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 , . .
 
 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 
 
 Photogravure from the marble bust in the Prado Gallery at Madrid. 
 
 This is the most pleasing of all extant likenesses of the great Roman orator. It 
 its Cicero when he was about sixty years of age and at the zenith of his.
 
 goo 
 
 ORATIONS 
 
 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CHARLES DUKE YONGE, A.B. 
 
 WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY 
 CHARLES HERMANN OHLY, Ph.D 
 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 THE 
 COLONIAL
 
 CornuGKT, 1900, 
 Bv THE COLONIAL PRESS.
 
 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 IT is to the ancients we turn when we seek to find the founda- 
 tions on which the structure of modern civilization has 
 been reared. Our laws we trace to Rome. Athens is the 
 mother of art, both plastic and poetic. Both Greece and Rome 
 have taught us the science of government, nay, given us gov- 
 ernment itself. And eloquence, the fleeting utterance of the 
 tongue, we trace in its beginning and perfection, through the 
 channels of Rome, to Athens, its source and fountain-head. 
 
 Oratory was a living power in Athens and in Rome. It has 
 been a power with all civilized peoples. Its power has always 
 been in direct proportion to the eloquence it bore. For, in the 
 living speech lies that hidden charm by which the emotions are 
 kindled, that rouses to action, that imparts knowledge. " What 
 is there in the world," says Cicero, " more extraordinary than 
 eloquence, whether we consider the admiration of its hearers, 
 the reliance of those who stand in need of assistance, or the 
 good-will it procures from those whom it defends." 
 
 Eloquence, the quintessence of oratory, has ever been a safe 
 criterion of the intellectual and moral level of a people, its de- 
 cay an indication of torpor and of decay of the ideal. In Demos- 
 thenes culminated the eloquence of Greece; in Cicero that of 
 Rome. With their disappearance vanish the liberties of the 
 people and self-government is effaced. With the institution of 
 free government Roman oratory developed and grew during the 
 five hundred years that Rome was her own mistress. Before the 
 fall of the Republic, when liberty was about to make her last 
 struggle, it reached the summit of perfection. With the decline 
 of independence oratory declined in Rome as well as in Greece. 
 Eloquence ceased to be a weapon in public affairs and yielded its 
 gentle sway to force borne by appeal to arms. Rarely has ora- 
 tory flourished and unfolded its powers in times of peace and
 
 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 general prosperity. It needs a soil peculiar to itself, from which 
 to draw its vigor and an atmosphere of its own to expand and to 
 develop its supreme powers. I ' >ltncal ideals and the attainment 
 of high aims have ever been its foster-mother. Great issues, the 
 welfare of nations, oppression of the proud and generous reli- 
 gious fervor, each in turn has tended to urge the orator to impas- 
 sioned eloquence. Turn to the Irish Parliament and its cham- 
 pions for national independence; to the French Revolution and 
 nattainable ideals; to the great struggle in the United States 
 to free the slave from bondage. Never have the powers of elo- 
 quence had greater sway, never have they helped to shape 
 greater e\ 
 
 Cicero is the embodiment of Roman eloquence. None is 
 greater than he save Demosthenes; none of the ancients nearer 
 to us than he. The more realistic a nation's conception of the 
 life of the ancients, especially in their literature, the nearer has 
 it attained to their standard of perfection. Witness the Latin 
 races, witness England and its intellectual offspring, America. 
 The prose style of all modern writers has been largely in- 
 fluenced by Latin prose, and, above all, by the model style of 
 Cicero. 
 
 Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on the third of January, about 
 the year 106 B.C. He was of noble birth and his family had 
 possessed equestrian rank from its first admission to the 
 freedom of Rome. At an early age he was brought to Rome. 
 Reared under the best tutors of his time and guided by a natural 
 tendency of his mind, he soon became a zealous student of 
 philosophy, jurisprudence and its twin sister, eloquence. He 
 grew into manhood under the shadow of the outrages of civil 
 war. 
 
 His defence of Roscius against the favorite of Sulla falls in 
 the year 81 B.C. Hortensius was his opponent. To triumph 
 over such a foe was a triumph indeed. A two-years' sojourn 
 abroad in Greece and Asia Minor did much to invigorate his 
 body and develop his mind. As quaestor in Sicily, then in his 
 thirtieth year, he acquired his first experience in the administra- 
 tion of government. In the Senate Cicero was at this time 
 looked upon as leader and champion. Public favor was be- 
 stowed on him without his 1 courting it by insidious arts. The ac- 
 cusation of Verres was delegated to him after he had been unani-
 
 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION v 
 
 mously elected ccdilis cnrnlis in 69 B.C. During his praetorship 
 he assisted Pompey in securing the generalship in the war 
 against Mithridates. His election as consul, in 64 B.C., marks 
 the climax of his life. The defence of Rabirius and the prose- 
 cution of Catiline belong to this period. 
 
 But stronger arms than his aspired to rule. Cicero was pow- 
 erless against the combination of Crassus, Caesar and Pompey. 
 The entry of Publius Clodius into the triumvirate drove him into 
 exile. To Pompey's quarrel with Clodius he owed his recall. 
 The fate of Crassus had impressed him profoundly, and we miss 
 in Cicero henceforth that independence of character that marked 
 his earlier years. Discouraged from participating in public 
 affairs, he now entered upon a period of great literary activity. 
 
 The final struggle between Pompey and Caesar was drawing 
 near. Cicero's friendship and influence, still powerful, were 
 sought by both, and, while his heart inclined him to Pompey, his 
 reason favored Caesar. Nothing, however, could induce him to 
 abandon his seclusion, till, after the assassination of Caesar, he 
 proposed in the Senate a general pardon for all participants in 
 the struggle, and effected a superficial reconciliation between 
 the opposing factions. He joined Octavianus against Anto- 
 nius, and with all the power of his eloquence strove to thwart the 
 designs of Antonius to continue in the role of Caesar. 
 
 But Octavianus repaid him ill. In his new triumvirate with 
 Antonius and Lepidus all friends of liberty were doomed by pro- 
 scription. Cicero was the first victim demanded from Octa- 
 vianus by the implacable Antonius. On the seventh day of De- 
 cember in the year 43 B.C., he suffered death at the hands of 
 C. Popillius Laenas, whose life he had once saved. His head 
 and right hand were exposed to the populace, a spectacle that 
 brought tears to every eye in the gazing multitude, and exulta- 
 tion to the hearts of sycophants and the enemies of liberty. 
 
 It was the conception and the pursuit of ideal beauty that 
 produced all the masterpieces of Greek art. Cicero applied it to 
 eloquence. He tells us that he continually strove to attain an 
 ideal excellence not found in any living model nor taught in any 
 school ; and accords to his Grecian rival the great praise of all 
 but reaching a perfection which he had himself always longed 
 for but had never been able to attain. No writer has ever made 
 so close a scrutiny of himself and his art as he. In " De Oratore "
 
 ri SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 he points to the variations of Thus, among others, 
 
 he gives reasons that aroused him to indignation :m<l vcln-m- 
 in I ngs again I \ rr-> ami < atiliiK. and those that in- 
 
 spired him t.) insinuating eloqm-mv in >|>eakiiig <m the Manilian 
 law. In Brutus IK- lias laid down all the results of ! rva- 
 
 tions. reflect inns and .hat a speaker should be, can 
 
 never be, yet must ever strive to be. 
 
 Cicero o\\rd his great perfection in eloquence more to himself 
 and his constant endeavors than to any other source. 1 1 is t rut- 
 he acknowledges more than once his indebtedness and gratitude 
 to Isocrates. Archias, the poet, is mentioned as one of his early 
 preceptors. But the genius of eloquence was born in him, 
 and, at an early age, following a natural inclination he resolved 
 to devote himself to oratory. He often saw and listened to the 
 orators of his day. Crassus, Antonius, Caesar, Sulpicius and 
 Cotta. In acquiring a profound knowledge of the law he owed 
 much to the two Scaevolas, the most eminent jurists of the day. 
 Again the arrival of Philo and other learned Greeks, in 89 B.C., 
 was an event in the life of Cicero. Phaedrus had already initi- 
 ated him in the study of philosophy and the Stoic Diodolus in the 
 art of dialectics. Thus it was that, at the threshold of manhood 
 and at the very outset of his career, he had attained to a degree 
 of perfection which few have reached after a long and active 
 career. His sojourn in Greece, his intercourse there with the 
 foremost minds, especially his associations with Appolonius 
 Molon, whom he had known in Rome, offered an unusual op- 
 portunity for self-improvement. His early causes established 
 his fame as an orator. Cicero preferred to plead the case of 
 the defendant and only reluctantly arose as public accuser. 
 Content to conquer in triumphs won by talent, he often pleaded 
 causes without remuneration. The confidence and love of his 
 people, so nobly won, he retained almost uninterruptedly till his 
 death. 
 
 In bringing his style to an unparalleled degree of perfection 
 Cicero was guided by Isocrates, who had labored much to shape 
 the language of the Athenians to the purposes of the highest 
 eloquence. It is a long distance from the harsh and clumsy 
 style of the old Romans to the refined latinity of Cicero. Owing 
 to so many points of similarity with the Greeks by virtue of his 
 early training and the course of his studies in later life, Cicero
 
 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 has often been compared with Demosthenes. Quintilian tells us 
 that Demosthenes always seeks to attain victory at the point of 
 his weapon, while Cicero employs the weight of the weapon 
 itself for this purpose, each being perfect in his way. He tells 
 us that Demosthenes is concise while Cicero is flowing and re- 
 dundant. This is the keynote to the powers of each. Demos- 
 thenes, objective, realistic, concise, intensely earnest, linking 
 himself to his cause, only asking the good-will of his hearers; 
 Cicero subjective, redundant, vejbose, jesting at times, display- 
 ing flash and fire, and often sacrificing form to substance in 
 pleading. Cicero has been reproached for his inordinate 
 vanity, his glittering sophisms, his self-complacency, putting 
 himself always in the centre of all, shutting all else out from view. 
 But no assaults have been able to dethrone him from that lofty 
 positon which the mature judgment of the generations of twenty 
 centuries has assigned to him. And are we not ever drawn anew 
 to the man as well as to the orator by the surpassing elegance of 
 his style, the urbanity of his manner, his skill and erudition, his 
 knowledge of men and of affairs, and, above all, by his profound 
 sympathy with mankind? Future generations may well re-echo 
 the words of John Quincy Adams when he said, " Cicero is the 
 friend of the soul, whom we can never meet without a gleam of 
 pleasure, from whom we can never part without reluctance." 

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 5 
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 21 
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 37 
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 55 
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF Lucius MURENA 69 
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 115 
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 155 
 
 i 
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 171 
 
 SPEECH .IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 201 
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 249 
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 271 
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 285 
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 303 
 
 THE FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 325 
 
 THE SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 343 
 
 THE NINTH ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 395 
 
 THE LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 405 
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERSES 425
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Lucius Catiline, a man of noble extraction, and who had already 
 been praetor, had been a competitor of Cicero's for the consulship; 
 the next year he again offered himself for the office, practising such 
 excessive and open bribery that Cicero published a new law against 
 it, with the additional penalty of ten years' exile; prohibiting like- 
 wise all shows of gladiators from being exhibited by a candidate 
 within two years of the time of his suing for any magistracy, unless 
 they were ordered by the will of a person deceased. Catiline, who 
 knew this law to be aimed chiefly at him, formed a design to murder 
 Cicero and some others of the chief men of the Senate, on the day 
 of election, which was fixed for the twentieth of October. But Cicero 
 had information of his plans, and laid them before the Senate, on 
 which the election was deferred, that they might have time to de- 
 liberate on an affair of so much importance. The day following, when 
 the Senate met, he charged Catiline with having entertained this de- 
 sign, and Catiline's behavior had been so violent, that the Senate 
 passed the decree to which they had occasionally recourse in times of 
 imminent danger from treason or sedition: " Let the consuls take 
 care that the republic suffers no harm." This decree invested the 
 consuls with absolute power, and suspended all the ordinary forms 
 of law, till the danger was over. On this Cicero doubled his guards, 
 introduced some additional troops into the city, and when the elec- 
 tions came on, he wore a breast-plate under his robe for his protec- 
 tion; by which precaution he prevented Catiline from executing his 
 design of murdering him and his competitors for the consulship, of 
 whom Decius Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena were elected. 
 
 Catiline was rendered desperate by this his second defeat, and re- 
 solved without farther delay to attempt the execution of all his schemes. 
 His greatest hopes lay in Sylla's veteran soldiers, whose cause he had 
 always espoused. They were scattered about in the different districts 
 and colonies of Italy; but he had actually enlisted a considerable body 
 of them in Etruria, and formed them into a little army under the com- 
 mand of Manlius, a centurion of considerable military experience, who 
 was only waiting for his orders. He was joined in his conspiracy by 
 several senators of profligate lives and desperate fortunes, of whom 
 the chiefs were Publius Cornelius Lentulus, Caius Cethegus, Publius 
 Autronius, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Porcius Lecca, Publius 
 Sylla, Servilius Sylla, Quintus Curius, Lucius Vargunteius, Quintus 
 Annius, and Lucius Bestia. These men resolved that a general insur- 
 
 3
 
 4 CICERO 
 
 .<>n should be raised throughout all Italy; that Catiline should put 
 ill at the head <>f the troops in Ktruria; that Rome should be et 
 on fire in many places at once; and that a general massacre should 
 be made of all the Senate, and of all their enemies, of whom none 
 were to be spared but the sons of Pompey, who were to be kept as 
 hostages, and as a check upon their father, who was in command in 
 the East. Lcntulus was to be president of their councils, Cassius was 
 to manage the firing of the city, and Ccthegus the massacre. But. as 
 the vigilance of Cicero was the greatest obstacle to their success. Cati- 
 line desired to see him slain before he left Rome; and two knights, 
 parties to the conspiracy, undertook to visit him early on pretence of 
 business, and to kill him in his bed. The name of one of them was 
 Caius Cornelius. 
 
 Cicero, however, had information of all the designs of the conspira- 
 tors, as by the intrigues of a woman called Fulvia, the mistress of 
 Curius, he had gained him over, and received regularly from htm an 
 account of all their operations. He sent for some of the chief men of 
 the city, and informed them of the plot against himself, and even of 
 the names of the knights who were to come to his house, and of the 
 hour at which they were to come. When they did come they found 
 the house carefully guarded and all admission refused to them. He 
 was enabled also to disappoint an attempt made by Catiline to seize 
 on the town of Praeneste, which was a very strong fortress, and would 
 have been of great use to him. The meeting of the conspirators had 
 taken place on the evening of the sixth of November. On the eighth 
 Cicero summoned the Senate to meet in the temple of Jupiter in the 
 Capitol, a place which was only used for this purpose on occasions 
 of great danger. (There had been previously several debates on the 
 subject of Catiline's treasons and design of murdering Cicero, and a 
 public reward had actually been offered to the first discoverer of the 
 plot. But Catiline had nevertheless continued to dissemble; had 
 offered to give security for his behavior, and to deliver himself to the 
 custody of anyone whom the Senate chose to name, even to that of 
 Cicero himself.) Catiline had the boldness to attend this meeting, 
 and all the Senate, even his own most particular acquaintance, were 
 so astonished at his impudence that none of them would salute him; 
 the consular senators quitted that part of the house in which he sat, 
 and left the bench empty: and Cicero himself was so provoked at his 
 audacity, that, instead of entering on any formal business, he ad- 
 dressed himself directly to Catiline in the following invective.
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 WHEN, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our pa- 
 tience? How long is that madness of yours still to 
 mock us? When is there to be an end of that un- 
 bridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? 
 Do not the mighty guards placed on the Palatine Hill do not 
 the watches posted throughout the city does not the alarm of 
 the people, and the union of all good men does not the precau- 
 tion taken of assembling the Senate in this most defensible place 
 do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here 
 present, have any effect upon you? Do you not feel that your 
 plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy is 
 already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which 
 everyone here possesses of it? What is there that you did last 
 night, what the night before where is it that you were who 
 was there that you summoned to meet you what design was 
 there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any- 
 one of us is unacquainted? 
 
 Shame on the age and on its principles ! The Senate is aware 
 of these things ; the consul sees them ; and yet this man lives. 
 Lives! ay, he comes even into the Senate. He takes a part in 
 the public deliberations ; he is watching and marking down 
 and checking off for slaughter every individual among us. And 
 we, gallant men that we are, think that we are doing our duty 
 to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks. 
 
 You ought, O Catiline, long ago to have been led to execu- 
 tion by command of the consul. That destruction which you 
 have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen 
 on your own head. 
 
 What? Did not that most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, 1 
 
 'This was Scipio Nasica, who called duty and save the republic; but as he 
 on the consul Mucius Sca-vola to do his refused to put anyone to death without
 
 6 CICERO 
 
 the Pontifi-x Maximus, in his capacity of a private citizen, put 
 to death Tiberius Gracchus, though but slightly undermining 
 the constitution? And shall we, who are the consuls, tolerate 
 Catiline, openly desirous to destroy the whole world with fire 
 and slaughter? Fur I pass over older instances, such as 
 how Caius Scrvilius Ahala with his own hand slew Spurius 
 Maelius when plotting a revolution in the state. There was 
 there was once such virtue in this republic, that brave men 
 would repress mischievous citizens with severer chastisement 
 than the most bitter enemy. For we have a resolution* of 
 the Senate, a formidable and authoritative dn MM you, 
 
 O Catiline; the wisdom of the republic is not at fault, nor the 
 dignity of this senatorial body. We, we alone I say it openly 
 we, the consuls, are wanting in our duty. 
 
 II. The senate once passed a decree that Lucius Opimius, 
 the consul, should take care that the republic suffered no injury. 
 Not one night elapsed. There was put to death, on some 
 mere suspicion of disaffection, Caius Gracchus, a man whose 
 family had borne the most unblemished reputation for many 
 generations. There were slain Marcus Fulvius, a man of con- 
 sular rank, and all his children. By a like decree of the Sen- 
 ate the safety of the republic was intrusted to Caius Marius* 
 and Lucius Valerius, the consuls. Did not the vengeance of 
 the republic, did not execution overtake Lucius Saturninus, a 
 tribune of the people, and Caius Servilius, the praetor, without 
 the delay of one single day? But we, for these twenty days, 
 have been allowing the edge of the Senate's authority to grow 
 blunt, as it were. For we are in possession of a similar de- 
 cree of the Senate, but we keep it locked up in its parchment 
 buried, I may say, in the sheath ; and according to this de- 
 cree you ought, O Catiline, to be put to death this instant. 
 You live and you live, not to lay aside, but to persist in your 
 audacity. * 
 
 I wish, O conscript fathers, to be merciful ; I wish not to 
 appear negligent amid such danger to the state ; but I do now 
 
 a trial. Scipio called on all the citizens empted the consuls from all obligation 
 
 to follow him, and stormed the Capitol, to attend to the ordinary forms of law, 
 
 which Gracchus had occupied with his and invested them with absolute power 
 
 party, and slew many of the partisans over the lives of all the citizens who 
 
 of Gracchus, and Gracchus himself. were intriguing against the republic. 
 
 1 This resolution was couched in the * This is the same incident that is the 
 
 form " Yideant Consults nequid res- subject of the preceding oration in de- 
 
 publica detriment! capiat;" and it ex- fence of Rabirius.
 
 
 w J 'jjll pjiniing b 
 
 at Romt. 
 
 The artist has chosen the moment when the orator leaps 
 the assembled conscript fathers, and .. 
 
 the assembly the whole plot of the 
 las been for weeks secretly unravelling. The effect 
 rophe is electrical. The Senators hint: on the wot 
 tested conspirator cowers under the lash of the spe.i 
 
 v dramatic, as, indeed, it represents one of the most drat
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 7 
 
 accuse myself of remissness and culpable inactivity. A camp 
 is pitched in Italy, at the entrance of Etruria, in hostility to 
 the republic ; the number of the enemy increases every day ; 
 and yet the general of that camp, the leader of those enemies, 
 we see within the walls ay, and even in the Senate plan- 
 ning every day some internal injury to the republic. If, O 
 Catiline, I should now order you to be arrested, to be put to 
 death, I should, I suppose, have to fear lest all good men should 
 say that I had acted tardily, rather than that anyone should 
 affirm that I acted cruelly. But yet this, which ought to 
 have been done long since, I have good reason for not doing 
 as yet; I will put you to death, then, when there shall be not 
 one person possible to be found so wicked, so abandoned, so like 
 yourself, as not to allow that it has been rightly done. As long 
 as one person exists who can dare to defend you, you shall live; 
 but you shall live as you do now, surrounded by my many and 
 trusted guards, so that you shall not be able to stir one finger 
 against the republic : many eyes and ears shall still observe and 
 watch you, as they have hitherto done, though you shall not per- 
 ceive them. 
 
 For what is there, O Catiline, that you can still expect, if night 
 is not able to veil your nefarious meetings in darkness, and if 
 private houses cannot conceal the voice of your conspiracy 
 within their walls if everything is seen and displayed ? Change 
 your mind : trust me : forget the slaughter and conflagration you 
 are meditating. You are hemmed in on all sides; all your plans 
 are clearer than the day to us; let me remind you of them. Do 
 you recollect that on the twenty-first of October I said in the 
 Senate, that on a certain day, which was to be the twenty-seventh 
 of October, C. Manlius, the satellite and servant of your audacity, 
 would be in arms? Was I mistaken, Catiline, not only in so im- 
 portant, so atrocious, so incredible a fact, but, what is much more 
 remarkable, in the very day? I said also in the Senate that you 
 had fixed the massacre of the nobles for the twenty-eighth of 
 October, when many chief men of the Senate had left Rome, not 
 so much for the sake of saving themselves as of checking your 
 designs. Can you deny that on that very day you were so 
 hemmed in by my guards and my vigilance, that you were un- 
 able to stir one finger against the republic ; when you said that 
 you would be content with the flight of the rest, and the slaughter
 
 8 CICERO 
 
 of us who remaim-d? What? \\hcn you made sure that 
 would be able to seize Praeneste on the first of November by a 
 nocturnal attack, did you not find that that colony was fortified 
 by my order, by my garrison, by my watchfulness and care? 
 You do nothing, you plan nothing, think of nothing which I not 
 only do not hear, but which I do not see and know every particu- 
 lar of. 
 
 Listen while I speak of the night before. You shall now see 
 that I watch far more actively for the safety than you do for the 
 destruction of the republic. I say that you came the night be- 
 fore (I will say nothing obscurely) into the Scythe-dealers' street, 
 to the house of Marcus Lecca; that many of your accomplia 
 the same insanity and wickedness came there too. Do you dare 
 to deny it? Why are you silent? I will prove it if you do deny 
 it; for I see here in the Senate some men who were there with 
 you. 
 
 O ye immortal gods, where on earth are we? in what city are 
 we living? what constitution is ours? There are here here in 
 our body, O conscript fathers, in this the most holy and dignified 
 assembly of the whole world, men who meditate my death, and 
 the death of all of us, and the destruction of this city, and of the 
 whole world. I, the consul, see them; I ask them their opinion 
 about the republic, and I do not yet attack, even by words, those 
 who ought to be put to death by the sword. You were, then, O 
 Catiline, at Lecca's that night; you divided Italy into sections; 
 you settled where everyone was to go; you fixed whom you 
 were to leave at Rome, whom you were to take with you; you 
 portioned out the divisions of the city for conflagration; you 
 undertook that you yourself would at once leave the city, and 
 said that there was then only this to delay you, that I was still 
 alive. Two Roman knights were found to deliver you from this 
 anxiety, and to promise that very night, before daybreak, to slay 
 me in my bed. All this I knew almost before your meeting had 
 broken up. I strengthened and fortified my house with a 
 stronger guard; I refused admittance, when they came, to those 
 whom you sent in the morning to salute me, and of whom I had 
 foretold to many eminent men that they would come to me at 
 that time. 
 
 As, then, this is the case, O Catilirne, continue as you have 
 begun. Leave the city at last: the gates are open; depart.
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 9 
 
 That Manlian camp of yours has been waiting too long for you 
 as its general. And lead forth with you all your friends, or at 
 least as many as you can; purge the city of your presence; you 
 will deliver me from a great fear, when there is a wall between me 
 and you. Among us you can dwell no longer I will not bear it, 
 I will not permit it, I will not tolerate it. Great thanks are due 
 to the immortal gods, and to this very Jupiter Stator, in whose 
 temple we are, the most ancient protector of this city, that we 
 have already so often escaped so foul, so horrible, and so deadly 
 an enemy to the republic. But the safety of the commonwealth 
 must not be too often allowed to be risked on one man. As long 
 as you, O Catiline, plotted against me while I was the consul 
 elect, I defended myself not with a public guard, but by my own 
 private diligence. When, in the next consular comitia, you 
 wished to slay me when I was actually consul, and your competi- 
 tors also, in the Campus Martius, I checked your nefarious at- 
 tempt by the assistance and resources of my own friends, without 
 exciting any disturbance publicly. In short, as often as you at- 
 tacked me, I by myself opposed you, and that, too, though I saw 
 that my ruin was connected with great disaster to the republic. 
 But now you are openly attacking the entire republic. 
 
 You are summoning to destruction and devastation the tem- 
 ples of the immortal gods, the houses of the city, the lives of 
 all the citizens; in short, all Italy. Wherefore, since I do not 
 yet venture to do that which is the best thing, and which belongs 
 to my office and to the discipline of our ancestors, I will do that 
 which is more merciful if we regard its rigor, and more expedient 
 for the state. For if I order you to be put to death, the rest of 
 the conspirators will still remain in the republic; if, as I have 
 long been exhorting you, you depart, your companions, these 
 worthless dregs of the republic, will be drawn off from the city 
 too. What is the matter, Catiline? Do you hesitate to do that 
 when I order you which you were already doing of your own ac- 
 cord? The consul orders an enemy to depart from the city. 
 Do you ask me, Are you to go into banishment? I do not order 
 it; but, if you consult me, I advise it. 
 
 For what is there, O Catiline, that can now afford you any 
 pleasure in this city? for there is no one in it, except that band of 
 profligate conspirators of yours, who does not fear you no one 
 who does not hate you. What brand of domestic baseness is
 
 io CICERO 
 
 not stamped upon your life? What disgraceful circumstam 
 
 iting to your infamy in your private affairs? From what 
 licentiousness have your eyes, from what atrocity have your 
 hands, from what iniquity has your whole body, ever abstained? 
 Is there one youth, when you have once entangled him in the 
 temptations of your corruption, to whom you have not held out 
 a sword for audacious crime, or a torch for licentious wicked- 
 ness? 
 
 What? when lately by the death of your former wife you had 
 made your house empty and ready for a new bridal, did you not 
 even add another incredible wickedness to this wickedness? 
 But I pass that over, and willingly allow it to be buried in silence, 
 that so horrible a crime may not be seen to have existed in this 
 city, and not to have been chastised. I pass over the ruin of 
 your fortune, which you know is hanging over you against the 
 ides of the very next month; I come to those things which re- 
 late not to the infamy of your private vices, not to your domestic 
 difficulties and baseness, but to the welfare of the republic and to 
 the lives and safety of us all. 
 
 Can the light of this life, O Catiline, can the breath of this at- 
 mosphere be pleasant to you, when you know that there is not 
 one man of those here present who is ignorant that you, on the 
 last day of the year, when Lepidus and Tullus were consuls, 
 stood in the assembly armed ; that you had prepared your hand 
 for the slaughter of the consuls and chief men of the state, and 
 that no reason or fear of yours hindered your crime and madness, 
 but the fortune of the republic? And I say no more of these 
 things, for they are not unknown to everyone. How often have 
 you endeavored to slay me, both as consul elect and as actual 
 consul? how many shots of yours, so aimed that they seemed im- 
 possible to be escaped, have I avoided by some slight stooping 
 aside, and some dodging, as it were, of my body? You at- 
 tempt nothing, you execute nothing, you devise nothing that 
 can be kept hid from me at the proper time; and yet you do not 
 cease to attempt and to contrive. How often already has that 
 dagger of yours been wrested from your hands? how often has it 
 slipped through them by some chance, and dropped down? and 
 yet you cannot any longer do without it; and to what sacred 
 mysteries it is consecrated and devoted by you I know not, that 
 you think it necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul.
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE n 
 
 But now, what is that life of yours that you are leading? For 
 I will speak to you not so as to seem influenced by the hatred I 
 ought to feel, but by pity, nothing of which is due to you. You 
 came a little while ago into the Senate: in so numerous an as- 
 sembly, who of so many friends and connections of yours saluted 
 you? If this in the memory of man never happened to any one 
 else, are you waiting for insults by word of mouth, when you are 
 overwhelmed by the most irresistible condemnation of silence? 
 Is it nothing that at your arrival all those seats were vacated? 
 that all the men of consular rank, who had often been marked out 
 by you for slaughter, the very moment you sat down, left that 
 part of the benches bare and vacant? With what feelings do you 
 think you ought to bear this? On my honor, if my slaves feared 
 me as all your fellow-citizens fear you, I should think I must 
 leave my house. Do not you think you should leave the ctiy? 
 If I saw that I was even undeservedly so suspected and hated by 
 my fellow-citizens, I would rather flee from their sight than be 
 gazed at by the hostile eyes of everyone. And do you, who, 
 from the consciousness of your wickedness, know that the hatred 
 of all men is just and has been long due to you, hesitate to avoid 
 the sight and presence of those men whose minds and senses you 
 offend? If your parents feared and hated you, and if you could 
 by no means pacify them, you would, I think, depart somewhere 
 out of their sight. Now, your country, which is the common 
 parent of all of us, hates and fears you, and has no other opinion 
 of you, than that you are meditating parricide in her case; and 
 will you neither feel awe of her authority, nor deference for her 
 judgment, nor fear of her power? 
 
 And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a manner 
 silently speaks to you : There has now for many years been no 
 crime committed but by you; no atrocity has taken place with- 
 out you; you alone unpunished and unquestioned have mur- 
 dered the citizens, have harassed and plundered the allies; you 
 alone have had power not only to neglect all laws and investiga- 
 tions, but to overthrow and break through them. Your former 
 actions, though they ought not to have been borne, yet I did 
 bear as well as I cotrid ; but now that I should be wholly occupied 
 with fear of you alone, that at every sound I should dread Cati- 
 line, that no design should seem possible to be entertained 
 against me which does not proceed from your wickedness, this is
 
 i a CICERO 
 
 no longer endurable. Depart, then, and deliver me from this 
 fear; that, it it he a just one, I may not be destroyed; if an im- 
 aginary one. that at least I may at last cease to fear. 
 
 I 1 have said, your country were thus to address you, 
 ought she not to obtain her request, even if she were not able to 
 enforce it? What shall I say of your having given yourself into 
 custody? what of your having said, for the sake of avoiding sus- 
 picion, that you were willing to dwell in the house of Marcus 
 Lepidus? And when you were not received by him, you dared 
 even to come to me, and begged me to keep you in my house; 
 and when you had received answer from me that I could not 
 possibly be safe in the same house with you, when I considered 
 myself in great danger as long as we were in the same city, you 
 came to Ouintus Metellus, the praetor, and being rejected by 
 him, you passed on to your associate, that most excellent man. 
 Marcus Marcellus. who would be, I suppose you thought, most 
 diligent in guarding you, most sagacious in suspecting you, and 
 most bold in punishing you ; but how far can we think that man 
 ought to be from bonds and imprisonment who has already 
 judged himself deserving of being given into custody? 
 
 Since, then, this is the case, do you hesitate, O Catiline, if you 
 cannot remain here with tranquillity, to depart to some distant 
 land, and to trust your life, saved from just and deserved punish- 
 ment, to flight and solitude? Make a motion, say you, to the 
 Senate (for that is what you demand), and if this body votes that 
 you ought to go into banishment, you say that you will obey. 
 I will not make such a motion, it is contrary to my principles, and 
 yet I will let you see what these men think of you. Be gone 
 from the city, O Catiline, deliver the republic from fear; depart 
 into banishment, if that is the word you are waiting for. What 
 now, O Catiline? Do you not perceive, do you not see the 
 silence of these men? they permit it, they say nothing; why wait 
 you for the authority of their words, when you see their wishes 
 in their silence? 
 
 I>nt had I said the same to this excellent young man, Publius 
 Sextius, or to that brave man, Marcus Marcellus, before this time 
 the Senate would deservedly have laid violent hands on me, con- 
 sul though I be, in this very temple. But as to you, Catiline, 
 while they are quiet they approve, while they permit me to speak 
 they vote, while they are silent they are loud and eloquent. And
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 13 
 
 not they alone, whose authority forsooth is dear to you, though 
 their lives are unimportant, but the Roman knights too, those 
 most honorable and excellent men, and the other virtuous citi- 
 zens who are now surrounding the Senate, whose numbers you 
 could see, whose desires you could know, and whose voices you 
 a few minutes ago could hear ay, whose very hands and weap- 
 ons I have for some time been scarcely able to keep off from you; 
 but those, too, I will easily bring to attend you to the gates if you 
 leave these places you have been long desiring to lay waste. 
 
 And yet, why am I speaking ? that anything may change your 
 purpose? that you may ever amend your life? that you may medi- 
 tate flight or think of voluntary banishment? I wish the gods 
 may give you such a mind; though I see, if alarmed at my words 
 you bring your mind to go into banishment, what a storm of 
 unpopularity hangs over me, if not at present, while the mem- 
 ory of your wickedness is fresh, at all events hereafter. But it 
 is worth while to incur that, as long as that is but a private mis- 
 fortune of my own, and is unconnected with the dangers of the 
 republic. But we cannot expect that you should be concerned 
 at your own vices, that you should fear the penalties of the laws, 
 or that you should yield to the necessities of the republic, for 
 you are not, O Catiline, one whom either shame can recall from 
 infamy, or fear from danger, or reason from madness. 
 
 Wherefore, as I have said before, go forth, and if you wish 
 to make me, your enemy as you call me, unpopular, go straight 
 into banishment. I shall scarcely be able to endure all that 
 will be said if you do so ; I shall scarcely be able to support my 
 load of unpopularity if you do go into banishment at the com- 
 mand of the consul; but if you wish to serve my credit and 
 reputation, go forth with your ill-omened band of profligates; 
 betake yourself to Manlius, rouse up the abandoned citizens, 
 separate yourself from the good ones, wage war against your 
 country, exult in your impious banditti, so that you may not 
 seem to have been driven out by me and gone to strangers, but 
 to have gone invited to your own friends. 
 
 Though why should I invite you, by whom I know men have 
 been already sent on to wait in arms for you at the forum Aure- 
 lium; who I know has fixed and agreed with Manlius upon a 
 settled day; by whom I know that that silver eagle, which I 
 trust will be ruinous and fatal to you and to all your friends, and
 
 , 4 CICERO 
 
 to which there was set up in your house a shrine as it were of 
 your crimes, has been already sent forward. Need I fear that 
 you can long do without that which you used to worship when 
 going out to murder, and from whose altars you have often 
 transferred your impious hand to the slaughter of citizen 
 
 You will go at last where your unbridled and mad desire has 
 been long hurrying you. And this causes you no grief, but an 
 incredible pleasure. Nature has formed you, desire has tra; 
 you, fortune has preserved you for this insanity. Not only did 
 you never desire quiet, but you never even desired any war but 
 a criminal one; you have collected a band of profligates and 
 worthless men, abandoned not only by all fortune but even by 
 hope. 
 
 Then what happiness will you enjoy! with what delight will 
 you exult! in what pleasure will you revel! when in so numerous 
 a body of friends, you neither hear nor see one good man. All 
 the toils you have gone through have always pointed to this sort 
 of life; your lying on the ground not merely to lie in wait to 
 gratify your unclean desires, but even to accomplish crimes; 
 your vigilance, not only when plotting against the sleep of hus- 
 bands, but also against the goods of your murdered victims, 
 have all been preparations for this. Now you have an opportu- 
 nity of displaying your splendid endurance of hunger, of cold, 
 of want of everything; by which in a short time you will find 
 yourself worn out. All this I effected when I procured your 
 rejection from the consulship, that you should be reduced to 
 make attempts on your country as an exile, instead of being 
 able to distress it as consul, and that that which had been 
 wickedly undertaken by you should be called piracy rather than 
 war. 
 
 Now that I may remove and avert, O conscript fathers, any 
 in the least reasonable complaint from myself, listen, I beseech 
 you, carefully to what I say, and lay it up in your inmost hearts 
 and minds. In truth, if my country, which is far dearer to me 
 than my life if all Italy if the whole republic were to address 
 me, " Marcus Tullius, what are you doing? will you permit that 
 man to depart whom you have ascertained to be an enemy? 
 whom you see ready to become the general of the war? whom 
 you know to be expected in the camp of the enemy as their 
 chief, the author of all this wickedness, the head of the con-
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 15 
 
 spiracy, the instigator of the slaves and abandoned citizens, so 
 that he shall seem not driven out of the city by you, but let loose 
 by you against the city? Will you not order him to be thrown 
 into prison, to be hurried off to execution, to be put to death 
 with the most prompt severity? What hinders you? is it the 
 customs of our ancestors? But even private men have often 
 in this republic slain mischievous citizens. Is it the laws which 
 have been passed about the punishment of Roman citizens? 
 But in this city those who have rebelled against the republic 
 have never had the rights of citizens. Do you fear odium with 
 posterity? You are showing fine gratitude to the Roman peo- 
 ple which has raised you, a man known only by your own 
 actions, of no ancestral renown, through all the degrees of honor 
 at so early an age to the very highest office, if from fear of 
 unpopularity or of any danger you neglect the safety of your 
 fellow-citizens. But if you have a fear of unpopularity, is that 
 arising from the imputation of vigor and boldness, or that aris- 
 ing from that of inactivity and indecision most to be feared? 
 When Italy is laid waste by war, when cities are attacked and 
 houses in flames, do you not think that you will be then con- 
 sumed by a perfect conflagration of hatred?" 
 
 To this holy address of the republic, and to the feelings of 
 those men who entertain the same opinion, I will make this 
 short answer: If, O conscript fathers, I thought it best that 
 Catiline should be punished with death, I would not have given 
 the space of one hour to this gladiator to live in. If, forsooth, 
 those excellent men and most illustrious cities not only did not 
 pollute themselves, but even glorified themselves by the blood 
 of Saturninus, and the Gracchi, and Flaccus, and many others of 
 old time, surely I had no cause to fear lest for slaying this par- 
 ricidal murderer of the citizens any unpopularity should accrue 
 to me with posterity. And if it did threaten me to ever so great 
 a degree, yet I have always been of the disposition to think un- 
 popularity earned by virtue and glory, not unpopularity. 
 
 Though there are some men in this body who either do not 
 see what threatens, or dissemble what they do see; who have fed 
 the hope of Catiline by mild sentiments, and have strengthned 
 the rising conspiracy by not believing it; influenced by whose 
 authority many, and they not wicked, but only ignorant, if I pun- 
 ished him, would say that I had acted cruelly and tyrannically.
 
 16 CICERO 
 
 Hut I know that if he arrives .imp of Manlius to which 
 
 he is going, there will be no one so .-tupid as not to see that there 
 has been a conspiracy, no one so hardened as not to confer 
 But if tins man alone \\en- \<\\[ to death, I know that this disease 
 of the republic would be only checked for a while, not eradicated 
 forever. But if he banislu > himself, aud takes with him all his 
 friends, and collects at one point all the ruined men from every 
 quarter, then not only will this full-grown plague of the republic 
 be extinguished and eradicated, but also the root and seed of all 
 future evils. 
 
 We have now for a long time, O conscript fathers, lived 
 among these dangers and machinations of conspiracy; l.ut 
 somehow or other, the ripeness of all wickedness, and of this 
 long-standing madness and audacity, has come to a head at the 
 time of my consulship. But if this man alone is removed from 
 this piratical crew, we may appear, perhaps, for a short time re- 
 lieved from fear and anxiety, but the danger will settle down and 
 lie hid in the veins and bowels of the republic. As it often hap- 
 pens that men afflicted with a severe disease, when they are 
 torturd with heat and fever, if they drink cold water, seem at 
 first to be relieved, but afterward suffer more and more severely; 
 so this disease which is in the republic, if relieved by the punish- 
 ment of this man, will only get worse and worse, as the rest will 
 be still alive. 
 
 Wherefore, O conscript fathers, let the worthless begone 
 let them separate themselves from the good let them collect in 
 one place let them, as I have often said before, be separated 
 from us by a wall ; let them cease to plot against the consul in 
 his own house to surround the tribunal of the city praetor to 
 besiege the senate-house with swords to prepare brands and 
 torches to burn the city; let, it, in short, be written on the brow 
 of every citizen, what are his sentiments about the republic. I 
 promise you this, O conscript fathers, that there shall be so 
 much diligence in us the consuls, so much authority in you, so 
 much virtue in the Roman knights, so much unanimity in all 
 good men, that you shall see everything made plain and mani- 
 fest by the departure of Catiline everything checked and pun- 
 ished. 
 
 With these omens, O Catiline, begone to your impious and 
 nefarious war, to the great safety of the republic, to your own
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 17 
 
 misfortune and injury, and to the destruction of those who have 
 joined themselves to you in every wickedness and atrocity. 
 Then do you, O Jupiter, who were consecrated by Romulus 
 with the same auspices as this city, whom we rightly call the 
 stay of this city and empire, repel this man and his companions 
 from your altars and from the other temples from the houses 
 and walls of the city from the lives and fortunes of all the citi- 
 zens; and overwhelm all the enemies of good men, the foes of 
 the republic, the robbers of Italy, men bound together by a 
 treaty and infamous alliance of crimes, dead and alive, with eter- 
 nal punishments.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Catiline did not venture to make any reply to the former speech, 
 but he begged the Senate not to be too hasty in believing everything 
 which was said to his prejudice by one who had always been his enemy, 
 as Cicero had; and alleged his high birth, and the stake which he had 
 in the prosperity of the commonwealth, as arguments to make it ap- 
 pear improbable that he should seek to injure it; and called Cicero a 
 stranger, and a new inhabitant of Rome. But the Senate interrupted 
 him with a general outcry, calling him traitor and parricide. Upon 
 which, being rendered furious and desperate, he declared aloud what 
 he had before said to Cato, that since he was circumvented and driven 
 headlong by his enemies, he would quench the flame which his enemies 
 were kindling around him in the common ruin. And so he rushed out 
 of the temple. On his arrival at his own house he held a brief con- 
 ference with the other conspirators, in which it was resolved that he 
 should go at once to the camp of Manlius, and return as speedily as he 
 could at the head of the army which was there awaiting him. Accord- 
 ingly, that night he left Rome with a small retinue, and made the best 
 of his way toward Etruria. His friends gave out that he had gone 
 into voluntary banishment at Marseilles, and spread that report through 
 the city the next morning, in order to excite odium against Cicero, 
 as having driven him out without any trial or proof of his guilt. But 
 Cicero was aware of his motions, and knew that he had previously sent 
 a quantity of arms, and military ensigns, and especially a silver eagle 
 which he had been used to keep in his own house with a superstitious 
 reverence, because it had been used by the great Marius in his expedi- 
 tion against the Cimbri. However, he thought it desirable to counter- 
 act the story of his having gone into exile, and therefore summoned 
 the people into the forum, and made them the following speech.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 AT length, O Romans, we have dismissed from the city, or 
 driven out, or, when he was departing of his own ac- 
 cord, we have pursued with words, Lucius Catiline, mad 
 with audacity, breathing wickedness, impiously planning mis- 
 chief to his country, threatening fire and sword to you and to 
 this city. He is gone, he has departed, he has disappeared, he 
 has rushed out. No injury will now be prepared against these 
 walls within the walls themselves by that monster and prodigy 
 of wickedness. And we have, without controversy, defeated 
 him, the sole general of this domestic war. For now that dag- 
 ger will no longer hover about our sides; we shall not be afraid 
 in the campus, in the forum, in the senate-house ay, and within 
 our own private walls. He was moved from his place when he 
 was driven from the city. Now we shall openly carry on a 
 regular war with an enemy without hinderance. Beyond all 
 question we ruin the man; we have defeated him splendidly 
 when we have driven him from secret treachery* into open war- 
 fare. But that he has not taken with him his sword red with 
 blood as he intended that he has left us alive that we wrested 
 the weapon from his hands that he has left the citizens safe and 
 the city standing, what great and overwhelming grief must you 
 think that this is to him! Now he lies prostrate, O Romans, 
 and feels himself stricken down and abject, and often casts back 
 his eyes toward this city, which he mourns over as snatched 
 from his jaws, but which seems to me to rejoice at having 
 vomited forth such a pest, and cast it out of doors. 
 
 But if there be anyone of that disposition which all men 
 should have, who yet blames me greatly for the very thing in 
 which my speech exults and triumphs namely, that I did not 
 arrest so capital mortal an enemy rather than let him go that is 
 not my fault, O citizens, but the fault of the times. Lucius 
 Catiline ought to have been visited with the severest punish- 
 
 21
 
 ia CICERO 
 
 merit, and to have been put to death long since; and both the 
 customs of our anceM : -. an<l tin rigor of my office, and the 
 republic, demanded this of me; but how many, think you, were 
 there who did not believe what I reported? how many who out 
 of stupidity did not think so? how many who even defended 
 him? how many who, out of their own depravity, favored him? 
 If, in truth, I had thought that, if he were removed, all danger 
 would be removed from you, I would long since have cut off 
 Lucius Catiline, had it been at the risk, not only of my popu- 
 larity, but even of my life. 
 
 But as I saw that, since the matter was not even then proved 
 to all of you, if I had punished him with death, as he had de- 
 served, I should be borne down by unpopularity, and so be un- 
 able to follow up his accomplices, I brought the business on to 
 this point that you might be able to combat openly when you 
 saw the enemy without disguise. But how exceedingly I think 
 this enemy to be feared now that he is out of doors, you may see 
 from this that I am vexed even that he has gone from the city 
 with but a small retinue. I wish he had taken with him all his 
 forces. He has taken with him Tongillus, with whom he had 
 been said to have a criminal intimacy, and Publicius, and Muna- 
 tius, whose debts contracted in taverns could cause no great dis- 
 quietude to the republic. He has left behind him others you 
 all know what men they are, how overwhelmed with debt, how 
 powerful, how noble. 
 
 Therefore, with our Gallic legions, and with the levies which 
 Quintus Metellus has raised in the Picenian and Gallic territory, 
 and with these troops which are every day being got ready by 
 us. I thoroughly despise that army composed of desperate old 
 men, of clownish profligates, and uneducated spendthrifts; of 
 those who have preferred to desert their bail rather than that 
 army, and which will fall to pieces if I show them not the battle 
 array of our army, but an edict of the praetor. I wish he had 
 taken with him those soldiers of his, whom I see hovering about 
 the forum, standing about the senate-house, even coming into 
 the senate, who shine with ointment, who glitter in purple; and 
 if they remain here, remember that that army is not so much to 
 be feared by us as these men who have deserted the army. And 
 they are the more to be feared, because they are aware that I 
 know what they are thinking of, and yet they are not influnced 
 by it.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 23 
 
 I know to whom Apulia has been allotted, who has Etruria, 
 who the Picenian territory, who the Gallic district, who has 
 begged for himself the office of spreading fire and sword by 
 night through the city. They know that all the plans of the 
 preceding night are brought to me. I laid them before the 
 Senate yesterday. Catiline himself was alarmed and fled. Why 
 do these men wait? Verily, they are greatly mistaken if they 
 think that former lenity of mine will last forever. 
 
 What I have been waiting for, that I have gained namely, 
 that you should all see that a conspiracy has been openly 
 formed against the republic; unless, indeed, there be anyone 
 who thinks that those who are like Catiline do not agree with 
 Catiline. There is not any longer room for lenity; the business 
 itself demands severity. One thing, even now, I will grant 
 let them depart, let them begone. Let them not suffer the un- 
 happy Catiline to pine away for want of them. I will tell them 
 the road. He went by the Aurelian road. If they make haste, 
 they will catch him by the evening. O happy republic, if it can 
 cast forth these dregs of the republic! Even now, when Catiline 
 alone is got rid of, the republic seems to me relieved and re- 
 freshed; for what evil or wickedness can be devised or imagined 
 which he did not conceive? What prisoner, what gladiator, 
 what thief, what assassin, what parricide, what forger of wills, 
 what cheat, what debauchee, what spendthrift, what adulterer, 
 what abandoned woman, what corrupter of youth, what profli- 
 gate, what scoundrel can be found in all Italy, who does not 
 avow that he has been on terms of intimacy with Catiline? 
 What murder has been committed for years without him? 
 What nefarious act of infamy that has not been done by him ? 
 
