Orations |
Translator: C. D. Yonge
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| 325 |
Ad propiora veniamus . C . Mario L . Valerio consulibus senatus rem publicam defendendam dedit : L . Saturninus tribunus plebis , C . Glaucia praetor est interfectus . Omnes illo die Scauri , Metelli , Claudii , Catuli , Scaevolae , Crassi arma sumpserunt . Num aut consules illos aut clarissimos viros vituperandos putas ? Ego Catilinam perire volui . Num tu qui omnis salvos vis Catilinam salvum esse voluisti ? Hoc interest , Calene , inter meam sententiam et tuam . Ego nolo quemquam civem committere ut morte multandus sit ; tu , etiam si commiserit , conservandum putas . In corpore si quid eius modi est quod reliquo corpori noceat , id uri secarique patimur ut membrum aliquod potius quam totum corpus intereat . Sic in rei publicae corpore , ut totum salvum sit , quicquid est pestiferum amputetur .
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Let us come to instances nearer our own time. The senate entrusted the defense of the republic to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius the consuls. Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people, and Caius Glaucia the praetor, were slain. On that day, all the Scauri, and Metelli, and Claudii, and Catuli, and Scaevolae, and Crassi took arms. Do you think either those consuls or those other most illustrious men deserving of blame? I myself wished Catiline to perish. Did you who wish every one to be safe, wish Catiline to be safe? There is this difference, O Calenus, between my opinion and yours. I wish no citizen to commit such crimes as deserve to be punished with death. You think that, even if he has committed them, still he ought to be saved. If there is any thing in our own body which is injurious to the rest of the body, we allow that to be burned and cut out, in order that a limb may be lost in preference to the whole body. And so in the body of the republic, whatever is rotten must be cut off in order that the whole may be saved. |
| 326 |
Dura vox ! multo illa durior : ‘Salvi sint improbi , scelerati , impii ; deleantur innocentes , honesti , boni , tota res publica !’ Vno in homine , Q . Fufi , fateor te vidisse plus quam me . Ego P . Clodium arbitrabar perniciosum civem , sceleratum , libidinosum , impium , audacem , facinerosum , tu contra sanctum , temperantem , innocentem , modestum , retinendum civem et optandum . In hoc uno te plurimum vidisse , me multum errasse concedo . Nam quod me tecum iracunde agere dixisti solere , non est ita . Vehementer me agere fateor , iracunde nego . Omnino irasci amicis non temere soleo , ne si merentur quidem .
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Harsh language! This is much more harsh, “Let the worthless, and wicked, and impious be saved; let the innocent, the honorable, the virtuous, the whole republic be destroyed.” In the case of one individual, O Quintus Fufius, I confess that you saw more than I did. I thought Publius Clodius a mischievous, wicked, lustful, impious, audacious, criminal citizen. You, on the other hand, called him religious, temperate, innocent, modest; a citizen to be preserved and desired. In this one particular I admit that you had great discernment, and that I made a great mistake. For as for your saying that I am in the habit of arguing against you with ill temper, that is not the case. I confess that I argue with vehemence, but not with ill temper. I am not in the habit of getting angry with my friends every now and then, not even if they deserve it. |
| 327 |
Itaque sine verborum contumelia a te dissentire possum , sine animi summo dolore non possum . Parva est enim mihi tecum aut parva de re dissensio ? ego huic faveo , tu illi ? Immo vero ego D . Bruto faveo , tu M . Antonio : ego conservari coloniam populi Romani cupio , tu expugnari studes .
