make Catiline consul. And if I grant you this, then you must grant to me that Sulla, when he was voting for Catiline, had no thoughts of recovering by violence his own consulship, which he had lost by a judicial decision. For his character is not one, O judges, which is at all liable to the imputation of such enormous, of such atrocious crimes. |
69 |
Iam enim faciam criminibus omnibus fere dissolutis , contra atque in ceteris causis fieri solet , ut nunc denique de vita hominis ac de moribus dicam . Etenim de principio studuit animus occurrere magnitudini criminis , satis facere exspectationi hominum , de me aliquid ipso qui accusatus eram dicere ; nunc iam revocandi estis eo quo vos ipsa causa etiam tacente me cogit animos mentisque convertere .
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For I will now proceed, after I have refuted all the charges against him, by an arrangement contrary to that which is usually adopted, to speak of the general course of life and habits of my client. In truth, at the beginning I was eager to encounter the greatness of the accusation, to satisfy the expectations of men, and to say something also of myself, since I too had been accused. But now I mast call you back to that point to which the cause itself, even if I said nothing, would compel you to direct all your attention. |
70 |
Omnibus in rebus , iudices , quae graviores maioresque sunt , quid quisque voluerit , cogitarit , admiserit , non ex crimine , sed ex moribus eius qui arguitur est ponderandum . Neque enim potest quisquam nostrum subito fingi neque cuiusquam repente vita mutari aut natura converti . Circumspicite paulisper mentibus vestris , ut alia mittamus , hosce ipsos homines qui huic adfines sceleri fuerunt . Catilina contra rem publicam coniuravit . Cuius aures umquam haec respuerunt ? conatum esse audacter hominem a pueritia non solum intemperantia et scelere sed etiam consuetudine et studio in omni flagitio , stupro , caede versatum ? Quis eum contra patriam pugnantem perisse miratur quem semper omnes ad civile latrocinium natum putaverunt ? Quis Lentuli societates cum indicibus , quis insaniam libidinum , quis perversam atque impiam religionem recordatur qui illum aut nefarie cogitasse aut stulte sperasse miretur ? Quis de C . Cethego atque eius in Hispaniam profectione ac de volnere Q . Metelli Pii cogitat cui non ad illius poenam carcer aedificatus esse videatur ?
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In every case, O judges, which is of more serious importance than usual, we must judge a good deal as to what every one has wished, or intended, or done, not from the counts of the indictment but from the habits of the person who is accused. For no one of us can have his character modeled in a moment, nor can any one's course of life be altered, or his natural disposition changed on a sudden. Survey for a moment in your mind's eye, O judges, (to say nothing of other instances,) these very men who were implicated in this wickedness. Catiline conspired against the republic. Whose ears were ever unwilling to believe in this attempt on the part of a man who had spent his whole life, from his boyhood upwards, not only in intemperance and debauchery, but who had devoted all his energies and all his zeal to every sort of enormity, and lust, and bloodshed? Who marveled that that man died fighting against his country, whom all men had always thought born for civil war? Who is there that recollects the way in which Lentulus was a partner it of informers or the insanity of his caprices or his perverse and impious superstition, who can wonder that he cherished either wicked designs, or insane hopes? Who even thinks of Caius Cethegus and his expedition into Spain and the wound inflicted on Quintus Metellus Pius without seeing that a prison was built on purpose to be the scene of his punishment? |
71 |
Omitto ceteros , ne sit infinitum ; tantum a vobis peto ut taciti de omnibus quos coniurasse cognitum est cogitetis ; intellegetis unum quemque eorum prius ab sua vita quam vestra suspicione esse damnatum . Ipsum illum Autronium , quoniam eius nomen finitimum maxime est huius periculo et crimini , non sua vita ac natura convicit ? Semper audax , petulans , libidinosus ; quem in stuprorum defensionibus non solum verbis uti improbissimis solitum esse scimus verum etiam pugnis et calcibus , quem exturbare homines ex possessionibus , caedem facere vicinorum , spoliare fana sociorum , comitatu et armis disturbare iudicia , in bonis rebus omnis contemnere , in malis pugnare contra bonos , non rei publicae cedere , non fortunae ipsi succumbere . Huius si causa non manifestissimis rebus teneretur , tamen eum mores ipsius ac vita convinceret .
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I say nothing of the rest that there may be some end to my instances. I only ask you silently to recollect all those men who are proved to have been in this conspiracy. You will see that every one of those men was convicted by his own manner of life, before be was condemned by our suspicion. And as for Autronius himself, (since his name is the most nearly connected with the danger in which my client is, and with the accusation which is brought against him,) did not the manner in which he had spent all his early life convict him? He had always been audacious, violent profligate. We know that in defending himself in charges of adultery, he was accustomed to use not only the most infamous language, but even his fists and his feet. We know that he had been accustomed to drive men from their estates, to murder his neighbors, to plunder the temples of the allies, to disturb the courts of justice by violence and arms; in prosperity to despise every body, in adversity to fight against all good men; never to regard the interests of the republic, and not to yield even to fortune herself. Even if he were not convicted by the most irresistible evidence, still his own habits and his past life would convict him. |
72 |
Agedum , conferte nunc cum illius vita vitam P . Sullae vobis populoque Romano notissimam , iudices , et eam ante oculos vestros proponite . Ecquod est huius factum aut commissum non dicam audacius , sed quod cuiquam paulo minus consideratum videretur ? Factum quaero ; verbum ecquod umquam ex ore huius excidit in quo quisquam posset offendi ? At vero in illa gravi L . Sullae turbulentaque victoria quis P . Sulla mitior , quis misericordior inventus est ? Quam multorum hic vitam est a L . Sulla deprecatus ! quam multi sunt summi homines et ornatissimi et nostri et equestris ordinis quorum pro salute se hic Sullae obligavit ! Quos ego nominarem —neque enim ipsi nolunt et huic animo gratissimo adsunt —sed , quia maius est beneficium quam posse debet civis civi dare , ideo a vobis peto ut quod potuit , tempori tribuatis , quod fecit , ipsi .
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Come now, compare with those men the life of Publius Sulla, well known as it is to you and to all the Roman people; and place it, O judges, as it were before your eyes. Has there ever been any act or exploit of his which has seemed to any one, I will not say audacious, but even rather inconsiderate? Do I say any act? Has any word ever fallen from his lips by which any one could be offended? Yes, even in that terrible and disorderly victory of Lucius Sulla, who was found more gentle or more merciful than Publius Sulla? How many men's wives did he not save by begging them of Lucius Sulla! How many men are there of the highest rank and of the greatest accomplishments, both of our order and of the equestrian body, for whose safety he laid himself under obligations to Lucius Sulla! whom I might name, for they have no objection; indeed they are here to countenance him now, with the most grateful feelings towards him. But because that service is a greater one than one citizen ought to be able to do to another, I entreat of you to impute to the times the fact of his having such power, but to give him himself the credit due to his having exerted it in such a manner. |