 But in what other man were there ever so many allurements 
 for youth as in him, who both indulged in infamous love for 
 others, and encouraged their infamous affections for himself, 
 promising to some enjoyment of their lust, to others the death 
 of their parents, and not only instigating them to iniquity, but 
 even assisting them in it. But now, how suddenly had he col- 
 lected, not only out of the city, but even out of the country, a 
 number of abandoned men? No one, not only at Rome, but in 
 every corner of Italy, was overwhelmed with debt whom he did 
 not enlist in this incredible association of wickedness. 
 
 And, that you may understand the diversity of his pursuits,
 
 M 
 
 CICERO 
 
 and the variety of his designs, there \\as no one in any scho 
 gladiators, at all inclined to audacity, who docs not "irn- 
 
 self to be an intimate friend of Catiline no one on the stag- 
 all of a fickle and worthless disposition, who does not profess 
 himself his companion. And IK. trained in the practice of in- 
 sult and \\iekedness, in enduring cold, and hunger, and t! 
 and watching, was called a brave man by those fellows, while all 
 the appliances of industry and instruments of virtue were de- 
 voted to lust and atro< 
 
 But if his companions follow him if the infamous herd of des- 
 perate men depart from the city, ( > happy shall we be, fortunate 
 will be the republic, illustrious will be the renown of my con- 
 sulship. For theirs is no ordinary insolence no common and 
 endurable audacity. They think of nothing but slaughter, con- 
 flagration, and rapine. They have dissipated their patrimonies, 
 they have squandered their fortunes. Money has long failed 
 them, and now credit begins to fail; but the same desires remain 
 which they had in their time of abundance. But if in their 
 drinking and gambling parties they were content with feasts 
 and harlots, they would be in a hopeless state indeed ; but yet 
 they might be endured. But who can bear this that indolent 
 men should plot against the bravest; drunkards against the 
 sober; men asleep against men awake; men lying at feasts, em- 
 bracing abandoned women, languid with wine, crammed with 
 food, crowned with chaplets, reeking with ointments, worn out 
 with lust, belch out in their discourse the murder of all good 
 men, and the conflagration of the city? 
 
 But I am confident that some fate is hanging over these men ; 
 and that the punishment long since due to their iniquity, and 
 worrhlessness, and wickedness, and lust, is either visibly at hand 
 or at least rapidly approaching. And if my consulship shall 
 have removed, since it cannot cure them, it will have added, not 
 some brief span, but many ages of existence to the republic. 
 For there is no nation for us to fear no king who can make 
 war on the Roman people. All foreign affairs are tranquillized, 
 both by land and sea, by the valor of one man. Domestic war 
 alone remains. The only plots against us are within our own 
 walls the danger is within the enemy is within. We must 
 war with luxury, with madness, with wickedness. For this war. 
 O citizens, I offer myself as the general. I take on myself the
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 25 
 
 enmity of profligate men. What can be cured, I will cure, by 
 whatever means it may be possible. What must be cut away, I 
 will not suffer to spread, to the ruin of the republic. Let them 
 depart, or let them stay quiet ; or if they remain in the city and 
 in the same disposition as at present, let them expect what they 
 deserve. 
 
 But there are men, O Romans, who say that Catiline has been 
 driven by me into banishment. But if I could do so by a word, 
 I would drive out those also who say so. Forsooth, that timid, 
 that excessively bashful man could not bear the voice of the 
 consul; as soon as he was ordered to go into banishment, he 
 obeyed, he was quiet. Yesterday, when I had been all but mur- 
 dered at my own house, I convoked the Senate in the temple of 
 Jupiter Stator; I related the whole affair to the conscript 
 fathers; and when Catiline came thither, what senator addressed 
 him? who saluted him? who looked upon him not so much even 
 as an abandoned citizen, as an implacable enemy? Nay, the 
 chiefs of that body left that part of the benches to which he came 
 naked and empty. 
 
 On this I, that violent consul, who drive citizens into exile by 
 a word, asked of Catiline whether he had been at the nocturnal 
 meeting at Marcus Lecca's, or not ; when that most audacious 
 man, convicted by his own conscience, was at first silent. I re- 
 lated all the other circumstances; I described what he had done 
 that night, where he had been, what he had arranged for the 
 next night, how the plan of the whole war had been laid down 
 by him. When he hesitated, when he was convicted, I asked 
 why he hesitated to go whither he had been long preparing to 
 go; when I knew that arms, that the axes, the fasces, and 
 trumpets, and military standards, and that silver eagle to which 
 he had made a shrine in his own house, had been sent on, did I 
 drive him into exile who I knew had already entered upon war? 
 I suppose Manlius, that centurion who has pitched his camp in 
 the Faesulan district, has proclaimed war against the Roman 
 people in his own name; and that camp is not now waiting for 
 Catiline as its general, and he, driven forsooth into exile, will go 
 to Marseilles, as they say, and not to that camp. 
 
 O the hard lot of those, not only of those who govern, but 
 even of those who save the republic. Now, if Lucius Catiline, 
 hemmed in and rendered powerless by my counsels, by my toils,
 
 t6 CICERO 
 
 by my dangers, should on a sudden become alarmed, should 
 change his designs, should desert his friends, should abandon 
 his design of making war, should change his path from this 
 course of wickedness and war, and betake himself to flight and 
 exile, he will not be said to have been deprived by me of the a- 
 of his audacity, to have been astounded and terrified by my dili- 
 gence, to have been driven from his hope and from his enter- 
 . hut, uncondemned and innocent, to have been driven into 
 banishment by the consul by threats and violence; and there 
 will be some who will seek to have him thought not worthless 
 but unfortunate, and me considered not a most active consul, 
 but a most cruel tyrant. I am not unwilling, O Romans, to en- 
 dure this storm of false and unjust popularity as long as the 
 danger of this horrible and nefarious war is warded off from you. 
 Let him be said to be banished by me as long as he goes into 
 banishment ; but. believe me, he will not go. I will never ask of 
 the immortal gods, O Romans, for the sake of lightening my own 
 unpopularity, for you to hear that Lucius Catiline is leading an 
 army of enemies, and is hovering about in arms; but yet in 
 three days you will hear it. And I much more fear that it will 
 be objected to me some day or other that I have let him escape, 
 rather than that I have banished him. But when there are men 
 who say he has been banished because he has gone away, what 
 would these men say if he had been put to death? 
 
 Although those men who keep saying that Catiline is going to 
 Marseilles do not complain of this so much as they fear it; for 
 there is not one of them so inclined to pity, as not to prefer that 
 he should go to Manlius rather than to Marseilles. But he, if 
 he had never before planned what he is now doing, yet would 
 rather be slain while living as a bandit, than live as an exile; but 
 now, when nothing has happened to him contrary to his own 
 wish and design except, indeed, that he has left Rome while 
 we are alive let us wish rather that he may go into exile than 
 complain of it. 
 
 But why are we speaking so long about one enemy; and 
 about that enemy who now avows that he is one; and whom I 
 now do not fear, because, as I have always wished, a wall is be- 
 tween us; and are saying nothing about those who dissemble, 
 who remain at Rome, who are among us? Whom, indeed, if it 
 were by any means possible, I should be anxious not so much to
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 27 
 
 chastise as to cure, and to make friendly to the republic; nor, if 
 they will listen to me, do I quite know why that may not be. 
 For I will tell you, O Romans, of what classes of men those 
 forces are made up, and then, if I can, I will apply to each the 
 medicine of my advice and persuasion. 
 
 There is one class of them, who, with enormous debts, have 
 still greater possessions, and who can by no means be detached 
 from their affection to them. Of these men the appearance is 
 most respectable, for they are wealthy, but their intention and 
 their cause are most shameless. Will you be rich in lands, in 
 houses, in money, in slaves, in all things, and yet hesitate to 
 diminish your possessions to add to your credit? What are you 
 expecting? War? What! in the devastation of all things, do 
 you believe that your own possessions will be held sacred? do 
 you expect an abolition of debts? They are mistaken who ex- 
 pect that from Catiline. There may be schedules made out, 
 owing to my exertions, but they will be only catalogues of sale. 
 Nor can those who have possessions be safe by any other means; 
 and if they had been willing to adopt this plan earlier, and not, as 
 is very foolish, to struggle on against usury with the profits of 
 their farms, we should have them now richer and better citizens. 
 But I think these men are the least of all to be dreaded, because 
 they can either be persuaded to abandon their opinions, or if 
 they cling to them, they seem to me more likely to form wishes 
 against the republic than to bear arms against it. 
 
 There is another class of them, who, although they are har- 
 assed by debt, yet are expecting supreme power; they wish to 
 become masters. They think that when the republic is in con- 
 fusion they may gain those honors which they despair of when 
 it is in tranquillity. And they must, I think, be told the same 
 as everyone else to despair of obtaining what they are aiming 
 at; that in the first place, I myself am watchful for, am present 
 to, am providing for the republic. Besides that, there is a high 
 spirit in the virtuous citizens, great unanimity, great numbers, 
 and also a large body of troops. Above all that, the immortal 
 gods will stand by and bring aid to this invincible nation, this 
 most illustrious empire, this most beautiful city, against such 
 wicked violence. And if they had already got that which they 
 with the greatest madness wish for, do they think that in the 
 ashes of the city and blood of the citizens, which in their wicked
 
 38 
 
 and infamous hearts thc\ they will become consuls and 
 
 tlu-tat. r-, an<l rvm kings? I 1 ot sec that they arc wish- 
 
 ing for that uliu-h, if they were to obtain it, must be given up to 
 some fugitive slave, or to some gladiator? 
 
 There is a third class, already touched by age, but still vigor- 
 ous from constant exercise; of which class is Manlius himself, 
 whom Catiline is now succeeding. These are men of those 
 colonies which Sylla established at Faesulae, which I know to be 
 composed, on the whole, of excellent citizens and brave men; 
 but yet these are colonists, who, from becoming possessed of 
 unexpected and sudden wealth, boast themselves extravagantly 
 and insolently; these men, while they build like rich men, while 
 they delight in farms, in litters, in vast families of slaves, in luxu- 
 rious banquets, have incurred such great debts, that, if they 
 would be saved, they must raise Sylla from the dead; and they 
 have even excited some countrymen, poor and needy men, to 
 entertain the same hopes of plunder as themselves. And all 
 these men, O Romans, I place in the same class of robbers and 
 banditti. But, I warn them, let them cease to be mad, and to 
 think of proscriptions and dictatorships; for such a horror of 
 these times in ingrained into the city, that not even men, but it 
 seems to me that even the very cattle would refuse to bear them 
 again. 
 
 There is a fourth class, various, promiscuous, and turbulent; 
 who indeed are now overwhelmed; who will never recover 
 themselves; who, partly from indolence, partly from managing 
 their affairs badly, partly from extravagance, are embarrassed 
 by old debts; and worn out with bail-bonds, and judgments, 
 and seizures of their goods, are said to be betaking themselves 
 in numbers to that camp both from the city and the country. 
 These men I think not so much active soldiers as lazy insolv- 
 ents; who, if they cannot stand at first, may fall, but fall so, 
 that not only the city but even their nearest neighbors know 
 nothing of it. For I do not understand why. if they cannot 
 live with honor, they should wish to die shamefully; or why 
 they think they shall perish with less pain in a crowd, than if 
 they perish by themselves. 
 
 There is a fifth class, of parricides, assassins, in short of all 
 infamous characters, whom I do not wish to recall from Catiline, 
 and indeed they cannot be separated from him. Let them
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 29 
 
 perish in their wicked war, since they are so numerous that a 
 prison cannot contain them. 
 
 There is a last class, last not only in number but in the sort 
 of men and in their way of life; the especial bodyguard of 
 Catiline, of his levying; ay, the friends of his embraces and of 
 his bosom; whom you see with carefully combed hair, glossy, 
 beardless, or with well-trimmed beards; with tunics with 
 sleeves, or reaching to the ankles ; clothed with veils', not with 
 robes ; all the industry of whose life, all the labor of whose 
 watchfulness, is expended in suppers lasting till daybreak. 
 
 In these bands are all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the 
 unclean and shameless citizens. These boys, so witty and deli- 
 cate, have learned not only to love and to be loved, not only to 
 sing and to dance, but also to brandish daggers and to admin- 
 ister poisons; and unless they are driven out, unless they die, 
 even should Catiline die, I warn you that the school of Catiline 
 would exist in the republic. But what do those wretches want? 
 Are they going to take their wives with them to the camp? 
 How can they do without them, especially in these nights? and 
 how will they endure the Apennines, and these frosts, and this 
 snow? unless they think that they will bear the winter more 
 easily because they have been in the habit of dancing naked at 
 their feasts. O war much to be dreaded, when Catiline is going 
 to have his bodyguard of prostitutes! 
 
 Array now, O Romans, against these splendid troops of Cati- 
 line, your guards and your armies; and first of all oppose to 
 that worn-out and wounded gladiator your consuls and gen- 
 erals; then against that banished and enfeebled troop of ruined 
 men lead out the flower and strength of all Italy; instantly the 
 cities of the colonies and municipalities will match the rustic 
 mounds of Catiline; and I will not condescend to compare the 
 rest of your troops and equipments and guards with the want 
 and destitution of that highwayman. But if, omitting all these 
 things in which we are rich and of which he is destitute the 
 Senate, the Roman knights, the people, the city, the treasury, 
 the revenues, all Italy, all the provinces, foreign nations if, I 
 say, omitting all these things, we choose to compare the causes 
 themselves which are opposed to one another, we may under- 
 stand from that alone how thoroughly prostrate they are. For 
 on the one side are fighting modesty, on the other wantonness ;
 
 3 o CICERO 
 
 on the one chastity, on the other uncleanliness; on the one hon- 
 esty, on the other fraud; on the one piety, on the other wicked- 
 ness ; on the one consistency, on the other insanity ; on the one 
 honor, on the other baseness ;on the one continence, on the 
 other lust ; in short, equity, temperance, fortitude, prudence, all 
 the virtues contend against iniquity with luxury, against indo- 
 lence, against rashness, against all the vices ; lastly, abundance 
 contends against destitution, good plans against baffled de- 
 signs, wisdom against madness, well-founded hope aga 
 universal despair. In a contest and war of this sort, even if the 
 zeal of men were to fail, will not the immortal gods compel such 
 numerous and excessive vices to be defeated by these most 
 eminent virtues? 
 
 And as this is the case, O Romans, do ye, as I have said be- 
 fore, defend your house with guards and vigilance. I have 
 taken care and made arrangements that there shall be sufficient 
 protection for the city without distressing you and without any 
 tumult. All the colonists and citizens of your municipal tor 
 being informed by me of this nocturnal sally of Catiline, will 
 easily defend their cities and territories; the gladiators which 
 he thought would be his most numerous and most trusty band, 
 although they are better disposed than part of the patricians, 
 will be held in check by our power. Quintus Metellus, whom I, 
 making provision for this, sent on to the Gallic and Picenian 
 territory, will either overwhelm the man, or will prevent all his 
 motions and attempts; but with respect to the arrangement of 
 all other matters, and maturing and acting on our plans, we shall 
 consult the Senate, which, as you are aware, is convened. 
 
 Now once more I wish those who have remained in the city, 
 and who, contrary to the safety of the city and of all of you, have 
 been left in the city by Catiline, although they are enemies, yet 
 because they were born citizens, to be warned again and 
 again by me. If my lenity has appeared to anyone too re- 
 miss, it has been only waiting that that might break out which 
 was lying hid. As to the future, I cannot now forget that this 
 is my country, that I am the consul of these citizens; that I 
 must either live with them, or die for them. There is no guard 
 at the gate, no one plotting against their path ; if anyone wishes 
 to go, he can provide for himself; but if anyone stirs in the city, 
 and if I detect not only any action, but any attempt or design
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 31 
 
 against the country, he shall feel that there are in this city vigi- 
 lant consuls, eminent magistrates, a brave Senate, arms, and 
 prisons ; which our ancestors appointed as the avengers of ne- 
 farious and convicted crimes. 
 
 And all this shall be so done, O Romans, that affairs of the 
 greatest importance shall be transacted with the least possible 
 disturbance; the greatest dangers shall be avoided without any 
 tumult; an internal civil war the most cruel and terrible in the 
 memory of man, shall be put an end to by me alone in the robe 
 of p ace acting as general and commander-in-chief. And this 
 I will so arrange, O Romans, that if it can be by any means man- 
 aged, even the most worthless man shall not suffer the punish- 
 ment of his crimes in this city. But if the violence of open 
 audacity, if danger impending over the republic drives me of 
 necessity from this merciful disposition, at all events I will man- 
 age this, which seems scarcely even to be hoped for in so great 
 and so treacherous a war, that no good man shall fall, and that 
 you may all be saved by the punishment of a few. 
 
 And I promise you this, O Romans, relying neither on my 
 own prudence, nor on human counsels, but on many and mani- 
 fest intimations of the will of the immortal gods; under whose 
 guidance I first entertained this hope and this opinion; who 
 are now defending their temples and the houses of the city, not 
 afar off, as they were used to, from a foreign and distant enemy, 
 but here on the spot, by their own divinity and present help. 
 And you, O Romans, ought to pray to and implore them to de- 
 fend from the nefarious wickedness of abandoned citizens, now 
 that all the forces of all enemies are defeated by land and sea, this 
 city which they have ordained to be the most beautiful and flour- 
 ishing of all cities.
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 While Cicero was addressing the preceding speech to the people, a 
 debate was going on in the Senate of which we have no account. In 
 the mean while Catiline, after staying a few days on the road to raise 
 the country as he passed along, where his agents had been previously 
 busy among the people, proceeded to Manlius's camp with the fasces 
 and all the ensigns of military command displayed before him. Upon 
 this news the Senate immediately declared him and Manlius public 
 enemies; they offered pardon to all his followers who should return 
 to their duty by a certain day; and ordered the consuls to make new 
 levies, and that Antonius should follow Catiline with his army, and 
 Cicero remain behind to protect the city. 
 
 In the mean time Lentulus, and the other conspirators who remained 
 behind, were proceeding with their designs. And among other steps 
 they decided on endeavoring to tamper with some ambassadors from 
 the Allobrdges, who were at that moment within the city, as the Allo- 
 broges were supposed not to be very well affected to the Roman power. 
 At first these ambassadors appear to have willingly given ear to their 
 proposals; but after a while they began to consider the difficulty of 
 the business proposed to them, and the danger which would ensue to 
 their state if it failed after they had become implicated in it; and ac- 
 cordingly they revealed the business to Quintus Fabius Sanga, the 
 patron of their city, who communicated it to Cicero. Cicero desired 
 the ambassadors to continue to listen to the proposals of the conspira- 
 tors, till they had become fully acquainted with the extent of the plot, 
 and till they were able to furnish him with full evidence against the 
 actors in it; and by his suggestion they required the conspirators to 
 furnish them with credentials to show to their countrymen. This was 
 thought reasonable by Lentulus and his party, and they accordingly 
 appointed a man named Vulturcius to accompany them, who was to 
 introduce them to Catiline on their road, in order to confirm the agree- 
 ment, and to exchange pledges with him, and Lentulus also furnished 
 them with a letter to Catiline under his own hand and seal, though not 
 signed. Cicero being privately informed of all these particulars, con- 
 certed with the ambassadors the time and manner of their leaving Rome 
 by night, and had them arrested on the Mulvian bridge, about a mile 
 from the city, with these letters and papers in their possession. This 
 was all done, and they brought as prisoners to Cicero's house early in 
 the morning. 
 
 Cicero immediately summoned the Senate; and at the same time he 
 
 35
 
 3 6 CICERO 
 
 sent for Lcntulus. Cethegus, and others of the conspirators who were 
 more especially implicated, such as Gabinius and Statilius, who all 
 came immediately t<> hi> house, being ignorant of the discovery that 
 had taken place. Being informed also that a quantity of arms had been 
 provided by Cethegus for the purpose of the conspiracy, he orders 
 Caius Sulpicius, one of the prartors, to search his house, and he did 
 so, and found a great number of swords and daggers ready cleaned 
 and fit for use. 
 
 Hi then proceeds to meet the Senate in the Temple of Concor-1 
 the ambassadors and conspirators in custody. He relates the whole 
 affair to them, and introduces Vulturcius to be examined before them. 
 Cicero, by the order of the Senate, promises him pardon and reward if 
 he reveals what he knew. On which he confesses everything; tells 
 them that he had letters from Lentulus to Catiline to urge him to 
 avail himself of the assistance of the slaves, and to lead his army with 
 all expedition against Rome; in order, when the city had been set on 
 fire, and the massacre commenced, that he might be able to intercept 
 and destroy those who fled. 
 
 Then the ambassadors were examined, who declared that they had 
 received letters to the chief men of their nation from Lentulus, Cethe- 
 gus, and Statilius; and that they, and Lucius Cassius also, begged 
 them to send a body of cavalry into Italy, and that Lentulus assured 
 them, from the Sibylline books, that he was the third Cornelius who 
 was destined to reign at Rome. The letters were produced and opened. 
 On the sight of them the conspirators respectively acknowledged them 
 to be theirs, and Lentulus was even so conscience-stricken that he 
 confessed his whole crime. 
 
 The Senate passed a vote acknowledging the services of Cicero in 
 the most ample terms, and voted that Lentulus should be deposed from 
 his office of praetor, and, with all the other conspirators, committed to 
 safe custody. Cicero, after the Senate adjourned, proceeded to the 
 forum and gave an account to the people of everything which had 
 passed, both in regard to the steps that he had taken to detect the whole 
 conspiracy, and to convict the conspirators; and also of what had 
 taken place in the Senate, and of the votes and resolutions which that 
 body had just passed. 
 
 While the prisoners were before the Senate he had copies of their 
 examinations and confessions taken down, and dispersed through Italy 
 and all the provinces. This happened on the third of December.
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 YOU see this day, O Romans, the republic, and all your 
 lives, your goods, your fortunes, your wives and chil- 
 dren, this home of most illustrious empire, this most 
 fortunate and beautiful city, by the great love of the immortal 
 gods for you, by my labors and counsels and dangers, snatched 
 from fire and sword, and almost from the very jaws of fate, and 
 preserved and restored to you. 
 
 And if those days on which we are preserved are not less 
 pleasant to us, or less illustrious, than those on which we are 
 born, because the joy of being saved is certain, the good fortune 
 of being born uncertain, and because we are born without feel- 
 ing it, but we are preserved with great delight; ay, since we 
 have, by our affection and by our good report, raised to the im- 
 mortal gods that Romulus who built this city, he, too, who has 
 preserved this city, built by him, and embellished as you see it, 
 ought to be held in honor by you and your posterity ; for we 
 have extinguished flames which were almost laid under and 
 placed around the temples and shrines, and houses and walls of 
 the whole city; we have turned the edge of swords drawn 
 against the republic, and have turned aside their points from 
 your throats. And since all this has been displayed in the Sen- 
 ate, and made manifest, and detected by me, I will now explain 
 it briefly, that you, O citizens, that are as yet ignorant of it, and 
 are in suspense, may be able to see how great the danger was, 
 how evident and by what means it was detected and arrested. 
 First of all, since Catiline, a few days ago, burst out of the city, 
 when we had left behind the companions of his wickedness, the 
 active leaders of this infamous war, I have continually watched 
 and taken care, O Romans, of the means by which we might be 
 safe amid such great and such carefully concealed treachery. 
 
 Farther, when I drove Catiline out of the city (for I do not 
 fear the unpopularity of this expression, when that is more to 
 
 37
 
 3 8 CICERO 
 
 be feared that I should be blamed because he has departed 
 alive), but then when 1 wished him to be removed, I thought 
 either that the rest of the band of conspirators would de; 
 with him, or that they who remained would be weak and pov 
 less without him. 
 
 i I, as I saw that those whom I knew to be inflamed with 
 the greatest madness and wickedness were among us, and had 
 remained at Rome, spent all my nights and days in taking care 
 to know and see what they were doing, and what they were con- 
 triving; that, since what I said would, from the incredible enor- 
 mity of the wickedness, make less impression on your eai>. I 
 might so detect the whole business that you might with all your 
 hearts provide for your safety, when you saw the crime with 
 your own eyes. Therefore, when I found that the ambassa- 
 dors of the Allobroges had been tampered with by Publius 
 Lentulus, for the sake of exciting a Transalpine war and com- 
 motion in Gaul, and that they, on their return to Gaul, had been 
 sent with letters and messages to Catiline on the same road, 
 and that Vulturcius had been added to them as a companion, 
 and that he, too, had had letters given him for Catiline, I 
 thought that an opportunity was given me of contriving what 
 was most difficult, and which I was always wishing the immor- 
 tal gods might grant, that the whole business might be mani- 
 festly detected not by me alone, but by the Senate also, and by 
 you. 
 
 Therefore, yesterday I summoned Lucius Flaccus and C. 
 Pomtinus, the praetors, brave men and well affected to the re- 
 public. I explained to them the whole matter, and showed 
 them what I wished to have done. But they, full of noble and 
 worthy sentiments toward the republic, without hesitation, and 
 without any delay, undertook the business, and when it was 
 evening, went secretly to the Mulvian bridge, and there so dis- 
 tributed themselves in the nearest villas, that the Tiber and the 
 bridge was between them. And they took to the same place, 
 without anyone having the least suspicion of it, many brave 
 men, and I had sent many picked young men of the prefecture 
 of Reate, whose assistance I constantly employ in the protec- 
 tion of the republic, armed with swords. In the mean time, 
 about the end of the third watch, when the ambassadors of the 
 Allobroges, with a great retinue and Vulturcius with them,
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 39 
 
 began to come upon the Mulvian bridge, an attack is made 
 upon them ; swords are drawn both by them and by our people ; 
 the matter was understood by the praetors alone, but was un- 
 known to the rest. 
 
 Then, by the intervention of Pomtinus and Flaccus, the fight 
 which had begun was put an end to ; all the letters which were 
 in the hands of the whole company are delivered to the praetors 
 with the seals unbroken ; the men themselves are arrested and 
 brought to me at daybreak. And I immediately summoned 
 that most worthless contriver of all this wickedness, Gabinius, 
 as yet suspecting nothing ; after him, P. Statilius is sent for, and 
 after him Cethegus ; but Lentulus was a long time in coming 
 I suppose, because, contrary to his custom, he had been up a 
 long time the night before, writing letters. 
 
 But when those most noble and excellent men of the whole 
 city, who, hearing of the matter, came in crowds to me in the 
 morning, thought it best for me to open the letters before I re- 
 lated the matter to the Senate, lest, if nothing were found in 
 them, so great a disturbance might seem to have been caused 
 to the state for nothing, I said I would never so act as shrink 
 from referring matter of public danger to the public council. 
 In truth, if, O Romans, these things which had been reported 
 to me had not been found in them, yet I did not think I ought, 
 in such a crisis of the republic, to be afraid of the imputation 
 of over-diligence. I quickly summoned a full Senate, as you 
 saw; and meantime, without any delay, by the advice of the 
 Allobroges, I sent Caius Sulpicius the praetor, a brave man, to 
 bring whatever arms he could find in the house of Cethegus, 
 whence he did bring a great number of swords and daggers. 
 
 I introduced Vulturcius without the Gauls. By the com- 
 mand of the Senate, I pledged him the public faith for his 
 safety. I exhorted him fearlessly to tell all he knew. Then, 
 when he had scarcely recovered himself from his great alarm, 
 he said: that he had messages and letters for Catiline, from 
 Publius Lentulus, to avail himself of the guard of the slaves, 
 and to come toward the city with his army as quickly as possi- 
 ble ; and that was to be done with the intention that, when they 
 had set fire to the city on all sides, as it had been arranged and 
 distributed, and had made a great massacre of the citizens, he 
 might be at hand to catch those who fled, and to join himself to
 
 40 CICERO 
 
 the leaders within the city. But the Gauls being introduced, 
 said that an oath had been administered to them, and letters 
 given them by Publius Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius, for 
 their nation; and that they had been enjoined by them, and by 
 'Lucius Cassius, to send cavalry into Italy as early as possible; 
 that infantry should not be wanting; and that Lentulus had 
 assured him, from the Sibylline oracles and the answers of 
 soothsayers, that he was that third Cornelius to whom the king- 
 dom of sovereignty over this city was fated to come ; that Cinna 
 and Sylla had been before him ; and that he had also said that 
 was the year destined to the destruction of this city and empire, 
 being the tenth year after the acquittal of the virgins, and the 
 twentieth after the burning of the Capitol. But they said there 
 had been this dispute between Cethegus and the rest that 
 Lentulus and others thought it best that the massacre should 
 take place and the city be burned at the Saturnalia, but that 
 Cethegus thought it too long to wait. 
 
 And, not to detain you, O Romans, we ordered the letters to 
 be brought forward which were said to have been given them 
 by each of the men. First, I showed his seal to Cethegus ; he 
 recognized it : we cut the thread ; we read the letter. It was 
 written with his own hand : that he would do for the Senate 
 and people of the Allobroges what he had promised their am- 
 bassadors : and that he begged them also to do what their am- 
 bassadors had arranged. Then Cethegus, who a little before 
 had made answer about the swords and daggers which had 
 been found in his house, and had said that he had always been 
 fond of fine arms, being stricken down and dejected at the read- 
 ing of his letters, convicted by his own conscience, became sud- 
 denly silent. Statilius, being introduced, owned his handwrit- 
 ing and his seal. His letters were read, of nearly the same tenor ; 
 he confessed it. Then I showed Lentulus his letters, and asked 
 him whether he recognized the seal ? He nodded assent. " But 
 it is," said I, " a well-known seal the likeness of your grand- 
 father, a most illustrious man, who greatly loved his country 
 and his fellow-citizens ; and it, even though silent, ought to have 
 called you back from such wickedness." 
 
 Letters are read of the same tenor to the Senate and people 
 of the Allobroges. I offered him leave, if he wished to say any- 
 thing of these matters : and at first he declined to speak ; but a
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 4I 
 
 little afterward, when the whole examination had been gone 
 through and concluded, he rose. He asked the Gauls what he 
 had had to do with them ? why they had come to his house ? and 
 he asked Vulturcius, too. And when they had answered him 
 briefly and steadily, under whose guidance they had come to 
 him, and how often ; and when they asked him whether he had 
 said nothing to them about the Sibylline oracles ; then he on a 
 sudden, mad with wickedness, showed how great was the power 
 of conscience ; for though he might have denied it, he suddenly, 
 contrary to everyone's expectation, confessed it : so not only did 
 his genius and skill in oratory, for which he was always emi- 
 nent, but even, through the power of his manifest and detected 
 wickedness, that impudence, in which he surpassed all men, 
 and audacity deserted him. 
 
 But Vulturcius on a sudden ordered the letters to be pro- 
 duced and opened which he said had been given to him for 
 Catiline, by Lentulus. And though Lentulus was greatly agi- 
 tated at that, yet he acknowledged his seal and his handwriting ; 
 but the letter was anonymous, and ran thus: " Who I am you 
 will know from him whom I have sent to you : take care to be- 
 have like a man, and consider to what place you have proceeded, 
 and provide for what is now necessary for you: take care to 
 associate to yourself the assistance of everyone, even of the 
 powerless." Then Gabinius being introduced, when at first he 
 had begun to answer impudently, at last denied nothing of those 
 things which the Gauls alleged against him. And to me, in- 
 deed, O Romans, though the letters, the seals, the handwriting, 
 and the confession of each individual seemed most certain indi- 
 cations and proofs of wickedness, yet their color, their eyes, 
 their countenance, their silence, appeared more certain still ; for 
 they stood so stupefied, they kept their eyes so fixed on the 
 ground, at times looking stealthily at one another, that they 
 appeared now not so much to be informed against by others as 
 to be informing against themselves. 
 
 Having produced and divulged these proofs, O Romans, I 
 consulted the Senate what ought to be done for the interests 
 of the republic. Vigorous and fearless opinions were delivered 
 by the chief men, which the Senate adopted without any vari- 
 ety ; and since the decree of the Senate is not yet written out, I 
 will relate to you from memory, O citizens, what the Senate has
 
 4 a CICERO 
 
 decreed. First of all, a vote of thanks to me is passed in the 
 most honorable words, because the republic has been delivered 
 from the greatest dangers by my valor, and wisdom, and pru- 
 dence. Then Liu ins Flaccus and Caius Pomtinus, the prae- 
 tors, are deservedly and rightly praised, because I had availed 
 myself of their brave and loyal assistance. And also, praise is 
 given to that brave man, my colleague, because he had removed 
 from his counsels, and from the counsels of the republic, those 
 who had been accomplices in this conspiracy. And they voted 
 that Publius Lentulus, when he had abdicated the praetorship, 
 should be given into custody ; and also, that Caius Cethegus, 
 Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius, who were all present, should 
 be given into custody ; and the same decree was passed against 
 Lucius Cassius, who had begged for himself the office of burn- 
 ing the city; against Marcus Caparius, to whom it had been 
 proved that Apulia had been allotted for the purpose of exciting 
 disaffection among the shepherds ; against Publius Furius, who 
 belongs to the colonies which Lucius Sylla led to Faesulae; 
 against Quintus Manlius Chilo, who was always associated with 
 this man Furius in his tampering with the Allobroges ; against 
 Publius Umbrenus, a freedman, by whom it was proved that 
 the Gauls were originally brought to Gabinius. 
 
 And the Senate, O citizens, acted with such lenity, that, out of 
 so great a conspiracy, and such a number and multitude of do- 
 mestic enemies, it thought that since the republic was saved, the 
 minds of the rest might be restored to a healthy state by the 
 punishment of nine most abandoned men. And also a suppli- 
 cation l was decreed in my name (which is the first time since 
 the building of the city that such an honor has ever been paid 
 to a man in a civil capacity), to the immortal gods, for their 
 singular kindness. And it was decreed in these words, " be- 
 cause I had delivered the city from conflagration, the citizens 
 from massacre, and Italy from war." And if this supplication 
 be compared with others. O citizens, there is this difference be- 
 tween them that all others have been appointed because of the 
 
 A supplication was a solemn thanks- d_ars which it was to last was proper- 
 
 Riving to the gods, decreed bv the Sen- tioned to the importance of the victonr. 
 
 ate. when all the temple* were opened It was generally regarded as a prelude 
 
 and the statue* of the trod* placed in to a triumph. Of course, from what hat 
 
 public upon couche* (pulvinaria), to been said, it must have been usually 
 
 which the people offered up their confined to generals; who laid aside the 
 
 thanksgivings anH pravrrs. It was uu- toira on leaving the city to assume the 
 
 a'ly decreed on the intelligence arrivine command of the armv. and assumed the 
 
 of any great victory, and the number of paludamentum, or military robe.
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 43 
 
 successes of the republic; this one alone for its preservation. 
 And that which was the first thing to be done, has been done 
 and executed ; for Publius Lentulus, though, being convicted by 
 proofs and by his own confession, by the judgment of the Senate 
 he had lost not only the rights of a praetor, but also those of a 
 citizen, still resigned his office ; so that, though Caius Marcius, 
 that most illustrious of men, had no scruples about putting to 
 death Caius Glaucius the praetor, against whom nothing had 
 been decreed by name, still we are relieved from that scruple in 
 the case of Publius Lentulus, who is now a private individual. 
 
 Now, since, O citizens, you have the nefarious leaders of this 
 most wicked and dangerous war taken prisoners and in your 
 grasp, you ought to think that all the resources of Catiline all 
 his hopes and all his power, now that these dangers of the city 
 are warded off, have fallen to pieces. And, indeed, when I 
 drove him from the city, I foresaw in my mind, O citizens, that 
 if Catiline were removed, I had no cause to fear either the drow- 
 siness of Publius Lentulus, or the fat of Lucius Cassius, or the 
 mad rashness of Cassius Cethegus. He alone was to be feared 
 of all these men, and that only as long as he was within the 
 walls of the city. He knew everything, he had access to every- 
 body. He had the skill and the audacity to address, to tempt, 
 and to tamper with everyone. He had acuteness suited to 
 crime ; and neither tongue nor hand ever failed to support that 
 acuteness. Already he had men he could rely on, chosen and 
 distributed for the execution of all other business ; and when he 
 had ordered anything to be done, he did not think it was done 
 on that account. There was nothing to which he did not per- 
 sonally attend and see to for which he did not watch and toil. 
 He was able to endure cold, thirst, and hunger. 
 
 Unless I had driven this man, so active, so ready, so auda- 
 cious, so crafty, so vigilant in wickedness, so industrious in crim- 
 inal exploits, from his plots within the city to the open warfare 
 of the camp (I will express my honest opinion, O citizens), I 
 should not easily have removed from your necks so vast a 
 weight of evil. He would not have determined on the Satur- 
 nalia 2 to massacre you he would not have announced the de- 
 struction of the republic, and even the day of its doom so long 
 
 1 The Saturnalia was a feast of Saturn it took place at the end of December, 
 at which extraordinary license and in- while this speech of Cicero was deliv- 
 dulgence were allowed to all the slaves; ered early in November.
 
 M 
 
 CICERO 
 
 beforehand he would never have allowed his >eal and hi^ 
 ters, the undeniable witnesses of his guilt. i> B, which 
 
 now, since he is absent, has been so done that no larceny in a 
 private house has ever been so thoroughly and clearly detected 
 as this vast conspiracy against the republic. But if Catiline 
 had remained in the city to this day, although, as long as he was 
 so, I met all his designs and withstood them say the 
 
 least, we should have had to tight with him, and should m 
 while he remained an enemy in the city, have delivered the re- 
 public from such dangers, with such ease, such tranquillity, and 
 such silence. 
 
 Although all these things, O Romans, have been so managed 
 by me, that they appear to have been done and provided for by 
 the order and design of the immortal gods ; and as we may con- 
 jecture this because the direction of such weighty affairs 
 scarcely appears capable of having been carried out by human 
 wisdom ; so, too, they have at this time so brought us present 
 aid and assistance, that we could almost behold them without 
 eyes. For to say nothing of those things, namely, the fire- 
 brands seen in the west in the night-time, and the heat of the 
 atmosphere to pass over the falling of thunder-bolts and the 
 earthquakes to say nothing of all the other portents which 
 have taken place in such numbers during my consulship, that 
 the immortal gods themselves have been seeming to predict 
 what is now taking place ; yet, at all events, this which I am 
 about to mention, O Romans, must be neither passed over nor 
 omitted. 
 
 For you recollect, I suppose, when Cotta and Torquatus were 
 consuls, that many towers in the Capitol were struck with light- 
 ning, when both the images of the immortal gods were moved, 
 and the statues of many ancient men were thrown down, and 
 the brazen tablets on which the laws were written were melted. 
 Even Romulus, who built this city, was struck, which, you 
 recollect, stood in the Capitol, a gilt statue, little and sucking, 
 and clinging to the teats of the wolf. And when at this time 
 the soothsayers were assembled out of all Etruria, they said that 
 slaughter, and conflagration, and the overthrow of the laws, 
 and civil and domestic war, and the fall of the whole city and 
 empire was at hand, unless the immortal gods, being appeased 
 in every possible manner, by their own power turned aside, as I 
 may say, the very fates themselves.
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 45 
 
 Therefore, according to their answers, games were celebrated 
 for ten days, nor was anything omitted which might tend to the 
 appeasing of the gods. And they enjoined also that we should 
 make a greater statue of Jupiter, and place it in a lofty situation, 
 and (contrary to what had been done before) turn it toward the 
 east. And they said that they hoped that if that statue which 
 you now beljold looked upon the rising of the sun, and the 
 forum, and the senate-house, then those designs which were 
 secretly formed against the safety of the city and empire would 
 be brought to light, so as to be able to be thoroughly seen by 
 the Senate and by the Roman people. And the consuls ordered 
 it to be so placed ; but so great was the delay in the work, that it 
 was never set up by the former consuls, nor by us before this 
 day. 
 
 Here who, O Romans, can there be so obstinate against the 
 truth, so headstrong, so void of sense, as to deny that all these 
 things which we see, and especially this city, is governed by the 
 divine authority and power of the immortal gods ? Forsooth, 
 when this answer had been given that massacre, and confla- 
 gration, and ruin was prepared for the republic ; and that, too, 
 by profligate citizens, which, from the enormity of the wicked- 
 ness, appeared incredible to some people, you found that it had 
 not only been planned by wicked citizens, but had even been 
 undertaken and commenced. And is not this fact so present 
 that it appears to have taken place by the express will of the 
 good and mighty Jupiter, that, when this day, early in the morn- 
 ing, both the conspirators and their accusers were being led by 
 my command through the forum to the Temple of Concord, at 
 that very time the statue was being erected ? And when it was 
 set up, and turned toward you and toward the Senate, the Sen- 
 ate and you yourselves saw everything which had been planned 
 against the universal safety brought to light and made mani- 
 fest. 
 
 And on this account they deserve even greater hatred and 
 greater punishment, for having attempted to apply their fatal 
 and wicked fire, not only to your houses and homes, but even 
 to the shrines and temples of the gods. And if I were to say 
 that it was I who resisted them, I should take too much to my- 
 self, and ought not to be borne. He he, Jupiter, resisted 
 them. He determined that the Capitol should be safe, he saved
 
 46 CICERO 
 
 these temples, he saved this city, he saved all of you. It is under 
 the guidance of the immortal gods, O Romans, that 1 have 
 cherished tin- intention and desire* which I have, and have ar- 
 rived at such undeniable proofs. Surely, that tampering with 
 the Allobroges would never have taken place, so important a 
 matter would never have been so madly intrusted, by Lentulus 
 and the rest of our internal enemies, to strangers and foreigners, 
 such letters would never have been written, unless all prudence 
 had been taken by the immortal gods from such terrible audac- 
 ity. What shall I say ? That Gauls, men from a state scarcely 
 at peace with us, the only nation existing which seems both to 
 be able to make war on the Roman people, and not to be un- 
 willing to do so that they should disregard the hope of empire 
 and of the greatest success voluntarily offered to them by patri- 
 cians, and should prefer your safety to their own power do you 
 not think that that was caused by divine interposition? espe- 
 cially when they could have destroyed us, not by fighting, but 
 by keeping silence. 
 
 Wherefore, O citizens, since a supplication has been decreed 
 at all the altars, celebrate those days with your wives and chil- 
 dren ; for many just and deserved honors have been often paid 
 to the immortal gods, but juster ones never. For you have 
 been snatched from a most cruel and miserable destruction, 
 and you have been snatched from it without. slaughter, without 
 bloodshed, without an army, without a battle. You have con- 
 quered in the garb of peace, with me in the garb of peace for 
 your only general and commander. 
 
 Remember, O citizens, all civil dissensions, and not only 
 those which you have heard of, but those also which you your- 
 selves remember and have seen. Lucius Sylla crushed Publius 
 Sulpicius ; 3 he drove from the city Caius Marius, the guardian 
 of this city ; and of many other brave men some he drove from 
 the city, and some he murdered. Cnaeus Octavius the consul 
 drove his colleague by force of arms out of the city ; all this 
 place was crowded with heaps of carcasses and flowed with the 
 
 Sulpicius procured a law to be passed of Marius, who returned to Rome, 
 
 for taking the command against Mithri- Lepidus and Catulus were consuls the 
 
 dates from Sylla and giving it to Mariu*; year after the death of Sylla. and they 
 
 Sylla came to Rome with his army and quarrelled because Lepidus wished to 
 
 slew Sulpicius, when Marius fled to rescind all the acts of Sylla. Lepidus 
 
 Africa. Sylla made Octavius and Cinna was defeated, fled to Sardinia, and died 
 
 consuls, who quarrelled after he was there, 
 gone, and Cinna went over to the party
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 47 
 
 blood of citizens ; afterward Cinna and Marius got the upper 
 hand ; and then most illustrious men were put to death, and the 
 lights of the state were extinguished. Afterward Sylla avenged 
 the cruelty of this victory; it is needless to say with what a 
 diminution of the citizens, and with what disasters to the repub- 
 lic. Marcus Lepidus disagreed with that most eminent and 
 brave man Quintus Catulus. His death did not cause as much 
 grief to the republic as that of the others. 
 
 And these dissensions, O Romans, were such as concerned 
 not the destruction of the republic, but only a change in the con- 
 stitution. They did not wish that there should be no republic, 
 but that they themselves should be the chief men in that which 
 existed ; nor did they desire that the city should be burned, but 
 that they themselves should flourish in it. And yet all those 
 dissensions, none of which aimed at the destruction of the re- 
 public, were such that they were to be terminated not by a 
 reconciliation and concord, but only by internecine war among 
 the citizens. But in this war alone, the greatest and most cruel 
 in the memory of man a war such as even the countries of the 
 barbarians have never waged with their own tribes a war in 
 which this law was laid down by Lentulus, and Catiline, and 
 Cassius, and Cethegus, that everyone, who could live in safety 
 as long as the city remained in safety, should be considered as 
 an enemy in this war I have so managed matters, O Romans, 
 that you should all be preserved in safety ; and though your ene- 
 mies had thought that only such a number of the citizens would 
 be left as had held out against an interminable massacre, and 
 only so much of the city as the flames could not devour, I have 
 preserved both the city and the citizens unhurt and undimin- 
 ished. 
 
 And for these exploits, important as they are, O Romans, I 
 ask from you no reward of virtue, no badge of honor, no monu- 
 ment of my glory, beyond the everlasting recollection of this 
 day. In your minds I wish all my triumphs, all my decorations 
 of honor, the monuments of my glory, the badges of my re-, 
 nown, to be stored and laid up. Nothing voiceless can delight 
 me, nothing silent nothing, in short, such as even those who 
 are less worthy can obtain. In your memory, O Romans, my 
 name shall be cherished, in your discourses it shall grow, in the 
 monuments of your letters it shall grow old and strengthen;
 
 48 CICERO 
 
 '1 that the same lay which I hope will be for 
 everlasting, will l>e remembered forever, so as t<> tni'l l>oth to 
 tin- .ml tlu- recollection of my consulship ; and 
 
 that it will IK- remembered that tl <! in this eit\ at the 
 
 same time two citizens, one of whom limited the boundaries of 
 your empire only by the regions of heaven, not by those of the 
 earth, while the other preserved the abode and home of that 
 same empire. 
 
 Hut since the fortune and condition of those exploits which I 
 have performed is not the same with that of those men who 
 have directed foreign wars because I must live among those 
 whom 1 have defeated and subdued, they have left their enemies 
 either slain or crushed it is your business, O Romans, to take 
 care, if their good deeds are a benefit to others, that mine shall 
 never be an injury to me. For that the wicked and profligate 
 designs of audacious men shall not be able to injure you, I have 
 taken care ; it is your business to take care that they do not in- 
 jure me. Although, O Romans, no injury can be done to me 
 by them for there is a great protection in the affection of all 
 good men. which is procured for me forever ; there is great dig- 
 nity in the republic, which will always silently defend me : there 
 is great power in conscience, and those who neglect it when 
 they desire to attack me will destroy themselves. 
 
 There is moreover that disposition in me, O Romans, that I 
 not only will yield to the audacity of no one, but that I always 
 voluntarily attack the worthless. And if all the violence of do- 
 mestic enemies being warded off from you turns itself upon me 
 alone, you will have to take care, O Romans, in what condition 
 you wish those men to be for the future, who for your safety 
 have exposed themselves to unpopularity and to all sorts of 
 dangers. As for me, myself, what is there which now can be 
 gained by me for the enjoyment of life, especially when neither 
 in credit among you, nor in the glory of virtue, do I see any 
 higher point to which I can be desirous to climb? 
 