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Therefore, I can differ from you without using any insulting language, though not without feeling the greatest grief of mind. For is the dissension between you and me a trifling one, or on a trifling subject? Is it merely a case of my favoring this man, and you that man? Yes; I indeed favor Decimus Brutus, you favor Marcus Antonius; I wish a colony of the Roman people to be preserved, you are anxious that it should be stormed and destroyed. |
| 328 |
An hoc negare potes , qui omnis moras interponas quibus infirmetur Brutus , melior fiat Antonius ? Quo usque enim dices pacem velle te ? Res geritur ; conductae vineae sunt ; pugnatur acerrime . Qui intercurrerent , misimus tris principes civitatis . Hos contempsit , reiecit , repudiavit Antonius : tu tamen permanes constantissimus defensor Antoni . Et quidem , quo melior senator videatur , negat se illi amicum esse debere : cum suo magno esset beneficio , venisse eum contra se . Videte quanta caritas sit patriae : cum homini sit iratus , tamen rei publicae causa defendit Antonium . Ego te , cum in Massiliensis tam es acerbus , Q . Fufi , non animo aequo audio . Quo usque enim Massiliam oppugnabis ? ne triumphus quidem finem facit belli , per quem lata est urbs ea sine qua numquam ex Transalpinis gentibus maiores nostri triumpharunt . Quo quidem tempore populus Romanus ingemuit : quamquam proprios dolores suarum rerum omnes habebant , tamen huius civitatis fidelissimae miserias nemo erat civis qui a se alienas arbitraretur .
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Can you deny this, when you interpose every sort of delay calculated to weaken Brutus, and to improve the position of Antonius? For how long will you keep on saying that you are desirous of peace? Matters are progressing rapidly; the works have been carried on; severe battles are taking place. We sent three chief men of the city to interpose. Antonius has despised, rejected, and repudiated them. And still you continue a persevering defender of Antonius. And Calenus, indeed, in order that he may appear a more conscientious senator, says that he ought not to be a friend to him; since, though Antonius was under great obligations to him, he still had acted against him. See how great is his affection for his country. When you are so bitter, O Quintus Fufius, against the people of Marseilles, I can not listen to you with calmness. For how long are you going to attack Marseilles? Does not even a triumph put an end to the war? in which was carried an image of that city, without whose assistance our forefathers never triumphed over the Transalpine nations. Then, indeed, did the Roman people groan. Although they had their own private griefs because of their own affairs, still there was no citizen who thought the miseries of this most loyal city unconnected with himself. |
| 329 |
Caesar ipse qui illis fuerat iratissimus tamen propter singularem eius civitatis gravitatem et fidem cotidie aliquid iracundiae remittebat : te nulla sua calamitate civitas satiare tam fidelis potest ? Rursus iam me irasci fortasse dices . Ego autem sine iracundia dico omnia nec tamen sine dolore animi : neminem illi civitati inimicum esse arbitror qui amicus huic sit civitati . Excogitare quae tua ratio sit , Calene , non possum . Antea deterrere te ne popularis esses non poteramus : exorare nunc ut sis popularis non possumus . Satis multa cum Fufio ac sine odio omnia , nihil sine dolore . Credo autem , qui generi querelam moderate ferat , aequo animo laturum amici .
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Caesar himself, who had been the most angry of all men with them, still, on account of the unusually high character and loyalty of that city, was every day relaxing something of his displeasure And is there no extent of calamity by which so faithful a city can satiate you? Again, perhaps, you will say that I am losing my temper. But I am speaking without passion, as I always do, though not without great indignation. I think that no man can be an enemy to that city, who is a friend to this one. What your object is, O Calenus, I can not imagine. Formerly we were unable to deter you from devoting yourself to the gratification of the people; now we are unable to prevail on you to show any regard for their interests. I have argued long enough with Fufius, saying everything without hatred, but nothing without indignation. I suppose that a man who can bear the complaint of his son-in-law with indifference, will bear that of his friend with great equanimity. |
| 330 |
Venio ad reliquos consularis , quorum nemo est —iure hoc meo dico —quin mecum habeat aliquam coniunctionem gratiae , alii maximam , alii mediocrem , nemo nullam . Quam hesternus dies nobis , consularibus dico , turpis inluxit ! Iterum legatos ? Quasi ille faceret indutias ? Ante os oculosque legatorum tormentis Mutinam verberavit ; opus ostendebat munitionemque legatis ; ne punctum quidem temporis , cum legati adessent , oppugnatio respiravit . Ad hunc legatos ? cur ? an ut eorum reditu vehementius pertimescatis ?