 That indeed I will take care of, O Romans, as a private man 
 to uphold and embellish the exploits which I have performed 
 in my consulship : so that, if there has been any unpopularity 
 incurred in preserving the republic, it may injure those who 
 envy me, and may tend to my glory. Lastly, I will so behave 
 myself in the republic as always to remember what I have done,
 
 THIRD ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 49 
 
 and to take care that they shall appear to have been done 
 through virtue, and not by chance. Do you, O Romans, since 
 it is now night, worship that Jupiter, the guardian of this city 
 and of yourselves, and depart to your homes ; and defend those 
 homes, though the danger is now removed, with guard and 
 watch as you did last night. That you shall not have to do so 
 long, and that you shall enjoy perpetual tranquillity, shall, O 
 Romans, be my care.
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 The night after the events mentioned in the argument to the preced- 
 ing oration, Cicero's wife Terentia, with the vestal virgins, was per- 
 forming at home the mystic rites of the Bona Dea, while Cicero was 
 deliberating with his friends on the best mode of punishing the con- 
 spirators. Terentia interrupted their deliberations by coming in to 
 inform them of a prodigy which had just happened; that after the 
 sacrifice in which she had been engaged was over, the fire revived 
 spontaneously ; on which the vestal virgins had sent her to him, to 
 inform him of it, and to bid him pursue what he was then thinking of 
 and intending for the good of his country, since the goddess had given 
 this sign that she was watching over his safety and glory. 
 
 The next day the Senate ordered public rewards to the ambassadors 
 and to Vulturcius; and showed signs of intending to proceed with 
 extreme rigor against the conspirators; when, on a sudden, rumors 
 arose of plots having been formed by the slaves of Lentulus and Cethe- 
 gus for their masters' rescue; which obliged Cicero to double all the 
 guards, and determined him to prevent any repetition of such attempts 
 by bringing before the Senate without delay the question of the punish- 
 ment of the prisoners. On which account he summoned the Senate to 
 meet the next morning. 
 
 There were many difficulties in the matter. Capital punishments were 
 unusual and very unpopular at Rome. And there was an old law of 
 Porcius Lecca, a tribune of the people, which granted to all criminals 
 who were capitally condemned an appeal to the people; and also a 
 law had been passed, since his time, by Caius Gracchus, to prohibit 
 the taking away the life of any citizen without a formal hearing before 
 the people. And these considerations had so much weight with some 
 of the senators, that they absented themselves from the Senate during 
 this debate, in order to have no share in sentencing prisoners of such 
 high rank to death. The debate was opened by Silanus, the consul- 
 elect, who declared his opinion, that those in custody, and those also 
 who should be taken subsequently, should all be put to death. Every- 
 one who followed him agreed with him, till Julius Caesar, the praetor- 
 elect (who has been often suspected of having been, at least to some 
 extent, privy to the conspiracy), rose, and in an elaborate speech pro- 
 posed that they should not be put to death, but that their estates should 
 be confiscated, and they themselves kept in perpetual confinement. 
 Cato opposed him with great earnestness. But some of Cicero's friends 
 appeared inclined to Caesar's motion, thinking it a safer measure for 
 
 53
 
 54 CICERO 
 
 Cicero himself; lut when Cicero peren\l this, he ro$e himself, and 
 discussed the opinions both of Silanus and Caesar in the following 
 speech, which decided the Senate to vote for their condemns i 
 And as soon as the vote had passed, Cicero went immediately from 
 the senate-house, took Lentulus from the custody of his kinsman 
 Lentulus Spinther, and delivered him to the executioner. The other 
 conspirators, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, etc.. were in like manner 
 conducted to execution by the pra-tors; and Cicero was conducted 
 home to his house in triumph by the whole body of the Senate and 
 by the knights, the whole multitude following him, and saluting him 
 as their deliverer.
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 I SEE, O conscript fathers, that the looks and eyes of you all 
 are turned toward me ; I see that you are anxious not only 
 for your own danger and that of the republic, but even, if 
 that be removed, for mine. Your good-will is delightful to 
 one amid evils and pleasing amid grief ; but I entreat you, in the 
 name of the immortal gods, lay it aside now, and, forgetting my 
 safety, think of yourselves and of your children. If, indeed, 
 this condition of the consulship has been allotted to me, that I 
 should bear all bitterness, all pains and tortures, I will bear 
 them not only bravely, but even cheerfully, provided that by my 
 toils dignity and safety are procured for you and for the Roman 
 people. 
 
 I am that consul, O conscript fathers, to whom neither the 
 forum in which all justice is contained, nor the Campus Mar- 
 tius, 1 consecrated to the consular assemblies, nor the senate- 
 house, the chief assistance of all nations, nor my own home, 
 the common refuge of all men, nor my bed devoted to rest, in 
 short, not even this seat of honor, this curule chair, has ever 
 been free from the danger of death, or from plots and treachery. 
 I have been silent about many things, I have borne much, I 
 have conceded much, I have remedied many things with some 
 pain to myself, amid the alarm of you all. Now if the immortal 
 gods have determined that there shall be this end to my consul- 
 ship, that I should snatch you, O conscript fathers, and the 
 Roman people from miserable slaughter, your wives and chil- 
 dren and the vestal virgins from most bitter distress, the tem- 
 ples and shrines of the gods, and this most lovely country of all 
 of us, from impious flames, all Italy from war and devastation ; 
 
 1 The Campus Martins was consecrated at which all magistrates were created 
 or restored to Mars after the expulsion were held there, 
 of the Tarquins; the comitia ccnturiata 
 
 55
 
 56 CICERO 
 
 then, whatever fortune is laid up for me by myself, it shall be 
 borne. If, indeed. Publius I bc-ini; led on by so. 
 
 savers, believed that his name was connectr.l 1>> 
 the destruction of the republic, why should not I rejoice that my 
 consulship has taken place almost by the express appointment 
 of fate for the preservation of the republic? 
 
 Wherefore, O conscript fathers, consult the welfare of j 
 . es, provide for that of the republic; preserve yourselves, 
 your wives, your children, and your fortun nd the name 
 
 and safety of the Roman people ; cease to spare me. and to think 
 of me. For, in the ti .1 onjjht to hope that all the gods 
 
 who preside over this city will show me gratitude in propori 
 as I deserve it ; and in the second place, if anything does happen 
 to me, I shall fall with a contented and prepared mind ; and, in- 
 deed, death cannot be disgraceful to a brave man, nor prema- 
 ture to one of consular rank, nor miserable to a wise man. Not 
 that I am a man of so iron a disposition as not to be moved by 
 the grief of a most dear and affectionate brother now present, 
 and by the tears of all these men by whom you now see me sur- 
 rounded. Nor does my fainting wife, my daughter prostrate 
 with fear, and my little son whom the republic seems to me to 
 embrace as a sort of hostage for my consulship, the son-in-law 
 who, awaiting the end of that day, is now standing in my sight, 
 fail often to recall my mind to my home. I am moved by all 
 these circumstances, but in such a direction as to wish that they 
 all may be safe together with you, even if some violence over- 
 whelms me, rather than that both they and we should perish 
 together with the republic. 
 
 Wherefore, O conscript fathers, attend to the safety of the 
 republic ; look around upon all the storms which are impending, 
 unless you guard against them. It is not Tiberius Gracchus, 
 who wished to be made a second time a tribune of the people ; 
 it is not Caius Gracchus, who endeavored to excite the parti- 
 sans of the agrarian law ; it is not Lucius Saturninus, who slew 
 Memmius, who is now in some danger, who is now brought 
 before the tribunal of your severity. They are now in your 
 hands who withstood all Rome, with the object of bringing 
 conflagration on the whole city, massacre on all of you, and .f 
 receiving Catiline; their letters are in your possession, their 
 seals, their handwriting, and the confession of each individual
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 57 
 
 of them ; the Allobroges are tampered with, the slaves are ex- 
 cited, Catiline is sent for ; the design is actually begun to be put 
 in execution, that all should be put to death, so that no one 
 should be left even to mourn the name of the republic, and to 
 lament over the downfall of so mighty a dominion. 
 
 All these things the witnesses have informed you of, the pris- 
 oners have confessed, you by many judgments have already 
 decided ; first, because you have thanked me in unprecedented 
 language, and have passed a vote that the conspiracy of aban- 
 doned men has been laid open by my virtue and diligence ; 
 secondly, because you have compelled Publius Lentulus to ab- 
 dicate the prsetorship ; again, because you have voted that he 
 and the others about whom you have decided should be given 
 into custody ; and, above all, because you have decreed a sup- 
 plication in my name, an honor which has never been paid to 
 anyone before acting in a civil capacity ; last of all, because yes- 
 terday you gave most ample rewards to the ambassadors of the 
 Allobroges and to Titus Vulturcius ; all which acts are such that 
 they, who have been given into custody by name, without any 
 doubt seem already condemned by you. 
 
 But I have determined to refer the business to you as a fresh 
 matter, O conscript fathers, both as to the fact, what you think 
 of it, and as to the punishment, what you vote. I will state 
 what it behooves the consul to state. I have seen for a long time 
 great madness existing in the republic, and new designs being 
 formed, and evil passions being stirred up, but I never thought 
 that so great, so destructive a conspiracy as this was being med- 
 itated by citizens. Now to whatever point your minds and 
 opinions incline, you must decide before night. You see how 
 great a crime has been made known to you ; if you think that 
 but few are implicated in it you are greatly mistaken ; this evil 
 has spread wider than you think; it has spread not only 
 throughout Italy, but it has even crossed the Alps, and creeping 
 stealthily on, it has already occupied many of the provinces; 
 it can by no means be crushed by tolerating it, and by tempor- 
 izing with it ; however you determine on chastising it, you must 
 act with promptitude. 
 
 I see that as yet there are two opinions. One that of Decius 
 Silanus, who thinks that those who have endeavored to destroy 
 all these things should be punished with death ; the other, that
 
 5 8 CICERO 
 
 of Caius Caesar, who objects to the punishment of death, but 
 adopts tlu- most extreme severity of all otlur punishment. 
 Each acts in a manner suitable to his own dignity and to the 
 magnitude of the business with the greatest severity. The one 
 thinks that it is not right that those, who have attempted to de- 
 prive all of us and the whole Roman people of life, to destroy 
 the empire, to extinguish the name of the Roman people, should 
 enjoy life and the breath of heaven common to us all, for one 
 moment; and he remembers that this sort of punishment has 
 often been employed against worthless citizens in this republic. 
 The other feels that death was not appointed by the immortal 
 gods for the sake of punishment, but that it is either a necessity 
 of nature, or a rest from toils and miseries ; therefore, wise nun 
 have never met it unwillingly, brave men have often encoun- 
 tered it even voluntarily. But imprisonment, and that too per- 
 petual was certainly invented for the extraordinary punishment 
 of nefarious wickedness ; therefore he proposes that they should 
 be distributed among the municipal towns. This proposition 
 seems to have in it injustice if you command it, difficulty if you 
 request it ; however, let it be so decreed if you like. 
 
 For I will undertake, and as I hope, I shall find one who will 
 not think it suitable to his dignity to refuse what you decide on 
 for the sake of the universal safety. He imposes besides a se- 
 vere punishment of the burgesses of the municipal town if any 
 of the prisoners escape; he surrounds them with the most 
 terrible guard, and with everything worthy of the wickedness 
 of abandoned men. And he proposes to establish a decree that 
 no one shall be able to alleviate the punishment of those whom 
 he is condemning by a vote of either the Senate or the people. 
 He takes away even hope, which alone can comfort men in their 
 miseries ; besides this, he votes that their goods should be con- 
 fiscated ; he leaves life alone to these infamous men, and if he 
 had taken that away, he would have relieved them by one pang 
 of many tortures of mind and body, and of all the punishment 
 of their crimes. Therefore, that there might be some dread in 
 life to the wicked, men of old have believed that there were some 
 punishments of that sort appointed for the wicked in the shades 
 below ; because in truth they perceived that if this were taken 
 away death itself would not be terrible. 
 
 Xow, O conscript fathers, I see what is my interest; if you
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 59 
 
 follow the opinion of Caius Caesar (since he has adopted this 
 path in the republic which is accounted the popular one), per- 
 haps since he is the author and promoter of this opinion, the 
 popular violence will be less to be dreaded by me ; if you adopt 
 the other opinion, I know not whether I am not likely to have 
 more trouble; but still let the advantage of the republic out- 
 weigh the consideration of my danger. For we have from 
 Caius Caesar, as his own dignity and as the illustrious character 
 of his ancestors demanded, a vote as a hostage of his lasting 
 good-will to the republic ; it has been clearly seen how great is 
 the difference between the lenity of demagogues, and a dispo- 
 sition really attached to the interests of the people. I see 
 that of those men who wish to be considered attached to the 
 people one man is absent, that they may not seem forsooth to 
 give a vote about the lives of Roman citizens. He only three 
 days ago gave Roman citizens into custody, and decreed me a 
 supplication, and voted most magnificent rewards to the wit- 
 nesses only yesterday. It is not now doubtful to anyone what 
 he, who voted for the imprisonment of the criminals, congratu- 
 lation to him who had detected them, and rewards to those who 
 had proved the crime, thinks of the whole matter, and of the 
 cause. But Caius Caesar considers that the Sempronian 2 law 
 was passed about Roman citizens, but that he who is an enemy 
 of the republic can by no means be a citizen ; and moreover, that 
 the very proposer of the Sempronian law suffered punishment 
 by the command of the people. He also denies that Lentulus, 
 a briber and a spendthrift, after he has formed such cruel and 
 bitter plans about the destruction of the Roman people, and the 
 ruin of this city, can be called a friend of the people. Therefore 
 this most gentle and merciful man does not hesitate to commit 
 Publius Lentulus to eternal darkness and imprisonment, and 
 establishes a law to all posterity that no one shall be able to 
 boast of alleviating his punishment, or hereafter to appear a 
 friend of the people to the destruction of the Roman people. 
 He adds also the confiscation of their goods, so that want also 
 and beggary may be added to all the torments of mind and 
 body. 
 
 2 The Sempronian law was proposed oration Pro Rabir. c. 4. where Cicero 
 
 by Caius Gracchus, B.C. 123, and en- says. " Caius Gracchus passed a law that 
 
 acted that the people only should decide no decision should be come to about the 
 
 respecting the life or civil condition of life of a Roman citizen without your 
 
 a citizen. It is alluded to also in the command," speaking to the Quirites.
 
 60 CICERO 
 
 Wherefore, if you decide on this you give me a companion in 
 my address, dear and acceptable to the Roman people ; or if 
 you prefer to adopt the opinion of S <>u will easily defend 
 
 me and yourselves from the reproach of cruelty, and 1 will ; 
 vail that it shall be much lighter. Although, O conscript 
 fathers, what cruelty can there be in cha he enormity 
 
 of such excessive wickedness ? For I decide from my own i 
 ing. For so may I be allowed to enjoy the republic in sa: 
 in your company, as I am not moved to be somewhat vehement 
 in this cause by any severity of disposition (for who is more 
 merciful than I am?), but rather by a singular humanity anl 
 mercifulness. For I seem to myself to sec this city, the light 
 of the world, and the citadel of all nations, falling on a sudden 
 by one conflagration. I see in my mind's eye miserable and 
 unburied heaps of cities in my buried country ; the sight of 
 Cethegus and his madness raging amid your slaughter is ever 
 present to my sight. But when I have set before myself Len- 
 tulus reigning, as he himself confesses that he had hoped was 
 his destiny, and this Gabinius arrayed in the purple, and Cati- 
 line arrived with his army, then I shudder at the lamentation of 
 matrons, and the flight of virgins and of boys, and the insults 
 of the vestal virgins ; and because these things appear to me ex- 
 ceedingly miserable and pitiable, therefore I show myself severe 
 and rigorous to those who have wished to bring about this 
 state of things. I ask. forsooth, if any father of a family, sup- 
 posing his children had been slain by a slave, his wife murdered, 
 his house burned, were not to inflict on his slaves the severest 
 possible punishment, would he appear clement and merciful, or 
 most inhuman and cruel? To me he would seem unnatural 
 and hard-hearted who did not soothe his own pain and anguish 
 by the pain and torture of the criminal. And so we, in the case 
 of these men who desired to murder us, and our wives, and our 
 children who endeavored to destroy the houses of every indi- 
 vidual among us, and also the republic, the home of all who 
 designed to place the nation of the Allobroges on the relics of 
 this city, and on the ashes of the empire destroyed by fire ; if we 
 are very rigorous, we shall be considered merciful : if we 
 choose to be lax. we must endure the character of the greatest 
 cruelty, to the damage of our country and our fellow-citizens.
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 61 
 
 Unless, indeed, Lucius 3 Caesar, a thoroughly brave man, and 
 of the best disposition toward the republic, seemed to anyone 
 to be too cruel three days ago, when he said that the husband 
 of his own sister, a most excellent woman (in his presence and 
 in his hearing), ought to be deprived of life when he said that 
 his grandfather had been put to death by command of the con- 
 sul, and his youthful son, sent as an ambassador by his father, 
 had been put to death in prison. And what deed had they done 
 like these men? had they formed any plan for destroying the 
 republic ? At that time great corruption was rife in the repub- 
 lic, and there was tne greatest strike between parties. And, at 
 that time, the grandfather of this Lentulus, a most illustrious 
 man, put on his armor and pursued Gracchus ; he even received 
 a severe wound that there might be no diminution of the great 
 dignity of the republic. But this man, his grandson, invited 
 the Gauls to overthrow the foundations of the republic; he 
 stirred up the slaves, he summoned Catiline, he distributed us 
 to Cethegus to be massacred, and the rest of the citizens to 
 Gabinius to be assassinated, the city he allotted to Cassius to 
 burn, and the plundering and devastating of all Italy he as- 
 signed to Catiline. You fear, I think, lest in the case of such 
 unheard-of and abominable wickedness you should seem to de- 
 cide anything with too great severity; when we ought much 
 more to fear lest by being remiss in punishing we should appear 
 cruel to our country, rather than appear by the severity of our 
 irritation too rigorous to its most bitter enemies. 
 
 But, O conscript fathers, I cannot conceal what I hear ; for 
 sayings are bruited about, which come to my ears, of those men 
 who seem to fear that I may not have force enough to put in ex- 
 ecution the things which you determine on this day. Every- 
 thing is provided for, and prepared, and arranged, O conscript 
 fathers, both by my exceeding care and diligence, and also by 
 the still greater zeal of the Roman people for the retaining of 
 their supreme dominion, and for the preserving of the fortunes 
 of all. All men of all ranks are present, and of all ages ; the 
 forum is full, the temples around the forum are full, all the ap- 
 
 * The brother-in-law of Lucius Caesar his surrender, whom Opimius sent back 
 
 was Marcus Fulvius, whose death, at the first time, and forbade to return to 
 
 the command of Opimius the consul, is him; when he did return, he put him 
 
 referred to in the zd cap. ist Cat. He to death, 
 sent his son to the consul to treat for
 
 6x CICERO 
 
 preaches to this place and to this temple are full. For this is 
 the t>nl\ cause that has ever been known since the first founda- 
 tion of the city, in which all men were of one and the same oj 
 ion except those, who, as they saw they must be ruined, pre- 
 ferred to perish in company with all the world rather than by 
 themselves. 
 
 These men I except, and I willingly set them apart from the 
 rest ; for I do not think that they should be classed in the num- 
 ber of worthless citizens, but in that of the most bitter enen; 
 But, as for the rest ; O ye immortal gods ! in what crowds, with 
 what zeal, with what virtue do they agree in 1 defence of the com- 
 mon dignity and safety. Why should I here speak of the 
 Roman knights ? who yield to you the supremacy in rank and 
 wisdom, in order to vie with you in love for the republic whom 
 this day and this cause now reunite with you in alliance and 
 unanimity with your body, reconciled after a disagreement of 
 many years. And if we can preserve forever in the republic 
 this union now established in my consulship, I pledge myself 
 to you that no civil and domestic calamity can hereafter reach 
 any part of the republic. I see that the tribunes of the treasury 
 excellent men have united with similar zeal in defence of the 
 republic, and all the notaries. 4 For as this day had by chance 
 brought them in crowds to the treasury, I see that they were 
 diverted from an anxiety for the money due to them, from an 
 expectation of their capital, to a regard for the common safety. 
 The entire multitude of honest men, even the poorest, is present : 
 for who is there to whom these temples, the sight of the city, 
 the possession of liberty in short, this light and this soil of his, 
 common to us all, is not both dear and pleasant and delightful? 
 
 It is worth while, O conscript fathers, to know the inclina- 
 tions of the freedmen ; who, having by their good fortune 
 obtained the rights of citizens, consider this to be really their 
 country, which some who have been born here, and born in the 
 highest rank, have considered to be not their own country, but a 
 city of enemies. But why should I speak of men of this body 
 whom their private fortunes, whom their common republic, 
 
 * The notaries at Rome were in the tain the office of scriba by purchase (see 
 
 pay of the state; they were chiefly em- Cic. in Verr. ii. 79), ana freedmen and 
 
 ployed in making up the public ac- their sons frequently availed themselves 
 
 counts. In the time of Cicero it seems of this privilege, 
 to have been lawful for anyone to ob-
 
 FOURTH ORATION AGAINST CATILINE 63 
 
 whom, in short, that liberty which is most delightful has called 
 forth to defend the safety of their country ? There is no slave 
 who is only in an endurable condition of slavery who does not 
 shudder at the audacity of citizens, who does not desire that 
 these things may stand, who does not contribute all the good- 
 will that he can, and all that he dares, to the common safety. 
 
 Wherefore, if this consideration moves anyone, that it has 
 been heard that some tool of Lentulus is running about the 
 shops is hoping that the minds of some poor and ignorant 
 men may be corrupted by bribery; that, indeed, has been at- 
 tempted and begun, but none have been found either so 
 wretched in their fortune or so abandoned in their inclination as 
 not to wish the place of their seat and work and daily gain, their 
 chamber and their bed, and, in short, the tranquil course of their 
 lives, to be still preserved to them. And far the greater part 
 of those who are in the shops ay, indeed (for that is the more 
 correct way of speaking), the whole of this class is of all the 
 most attached to tranquillity ; their whole stock, forsooth, their 
 whole employment and livelihood, exists by the peaceful inter- 
 course of the citizens, and is wholly supported by peace. And 
 if their gains are diminished whenever their shops are shut, 
 what will they be when they are burned ? And, as this is the 
 case, O conscript fathers, the protection of the Roman people 
 is not wanting to you ; do you take care that you do not seem to 
 be wanting to the Roman people. 
 
 You have a consul preserved out of many dangers and plots, 
 and from death itself, not for his own life, but for your safety. 
 All ranks agree for the preservation of the republic with heart 
 and will, with zeal, with virtue, with their voice. Your com- 
 mon country, besieged by the hands and weapons of an impious 
 conspiracy, stretches forth her hands to you as a suppliant ; to 
 you she recommends herself, to you she recommends the lives 
 of all the citizens, and the citadel, and the Capitol, and the altars 
 of the household gods, and the eternal unextinguishable fire of 
 Vesta, and all the temples of all the gods, and the altars and the 
 walls and the houses of the city. Moreover, your own lives, 
 those of your wives and children, the fortunes of all men, your 
 homes, your hearths, are this day interested in your decision. 
 
 You have a leader mindful of you, forgetful of himself an 
 opportunity which is not always given to men; you have all
 
 04 CICERO 
 
 ranks, all in . tin- whole R.nnan people (a thin 
 
 in civil tran we see this d >. full of 
 
 one and the same feeling. Think with what j^n-at labor 
 dominion was founded, by what virtue this our liberty was es- 
 tablished, by what kind favor of the gods our fortunes were 
 aggrandized and ennobled, and how nearly one night destroyed 
 them all. That this may never hereafter be able not only to be 
 done, but not even to be thought of, you must this day take 
 care. And I have spoken thus, not in order to stir you up who 
 almost outrun me myself, but that my voice, which ought to be 
 the chief voice in the republic, may appear to have fulfilled the 
 duty which belongs to me as consul. 
 
 Now, before I return to the decision, I will say a few words 
 concerning myself. As numerous as is the band of conspira- 
 tors and you see that it is very great so numerous a multi- 
 tude of enemies do I see that I have brought upon myself. But 
 I consider them base and powerless and despicable and abject. 
 But if at any time that band shall be excited by the wickedness 
 and madness of anyone, and shall show itself more powerful 
 than your dignity and that of the republic, yet, O conscript 
 fathers, I shall never repent of my actions and of my ad\ 
 Death, indeed, which they perhaps threaten me with, is pre- 
 pared for all men ; such glory during life as you have honored 
 me with by your decrees no one has ever attained to. For you 
 have passed votes of congratulation to others for having gov- 
 erned the republic successfully, but to me alone for having 
 saved it. 
 
 Let Scipio be thought illustrious, he by whose wisdom and 
 valor Hannibal was compelled to return into Africa, and to de- 
 part from Italy. Let the second Africanus be extolled with 
 conspicuous praise, who destroyed two cities most hostile to 
 this empire, Carthage and Xumantia. Let Lucius Paullus be 
 thought a great man, he whose triumphal car was graced by 
 Perses, previously a most powerful and noble monarch. Let 
 Marius be held in eternal honor, who twice delivered Italy from 
 siege, and from the fear of slavery. Let Pompey be preferred 
 to them all Pompey, whose exploits and whose virtues are 
 bounded by the same districts and limits as the course of the 
 sun. There will be, forsooth, among the praises of these men, 
 some room for my glory, unless haply it be a greater deed to
 
 65 
 
 open to us provinces whither we may fly, than to take care that 
 those who are at a distance may, when conquerors, have a home 
 to return to. 
 
 Although in one point the circumstances of foreign triumph 
 are better than those of domestic victory ; because foreign ene- 
 mies, either if they be crushed, become one's servants, or 
 if they be received into the state, think themselves bound to 
 us by obligation ; but those of the number of citizens who be- 
 come depraved by madness and once begin to be enemies to 
 their country those men, when you have defeated their at- 
 tempts to injure the republic, you can neither restrain by force 
 nor conciliate by kindness. So that I see that an eternal war 
 with all wicked citizens has been undertaken by me ; which, 
 however, I am confident can easily be driven back from me and 
 mine by your aid, and by that of all good men, and by the mem- 
 ory of such great dangers, which will remain, not only among 
 this people which has been saved, but in the discourse and 
 minds of all nations forever. Nor, in truth, can any power be 
 found which will be able to undermine and destroy your union 
 with the Roman knights, and such unanimity as exists among 
 all good men. 
 
 As, then, this is the case, O conscript fathers, instead of my 
 military command instead of the army instead of the 
 province 5 which I have neglected, and the other badges 
 of honor which have been rejected by me for the sake of 
 protecting the city and your safety in place of the ties of 
 clientship and hospitality with citizens in the provinces, which, 
 however, by my influence in the city, I study to preserve 
 with as much toil as I labor to acquire them in place of 
 all these things, and in reward for my singular zeal in your 
 behalf, and for this diligence in saving the republic which 
 you behold, I ask nothing of you but the recollection of this 
 time and of my whole consulship. And as long as that is fixed 
 in your minds, I shall think I am fenced round by the strongest 
 wall. But if the violence of wicked men shall deceive and over- 
 power my expectations, I recommend to you my little son, to 
 
 Cicero, in order to tempt Antonius having accepted that of Cisalpine Gaul 
 
 to aid him in counteracting the trea- in exchange for it, he gave that also to 
 
 sonable designs of Catiline, had given Quintus Metellus; being resolved to re- 
 
 up to him the province of Macedonia. ceive no emojument, directly or indi- 
 
 which had fallen to his own lot; and rectly, from his consulship.
 
 66 
 
 CICERO 
 
 whom, in truth, it will he protection enough, not only for his 
 safety, hut even for his dignity, if you recollect that he is the 
 son of him who has saved all these things at his own single r 
 
 Wherefore, O conscript fatlu : :nine with i.m , as you 
 
 have begun, and boldly, concerning your own and that 
 
 of the Roman people, and concerning your wives and child i 
 concerning your altars and your hearths, your shrines and tem- 
 ples ; concerning the houses and homes of the whole city ; con- 
 cerning your dominion, your liberty, and the safety of Italy and 
 the whole republic. For you have a consul who will not hesi- 
 tate to obey your decrees, and who will be able, as long as he 
 lives, to defend what you decide on, and of his own power to 
 execute it. 8 
 
 This speech was spoken, and the 
 criminals executed, on the fifth of De- 
 cember. But Catiline was not vet en- 
 tirely overcome. He had with him in 
 Etruria two legions about twelve thou- 
 sand men; of which, however, not above 
 one-quarter were regularly armed. For 
 some time by marches and counter- 
 marches he eluded Antonius, but when 
 the news reached hi* army of the fate 
 of the rest of the conspirators, it began 
 to desert him in great numbers. He 
 attempted to escape into Gaul, but 
 found himself intercepted by Metellus, 
 
 who had been sent thither by Cicero 
 with three legions. Antonius is sup- 
 posed not to nave been disinclined to 
 connive at his escape, if he had not been 
 compelled as it were by bis qiuestor 
 Sextus and his lieutenant Petreius to 
 force him to a battle, in which, however. 
 Antonius himself, being ill of the gout, 
 did not take the command, which de- 
 volved on Petreius, who after a severe 
 action destroyed Catiline and his whole 
 army, of which every man is said to 
 have been slain in the battle.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF 
 LUCIUS MURENA
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Lucius Murena was one of the consuls elect; the other being Silanus, 
 the brother-in-law of Cato. Cato, however, instigated Sulpicius, one 
 of the most eminent lawyers in Rome, and a defeated competitor for 
 the consulship, to prosecute Murena for bribery, under the new law 
 passed by Cicero (mentioned in the argument to the first oration against 
 Catiline), though he brought no charge against Silanus, who was as 
 guilty as Murena, if there was any guilt at all. Murena had served as 
 lieutenant to Lucullus in the Mithridatic War. Murena was defended 
 by Crassus, Hortensius, and Cicero. We have neither of the speeches 
 of his other advocates; and even the speech of Cicero is not in a per- 
 fect state. Murena was unanimously acquitted, partly perhaps from 
 consideration of the argument which Cicero dwelt upon very earnestly, 
 of what great importance it was, at such a perilous time (for this 
 oration was spoken in the interval between the flight of Catiline to the 
 camp of Manlius, and the final detection and condemnation of the con- 
 spirators who remained behind), to have a consul of tried bravery and 
 military experience. It is remarkable that Sulpicius, the prosecutor, 
 was a most intimate friend of Cicero, who had exerted all his influ- 
 ence to procure his election in this very contest for the consulship; 
 and so also was Cato; nor did the opposition which Cicero made to 
 them in this case cause any interruption to their intimacy, and we 
 shall find, in the Philippics, Cicero exerting himself to procure public 
 funeral honors for Sulpicius. 
 
 68
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 
 
 WHAT I entreated of the immortal gods, O judges, ac- 
 cording to the manners and institutions of our an- 
 cestors, on that day when, after taking the auspices 
 in the comitia centuriata, 1 I declared Lucius Murena to have 
 been elected consul namely, that that fact might turn out 
 gloriously and happily for me and for my office, and for the 
 Roman nation and people that same thing do I now pray for 
 from the same immortal gods, that the consulship may be ob- 
 tained by that same man with safety, and that your inclina- 
 tions and opinions may agree with the wishes and suffrages of 
 the Roman people, and that that fact may bring to you and to 
 the Roman people peace, tranquillity, ease, and unanimity. 
 And if that solemn prayer of the comitia, consecrated under the 
 auspices of the consul, has as much power and holy influence as 
 the dignity of the republic requires, I pray also that the matter 
 may turn out happily, fortunately, and prosperously to those 
 men to whom the consulship was given when I presided over 
 the election. 
 
 And as this is the case, O judges, and as all the powers of the 
 immortal gods is either transferred to, or at all events is shared 
 with you, the same consul recommends him now to your good 
 faith who before recommended him to the immortal gods; so 
 that he being both declared consul and being defended by the 
 voice of the same man, may uphold the kindness of the Roman 
 people to your safety and that of all the citizens. And since in 
 this duty which I have undertaken the zeal of my defence has 
 been found fault with by the accusers, and even the very fact of 
 my having undertaken the cause at all, before I begin to say 
 
 1 The comitia centuriata, or, as they city, and in reference to their military 
 
 were sometimes called, majora, were the organization they were summoned by 
 
 assembly in which the people gave their the sound of the horn, not by the voice 
 
 votes according to the classification in- of the lictor. All magistrates were 
 
 stitutcd by Servius Tullius; they were elected in these comitia. 
 held in the Campus Martius without the 
 
 69
 
 ?0 CICERO 
 
 anything of Lucius Murcna, I will say a few words on behalf of 
 -elf; not because at this time the defence of my duty seems to 
 me more important than that of his safety, but in order that, 
 when what I have done is approved of by you, I may be able 
 with the greater authority to repel the attacks of his enemies 
 upon his honor, his reputation, and all his fortunes. 
 
 And first of all I will answrr Marcus Cato, a man who directs 
 his life by a certain rule and system, and who most carefully 
 weighs the motives of every duty, about my own duty. Cato 
 says it is not right, that I who have been consul and the very 
 passer * of the law of bribery and corruption, and who beha 
 so rigorously in my own consulship, should take up the cause of 
 Lucius Murena; and his reproach has great weight with me, 
 and makes me desirous to make not only you, O judges, whom 
 I am especially bound to satisfy, but also Cato himself, a most 
 worthy and upright man, approve the reasons of my action. By 
 whom then, O Marcus Cato, is it more just that a consul should 
 be defended than by a consul? Who can there be, who ought 
 there to be, dearer to me in the republic, than he to whom the 
 republic which has been supported by my great labors and dan- 
 gers is delivered by me alone to be supported for the future? 
 For if, in the demanding back things which may be alienated, he 
 ought to incur the hazard of the trial who has bound himself by 
 a legal obligation, surely still more rightly in the trial of a consul 
 elect, that consul who has declared him consul ought most es- 
 pecially to be the first mover of the kindness of the Roman peo- 
 ple, and his defender from danger. 
 
 And if, as is accustomed to be done in some states, an advo- 
 cate was appointed to this cause by the public, that man would 
 above all others be assigned to one invested with honors as his 
 defender, who having himself enjoyed the same honor, brought 
 to his advocacy no less authority than ability. But if those who 
 are being wafted from the main into harbor are wont with the 
 greatest care to inform those who are sailing out of harbor, of 
 the character of storms, and pirates, and of places, because 
 
 * There had been several previous laws ment for ten years; and. among other 
 
 against bribery and corruption. The restrictions, forbade anyone to exhibit 
 
 Lex Acilia, passed B.C. 67. imposed a gladiators within two years of his being 
 
 fine on the offending party, with ex- a candidate, unless he was required to 
 
 elusion from the Senate, and from all do so on a fixed day by a testator's 
 
 public offices. The Lex Tullia. passed will, 
 in Cicero's consulship, added banish-
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 71 
 
 nature prompts us to favor those who are entering on the same 
 dangers which we have passed through, of what disposition 
 ought I to be, who after having been much tossed about am now 
 almost in sight of land, toward him by whom I see the greatest 
 tempests of the republic about to be encountered? Wherefore, 
 if it is the part of a virtuous consul not only to see what is being 
 done, but to foresee what is likely to happen, I will show in an- 
 other place how much it is for the interest of the common safety 
 that there should be two consuls in the republic on the first of 
 January. And if that be the case, then it is not so much my 
 duty which ought to summon me to defend the fortunes of a 
 man who is my friend, as the republic which ought to invite the 
 consul to the defence of the common safety. 
 
 For as to my having passed a law concerning bribery and cor- 
 ruption, certainly I passed it so as not to abrogate that law 
 which I have long since made for myself concerning defending 
 my fellow-citizens from dangers. If, indeed, I confessed that a 
 largess had been distributed, and were to defend it as having 
 been rightly done, I should be acting wrongly, even if another 
 had passed the law; but when I am saying in defence that noth- 
 ing has been done contrary to law, then what reason is there 
 that my having passed the law should be an obstacle to my un- 
 dertaking the defence? 
 
 He says that it does not belong to the same severity of char- 
 acter, to have banished from the city by words, and almost by 
 express command, Catiline, when planning the destruction of 
 the republic within its very walls, and now to speak on behalf of 
 Lucius Murena. But I have always willingly acted the part of 
 lenity and clemency, which nature itself has taught me ; but I 
 have not sought the character of severity and rigor; but I have 
 supported it when imposed upon me by the republic, as the 
 dignity of this empire required at the time of the greatest peril 
 to the citizens. But if then, when the public required vigor and 
 severity, I overcame my nature, and was as severe as I was forced 
 to be, not as I wished to be; now, when all causes invite me to 
 mercy and humanity, with what great zeal ought I to obey my 
 nature and my usual habits? and concerning my duty of defend- 
 ing, and your method of prosecuting, perhaps I shall have again 
 to speak in another part of my speech. 
 
 But, O judges, the complaint of Servius Sulpicius, a most
 
 7 a CICERO 
 
 wise and accomplish^! man, moved me no less than the a> 
 sation of Cato; for he said that he was exceedingly and most 
 bitterly vexed that 1 had forgotten my friendship and intimacy 
 with him, and was defending the cause of Lucius Murcna 
 against him. I wish, O judges, to satisfy him, and to make 
 you arbitrators between us. For as it i> a sad tiling to be ac-. 
 .1 with truth in a case of friendship, so, even if you be falsely 
 accused, it is not to be neglected. I, O Servius Sulpicius, both 
 allow that according to my intimacy with you I did owe you all 
 my zeal and activity to assist you in your canvass, and I think I 
 displayed it. When you stood for the consulship, nothing on 
 my part was wanting to you which could have been expected 
 either from a friend or from an obliging person, or from a con- 
 sul. That time has gone by the case is changed. I think, 
 and am persuaded, that I owed you as much aid as ever you have 
 ventured to require of me against the advancement of Lucius 
 Murena; but no aid at all against his safety. Nor does it fol- 
 low, because I stood by you when you were a candidate for the 
 consulship, that on that account I ought now to be an assistant 
 to you in the same way, when you are attacking Murena himself. 
 And this is not only not praiseworthy it is not even allowable, 
 that we may not defend even those who are most entirely strang- 
 ers to us when our friends accuse them. 
 
 But, in truth, there is, O judges, between Murena and myself 
 an ancient and great friendship, which shall not be overwhelmed 
 in a capital trial by Sefvius Sulpicius, merely because it was 
 overcome by superior considerations when he was contesting 
 an honorable office with that same person. And if this cause 
 had not existed, yet the dignity of the man, and the honorable 
 nature of that office which he has obtained, would have branded 
 me with the deepest reproach of pride and cruelty, if in so great 
 a danger I had repudiated the cause of a man so distinguished 
 by his own virtues and by the honors paid him by the Roman 
 people. For it is not now in my power it is not possible, for 
 me to shrink from devoting my labor to alleviate the dangers of 
 others. For when such rewards have been given me for this 
 diligence of mine, such as before now have never been given to 
 anyone, to abandon those labors by which I have earned them, 
 as soon as I have received them, would be the act of a crafty and 
 ungrateful man.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 73 
 
 If, indeed, I may rest from my labors if you advise me that 
 I can do so if no reproach of indolence, none of unworthy arro- 
 gance, none of inhumanity is incurred by so doing, in good truth 
 I will willingly rest. But if flying from toil convicts me of lazi- 
 ness if rejection of suppliants convicts me of arrogance if 
 neglect of my friends is a proof of worthlessness, then, above all 
 others, this cause is such a one as no industrious, or merciful, or 
 obliging man can abandon. And you may easily form your 
 opinion of this matter, O Servius, from your own pursuits. For 
 if you think it necessary to give answers to even the adversaries 
 of your friends when they consult you about law, and if you 
 think it shameful, when you have been retained as an advocate 
 for him in whose cause you have come forward, to fail; be not 
 so unjust, as, when your springs are open even to your enemies, 
 to think it right that our small streams should be closed even 
 against our friends. 
 
 Forsooth, if my intimacy with you had prevented my appear- 
 ing in this cause, and if the same thing had happened to Quintus 
 Hortensius and Marcus Crassus, most honorable men, and to 
 others also by whom I know that your affection is greatly es- 
 teemed, the consul elect would have had no defender in that city 
 in which our ancestors intended that even the lowest of the peo- 
 ple should never want an advocate. But I, O judges, should 
 think myself wicked if I had failed my friend cruel if I had 
 failed one in distress arrogant if I had failed the consul. So 
 that what ought to be given to friendship shall be abundantly 
 given by me; so that I will deal with you, O Servius, as if my 
 brother, who is the dearest of all men to me, stood in your place. 
 What ought to be given to duty, to good faith, to religion, that 
 I will so regulate as to recollect that I am speaking contrary to 
 the wish of one friend to defend another friend from danger. 
 
 I understand, O judges, that this whole accusation is divided 
 into three parts ; and that one of them refers to finding fault with 
 Murena's habits of life, another to his contest for the dignity, 
 and a third to charges of bribery and corruption. And of these 
 three divisions, that first, which ought to have been the weighti- 
 est of all, was so weak and trifling, that it was rather some gen- 
 eral rule of accusing, than any real occasion for finding fault, 
 which prompted them to say anything about the way of life of 
 Lucius Murena. For Asia has been mentioned as a reproach
 
 74 
 
 CICERO 
 
 to him, which was not sought by him for the sake of pleasure 
 and luxury, but was traversed by him in the performance of 
 military labors; but if he while a young man had not served 
 under his father \\hen general, he would have seemed either to 
 have been afraid of the enemy, or of the command of his father, 
 or else to have been repudiated by his father. Shall we say that, 
 when all the sons who wear the praetexta' are accustomed to sit 
 on the chariot of those who are celebrating a triumph, this man 
 ought to have shunned adorning the triumph of his father with 
 military gifts, so as almost to share his father's triumph for ex- 
 ploits which they had performed in common? 
 
 But this man, O judges, both was in Asia and was a great as- 
 sistance to that bravest of men, his own father, in his dangers, a 
 comfort to him in his labors, a source of congratulation to him 
 in his victory. And if Asia does carry with it a suspicion of 
 luxury, surely it is a praiseworthy thing, not never to have seen 
 Asia, but to have lived temperately in Asia. So that the name 
 of Asia should not have been objected to Lucius Murena, a 
 country whence renown was derived for his family, lasting 
 recollection for his race, honor and glory for his name, but some 
 crime or disgrace, either incurred in Asia, or brought home 
 from Asia. But to have served campaigns in that war which 
 was not only the greatest but the only war which the Roman 
 people was waging at that time, is a proof of valor; to have 
 served most willingly under his father, who was commander-in- 
 chief, is a proof of piety; that the end of his campaign was the 
 victory and triumph of his father, is a proof of good fortune. 
 There is, therefore, no room in these matters for speaking ill of 
 him, because praise takes up the whole room. 
 
 Cato calls Lucius Murena a dancer. If this be imputed to 
 him truly, it is the reproach of a violent accuser; but if fal- 
 it is the abuse of a scurrilous railer. Wherefore, as you are a 
 person of such influence, you ought not, O Marcus Cato, to pick 
 up abusive expressions out of the streets, or out of some quarrel 
 of buffoons; you ought not rashly to call a consul of the Roman 
 people a dancer; but to consider with what other vices besides 
 that man must be tainted to whom that can with truth be im- 
 puted. For no man, one may almost say, ever dances when 
 
 The toga prxtexta was a robe bor- magistrates, and by freeborn children 
 dcred with purple, worn by the higher till they arrived at the age of manhood
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 75 
 
 sober, unless perhaps he be a madman, nor in solitude, nor in a 
 moderate and sober party; dancing is the last companion of 
 prolonged feasting, of luxurious situation, and of many refine- 
 ments. You charge me with that which must necessarily be the 
 last of all vices, you say nothing of those things without which 
 this vice absolutely cannot exist; no shameless feasting, no 
 improper love, no carousing, no lust, no extravagance is al- 
 leged; and when those things which have the name of pleasure, 
 and which are vicious, are not found, do you think that you will 
 find the shadow of luxury in that man in whom you cannot find 
 the luxury itself? 
 
 Can nothing, therefore, be said against the life of Lucius 
 Murena? Absolutely nothing, I say, O judges. The consul 
 elect is defended by me on this ground, that no fraud of his, no 
 avarice, no perfidy, no cruelty, no wanton word can be alleged 
 against him in his whole life. It is well. The foundations of 
 the defence are laid ; for we are not as yet defending this virtuous 
 and upright man with my own panegyric, which I will employ 
 presently, but almost by the confession of his adversaries. 
 
 And now that this is settled, the approach to the contest for 
 this dignity, which was the second part of the accusation, is more 
 easy to me. I see that there is in you, O Servius Sulpicius, the 
 greatest dignity of birth, of integrity, of industry, and of all the 
 other accomplishments which a man ought to rely on when he 
 offers himself as a candidate for the consulship. I know that 
 all those qualities are equal in Lucius Murena, and so equal that 
 he can neither be surpassed in worth by you, nor can himself 
 surpass you in worth. You have spoken slightingly of the 
 family of Lucius Murena, you have extolled your own; but if 
 you dwell on this topic so as to allow no one to be considered as 
 born of a good family, unless he be a patrician, you will compel 
 the common people again to secede to the Aventine Hill. 4 But 
 if there are honorable and considerable families among the 
 plebeians both the great-grandfather of Lucius Murena, and 
 his grandfather, were praetors; and his father, when he had tri- 
 umphed most splendidly and honorably for exploits performed 
 in his praetorship, left the steps towards the acquisition of the 
 
 * This refers to the time of Appius were joined by great part of the plebs. 
 
 the decemvir, when the soldiers, at the demanding the abolition of the dccem- 
 
 call of Virginius, after the death of virate. 
 Virginia, occupied the Aventine, and
 
 7 6 CICERO 
 
 consulship more easy, because that honor which was due to the 
 father was demanded by the son. 
 
 But your nobility, O Servius Sulpicius, although it is most 
 eminent, yet it is known rather to men versed in literature and 
 history, but not much so to the people and to the voters. : 
 your father was in the rank of the knights, your grandfather was 
 renowned for no conspicuous action. So that the recollection 
 of your nobility is to be extracted not from the modern conversa- 
 tion of men, but from the antiquity of annals. So that I also am 
 accustomed to class you in our number, because you by your 
 own virtue and industry, though you are the son of a Roman 
 knight, have yet earned the being considered worthy of the very 
 highest advancement. Nor did it ever seem to me that there was 
 less virtue in Ouintus Pompeius, a new man and a most br 
 man, than in that most high-born man, Marcus ^milius. In- 
 deed, it is a proof of the same spirit and genius, to hand down 
 to his posterity, as Pompeius did, an honorable name, which he 
 had not received from his ancestors ; and, as Scaurus did, to re- 
 new the recollection of his family which was almost extinct. 
 
 Although I now thought, O judges, that it had been brought 
 about by my labors, that a want of nobleness of birth should not 
 be objected to many brave men, who were neglected, though 
 men were praising not only the Curii, the Catos, the Pompeii, 
 those ancient new but most distinguished men, but also, these 
 more modern new men, the Marii, and Didii, and Coelii. But 
 when I, after so great an interval, had broken down those bar- 
 riers of nobility, so that entrance to the consulship should here- 
 after be opened, as it was in the time of our ancestors, not more 
 to high birth than to virtue, I did not think when a consul elect 
 of an ancient and illustrious family was being defended by the 
 son of a Roman knight, himself a consul, that the accusers 
 would say anything about newness of family. In truth, it hap- 
 pened to me myself to stand against two patricians, one a most 
 worthless and audacious man, the other a most modest and vir- 
 tuous one; yet I surpassed Catiline in worth, Galba in popu- 
 larity. But if that ought to have been imputed as a crime to a 
 new man, forsooth, I should have wanted neither enemies nor 
 detractors. 
 
 Let us, therefore, give up saying anything about birth, the 
 dignity of which is great in both the candidates ; let us look at
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 77 
 
 the other points. He stood for the quaestorship at the same 
 time with me, and I was appointed first. We need not answer 
 every point; for it cannot escape the observation of any one of 
 you, when many men are appointed equal in dignity ; but only 
 one can obtain the first place, that the order of the dignity and 
 of the declaration of it are not the same, because the declaration 
 has degrees, but the dignity of all is usually the same. But the 
 quaestorship of each was given them by almost an equal decision 
 of the lots: the one had by the Titian law a quiet and orderly 
 province; you had that one of Ostia, at the name of which, when 
 the quaestors distribute the provinces by lot, a shout is raised 
 a province not so much pleasant and illustrious as troublesome 
 and vexatious. The name of each was together in the quaestor- 
 ship. For the drawing of the lots gave you no field on which 
 your virtue could display itself and make itself known. 
 