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I come now to the rest of the men of consular rank, of whom there is no one (I say this on my own responsibility), who is not connected with me in some way or other by kindnesses conferred or received; some in a great, some in a moderate degree, but every one to some extent or other. What a disgraceful day was yesterday to us! to us consulars, I mean. Are we to send ambassadors again? What? would he make a truce? Before the very face and eyes of the ambassadors he battered Mutina with his engines. He displayed his works and his defenses to the ambassadors. The siege was not allowed one moment's breathing time, not even while the ambassadors should be present. Send ambassadors to this man! What for? in order to have great fears for their return? |
| 331 |
Equidem cum ante legatos decerni non censuissem , hoc me tamen consolabar , cum illi ab Antonio contempti et reiecti revertissent renuntiavissentque senatui non modo illum de Gallia non discessisse , uti censuissemus , sed ne a Mutina quidem recessisse , potestatem sibi D . Bruti conveniendi non fuisse , fore ut omnes inflammati odio , excitati dolore , armis , equis , viris D . Bruto subveniremus . Nos etiam languidiores postea facti sumus quam M . Antoni non solum audaciam et scelus sed etiam insolentiam superbiamque perspeximus .
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In truth, though on the previous occasion I had voted against the ambassadors being decreed, still I consoled myself with this reflection, that, when they had returned from Antonius despised and rejected, and had reported to the senate, not merely that he had not withdrawn from Gaul, as we had voted that he should, but that he had not even retired from before Mutina, and that they had not been allowed to proceed on to Decimus Brutus, all men would be inflamed with hatred and stimulated by indignation, so that we should reinforce Decimus Brutus with arms, and horses, and men. But we have become even more languid since we have become acquainted with, not only the audacity and wickedness of Antonius, but also with his insolence and pride. |
| 332 |
Vtinam L . Caesar valeret , Ser . Sulpicius viveret : multo melius haec causa ageretur a tribus quam nunc agitur ab uno . Dolenter hoc dicam potius quam contumeliose . Deserti , deserti , inquam , sumus , patres conscripti , a principibus . Sed —saepe iam dixi — omnes in tanto periculo qui recte et fortiter sentient erunt consulares . Animum nobis adferre legati debuerunt : timorem attulerunt —quamquam mihi quidem nullum — quamvis de illo ad quem missi sunt bene existiment : a quo etiam mandata acceperunt .
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Would that Lucius Caesar were in health; that Servius. Sulpicius were alive. This cause would be pleaded much better by three men, than it is now by me single-handed. What I am going to say I say with grief, rather than by way of insult. We have been deserted—we have, I say, been deserted, O conscript fathers, by our chiefs. But, as I have often said before, all those who in a time of such danger have proper and courageous sentiments shall be men of consular rank. The ambassadors ought to have brought us back courage, they have brought us back fear. Not, indeed, that they have caused me any fear: let them have as high an opinion as they please of the man to whom they were sent; from whom they have even brought back commands to us. |
| 333 |
Pro di immortales ! ubi est ille mos virtusque maiorum ? C . Popilius apud maiores nostros cum ad Antiochum regem legatus missus esset et verbis senatus denuntiasset ut ab Alexandrea discederet quam obsidebat , cum tempus ille differret , virgula stantem circumscripsit dixitque se renuntiaturum senatui , nisi prius sibi respondisset quid facturus esset quam ex illa circumscriptione exisset . Praeclare : senatus enim faciem secum attulerat auctoritatemque rei publicae . Cui qui non paret , non ab eo mandata accipienda sunt , sed ipse est potius repudiandus .
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O ye immortal gods! where are the habits and virtues of our forefathers? Caius Popillius, in the time of our ancestors, when he had been sent as ambassador to Antiochus the king, and had given him notice, in the words of the senate, to depart from Alexandria, which he was besieging, on the king's seeking to delay giving his answer, drew a line round him where he was standing with his rod, and stated that he should report him to the senate if he did not answer him as to what he intended to do before he moved out of that line which surrounded him. He did well. For he had brought with him the countenance of the senate, and the authority of the Roman people; and if a man does not obey that, we are not to receive commands from him in return, but he is to be utterly rejected. |
| 334 |
An ego ab eo mandata acciperem qui senatus mandata contemneret ? aut ei cum senatu quicquam commune iudicarem qui imperatorem populi Romani senatu prohibente obsideret ? At quae mandata ! qua adrogantia , quo stupore , quo spiritu ! Cur autem ea legatis nostris dabat , cum ad nos Cotylam mitteret , ornamentum atque arcem amicorum suorum , hominem aedilicium ? si vero tum fuit aedilis cum eum iussu Antoni in convivio servi publici loris ceciderunt .