 The remaining space of time is dedicated to the contest. It 
 was employed by each in a very dissimilar fashion. Servius 
 adopted the civil service, full of anxiety and annoyance, of an- 
 swering, writing, cautioning; he learned the civil law; he 
 worked e.arly and late, Ire toiled, he was visible to everyone, he 
 endured the folly of crowds, he tolerated their arrogance, he bore 
 all sorts of difficulties, he lived at the will of others, not at his 
 own. It is a great credit, a thing pleasing to men, for one man 
 to labor hard in that science which will profit many. 
 
 What has Murena been doing in the mean time? He was 
 lieutenant to Lucius Lucullus, a very brave and wise man, and 
 a consummate general; and in this post he commanded an 
 army, he fought a battle, he engaged the enemy, he routed nu- 
 merous forces of the enemy, he took several cities, some by 
 storm, some by blockade. He traversed that populous and 
 luxurious Asia you speak of, in such a manner as to leave in it 
 no trace either of his avarice or of his luxury; in a most impor- 
 tant war he so behaved himself that he performed many glori- 
 ous exploits without the commander-in-chief ; but the com- 
 mander-in-chief did nothing without him. And all these 
 things, although I am speaking in the presence of Lucius Lu- 
 cullus, yet that we may not appear to have a license of inven- 
 tion granted us by him on account of the danger we are in, we 
 are borne witness to in the public despatches ; in which Lucius 
 Lucullus gives him such praise as no ambitious nor envious
 
 ;8 CICERO 
 
 commander-in-chief could have given another while divic 
 with him the credit of his e.\i>! 
 
 There is in each of the rivals the greatest honesty, the greatest 
 worth; which 1. if Servius will allow me, will place in equal and 
 in the same panegyric. But he will not let me; he discusses 
 the military question; he attacks the whole of his services as 
 lieutenant; he thinks the consulship is an office requiring dili- 
 gence and all this daily labor. " I lave you been," says he, " so 
 many years with the army? you can never have been near the 
 forum. Have you been away so long? and then, when after a 
 long interval you arrive, will you contend in dignity with those 
 who have made their abode in the forum? " First of all, as to 
 that assiduity of ours, O Servius, you know not what disgust, 
 what satiety, it sometimes causes men; it was, indeed, exceed- 
 ingly advantageous for me myself that my influence was in the 
 sight of all men ; but I overcame the weariness of me by my own 
 great labor; and you, perhaps, have done the same thing, hut 
 yet a regret at our absence would have been no injury to either 
 of us. 
 
 But, to say no more of this, and to return to the contest of 
 studies and pursuits; how can it be doubted that the glory of 
 military exploits contributes more dignity to aid in the acquisi- 
 tion of the consulship, than renown for skill in civil law? Do 
 you wake before the night is over in order to give answers to 
 those who consult you? He has done so in order to arrive be- 
 times with his army at the place to which he is marching. The 
 cock-crow wakens you, but the sound of the trumpet rouses 
 him ; you conduct an action ; he is marshalling an army : you 
 take care lest your clients should be convicted; he lest his cities 
 or camp be taken. He occupies posts, and exercises skill to re- 
 pel the troops of the enemy, you to keep out the rain; he is 
 practised in extending the boundaries of the empire, you in gov- 
 erning the present territories; and in short, for I must say what 
 I think, pre-eminence in military skill excels all other virtues. 
 
 It is this which has procured its name for the Roman people; 
 it is this which has procured eternal glory for this city; it is this 
 which has compelled the whole world to submit to our do- 
 minion ; all domestic affairs, all these illustrious pursuits of ours, 
 and our forensic renown, and our industry, are safe under the 
 guardianship and protection of military valor. As soon as the
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 79 
 
 first suspicion of disturbance is heard of, in a moment our arts 
 have not a word to say for themselves. 
 
 And since you seem to me to embrace that knowledge of the 
 law which you have, as if it were a darling daughter, I will not 
 permit you to lie under such a mistake as to think that, what- 
 ever it may be, which you have so thoroughly learned, anything 
 very pre-eminent. For your other virtues of continence, of 
 gravity, of justice, of good faith, and all other good qualities, I 
 have always considered you very worthy of the consulship and 
 of all honor ; but as for your having learned civil law, I will not 
 say you have wasted your pains, but I will say that there is no 
 way made to lead to the consulship by that profession; for all 
 arts which can concilitate for us the good-will of the Roman 
 people ought to possess both an admirable dignity, and a very 
 delightful utility. 
 
 The highest dignity is in those men who excel in military 
 glory. For all things which are in the empire and in the con- 
 stitution of the state, are supposed to be defended and strength- 
 ened by them. There is also the greatest usefulness in them, 
 since it is by their wisdom and their danger that we can enjoy 
 both the republic and also our own private possessions. The 
 power of eloquence also is no doubt valuable and full of dignity, 
 and it has often been of influence in the election of a consul, to 
 be able by wisdom and oratory to sway the minds of the Senate 
 and the people, and those who decide on affairs. A consul is 
 required who may be able sometimes to repress the madness of 
 the tribunes, who may be able to bend the excited populace, who 
 may resist corruption. It is not strange, if, on account of this 
 faculty, even men who were not nobly born have often obtained 
 the consulship; especially when this same quality procures a 
 man great gratitude, and the firmest friendship, and the greatest 
 zeal in his behalf; but of all this there is nothing, O Sulpicius, in 
 your profession. 
 
 First of all, what dignity can there be in so limited a science? 
 For they are but small matters, conversant chiefly about single 
 letters and punctuation between words. Secondly, if in the 
 time of our ancestors there was any inclination to marvel at that 
 study of yours, now that all your mysteries are revealed, it is 
 wholly despised and disregarded. At one time few men knew 
 whether a thing might be lawfully done or not; for men ordi-
 
 8o CICERO 
 
 narily had no records; those were possessed of great power who 
 were consulted, so that c\ for consultation were begged 
 
 of them beforehand, as from the Chaldean astrologers. A cer- 
 tain notary was found, by name Cnarus Mavius, who could de- 
 ceive ' the most wary, and who set the people records to be 
 learned by heart each day, and who pilfered their own learning 
 from the profoundest lawyers. So they, being angry because 
 they were afraid, lest, when their daily course of action was di- 
 vulged and understood, people would be able to proceed by law 
 without their assistance, adopted a sort of cipher, in order to 
 make their presence necessary in every cause. 
 
 When this might have been well transacted thus " The 
 Sabine farm is mine." " No; it is mine;" then a trial; they 
 would not have it so. " The farm," says he, " which is in the 
 territory which is called Sabine: " verbose enough well, what 
 next? " That farm, I say, is mine according to the rights of 
 Roman citizens." What then? "and therefore I summon you 
 according to law, seizing you by the hand." 
 
 The man of whom the field was demanded did not know how 
 to answer one who was so talkatively litigious. The same 
 lawyer goes across, like a Latin flute-player says he, " In the 
 place from whence you summoned me having seized me by the 
 hand, from thence I recall you there." In the mean time, as to 
 the praetor, lest he should think himself a fine fellow and a 
 fortunate one, and himself say something of his own accord, a 
 form of words is composed for him also, absurd in other points, 
 and especially in this: "Each of them being alive and being 
 present, I say that that is the way." " Enter on the way." 
 That wise man was at hand who was to show them the way. 
 " Return on your path." They returned with the same guide. 
 These things, I may well suppose, appeared ridiculous to full- 
 grown men ; that men when they have stood rightly and in their 
 proper place should be ordered to depart, in order that they 
 might immediately return again to the place they had left. 
 Everything was tainted with the same childish folly. " When 
 I behold you in the power of the law." And this: " But do you 
 say this who claim the right? " And while all this was made a 
 mystery of, they who had the key to the mystery were neces- 
 
 * The Latin strictly is, " pierce the eyes of ravens." It was a proverbial 
 expression.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 81 
 
 sarily sought after by men; but as soon as these things were 
 revealed, and were bandied about and sifted in men's hands, 
 they were found to be thoroughly destitute of wisdom, but very 
 full of fraud and folly. 
 
 For though many things have been excellently settled by the 
 laws, yet most of them have been depraved and corrupted by the 
 genius of the lawyers. Our ancestors determined that all 
 women, on account of the inferiority of their understanding, 
 should be under the protection of trustees. These men have 
 found out classes of trustees, whose power is subordinate to that 
 of the women. The one party did not wish the domestic sacri- 
 fices to be abolished in families; by the ingenuity of the others 
 old men were found to marry by the form called coemptio, for 
 the sake of getting rid of these sacred ceremonies. Lastly, in 
 every part of the civil law they neglected equity itself, but ad- 
 hered to the letter of the law ; as for instance, because in some- 
 body's books they found the name of Caia, they thought that 
 all the women who had married by coemptio were called Caias. 
 And that often appears marvellous to me, that so many men of 
 such ability should now for so many years have been unable to 
 decide whether the proper expressions to use be the day after 
 to-morrow or the third day, a judge or an arbiter, a cause or a 
 proceeding. 
 
 Therefore, as I said before, the dignity of a consul has never 
 been consistent with that science; being one consisting wholly 
 of fictitious and imaginary formulas. And its right to public 
 gratitude was even much smaller. For that which is open to 
 everyone, and which is equally accessible to me and to my ad- 
 versary, cannot be considered as entitled to any gratitude. And 
 therefore you have now not only lost the hope of conferring a 
 favor, but even the compliment that used to be paid to you by 
 men asking your permission to consult you. No one can be 
 considered wise on account of his proficiency in that knowledge 
 which is neither of any use at all out of Rome, nor at Rome 
 either during the vacations. Nor has anyone any right to be 
 considered skilful in law, because there cannot be any differ- 
 ence between men in a branch of knowledge with which they 
 
 _ Coemptio was "a ceremony *of mar- "Coemptio was effected by mancipatio, 
 riage consisting in a mock sale, where- and consequently the wife was in man- 
 by the bride and bridegroom sold them- cipio." Smith, Dictionary of Antiqui- 
 selves to each other." Riddle in voce. ties, p. 603, sec. v., v. Marriage (Roman).
 
 8* CICERO 
 
 all acquainted. And a matter is n<>t tlx.n-ht the more diffi- 
 cult for being contained in a very small number of very intel- 
 ligible documents. Therefore, if you excite my anger, though 
 I am excessively busy, in three days I will profess myself a 
 lawyer. In truth, all that need be said about the written law is 
 contained in written books; nor is there anything written with 
 such precise accuracy, that I cannot add to the formula, " which 
 is the matter at present in dispute." If you answer what you 
 ought, you will seem to have made the same answer as Serv 
 if you make any other reply, you will seem to be acquainted with 
 and to know how to handle disputed points. 
 
 Wherefore, not only is the military glory which you slight to 
 be preferred to your formulas and legal pleas; but even the 
 habit of speaking is far superior, as regards the attainment of 
 honors, to the profession to the practice of which you devote 
 yourself. And therefore many men appear to me to have pre- 
 ferred this at first; but afterward, being unable to attain emi- 
 nence in this profession, they have descended to the other. Just 
 as men say, when talking of Greek practitioners, that those men 
 are flute-players who cannot become harp-players, so we see 
 some men, who have not been able to make orators, turn to the 
 study of the law. There is great labor in the practice of oratory. 
 It is an important business, one of great dignity, and of most 
 exceeding influence. In truth, from you lawyers men seek 
 some degree of advantage; but from those who are orators they 
 seek actual safety. In the next place, your replies and your de- 
 cisions are constantly overturned by eloquence, and cannot be 
 made firm except by the advocacy of the orator; in which if I 
 had made any great proficiency myself, I should be more spar- 
 ing while speaking in its praise; but at present I am saying 
 nothing about myself, but only about those men who either are 
 or have been great in oratory. 
 
 There are two occupations which can place men in the highest 
 rank of dignity; one, that of a general, the other, that of an ac- 
 complished orator. For by the latter the ornaments of peace 
 are preserved, by the former the dangers of war are repelled. 
 But the other virtues are of great importance from their own in- 
 trinsic excellence, such as justice, good faith, modesty, temper- 
 ance; and in these, O Servius, all men know that you are very 
 eminent. But at present I am speaking of those pursuits calcu-
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 83 
 
 lated to aid men in the attainment of honors, and not about the 
 intrinsic excellency of each pursuit. For all those occupations 
 are dashed out of our hands at once, the moment the slightest 
 new commotion begins to have a warlike sound. In truth, as 
 an ingenious poet and a very admirable author says, the mo- 
 ment there is a mention of battle, " away is driven " not only 
 your grandiloquent pretences to prudence, but even that mis- 
 tress of all things, " wisdom. Everything is done by violence. 
 The orator," not only he who is troublesome in speaking, and 
 garrulous, but even " the good orator is despised ; the horrid 
 soldier is loved." But as for your profession, that is trampled 
 under foot ; " men seek their rights not by law, but hand to 
 hand by the sword," says he. 
 
 And if that be the case, then I think, O Sulpicius, the forum 
 must yield to the camp ; peace must yield to war, the pen to the 
 sword, and the shade to the sun. That, in fact, must be the first 
 thing in the city, by means of which the city itself is the first of 
 all cities. But Cato is busy proving that we are making too 
 much of all these things in our speech; and that we have for- 
 gotten that that Mithridatic War was carried on against nothing 
 better than women. However, my opinion is very different, O 
 judges; and I will say a little on that subject; for my cause does 
 not depend on that. 
 
 For if all the wars which we have carried on against the 
 Greeks are to be despised, then let the triumph of Marcus Curi- 
 us over King Pyrrhus be derided; and that of Titus Flamininus 
 over Philip ; and that of Marcus Fulvius over the ^Etolians ; and 
 that of Lucius Paullus over King Perses ; and that of Quintus 
 Metellus over the false Philip; and that of Lucius Mummius 
 over the Corinthians. But, if all these wars were of the greatest 
 importance, and if our victories in them were most acceptable, 
 then why are the Asiatic nations and that Asiatic enemy de- 
 spised by you ? But, from our records of ancient deeds, I see 
 that the Roman people carried on a most important war 'with 
 Antiochus; the conqueror in which war, Lucius Scipio, who 
 had already gained great glory when acting in conjunction with 
 his brother Publius, assumed the same honor himself by taking 
 a surname from Asia, as his brother did, who, having subdued 
 Africa, paraded his conquest by the assumption of the name of 
 Africanus. And in that war the renown of your ancestor Mar-
 
 8 4 CICERO 
 
 cus Cato was very conspicuous ; but he, if he was, as I make no 
 doubt that he was, a man of the same character as I see that you 
 are, would never have gone to that war, if he had thought that 
 it was only going to be a war against women. Nor would the 
 Senate have prevailed on Publius . \iricanus to go as lieutenant 
 to his brother, when he himself, a little while before, having 
 forced Hannibal out of Italy, having driven him out of At': 
 and having crushed the power of Carthage, had delivered the 
 republic from the greatest dangers, if that war had not been 
 considered an important and formidable war. 
 
 But if you diligently consider what the power of Mithridates 
 was, and what his exploits were, and what sort of a man he 
 himself, you will in truth prefer this king to all the kings with 
 whom the Roman people has ever waged war ; a man whom 
 Lucius Sylla not a very inexperienced general, to say the 
 least of it at the head of a numerous and powerful army, after 
 a severe battle, allowed to depart, having made peace with him, 
 though he had overrun all Asia with war; whom Lucius Mu- 
 rena, my client's father, after having warred against him with 
 the greatest vigor and vigilance, left greatly checked indeed, 
 but not overwhelmed : a king, who having taken several years 
 to perfect his system and to strengthen his warlike resources, 
 became so powerful and enterprising that he thought himself 
 able to unite the Atlantic to the Black Sea, and to combine the 
 forces of Sertorius with his own. And when two consuls had 
 been sent to that war, with the view of one pursuing Mithri- 
 dates, and the other protecting Bithynia, the disasters which be- 
 fell one of them by land and sea greatly increased the power 
 and reputation of the king. But the exploits of Lucius Lucul- 
 lus were such that it is impossible to mention any war which 
 was more important, or in which greater abilities and valor 
 were displayed. For when the violence of the entire war had 
 broken against the walls of Cyzicus, and as Mithridates thought 
 that he should find that the city the door of Asia, and that, if that 
 were once broken down and forced, the whole province would 
 be open to him, everything was so managed by Lucullus that 
 the city of our most faithful allies was defended, and all the 
 forces of the king were wasted away by the length of the siege. 
 What more need I say? Do you think that that naval battle 
 at Tenedos, when the enemy's fleet were hastening on with
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 85 
 
 rapid course and under most eager admirals toward Italy, full 
 of hope and courage, was a trifling engagement an insignifi- 
 cant contest ? I will say nothing of battles ; I pass over the 
 sieges of towns. Being at length expelled from his kingdom, 
 still his wisdom and his influence were so great, that, combining 
 his forces with those of the king of Armenia, he reappeared with 
 new armies and new resources of every kind. 
 
 And if it were my business now to speak of the achievements 
 of our army and of our general, I might mention many most 
 important battles. But that is not the present question. This 
 I do say : If this war, and this enemy if that king was a proper 
 object for contempt, the Senate and Roman people would not 
 have thought it one to be undertaken with such care, nor would 
 they have carried it on for so many years, nor would the glory 
 of Lucullus be as great as it is. Nor would the Roman people 
 have intrusted the care of putting a finishing stroke to it to 
 Cnaeus Pompeius ; though of all his battles, numberless as they 
 are, that appears to me to have been the most desperate and to 
 have been maintained on both sides with the greatest vigor, 
 which he 'fought against the king. And when Mithridates had 
 escaped from that battle, and had fled to the Bosporus, a place 
 which no army could approach, still, 'even in the extremity of 
 his fortunes, and as a fugitive, he retained the name of a king. 
 Therefore, Pompeius himself, having taken possession of his 
 kingdom, having driven the enemy away from all his coasts, 
 and from all his usual places of resort, still thought that so much 
 depended on his single life, that though, by his victory, he had 
 got possession of everything which he had possessed, or had 
 approached, or even had hoped for, still he did not think the war 
 entirely over till he drove him from life also. And do you, O 
 Cato, think lightly of this man as an enemy, when so many gen- 
 erals warred against him for so many years, with so long a series 
 of battles ? when, though driven out and expelled from his king- 
 dom, his life was still thought of such importance, that it was not 
 till the news arrived of his death, that we thought the war over? 
 We then say in defence of Lucius Murena, that as a lieutenant 
 in this war he approved himself a man of the greatest courage, 
 of singular military skill, and of the greatest perseverance ; and 
 that all his conduct at that time gave him no less a title to obtain 
 the consulship than this forensic industry of ours gave us.
 
 86 CICERO 
 
 " But in the standing f< r the praetorship, Servius was elected 
 first." Arc you going (as if you were arguing on some written 
 bond) to contend with the people that, whatever place of honor 
 they have once given anyone, that same rank they are bound 
 to give him in all other honors? For what sea, what Euripus 
 do you think exists, which is liable to such commotions to 
 such great and various agitations of waves, as the storms and 
 tides by which the comitia are influenced ? The interval of one 
 day the lapse of one night often throws everything into con- 
 fusion. The slightest breeze of rumor sometimes changes the 
 entire opinions of people. Often, even, everything is done 
 without any apparent cause, in a manner entirely at variance 
 with the opinions that have been expressed, or that, indeed, are 
 really entertained ; so that sometimes the people marvels that 
 that has been done which has been done, as if it were not itself 
 that has done it. Nothing is more uncertain than the common 
 people nothing more obscure than men's wishes nothing 
 more treacherous than the whole nature of the comitia. Who 
 expected that Lucius Philippus, a man of the greatest abili 1 
 and industry, and popularity, and nobleness of birth, could be 
 beaten by a Marcus Herennius? Who dreamed of Quintus 
 Catulus, a man eminent for all the politer virtues, for wisdom 
 and for integrity, being beaten by Cnaeus Mallius? or Marcus 
 Scaurus, a man of the highest character, an illustrious citizen, 
 a most intrepid senator, by Quintus Maximus? Not only none 
 of all these things were expected to happen, but not even when 
 they had happened could anyone possibly make out why they 
 had happened. For as storms arise, often being heralded by 
 some well-known token in the heavens, but often also quite 
 unexpectedly from no imaginable reason, but from some unin- 
 telligible cause ; so in the popular tempests of the comitia you 
 may often understand by what signs a storm was first raised, 
 but often, too, the cause is so obscure, that the tempest appears 
 to have been raised by chance. 
 
 But yet, if an account of them must be given, two qualities 
 were particularly missed in the praetorship, the existence of 
 which in Murena now was of the greatest use to him in standing 
 for the consulship ; one was the expectation of a largess, which 
 had got abroad through some rumor, and owing to the zeal and 
 conversation of some of his competitors ; the other, that those
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 87 
 
 men who had been witnesses of all his liberality and virtue in 
 the province and in the discharge of his office as lieutenant, had 
 not yet left Rome. Fortune reserved each of these advantages 
 for him, to aid him in his application for the consulship. For 
 the army of Lucius Lucullus, which had come hither for his 
 triumph, was also present at the comitia in aid of Lucius Mu- 
 rena, and his praetorship afforded a most splendid proof of his 
 liberality, of which there was no mention when he was standing 
 for the praetorship. Do these things appear to you trifling sup- 
 ports and aids toward obtaining the consulship ? Is the good- 
 will of the soldiery a trifle ? who are both intrinsically powerful 
 through their own numbers, and also by their influence among 
 their connections, and who in declaring a consul have great 
 weight among the entire Roman people. Are the votes of the 
 army a trifle? No; for it is generals, and not interpreters of 
 words, who are elected at the consular comitia. Most influen- 
 tial, then, is such a speech as this : " He refreshed me when I 
 was wounded. He gave me a share of the plunder. He was 
 the general when we took that camp when we fought that bat- 
 tle. He never imposed harder work on the soldier than he 
 underwent himself. He was as fortunate as he is brave." 
 What weight do you not suppose this must have to gaining a 
 reputation and good-will among men? Indeed, if there is a 
 sort of superstition in the comitia, that up to this time the omen 
 to be drawn from the vote of the prerogative 7 tribe has always 
 proved true, what wonder is there that in such a meeting the 
 reputation of good fortune and such discourse as this has had 
 the greatest weight ? 
 
 But if you think these things trifling, though they are most 
 important ; and if you prefer the votes of these quiet citizens to 
 those of the soldiers ; at all events, you cannot think lightly of 
 the beauty of the games exhibited by this man, and the magnifi- 
 cence of his theatrical spectacles ; and these things were of great 
 use to him in this last contest. For why need I tell you that 
 the people and the great mass of ignorant men are exceedingly 
 taken with games ? It is not very strange. And that is a suffi- 
 
 T In the comitia centuriata the people tiva. The question of a tribus pneroga- 
 
 voted in their centuries; the order in tiva is a more disputed point; but on 
 
 which the centuries voted was decided this see Smith, Dictionary of Antiqui- 
 
 by lot, and that which gave its vote ties, p. 997, v, Tribus (Roman), 
 first was called the centuriata praeroga-
 
 88 CICERO 
 
 t rt-nsnn in this case; for the comitia arc tl ia of the 
 
 people and the multitude. If. then, the magnificence of games 
 is a pleasure to the people, it i> MM u..n.Kr that it was of great 
 service to Lucius Murena with the people. But if we ourscl 
 u ho, from our constant business, have but little time for amusc- 
 nu-nt. atul who are able to derive many pleasures of another sort 
 f n >m our business itself, are still pleased and interested by ex- 
 hibitions of games, why should you marvel at the ignorant mul- 
 titude being so? Lucius Otho, 8 a brave man, and an intimate 
 friend of mine, restored not only its dignity, but also its pleasure 
 to the equestrian order; and, therefore, this law which relates 
 to the games is the most acceptable of all laws, because by it that 
 most honorable order of men is restored not only to its honors, 
 but also to the enjoyment of its amusements. Games, then, 
 believe me, are a great delight to men, even to those who are 
 ashamed to own it, and not to those only who confess it, as I 
 found to be the case in my contest for the consulship ; for we 
 also had a theatrical representation as our competitor. But if 
 I, who, as aedile, had exhibited those shows of games, was yet 
 influenced by the games exhibited by Antonius, do you not 
 suppose that that very silver stage exhibited by this man, which 
 you laugh at, was a serious rival to you, who, as it happened, 
 had never given any games at all ? But, in truth, let us allow 
 that these advantages are all equal let exertions displayed in 
 the forum be allowed to be equal to military achievements let 
 the votes of the quiet citizens be granted to be of equal weight 
 with those of the soldiers let it be of equal assistance to a man 
 to have exhibited the most magnificent games, and never to 
 have exhibited any at all ; what then ? Do you think that in 
 the praetorship itself there was no difference between your lot 
 and that of my client Murena? 
 
 His department was that which we and all your friends de- 
 sired for you ; that, namely, of deciding the law ; a business in 
 which the importance of the business transacted procures great 
 credit for a man, and the administration of justice earns him 
 popularity; for which department a wise praetor, such as Mu- 
 rena was, avoids giving offence by impartiality in his decisions, 
 
 This refers to the law of Lucius of seats next to those of the senators 
 Roscius Otho (called Roscia Lex by were reserved for the knights. 
 Horace), by which the fourteen rowi
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 89 
 
 and conciliates good-will by his good temper in hearing the 
 cases brought before him. It is a very creditable employment, 
 and very well adapted to gain a man the consulship, being one 
 in which the praise of justice, integrity, and affability is crowned 
 at the last by the pleasure of the games which he exhibits. 
 What department was it that your lot gave you ? A disagree- 
 able and odious one. That of inquiry into peculation, preg- 
 nant on the one side with the tears and mourning apparel of the 
 accused, full on the other side of imprisonment and informers. 
 In that department of justice judges are forced to act against 
 their will, are retained by force contrary to their inclination. 
 The clerk is hated, the whole body is unpopular. The gratifi- 
 cations given by Sylla are found fault with. Many brave men 
 indeed, a considerable portion of the city is offended ; dam- 
 ages are assigned with severity. The man who is pleased with 
 the decision soon forgets it ; he who loses his cause is sure to re- 
 member it. Lastly, you would not go to your province. I 
 cannot find fault with that resolution in you, which, both as 
 praetor and consul, I have adopted in my own case. But still 
 Lucius Murena's conduct in his province procured him the 
 affection of many influential men, and a great accession of repu- 
 tation. On his road he held a levy of troops in Umbria. The 
 republic enabled him to display his liberality, which he did so 
 effectually as to engage in his interest many tribes which are 
 connected with the municipalities of that district. And in Gaul 
 itself, he contrived by his equity and diligence to enable many 
 of our citizens to recover debts which they had entirely de- 
 spaired of. In the mean time you were living at Rome, ready 
 to help your friends. I confess that but still recollect this, 
 that the inclinations of some friends are often cooled toward 
 those men by whom they see that provinces are despised. 
 
 And since I have proved, O judges, that in this contest for 
 the consulship Murena had the same claims of worth that Sul- 
 picious had, accompanied with a very different fortune as re- 
 spects the business of their respective provinces, I will say more 
 plainly in what particular my friend Servius was inferior ; and 
 I will say those things while you are now hearing me now that 
 the time of the elections is over which I have often said to him 
 by himself before the affair was settled. I often told you, O 
 Servius, that you did not know how to stand for the consul-
 
 90 CICERO 
 
 ship; and, in resprct t<> those- \ u-rs which I saw you 
 
 ducting and advocating in a brave and magnanimous spirit, 1 
 .id to you that you appeared to me to be a brave senator 
 rather than a wise candidate. For, in tin- first place, tl 
 and threats of accusations which you were in the habit of em- 
 ploying every day, are rather the part of a fearless man; but 
 they have an unfavorable effect on the opinion of the people as 
 regards a man's hopes of getting anything from them, and they 
 even disarm the zeal of his friends. Somehow or other, this is 
 always the case ; and it has been noticed, not in one or two in- 
 stances, but in many ; so that the moment a candidate is seen to 
 turn his attention to provocations, he is supposed to have given 
 up all hopes of his election. 
 
 What, then, am I saying? Do I mean that a man is not to 
 prosecute another for any injury which he may have received ? 
 Certainly I mean nothing of the sort. But the times for prose- 
 cuting and for standing for the consulship are different. I con- 
 sider that a candidate for any office, especially for the consul- 
 ship, ought to come down into the forum and into the Campus 
 Martius with great hopes, with great courage, and with great 
 resources. But I do not like a candidate to be looking about 
 for evidence conduct what is a sure forerunner of a repulse. 
 I do not like his being anxious to marshal witnesses rather than 
 voters. I do not fancy threats instead of caresses declama- 
 tion where there should be salutation ; especially as, according 
 to the new fashion now existing, all candidates visit the houses 
 of nearly all the citizens, and from their countenances men form 
 their conjectures as to what spirits and what probabilities of 
 success each candidate has. " Do you see how gloomy that man 
 looks ? how dejected ? He is out of spirits ; he thinks he has 
 no chance ; he has laid down his arms." Then a report gets 
 abroad, " Do you know that he is thinking of a prosecution ? 
 He is seeking for evidence against his competitors ; he is hunt- 
 ing for witnesses. I shall vote for someone else, as he knows 
 that he has no chance." The most intimate friends of such 
 candidates as that are dispirited and disarmed, they abandon 
 all anxiety in the matter they give up a business which is so 
 manifestly hopeless, or else they reserve all their labor and in- 
 fluence to countenance their friend in the trial and prosecution 
 which he is meditating.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 91 
 
 And, besides all this, the candidate himself cannot devote 
 his whole thoughts, and care, and attention, and diligence to 
 his own election ; for he has also in his mind the thoughts of his 
 prosecution a matter of no small importance, but in truth of 
 the very greatest. For it is a very serious business to be pre- 
 paring measures by which to deprive a man, especially one who 
 is not powerless or without resources, of his rights as a citizen ; 
 one who is defended both by himself and by his friend ay, and 
 perhaps also by strangers. For we all of us naturally hasten 
 to save anyone from danger ; and, if we are not notoriously ene- 
 mies to them, we tender, even to utter strangers, when men- 
 aced by danger affecting their station as citizens, the services 
 and zeal which are, strictly speaking, due only to the causes of 
 our friends. On which account I, who know by experience 
 the troubles attending on standing for office, on defending and 
 accusing prisoners, consider that the truth in respect of each 
 business stands thus that in standing for an office, eagerness 
 is the chief thing ; in defending a man, a regard for one's duty 
 is the principal thing shown ; in accusing a man, the labor is 
 greatest. And therefore I say decidedly that it is quite impos- 
 sible for the same man to do justice properly to the part of an 
 accuser and a candidate for the consulship. Few can play 
 either part well ; no one can do justice to both. Did you, when 
 you turned aside out of the course prescribed for you as a can- 
 didate, and when you had transferred your attention to the task 
 of prosecuting, think that you could fulfil all the requirements 
 of both ? You were greatly mistaken if you did ; for what day 
 was there after you once entered on that prosecution, that you 
 did not devote the whole of it to that occupation? 
 
 You demanded a law about bribery, though there was no 
 deficiency of laws on that matter, for there was the Calpurnian 
 law, framed with the greatest severity. Your inclinations and 
 your wish procured compliance with your demand; but the 
 whole of that law might perhaps have armed your accusation, 
 if you had had a guilty defendant to prosecute ; but it has been 
 of great injury to you as a candidate. A more severe punish- 
 ment for the common people was demanded by your voice. 
 The minds of the lower orders were agitated. The punishment 
 of an exile was demanded in the case of anyone of our order 
 being convicted. The Senate granted it to your request ; but
 
 9 a CICERO 
 
 still it was with no good-will that they established a more severe 
 condition for our common fortunes at your instigation. Pun- 
 i.>hment was imposed on anyone who made the excuse of ill- 
 ness. The inclinations of many men were alienated by : 
 step, as by it they were forced either to labor to the prejudice of 
 their health, or else through the distress of illness they were 
 compelled to abandon the other enjoyments of life. What, 
 then, are we to say of this? Who passed this law ? He who, 
 in so doing, acted in obedience to the Senate, and to your \\ 
 I le, in short, passed it to whom it was not of the slightest per- 
 sonal advantage. Do you think that those proposals which, 
 with my most willing consent, the senate rejected in a very full 
 house, were but a slight hinderance to you ? You demanded 
 the confusion of the votes of all the centuries, the extension of 
 the Manilian law," the equalization of all interest, and dignity, 
 and of all the suffrages. Honorable men, men of influence in 
 their neighborhoods and municipalities, were indignant that 
 such a man should contend for the abolition of all degrees in 
 dignity and popularity. You also wished to have judges se- 
 lected by the accuser at his pleasure, the effect of which would 
 have been, that the secret dislikes of the citizens, which are at 
 present confined to silent grumblings, would have broken out 
 in attacks on the fortunes of every eminent man. 
 
 All these measures were strengthening your hands as a pros- 
 ecutor, but weakening your chance as a candidate. And by 
 them all a violent blow was struck at your hopes of success, as 
 I warned you ; and many very severe things were said about it 
 by that most able and most eloquent man, Hortensius, owing 
 to which my task of speaking now is the more difficult ; as, after 
 both he had spoken before me, and also Marcus Crassus, a man 
 of the greatest dignity, and industry, and skill as an orator, I, 
 coming in at the end, was not to plead some part of the cause, 
 but to say with respect to the whole matter whatever I thought 
 advisable. Therefore I am forced to recur to the same ideas, 
 and, to a great extent, O judges, I have to contend with a feel- 
 ing of satiety on your part. 
 
 But still, O Servius, do you not see that you completely lay 
 
 This was not the Manilian law, in be counted without any regard to the 
 
 support of which Cicero spoke, to con- centuries in which they were given; but 
 
 fer the command in Asia on Pompeius; this law was repealed soon after its 
 
 but a law enacting that the votes should enactment.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 93 
 
 the axe to the root of your chance as a candidate, when you give 
 the Roman people cause for apprehension that Catiline might 
 be made consul through your neglect, and, I may almost say, 
 abandonment of your canvass, while you were intent on your 
 prosecution ? In truth, men saw that you were hunting about 
 for evidence ; that you yourself looked gloomy, your friends out 
 of spirits ; they noticed your visits, your inquiries after proofs, 
 your privy meetings with your witnesses, your conferences 
 with your junior counsel ; all which matters are certainly apt to 
 make the countenance of a candidate look darker. Meantime 
 they saw Catiline cheerful and joyous, accompanied by a band 
 of youths, with a body-guard of informers and assassins, elated 
 by the hopes which he placed in the soldiers, and, as he himself 
 said, by the promises of my colleagues ; surrounded, too, with 
 a numerous body of colonists from Arretium and Faesulae a 
 crowd made conspicuous by the presence of men of a very 
 different sort in it, men who had been ruined by the disasters 
 in the time of Sylla. His own countenance was full of fury; 
 his eyes glared with wickedness- ; his discourse breathed noth- 
 ing but. arrogance. You might have thought that he had as- 
 sured himself of the consulship, and that he had got it locked 
 up at home. Murena he despised. Sulpicius he considered 
 as his prosecutor, not as a competitor. He threatened him with 
 violence ; he threatened the republic. 
 
 And I need not remind you with what terror all good men 
 were seized in consequence of these occurrences, and how en- 
 tirely they would all have despaired of the republic if he had 
 been made consul. All this you yourselves recollect ; for you 
 remember, when the expressions of that wicked gladiator got 
 abroad, which he was said to have used at a meeting at his own 
 house, when he said that it was impossible for any faithful de- 
 fender of the miserable citizens to be found, except a man who 
 was himself miserable ; that men in an embarrassed and desper- 
 ate condition ought not to trust the promises of men of a flour- 
 ishing and fortunate estate ; and therefore that those who were 
 desirous to replace what they had spent, and to recover what 
 they had lost, had better consider what he himself owed, what he 
 possessed, and what he would dare to do ; that that man ought to 
 be very fearless and thoroughly overwhelmed by misfortune, 
 who was to be the leader and standard-bearer of unfortunate
 
 94 
 
 CICERO 
 
 men. Thru. tlu-ref< tln-M- tiling had been heard, 
 
 recollect that a resolution of the Sen.itt was passed, on my mo- 
 tion, that the eomitia should not be held tin- i: in order 
 that we might be able t< these matters in the Senate. 
 Accordingly, the next day, in a full meeting of the Senate, I ad- 
 dressed Catiline himself, and desirrd him, if he could, to give 
 some explanation of these reports which had been brought to 
 me. And he for he was not much addicted to disguising his 
 intentions did not attempt to clear himself, but openly avowed 
 and adopted the statements. For he said then, that there were 
 two bodies of the republic the one weak with a weak head, the 
 other powerful without a head and that, as this last had de- 
 served well of him, it should never want a head as long as he 
 lived. The whole Senate groaned at hearing itself addressed 
 in such language, and passed a resolution not severe enough 
 for such unworthy conduct ; for some of them were against too 
 rigorous a resolution, because they had no fear; and some, be- 
 cause they had a great deal. Then he rushed forth from the 
 Senate, triumphing and exulting a man who never ought to 
 have been allowed to leave it alive, especially as that very same 
 man in the same place had made answer to Cato, that gallant 
 man who was threatening him with a prosecution, a few days 
 before, that if any fire were kindled against his own fortunes, 
 he would put it out, not with water, but by the general ruin. 
 
 Being influenced then by these facts, and knowing that men 
 who were already associated in a conspiracy were being brought 
 down by Catiline into the Campus Martius, armed with swords, 
 I myself descended into the campus with a guard of brave men, 
 and with that broad and shining breastplate, not in order to 
 protect me (for I knew that Catiline would aim at my head and 
 neck, not at my chest or body), but in order that all good men 
 might observe it, and, when they saw their consul in fear and in 
 danger, might, as they did, throng together for my assistance 
 and protection. Therefore,, as, O Servius, men thought you 
 very remiss in prosecuting the contest, and saw Catiline in- 
 flamed with hope and desire, all who wished to repel that pest 
 from the republic immediately joined the party of Murena. 
 And in the consular eomitia the sudden inclination of men's 
 feelings is often of great weight, especially as, in this case, it 
 took the direction of a very gallant man, who was assisted by
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 95 
 
 many other concurrent aids in his application for the office. 
 He was born of a most honorable father and ancestors ; he had 
 passed his youth in a most modest manner ; he had discharged 
 the office of a lieutenant with great credit ; he had been praetor, 
 as such he had been approved as a judge ; he had been popular 
 through his liberality; he had been highly honored in his prov- 
 ince ; he had been very diligent in his canvass, and had carried 
 it on so as neither to give way if anyone threatened him, nor to 
 threaten anyone himself. Can we wonder that the sudden hope 
 which Catiline now entertained of obtaining the consulship was 
 a great assistance to this man ? 
 
 The third topic which I have got to speak about refers to the 
 charge of bribery ; which has been already entirely refuted by 
 those who have spoken before me, but which must still be dis- 
 cussed by me, since such is the will of Murena. And while 
 speaking on this point, I will reply to what Postumius, my own 
 intimate friend, a most accomplished man, has said about the 
 trials of agents, and about sums of money which he asserts have 
 been found ; and to what Servius Sulpicius, that able and virtu- 
 ous young man, has said about the centuries of the knights ; and 
 to what Marcus Cato, a man eminent in every kind of virtue, has 
 said about his own accusation, about the resolution of the Sen- 
 ate, and about the republic in general. 
 
 But first of all I will say a little, which has just occurred to 
 me, about the hard fortune of Lucius Murena. For I have 
 often before now, O judges, judging both by the miseries of 
 others, and by my own daily cares and labors, considered those 
 men fortunate, who, being at a distance from the pursuits of 
 ambition, have addicted themselves to ease and tranquillity of 
 life ; and now especially I am so affected by these serious and 
 unexpected dangers of Lucius Murena, that I am unable ade- 
 quately to express my pity for the common condition of all of 
 us, or for his particular state and fortune ; who while, after an 
 uninterrupted series of honors attained by his family and his 
 ancestors, he was endeavoring to mount one step higher in dig- 
 nity, has incurred the danger of losing both the honors be- 
 queathed to him by his forefathers, and those too which have 
 been acquired by himself, and now, on account of his pursuit 
 of this new honor, is brought into the danger of losing his an- 
 cient fortune also. And as there are weighty considerations,
 
 96 CICERO 
 
 O judges, so is this the most serious matter of all, that he has 
 
 men f.r aivu^rrs who. instead of proi ' use Inn. 
 
 account of their private enmity against him, have become 
 personal enemies, being carried away by their zeal fur their ac- 
 cusation. For, to say nothing of Servius Sulpicius, who, I am 
 aware, is influenced not by any wrong done by Lucius Murcna, 
 but only by the party spirit engendered by the contest for honor, 
 his father's friend. L'tueus I'ostumius, is his accuser, an <>M 
 
 ;hbor and intimate friend of his own, as he says him 
 who has mentioned many reasons for his intimacy with him. 
 while he has not IK en able to mention one for any enmit 
 him. Servius Sulpicius accuses him, the companion qf hi-* 
 son he, by whose genius all the friends of his father ought to 
 be only the more defended. Marcus Cato accuses him, who, 
 though he has never been in any matter whatever at variance 
 with Murena, yet was born in this city under such circum- 
 stances that his power and genius ought to be a protection to 
 many who were even entire strangers to him, and ought to be 
 the ruin of hardly any personal enemy. 
 
 In the first instance, then, I will reply to Cnaeus Postumius, 
 who, somehow or other, I know not how, while a candidate for 
 the praetorship, appears to me to be a straggler into the course 
 marked out for the candidates for the consulship, as the horse 
 of a vaulter might escape into the course marked out for the 
 chariot races. And if there is no fault whatever to be found 
 with his competitors, then he has made a great concession to 
 their worth in desisting from his canvass. But if any one of 
 them has committed bribery, then he must look for some friend 
 who will be more inclined to prosecute an injury done to an- 
 other than one done to himself. 
 
 I come now to Marcus Cato, who is the mainstay and prop 
 of the whole prosecution ; who is, however, so zealous and ve- 
 hement a prosecutor, that I am much more afraid of the weight 
 of his name, than of his accusation. And with respect to tin's 
 accuser, O judges, first of all I will entreat you not to let Cato's 
 dignity, nor your expectation of his tribuneship, nor the high 
 reputation and virtue of his whole life, be any injury to Lucius 
 Murena. Let not all the honors of Marcus Cato, which he has 
 acquired in order to be able to assist many men, be an injury to 
 my client alone. Publius Africanus had been twice consul,
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 97 
 
 and had destroyed those two terrors of this empire, Carthage 
 and Numantia, when he prosecuted Lucius Cotta. He was a 
 man of the most splendid eloquence, of the greatest good faith, 
 of the purest integrity ; his authority was as great almost as that 
 of the Roman people itself, in that empire which had been 
 mainly saved by his means. I have often heard old men say 
 that this very extraordinarily high character of the accuser was 
 of the greatest service to Lucius Cotta. Those wise men who 
 then were the judges in that cause, did not like anyone to be 
 defeated in any trial, if he was to appear overwhelmed only by 
 the excessive influence of his adversary. What more shall I 
 say? Did not the Roman people deliver Sergius Galba (the 
 fact is preserved in the recollection of everyone) from your 
 grandfather, that most intrepid and prosperous man, Marcus 
 Cato, who was zealously seeking his ruin ? At all times in this 
 city the whole people, and also the judges, wise men, looking 
 far into futurity, have resisted the overweening power of prose- 
 cutors. I do not like an accuser bringing his personal power, 
 or any predominant influence, or his own eminent authority, or 
 his own excessive popularity, into a court of justice. Let all 
 these things have weight to insure the safety of the innocent, to 
 aid the weak, to succor the unfortunate. But in a case where 
 the danger and ruin of citizens may ensue, let them be rejected. 
 For if perchance anyone should say that Cato would not have 
 come forward as an accuser if he had not previously made up his 
 mind about the justice of the cause, he will then be laying down 
 a most unjust law, O judges, and establishing a miserable con- 
 dition for men in their danger, if he thinks that the opinion of 
 an accuser is to have against a defendant the weight of a previ- 
 ous investigation legally conducted. 
 
 I, O Cato, do not venture to find fault with your intentions, 
 by reason of my extraordinarily high opinion of your virtue ; 
 but in some particulars I may perhaps be able slightly to amend 
 and reform them. " You are not very wrong," said an aged 
 tutor to a very brave man ; " but if you are wrong, I can set you 
 right." But I can say with the greatest truth that you never 
 do wrong, and that your conduct is never such in any point as 
 to^need correction, but only such as occasionally to require 
 being guided a little. For nature has herself formed you for 
 honesty, and gravity, and moderation, and magnanimity, and
 
 98 CICERO 
 
 justice ; and for all the virtues required to make a great and 
 noble man. To all these qualities are added an educ;r 
 moderate, nor mild, but, as it seems to me, a little harsh and 
 severe, more so than either truth or nature would permit, 
 since we are not to address this speed) either to an ignorant 
 multitude, or to any assembly of rnstu>. 1 will speak a little 
 boldly about the pursuits of educated men, which are both well 
 known and agreeable to you, O judges, and to me. Learn, 
 then, O judges, that all these good qualities, divine and splendid 
 as they are, which we behold in Marcus Cato, are his own pe- 
 culiar attributes. The qualities which we sometimes wish for 
 in him, are not all those which are implanted in a man by nat 
 but some of them are such as are derived from education. For 
 there was once a man of the greatest genius, whose name was 
 Zeno, the imitators of whose example are called Stoics. ! 
 opinions and precepts are of this sort : that a wise man is never 
 influenced by interest ; never pardons any man's fault ; that no 
 one is merciful except a fool and a trifler ; that it is not the part of 
 a man to be moved or pacified by entreaties ; that wise men, let 
 them be ever so deformed, are the only beautiful men ; if they 
 be ever such beggars, they are the only rich men ; if they be in 
 slavery, they are kings. And as for all of us who are not wise 
 men, they call us runaway slaves, exiles, enemies, lunatics. 
 They say that all offences are equal ; that every sin is an unpar- 
 donable crime ; and that he does not commit a less crime who 
 kills a cock, if there was no need to do so, than the man who 
 strangles his father. They say that a wise man never feels un- 
 certain on any point, never repents of anything, is never de- 
 ceived in anything, and never alters his opinion. 
 
 All these opinions that most acute man, Marcus Cato, having 
 been induced by learned advocates of them, has embraced ; and 
 that, not for the sake of arguing about them, as is the case with 
 most men, but of living by them. Do the publicans ask for 
 anything? "Take care that their influence has no weight." 
 Do any suppliants, miserable and unhappy men, come to us? 
 " You will be a wicked and infamous man if you do anything 
 from being influenced by mercy." Does anyone confess that 
 he has done wrong, and beg pardon for his wrongdoing? " To 
 pardon is a crime of the deepest dye." " But it is a trifling 
 offence." " All offences are equal." You say something.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 99 
 
 " That is a fixed and unalterable principle." " You are influ- 
 enced not by the facts, but by your opinion." " A wise man 
 never forms mere opinions." " You have made a mistake in 
 some point." He thinks that you are abusing him. And in 
 accordance with these principles of his are the following asser- 
 tions : " I said in the Senate, that I would prosecute one of the 
 candidates for the consulship." " You said that when you 
 were angry." " A wise man never is angry." " But you said 
 it for some temporary purpose." " It is the act," says he, " of 
 a worthless man to deceive by a lie ; it is a disgraceful act to alter 
 one's opinion ; to be moved by entreaties is wickedness ; to pity 
 anyone is an enormity." But our philosophers (for I confess, 
 O Cato, that I, too, in my youth, distrusting my own abilities, 
 sought assistance from learning), our philosophers, I say, men 
 of the school of Plato and Aristotle, men of soberness and mod- 
 eration, say that private interest does sometimes have weight 
 even with a wise man. They say that it does become a virtuous 
 man to feel pity ; that there are different gradations of offences, 
 and different degrees of punishment appropriate to each ; that 
 a man with every proper regard for firmness may pardon 
 offences ; that even the wise man himself has sometimes nothing 
 more than opinion to go upon, without absolute certainty ; that 
 he is sometimes angry ; that he is sometimes influenced and 
 pacified by entreaty ; that he sometimes does change an opinion 
 which he may have expressed, when it is better to do so ; that 
 he sometimes abandons his previous opinions altogether; and 
 that all his virtues are tempered by a certain moderation. 
 
 If any chance, O Cato, had conducted, endowed with your 
 existing natural disposition, to those tutors, you would not in- 
 deed have been a better man than you are, nor a braver one, 
 nor more temperate, nor more just than you are (for that is not 
 possible), but you would have been a little more inclined to 
 lenity ; you would not, when you were not induced by any en- 
 mity, or provoked by any personal injury, accuse a most virtu- 
 ous man, a man of the highest rank and the greatest integrity ; 
 you would consider that as fortune had intrusted the guardian- 
 ship of the same year to you 10 and to Murena, that you were 
 connected with him by some certain political union; and the 
 severe things which you have said in the Senate you would 
 
 10 Cato was tribune-elect.
 
 ioo CICERO 
 
 either not have said, or you would have guarded against their 
 being applied to him, or you would have interpreted them in 
 the mildest sense. And even you yourself (at lea>t that is my 
 opinion and expectation < 1 as you are at present by the 
 
 impetuosity of your disposition, and elated as you are both by 
 the vigor of your natural character and by your confidence in 
 your own ability, and intlamcd as you are by your recent study 
 of all these precepts, will find practice modify them, and time 
 and increasing years soften and humanize you. In truth, those 
 tutors and teachers of virtue, whom you think so much of, ap- 
 pear to me themselves to have carried their definitions of duties 
 somewhat further than is agreeable to nature ; and it would be 
 better if, when \ve lia<l in theory pushed our principles to 
 tremities, yet in practice we stopped at what was expedient. 
 " Forgive nothing." Say rather, forgive some things, but not 
 everything. " Do nothing for the sake of private influence." 
 Certainly resist private influence when virtue and good faith 
 require you to do so. " Do not be moved by pity." Certainly 
 if it is to extinguish all impartiality ; nevertheless, there is some 
 credit due to humanity. " Abide by your own opinion." Very 
 true, unless some other sounder opinion convinces you. That 
 great Scipio was a man of this sort, who had no objection to do 
 the same thing that you do ; to keep a most learned man, a man 
 of almost divine wisdom, in his house ; by whose conversation 
 and precepts, although they were the very same that you are so 
 fond of, he was nevertheless not made more severe, but (as 1 
 have heard said by old men) he was rendered most merciful. 
 win ) was more mild in his manners than Caius Laelius ? who 
 was more agreeable than he? (devoted to the same studies as 
 you) ; who was more virtuous or more wise than he ? I might 
 say the same of Lucius Philus, and of Caius Callus ; but I will 
 conduct you now into your own house. Do you think that 
 there was any man more courteous, more agreeable; anyone 
 whose conduct was more completely regulated by every princi- 
 ple of virtue and politeness, than Cato, your great-grandfather? 
 And when you were speaking with truth and dignity of his 
 virtue, you said that you had a domestic example to imitate. 
 That indeed is an example set up for your imitation in your own 
 family ; and the similarity of nature ought rather to influence 
 you who are descended from him than any one of us ; but still
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 101 
 
 that example is as much an object for my imitation as for yours. 
 But if you were to add his courtesy and affability to your own 
 wisdom and impartiality, I will not say that those qualities 
 which are now most excellent will be made intrinsically better, 
 but they will certainly be more agreeably seasoned. 
 
 Wherefore, to return to the subject which I began to speak 
 of, take away the name of Cato out of the cause ; remove and 
 leave out of the question all mention of authority, which in 
 courts of justice ought either to have no influence at all, or only 
 influence to contribute to someone's safety; and discuss with 
 me the charges themselves. What do you accuse him of, Cato ? 
 What action of his is it that you bring before the court ? What 
 is your charge? Do you accuse him of bribery? I do not 
 defend bribery. You blame me because you say I am defend- 
 ing the very conduct which I brought in a law to punish. I 
 punished bribery, not innocence. And any real case of bribery 
 I will join you in prosecuting if you please. You have said 
 that a resolution of the Senate was passed, on my motion, " that 
 if any men who had been bribed had gone to meet the candi- 
 dates, if any hired men followed them, if places were given men 
 to see the shows of gladiators according to their tribes, and 
 also, if dinners were given to the common people, that appeared 
 to be a violation of the Calpurnian law." Therefore the Senate 
 decides that these things were done in violation of the Calpur- 
 nian law if they were done at all ; it decides what there is not the 
 least occasion for, out of complaisance for the candidates. For 
 there is a great question whether such things have been done 
 or not. That, if they have been done, they were done in viola- 
 tion of the law, no one can doubt. It is, therefore, ridiculous 
 to leave that uncertain which was doubtful, but to give a positive 
 decision on that point which can be doubtful to no one. And 
 that decree is passed at the request of all the candidates ; in order 
 that it might be quite impossible to make out from the resolu- 
 tion of the Senate whose interests were consulted, or against 
 whose interests it was passed. Prove, then, that these actions 
 have been done by Lucius Murena ; and then I will grant to you 
 that they have been done in violation of the law. 
 
 " Many men went to meet him as he was departing from his 
 province, when he was a candidate for the consulship." That 
 is a very usual thing to do. Who is there whom people do not
 
 102 CICERO 
 
 go out to meet on his return home? " What a number of peo- 
 ple tin y wore." In the first place, if I am not able to give you 
 >-ount of it. what v. it ii many im-n did go out 
 
 to meet such a man on hi> arrival, being a candidate for the i 
 sul.-hip ? If they had not done so, it would have appeared much 
 more strange. \Yhat then ? Suppose I were even to add, what 
 there w>ul<l be nothing unusual in, that many had been 
 asked to go? \Vonld that be matter of accusation, or at all 
 strange, that, in a city in which we, when we are asked, often 
 come to escort the sons of even the lowest rank, almost before 
 the night is over, from the farthest part of the city, men should 
 not mind going at the third hour into the Campus Martius, es- 
 pecially when they have been invited in the name of such a man 
 as Murena? What then? What if all the societies had come 
 to meet him, of which bodies many are sitting here as judi; 
 What if many men of our own most honorable order had come? 
 What then? What if the whole of that most officious body of 
 candidates, which will not suffer any man to enter the city ex- 
 cept in an honorable manner, had come, or even our prosec 1 
 himself if Postumius had come to meet him with a numerous 
 crowd of his dependents? What is there strange in such a 
 multitude? I say nothing of his clients, his neighbors, his 
 tribesmen, or the whole army of Lticullus, which, just at that 
 time, had come to Rome to his triumph ; I say this, that that 
 crowd, paying that gratuitous mark of respect, was never back- 
 ward in paying respect not only to the merit of anyone, but 
 even to his wishes. 
 
 " I'm a great many people followed him." Prove that it 
 was for hire, and I will admit that that was a crime; but if tin- 
 fact of hire be absent, what is there that you object to? 
 
 " What need is there," says he, "of an escort?" Are you 
 asking me what is the need of that which we have always availed 
 ourselves of? Men of the lower orders have only one oppor- 
 tunity of deserving kindness at the hands of our order, or of 
 requiting services namely, this one attention of escorting us 
 when we are candidates for offices. For it is neither possible, 
 nor ought we or the Roman knights to require them to escort 
 the candidates to whom they are attached for whole days to- 
 gether: but if our house is frequented by them, if we are some- 
 times escorted to the forum, if we are honored by their attend-
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 103 
 
 ance for the distance of one piazza, we then appear to be treated 
 with all due observance and respect; and those are the atten- 
 tions of our poorer friends who are not hindered by business, 
 of whom numbers are not wont to desert virtuous and benefi- 
 cent men. Do not, then, O Cato, deprive the lower class of 
 men of this power of showing their dutiful feelings ; allow these 
 men, who hope for everything from us, to have something also 
 themselves, which they may be able to give us. If they have 
 nothing beyond their own vote, that is but little ; since they have 
 no interest which they can exert in the votes of others. They 
 themselves, as they are accustomed to say, cannot plead for us, 
 cannot go bail for us, cannot invite us to their houses ; but they 
 ask all these things of us, and do not think that they can requite 
 the services which they receive from us by anything but by their 
 attentions of this sort. Therefore they resisted the Fabian law, 
 which regulated the number of an escort, and the resolution of 
 the Senate, which was passed in the consulship of Lucius Caesar. 
 For there is no punishment which can prevent the regard 
 shown by the poorer classes for this description of attention. 
 " But spectacles were exhibited to the people by their tribes, 
 and crowds of the common people were invited to dinner." 
 Although this, O judges, was not done by Murena at all, but 
 done in accordance with all usage and precedent by his friends, 
 still, being reminded of the fact, I recollect how many votes 
 these investigations held in the Senate have lost us, O Servius. 
 For what time was there ever, either within our own recollec- 
 tion or that of our fathers, in which this, whether you call it 
 ambition or liberality, did not exist, to the extent of giving a 
 place in the circus and in the forum to one's friends, and to the 
 men of one's own tribe? The men of the poorer classes first, 
 who had not yet obtained this from those of their own tribe. 
 
 It is known that the prefect of the carpenters 11 once gave a 
 place to the men of his own tribe. What will they decide with 
 respect to the eminent men who have erected regular stalls in 
 the circus, for the sake of their own tribesmen? All these 
 charges of escort, of spectacles, of dinners, are brought for- 
 
 11 Besides the classes into which the penters, who were attached to the cen- 
 
 centuries were divided, and the four turies of the first class; the cornicines, 
 
 supernumerary centuries of ascensi, ve- or horn-blowers, and liticines, or trum- 
 
 lati, proletarii, and capite censi, there peters, who were reckoned with the 
 
 were three centuries classed according fourth class, 
 to their occupation. The fabri, or car-
 
 104 
 
 CICERO 
 
 ward by the multitude, O Scrvius, as proofs of your overscru- 
 pulous diligence; but still as to those counts of the indictment, 
 Mir <.-fended by the authority of the Senate. And why 
 
 not? Does the Senate think it a crime to go to meet a man? 
 No; but it does, if it be done for a bribe. Prove that it was so. 
 Does the Senate think it a crime for many men to follow him? 
 No; but it does, if they were hired. Prove it. Or to give a 
 man a place to see the spectacles? or to ask a man to dinner? 
 Not by any means; but to give everyone a seat, to ask every- 
 one one meets to dinner. " What is evcryoi Why, the 
 whole body of citizens. If, then, Lucius Natta, a young man of 
 the highest rank, as to whom we see already of what sort of dis- 
 position he is, and what sort of man he is likely to turn out, 
 wished to be popular among the centuries of the knights, both 
 because of his natural connection with them, and because of his 
 intentions as to the future, that will not be a crime in, or matter 
 of accusation against his step-father; nor, if a vestal virgin, my 
 client's near relation, gave up her place to see the spectacle in 
 his favor, was that any other than a pious action, nor is he liable 
 to any charge on that ground. All these are the kind offices of 
 intimate friends, the services done to the poorer classes, the 
 regular privileges of candidates. 
 
 But I must change my tone; for Cato argues with me on rigid 
 and stoic principles. He says that it is not true that good-will 
 is conciliated by food. He says that men's judgments, in the 
 important business of electing to magistracies, ought not to be 
 corrupted by pleasures. Therefore, if anyone, to promote his 
 canvass, invites another to supper, he must be condemned. 
 " Shall you," says he, "seek to obtain supreme power, supreme 
 authority, and the helm of the republic, by encouraging men's 
 sensual appetites, by soothing their minds, by tendering luxu- 
 ries to them? Are you asking employment as a pimp from a 
 band of luxurious youths, or the sovereignty of the world from 
 the Roman people?" An extraordinary sort of speech! but 
 our usages, our way of living, our manners, and the constitution 
 itself, rejects it. For the Lacedaemonians, the original authors 
 of that way of living and of that sort of language, men who lie at 
 their daily meals on hard oak benches, and the Cretans, of whom 
 no one ever lies down to eat at all, have neither of them pre- 
 served their political constitutions or their power better than
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 105 
 
 the Romans, who set apart times for pleasure as well as times 
 for labor; for one of those nations was destroyed by a single 
 invasion of our army, the other only preserves its discipline and 
 its laws by means of the protection afforded to it by our su- 
 premacy. 
 
 Do not, then, O Cato, blame with too great severity of lan- 
 guage the principles of our ancestors, which facts, and the length 
 of time that our power has flourished under them, justify. 
 There was, in the time of our ancestors, a learned man of the 
 same sect, an honorable citizen, and one of high rank, Quintus 
 Tubero. He, when Quintus Maximus was giving a feast to the 
 Roman people, in the name of his uncle Africanus, was asked by 
 Maximus to prepare a couch for the banquet, as Tubero was a 
 son of the sister of the same Africanus. And he, a most learned 
 man and a Stoic, covered for that occasion some couches made 
 in the Carthaginian fashion, with skins of kids, and exhibited 
 some Samian 12 vessels, as if Diogenes the Cynic had been dead, 
 and not as if he were paying respect to the obsequies of that 
 godlike Africanus; a man with respect to whom Maximus, 
 when he was pronouncing his funeral panegyric on the day of 
 his death, expressed his gratitude to the immortal gods for hav- 
 ing caused that man to be born in this republic above all others, 
 for that it was quite inevitable that the sovereignty of the world 
 must belong to that state of which he was a citizen. At the cele- 
 bration of the obsequies of such a man the Roman people was 
 very indignant at the perverse wisdom of Tubero, and there- 
 fore he, a most upright man, a most virtuous citizen, though he 
 was the grandson of Lucius Paullus, the sister's son, as I have 
 said before, of Publius Africanus, lost the praetorship by his kid- 
 skins. 
 
 The Roman people disapproves of private luxury, but ad- 
 mires public magnificence. It does not love profuse banquets, 
 still less does it love sordid and uncivilized behavior. It makes a 
 proper distinction between different duties and different sea- 
 sons, and allows of vicissitudes of labor and pleasure. For as 
 to what you say, that it is not right for men's minds to be in- 
 fluenced, in appointing magistrates, by any other consideration 
 than that of the worth of the candidates, this principle even you 
 
 M Samian vessels were made of an inferior earthen-ware; Carthaginian couches 
 were very low and narrow.
 
 io6 CICERO 
 
 yourself you, a man of the greatest worth do not in every 
 case adhere to. For why do you ask anyone to take pain> 
 you, to assist you? You ask me to make you governor over 
 myself, to intrust myself to you. What is the meaning of this? 
 Ought I to be asked this by you, or should not you rather be 
 asked by me to undertake labor and danger for the sake of my 
 safety? Nay in< >rc, why is it that you have a nomenclator 1 * with 
 you? for in so doing, you arc practicing a trick and a dt 
 For if it be an honorable thing for your fellow-citizens to be ad- 
 dressed by name by you, it is a shameful thing for them to be 
 better known to your servant than to yourself. If, though you 
 know them yourself, it seems better to use a prompter, why do 
 you sometimes address them before he has whispered their 
 names in your ear? Why, again, when he has reminded you of 
 them, do you salute them as if you knew them yourself? And 
 why, after you are once elected, are you more careless about 
 saluting them at all? If you regulate all these things by the 
 usages of the city, it is all right; but if you choose to weigh them 
 by the precepts of your sect, they will be found to be entirely 
 wrong. Those enjoyments, then, of games, and gladiators, and 
 banquets, all which our ancestors desired, are not to be taken 
 away from the Roman people, nor ought candidates to be for- 
 bidden the exercise of that kindness which is liberality rather 
 than bribery. 
 
 Oh, but it is the interest of the republic that has induced you 
 to become a prosecutor. I do believe, O Cato, that you have 
 come forward under the influence of those feelings and of that 
 opinion. But you err out of ignorance. That which I am 
 doing, O judges, I am doing out of regard to my friendship for 
 Lucius Murena and to his own worth, and I also do assert and 
 call you all to witness that I am doing it for the sake of peace, of 
 tranquillity, of concord, of liberty, of safety ay, even for the 
 sake of the lives of us all. Listen, O judges, listen to the con- 
 sul I will not speak with undue arrogance, I will only say, who 
 devotes all his thoughts day and night to the republic. Lucius 
 Catiline did not despise and scorn the republic to such a degree 
 as to think that with the forces which he took away with him 
 he could subdue this city. The contagion of that wickedness 
 
 u The nomenclator was a slave who one he met. so that he might be able to 
 accompanied the candidate in going his accost them as if they were personally 
 rounds, and told him the name of every- known to himself.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 107 
 
 spreads more widely than anyone believes: more men are im- 
 plicated in it than people are aware of. It is within the city 
 the Trojan horse, I say, is within the city; but you shall never 
 be surprised sleeping by that while I am consul. You ask of 
 me why I am afraid of Catiline? I am not; and I have taken 
 care that no one should have any reason to be afraid of him ; but 
 I do say that those soldiers of his, whom I see present here, are 
 objects of fear: nor is the army which Lucius Catiline now has 
 with him as formidable as those men are who are said to have 
 deserted that army; for they have not deserted it, but they have 
 been left by him as spies, as men placed in ambuscade, to 
 threaten our lives and liberties. Those men are very anxious 
 that an upright consul and an able general, a man connected 
 both by nature and by fortune with the safety of the republic, 
 should by your decision be removed from the office of protecting 
 the city, from the guardianship of the state. Their swords and 
 their audacity I have procured the rejection of in the campus, I 
 have disarmed them in the forum, I have often checked them at 
 my own house; but if you now give them up one of the consuls, 
 they will have gained much more by your votes than by their 
 own swords. That which I, in spite of the resistance of many, 
 have managed and carried through, namely, that on the first of 
 January there should be two consuls in the republic, is of great 
 consequence, O judges. Never believe that by consuls of mod- 
 erate abilities, or by the ordinary modes of proceeding 
 
 It is not some unjust law, some mischievous bribery, or some 
 improprieties in the republic that have just been heard of, that 
 are the real objects for your inquiry now. Plans have been 
 formed in this state, O judges, for destroying the city, for mas- 
 sacring the citizens, for extinguishing the Roman name. They 
 are citizens citizens, I say (if indeed it is lawful to call them by 
 this name), who are forming and have formed these plans re- 
 specting their own country. Every day I am counteracting 
 their designs, disarming their audacity, resisting their wicked- 
 ness. But I warn you, O judges; my consulship is now just at 
 an end. Do not refuse me a successor in my diligence; do not 
 refuse me him, to whom I am anxious to deliver over the repub- 
 lic in a sound condition, that he may defend it from these great 
 dangers.
 
 io8 CICERO 
 
 And do you not sec, O judges, what other evil there is added 
 to these evils? I am addressing you you, O Cato. Do you 
 not foresee a storm in your year of office? for in yesterday's as- 
 sembly there thundered out the mischievous voice of a tribune 
 elect, 14 one of your own colleagues ; against whom your < 
 mind took many precautions, and so too did all good men, when 
 they invited you to stand for the tribuncship. Everything 
 which has been plotted for the last three years, from the time 
 when you know that the design of massacring the Senate was 
 first formed by Lucius Catiline and by Cnaeus Piso, is now 
 breaking out on these days, in these months, at this time. What 
 place is there, O judges, what time, what day, what night is 
 there, that I have not been delivered and escaped from their 
 plots and attacks, not only by my own prudence, but much more 
 by the providence of the gods? It was not that they wished to 
 slay me as an individual, but that they wished to get rid of a 
 vigilant consul, and to remove him from the guardianship of the 
 republic; and they would be just as glad, O Cato, to remove you 
 too, if they could by any means contrive to do so; and believe 
 me, that is what they are wishing and planning to do. They see 
 how much courage, how much ability, how much authority, 
 how much protection for the republic there is in you ; but they 
 think that, when they have once seen the power of the tribunes 
 stripped of the support which it derives from the authority and 
 assistance of the consuls, they will then find it easier to crush 
 you when you are deprived of your arms and vigor. For they 
 have no fear of another consul being elected in the place of this 
 one; they see that that will depend upon your colleagues; they 
 hope that Silanus, an illustrious man, will be exposed to their 
 attacks without any colleague; and that so will you without any 
 consul; and that so will the republic without any protector. 
 When such are our circumstances, and such our perils, it be- 
 comes you, O Marcus Cato, who have been born, not for my 
 good, nor for your own good, but for that of your country, to 
 perceive what are their real objects; to retain as your assistant, 
 and defender, and partner in the republic, a consul who has no 
 private desires to gratify, a consul (as this season particularly re- 
 quires) formed by fortune to court ease, but by knowledge to 
 
 14 He means Quintus Metellus Nepos, hi* making an address to the people on 
 the same man who afterward prevented his resigning his consulship.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA 109 
 
 carry on war, and by courage and practice to discharge in a 
 proper manner whatever business you can impose upon him. 
 
 Although the whole power of providing for this rests with 
 you, O judges you in this cause, are the masters and directors 
 of the whole republic if Lucius Catiline, with his council of in- 
 famous men whom he took out with him, could give his decision 
 in this case, he would condemn Lucius Murena; if he could put 
 him to death, he would. For his plans require the republic to 
 be deprived of every sort of aid; they require the number of 
 generals who may be opposed to his frenzy to be diminished; 
 they require that greater power should be given to the tribunes 
 of the people, when they have driven away their adversary, to 
 raise sedition and discord. Will, then, thoroughly honorable 
 and wise men, chosen out of the most dignified orders of the 
 state, give the same decision that most profligate gladiator, the 
 enemy of the republic, would give? Believe me, O judges, in 
 this case you are deciding not only about the safety of Lucius 
 Murena, but also on your own. We are in a situation of ex- 
 treme danger; there is no means now of repairing the losses 
 which we have already sustained, or of recovering the ground 
 which we have lost. We must take care not only not to diminish 
 the resources which we still have, but to provide ourselves with 
 additional ones if that be possible. For the enemy is not on the 
 Anio, which in the time of the Punic War appeared a most ter- 
 rible thing, but he is in the city, in the forum (O ye immortal 
 gods! this connot be said without a groan) ; there are even some 
 enemies in this sacred temple of the republic, in the very senate- 
 house itself. May the gods grant that my colleague, that most 
 gallant man, may be able in arms to overtake and crush this 
 impious piratical war of Catiline's. I, in the garb of peace, with 
 you and all virtuous men for my assistants, will endeavor by my 
 prudence to divide and destroy the dangers which the republic 
 is pregnant with and about to bring forth. But still, what will 
 be the consequences if these things slip through our hands and 
 remain in vigor till the ensuing year? There will be but one 
 consul ; and he will have sufficient occupation, not in conduct- 
 ing a war, but in managing the election of a colleague. There 
 are some prepared to hinder him. 
 
 That intolerable pest will break forth wherever it can find 
 room; and even now it is threatening the Roman people; soon
 
 ,,o CICERO 
 
 it will descend upon the suburban districts; frenzy will range at 
 ong the camp, fear in the senate-house, c< in 
 
 tin iormn. an army in the Campus Martius, and devastation all 
 over tlu- country. In every habitation, and in every place, we 
 shall live in fear of fire and sword. And yet all these c\ 
 which have been so long making ready against us, if the republic 
 is fortified by its natural means of protection, will be easily put 
 down by the counsels of the magistrates and the diligence of 
 private individuals. 
 
 And as this is the case, O judges, in the first place for the sake 
 of the republic, than which nothing ought to be of more impor- 
 tance in the eyes of everyone, I do warn you, as I am entitled to 
 do by my extreme diligence in the cause of the republic, which 
 is well known to all of you I do exhort you, as my consular 
 authority gives me a right to do I do entreat you, as the magni- 
 tude of the danger justifies me in doing, to provide for the tran- 
 quillity, for the peace, for the safety, for the lives of yourselves 
 and of all the rest of your fellow-citizens. In the next place I 
 do appeal to your good faith, O judges (whether you may think 
 that I do so in the spirit of an advocate or a friend signifies but 
 little), and beg of you not to overwhelm the recent exaltation of 
 Lucius Murcna, an unfortunate man, of one oppressed both by 
 bodily disease and by vexation of mind, by a fresh cause for 
 mourning. He has been lately distinguished by the greatest 
 kindness of the Roman people, and has seemed fortunate in 
 being the first man to bring the honors of the consulship into an 
 old family, and a most ancient municipality. Now, in a mourn- 
 ing and unbecoming garb, debilitated by sickness, worn out 
 with tears and grief, he is a suppliant to you, O judges, invoking 
 your good faith, imploring your pity, fixing all his hopes on 
 your power and your assistance. Do not, in the name of the 
 immortal gods, O judges, deprive him not only of that office 
 which he thought conferred additional honor on him, and at the 
 same time of all the honors which he had gained before, and of 
 all his dignity and fortune. And, O judges, what Lucius Mure- 
 na is begging and entreating of you is no more than this ; that if 
 he has done no injury unjustly to anyone, if he has offended no 
 man's ears or inclination, if he has never (to say the least) given 
 anyone reason to hate him either at home or when engaged in 
 war, he may in that case find among you moderation in judging,
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS MURENA m 
 
 and a refuge for men in dejection, and assistance for modest 
 merit. The deprivation of the consulship is a measure calcu- 
 lated to excite great feelings of pity, O judges. For with the 
 consulship everything else is taken away too. And at such 
 times as these the consulship itself is hardly a thing to envy a 
 man. For it is exposed to the harangues of seditious men, to 
 the plots of conspirators, to the attacks of Catiline. It is op- 
 posed single-handed to every danger, and to every sort of un- 
 popularity. So that, O judges, I do not see what there is in 
 this beautiful consulship which need be grudged to Murena, or 
 to any other man among us. But those things in it which are 
 calculated to make a man an object of pity, are visible to my 
 eyes, and you too can clearly see and comprehend them. 
 
 If (may Jupiter avert the omen) you condemn this man by 
 your decision, where is the unhappy man to turn? Home? 
 What, that he may see that image of that most illustrious man 
 his father, which a few days ago he beheld crowned with laurel 
 when men were congratulating him on his election, now in 
 mourning and lamentation at his disgrace? Or to his mother, 
 who, wretched woman, having lately embraced her son as con- 
 sul, is now in all the torments of anxiety, lest she should but a 
 short time afterward behold that same son stripped of all his 
 dignity? But why do I speak of his home or of his mother, 
 when the new punishment of the law deprives him of home, and 
 parent, and of the intercourse with and sight of all his relations ? 
 Shall the wretched man then go into banishment? Whither 
 shall he go ? Shall he go to the east, where he was for many 
 years lieutenant, where he commanded armies, and performed 
 many great exploits ? But it is a most painful thing to return 
 to a place in disgrace, from which you have departed in honor. 
 Shall he hide himself in the opposite regions of the earth, so 
 as to let^ Transalpine Gaul see the same man grieving and 
 mourning, whom it lately saw with the greatest joy, exercising 
 the highest authority? In that same province, moreover, with 
 what feelings will he behold Caius Murena, his own brother? 
 What will be the grief of the one, what will be the agony of the 
 other? What will be the lamentations of both? How great 
 will the vicissitudes of fortune appear, and what a change will 
 there be in everyone's conversation, when in the very places in 
 which a few days before messengers and letters had repeated,
 
 us CICERO 
 
 with every indication of joy, that Murena had IK-CD made o>: 
 in the very places fn>m which his own frit-mis and his lui 
 
 connections Mocked to Rome purpose of congratu- 
 
 lating him, he himself arrive . >n a sudden a^ the mcsscnge; 
 his own misfortune! And if these things seem bitter, and i 
 erable, and grievous if they are most foreign to your general 
 clemency and merciful disposition, O judges, then maintain the 
 kindness done to him by the Roman people ; restore the consul 
 to the republic ; grant this to his own modesty, grant it to his 
 dead father, grant it to his race and family, grant it als< 
 Lanuvium, that most honorable municipality, the whole popu- 
 lation of which you have seen watching this cause with t 
 and mourning. Do not tear from his ancestral sacrifices to 
 Juno Sospita, to whom all consuls are bound to offer sacrifice, 
 a consul who is so peculiarly her own. Him, if my recommen- 
 dation has any weight, if my solemn assertion has any author- 
 ity, I now recommend to you, O judges I the consul recom- 
 mend him to you as consul, promising and undertaking that he 
 will prove most desirous of tranquillity, most anxious to con- 
 sult the interests of virtuous men, very active against sedition, 
 very brave in war, and an irreconcilable enemy to this con- 
 spiracy, which is at this moment seeking to undermine the 
 republic.
 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR. 
 
 from a bust in tbe Brittsb Musfwn .. 
 
 culptor who has succeeded in representing (be u. 
 
 .Iptor in the year 55 i 
 Id, and bad just completed the destruction of the Pompeiiao party and 
 
 f his ambition. The Senate that year made Mo 
 - proclaimed him a god, and named one of the months, July, after him.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF 
 PUBLIUS SYLLA
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Publius Sylla having been elected consul with Publius Autronius 
 four years before, had been impeached for bribery, convicted, and 
 deprived of his consulship. He had then been prosecuted by Tor- 
 quatus. He was now impeached by the younger Torquatus, the son 
 of his former prosecutor, as having been implicated in both of Cati- 
 line's conspiracies. (Autronius was accused also, and he also applied 
 to Cicero to defend him, but Cicero, being convinced that he was 
 guilty, not only refused to defend him, but appeared as a witness 
 against him.) Torquatus's real motive appears to have been jealousy 
 of the fame which Cicero had obtained in his consulship; and, in his 
 speech for the prosecution, when he found that Cicero had undertaken 
 Sylla's cause, he had attacked Cicero himself, and tried to bring him 
 into unpopularity, calling him a king who assumed a power to save 
 or to destroy just as he thought fit; and saying that he was the third 
 foreign king that had reigned in Rome; Numa and Tarquin being 
 the two former. Sylla was acquitted 
 
 114
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 
 
 I SHOULD have been very glad, O judges, if Publius Sylla 
 had been able formerly to retain the honor of the dignity 
 to which he was appointed, and had been allowed, after 
 the misfortune which befell him, to derive some reward from 
 his moderation in adversity. But since his unfriendly fortune 
 has brought it about that he has been damaged, even at a time 
 of his greatest honor, by the unpopularity ensuing not only 
 from the common envy which pursues ambitious men, but also 
 by the singular hatred in which Autronius is held, and that 
 even in this sad and deplorable wreck of his former fortunes, 
 he has still some enemies whose hostility he is unable to appease 
 by the punishment which has fallen upon him : although I am 
 very greatly concerned at his distresses, yet in his other mis- 
 fortunes I can easily endure that an opportunity should be of- 
 fered to me of causing virtuous men to recognize my lenity 
 and merciful disposition, which was formerly known to every 
 one, but which has of late been interrupted as it were ; and of 
 forcing wicked and profligate citizens, being again defeated and 
 vanquished, to confess that, when the republic was in danger, 
 I was energetic and fearless ; now that it is saved, I am lenient 
 and merciful. And since Lucius Torquatus, O judges, my own 
 most intimate friend, O judges, has thought that, if he vio- 
 lated our friendship and intimacy somewhat in his speech for 
 the prosecution, he could by that means detract a little from 
 the authority of my defence, I will unite with my endeavors to 
 ward off danger from my client, a defence of my own conduct 
 in the discharge of my duty. Not that I would employ that sort 
 of speech at present, O judges, if my own interest alone were 
 concerned, for on many occasions and in many places I have 
 had, and I often shall have, opportunities of speaking of my 
 own credit. But as he, O judges, has thought that the more he 
 could take away from my authority, the more also he would be 
 
 "5
 
 n6 CICERO 
 
 diminishing my client's means of protection ; I also think, that 
 if I can induce you to approve of the principles of my conduct, 
 and my wisdom in this discharge of my duty and in undertak- 
 ing this defence, I shall also induce you to look favorably on 
 the cause of Publius Sylla. And in the first place, O Torqua- 
 tus, I ask you this, why you should separate me from the 
 other illustrious and chief men of this city, in regard to this 
 duty, and to the right of defending clients? For what is the 
 reason why the act of Quintus Hortensius, a most illustrious 
 man and a most accomplished citizen, is not blamed by you, and 
 mine is blamed ? For if a design of firing the city, and of 
 tinguishing this empire, and of destroying this city, was enter- 
 tained by Publius Sylla, ought not such projects to raise greater 
 indignation and greater hatred against their authors in me 
 than in Quintus Hortensius? Ought not my opinion to be 
 more severe in such a matter, as to whom I should think fit to 
 assist in these causes, whom to oppose, whom to defend, and 
 whom to abandon? No doubt, says he, for it was you who 
 investigated, you who laid open the whole conspiracy. 
 
 And when he says this, he does not perceive that the man 
 who laid it open took care that all men should see that which 
 had previously been hidden. Wherefore that conspiracy, if 
 it was laid open by me, is now as evident in all its particulars 
 to Hortensius as it is to me. And when you see that he, a man 
 of such rank, and authority, and virtue, and wisdom, has not 
 hesitated to defend this innocent Publius Sylla, I ask why the 
 access to the cause which was open to Hortensius, ought to be 
 closed against me? I ask this also if you think that I, who 
 defend him, am to be blamed, what do you think of those ex- 
 cellent men and most illustrious citizens, by whose zeal and 
 dignified presence you perceive that this trial is attended, by 
 whom the cause of my client is honored, by whom his inno- 
 cence is upheld ? For that is not the only method of defending 
 a man's cause which consists in speaking for him. All who 
 countenance him with their presence, who show anxiety in his 
 behalf, who desire his safety, all, as far as their opportunities 
 allow or their authority extends, are defending him. Ought I 
 to be unwilling to appear on these benches on which I see these 
 lights and ornaments of the republic, when it is only by my 
 own numerous and great labors and dangers that I have
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 117 
 
 mounted into their rank, and into this lofty position and dig- 
 nity which I now enjoy? And that you may understand, O 
 Torquatus, whom you are accusing, if you are offended that I, 
 who have defended no one on inquiries of this sort, do not 
 abandon Publius Sylla, remember also the other men, whom 
 you see countenancing this man by their presence. You will 
 see that their opinion and mine has been one and the same about 
 this man's case, and about that of the others. Who of us stood 
 by Varguntius? No one. Not even this Quintus Hortensius, 
 the very man who had formerly been his only defender when 
 prosecuted for corruption. For he did not think himself con- 
 nected by any bond of duty with that man, when he, by the 
 commission of such enormous wickedness, had broken asunder 
 the ties of all duties whatever. Who of us countenanced Ser- 
 vius Sylla? who . . . ? who of us thought Marcus Laeca 
 or Caius Cornelius fit to be defended ? who of all the men whom 
 you see here gave the countenance of his presence to any one 
 of those criminals? No one. Why was that? Because in 
 other causes good men think that they ought not to refuse to 
 defend even guilty men, if they are their own intimate personal 
 friends ; but, in this prosecution, there would not only be the 
 fault of acting lightly, but there would be even some infection 
 of wickedness which would taint one who defended that man 
 whom he suspected of being involved in the guilt of planning 
 the parricide of his country. What was the case of Autronius ? 
 did not his companions, did not his own colleagues, did not his 
 former friends, of whom he had at one time an ample number, 
 did not all these men, who are the chief men in the republic, 
 abandon him ? Ay, and many of them even damaged him with 
 their evidence. They made up their minds that it was an offence 
 of such enormity, that they not only were bound to abstain from 
 doing anything to conceal it, but that it was their duty to reveal 
 it, and throw all the light that they were able upon it. 
 
 What reason is there then for your wondering, if you see 
 me countenancing this cause in company with those men, whom 
 you know that I also joined in discountenancing the other 
 causes by absenting myself from them. Unless you wish me to 
 be considered a man of eminent ferocity before all other men, 
 a man savage, inhuman, and endowed with an extraordinary 
 cruelty and barbarity of disposition. If this be the character
 
 n8 CICERO 
 
 whu-h. on account of all my exploits, you wish now to fix upon 
 my whole life, O Torquatus, you are greatly mistaken. Nature 
 made me merciful, my country made me severe; but neither 
 my country nor nature has ever required me to be cruel. La 
 that same vehement and fierce character which at that time the 
 occasion and the republic imposed upon me, my own inclina- 
 tion and nature itself has now relieved me of; for my country 
 required severity for a short time, my nature requires clemency 
 and lenity during my whole life. There is, therefore, no i 
 tence for your separating me from so numerous a company of 
 most honorable men. Duty is a plain thing, and the cause of 
 all men is one and the same. You will have no reason to mar- 
 vel hereafter, whenever you see me on the same side as you 
 observe : n. For there is no side in the republic in which 
 
 I have a peculiar and exclusive property. The time for acting 
 did belong more peculiarly to me than to the others ; but the 
 cause of indignation, and fear, and danger was common to us 
 all. Nor, indeed, could I have been at that time, as I was, the 
 chief man in providing for the safety of the state, if others 
 had been unwilling to be my companions. Wherefore, it is 
 inevitable that that which, when I was consul, belonged to me 
 especially above all other men, should, now that I am a private 
 individual, belong to me in common with the rest. Nor do I 
 say this for the sake of sharing my unpopularity with others, 
 but rather with the object of allowing them to partake of my 
 praises. I will give a share of my burden to no one; but a 
 share of my glory to all good men. " You gave evidence 
 against Autronius," says he, " and you are defending Sylla." 
 All this, O judges, has this object, to prove that, if I am an 
 inconstant and fickle-minded man, my evidence ought not to 
 be credited, and my defence ought not to carry any authority 
 with it. But if there is found in me a proper consideration 
 for the republic, a scrupulous regard to my duty, and a con- 
 stant desire to retain the good-will of virtuous men, then there 
 is nothing which an accuser ought less to say than that Sylla 
 is defended by me, but that Autronius was injured by my evi- 
 dence against him. For I think that I not only carry with me 
 zeal in defending causes, but also that my deliberate opinion 
 has some weight ; which, however, I will use with moderation, 
 O judges, and I would not have used it at all if he had not 
 compelled me.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 119 
 
 Two conspiracies are spoken of by you, O Torquatus ; one, 
 which is said to have been formed in the consulship of Lepidus 
 and Volcatius, when your own father was consul elect; the 
 other, that which broke out in my consulship. In each of these 
 you say that Sylla was implicated. You know that I was not 
 acquainted with the counsels of your father, a most brave man, 
 and a most excellent consul. You know, as there was the great- 
 est intimacy between you and me, that I knew nothing of what 
 happened, or of what was said in those times ; I imagine, be- 
 cause I had not yet become a thoroughly public character, be- 
 cause I had not yet arrived at the goal of honor which I pro- 
 posed to myself, and because my ambition and my forensic 
 labors separated me from all political deliberations. Who, then, 
 was present at your counsels? All these men whom you see 
 here, giving Sylla the countenance of their presence; and 
 among the first was Quintus Hortensius who, by reason of 
 his honor and worth, and his admirable disposition towards the 
 republic, and because of his exceeding intimacy with and ex- 
 cessive attachment to your father, was greatly moved by the 
 thoughts of the common danger, and most especially by the 
 personal peril of your father. Therefore, he was defended 
 from the charge of being implicated in that conspiracy by that 
 man who was present at and acquainted with all your delibera- 
 tions, who was a partner in all your thoughts and in all your 
 fears ; and, elegant and argumentative as his speech in re- 
 pelling this accusation was, it carried with it as much authority 
 as it displayed of ability. Of that conspiracy, therefore, which 
 is said to have been formed against you, to have been reported 
 to you, and to have been revealed by you, I was unable to say 
 anything as a witness. For I not only found out nothing, but 
 scarcely did any report or suspicion of that matter reach my 
 ears. They who were your counsellors, who became acquainted 
 with these things in your company they who were supposed 
 to be themselves menaced with that danger, who gave no 
 countenance to Autronius, who gave most important evidence 
 against him are now defending Publius Sylla, are countenanc- 
 ing him by their presence here ; now that he is in danger they 
 declare that they were not deterred by the accusation of con- 
 spiracy from countenancing the others, but by the guilt of the 
 men. But for the time of my consulship, and with respect to
 
 120 
 
 CICERO 
 
 the charge of the greatest conspiracy, Sylla shall be defended 
 by me. And this partition of the cause between Hortensius and 
 me has not been made by chance, or at random, O judges, but, 
 as we saw that we were employed as defenders of a man against 
 those accusations in which we might have been witnesses, each 
 of us thought that it would be best for him to undertake that 
 part of the case, concerning which he himself had been able 
 to acquire some knowledge, and to form some opinions with 
 certainty. 
 
 And since you have listened attentively to Hortensius, while 
 speaking on the charge respecting the former conspiracy, now, 
 I beg you, listen to this first statement of mine respecting the 
 conspiracy which was formed in my consulship. 
 
 When I was consul I heard many reports, I made many in- 
 quiries, I learned a great many circumstances, concerning the 
 extreme peril of the republic. No messenger, no information, 
 no letters, no suspicion ever reached me at any time in the least 
 affecting Sylla. Perhaps this assertion ought to have great 
 weight, when coming from a man who, as consul, had investi- 
 gated the plots laid against the republic with prudence, had 
 revealed them with sincerity, had chastised them with mag- 
 nanimity, and who says that he himself never heard a word 
 against Publius Sylla, and never entertained a suspicion of 
 him. But I do not as yet employ this assertion for the purpose 
 of defending him ; I rather use it with a view to clear myself, 
 in order that Torquatus may cease to wonder that I, who would 
 not appear by the side of Autronius, am now defending Sylla. 
 For what was the cause of Autronius ? and what is the cause of 
 Sylla? The former tried to disturb and get rid of a prosecu- 
 tion for bribery by raising in the first instance a sedition among 
 gladiators and runaway slaves, and after that, as we all saw, 
 by stoning people, and collecting a violent mob. Sylla, if his 
 own modesty and worth could not avail him, sought no other 
 assistance. The former, when he had been convicted, behaved 
 in such a manner, not only in his secret designs and conversa- 
 tion, but in every look and in his whole countenance, as to ap- 
 pear an enemy to the most honorable orders in the state, hostile 
 to every virtuous man, and a foe to his country. The latter con- 
 sidered himself so bowed down, so broken down by that mis- 
 fortune, that he thought that none of his former dignity was
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 121 
 
 left to him, except what he could retain by his present modera- 
 tion. And in this conspiracy, what union was ever so close 
 as that between Autronius and Catiline, between Autronius 
 and Lentulus ? What combination was there ever between any 
 men for the most virtuous purposes, so intimate as his con- 
 nection with them for deeds of wickedness, lust, and audacity ? 
 what crime is there which Lentulus did not plot with Autro- 
 nius? what atrocity did Catiline ever commit without his as- 
 sistance? while, in the mean time, Sylla not only abstained 
 from seeking the concealment of night and solitude in their 
 company, but he had never the very slightest intercourse with 
 them, either in conversation or in casual meetings. The Allo- 
 broges, those who gave us the truest information on the most 
 important matters, accused Autronius, and so did the letters 
 of many men, and many private witnesses. All that time no 
 one ever accused Sylla; no one ever mentioned his name. 
 Lastly, after Catiline had been driven out, or allowed to depart 
 out of the city, Autronius sent his arms, trumpets, bugles, 
 scythes, 1 standards, legions. He who was left in the city, but 
 expected out of it, though checked by the punishment of Len- 
 tulus, gave way at times to feelings of fear, but never to any 
 right feelings or good sense. Sylla, on the other hand, was so 
 quiet, that all that time he was at Naples, where it is not sup- 
 posed that there were any men who were implicated in or sus- 
 pected of this crime ; and the place itself is one not so well cal- 
 culated to excite the feelings of men in distress, as to console 
 them. 
 
 On account, therefore, of this great dissimilarity between the 
 men and the cases, I also behaved in a different manner to them 
 both. For Autronius came to me, and he was constantly com- 
 ing to me, with many tears, as a suppliant, to beg me to defend 
 him, and he used to remind me that he had been my school- 
 fellow in my childhood, my friend in my youth, and my col- 
 league in the quaestorship. He used to enumerate many ser- 
 vices which I had done him, and some also which he had done 
 me. By all which circumstances, O judges, I was so much 
 swayed and influenced, that I banished from my recollection all 
 the plots which he had laid against me myself; that I forgot 
 
 1 Some commentators propose fasces instead of falces here, and it would cer- 
 tainly make much better sense.
 
 122 CICERO 
 
 that Caius Cornelius had been lately sent by him for the pur- 
 pose of killing me in my own house, in the sight of my wife 
 and children. And if he had formed these designs against me 
 alone, such is my softness and lenity of disposition, that I 
 should never have been able to resist his tears and entreaties ; 
 but when the thoughts of my country, of your dangers, of this 
 city, of all those shrines and temples which we see around us, 
 of the infant children, and matrons, and virgins of the city oc- 
 curred to me, and when those hostile and fatal torches destined 
 for the entire conflagration of the whole city, when the arms 
 which had been collected, when the slaughter and blood of the 
 citizens, when the ashes of my country began to present them- 
 selves to my eyes, and to excite my feelings by the recollection, 
 then I resisted him, then I resisted not only that enemy of his 
 country, that parricide himself, but I withstood also his rela- 
 tions the Marcelli, father and son, one of whom was regarded 
 by me with the respect due to a parent, and the other with the 
 affection which one feels towards a son. And I thought that I 
 could not, without being guilty of the very greatest wicked- 
 ness, defend in their companion the same crimes which I had 
 chastised in the case of others, when I knew him to be guilty. 
 And, on the same principle, I could not endure to see Publius 
 Sylla coming to me as a suppliant, or these same Marcelli in 
 tears at his danger ; nor could I resist the entreaties of Marcus 
 Messala, whom you see in court, a most intimate friend of my 
 own. For, neither was his cause disagreeable to my natural 
 disposition, nor had the man or the facts anything in them at 
 variance with my feelings of clemency. His name had never 
 been mentioned, there was no trace whatever of him in the con- 
 spiracy ; no information had touched him, no suspicion had 
 been breathed of him. I undertook his cause, O Torquatus ; I 
 undertook it, and I did so willingly, in order that, while good 
 men had always, as I hope, thought me virtuous and firm, not 
 even bad men might be able to call me cruel. 
 
 This Torquatus then, O judges, says that he cannot endure 
 my kingly power. What is the meaning of my kingly power, 
 O Torquatus ? I suppose you mean the power I exerted in my 
 consulship; in which I did not command at all, but, on the 
 contrary, I obeyed the conscript fathers, and all good men. In 
 my discharge of that office, O judges, kingly power was not
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 123 
 
 established by me, but put down. Will you say that then, when 
 I had such absolute power and authority over all the military 
 and civil affairs of the State, I was not a king, but that now, 
 when I am only a private individual, I have the power of a 
 king? Under what title? "Why, because," says he, "those 
 against whom you gave evidence were convicted, and the man 
 whom you defend hopes that he shall be acquitted." Here I 
 make you this reply, as to what concerns my evidence: that 
 if I gave false evidence, you also gave evidence against the 
 same man ; if my testimony was true, then I say, that persuad- 
 ing the judges to believe a true statement, which one has made 
 on oath, is a very different thing from being a king. And of 
 the hopes of my client, I only say, that Publius Sylla does not 
 expect from me any exertion of my influence or interest, or, 
 in short, anything except to defend him with good faith. " But 
 unless you," says he, " had undertaken his cause, he could 
 never have resisted me, but would have fled without saying a 
 word in his defence." Even if I were to grant to you that Quin- 
 tus Hortensius, being a man of such wisdom as he is, and that 
 all these men of high character, rely not on their own judgment, 
 but on mine ; if I were to grant to you, what no one can be- 
 lieve, that these men would not have countenanced Publius Sylla 
 if I had not done so too ; still, which is the king, he whom men, 
 though perfectly innocent, cannot resist, or he who does not 
 abandon men in misfortune? But here too, though you had 
 not the least occasion for it, you took a fancy to be witty, when 
 you called me Tarquin, and Numa, and the third foreign king 
 of Rome. I won't say any more about the word king; but I 
 should like to know why you called me a foreigner. For, if 
 I am such, then it is not so marvellous that I should be a king 
 because, as you say yourself, foreigners have before now been 
 kings at Rome as that a foreigner should be a consul at Rome. 
 " This is what I mean," says he, " that you come from a 
 municipal town." I confess that I do, and I add, that I come 
 from that municipal town from which salvation to this city 
 and empire has more than once proceeded. But I should like 
 exceedingly to know from you, how it is that those men who 
 come from the municipal towns appear to you to be foreign- 
 ers. For no one ever made that objection to that great man, 
 Marcus Cato the elder, though he had many enemies, or to
 
 124 CICERO 
 
 Titus Coruncanius, or to Marcus Curius, or even to that great 
 hero of our own times, Caius Marius, though many men envied 
 him. In truth, I am exceedingly delighted that I am a man of 
 such a charcater that, when you were anxious to find fault with 
 me, you could still find nothing to reproach me with which 
 did not apply also to the greater part of the citizens. 
 