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Am I to receive commands from a man who despises the commands of the senate? Or am I to think that he has any thing in common with the senate, who besieges a general of the Roman people in spite of the prohibition of the senate? But what commands they are! With what arrogance, with what stupidity, with what insolence are they conceived! But what made him charge our ambassadors with them when he was sending Cotyla to us, the ornament and bulwark of his friends, a man of aedilitian rank? if, indeed, he really was an aedile at the time when the public slaves flogged him with thongs at a banquet by command of Antonius. |
| 335 |
At quam modesta mandata ! Ferrei sumus , patres conscripti , qui quicquam huic negemus . ‘Vtramque provinciam ’ inquit ‘remitto : exercitum depono : privatus esse non recuso .’ Haec sunt enim verba . Redire ad se videtur . ‘Omnia obliviscor , in gratiam redeo .’ Sed quid adiungit ? ‘si legionibus meis sex , si equitibus , si cohorti praetoriae praedia agrumque dederitis .’ Eis etiam praemia postulat quibus ut ignoscatur si postulet , impudentissimus iudicetur . Addit praeterea ut , quos ipse cum Dolabella dederit agros , teneant ei quibus dati sint .
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But what modest commands they are! We must be iron-hearted men, O conscript fathers, to deny any thing to this man! “I give up both provinces,” says he; “I disband my army; I am willing to become a private individual.” For these are his very words. He seems to be coming to himself. “I am willing to forget everything; to be reconciled to every body.” But what does he add? “If you give booty and land to my six legions, to my cavalry, and to my praetorian cohort.” He even demands rewards for those men for whom, if he were to demand pardon, he would be thought the most impudent of men. He adds farther, “Those men to whom the lands have been given which he himself and Dolabella distributed, are to retain them.” |
| 336 |
Hic est Campanus ager et Leontinus , quae duo maiores nostri annonae perfugia ducebant .
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This is the Campanian and Leontine district, both which our ancestors considered a certain resource in times of scarcity. |
| 337 |
Cavet mimis , aleatoribus , lenonibus : Cafoni etiam et Saxae cavet , quos centuriones pugnacis et lacertosos inter mimorum et mimarum greges conlocavit . Postulat praeterea ut chirographorum summa et commentariorum conlegaeque sui decreta maneant . Quid laborat ut habeat quod quisque mercatus est , si quod accepit habet qui vendidit ? et ne tangantur rationes ad Opis : id est , ne septiens miliens recuperetur ; ne fraudi sit vii viris quod egissent . Nucula hoc , credo , admonuit : verebatur fortasse ne amitteret tantas clientelas . Caveri etiam volt eis qui secum sint quicquid contra leges commiserint . Mustelae et Tironi prospicit : de se nihil laborat . Quid enim commisit umquam ? num aut pecuniam publicam attigit aut hominem occidit aut secum habuit armatos ? Sed quid est quod de eis laboret ? Postulat enim ne sua iudiciaria lex abrogetur . Quo impetrato quid est quod metuat ? an ne suorum aliquis a Cyda , Lysiade , Curio condemnetur ? Neque tamen nos urget mandatis pluribus ; remittit aliquantum et relaxat . ‘Galliam ’ inquit ‘togatam remitto , comatam postulo ' — otiosus videlicet esse mavolt — ' cum sex legionibus ’ inquit ‘eisque suppletis ex D . Bruti exercitu ,’ non modo ex dilectu suo , tam diuque ut obtineat dum M . Brutus C . Cassius consules prove coss . provincias obtinebunt . Huius comitiis C . frater —eius est enim annus —iam repulsam tulit . ‘Ipse autem ut quinquennium ’ inquit ‘obtineam . '
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He is protecting the interests of his buffoons and gamesters and pimps. He is protecting Capho's and Saxa's interests too, pugnacious and muscular centurions, whom he placed among his troops of male and female buffoons. Besides all this, he demands “that the decrees of himself and his colleague concerning Caesar's writings and memoranda are to stand.” Why is he so anxious that every one should have what he has bought, if he who sold it all has the price which he received for it? “And that his accounts of the money in the temple of Ops are not to be meddled with.” That is to say, that those seven hundred millions of sesterces are not to be recovered from him. “That the septemviri are to be exempt from blame or from prosecution for what they have done.” It was Nucula, I imagine, who put him in mind of that; he was afraid, perhaps, of losing so many clients. He also wishes to make stipulations in favor of “those men who are with him who may have done any thing against the laws. “He is here taking care of Mustela and Tiro; he is not anxious about himself. For what has he done? has he ever touched the public money, or murdered a man, or had armed men about him? But what reason has he for taking so much trouble about them? For he demands, “that his own judiciary law be not abrogated.” And if he obtains that, what is there that he can fear? can he be afraid that any one of his friends may be convicted by Cydas, or Lysiades, or Curius? However, he does not press us with many more demands. “I give up,” says he, “ Gallia Togata; I demand Gallia Comata.”—he evidently wishes to be quite at his ease,—“with six legions, and those made up to their full complement out of the army of Decimus Brutus;”—not only out of the troops whom he has enlisted himself; “and he is to keep possession of it as long as Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, as consuls, or as proconsuls, keep possession of their provinces.” In the comitia held by him, his brother Caius (for it is his year) has already been repulsed. |
| 338 |
At istud vetat lex Caesaris , et tu acta Caesaris defendis .
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“And I myself,” says he, “am to retain possession of my province five years.” But that is expressly forbidden by the law of Caesar, and you defend the acts of Caesar. |
| 339 |
Haec tu mandata , L . Piso , et tu , L . Philippe , principes civitatis , non dico animo ferre verum auribus accipere potuistis ? Sed , ut suspicor , terror erat quidam : nec vos ut legati apud illum fuistis nec ut consulares , nec vos vestram nec rei publicae dignitatem tenere potuistis . Et tamen nescio quo pacto sapientia quadam , credo , quod ego non possem , non nimis irati revertistis . Vobis M . Antonius nihil tribuit , clarissimis viris , legatis populi Romani : nos quid non legato M . Antoni Cotylae concessimus ? Cui portas huius urbis patere ius non erat , huic hoc templum patuit , huic aditus in senatum fuit , hic hesterno die sententias vestras in codicillos et omnia verba referebat , huic se etiam summis honoribus usi contra suam dignitatem venditabant . O di immortales ! quam magnum est personam in re publica tueri principis ! quae non animis solum debet sed etiam oculis servire civium . Domum recipere legatum hostium , in cubiculum admittere , etiam seducere hominis est nihil de dignitate , nimium de periculo cogitantis . Quod autem est periculum ? Nam si maximum in discrimen venitur , aut libertas parata victori est aut mors proposita victo : quorum alterum optabile est , alterum effugere nemo potest . Turpis autem fuga mortis omni est morte peior . Nam illud quidem non adducor ut credam ,
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Were you, O Lucius Piso, and you, O Lucius Philippus, you chiefs of the city, able, I will not say to endure in your minds, but even to listen with your ears to these commands of his? But, I suspect there was some alarm at work; nor, while in his power, could you feel as ambassadors, or as men of consular rank, nor could you maintain your own dignity, or that of the republic. And nevertheless somehow or other owing to some philosophy, I suppose, you did what I could not have done,—you returned without any very angry feelings, Marcus Antonius paid you no respect, though you were most illustrious men, ambassadors of the Roman people. As for us, what concessions did not we make to Cotyla the ambassador of Marcus Antonius? though it was against the law for even the gates of the city to be opened to him, yet even this temple was opened to him. He was allowed to enter the senate; here yesterday he was taking down our opinions and every word we said in his note-books; and men who had been preferred to the highest honors sold themselves to him in utter disregard of their own dignity. O ye immortal gods! how great an enterprise is it to uphold the character of a leader in the republic; for it requires one to be influenced not merely by the thoughts but also by the eyes of the citizens. To take to one's house the ambassador of an enemy, to admit him to one's chamber, even to confer apart with him, is the act of a man who thinks nothing of his dignity, and too much of his danger. But what is danger? For if one is engaged in a contest where every thing is at stake, either liberty is assured to one if victorious, or death if defeated; the former of which alternatives is desirable, and the latter some time or other inevitable. But a base flight from death is worse than any imaginable death. |
| 340 |
esse quosdam qui invideant alicuius constantiae , qui labori , qui perpetuam in re publica adiuvanda voluntatem et senatui et populo Romano probari moleste ferant . Omnes id quidem facere debebamus , eaque erat non modo apud maiores nostros sed etiam nuper summa laus consularium , vigilare , adesse animo , semper aliquid pro re publica aut cogitare aut facere aut dicere .