 But still, on account of your great friendship and intimacy, 
 I think it well to remind ygu of this more than once all men 
 cannot be patricians. If you would know the truth, they do 
 not all even wish to be so ; nor do those of your own age think 
 that you ought on that account to have precedence over them. 
 And if we seem to you to be foreigners, we whose name and 
 honors have now become familiar topics of conversation and 
 panegyric throughout the city and among all men, how greatly 
 must those competitors of yours seem to be foreigners, who 
 now, having been picked out of all Italy, are contending with 
 you for honor and for every dignity ! And yet take care that 
 you do not call one of these a foreigner, lest you should be over- 
 whelmed by the votes of the foreigners. For if they once bring 
 their activity and perseverance into action, believe me they 
 will shake those arrogant expressions out of you, and they will 
 frequently wake you from sleep, and will not endure to be sur- 
 passed by you in honors, unless they are also excelled by you 
 in virtue. And if, O judges, it is fit for me and you to be con- 
 sidered foreigners by the rest of the patricians, still nothing 
 ought to be said about this blot by Torquatus. For he himself 
 is, on his mother's side, a citizen of a municipal town ; a man 
 of a most honorable and noble family, but still he comes from 
 Asculum. Either let him, then, show that the Picentians alone 
 are not foreigners, or else let him congratulate himself that I 
 do not put my family before his. So do not for the future call 
 me a foreigner, lest you meet with a sterner refutation; and 
 do not call me a king, lest you be laughed at. Unless, indeed, it 
 appears to be the conduct of a king to live in such a manner 
 as not to be slave not only to any man, but not even to any 
 passion; to despise all capricious desires; to covet neither gold 
 nor silver, nor anything else ; to form one's opinions in the 
 Senate with freedom ; to consider the real interests of the peo- 
 ple, rather than their inclinations ; to yield to no one, to oppose 
 many men. If you think that this is the conduct of a king, then
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 125 
 
 I confess that I am a king. If my power, if my sway, if, lastly, 
 any arrogant or haughty expression of mine moves your indig- 
 nation, then you should rather allege that, than stoop to raise 
 odium against me by a name, and to employ mere abuse and 
 insult. 
 
 If, after having done so many services to the republic, I 
 were to ask for myself no other reward from the Senate and 
 people of Rome beyond honorable ease, who is there who would 
 not grant it to me? If I were to ask, that they would keep all 
 honors, and commands, and provinces, and triumphs, and all 
 the other insignia of eminent renown to themselves, and that 
 they would allow me to enjoy the sight of the city which I had 
 saved, and a tranquil and quiet mind? What, however, if I 
 do not ask this ? what, if my former industry, my anxiety, my 
 assistance, my labor, my vigilance is still at the service of my 
 friends, and ready at the call of everyone? If my friends 
 never seek in vain for my zeal on their behalf in the forum, 
 nor the republic in the senate-house; if neither the holiday 
 earned by my previous achievements, nor the excuse which 
 my past honors or my present age might supply me with, is 
 employed to save me from trouble; if my good-will, my in- 
 dustry, my house, my attention, and my ears are always open 
 to all men ; if I have not even any time left to recollect and 
 think over those things which I have done for the safety of the 
 whole body of citizens ; shall this still be called kingly power, 
 when no one can possibly be found who would act as my sub- 
 stitute in it? All suspicion of aiming at kingly power is very 
 far removed from me. If you ask who they are who have 
 endeavored to assume kingly power in Rome, without unfold- 
 ing the records of the public annals, you may find them amon 
 the images in your own house. I suppose it is my achievements 
 which have unduly elated me, and have inspired me with I 
 know not how much pride. Concerning which deeds of mine, 
 illustrious and immortal as they are, O judges, I can say thus 
 much that I, who have saved this city, and the lives of all 
 the citizens, from the most extreme dangers, shall have gained 
 quite reward enough, if no danger arises to myself out of the 
 great service which I have done to all men. 
 
 In truth, I recollect in what state it is that I have done such 
 great exploits, and in what city I am living. The forum is
 
 126 CICERO 
 
 full of those men whom I, O judges, have taken off from your 
 necks, but have not removed from my own. Unless you think 
 that they were only a few men, who were able to attempt or 
 to hope that they might be able to destroy so vast an empire. 
 I was able to take away their fire-brands, to wrest their torches 
 from their hands, as I did ; but their wicked and impious incli- 
 nations I could neither cure nor eradicate. Therefore I am 
 not ignorant in what danger I am living among such a multi- 
 tude of wicked men, since I see that I have undertaken single- 
 handed an eternal war against all wicked men. 
 
 But if, perchance, you envy that means of protection which 
 I have, and if it seems to you to be of a kingly sort namely, 
 the fact that all good men of all ranks and classes consider their 
 safety as bound up with mine comfort yourself with the reflec- 
 tion that the dispositions of all wicked men are especially hostile 
 to and furious against me alone; and they hate me, not only 
 because I repressed their profligate attempts and impious mad- 
 ness, but still more because they think that, as long as I am 
 alive, they can attempt nothing more of the same sort. But 
 why do I wonder if any wicked thing is said of me by wicked 
 men, where Lucius Torquatus himself, after having in the first 
 place laid such a foundation of virtue as he did in his youth, 
 after having proposed to himself the hope of the most honorable 
 dignity in the state, and, in the second place, being the son of 
 Lucius Torquatus, a most intrepid consul, a most virtuous 
 senator, and at all times a most admirable citizen, is sometimes 
 run away with by impetuosity of language ? For when he had 
 spoken in a low voice of the wickedness of Publius Lentulus, 
 and of the audacity of all the conspirators, so that only you, 
 who approve of those things, could hear what he said, he spoke 
 with a loud querulous voice of the execution of Publius Len- 
 tulus and of the prison ; in which there was, first of all, this 
 absurdity, that when he wished to gain your approval of the 
 inconsiderate things which he had said, but did not wish those 
 men, who were standing around the tribunal, to hear them, he 
 did not perceive that, while he was speaking so loudly, those 
 men whose favor he was seeking to gain could not hear him, 
 without your hearing him too, who did not approve of what 
 he was saying; and, in the second place, it is a great defect 
 in an orator not to see what each cause requires. For nothing
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 127 
 
 is so inconsistent as for a man who is accusing another of con- 
 spiracy, to appear to lament the punishment and death of con- 
 spirators ; which is not, indeed, strange to anyone, when it is 
 done by that tribune of the people who appears to be the only 
 man left to bewail those conspirators ; for it is difficult to be 
 silent when you are really grieved. But, if you do anything 
 of that sort, I do greatly marvel at you, not only because you 
 are such a young man as you are, but because you do it in the 
 very cause in which you wish to appear as a punisher of con- 
 spiracy. However, what I find fault with most of all, is this : 
 that you, with your abilities and your prudence, do not main- 
 tain the true interest of the republic, but believe, on the con- 
 trary, that those actions are not approved of by the Roman 
 people, which, when I was consul, were done by all virtuous 
 men, for the preservation of the common safety of all. 
 
 Do you believe that any one of those men who are here pres- 
 ent, into whose favor you were seeking to insinuate yourself 
 against their will, was either so wicked as to wish all these 
 things to be destroyed, or so miserable as to wish to perish him- 
 self, and to have nothing which he wished to preserve? Is 
 there anyone who blames the most illustrious man of your fam- 
 ily and name, who deprived his own son 2 of life in order to 
 strengthen his power over the rest of his army; and do you 
 blame the republic for destroying domestic enemies in order 
 to avoid being herself destroyed by them? Take notice then, 
 O Torquatus, to what extent I shirk the avowal of the actions 
 of my consulship. I speak, and I always will speak, with my 
 loudest voice, in order that all men may be able to hear me: 
 be present all of you with your minds, ye who are present with 
 your bodies, ye in whose numerous attendance I take great 
 pleasure ; give me your attention and all your ears, and listen 
 to me while I speak of what he believes to be unpopular topics. 
 I, as consul, when an army of abandoned citizens, got together 
 by clandestine wickedness, had prepared a most cruel and mis- 
 erable destruction for my country; when Catiline had been 
 appointed to manage the fall and ruin of the republic in the 
 camp, and when Lentulus was the leader among those very 
 
 8 This refers to the story of Titus Man- of a general order issued by his father 
 
 lius Torquatus, who, in the Latin War the consul) to fight Geminius Metius, 
 
 (A.U.C. 415), put his own son to death whom he slew. The story is told by 
 
 for leaving his ranks (in forgetfulness Livy, lib. iii. c. 7.
 
 i 2 8 CICERO 
 
 temples and houses around us; I, I say, by my labors, at the 
 risk of my own life, by my prudence, without any tumult, 
 without making any extraordinary levies, without arms, with- 
 out an army, having arrested and executed five men, delivered 
 the city from conflagration, the citizens from massacre, Italy 
 from devastation, the republic from destruction. I, at the price 
 of the punishment of five frantic and ruined men, ransomed the 
 lives of all the citizens, the constitution of the whole world, 
 this city, the home of all of us, the citadel of foreign kings 
 and foreign nations, the light of all people, the abode of empire. 
 Did you think that I would not say this in a court of justice 
 when I was not on my oath, which I had said before now in 
 a most numerous assembly when speaking 3 on oath ? 
 
 And I will say this further, O Torquatus, to prevent any 
 wicked man from conceiving any sudden attachment to, or 
 any sudden hopes of you; and, in order that everyone may 
 hear it, I will say it as loudly as I can: Of all those things 
 which I undertook and did during my consulship in defence 
 of the common safety, that Lucius Torquatus, being my con- 
 stant comrade in my consulship, and having been so also in my 
 praetorship, was my defender, and assistant, and partner in 
 my actions; being also the chief, and the leader, and the 
 standard-bearer of the Roman youth; and his father, a man 
 most devoted to his country, a man of the greatest courage, 
 of the most consummate political wisdom, and of singular firm- 
 ness, though he was sick, still was constantly present at all my 
 actions; he never left my side: he, by his zeal and wisdom 
 and authority was of the very greatest assistance to me, over- 
 coming the infirmity of his body by the vigor of his mind. Do 
 you not see now, how I deliver you from the danger of any 
 sudden popularity among the wicked, and reconcile you to all 
 good men? who love you, and cherish you, and who always 
 will cherish you; nor, if perchance you for a while abandon 
 me, will they on that account allow you to abandon them and 
 the republic and your own dignity. 
 
 This refers to Cicero's conduct when charged his duty with fidelity, swore 
 
 resigning his consulship. Metellus, as with a loud voice " that the republic 
 
 has been said before, refused to allow and the city had been saved by his un- 
 
 him to make a speech to the people, assisted labor"; and all the Roman 
 
 because, as he said, he had put Roman people cried out with one voice that 
 
 citizens to death without a trial; on that statement was true to its fullest 
 
 which Cicero, instead of making oath extent, 
 in the ordinary formula, that he had dis-
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 129 
 
 But now I return to the cause ; and I call you, O judges, to 
 bear witness to this that this necessity of speaking of myself 
 was imposed on me by him. For if Torquatus had been con- 
 tent with accusing Sylla, I too at the present time should have 
 done nothing beyond defending him who had been accused; 
 but when he, in his whole speech, inveighed against me, and 
 when, in the very beginning, as I said, he sought to deprive 
 my defence of all authority, even if my indignation had not 
 compelled me to speak, still the necessity of doing justice to 
 my cause would have demanded this speech from me. 
 
 You say that Sylla was named by the Allobroges. Who 
 denies it ? but read the information, and see how he was named. 
 They said that Lucius Cassius had said that, among other men, 
 Autronius was favorable to their designs. I ask, did Cassius 
 say that Sylla was? Never. They say that they themselves 
 inquired of Cassius what Sylla's opinions were. Observe the 
 diligence of the Gauls. They, knowing nothing of the life or 
 character of the man, but only having heard that he and Au- 
 tronius had met with one common disaster, asked whether his 
 inclinations were the same? What then? Even if Cassius 
 had made answer that Sylla was of the same opinion, and was 
 favorable to their views, still it would not seem to me that that 
 reply ought to be made matter of accusation against him. How 
 so? Because, as it was his object to instigate the barbarians 
 to war, it was no business of his to weaken their expectations, 
 or to acquit those men of whom they did entertain some sus- 
 picions. But yet he did not reply that Sylla was favorable 
 to their designs. And, in truth, it would have been an absurd- 
 ity, after he had named everyone else of his own accord, to 
 make no mention of Sylla till he was reminded of him and 
 asked about him. Unless you think this probable, that Lucius 
 Cassius had quite forgotten the name of Publius Sylla. Even 
 if the high rank of the man, and his unfortunate condition, 
 and the relics of his ancient dignity, had not made him notori- 
 ous, still the mention of Autronius must have recalled Sylla to 
 his recollection. In truth, it is my opinion, that, when Cassius 
 was enumerating the authority of the chief men of the con- 
 spiracy, for the purpose of exciting the minds of the Allo- 
 broges, as he knew that the foreign nations are especially 
 moved by an illustrious name, he would not have named Au- 
 9
 
 1 3 o 
 
 CICERO 
 
 tronius before Sylla, if he had been able to name Sylla at all. 
 But no one can be induced to believe this that the Gauls, 
 the moment that Autronius was named, should have thought, 
 on account of the similarity of their misfortunes, that it was 
 worth their while to make inquiries about Sylla, but that Cas- 
 sius, if he really was implicated in this wickedness, should 
 never have once recollected Sylla, even after he had named Au- 
 tronius. However, what was the reply which Cassius made 
 about Sylla ? He said that he was not sure. " He does not 
 acquit him," says Torquatus. I have said before, that even if 
 he had accused him, when he was interrogated in this manner, 
 his reply ought not to have been made matter of accusation 
 against Sylla. But I think that, in judicial proceedings and 
 examinations, the thing to be inquired is, not whether anyone 
 is exculpated, but whether anyone is inculpated. And in truth, 
 when Cassius says that he does not know, is he seeking to ex- 
 culpate Sylla, or proving clearly enough that he really does 
 not know ? He is unwilling to compromise him with the Gauls. 
 Why so ? That they may not mention him in their information ? 
 What ? If he had supposed that there was any danger of their 
 ever giving any information at all, would he have made that 
 confession respecting himself? He did not know it. I sup- 
 pose, O judges, Sylla was the only person about whom Cassius 
 was kept in the dark. For he certainly was well informed 
 about everyone else ; and it was thoroughly proved that a great 
 deal of the conspiracy was hatched at his house. As he 
 did not like to deny that Sylla made one of the conspirators, 
 his object being to give the Gauls as much hope as possible, 
 and as he did not venture to assert what was absolutely false, 
 he said that he did not know. But this is quite evident, that 
 as he, who knew the truth about everyone, said that he did not 
 know about Sylla, the same weight is due to this denial of his 
 as if he had said that he did know that he had nothing to do 
 with the conspiracy. For when it is perfectly certain that a 
 man is acquainted with all the conspirators, his ignorance of 
 anyone ought to be considered an acquittal of him. But I am 
 not asking now whether Cassius acquits Sylla; this is quite 
 sufficient for me, that there is not one word to implicate Sylla 
 in the whole information of the Allobroges. 
 
 Torquatus being cut off from this article of his accusation,
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 131 
 
 again turns against me, and accuses me. He says that I have 
 made an entry in the public registers of a different statement 
 from that which was really made. O ye immortal gods (for I 
 will give you what belongs to you ; nor can I attribute so much 
 to my own ability, as to think that I was able, in that most 
 turbulent tempest which was afflicting the republic, to manage, 
 of my own power, so many and such important affairs affairs 
 arising so unexpectedly, and of such various characters) ! it 
 was you, in truth, who then inflamed my mind with the desire 
 of saving my country; it was you who turned me from all 
 other thoughts to the one idea of preserving the republic; it 
 was you who, amid all that darkness of error and ignorance, 
 held a bright light before my mind ! I saw this, O judges, that 
 unless, while the recollection of the Senate on the subject was 
 still fresh, I bore evidence to the authority and to the par- 
 ticulars of this information by public records, hereafter some- 
 one, not Torquatus, nor anyone like Torquatus (for in that 
 indeed I have been much deceived), but someone who had lost 
 his patrimony, some enemy of tranquillity, some foe to all 
 good men, would say that the information given had been 
 different ; in order the more easily, when some gale of odium 
 had been stirred up against all virtuous men, to be able, amid 
 the misfortunes of the republic, to discover some harbor for his 
 own broken vessel. Therefore, having introduced the informers 
 into the Senate, I appointed senators to take down every state- 
 ment made by the informers, every question that was asked, 
 and every answer that was given. And what men they were ! 
 Not only men of the greatest virtue and good faith, of which 
 sort of men there are plenty in the Senate, but men, also, who 
 I knew from their memory, from their knowledge, from their 
 habit and rapidity of writing, could most easily follow every- 
 thing that was said. I selected Caius Cosconius, who was 
 praetor at the time; Marcus Messala, who was at the time 
 standing for the praetorship; Publius Nigidius, and Appius 
 Claudius. I believe that there is no one who thinks that these 
 men were deficient either in the good faith or in the ability re- 
 quisite to enable them to give an accurate report. 
 
 What followed? What did I do next? As I knew that 
 the information was by these means entered among the public 
 documents, but yet that those records would be kept in the
 
 132 
 
 CICERO 
 
 custody of private individuals, according to the customs of 
 our ancestors, I did not conceal it; I did not keep it at my 
 own house ; but I caused it at once to be copied out by several 
 clerks, and to be distributed everywhere and published and 
 made known to the Roman people. I distributed it all over 
 Italy, I sent copies of it into every province; I wish no one 
 to be ignorant of that information, by means of which safety 
 was procured for all. And I took this precaution, though at 
 so disturbed a time, and when all opportunities of acting were 
 so sudden and so brief, at the suggestion of some divine provi- 
 dence, as I said before, and not of my own accord, or of my 
 own wisdom; taking care, in the first instance, that no one 
 should be able to recollect of the danger to the republic, or to 
 any individual, only as much as he pleased ; and in the second 
 place, that no one should be able at any time to find fault with 
 that information, or to accuse us of having given credit to it 
 rashly; and lastly, that no one should ever put any questions 
 to me, or seek to learn anything from my private journals, lest 
 I might be accused of either forgetting or remembering too 
 much, and lest any negligence of mine should be thought dis- 
 creditable, or lest any eagerness on my part might seem cruel. 
 But still, O Torquatus, I ask you, as your enemy was men- 
 tioned in the information, and as a full Senate and the mem- 
 ory of all men as to so recent an affair were witnesses of that 
 fact; as my clerks would have communicated the informa- 
 tion to you, my intimate friend and companion, if you had 
 wished for it, even before they had taken a copy of it; when 
 you saw that there were any incorrectnesses in it, why were 
 you silent, why did you permit them? Why did you not 
 make a complaint to me or to some friend of mine? or why 
 did you not at least, since you are so well inclined to inveigh 
 against your friends, expostulate passionately and earnestly 
 with me? Do you, when your voice was never once heard 
 at the time, when, though the information was read, and 
 copied out, and published, you kept silence then do you, I 
 say, now on a sudden dare to bring forward a statement of 
 such importance? and to place yourself in such a position 
 that, before you can convict me of having tampered with the 
 information, you must confess that you are convicted yourself 
 of the grossest negligence, on your own information laid against 
 yourself ?
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 
 
 133 
 
 Was the safety of anyone of such consequence to me as 
 to induce me to forget my own? or to make me contaminate 
 the truth, which I had laid open, by any lie? Or do you sup- 
 pose that I would assist anyone by whom I thought that a 
 cruel plot had been laid against the republic, and most espe- 
 cially against -me the consul ? But if I had been forgetful of 
 my own severity and of my own virtue, was I so mad, as, when 
 letters are things which have been devised for the sake of 
 posterity, in order to be a protection against forgetfulness, to 
 think that the fresh recollection of the whole Senate could be 
 beaten down by my journal ? I have been bearing with you, 
 
 Torquatus, for a long time. I have been bearing with you ; 
 and sometimes I, of my own accord, call back and check my 
 inclination, when it has been provoked to chastise your speech. 
 
 1 make some allowance for your violent temper, I have some 
 indulgence for your youth, I yield somewhat to our own friend- 
 ship, I have some regard to your father. But unless you put 
 some restraint upon yourself, you will compel me to forget our 
 friendship, in order to pay due regard to my own dignity. No 
 one ever attempted to attach the slightest suspicion to me, that 
 I did not defeat him; but I wish you to believe me in this; 
 those whom I think that I can defeat most easily, are not 
 those whom I take the greatest pleasure in answering. Do 
 you, since you are not at all ignorant of my ordinary way of 
 speaking, forbear to abuse my lenity. Do not think that the 
 stings of my eloquence are taken away, because they are 
 sheathed. Do not think that that power has been entirely lost, 
 because I show some consideration for, and indulgence toward 
 you. In the first place, the excuses which I make to myself 
 for your injurious conduct, your violent temper, your age, and 
 our friendship, have much weight with me; and, in the next 
 place, I do not- yet consider you a person of sufficient power to 
 make it worth my while to contend and argue with you. But 
 if you were more capable through age and experience, I should 
 pursue the conduct which is habitual to me when I have been 
 provoked ; at present I will deal with you in such a way that I 
 shall seem to have received an injury rather than to have re- 
 quited one. 
 
 Nor, indeed, can I make out why you are angry with me. 
 If it is because I am defending a man whom you are accusing,
 
 I 3 4 CICERO 
 
 why should not I also be angry with you, for accusing a man 
 whom I am defending? " I," say you, " am accusing my ene- 
 my." And I am defending my friend. " But you ought not 
 to defend anyone who is being tried for conspiracy." On the 
 contrary, no one ought to be more prompt to defend a man 
 of whom he has never suspected any ill, than he who has had 
 many reasons for forming opinions about other men. " Why 
 did you give evidence against others ? " Because I was com- 
 pelled. " Why were they convicted ? " Because my evidence 
 was believed. " It is behaving like a king to speak against 
 whomsoever you please, and to defend whomsoever you please." 
 Say, rather, that it is slavery not to be able to speak against 
 anyone you choose, and to defend anyone you choose. And 
 if you begin to consider whether it was more necessary for me 
 to do this, or for you to do that, you will perceive that you 
 could with more credit fix a limit to your enmities than I could 
 to my humanity. 
 
 But when the greatest honors of your family were at stake, 
 that is to say, the consulship of your father, that wise man 
 your father was not angry with his most intimate friends for 
 defending and praising Sylla. He was aware that this was a 
 principle handed down to us from our ancestors, that we were 
 not to be hindered by our friendship for anyone, from ward- 
 ing off dangers from others. And yet that contest was far 
 from resembling this trial. Then, if Publius Sylla could be 
 put down, the consulship would be procured for your father, 
 as it was procured ; it was a contest of honor ; you were cry- 
 ing out, that you were seeking to recover what had been taken 
 from you, in order that, having been defeated in the Campus 
 Martius, you might succeed in the forum. Then, those who 
 were contending against you for Sylla's safety, your greatest 
 friends, with whom you were not angry on that account, 
 deprived you of the consulship, resisted your acquisition of 
 honor; and yet they did so without any rupture of your mu- 
 tual friendship, without violating any duty, according to an- 
 cient precedent and the established principles of every good 
 man. 
 
 But now what promotion of yours am I opposing? or what 
 dignity of yours am I throwing obstacles in the way of? What 
 is there which you can at present seek from this proceeding?
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 135 
 
 Honor has been conferred on your father; the insignia of honor 
 have descended to you. You, adorned with his spoils, come to 
 tear the body of him whom you have slain; I am defending and 
 protecting him who is lying prostrate and stripped of his arms. 
 And on this you find fault with me, and are angry because I de- 
 fend him. But I not only am not angry with you, but I do not 
 even find fault with your proceeding. For I imagine that you 
 have laid down a rule for yourself as to what you thought that 
 you ought to do, and that you have appointed a very capable 
 judge of your duty. " Oh, but the son of Caius Cornelius ac- 
 cuses him, and that ought to have the same weight as if his father 
 had given information against him." O wise Cornelius the 
 father, I mean who left all the reward which is usually given 
 for information, but has got all the discredit which a confession 
 can involve, through the accusation brought by his son! How- 
 ever, what is it that Cornelius gives information of by the mouth 
 of that boy? If it is a part of the business which is unknown to 
 me, but which has been communicated to Hortensius, let Hor- 
 tensius reply. If, as you say, his statement concerns that crew 
 of Autronius and Catiline, when they intended to commit a mas- 
 sacre in the Campus Martius, at the consular comitia, which 
 were held by me; we saw Autronius that day in the Campus. 
 And why do I say we saw? I myself saw him (for you at that 
 time, O judges, had no anxiety, no suspicions; I, protected by 
 a firm guard of friends at that time, checked the forces and the 
 endeavors of Catiline and Autronius). Is there, then, anyone 
 who says that Sylla at that time had any idea of coming into the 
 Campus? And yet, if at that time he had united himself with 
 Catiline in that society of wickedness, why did he leave him? 
 why was not he with Autronius? why, when their cases were 
 similar, are not similar proofs of criminality found? But since 
 Cornelius himself even now hesitates about giving information 
 against him, he, as you say, contents himself with filling up the 
 outline of his son's information. What then does he say about 
 that night, when, according to the orders of Catiline, he came 
 into the Scythe-makers'* street, to the house of Marcus Lecca, 
 that night which followed the sixth of November, in my consul- 
 ship ? that night which of all the moments of the conspiracy was 
 the most terrible and the most miserable. Then the day in which 
 
 * This was the name of a street.
 
 136 CICERO 
 
 Catiline should leave the city, then the terms on which the rest 
 should remain behind, then the arrangement and division of the 
 whole city, with regard to the conflagration and the massacre, 
 was settled. Then your father, O Cornelius, as he afterward 
 confessed, begged for himself that especial employment of go- 
 ing the first thing in the morning to salute me as consul, in order 
 that, having been admitted, according to my usual custom and 
 to the privilege which his friendship with me gave him, he might 
 slay me in my bed. 
 
 At this time, when the conspiracy was at its height; when 
 Catiline was starting for the army, and Lentulus was being left 
 in the city; when Cassius was being appointed to superintend 
 the burning of the city, and Cethegus the massacre; when 
 Autronius had the part allotted to him of occupying Italy; when, 
 in short, everything was being arranged, and settled, and pre- 
 pared; where, O Cornelius, was Sylla? Was he at Rome? 
 No, he was very far away. Was he in those districts to which 
 Catiline was betaking himself? He was still farther from them. 
 Was he in the Camertine, or Picenian, or Gallic district? lands 
 which the disease, as it were, of that frenzy had infected most 
 particularly. Nothing is further from the truth; for he was, as 
 I have said already, at Naples. He was in that part of Italy 
 which above all others was free from all suspicion of being im- 
 plicated in that business. What then does he state in his in- 
 formation, or what does he allege I mean Cornelius, or you 
 who bring these messages from him? He says that gladiators 
 were bought, under pretence of some games to be exhibited by 
 Faustus, for the purposes of slaughter and tumult. Just so; 
 the gladiators are mentioned whom we know that he was bound 
 to provide according to his father's will. " But he seized on a 
 whole household of gladiators; and if he had left that alone, 
 some other troop might have discharged the duty to which 
 Faustus was bound." I wish this troop could satisfy not only 
 the envy of parties unfavorable to him, but even the expectations 
 of reasonable men. " He was in a desperate hurry, when the 
 time for the exhibition was still far off." As if, in reality, the 
 time for the exhibition was not drawing very near. This house- 
 hold of slaves was got without Faustus having any idea of such 
 a step; for he neither knew of it, nor wished it. But there are 
 letters of Faustus's extant, in which he begs and prays Publius
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 137 
 
 Sylla to buy gladiators, and to buy this very troop: and not 
 only were such letters sent to Publius Sylla, but they were sent 
 also to Lucius Caesar, to Quintus Pompeius, and to Caius Mem- 
 mius, by whose advice the whole business was managed. But 
 Cornelius 5 was appointed to manage the troop. If in the respect 
 of the purchase of this household of gladiators no suspicion at- 
 taches to the circumstances, it certainly can make no difference 
 that he was appointed to manage them afterward. 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. 
 
 But Sittius was sent by him into farther Spain, in order to ex- 
 cite sedition in that province. In the first place, O judges, Sit- 
 tius departed, in the consulship of Lucius Julius and Caius Figu- 
 lus, 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 neces- 
 sary object, having some important accounts to settle with the 
 king of Mauritania. But then, after he was gone, as Sylla man- 
 aged 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 de- 
 sire, namely, of retaining their possessions, did not exist in the 
 case of Sittius, who had diminished his landed property to pay 
 his debts. 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 an- 
 other." Is it possible, then, that he should have thought it de- 
 sirable, when engaged in such important affairs, in such novel, 
 and dangerous, and seditious designs, to send away a man thor- 
 oughly attached to himself, his most intimate friend, one con- 
 
 5 This Cornelius is not the Roman knight mentioned before, but some 
 freedman of Publius Sylla.
 
 138 CICERO 
 
 nected with himself by reciprocal good offices and by constant 
 intercourse? It is not probable that he should send away, 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. 
 
 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 neighbors 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 con- 
 tracted, not out of luxury, but from a desire to increase his prop- 
 erty, 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. 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 re- 
 lationship 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 ex- 
 pense of his patrimony. , 
 
 But now, as to what he adds, that the inhabitants of Pompeii 
 were excited by Sylla to join that conspiracy and that abomin- 
 able wickedness, what sort of statement that is I am quite un- 
 able 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,
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 139 
 
 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 Sylla did not in any particular disa- 
 gree with the opinions of the others. And lastly, the settlers 
 themselves understand that the natives of Pompeii were not 
 more defended by Sylla than they themselves were. And this, 
 O judges, you may ascertain from the number of settlers, most 
 honorable men, here present; who are here now, and are anx- 
 ious 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 honor), 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 dif- 
 ferences with the settlers about walks and about votes have not 
 gone to such lengths as to make them differ also about their 
 common safety. And even this virtue of Publius Sylla 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 in- 
 terests 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. 
 
 " But the gladiators, and all those preparations for violence, 
 were got together because of the motion of Csecilius." And 
 then he inveighed bitterly against Csecilius, 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 under the impulse of brotherly af- 
 fection, and he abandoned it because he was dissuaded from it 
 by his brother's authority. And Sylla is accused by Lucius
 
 140 CICERO 
 
 Caecilius, in that business in which both of them deserve praise. 
 In the first place, Caecilius, for having proposed a law by which 
 he appeared to wish to rescind an unjust decision; and Sylla, 
 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 anyone 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 de- 
 cision with which he is finding fault, but the law. For the con- 
 viction is the act of judges, and that is let stand; the penalty is 
 the act of the law, and that may be lightened. Do not, there- 
 fore, 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 de- 
 cision which has been given; nothing of that sort has been pro- 
 posed. 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 se- 
 verity of the law required to be mitigated. 
 
 But why need I say more on this topic? I might speak per- 
 haps, 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 tQ be car- 
 ried; it was laid on the table in the Senate. On the first of Jan- 
 uary, 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 Sylla; that 
 Sylla did not wish such a motion to be brought forward respect- 
 ing his case. From that time forward Caecilius applied himself 
 to many measures for the advantage of the republic; he de-
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA i 4I 
 
 dared 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 be- 
 haved 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. And even 
 in regard to this very motion, who was there of us who had any 
 fears of Sylla or Caecilius attempting to carry any point by vio- 
 lence? Did not all the alarm that existed at that time, all the 
 fear and expectation of sedition, arise from the villany of Autro- 
 nius? 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 aban- 
 doned followers, that caused all the fear of sedition which agi- 
 tated us. Therefore, Publius Sylla, as this most odious man 
 was then his comrade and partner, not only in honor but also in 
 misfortune, was compelled to lose his own good fortune, and to 
 remain under a cloud without any remedy or alleviation. 
 
 At this point you are constantly reading passages from my 
 letter, which I sent to Cnaeus Pompeius about my own achieve- 
 ments, and about the general state of the republic ; and out of it 
 you seek to extract some charge against Publius Sylla. And 
 because 'I wrote that an attempt of incredible madness, con- 
 ceived two years before, had broken out in my consulship, you 
 say that I, by this expression, have proved that Sylla 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 Sylla! 
 But even if anyone 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 con- 
 sul, 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 de- 
 signs against your father, in order to make Catiline consul. 
 And if I grant you this, then you must grant to me that Sylla, 
 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
 
 142 CICERO 
 
 liable to the imputation of such enormous, of such atrocious 
 crimes. 
 
 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 coufse 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 must call you back to that point to which 
 the cause itself, even if I said nothing, would compel you to 
 direct all your attention. 
 
 In every case, O judges, which is of more serious impor- 
 tance than usual, we must judge a good deal as to what everyone 
 has wished, or intended, or done, not from the counts of the in- 
 dictment, but from the habits of the person who is accused. 
 For no one of us can have his character modelled in a moment, 
 nor can anyone's course of life be altered, or his natural disposi- 
 tion 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 be- 
 lieve in this attempt on the part of a man who had spent his whole 
 life, from his boyhood upward, not only in intemperance and de- 
 bauchery, but who had devoted all his energies and all his zeal 
 to every sort of enormity, and lust, and bloodshed? Who mar- 
 velled 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 of informers, 
 or the insanity of his caprices, or his perverse and impious super- 
 stition, who can wonder that he cherished either wicked designs, 
 or insane hopes ? Who ever thinks of Caius Cethegus and his 
 expedition into Spain, and the wound inflicted on Quintus Me- 
 tellus Pius, without seeing that a prison was built on purpose to 
 be the scene of his punishment? 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 con- 
 victed by his own manner of life, before he 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,
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 143 
 
 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 accus- 
 tomed 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 plun- 
 der the temples of the allies, to disturb the courts of justice by 
 violence and arms; in prosperity to despise everybody, in ad- 
 versity to fight against all good men; never to regard the in- 
 terests 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. 
 
 Come now, compare with those men the life of Publius Sylla, 
 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 anyone, 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? Ay, even in that terrible and disorderly 
 victory of Lucius Sylla, who was found more gentle or more 
 merciful than Publius Sylla? How many men's wives did he 
 not save by begging them of Lucius Sylla ! 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 Sylla! whom I might 
 name, for they have no objection ; indeed they are here to coun- 
 tenance 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. Why 
 need I speak of the other virtues of his life? of his dignity? of his 
 liberality? of his moderation in his own private affairs? of his 
 splendor on public occasions? For, though in these points he 
 has been crippled by fortune, yet the good foundations laid by 
 nature are visible. What a house was his! what crowds fre- 
 quented it daily ! How great was the dignity of his behavior to 
 his friends! How great was their attachment to him! What a 
 multitude of friends had he of every order of the people ! These
 
 144 CICERO 
 
 things, which had been built up by long time and much labor, 
 one single hour deprived him of. Publius Sylla, O judges, re- 
 ceived a terrible and a mortal wound; but still it was an injury 
 of such a sort as his way of life and his natural disposition might 
 seem liable to be exposed to. He was judged to have too great 
 a desire for honor and dignity. If no one else was supposed to 
 have such desires in standing for the consulship, then he was 
 judged to be more covetous than the rest. But if this desire for 
 the consulship has existed in some other men also, then, per- 
 haps, fortune was a little more unfavorable to him than to others. 
 But, after this misfortune, who ever saw Publius Sylla otherwise 
 than grieving, dejected, and out of spirits? Who ever sus- 
 pected that he was avoiding the sight of men and the light of 
 day, out of hatred, and not rather out of shame? For, though 
 he had many temptations to frequent this city and the forum, by 
 reason of the great attachment of his friends to him the only 
 consolation which remained to him in his misfortunes still he 
 kept out of your sight; and though he might have remained 
 here, as far as the law went, he almost condemned himself to 
 banishment. 
 
 In such modest conduct as this, O judges, and in such a life 
 as this, will you believe that there was any room left for such 
 enormous wickedness? Look at the man himself; behold his 
 countenance. Compare the accusation with his course of life. 
 Compare his life, which has been laid open before you from his 
 birth up to this day, with this accusation. I say nothing of the 
 republic, to which Sylla has always been most devoted. Did he 
 wish these friends of his, being such men as they are, so attached 
 to him, by whom his prosperity had been formerly adorned, by 
 whom his adversity is now comforted and relieved, to perish 
 miserably, in order that he himself might be at liberty to pass a 
 most miserable and infamous existence in company with Lentu- 
 lus, and Catiline, and Cethegus, with no other prospect for the 
 future but a disgraceful death? That suspicion is not consistent 
 it is, I say, utterly at variance with such habits, with such 
 modesty, with such a life as his, with the man himself. That 
 sprang up, a perfectly unexampled sort of barbarity; it was an 
 incredible and amazing insanity. The foulness of that unheard- 
 of wickedness broke out on a sudden, taking its rise from the 
 countless vices of profligate men accumulated ever since their 
 youth.
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 145 
 
 Think not, O judges, that that violence and that attempt was 
 the work of human beings ; for no nation ever was so barbarous 
 or so savage, as to have (I will not say so many, but even) one 
 implacable enemy to his country. They were some savage and 
 ferocious beasts, born of monsters, and clothed in human form. 
 Look again and again, O judges; for there is nothing too vio- 
 lent to be said in such a cause as this. Look deeply and thor- 
 oughly into the minds of Catiline, Autronius, Cethegus, Lentu- 
 lus, and the rest. What lusts you will find in these men, what 
 crimes, what baseness, what audacity, what incredible insanity, 
 what marks of wickedness, what traces of parricide, what heaps 
 of enormous guilt! Out of the great diseases of the republic, 
 diseases of long standing, which had been given over as hopeless, 
 suddenly that violence broke out; in such a way, that when it 
 was put down and got rid of, the state might again be able to 
 become convalescent and to be cured; for there is no one who 
 thinks that if those pests remained in the republic, the constitu- 
 tion could continue to exist any longer. Therefore they were 
 some Furies who urged them on, not to complete their wicked- 
 ness, but to atone to the republic for their guilt by their pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Will you then, O judges, now turn back Publius Sylla into 
 this band of rascals, out of that band of honorable men who are 
 living and have lived as his associates? Will you transfer him 
 from this body of citizens, and from the familiar dignity in which 
 he lives with them, to the party of impious men, to that crew 
 and company of parricides? What then will become of that 
 most impregnable defence of modesty? in what respect will the 
 purity of our past lives be of any use to us? For what time is the 
 reward of the character which a man has gained to be reserved, 
 if it is to desert him at his utmost need, and when he is engaged 
 in a contest in which all his fortunes are at stake if it is not to 
 stand by him and help him at such a crisis as this? Our prose- 
 cutor threatens us with the examinations and torture of our 
 slaves ; and though we do not suspect that any danger can arise 
 to us from them, yet pain reigns in those tortures ; much de- 
 pends on the nature of everyone's mind, and the fortitude of a 
 person's body. The inquisitor manages everything; caprice 
 regulates much, hope corrupts them, fear disables them, so that, 
 in the straits in which they are placed, there is but little room left 
 for truth. 
 10
 
 146 CICERO 
 
 Is the life of Publius Sylla, then, to be put to the torture? is 
 it to be examined to see what lust is concealed beneath it? 
 whether any crime is lurking under it, or any cruelty, or any 
 audacity? There will be no mistake in our cause, O judges, no 
 obscurity, if the voice of his whole life, which ought to be of the 
 very greatest weight, is listened to by you. In this cause we fear 
 no witness; we feel sure that no one knows, or has ever seen, or 
 has ever heard anything against us. But still, if the considera- 
 tion of the fortune of Publius Sylla has no effect on you, O 
 judges, let a regard for your own fortune weigh with you. For 
 this is of the greatest importance to you who have lived in the 
 greatest elegance and safety, that the causes of honorable men 
 should not be judged of according to the caprice, or enmity, or 
 worthlessness of the witnesses; but that in important investiga- 
 tions and sudden dangers, the life of every man should be the 
 most credible witness. And do not you, O judges, abandon 
 and expose it, stripped of its arms, and defenceless, to envy and 
 suspicion. Fortify the common citadel of all good men, block 
 up the ways of escape resorted to by the wicked. Let that wit- 
 ness be of the greatest weight in procuring either safety or pun- 
 ishment for a man, which is the only one that, from its own in- 
 trinsic nature, can with ease be thoroughly examined, and which 
 cannot be suddenly altered and remodelled. 
 
 What? Shall this authority (for I must continually speak of 
 that, though I will speak of it with timidity and moderation) 
 shall, I say, this authority of mine, when I have kept aloof from 
 the cause of everyone else accused of this conspiracy, and have 
 defended Sylla alone, be of no service to my client? This is 
 perhaps a bold thing to say, O judges; a bold thing, if we are 
 asking for anything; a bold thing, if, when everyone else is 
 silent about us, we will not be silent ourselves. But if we 
 are attacked, if we are accused, if we are sought to be ren- 
 dered unpopular, then surely, O judges, you will allow us to 
 retain our liberty, even if we cannot quite retain all our dig- 
 nity. All the men of consular rank are accused at one swoop ; 
 so that the name of the most honorable office in the state ap- 
 pears now to carry with it more unpopularity than dignity. 
 " They stood by Catiline," says he, " and praised him." At that 
 time there was no conspiracy known of or discovered. They 
 were defending a friend. They were giving their suppliant the
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 147 
 
 countenance of their presence. They did not think the moment 
 of his most imminent danger a fit time to reproach him with the 
 infamy of his life. Moreover, even your own father, O Tor- 
 quatus, when consul, was the advocate of Catiline when he was 
 prosecuted on a charge of extortion ; he knew he was a bad man, 
 but he was a suppliant; perhaps he was an audacious man, but 
 he had once been his friend. And, as he stood by him after 
 information of that first conspiracy had been laid before him, 
 he showed that he had heard something about him, but that 
 he had not believed it. " But he did not countenance him 
 by his presence at the other trial, when the rest did." If he 
 himself had afterward learned something of which he had been 
 ignorant when consul, still we must pardon those men who 
 .had heard nothing since that time. But if the first accusation 
 had weight, it ought not to have had more weight when it was 
 old than when it was fresh. But if your parent, even when he 
 was not without suspicion of danger to himself, was still in- 
 duced by pity to do honor to the defence of a most worthless 
 man by his curule chair, by his own private dignity, and by 
 that of his office as consul, then what reason is there for re- 
 proaching the men of consular rank who gave Catiline the 
 countenance of their presence ? " But the same men did not 
 countenance those who were tried for their accession to this 
 conspiracy before Sylla." Certainly not; they resolved that 
 no aid, no assistance, no support ought to be given by them 
 to men implicated in such wickedness. And that I may speak 
 for a moment of their constancy and attachment to the re- 
 public, whose silent virtue and loyalty bears witness in behalf 
 of every one of them, and needs no ornaments of language 
 from anyone can anyone say that any time there were men 
 of consular rank more virtuous, more fearless, or more firm, 
 than those who lived in these critical and perilous times, in 
 which the republic was nearly overwhelmed? Who of them did 
 not, with the greatest openness, and bravery, and earnestness, 
 give his whole thoughts to the common safety? Nor need I 
 confine what I say to the men of consular rank. For this credit 
 is due to all those accomplished men who have been praetors, and 
 indeed to the whole Senate in common ; so that it is plain that 
 never, in the memory of man, was there more virtue in that 
 order, greater attachment to the republic, or more consummate
 
 I 4 8 CICERO 
 
 wisdom. But because the men of consular rank were especially 
 mentioned, I thought I ought to say thus much in their behalf; 
 and that that would be enough, as the recollection of all men 
 would join me in bearing witness, that there was not one man of 
 that rank who did not labor with all his virtue, and energy, and 
 influence, to preserve the republic. 
 
 But what comes next? Do I, who never praised Catiline, 
 who never as consul countenanced Catiline when he was on his 
 trial, who have given evidence respecting the conspiracy against 
 others do I seem to you so far removed from sanity, so forget- 
 ful of my own consistency, so forgetful of all the exploits which 
 I have performed, as, though as consul I waged war against the 
 conspirators, now to wish to preserve then- leader, and to bring 
 my mind now to defend the cause and the life of that same man 
 whose weapon I lately blunted, and whose flames I have but just 
 extinguished? If, O judges, the republic itself, which has been 
 preserved by my labors and dangers, did not by its dignity re- 
 call me to wisdom and consistency, still it is an instinct im- 
 planted by nature, to hate forever the man whom you have once 
 feared, with whom you have contended for life and fortune, and 
 from whose plots you have escaped. But when my chief honors 
 and the great glory of all my exploits are at stake; when, as 
 often as anyone is convicted of any participation in this wicked- 
 ness, the recollection of the safety of the city having been se- 
 cured by me is renewed, shall I be so mad as to allow those 
 things which I did in behalf of the common safety to appear 
 now to have been done by me more by chance and by good for- 
 tune than by virtue and wisdom? "What, then, do you mean? 
 Do you," someone will say, perhaps, " claim that a man shall be 
 judged innocent, just because you have defended him? " But I, 
 O judges, not only claim nothing for myself to which anyone 
 can object, but I even give up and abandon pretensions which 
 are granted and allowed me by everyone. I am not living in 
 such a republic I have not exposed my life to all sorts of dan- 
 gers for the sake of my country at such a time they whom I 
 have defeated are not so utterly extinct nor are those whom I 
 have preserved so grateful, that I should think it safe to attempt 
 to assume more than all my enemies and enviers may endure. 
 It would appear an offensive thing for him who investigated the 
 conspiracy, who laid it open, who crushed it, whom the Senate
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 149 
 
 thanked in unprecedented language, to whom the Senate de- 
 creed a supplication, which they had never decreed to anyone 
 before for civil services, to say in a court of justice, " I would 
 not have defended him if he had ben a conspirator." I do not 
 say that, because it might be offensive ; I say this, which in these 
 trials relating to the conspiracy I may claim a right to say, 
 speaking not with authority but with modesty, " I who investi- 
 gated and chastised that conspiracy would certainly not defend 
 Sylla, if I thought that he had been a conspirator." I, O judges, 
 say this, which I said at the beginning, that when I was making 
 a thorough inquiry into those great dangers which were threat- 
 ening everybody, when I was hearing many things, not believ- 
 ing everything, but guarding against everything, not one word 
 was said to me by anyone who gave information, nor did any- 
 one hint any suspicion, nor was there the slightest mention in 
 anyone's letters, of Publius Sylla. 
 
 Wherefore I call you, O gods of my country and of my house- 
 hold, to witness you who preside over this city and this em- 
 pire you who have preserved this empire, and these our liber- 
 ties, and the Roman people you who by your divine assistance 
 protected these houses and temples when I was consul that I, 
 with a free and honest heart, am defending the cause of Publius 
 Sylla ; that no crime has been concealed by me knowingly, that 
 no wickedness undertaken against the general safety has been 
 kept back or defended by me. I, when consul, found out noth- 
 ing about this man, I suspected nothing, I heard of nothing. 
 Therefore I, the same person who have seemed to be vehement 
 against some men, inexorable toward the rest of the conspirators 
 (I paid my country what I owed her; what I am now doing is 
 due to my own invariable habits and natural disposition), am as 
 merciful, O judges, as you yourselves. I am as gentle as the 
 most soft-hearted among you. As far as I was vehement in 
 union with you, I did nothing except what I was compelled to 
 do : I came to the assistance of the republic when in great dan- 
 ger; I raised my sinking country; influenced by pity for the 
 whole body of citizens, we were then as severe as was necessary. 
 The safety of all men would have been lost forever in one night, if 
 that severity had not been exercised ; but as I was led on to the 
 punishment of wicked men by my attachment to the republic, so 
 now I am led to secure the safety of the innocent by my own 
 inclination.
 
 CICERO 
 
 I see, O judges, that in this Publius Sylla there is nothing 
 worthy of hatred, and many circumstances deserving our pity. 
 For he does not now, O judges, flee to you as a suppliant for 
 the sake of warding off calamity from himself, but to prevent 
 his whole family and name from being branded with the stigma 
 of nefarious baseness. For as for himself, even if he be acquit- 
 ted by your decision, what honors has he, what comforts has he 
 for the rest of his life, in which he can find delight or enjoy- 
 ment ? His house, I suppose, will be adorned ; the images of 
 his ancestors will be displayed ; he himself will resume his orna- 
 ments and his usual dress. All these things, O judges, are lost 
 to him; all the insignia and ornaments of his family, and his 
 name, and his honor, were lost by the calamity of that one de- 
 cision. But he is anxious not to be called the destroyer, the 
 betrayer, the enemy of his country ; he is fearful of leaving such 
 disgrace to a family of such renown; he is anxious that this 
 unhappy child may not be called the son of a conspirator, a 
 criminal, and a traitor. He fears for this boy, who is much 
 dearer to him than his own life, anxious, though he cannot 
 leave him the undiminished inheritance of his honors, at all 
 events not to leave him the undying recollection of his infamy. 
 This little child entreats you, O judges, to allow him occasion- 
 ally to congratulate his father, if not with his fortunes unim- 
 paired, at least to congratulate him in his affliction. The roads 
 to the courts of justice and to the forum are better known to 
 that unhappy boy than the roads to his play-ground or to his 
 school. I am contending now, O judges, not for the life of 
 Publius Sylla, but for his burial. His life was taken from him 
 at the former trial ; we are now striving to prevent his body 
 from being cast out. For what has he left which need detain 
 him in this life ? or what is there to make anyone think such an 
 existence life at all? 
 
 Lately Publius Sylla was a man of such consideration in the 
 state that no one thought himself superior to him either in 
 honor, or in influence, or in good fortune. Now, stripped of 
 all his dignity, he does not seek to recover what has been taken 
 away from him ; but he does entreat you, O judges, not to take 
 from him the little which fortune has left him in his disasters 
 namely, the permission to bewail his calamities in company with 
 his parent, with his children, with his brother, and with his
 
 ORATION IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SYLLA 151 
 
 friends. It would be becoming for even you yourself, O Tor- 
 quatus, to be by this time satisfied with the miseries of my client. 
 Although you had taken nothing from Sylla except the consul- 
 ship, yet you ought to be content with that. For it was a con- 
 test for honor, and not enmity, which originally induced you to 
 take up this cause. But now that, together with his honor, 
 everything else has been taken from him now that he is deso- 
 late, crushed by this miserable and grievous fortune, what is 
 there which you can wish for more ? Do you wish to deprive 
 him of the enjoyment of the light of day, full as it is to him of 
 tears and grief, in which he now lives amid the greatest grief 
 and torment ? He would gladly give it up, if you would release 
 him from the foul imputation of this most odious crime. Do 
 you seek to banish him as an enemy, when, if you were really 
 hard-hearted, you would derive greater enjoyment from seeing 
 his miseries than from hearing of them ? Oh, wretched and un- 
 happy was that day on which Publius Sylla was declared consul 
 by all the centuries ! O how false were the hopes ! how fleeting 
 the good fortune ! how blind the desire ! how unreasonable the 
 congratulations ! How soon was all that scene changed from 
 joy and pleasure to mourning and tears, when he, who but a 
 short time before had been consul elect, had on a sudden no 
 trace left of his previous dignity. For what evil was there which 
 seemed then to be wanting to him when he was thus stripped of 
 honor, and fame, and fortune ? or what room could there be left 
 for any new calamity ? The same fortune continues to pursue 
 him which followed him from the first ; she finds a new source of 
 grief for him ; she will not allow an unfortunate man to perish 
 when he has been afflicted in only one way, and by only one 
 disaster. 
 
 But now, O judges, I am hindered by my own grief of mind 
 from saying any more about the misery of my client. That 
 consideration belongs to you, O judges. I rest the whole 
 cause on your mercy and your humanity. You, after a rejec- 
 tion of several judges, of which we had no suspicion, have sat 
 as judges suddenly appointed to hear our cause, having been 
 chosen by our accusers from their hopes of your severity, but 
 having been also given to us by fortune as the protectors of our 
 innocence. As I have been anxious as to what the Roman peo- 
 ple thought of me, because I had been severe toward wicked
 
 I 5 2 CICERO 
 
 men, and so have undertaken the first defence of an innocent 
 man that was offered to me, so do you also mitigate that sever- 
 ity of the courts of justice which has been exerted now for some 
 months against the most audacious of men, by your lenity and 
 mercy. The cause itself ought to obtain this from you; and 
 besides, it is due to your virtue and courage to show that you 
 are not the man to whom it is most advisable for an accuser to 
 apply after having rejected other judges. And in leaving the 
 matter to your decision, O judges, I exhort you, with all the 
 earnestness that my affection for you warrants me in using, so 
 to act that we, by our common zeal (since we are united in the 
 service of the republic), and you, by your humanity and mercy, 
 may repel from us both the false charge of cruelty.
 
 SPEECH 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF 
 AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Archias was a Greek poet, a native of Antioch, who came to Rome 
 in the train of Lucullus, when Cicero was a child. He assumed the 
 names of Aulus and Licinius, the last out of compliment to the Lu- 
 culli, and Cicero had been for some time a pupil of his, and had 
 retained a great regard for him. A man of the name of Gracchus 
 now prosecuted him as a false pretender to the rights of a Roman 
 citizen, according to the provisions of the Lex Papiria. But Cicero 
 contends that he is justified by that very law, for Archias before com- 
 ing to Rome had stayed at Heraclea, a confederate city, and had been 
 enrolled as a Heraclean citizen; and in the Lex Papiria it was ex- 
 pressly provided that those who were on the register of any con- 
 federate city as its citizens, if they were residing in Italy at the time 
 the law was passed, and if they made a return of themselves to the 
 praetor within sixty days, were to be exempt from its .operation. 
 However, the greatest part of this oration is occupied, not in legal 
 arguments, but in a panegyric on Archias, who is believed to have 
 died soon afterwards; and he must have been a very old man at the 
 time that it was spoken, as it was nearly forty years previously that 
 he had first come to Rome. 
 
 154
 
 SPEECH 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 
 
 IF there be any natural ability in me, O judges and I know 
 how slight that is ; or if I have any practice as a speaker 
 and in that line I do not deny that I have some experience ; 
 or if I have any method in my oratory, drawn from my study 
 of the liberal sciences, and from that careful training to which 
 I admit that at no part of my life have I ever been disinclined ; 
 certainly, of all those qualities, this Aulus Licinius is entitled 
 to be among the first to claim the benefit from me as his peculiar 
 right. For as far as ever my mind can look back upon the 
 space of time that is past, and recall the memory of its earliest 
 youth, tracing my life from that starting-point, I see that 
 Archias was the principal cause of my undertaking, and the 
 principal means of my mastering, those studies. And if this 
 voice of mine, formed by his encouragement and his precepts, 
 has at times been the instrument of safety to others, undoubt- 
 edly we ought, as far as lies in our power, to help and save the 
 very man from whom we have received that gift which has en- 
 abled us to bring help to many and salvation to some. And 
 lest anyone should, perchance, marvel at this being said by me, 
 as the chief of his ability consists in something else, and not 
 in this system and practice of eloquence, he must be told that 
 even we ourselves have never been wholly devoted to this study. 
 In truth, all the arts which concern the civilizing and humaniz- 
 ing of men, have some link which binds them together, and are, 
 as it were, cemented by some relationship to one another. 
 
 And, that it may not appear marvellous to any one of you, that 
 I, in a formal proceeding like this, and in a regular court of jus- 
 tice, when an action is being tried before a praetor of the Roman 
 people, a most eminent man, and before most impartial judges, 
 before such an assembly and multitude of people as I see around 
 
 155
 
 156 CICERO 
 
 me, employ this style of speaking, which is at variance, not only 
 with the ordinary usages of courts of justice, but with the gen- 
 eral style of forensic pleading; I entreat you in this cause to 
 grant me this indulgence, suitable to this defendant, and as I 
 trust not disagreeable to you the indulgence, namely, of al- 
 lowing me, when speaking in defence of a most sublime poet 
 and most learned man, before this concourse of highly educated 
 citizens, before this most polite and accomplished assembly, 
 and before such a praetor as him who is presiding at this trial, 
 to enlarge with a little more freedom than usual on the study 
 of polite literature and refined arts, and, speaking in the charac- 
 ter of such a man as that, who, owing to the tranquillity of his 
 life and the studies to which he has devoted himself, has but 
 little experience of the dangers of a court of justice, to employ 
 a new and unusual style of oratory. And if I feel that that 
 indulgence is given and allowed me by you, I will soon cause 
 you to think that this Aulus Licinius is a man who not only, 
 now that he is a citizen, does not deserve to be expunged from 
 the list of citizens, but that he is worthy, even if he were not one, 
 of being now made a citizen. 
 
 For when first Archias grew out of childhood, and out of the 
 studies of those arts by which young boys are gradually trained 
 and refined, he devoted himself to the study of writing. First 
 of all at Antioch (for he was born there, and was of high rank 
 there), formerly an illustrious and wealthy city, and the seat 
 of learned men and of liberal sciences ; and there it was his lot 
 speedily to show himself superior to all in ability and credit. 
 Afterward, in the other parts of Asia, and over all Greece, his 
 arrival was so talked of wherever he came, that the anxiety with 
 which he was expected was even greater than the fame of his 
 genius ; but the admiration which he excited when he had ar- 
 rived, exceeded even the anxiety with which he was expected. 
 Italy was at that time full of Greek science and of Greek systems, 
 and these studies were at that time cultivated in Latium with 
 greater zeal than they now are in the same towns ; and here, too, 
 at Rome, on account of the tranquil state of the republic at that 
 time, they were far from neglected. Therefore, the people of 
 Tarentum, and Rhegium, and Neapolis, presented him with the 
 freedom of the city and with other gifts ; and all men who were 
 capable of judging of genius thought him deserving of their ac-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 157 
 
 quaintance and hospitality. When, from this great celebrity 
 of his, he had become known to us though absent, he came to 
 Rome, in the consulship of Marius and Catulus. It was his lot 
 to have those men as his first consuls, the one of whom could 
 supply him with the most illustrious achievements to write 
 about, the other could give him, not only exploits to celebrate, 
 but his ears and judicious attention. Immediately the Luculli, 
 though Archias was as yet but a youth, 1 received him in their 
 house. But it was not only to his genius and his learning, but 
 also to his natural disposition and virtue, that it must be attrib- 
 uted that the house which was the first to be opened to him in 
 his youth, is also the one in which he lives most familiarly in his 
 old age. He at that time gained the affection of Quintus Metel- 
 lus, that great man who was the conqueror of Numidia, and his 
 son Pius. He was eagerly listened to by Marcus JEmilius ; he 
 associated with Quintus Catulus both with the father and the 
 sons. It was highly respected by Lucius Crassus ; and as for 
 the Luculli, and Drusus, and the Octavii, and Cato, and the 
 whole family of the Hortensii, he was on terms of the greatest 
 possible intimacy with all of them, and was held by them in the 
 greatest honor. For, not only did everyone cultivate his ac- 
 quaintance who wished to learn or to hear anything, but even 
 everyone who pretended to have such a desire. 
 
 In the mean time, after a sufficiently long interval, having 
 gone with Lucius Lucullus into Sicily, and having afterward 
 departed from that province in the company of the same Lucul- 
 lus, he came to Heraclea. And as that city was one which en- 
 joyed all the rights of a confederate city to their full extent, he 
 became desirous of being enrolled as a citizen of it. And, being 
 thought deserving of such a favor for his own sake, when aided 
 by the influence and authority of Lucullus, he easily obtained 
 
 1 The Latin is praetextatus. Before he completion of the fourteenth year 
 
 had exchanged the praetexta for the toga though it is certain that the completion 
 
 vinhs. It has generally been thought of the fourteenth year was not always 
 
 that the age at which this exchange was the time observed." Even supposing 
 
 made was seventeen, but Professor Archias to have been seventeen, it ap- 
 
 Long, the highest possible authority on pears rather an early age for him to 
 
 all subjects of Latin literature, and es- have established such a reputation as 
 
 g:cially on Roman law, says (Smith, Cicero speaks of, and perhaps, as not 
 
 ictionary of Antiquities, v. Impubes), being at that time a Roman citizen, he 
 
 The toga virihs was assumed at the probably did not wear the praetexta at 
 
 Liberalia in the month of March; and all; the expression is not to be taken 
 
 though no age appears to have been literally, but we are merely to under- 
 
 positively fixed for the ceremony, it stand generally that he was quite a 
 
 probably took place, as a general rule, young man. 
 on the feast which next followed the
 
 158 CICERO 
 
 it from the Heracleans. The freedom of the city was given 
 him in accordance with the provisions of the law of Silvanus and 
 Carbo : " If any men had been enrolled as citizens of the con- 
 federate cities, and if, at the time that the law was passed, they 
 had a residence in Italy, and if within sixty days they had made 
 a return of themselves to the praetor." As he had now had a 
 residence at Rome for many years, he returned himself as a citi- 
 zen to the prsetor, Quintus Metellus, his most intimate friend. 
 If we have nothing else to speak about except the rights of citi- 
 zenship and the law, I need say no more. The cause is over. 
 For which of all these statements, O Gratius, can be invali- 
 dated ? Will you deny that he was enrolled, at the time I speak 
 of, as a citizen of Heraclea ? There is a man present of the very 
 highest authority, a most scrupulous and truthful man, Lucius 
 Lucullus, who will tell you not that he thinks it, but that he 
 knows it ; not that he has heard of it, but that he saw it ; not even 
 that.he was present when it was done, but that he actually did it 
 himself. Deputies from Heraclea are present, men of the high- 
 est rank ; they have come expressly on account of this trial, with 
 a commission from their city, and to give evidence on the part 
 of their city ; and they say that he was enrolled as a Heraclean. 
 On this you ask for the public registers of the Heracleans, 
 which we all know were destroyed in the Italian war, when the 
 register-office was burned. It is ridiculous to say nothing to 
 the proofs which we have, but to ask for proofs which it is im- 
 possible for us to have ; to disregard the recollection of men, 
 and to appeal to the memory of documents ; and when you have 
 the conscientious evidence of a most honorable man, the oath 
 and good faith of a most respectable municipality, to reject 
 those things which cannot by any possibility be tampered with, 
 and to demand documentary evidence, though you say at the 
 same moment that that is constantly played tricks with. " But 
 he had no residence at Rome." What, not he who for so many 
 years before the freedom of the city was given to him, had estab- 
 lished the abode of all his property and fortunes at Rome? 
 " But he did not return himself." Indeed he did, and in that 
 return which alone obtains with the college of praetors the 
 authority of a public document. 
 
 For as the returns of Appius were said to have been kept care- 
 lessly, and as the trifling conduct of Gabinius, before he was
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 159 
 
 convicted, and his misfortune after his condemnation, had taken 
 away all credit from the public registers, Metellus, the most 
 scrupulous and moderate of all men, was so careful, that he 
 came to Lucius Lentulus, the praetor, and to the judges, and 
 said that he was greatly vexed at an erasure which appeared 
 in one name. In these documents, therefore, you will see no 
 erasure affecting the name of Aulus Licinius. And as this is 
 the case, what reason have you for doubting about his citizen- 
 ship, especially as he was enrolled as a citizen of other cities 
 also ? In truth, as men in Greece were in the habit of giving 
 rights of citizenship to many men of very ordinary qualifica- 
 tions, and endowed with no talents at all, or with very moderate 
 ones, without any payment, it is likely, I suppose, that the Rheg- 
 ians,and Locrians,and Neapolitans, and Tarentines should have 
 been unwilling to give to this man, enjoying the highest possi- 
 ble reputation for genius, what they were in the habit of giving 
 even to theatrical artists. What, when other men, who not only 
 after the freedom of the city had been given, but even after the 
 passing of the Papian law, crept somehow or other into the 
 registers of those municipalities, shall he be rejected who does 
 not avail himself of those other lists in which he is enrolled, 
 because he always wished to be considered a Heraclean ? You 
 demand to see our own censor's returns. I suppose no one 
 knows that at the time of the last census he was with that most 
 illustrious general, Lucius Lucullus, with the army ; that at the 
 time of the preceding one he was with the same man when he 
 was in Asia as quaestor; and that in the census before that, 
 when Julius and Crassus were censors, no regular account of 
 the people was taken. But, since the census does not confirm 
 the right of citizenship, but only indicates that he, who is re- 
 turned in the census, did at that time claim to be considered as 
 a citizen, I say that, at that time, when you say, in your speech 
 for the prosecution, that he did not even himself consider that 
 he had any claim to the privileges of a Roman citizen, he more 
 than once made a will according to our laws, and he entered 
 upon inheritances left him by Roman citizens ; and he was made 
 honorable mention of by Lucius Lucullus, both as praetor and 
 as consul, in the archives kept in the treasury. 
 
 You must rely wholly on what arguments you can find. For 
 he will never be convicted either by his own opinion of his case, 
 or by that which is formed of it by his friends.
 
 160 CICERO 
 
 You ask us, O Gratius, why we are so exceedingly attached 
 to this man. Because he supplies us with food whereby our 
 mind is refreshed after this noise in the forum, and with rest 
 for our ears after they have been wearied with bad language. 
 Do you think it possible that we could find a supply for our 
 daily speeches, when discussing such a variety of matters, un- 
 less we were to cultivate our minds by the study of literature ; 
 or that our minds could bear being kept so constantly on the 
 stretch if we did not relax them by that same study? But I 
 confess that I am devoted to those studies; let others be 
 ashamed of them if they have buried themselves in books with- 
 out being able to produce anything out of them for the common 
 advantage, or anything which may bear the eyes of men and 
 the light. But why need I be ashamed, who for many years 
 have lived in such a manner as never to allow my own love of 
 tranquillity to deny me to the necessity or advantage of another, 
 or my fondness for pleasure to distract, or even sleep to delay 
 my attention to such claims? Who, then, can reproach me, 
 or who has any right to be angry with me, if I allow myself as 
 much time for the cultivation of these studies as some take for 
 the performance of their own business, or for celebrating days 
 of festival and games, or for other pleasures, or even for the rest 
 and refreshment of mind and body, or as others devote to early 
 banquets, to playing at dice, or at ball ? And this ought to be 
 permitted to me, because by these studies my power of speak- 
 ing and those faculties are improved, which, as far as they do 
 exist in me, have never been denied to my friends when they 
 have been in peril. And if that ability appears to anyone to be 
 but moderate, at all events I know whence I derive those princi- 
 ples which are of the greatest value. For if I had not persuaded 
 myself from my youth upward, both by the precepts of many 
 masters and by much reading, that there is nothing in life 
 greatly to be desired, except praise and honor, and that while 
 pursuing those things all tortures of the body, all dangers of 
 death and banishment are to be considered but of small im- 
 portance, I should never have exposed myself, in defence of 
 your safety, to such numerous and arduous contests, and to 
 these daily attacks of profligate men. But all books are full of 
 such precepts, and all the sayings of philosophers, and all antiq- 
 uity is full of precedents teaching the same lesson ; but all these
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 161 
 
 things would lie buried in darkness, if the light of literature and 
 learning were not applied to them. How many images of the 
 bravest men, carefully elaborated, have both the Greek and 
 Latin writers bequeathed to us, not merely for us to look at and 
 gaze upon, but also for our imitation ! And I, always keeping 
 them before my eyes as examples for my own public conduct, 
 have endeavored to mpdel my mind and views by continually 
 thinking of those excellent men. 
 
 Someone will ask, " What? were those identical great men, 
 whose virtues have been recorded in books, accomplished in all 
 that learning which you are extolling so highly ? " It is diffi- 
 cult to assert this of all of them ; but still I know what answer 
 I can make to that question : I admit that many men have ex- 
 isted of admirable disposition and virtue, who, without learning, 
 by the almost divine instinct of their own mere nature, have 
 been, of their own accord, as it were, moderate and wise men. 
 I even add this, that very often nature without learning has had 
 more to do with leading men to credit and to virtue, than learn- 
 ing when not assisted by a good natural disposition. And I 
 also contend, that when to an excellent and admirable natural 
 disposition there is added a certain system and training of edu- 
 cation, then from that combination arises an extraordinary per- 
 fection of character ; such as is seen in that godlike man, whom 
 our fathers saw in their time, Africanus ; and in Caius Laelius 
 and Lucius Furius, most virtuous and moderate men ; and in 
 that most excellent man, the most learned man of his time, 
 Marcus Cato the elder ; and all these men, if they had been to 
 derive no assistance from literature in the cultivation and prac- 
 tice of virtue, would never have applied themselves to the study 
 of it. Though, even if there were no such great advantage to 
 be reaped from it, and if it were only pleasure that is sought 
 from these studies, still I imagine you would consider it a most 
 reasonable and liberal employment of the mind ; for other occu- 
 pations are not suited to every time, nor to every age or place ; 
 but these studies are the food of youth, the delight of old age ; 
 the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adver- 
 sity ; a delight at home, and no hinderance abroad ; they are 
 companions by night, and in travel, and in the country. 
 
 And if we ourselves were not able to arrive at -these advan- 
 tages, nor even taste them with our senses, still we ought to 
 ii
 
 162 CICERO 
 
 admire them, even when we saw them in others. Who of us 
 was of so ignorant and brutal a disposition as not lately to be 
 grieved at the death of Roscius? who, though he was an old 
 man when he died, yet, on account of the excellence and beauty 
 of his art, appeared to be one who on every account ought not 
 to have died. Therefore, had he by the gestures of his body 
 gained so much of our affections, and. shall we disregard the 
 incredible movements of the mind, and the rapid operations of 
 genius? How often have I seen this man Archias, O judges 
 (for I will take advantage of your kindness, since you listen to 
 me so attentively while speaking in this unusual manner) 
 how often have I seen him, when he had not written a single 
 word, repeat extempore a great number of admirable verses 
 on the very events which were passing at the moment ! How 
 often have I seen him go back, and describe the same thing 
 over again with an entire change of language and ideas ! And 
 what he wrote with care and with much thought, that I have 
 seen admired to such a degree, as to equal the credit of even the 
 writings of the ancients. Should not I, then, love this man? 
 should I not admire him ? should not I think it my duty to de- 
 fend him in every possible way? And, indeed, we have con- 
 stantly heard from men of the greatest eminence and learning, 
 that the study of other sciences was made up of learning, and 
 rules, and regular method ; but that a poet was such by the un- 
 assisted work of nature, and was moved by the vigor of his own 
 mind, and was inspired, as it were, by some oivine wrath. 
 Wherefore rightly does our own great Ennius call poets holy ; 
 because they seem to be recommended to us by some especial 
 gift, as it were, and liberality of the gods. Let, then, judges, 
 this name of poet, this name which no barbarians even have 
 ever disregarded, be holy in your eyes, men of cultivated minds 
 as you all are. Rocks and deserts reply to the poet's voice; 
 savage beasts are often moved and arrested by song ; and shall 
 we, who have been trained in the pursuit of the most virtuous 
 acts, refuse to be swayed by the voice of poets ? The Colopho- 
 nians say that Homer was their citizen ; the Chians claim him 
 as theirs ; the Salaminians assert their right to him ; but the men 
 of Smyrna loudly assert him to be a citizen of Smyrna, and they 
 have even raised a temple to him in their city. Many other 
 places also fight with one another for the honor of being his 
 birth-place.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 163 
 
 They, then, claim a stranger, even after his death, because he 
 was a poet ; shall we reject this man while he is alive, a man 
 who by his own inclination and by our laws does actually be- 
 long to us ? especially when Archias has employed all his genius 
 with the utmost zeal in celebrating the glory and renown of the 
 Roman people ? For when a young man, he touched on our 
 wars against the Cimbri, and gained the favor even of Caius 
 Marius himself, a man who was tolerably proof against this sort 
 of study. For there was no one else so disinclined to the muses 
 as not willingly to endure that the praise of his labors should be 
 made immortal by means of verse. They say that the great 
 Themistocles, the greatest man that Athens produced, said, 
 when someone asked him what sound or whose voice he took 
 the greatest delight in hearing, " The voice of that by whom his 
 own exploits were best celebrated." Therefore, the great Ma- 
 rius was also exceedingly attached to Lucius Plotius, because 
 he thought that the achievement which he had performed could 
 be celebrated by his genius. And the whole Mithridatic War, 
 great and difficult as it was, and carried on with so much diver- 
 sity of fortune by land and sea, has been related at length by 
 him; and the books in which that is sung of, not only make 
 illustrious Lucius Lucullus, that most gallant and celebrated 
 man, but they do honor also to the Roman people. For, while 
 Lucullus was general, the Roman people opened Pontus, 
 though it was defended both by the resources of the king and 
 by the character of the country itself. Under the same general 
 the army of the Roman people, with no very great numbers, 
 routed the countless hosts of the Armenians. It is the glory of 
 the Roman people that, by the wisdom of that same general, 
 the city of the Cyzicenes, most friendly to us, was delivered and 
 preserved from all the attacks of the kind, and from the very 
 jaws, as it were, of the whole war. Ours is the glory which will 
 be forever celebrated, which is derived from the fleet of the 
 enemy which was sunk after its admirals had been slain, and 
 from the marvellous naval battle off Tenedos ; those trophies 
 belong to us, those monuments are ours, those triumphs are 
 ours. Therefore I say that the men by whose genius these ex- 
 ploits are celebrated make illustrious at the same time the glory 
 of the Roman people. Our countryman, Ennius, was dear to 
 the elder Africanus ; and even on the tomb of the Scipios his
 
 164 CICERO 
 
 effigy is believed to be visible, carved in the marble. But un- 
 doubtedly it is not only the men who are themselves praised 
 who are done honor to by those praises, but the name of the 
 Roman people also is adorned by them. Cato, the ancestor 
 of this Cato, is extolled to the skies. Great honor is paid to the 
 exploits of the Roman people. Lastly, all those great men, the 
 Maximi, the Marcelli, and the Fulvii, are done honor to, not 
 without all of us having also a share in the panegyric. 
 
 Therefore our ancestors received the man who was the cause 
 of all this, a man of Rudiae, into their city as a citizen ; and shall 
 we reject from our city a man of Heraclea, a man sought by 
 many cities, and made a citizen of ours by these very laws? 
 
 For if anyone thinks that there is a smaller gain of glory de- 
 rived from Greek verses than from Latin ones, he is greatly 
 mistaken, because Greek poetry is read among all nations, Latin 
 is confined to its own natural limits, which are narrow enough. 
 Wherefore, if those achievements which we have performed are 
 limited only by the bounds of the whole world, we ought to de- 
 sire that, wherever our vigor and our arms have penetrated, our 
 glory and our fame should likewise extend. Because, as this is 
 always an ample reward for those people whose achievements 
 are the subject of writings, so especially is it the greatest induce- 
 ment to encounter labors and dangers to all men who fight for 
 themselves for the sake of glory. How many historians of his 
 exploits is Alexander the Great said to have had with him; and 
 he, when standing on Cape Sigeum at the grave of Achilles, said, 
 " O happy youth, to find Homer as the panegyrist of your 
 glory! " And he said the truth; for, if the Iliad had not existed 
 the same tomb which covered his body would have also buried 
 his renown. What, did not our own Magnus, whose valor has 
 been equal to his fortune, present Theophanes the Mitylenaean, a 
 relater of his actions, with the freedom of the city in an assembly 
 of the soldiers? And those brave men, our countrymen, soldiers 
 and country-bred men as they were, still being moved by the 
 sweetness of glory, as if they were to some extent partakers of 
 the same renown, showed their approbation of that action with a 
 great shout. Therefore, I supose if Archias were not a Roman 
 citizen according to the laws, he could not have contrived to get 
 presented with the freedom of the city by some general ! Sylla, 
 when he was giving it to the Spaniards and Gauls, would, I sup-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 165 
 
 pose, have refused him if he had asked for it! a man whom we 
 ourselves saw in the public assembly, when a bad poet of the 
 common people had put a book in his hand, because he had 
 made an epigram on him with every other verse too long, imme- 
 diately ordered some of the things which he was selling at the 
 moment to be given him as a reward, on condition of not writing 
 anything more about him for the future. Would not he who 
 thought the industry of a bad poet still worthy of some reward, 
 have sought out the genius, and excellence, and copiousness in 
 writing of this man? What more need I say? Could he not 
 have obtained the freedom of the city from Quintus Metellus 
 Pius, his own most intimate friend, who gave it to many men, 
 either by his own request, or by the intervention of the Luculli? 
 especially when Metellus was so anxious to have his own deeds 
 celebrated in writing, that he gave his attention willingly to 
 poets born even at Cordova, whose poetry had a very heavy and 
 foreign flavor. 
 
 For this should not be concealed, which cannot possibly be 
 kept in the dark, but it might be avowed openly: we are all in- 
 fluenced by a desire of praise, and the best men are the most 
 especially attracted by glory. Those very philosophers even in 
 the books which they write about despising glory, put their own 
 names on the title-page. In the very act of recording their con- 
 tempt for renown and notoriety, they desire to have their own 
 names known and talked of. Decimus Brutus, that most excel- 
 lent citizen and consummate general, adorned the approaches to 
 his temples and monuments with the verses of Attius. And 
 lately that great man Fulvius, who fought with the yEtolians, 
 having Ennius for his companion, did not hesitate to devote 
 the spoils of Mars to the muses. Wherefore, in a city in which 
 generals, almost in arms, have paid respect to the name of poets 
 and to the temples of the muses, these judges in the garb of 
 peace ought not to act in a manner inconsistent with the honor 
 of the muses and the safety of poets. 
 
 And that you may do that the more willingly, I will now re- 
 veal my own feelings to you, O judges, and I will make a con- 
 fession to you of my own love of glory too eager perhaps, but 
 still honorable. For this man has in his verses touched upon and 
 begun the celebration of the deeds which we in our consulship 
 did in union with you, for the safety of this city and empire, and
 
 166 CICERO 
 
 in defence of the life of the citizens and of the whole republic. 
 And when I had heard his commencement, because it appeared 
 to me to be a great subject and at the same time an agreeable one. 
 I encouraged him to complete his work. For virtue seeks no 
 other reward for its labors and its dangers beyond that of praise 
 and renown; and if that be denied to it, what reason is there, O 
 judges, why in so small and brief a course of life as is allotted to 
 us, we should impose such labors on ourselves? Certainly, if 
 the mind had no anticipations of posterity, and if it were to con- 
 fine all its thoughts within the same limits as those by which the 
 space of our lives is bounded, it would neither break itself with 
 such severe labors, nor would it be tormented with such cares 
 and sleepless anxiety, nor would it so often have to fight for its 
 very life. At present there is a certain virtue in every good man, 
 which night and day stirs up the mind with the stimulus of 
 glory, and reminds it that all mention of our name will not cease 
 at the same time with our lives, but that our fame will endure 
 to all posterity. 
 
 Do we all who are occupied in the affairs of the state, and who 
 are surrounded by such perils and dangers in life, appear to be 
 so narrow-minded, as, though to the last moment of our lives we 
 have never passed one tranquil or easy moment, to think that 
 everything will perish at the same time as ourselves? Ought we 
 not, when many most illustrious men have with great care col- 
 lected and left behind them statues and images, representations 
 not of their *minds but of their bodies, much more to desire to 
 leave behind us a copy of our counsels and of our virtues, 
 wrought and elaborated by the greatest genius? I thought, at 
 the very moment of performing them, that I was scattering and 
 disseminating all the deeds which I was performing, all over the 
 world for the eternal recollection of nations. And whether that 
 delight is to be denied to my soul after death, or whether, as the 
 wisest men have thought, it \vill affect some portion of my spirit, 
 at all events, I am at present delighted with some such idea and 
 hope. 
 
 Preserve, then, O judges, a man of such virtue as that of 
 Archias, which you see testified to you not only by the worth of 
 his friends, but by the length of time during which they have 
 been such to him ; and of such genius as you ought to think is 
 his, when you see that it has been sought by most illustrious
 
 IN DEFENCE OF AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS 167 
 
 men. And his cause is one which is approved of by the benevo- 
 lence of the law, by the authority of his municipality, by the tes- 
 timony of Lucullus, and by the documentary evidence of Metel- 
 lus. And as this is the case, we do entreat you, O judges, if 
 there may be any weight attached, I will not say to human, but 
 even to divine recommendation in such important matters, to 
 receive under your protection that man who has at all times done 
 honor to your generals and to the exploits of the Roman peo- 
 ple who even in these recent perils of our own, and in your 
 domestic dangers, promises to give an eternal testimony of 
 praise in our favor, and who forms one of that band of poets who 
 have at all times and in all nations been considered and called 
 holy, so that he may seem relieved by your humanity, rather 
 than overwhelmed by your severity. 
 
 The things which, according to my custom, I have said briefly 
 and simply, O judges, I trust have been approved by all of you. 
 Those things which I have spoken, without regarding the habits 
 of the forum or judicial usage, both concerning the genius of the 
 man and my own zeal in his behalf, I trust have been received by 
 you in good part. That they have been so by him who presides 
 at this trial, I am quite certain.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF THE 
 PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 In the year B.C. 67, Aulus Gabinius had obtained the passing of a 
 decree by which Pompey was invested for three years with the supreme 
 command over all the Mediterranean, and over all the coasts of that 
 sea, to a distance of four hundred furlongs from the sea. And in this 
 command he had acted with great vigor and with complete success; 
 destroying all the pirates' strongholds, and distributing the men them- 
 selves as colonists among the inland towns of Asia Minor and Greece. 
 After this achievement he did not return to Rome, but remained in 
 Asia, making various regulations for the towns which he had con- 
 quered. 
 
 During this period Lucullus had been prosecuting the war against 
 Mithridates, and proceeding gradually in the reduction of Pontus; 
 he had penetrated also into Mesopotamia, but had subsequently been 
 distressed by seditions in his army, excited by Clodius, his brother- 
 in-law; and these seditions had given fresh courage to Mithridates, 
 who had fallen on Caius Triarius, one of his lieutenants, and routed 
 his army with great slaughter. At the time that Pompey commenced 
 his campaign against the pirates, the consul Marcus Aquillius Glabrio 
 was sent to supersede Lucullus in his command; but he was per- 
 fectly incompetent to oppose Mithridates, who seemed likely with 
 such an enemy to recover all the power of which Lucullus had deprived 
 him. So in the year B.C. 66, while Glabrio was still in Bithynia, and 
 Pompey in Asia Minor, Caius Manilius, a tribune of the people, 
 brought forward a proposition, that, in addition to the command which 
 Pompey already possessed, he should be invested with unlimited power 
 in Bithynia, Pontus, and Armenia, for the purpose of conducting the 
 war against Mithridates. The measure was strongly opposed by Ca- 
 tulus and by Hortensius, but it was supported by Caesar, and by Cicero ; 
 and the proposition was carried. 
 
 170
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED 
 MANILIAN LAW 
 
 ALTHOUGH, O Romans, your numerous assembly has 
 always seemed to me the most agreeable body that any- 
 one can address, and this place, which is most honorable 
 to plead in, has also seemed always the most distinguished place 
 for delivering an oration in, still I have been prevented from 
 trying this road to glory, which has at all times been entirely 
 open to every virtuous man, not indeed by my own will, but by 
 the system of life which I have adopted from my earliest years. 
 For as hitherto I have not dared, on account of my youth, to 
 intrude upon the authority of this place, and as I considered that 
 no arguments ought to be brought to tliis place except such as 
 were the fruit of great ability, and worked up with the greatest 
 industry, I have thought it fit to devote all my time to the neces- 
 sities of my friends. And accordingly, this place has never been 
 unoccupied by men who were defending your cause, and my in- 
 dustry, which has been virtuously and honestly employed about 
 the dangers of private individuals, has received its most honor- 
 able reward in your approbation. For when, on account of the 
 adjournment of the comitia, I was three times elected the first 
 praetor by all the centuries, I easily perceived, O Romans, what 
 your opinion of me was, and what conduct you enjoined to 
 others. Now, when there is that authority in me which you, by 
 conferring honors on me, have chosen that there should be, and 
 all that facility in pleading which almost daily practice in speak- 
 ing can give a vigilant man who has habituated himself to the 
 forum, at all events, if I have any authority, I will employ it 
 before those who have given it to me; and if I can accomplish 
 anything by speaking, I will display it to those men above all 
 others, who have thought fit, by their decision, to confer honors 
 on that qualification. And, above other things, I see that I have 
 
 171
 
 1 72 CICERO 
 
 reason to rejoice on this account, that, since I am speaking in 
 this place, to which I am so entirely unaccustomed, I have a 
 cause to advocate in which eloquence can hardly fail anyone; 
 for I have to speak of the eminent and extraordinary virtue of 
 Cnaeus Pompey ; and it is harder for me to find out how to end 
 a discourse on such a subject, than how to begin one. So that 
 what I have to seek for is not so much a variety of arguments, as 
 moderation is employing them. 
 
 And, that my oration may take its origin from the same source 
 from which all this cause is to be maintained; an important war, 
 and one perilous to your revenues and to your allies, is being 
 waged against you by two most powerful kings, Mithridates 
 and Tigranes. One of these having been left to himself, and 
 the other having been attacked, thinks that an opportunity 
 offers itself to him to occupy all Asia. Letters are brought from 
 Asia every day to Roman knights, most honorable men, who 
 have great property at stake, which is all employed in the collec- 
 tion of your revenues ; and they, in consequence of the intimate 
 connection which I have with their order, have come to me and 
 intrusted me with the task of pleading the cause of the republic, 
 and warding off danger from their private fortunes. They say 
 that many of the villages of Bithynia, which is at present a prov- 
 ince belonging to you, have been burnt; that the kingdom of 
 Ariobarzanes, which borders oh those districts from which you 
 derive a revenue, is wholly in the power of the enemy; that 
 Lucullus, after having performed great exploits, is departing 
 from that war; that it is not enough that whoever succeeds him 
 should be prepared for the conduct of so important a war; that 
 one general is demanded and required by all men, both allies and 
 citizens, for that war; that he alone is feared by the enemy, and 
 that no one else is. 
 
 You see what the case is; now consider what you ought to do. 
 It seems to me that I ought to speak in the first place of the sort 
 of war that exists; in the second place, of its importance; and 
 lastly, of the selection of a general. The kind of war is such as 
 ought above all others to excite and inflame your minds to a 
 determination to persevere in it. It is a war in which the glory 
 of the Roman people is at stake; that glory which has been 
 handed down to you from your ancestors, great indeed in every- 
 thing, but most especially in military affairs. The safety of our
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 173 
 
 friends and allies is at stake, in behalf of which your ancestors 
 have waged many most important wars. The most certain and 
 the largest revenues of the Roman people are at stake; and if 
 they be lost, you will be at a loss for the luxuries of peace, and 
 the sinews of war. The property of many citizens is at stake, 
 which you ought greatly to regard, both for your own sake, and 
 for that of the republic. 
 
 And since you have at all times been covetous of glory and 
 greedy of praise beyond all other nations, you have to wipe out 
 that stain, received in the former Mithridatic War, which has 
 now fixed itself deeply and eaten its way into the Roman name, 
 the stain arising from the fact that he, who in one day marked 
 down by one order, and one single letter, all the Roman citizens 
 in all Asia, scattered as they were over so many cities, for 
 slaughter and butchery, has not only never yet suffered any 
 chastisement worthy of his wickedness, but, now, twenty-three 
 years after that time, is still a king, and a king in such a way that 
 he is not content to hide himself in Pontus, or in the recesses of 
 Cappadocia, but he seeks to emerge from his hereditary king- 
 dom, and to range among your revenues, in the broad light of 
 Asia. Indeed up to this time your generals have been contend- 
 ing with the king so as to carry off tokens of victory rather than 
 actual victory. Lucius Sylla has triumphed, Lucius Murena 
 has triumphed over Mithridates, two most gallant men, and 
 most consummate generals; but yet they have triumphed in 
 such a way that he, though routed and defeated, was still king. 
 Not but what praise is to be given to those generals for what 
 they did. Pardon must be conceded to them for what they left 
 undone; because the republic recalled Sylla from that war into 
 Italy, and Sylla recalled Murena. 
 
 But Mithridates employed all the time which he had left to 
 him, not in forgetting the old war, but in preparing for a new 
 one ; and, after he had built and equipped very large fleets, and 
 had got together mighty armies from every nation he could, and 
 had pretended to be preparing war against the tribes of the 
 Bosphorus, his neighbors, sent ambassadors and letters as far as 
 Spain to those chiefs with whom we were at war at the time, in 
 order that, as you would by that means have war waged against 
 you in the two parts of the world the farthest separated and most 
 remote of all from one another, by two separate enemies warring
 
 1 74 CICERO 
 
 against you with one uniform plan, you, hampered by the double 
 enmity, might find that you were fighting for the empire itself. 
 However, the danger on one side, the danger from Sertorius and 
 from Spain, which had much the most solid foundation and the 
 most formidable strength, was warded off by the divine wisdom 
 and extraordinary valor of Cnaeus Pompeius. And on the other 
 side of the empire, affairs were so managed by Lucius Lucullus, 
 that most illustrious of men, that the beginning of all those 
 achievements in those countries, great and eminent as they 
 were, deserve to be attributed not to his good fortune but to his 
 valor ; but the latter events which have taken place lately, ought 
 to be imputed not to his fault, but to his ill-fortune. However, 
 of Lucullus I will speak hereafter, and I will speak, O Romans, 
 in such a manner, that his true glory shall not appear to be at all 
 disparaged by my pleading, nor, on the other hand, shall any 
 undeserved credit seem to be given to him. At present, when 
 we are speaking of the dignity and glory of your empire, since 
 that is the beginning of my oration, consider what feelings you 
 think you ought to entertain. 
 
 Your ancestors have often waged war on account of their 
 merchants and seafaring men having been injuriously treated. 
 What ought to be your feelings when so many thousand Roman 
 citizens have been put to death by one order and at one time ? 
 Because their ambassadors had been spoken to with insolence, 
 your ancestors determined that Corinth, the light of all Greece, 
 should be destroyed. Will you allow that king to remain un- 
 punished, who has murdered a lieutenant of the Roman people 
 of consular rank, having tortured him with chains and scourg- 
 ing, and every sort of punishment? They would not allow the 
 freedom of Roman citizens to be diminished; will you be indif- 
 ferent to their lives being taken? They avenged the privileges 
 of our embassy when they were violated by a word; vyill you 
 abandon an ambassador who has been put to death with every 
 sort of cruelty? Take care lest, as it was a most glorious thing 
 for them, to leave you such wide renown and such a powerful 
 empire, it should be a most discreditable thing for you, not to be 
 able to defend and preserve that which you have received. 
 What more shall I say? Shall I say, that the safety of our allies 
 is involved in the greatest hazard and danger? King Ariobar- 
 zanes has been driven from his kingdom, an ally and friend of
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 175 
 
 the Roman people ; two kings are threatening all Asia, who are 
 not only most hostile to you, but also to your friends and allies. 
 And every city throughout all Asia, and throughout all Greece, 
 is compelled by the magnitude of the danger to put its whole 
 trust in the expectation of your assistance. They do not dare 
 to beg of you any particular general, especially since you have 
 sent them another, nor do they think that they can do this with- 
 out extreme danger. They see and feel this, the same thing 
 which you too see and feel that there is one man in whom all 
 qualities are in the highest perfection, and that he is near (which 
 circumstance makes it seem harder to be deprived of him), by 
 whose mere arrival and name, although it was a maritime war 
 for which he came, they are nevertheless aware that the attacks 
 of the enemy were retarded and repressed. They then, since they 
 cannot speak freely, silently entreat you to think them (as you 
 have thought your allies in the other provinces) worthy of hav- 
 ing their safety recommended to such a man; and to think them 
 worthy even more than others, because we often send men with 
 absolute authority into such a province as theirs, of such charac- 
 ter, that, even if they protect them from the enemy, still their 
 arrival among the cities of the allies is not very different from an 
 invasion of the enemy. They used to hear of him before, now 
 they see him among them; a man of such moderation, such 
 mildness, such humanity, that those seem to be the happiest 
 people among whom he remains for the longest time. 
 
 Wherefore, if on account of their allies, though they them-_ 
 selves had not been roused by any injuries, your ancestors 
 waged war against Antiochus, against Philip, against the ^to- 
 lians, and against the Carthaginians; with how much earnest- 
 ness ought you, when you yourselves have been provoked by in- 
 jurious treatment, to defend the safety of the allies, and at the 
 same time, the dignity of your empire? especially when your 
 greatest revenues are at stake. For the revenues of the other 
 provinces, O Romans, are such that we can scarcely derive 
 enough from them for the protection of the provinces them- 
 selves. But Asia is so rich and so productive, that in the fertility 
 of its soil, and in the variety of its fruits, and in the vastness of its 
 pasture lands, and in the multitude of all those things which are 
 matters of exportation, it is greatly superior to all other coun- 
 tries. Therefore, O Romans, this province, if you have any re-
 
 I? 6 CICERO 
 
 gard for what tends to your advantage in time of war, and to 
 your dignity in time of peace, must be defended by you, not only 
 from all calamity, but from all fear of calamity. For in other 
 matters when calamity comes on one, then damage is sustained; 
 but in the case of revenues, not only the arrival of evil, but the 
 bare dread of it, brings disaster. For when the troops of the 
 enemy are not far off, even though no actual irruption takes 
 place, still the flocks are abandoned, agriculture is relinquished, 
 the sailing of merchants is at an end. And accordingly, neither 
 from harbor dues, nor from tenths, nor from the tax on pasture 
 lands, can any revenue be maintained. And therefore it often 
 happens that the produce of an entire year is lost by one rumor 
 of danger, and by one alarm of war. What do you think ought 
 to be the feelings of those who pay us tribute, or of those who 
 get it in, and exact it, when two kings with very numerous 
 armies are all but on the spot? when one inroad of cavalry may 
 in a very short time carry off the revenue of a whole year? when 
 the publicans think that they retail the large households of slaves 
 which they have in the salt-works, in the fields, in the harbors, 
 and custom-houses, at the greatest risk? Do you think that you 
 can enjoy these advantages unless you preserve those men who 
 are productive to you, free not only, as I said before, from calam- 
 ity, but even from the dread of calamity? 
 
 And even this must not be neglected by you, which I had pro- 
 posed to myself as the last thing to be mentioned, when I was to 
 speak of the kind of war, for it concerns the property of many 
 Roman citizens; whom you, as becomes your wisdom, O 
 Romans, must regard with the most careful solicitude. The 
 publicans, 1 most honorable and accomplished men, have taken 
 all their resources and all their wealth into that province; and 
 their property and fortunes ought, by themselves, to be an 
 object of your special care. In truth, if we have always con- 
 sidered the revenues as the sinews of the republic, certainly we 
 shall be right if we call that order of men which collects them, 
 the prop and support of all the other orders. In the next place, 
 clever and industrious men, of all the other orders of the state, 
 are some of them actually trading themselves in Asia, and you 
 ought to show a regard for their interests in their absence; and 
 others of them have large sums invested in that province. It 
 
 1 It has been said before that the publicans were taken almost exclusively 
 from the equestrian order.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 177 
 
 will, therefore, become your humanity to protect a large num- 
 ber of those citizens from misfortune; it will become your wis- 
 dom to perceive that the misfortune of many citizens cannot be 
 separated from the misfortune of the republic. In truth, firstly, 
 it is of but little consequence for you afterward to recover for 
 the publicans revenues which have been once lost; for the same 
 men have not afterward the same power of contracting for them, 
 and others have not the inclination, through fear. In the next 
 place, that which the same Asia, and that same Mithridates 
 taught us, at the beginning of the Asiatic War, that, at all events, 
 we, having learnt by disaster, ought to keep in our recollection. 
 For we know that then, when many had lost large fortunes in 
 Asia, all credit failed at Rome, from payments being hindered. 
 For it is not possible for many men to lose their property and 
 fortunes in one city, without drawing many along with them into 
 the same vortex of disaster. But do you now preserve the 
 republic from this misfortune; and believe me (you yourselves 
 see that it is the case), this credit, and this state of the money- 
 market which exists at Rome and in the forum, is bound up with, 
 and is inseparable from, those fortunes which are invested in 
 Asia. Those fortunes cannot fall without credit here being un- 
 dermined by the same blow, and perishing along with them. 
 Consider, then, whether you ought to hesitate to apply your- 
 selves with all zeal to that war, in which the glory of your name, 
 the safety of your allies, your greatest revenues, and the fortunes 
 of numbers of your citizens, wil be protected at the same time as 
 the republic. 
 