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For I will never be induced to believe that there are men who envy the consistency or diligence of others, and who are indignant at the unceasing desire to assist the republic being approved by the senate and people of Rome. That is what we were all bound to do; and that was not only in the time of our ancestors, but even lately, the highest praise of men of consular rank, to be vigilant, to be anxious, to be always either thinking, or doing, or saying something to promote the interests of the republic. |
| 341 |
Ego , patres conscripti , Q . Scaevolam augurem memoria teneo bello Marsico , cum esset summa senectute et perdita valetudine , cotidie simul atque luceret facere omnibus conveniendi potestatem sui : nec eum quisquam illo bello vidit in lecto , senexque et debilis primus veniebat in curiam . Huius industriam maxime equidem vellem ut imitarentur ei quos oportebat ; secundo autem loco ne alterius labori inviderent .
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I, O conscript fathers, recollect that Quintus Scaevola the augur, in the Marsic war, when he was a man of extreme old age, and quite broken down in constitution, every day, as soon as it was daylight, used to give every one an opportunity of consulting him; nor, throughout all that war, did any one ever see him in bed; and, though old and weak, he was the first man to come into the senate-house. I wish, above all things, that those who ought to do so would imitate his industry; and, next to that, I wish that they would not envy the exertions of another. |
| 342 |
Etenim , patres conscripti , cum in spem libertatis sexennio post sumus ingressi diutiusque servitutem perpessi quam captivi frugi et diligentes solent , quas vigilias , quas sollicitudines , quos labores liberandi populi Romani causa recusare debemus ? Equidem , patres conscripti , quamquam hoc honore usi togati solent esse , cum est in sagis civitas , statui tamen a vobis ceterisque civibus in tanta atrocitate temporis tantaque perturbatione rei publicae non differre vestitu . Non enim ita gerimus nos hoc bello consulares ut aequo animo populus Romanus visurus sit nostri honoris insignia , cum partim e nobis ita timidi sint ut omnem populi Romani beneficiorum memoriam abiecerint , partim ita a re publica aversi ut se hosti favere prae se ferant , legatos nostros ab Antonio despectos et inrisos facile patiantur , legatum Antoni sublevatum velint . Hunc enim reditu ad Antonium prohiberi negabant oportere et in eodem excipiendo sententiam meam corrigebant . Quibus geram morem . Redeat ad imperatorem suum Varius , sed ea lege ne umquam Romam revertatur . Ceteris autem , si errorem suum deposuerint et cum re publica in gratiam redierint , veniam et impunitatem dandam puto .
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In truth, O conscript fathers, now we have begun to entertain hopes of liberty again, after a period of six years, during which we have been deprived of it, having endured slavery longer than prudent and industrious prisoners usually do, what watchfulness, what anxiety, what exertions ought we to shrink from, for the sake of delivering the Roman people? In truth, O conscript fathers, though men who have had the honors conferred on them that we have, usually wear their gowns, while the rest of the city is in the robe of war, still I decided that at such a momentous crisis, and when the whole republic was in so disturbed a state, we would not differ in our dress from you and the rest of the citizens. For we men of consular rank are not in this war conducting ourselves in such a manner that the Roman people will be likely to look with equanimity on the ensigns of our honor, when some of us are so cowardly as to have cast away all recollection of the kindnesses which they have received from the Roman people; some are so disaffected to the republic that they openly allege that they favor this enemy, and easily bear having our ambassadors despised and insulted by Antonius, while they wish to support the ambassador sent by Antonius. For they said that he ought not to be prevented from returning to Antonius, and they proposed an amendment to my proposition of not receiving him. Well, I will submit to them. Let Varius return to his general, but on condition that he never returns to Rome. And as to the others, if they abandon their errors, and return to their duty to the republic, I think they may he pardoned and left unpunished. |