 Since I have spoken of the description of war, I will now say 
 a few words about its magnitude. For this may be said of it 
 that it is a kind of war so necessary, that it must absolutely be 
 waged, and yet not one of such magnitude as to be formidable. 
 And in this we must take the greatest care that those things do 
 not appear to you contemptible which require to be most dili- 
 gently guarded against. And that all men may understand that 
 I give Lucius Lucullus all the praise that is due to a gallant man, 
 and most wise 2 man, and to a most consummate general, I say 
 
 2 The Latin is " forti yiro, et sapientis- considered as an intellectual and moral 
 
 simo homini," and this opposition of being namely, where personal qualities 
 
 vir and homo is not uncommon in are to be denoted ; whereas vir signifies 
 
 Cicero's orations. " Homo is nearly a man in his relations to the state." 
 
 synonymous with vir, but with this dis- Riddle, Latin Dictionary, v. Homo, 
 tinction, that homo is used of a man 
 
 12
 
 178 CICERO 
 
 that when he first arrived in Asia, the forces of Mithridates were 
 most numerous, well appointed, and provided with every requi- 
 site; and that the finest city in Asia, and the one, too, that was 
 most friendly to us, the city of Cyzicus, was besieged by the king 
 in person, with an enormous army, and that the siege had been 
 pressed most vigorously, when Lucius Lucullus, by his valor, 
 and perseverance, and wisdom, relieved it from the most ex- 
 treme danger. I say that he also, when general, defeated and 
 destroyed that great and well-appointed fleet, which the chiefs of 
 Sertorius's party were leading against Italy with furious zeal ; 
 I say besides, that by him numerous armies of the enemy were 
 destroyed in several battles, and that Pontus was opened to our 
 legions, which before his time had been closed against the 
 Roman people on every side; and that Sinope and Amisus, 
 towns in which the king had palaces, adorned and furnished 
 with every kind of magnificence, and many other cities of Pontus 
 and Cappadocia, were taken by his mere approach and arrival 
 near them ; that the king himself was stripped of the kingdom 
 possessed by his father and his grandfather, and forced to betake 
 himself as a suppliant to other kings and other nations; and 
 that all these great deeds were achieved without any injury to 
 the allies of the Roman people, or any diminution of its revenues. 
 I think that this is praise enough such praise that you must 
 see, O Romans, that Lucius Lucullus has not been praised as 
 much from this rostrum by any one of these men who are ob- 
 jecting to this law and arguing against our cause. 
 
 Perhaps now it will be asked, how, when all this has been 
 already done, there can be any great war left behind. I will ex- 
 plain this, O Romans ; for this does not seem an unreasonable 
 question. At first Mithridates fled from his kingdom, as Medea 
 is formerly said to have fled from the same region of Pontus; 
 for they say that she, in her flight, strewed about the limbs of her 
 brother in those places along which her father was likely to pur- 
 sue her, in order that the collection of them, dispersed as they 
 were, and the grief which would afflict his father, might delay the 
 rapidity of his pursuit. Mithridates, flying in the same manner, 
 left in Pontus the whole of the vast quantity of gold and silver, 
 and of beautiful things which he had inherited from his ances- 
 tors, and which he himself had collected and brought into his 
 own kingdom, having obtained them by plunder in the former
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 179 
 
 war from all Asia. While our men were diligently occupied in 
 collecting all this, the king himself escaped out of their hands. 
 And so grief retarded the father of Medea in his pursuit, but de- 
 light delayed our men. In this alarm and flight of his, Tigranes, 
 the king of Armenia, received him, encouraged him while de- 
 spairing of his fortunes, gave him new spirit in his depression, 
 and recruited with new strength his powerless condition. And 
 after Lucius Lucullus arrived in his kingdom, very many tribes 
 were excited to hostilities against our general. For those na- 
 tions which the Roman people never had thought either of at- 
 tacking in war or tampering with, had been inspired with fear. 
 There was, besides, a general opinion which had taken deep root, 
 and had spread over all the barbarian tribes in those districts, 
 that our army had been led into those countries with the object 
 of plundering a very wealthy and most religiously worshipped 
 temple. And so, many powerful nations were roused against us 
 by a fresh dread and alarm. But our army, although it had 
 taken a city of Tigranes's kingdom, and had fought some suc- 
 cessful battles, still was out of spirits at its immense distance 
 from Rome, and its separation from its friends. At present I 
 will not say more; for the result of these feelings of theirs was, 
 that they were more anxious for a speedy return home than for 
 any farther advance into the enemies' country. But Mithridates 
 had by this time strengthened his army by re-enforcements of 
 those men belonging to his own dominions who had assembled 
 together, and by large promiscuous forces belonging to many 
 other kings and tribes. And we see that this is almost invari- 
 ably the case, that kings when in misfortune easily induce many 
 to pity and assist them, especially such as are either kings them- 
 selves, or who live under kingly power, because to them the 
 name of king appears something great and sacred. And ac- 
 cordingly he, when conquered, was able to accomplish what, 
 when he was in the full enjoyment of his powers, he never dared 
 even to wish for. For when he had returned to his kingdom, 
 he was not content (though that had happened to him beyond all 
 his hopes) with again setting his foot on that land after he had 
 been expelled from it; but he even volunteered an attack on 
 your army, flushed as it was with glory and victory. Allow 
 me, in this place, O Romans (just as poets do who write of Ro- 
 man affairs), to pass over our disaster, which was so great that it
 
 i8o CICERO 
 
 came to Lucius Lucullus's ears, not by means of a messenger 
 depatched from the scene of action, but through the report of 
 common conversation. At the very time of this misfortune of 
 this most terrible disaster in the whole war, Lucius Lucullus, 
 who might have been able, to a great extent, to remedy the 
 calamity, being compelled by your orders, because you thought, 
 according to the old principle of your ancestors, that limits 
 ought to be put to length of command, discharged a part of his 
 soldiers who had served their appointed time, and delivered over 
 part to Glabrio. I pass over many things designedly ; but you 
 yourselves can easily conjecture how important you ought to 
 consider that war which most powerful kings are uniting in 
 which disturbed nations are renewing which nations, whose 
 strength is unimpaired, are undertaking, and which a new gen- 
 eral of yours has to encounter after a veteran army has been de- 
 feated. 
 
 I appear to have said enough to make you see why this war is 
 in its very nature unavoidable, in its magnitude dangerous. It 
 remains for me to speak of the general who ought to be selected 
 for that war, and appointed to the management of such impor- 
 tant affairs. 
 
 I wish, O Romans, that you had such an abundance of brave 
 and honest men, that it was a difficult subject for your delibera- 
 tions, whom you thought most desirable to be appointed to the 
 conduct of such important affairs, and so vast a war. But now, 
 when there is Cnaeus Pompeius alone, who has exceeded in 
 valor, not only the glory of these men who are now alive, but 
 even all recollections of antiquity, what is there that, in this case, 
 can raise a doubt in the mind of anyone? For I think that these 
 four qualities are indispensable in a great general knowledge 
 of military affairs, valor, authority and good fortune. Who, 
 then, ever was, or ought to have been, better acquainted with 
 military affairs than this man? who, the moment that he left 
 school and finished his education as a boy, at a time when there 
 was a most important war going on, and most active enemies 
 were banded against us, went to his father's army and to the 
 discipline of the camp ; who, when scarcely out of his boyhood, 
 became a soldier of a consummate general when entering on 
 manhood, became himself the general of a mighty army; who 
 has been more frequently engaged with the enemy, than anyone
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 181 
 
 else has ever disputed with an adversary; who has himself, as 
 general conducted more wars than other men have read of; who 
 has subdued more provinces than other men have wished for; 
 whose youth was trained to the knowledge of military affairs, not 
 by the precepts of others, but by commanding himself not by 
 the disasters of war, but by victories not by campaigns, but by 
 triumphs. In short, what description of war can there be in 
 which the fortune of the republic has not given him practice? 
 Civil War, African War, Transalpine War, Spanish War, pro- 
 miscuous war of the most warlike cities and nations, servile war, 
 naval war, every variety and diversity of wars and of enemies, has 
 not only been encountered by this one man, but encountered vic- 
 toriously; and these exploits show plainly that there is no cir- 
 cumstance in military practice which can elude the knowledge of 
 this man. 
 
 But now, what language can be found equal to the valor of 
 Cnasus Pompeius? What statement can anyone make which 
 shall be either worthy of him, or new to you, or unknown to any- 
 one? For those are not the only virtues of a general which are 
 usually thought so namely, industry in business, fortitude amid 
 dangers, energy in acting, rapidity in executing, wisdom in fore- 
 seeing; which all exist in as great perfection in that one man as 
 in all the other generals put together whom we have either seen 
 or heard of. Italy is my witness, which that illustrious con- 
 queror himself, Lucius Sylla, confessed had been delivered by 
 this man's valor and ready assistance. Sicily is my witness, 
 which he released when it was surrounded on all sides by many 
 dangers, not by the dread of his power, but by the promptitude 
 of his wisdom. Africa is my witness, which, having been over- 
 whelmed by numerous armies of enemies, overflowed with the 
 blood of those same enemies. Gaul is my witness, through 
 which a road into Spain was laid open to our legions by the de- 
 struction of the Gauls. Spain is my witness, which has repeat- 
 edly seen our many enemies there defeated and subdued by this 
 man. Again and again, Italy is my witness, which, when it was 
 weighed down by the disgraceful and perilous servile war, en- 
 treated aid from this man, though he was at a distance; and that 
 war, having dwindled down and wasted away at the expectation 
 of Pompeius, was destroyed and buried by his arrival. But 
 now, also every coast, all foreign nations and countries, all seas,
 
 i8a CICERO 
 
 both in their open waters and in every bay, and creek, and har- 
 bor, are my witnesses. For during these last years, what place 
 in any part of the sea had so strong a garrison as to be safe from 
 him? what place was so much hidden as to escape his notice? 
 Who ever put to sea without being aware that he was commit- 
 ting himself to the hazard of death or slavery, either from storms 
 or from the sea being crowded with pirates? Who would ever 
 have supposed that a war of such extent, so mean, so old a war, 
 a war so extensive in its theatre and so widely scattered, could 
 have been terminated by all our generals put together in one 
 year, or by one general in all the years of his life? In all these 
 later years what province have you had free from pirates? what 
 revenue has been safe? what ally have you been able to protect? 
 to whom have your fleets been a defence ? How many islands 
 do you suppose have been deserted? how many cities of the allies 
 do you think have been either abandoned out of fear of the pi- 
 rates, or have been taken by them? 
 
 But why do I speak of distant events? It was it was, in- 
 deed, formerly a characteristic of the Roman people to carry 
 on its wars at a distance from home, and to defend by the bul- 
 warks of its power not its own homes, but the fortunes of its 
 allies. Need I say, that the sea has during all these latter years 
 been closed against your allies, when even our own armies never 
 ventured to cross over from Brundusium, except in the depth of 
 winter? Need I complain that men who were coming to you 
 from foreign nations were taken prisoners, when even the am- 
 bassadors of the Roman people were forced to be ransomed? 
 Need I say, that the sea was not safe for merchants, when twelve 
 axes 3 came into the power of the pirates? Need I mention, 
 how Cnidus, and Colophon, and Samos, most noble cities, and 
 others too in countless numbers, were taken by them, when you 
 know that your own harbors, and those harbors too from which 
 you derive, as it were, your very life and breath, were in the 
 power of the pirates? Are you ignorant that the harbor of 
 Caieta, that illustrious harbor, when full of ships, was plundered 
 by the pirates under the very eyes of the praetor? and that from 
 Misenum, the children of the very man who had before that 
 waged war against the pirates in that place, were carried off by 
 
 8 The Scholiast says that a consul prisoner by the pirates, and sold with 
 named Milienus (whose name, however, his ensigns of office. The axes mean 
 does not appear in the Fasti) was taken his fasces.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 183 
 
 the pirates? For why should I complain of the disaster of Ostia, 
 and of that stain and blot on the republic, when almost under 
 your very eyes, that fleet which was under the command of a 
 Roman consul was taken and destroyed by the pirates? O ye 
 immortal gods! could the incredible and godlike virtue of one 
 man in so short a time bring so much light to the republic, that 
 you who had lately been used to see a fleet of the enemy before 
 the mouth of the Tiber, should now hear that there is not one 
 ship belonging to the pirates within the Pillars of Hercules? 
 And although you have sen with what rapidity these things were 
 done, still that rapidity ought not to be passed over by me in 
 speaking of them. For who ever, even if he were only going 
 for the purpose of transacting business or making profit, con- 
 trived in so short a time to visit so many places, and to perform 
 such long journeys, with as great celerity as Cnseus Pompeius 
 has performed his voyage, bearing with him the terrors of war 
 as our general? He, when the weather could hardly be called 
 open for sailing, went to Sicily, explored the coasts of Africa; 
 from thence he came with his fleet to Sardinia, and these three 
 great granaries of the republic he fortified with powerful garri- 
 sons and fleets; when, leaving Sardinia, he came to Italy, having 
 secured the two Spains and Cisalpine Gaul with garrisons and 
 ships. Having sent vessels also to the coast of Illyricum, and to 
 every part of Achaia and Greece, he also adorned the two seas of 
 Italy with very large fleets, and very sufficient garrisons; and he 
 himself going in person, added all Cilicia to the dominions of 
 the Roman people, on the forty-ninth day after he set out from 
 Brundusium. All the pirates who were anywhere to be found, 
 were either taken prisoners and put to death, or else had sur- 
 rendered themselves voluntarily to the power and authority of 
 this one man. Also, when the Cretans had sent ambassadors to 
 implore his mercy even into Pamphylia to him, he did not deny 
 them hopes of being allowed to surrender, and he exacted host- 
 ages from them. And thus Cnseus Pompeius at the end of win- 
 ter prepared, at the beginning of spring undertook, and by the 
 middle of summer terminated, this most important war, which 
 had lasted so long, which was scattered in such distant and such 
 various places, and by which every nation and country was in- 
 cessantly distressed. 
 This is the godlike and incredible virtue of that general,
 
 1 84 CICERO 
 
 What .nore shall I say? How many and how great are his other 
 exploits which I began to mention a short time back; for we are 
 not only to seek for skill in war in a consummate and perfect 
 general, but there are many other eminent qualities which are 
 the satellites and companions of this virtue. And first of all, 
 how great should be the incorruptibility of generals! How 
 great should be their moderation in everything! how perfect 
 their good faith ! How universal should be their affability! how 
 brilliant their genius! how tender their humanity! And let us 
 briefly consider to what extent these qualities exisi in Cnaeus 
 Pompeius. For they are all of the highest importance, O 
 Romans, but yet they are to be seen and ascertained more by 
 comparison with the conduct of others than by any display 
 which they make of themselves. For how can we rank a man 
 among generals of any class at all, if centurionships * are sold, 
 and have been constantly sold in his army? What great or hon- 
 orable thoughts can we suppose that that man cherishes concern- 
 ing the republic, who has either distributed the money which 
 was taken from the treasury for the conduct of the war among 
 the magistrates, out of ambition 5 to keep his province, or, out of 
 avarice, has left it behind him at Rome, invested for his own 
 advantage? Your murmurs show, O Romans, that you recog- 
 nize, in my description, men who have done these things. But 
 I name no one, so that no one can be angry with me, without 
 making confession beforehand of his own malpractices. But 
 who is there who is ignorant what terrible distresses our armies 
 suffer wherever they go, through this covetousness of our gen- 
 erals? Recollect the marches which, during these latter years, 
 our generals have made in Italy, through the lands and towns of 
 the Roman citizens; then you will more easily imagine what is 
 the course pursued among foreign nations. Do you think that 
 of late years more cities of the enemy have been destroyed by the 
 arms of your soldiers, or more cities of your own allies by their 
 winter campaigns? For that general who does not restrain 
 himself can never restrain his army; nor can he be strict in judg- 
 ing others who is unwilling for others to be strict in judging 
 
 * The Scholiast says that Cicero is large sums in soliciting the votes of 
 
 here hinting at Glabrio the consul, or influential men. so as to be left in com- 
 
 at the younger Marius. mand of the province of Asja, in which 
 
 8 Lucullus is supposed to be meant he had amassed enormous riches, 
 here, as it is said that he had employed
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 185 
 
 him. Do we wonder now that this man should be so far 
 superior to all others, when his legions arrived in Asia in such 
 order that not only no man's hand in so numerous an army, but 
 not even any man's footstep was said to have done the least in- 
 jury to any peaceful inhabitant? But now we have daily ru- 
 mors ay, and letters too brought to Rome about the way in 
 which the soldiers are behaving in their winter-quarters; not 
 only is no one compelled to spend money on the entertainment 
 of the troops, but he is not permitted to do so, even if he wish. 
 For our ancestors thought fit that the houses of our allies and 
 friends should be a shelter to our soldiers from the winter, not 
 a theatre for the exercise of their avarice. 
 
 Come now, consider also what moderation he has displayed 
 in other matters also. How was it, do you suppose, that he was 
 able to display that excessive rapidity, and to perform that in- 
 credible voyage? For it was no unexampled number of rowers, 
 no hitherto unknown skill in navigation, no new winds, which 
 bore him so swiftly to the most distant lands; but those circum- 
 stances which are wont to delay other men did not delay him. 
 No avarice turned him aside from his intended route in pursuit 
 of some plunder or other; no lust led him away in pursuit of 
 pleasure; no luxury allured him to seek its delights; the illus- 
 trious reputation of no city tempted him to make its acquaint- 
 ance; even labor did not turn him aside rest. Lastly, as 
 for the statues, and pictures, and other embellishments of Greek 
 cities, which ^.ther men think worth carrying away, he did not 
 think them worthy even of a visit from him. And, therefore, 
 everyone in those countries looks upon Cnaeus Pompeius as 
 someone descended from heaven, not as someone sent out from 
 this city. Now they begin to believe that there really were 
 formerly Romans of the same moderation ; which hitherto has 
 seemed to foreign nations a thing incredible, a false and ridicu- 
 lous tradition. Now the splendor of your dominion is really 
 brilliant in the eyes of those nations. Now they understand that 
 it was not without reason that, when we had magistrates of the 
 same moderation, their ancestors preferred being subjects to the 
 Roman people to being themselves lords of other nations. But 
 now the access of all private individuals to him is so easy, their 
 complaints of the injuries received from others are so little 
 checked, that he who in dignity is superior to the noblest men,
 
 186 CICERO 
 
 in affability seems to be on a par with the meanest. How great 
 his wisdom is, how great his authority and fluency in speaking 
 and that too is a quality in which the dignity of a general; is 
 greatly concerned you, O Romans, have often experienced 
 yourselves in this very place. But how great do you think his 
 good faith must have been toward your allies, when the enemies 
 of all nations have placed implicit confidence in it? His hu- 
 manity is such that it is difficult to say whether the enemy feared 
 his valor more when fighting against him, or loved his mildness 
 more when they had been conquered by him. And will anyone 
 doubt, that this important war ought to be intrusted to him, who 
 seems to have been born by some especial design and favor of 
 the gods for the express purpose of finishing all the wars which 
 have existed in their own recollection? 
 
 And since authority has great weight in conducting wars, and 
 in discharging the duties of military command, it certainly is not 
 doubtful to anyone that in that point this same general is espe- 
 cially pre-eminent. And who is ignorant that it is of great im- 
 portance in the conduct of wars, what opinion the enemy, and 
 what opinion the allies have of your generals, when we know 
 that men are not less influenced in such serious affairs, to de- 
 spise, or fear, or hate, or love a man by common opinion and 
 common report, than by sure grounds and principles? What 
 name, then, in the whole world has ever been more illustrious 
 than his? whose achievements have ever been equal to his? 
 And, what gives authority in the highest degree, concerning 
 whom have you ever passed such numerous and such honorable 
 resolutions? Do you believe that there is anywhere in the 
 whole world any place so desert that the renown of that day has 
 not reached it, when the whole Roman people, the forum being 
 crowded, and all the adjacent temples from which this place can 
 be seen being completely filled the whole Roman people, I say, 
 demanded Cnaeus Pompeius alone as their general in the war in 
 which the common interests of all nations were at stake? There- 
 fore, not to say more on the subject, nor to confirm what I say 
 by instances of others as to the influence which authority has in 
 war, all our instances of splendid exploits in war must be taken 
 from this same Cnseus Pompeius. The very day that he was 
 appointed by you commander-in-chief of the maritime war, in a 
 moment such a cheapness of provisions ensued (though previ-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 187 
 
 ously there had been a great scarcity of corn, and the price had 
 been exceedingly high), owing to the hope conceived of one 
 single man, and his high reputation, as could scarcely have been 
 produced by a most productive harvest after a long period of 
 peace. Now, too, after the disaster which befell us in Pontus, 
 from the result of that battle, of which, sorely against my will, I 
 just now reminded you, when our allies were in a state of alarm, 
 when the power and spirits of our enemies had risen, and the 
 province was in a very insufficient state of defence, you would 
 have entirely lost Asia, O Romans, if the fortune of the Roman 
 people had not, by some divine interposition, brought Cnseus 
 Pompeius at that particular moment into those regions. His 
 arrival both checked Mithridates, elated with his unusual vic- 
 tory, and delayed Tigranes, who was threatening Asia with a 
 formidable army. And can anyone doubt what he will accom- 
 plish by his valor, when he did so much by his authority and 
 reputation? or how easily he will preserve our allies and our 
 revenues by his power and his army, when he defended them by 
 the mere terror of his name? 
 
 Come, now ; what a great proof does this circumstance afford 
 us of the influence of the same man on the enemies of the Roman 
 people, that all of them, living in countries so far distant from us 
 and from each other, surrendered themselves to him alone in so 
 short a time? that the ambassadors of the Cretans, though there 
 was at the time a general 6 and an army of ours in their island, 
 came almost to the end of the world to Cnseus Pompeius, and 
 said, all the cities of the Cretans were willing to surrender them- 
 selves to him? What did Mithridates himself do? Did he not 
 send an ambassador into Spain to the same Cnseus Pompeius? a 
 man whom Pompeius has always considered an ambassador, but 
 who that party, to whom it has always been a source of annoy- 
 ance that he was sent to him particularly, have contended was 
 sent as a spy rather than as an ambassador. You can now, then, 
 O Romans, form an accurate judgment how much weight you 
 must suppose that this authority of his now, too, that it has 
 been further increased by many subsequent exploits, and by 
 many commendatory resolutions of your own will have with 
 those kings and among foreign nations. 
 
 It remains for me timidly and briefly to speak of his good 
 Metellus, afterward called Creticus, from his victory over the Cretans,
 
 1 88 CICERO 
 
 fortune, a quality which no man ought to boast of in his own 
 case, but which we may remember and commemorate as hap- 
 pening to another, just as a man may extol the power of the 
 gods. For my judgment is this, that very often commands have 
 been conferred upon, and armies have been intrusted to Maxi- 
 mus, Marccllus, to Scipio, to Marius, and to other great gener- 
 als, not only on account of their valor, but also on account of 
 their good fortune. For there has been, in truth, in the case of 
 some most illustrious men, good fortune added as some contri- 
 bution of the gods to their honor and glory, and as a means of 
 performing mighty achievements. But concerning the good 
 fortune of this man of whom we are now speaking, I will use so 
 much moderation as not to say that good fortune was actually 
 placed in his power, but I will so speak as to appear to remember 
 what is past, to have good hope of what is to come ; so that my 
 speech may, on the one hand, not appear to the immortal gods 
 to be arrogant, nor, on the other hand, to be ungrateful. Ac- 
 cordingly, I do not intend to mention, O Romans, what great 
 exploits he has achieved both at home and in war, by land and 
 by sea, and with what invariable felicity he has achieved them ; 
 how, not only the citizens have always consented to his wishes, 
 the allies complied with them, the enemy obeyed them, but how 
 even the winds and weather have seconded them. I will only 
 say this, most briefly : that no one has ever been so impudent as 
 to dare in silence to wish for so many and such great favors as 
 the immortal gods have showered upon Cnaeus Pompeius. And 
 that this favor may continue his, and be perpetual, you, O 
 Romans, ought to wish and pray (as, indeed, you do), both for 
 the sake of the common safety and prosperity, and for the sake 
 of the man himself. 
 
 Wherefore, as the war is at the same time so necessary that it 
 cannot be neglected, so important that it must be conducted 
 with the greatest care; and since you have it in your power to 
 appoint a general to conduct it, in whom there is the most per- 
 fect knowledge of war, the most extraordinary valor, the most 
 splendid personal influence, and the most eminent good fortune, 
 can you hesitate, O Romans, to apply this wonderful advantage 
 which is offered you and given you by the immortal gods, to the 
 preservation and increase of the power of the republic? 
 
 But, if Cnaeus Pompeius were a private individual at Rome at
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 189 
 
 this present time, still he would be the man who ought to be 
 selected and sent out to so great a war. But now, when to all 
 all the other exceeding advantages of the appointment, this op- 
 portunity is also added that he is in those very countries al- 
 ready that he has an army with him that there is another 
 army there which can at once be made over to him by those who 
 are in command of it why do we delay? or why do we not, 
 under the guidance of the immortal gods themselves, commit 
 this royal war also to him to whom all the other wars in those 
 parts have been already intrusted to the greatest advantage, to 
 the very safety of the republic ? 
 
 But, to be sure, that most illustrious man, Quintus Catulus, a 
 man most honestly attached to the republic, and loaded with 
 your kindness in a way most honorable to him; and also Quintus 
 Hortensius, a man endowed with the highest qualities of honor, 
 and fortune, and virtue, and genius, disagree to this proposal. 
 And I admit that their authority has in many instances had the 
 greatest weight with you, and that it ought to have the greatest 
 weight; but in this cause, although you are aware that the 
 opinions of many very brave and illustrious men are unfavor- 
 able to us, still it is possible for us, disregarding those authori- 
 ties, to arrive at the truth by the circumstances of the case and by 
 reason. And so much the more easily, because those very men- 
 admit that everything which has been said by me up to this time 
 is true that the war is necessary, that it is an important war, 
 and that all the requisite qualifications are in the highest perfec- 
 tion in Cnaeus Pompeius. What then, does Hortensius say? 
 " That if the whole power must be given to one man, Pompeius 
 alone is most worthy to have it ; but that, nevertheless, the power 
 ought not to be intrusted to one individual." That argument, 
 however, has now become obsolete, having been refuted much 
 more by facts than by words. For you, also, Quintus Horten- 
 sius, said many things with great force and fluency (as might be 
 expected from your exceeding ability, and eminent facility as an 
 orator) in the Senate against that brave man, Aulus Gabinius, 
 when he had brought forward the law about appointing one 
 commander-in-chief against the pirates; and also from this place 
 where I now stand, you made a long speech against that law. 
 What then? By the immortal gods, if your authority had had 
 greater weight with the Roman people than the safety and real
 
 190 CICERO 
 
 interests of the Roman people itself, should we have been this day 
 in possession of our present glory, and of the empire of the whole 
 earth? Did this, then, appear to you to be dominion, when it 
 was a common thing for the ambassadors, and praetors, and 
 quaestors of the Roman people to be taken prisoners? when we 
 were cut off from all supplies, both public and private, from all 
 our provinces? when all the seas were so closed against us, that 
 we could neither visit any private estate of our own, nor any 
 public domain beyond the sea? 
 
 What city ever was there before this time I speak not of the 
 city of the Athenians, which is said formerly to have had a suffi- 
 ciently extensive naval dominion ; nor of that of the Carthagin- 
 ians, who had great power with their fleet and maritime re- 
 sources; nor of those of the Rhodians, whose naval discipline 
 and naval renown have lasted even to our recollection but was 
 there ever any city before this time so insignificant, if it was only 
 a small island, as not to be able by its own power to defend its 
 harbors, and its lands, and some part of its country and mari- 
 time coast? But, forsooth, for many years before the Gabinian 
 law was passed, the Roman people, whose name, till within our 
 own memory, remained invincible in naval battles, was deprived 
 not only of a great, ay, of much the greatest part of its usefulness, 
 but also of its dignity and dominion. We, whose ancestors con- 
 quered with our fleets Antiochus the king, and Perses, and in 
 every naval engagement defeated the Carthaginians, the best 
 practised and best equipped of all men in maritime affairs ; we 
 could now in no place prove ourselves equal to the pirates. We, 
 who formerly had not only all Italy in safety, but who were able 
 by the authority of our empire to secure the safety of all our 
 allies in the most distant countries, so that even the island of 
 Delos, situated so far from us in the yEgean Sea, at which all 
 men were in the habit of touching with their merchandise and 
 their freights, full of riches as it was, little and unwalled as it 
 was, still was in no alarm ; we, I say, were cut off, not only from 
 our provinces, and from the sea-coast of Italy, and from our 
 harbors, but even from the Appian road; and at this time, the 
 magistrates of the Roman people were not ashamed to come up 
 into this very rostrum where I am standing, which your ances- 
 tors had bequeathed to you adorned with nautical trophies, and 
 the spoils of the enemy's fleet.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 191 
 
 When you opposed that law, the Roman people, O Quintus 
 Hortensius, thought that you, and the others who held the 
 same opinion with you, delivered your sentiments in a bold and 
 gallant spirit. But still, in a matter affecting the safety of the 
 commonwealth, the Roman people preferred consulting its own 
 feelings of indignation to your authority. Accordingly, one 
 law, one man, and one year, delivered us not only from that 
 misery and disgrace, but also caused us again at length to appear 
 really to be masters of all nations and countries by land and sea. 
 And on this account the endeavor to detract, shall I say from 
 Gabinius, or from Pompeius, or (what would be truer still) from 
 both? appears to me particularly unworthy; being done in order 
 that Aulus Gabinius might not be appointed lieutenant to Cnae- 
 us Pompeius, though he requested and begged it. Is he who 
 begs for a particular lieutenant in so important a war unworthy 
 to obtain anyone whom he desires, when all other generals have 
 taken whatever lieutenants they chose, to assist them in pillag- 
 ing the allies and plundering the provinces? or ought he, by 
 whose law safety and dignity have been given to the Roman peo- 
 ple, and to all nations, to be prevented from sharing in the glory 
 of that commander and that army, which exists through his wis- 
 dom and was appointed at his risk? Was it allowed to Caius 
 Falcidius, to Quintus Metellus, to Quintus Caelius Laterensis, 
 and to Cnseus Lentulus, all of whom I name to do them honor, 
 to be lieutenants the year after they had been tribunes of the 
 people ; and shall men be so exact in the case of Gabinius alone, 
 who, in this war which is carried on under the provisions of the 
 Gabinian law, and in the case of this commander and this army 
 which he himself appointed with your assistance, ought to have 
 the first right of anyone ? And concerning whose appointment 
 as lieutenant I hope that the consuls will bring forward a motion 
 in the Senate; and if they hesitate, or are unwilling to do so, I 
 undertake to bring it forward myself; nor, O Romans, shall the 
 hostile edict of anyone deter me from relying on you and de- 
 fending your privileges and your kindness. Nor will I listen 
 to anything except the interposition of the tribunes; and as to 
 that, those very men who threaten it, will, I apprehend, consider 
 over and over again what they have a right to do. In my own 
 opinion, O Romans, Aulus Gabinius alone has a right to be put 
 by the side of Cnaeus Pompeius as a partner of the glory of his
 
 192 CICERO 
 
 exploits in the maritime war; because the one, with the assist- 
 ance of your votes, gave to that man alone the task of undertak- 
 ing that war, and the other, when it was intrusted to him, under- 
 took it and terminated it. 
 
 It remains for me to speak of the authority and opinion of 
 Quintus Catulus; who, when he asked of you, if you thus placed 
 all your dependence on Cnseus Pompeius, in whom you would 
 have any hope, if anything were to happen to him, received a 
 splendid reward for his own virtue and worth, when you all, with 
 almost one voice, cried out that you would, in that case, put your 
 trust in him. In truth he is such a man, that no affair can be so 
 important, or so difficult, that he cannot manage it by his wis- 
 dom, or defend it by his integrity, or terminate it by his valor. 
 But, in this case, I entirely differ from him; because, the less 
 certain and the less lasting the life of man is, the more ought the 
 republic to avail itself of the life and valor of any admirable man, 
 as long as the immortal gods allow it to do so. But let no inno- 
 vation be established contrary to the precedents and principles of 
 our ancestors. I will not say, at this moment, that our ances- 
 tors in peace always obeyed usage, but in war were always 
 guided by expediency, and always accommodated themselves 
 with new plans to the new emergencies of the times. I will not 
 say that two most important wars, the Punic War and the Span- 
 ish War, were put an end to by one general ; that two most pow- 
 erful cities, which threatened the greatest danger to this empire 
 Carthage and Numantia, were destroyed by the same Scipio. 
 I will not remind you that it was but lately determined by you 
 and by your ancestors, to rest all the hopes of the empire on 
 Caius Marius, so that the same man conducted the war against 
 Jugurtha, and against the Cimbri, and against the Teutones. 
 But recollect, in the case of Cnseus Pompeius himself, with ref- 
 erence to whom Catulus objects to having any new regulations 
 introduced, how many new laws have been made with the most 
 willing consent of Quintus Catulus. 
 
 For what can be so unprecedented as for a young man in a 
 private capacity to levy an army at a most critical time of the 
 republic? He levied one. To command it? He did com- 
 mand it. To succeed gloriously in his undertaking? He did 
 succeed. What can be so entirely contrary to usage, as for a
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 193 
 
 very young man, whose age 7 fell far short of that required for 
 the rank of a senator, to have a command and an army intrusted 
 to him? to have Sicily committed to his care, and Africa, and the 
 war which was to be carried on there? He conducted himself 
 in these provinces with singular blamelessness, dignity, and 
 valor; he terminated a most serious war in Africa, and brought 
 away his army victorious. But what was ever so unheard-of as 
 for a Roman knight to have a triumph? But even that circum- 
 stance the Roman people not only saw, but they thought that it 
 deserved to be thronged to and honored with all possible zeal. 
 What was ever so unusual, as, when there were two most gal- 
 lant and most illustrious consuls, for a Roman knight to be sent 
 as proconsul to a most important and formidable war? He 
 was so sent on which occasion, indeed, when someone in the 
 Senate said that a private individual ought not to be sent as 
 proconsul, Lucius Philippus is reported to have answered, that 
 if he had his will he should be sent not for one consul, but for 
 both the consuls. Such great hope was entertained that the 
 affairs of the republic would be prosperously managed by him, 
 that the charge which properly belonged to the two consuls was 
 intrusted to the valor of one young man. What was ever so 
 extraordinary as for a man to be released from all laws by a 
 formal resolution of the Senate, and made consul before he was 
 of an age to undertake any other magistracy according to the 
 laws? What could be so incredible, as for a Roman knight to 
 celebrate a second triumph in pursuance of a resolution of the 
 Senate? All the unusual circumstances which in the memory of 
 man have ever happened to all other men put together, are not 
 so many as these which we see have occurred in the history of 
 this one man. And all these instances, numerous, important, 
 and novel as they are, have all occurred in the case of the same 
 man, taking their rise in the authority of Quintus Catulus him- 
 self, and by that of other most honorable men of the same rank. 
 
 7 " As regards the age at which a per- quaestorship was thirty-one. Now as it 
 
 son might become a senator, we have might happen that a qurestor was made 
 
 no express statement for the time of a senator immediately after the expira- 
 
 the republic, although it appears to have tion of his office, we mav presume that 
 
 been fixed by some custom or law, as the earliest age at which a man could 
 
 the setas senatoria is frequently men- become a senator was thirty-two. Au- 
 
 tioned, especially during the latter pe- gustus at last fixed the senatorial age 
 
 riod of the republic; but we may by at twenty-five, which appears to have 
 
 induction discover the probable age. We remained unaltered throughout the time 
 
 know that according to the law of the of the empire." Smith, Dictionary of 
 
 tribune Villius the age fixed for the Antiquities, p. 851, v. Senatus. 
 
 13
 
 194 
 
 CICERO 
 
 Wherefore, let them take care that it is not considered a most 
 unjust and intolerable thing, that their authority in matters af- 
 fecting the dignity of Cnseus Pompeius should hitherto have 
 been constantly approved of by you, but that your judgment, 
 and the authority of the Roman people in the case of the same 
 man, should be disregarded by them. Especially when the 
 Roman people can now, of its own right, defend its own au- 
 thority with respect to this man against all who dispute it be- 
 cause, when those very same men objected, you chose him 
 alone of all men to appoint to the management of the war against 
 the pirates. If you did this at random, and had but little regard 
 for the interests of the republic, then they are right to endeavor 
 to guide your party spirit by their wisdom; but if you at that 
 time showed more foresight in the affairs of the state than they 
 did; if you, in spite of their resistance, by yourselves conferred 
 dignity on the empire, safety on the whole world ; then at last let 
 those noble men confess that both they and all other men must 
 obey the authority of the universal Roman people. And in this 
 Asiatic and royal war, not only is that military valor required, 
 which exists in a singular degree in Cnseus Pompeius, but many 
 other great virtues of mind are also demanded. It is difficult for 
 your commander-in-chief in Asia, Cilicia, Syria, and all the 
 kingdoms of the inland nations, to behave in such a manner as 
 to think of nothing else but the enemy and glory. Then, even 
 if there be some men moderate and addicted to the practice of 
 modesty and self-government, still, such is the multitude of 
 covetous and licentious men, that no one thinks that these are 
 such men. It is difficult to tell you, O Romans, how great our 
 unpopularity is among foreign nations, on account of the in- 
 jurious and licentious behavior of those whom we have of late 
 years sent among them with military command. For, in all 
 those countries which are now under our dominion, what temple 
 do you think has had a sufficiently holy reputation, what city has 
 been sufficiently sacred, what private house has been sufficiently 
 closed and fortified, to be safe from them? They seek out 
 wealthy and splendid cities to find pretence for making war on 
 them for the sake of plundering them. I would willingly argue 
 this with those most eminent and illustrious men, Quintus Cat- 
 ulus and Quintus Hortensius ; for they know the distresses of 
 the allies, they see their calamities, they hear their complaints.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 195 
 
 Do you think that you are sending an army in defence of your 
 allies against their enemies, or rather, under pretence of the ex- 
 istence of enemies, against your allies and friends themselves ? 
 What city is there in Asia which can stand the ferocity and arro- 
 gance, I will not say of the army, of a commander-in-chief, or 
 of a lieutenant, but of even the brigade of one single military 
 tribune ? 
 
 So that even if you have anyone who may appear able to cope 
 in terms of advantage with the king's armies, still, unless he be 
 also a man who can keep his hands, and eyes, and desires from 
 the treasures of the allies, from their wives and children, from 
 the ornaments of their temples and cities, from the gold and 
 jewels of the king, he will not be a fit person to be sent to this 
 Asiatic and royal war. Do you think that there is any city 
 there peacefully inclined towards us which is rich? Do you 
 think that there is any rich city there, which will appear to those 
 men to be peacefully inclined towards us? The sea-coast, O 
 Romans, begged for Cnaeus Pompeius, not only on account of 
 his renown for military achievements, but also because of the 
 moderation of his disposition. For it saw that it was not the 
 Roman people that was enriched every year by the public 
 money, but only a few individuals, and that we did nothing more 
 by the name of our fleets beyond sustaining losses, and so cover- 
 ing ourselves with additional disgrace. But now, are these 
 men, who think that all these honors and offices are not to be 
 conferred on one person, ignorant with what desires, with what 
 hope of retrieving past losses, and on what conditions, these 
 men go to the provinces? As if Cnaeus Pompeius did not ap- 
 pear great in our eyes, not only on account of his own positive 
 virtues, but by a comparison with the vices of others. And, 
 therefore, do not you doubt to intrust everything to him alone, 
 when he has been found to be the only man for many years 
 whom the allies are glad to see come to their cities with an army. 
 And if you think that our side of the argument, O Romans, 
 should be confirmed by authorities, you have the authority of 
 Publius Servilius, a man of the greatest skill in all wars, and in 
 affairs of the greatest importance, who has performed such 
 mighty achievements by land and sea, that, when you are de- 
 liberating about war, no one's authority ought to have more 
 weight with you. You have the authority of Caius Curio, a
 
 196 CICERO 
 
 man who has received great kindnesses from you, who has per- 
 formed great exploits, who is endued with the highest abilities 
 and wisdom; and of Cnaeus Lentulus, in whom all of you know 
 there is (as, indeed, there ought to be, from the ample honors 
 which you have heaped upon him) the most eminent wisdom, 
 and the greatest dignity of character ; and of Caius Cassius, a 
 man of extraordinary integrity, and valor, and virtue. Consider, 
 therefore, whether we do not seem by the authority of these men 
 to give a sufficient answer to the speeches of those men who 
 differ from us. 
 
 And as this is the case, O Caius Manilius, in the first place, I 
 exceedingly praise and approve of that law of yours, and of your 
 purpose, and of your sentiments. And in the second place, I 
 exhort you, having the approbation of the Roman people, to 
 persevere in those sentiments, and not to fear the violence or 
 threats of anyone. And, first of all, I think you have the requi- 
 site courage and perseverance; and, secondly, when we see such 
 a multitude present displaying such zeal in our cause as we now 
 see displayed for the second time, in appointing the same man 
 to the supreme command, how can we doubt in the matter, or 
 question our power of carrying our point ? As for me, all the 
 zeal, and wisdom, and industry, and ability of which I am pos- 
 sessed, all the influence which I have through the kindness 
 shown for me by the Roman people, and through my power as 
 praetor, as also, through my reputation for authority, good faith, 
 and virtue, all of it I pledge to you and the Roman people, and 
 devote to the object of carrying this resolution. And I call all 
 the gods to witness, and especially those who preside over this 
 place and temple, who see into the minds of all those who apply 
 themselves to affairs of state, that I am not doing this at the re- 
 quest of anyone, nor because I think to conciliate the favor of 
 Cnseus Pompeius by taking this side, nor in order, through the 
 greatness of anyone else, to seek for myself protection against 
 dangers, or aids in the acquirement of honors; because, as for 
 dangers, we shall easily repel them, as a man ought to do, pro- 
 tected by our own innocence; and as for honors, we shall not 
 gain them by the favor of any men, nor by anything tha.t happens 
 in this place, but by the same laborious course of life which I 
 have hitherto adopted, if your favorable inclination assists me. 
 Wherefore, whatever I have undertaken in this cause, O
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW 197 
 
 Romans, I assure you that I have undertaken wholly for the sake 
 of the republic; and I am so far from thinking that I have gained 
 by it the favor of any influential man, that I know, on the other 
 hand, that I have brought on myself many enmities, some secret, 
 some undisguised, which I never need have incurred, and which 
 yet will not be mischievous to you. But I have considered that 
 I, invested with my present honors, and loaded with so many 
 kindnesses from you, ought to prefer your inclination, and the 
 dignity of the republic, and the safety of our provinces and allies, 
 to all considerations of my own private interest.
 
 SPEECH 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF 
 TITUS ANNIUS MILO
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Titus Annius Milo, often in the following speech called only Titus 
 Annius, stood for the consulship while Clodius was a candidate for 
 the praetorship, and daily quarrels took place in the streets between 
 their armed retainers and gladiators. Milo, who was dictator of 
 Lanuvium, his native place, was forced to go thither to appoint some 
 priests, etc. ; and Clodius, who had been to Africa, met him on his 
 road. Milo was in his carriage with his wife, and was accompanied 
 by a numerous retinue, among whom were some gladiators. Clodius 
 was on horseback, with about thirty armed men. The followers of 
 each began to fight, and when the tumult had become general, Clodius 
 was slain, probably by Milo himself. The disturbances at Rome be- 
 came so formidable that Pompey was created sole consul; and soon 
 after he entered on his office, A.u.c. 702, Milo was brought to trial. 
 This speech, however, though composed by Cicero, was not spoken, 
 for he was so much alarmed by the violence of Clodius's friends, that 
 he did not dare to use the plain language he had proposed. Milo 
 was convicted and banished to Marseilles. 
 
 200
 
 SPEECH 
 IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 
 
 ALTHOUGH I am afraid, O judges, that it is a base thing 
 for one who is beginning to speak for a very brave man 
 to be alarmed, and though it is far from becoming, when 
 Titus Annius Milo himself is more disturbed for the safety of 
 the republic than for his own, that I should not be able to bring 
 to the cause a similar greatness of mind, yet this novel appear- 
 ance of a new J manner of trial alarms my eyes, which, wherever 
 they fall, seek for the former customs of the forum and the an- 
 cient practice in trials. For your assembly is not surrounded 
 by a -circle of by-standers as usual ; we are not attended by our 
 usual company. 2 
 
 For those guards which you behold in front of all the temples, 
 although they are placed there as a protection against violence, 
 yet they bring no aid to the orator; so that even in the forum 
 and in the court of justice itself, although we are protected with 
 all salutary and necessary defences, yet we cannot be entirely 
 without fear. But if I thought this adverse to Milo, I should 
 yield to the times, O judges, and among such a crowd of armed 
 men, I should think there was no room for an orator. But the 
 wisdom of Cnaeus Pompeius, a most wise and just man, strength- 
 ens and encourages me; who would certainly neither think it 
 suitable to his justice to deliver that man up to the weapons of 
 the soldiery whom he had given over as an accused person to 
 the decision of the judges, nor suitable to his wisdom to arm 
 the rashness of an excited multitude with public authority. 
 
 So that those arms, those centurions, those cohorts, do not 
 announce danger to us, but protection ; nor do they expect us 
 
 1 This was an extraordinary trial, held a Pompey was present at the trial, 
 
 under a new law just passed by Pom- surrounded by his officers, and he had 
 
 pey; and it was presided over, not by filled the forum and all its precincts 
 
 the praetor, but by Lucius Domitius with armed men, for the sake of kecp- 
 
 Ahenobarbus, who was expressly ap- ing the peace, 
 pointed by the comitia president of the 
 judges on this occasion. 
 
 201
 
 202 CICERO 
 
 only to be calm, but even to be courageous; nor do they prom- 
 ise only assistance to my defense, but also silence. And the rest 
 of the multitude, which consists of citizens, is wholly ours; nor 
 is there any one individual among those whom you see from this 
 place gazing upon us from all sides from which any part of the 
 forum can be seen, and watching the result of this trial, who, 
 while he favors the virtue of Milo, does not think that this day in 
 reality his own interests, those of his children, his country, and 
 his fortunes, are at stake. 
 
 There is one class adverse and hostile to us those whom the 
 madness of Publius Clodius has fed on rapine, on conflagration, 
 and on every sort of public disaster; and who were, even in the 
 assembly held yesterday, exhorted 3 to teach you, by their clamor, 
 what you were to decide. But such shouts, if any reached you, 
 should rather warn you to retain him as a citizen who has always 
 slighted that class of men, and their greatest clamor, in com- 
 parison with your safety. Wherefore, be of good courage, O 
 judges, and lay aside your alarm, if indeed you feel any ; for if 
 ever you had to decide about good and brave men, and about 
 citizens who had deserved well of their country, if ever an oppor- 
 tunity was given to chosen men of the most honorable ranks to 
 show by their deeds and resolutions that disposition toward 
 brave and good citizens which they had often declared by their 
 looks and by their words, all that power you now have, when 
 you are to determine whether we who have always been wholly 
 devoted to your authority are to be miserable, and to mourn for- 
 ever, or whether, having been long harassed by the most aban- 
 doned citizens, we shall at length be reprieved and set up again 
 by you, your loyalty, your virtue, and your wisdom. 
 
 For what, O judges, is more full of labor than we both are, 
 what can be either expressed or imagined more full of anxiety 
 and uneasiness than we are, who being induced to devote our- 
 selves to the republic by the hope of the most honorable rewards, 
 yet cannot be free from the fear of the most cruel punishments ? 
 I have always thought indeed that Milo had to encounter the 
 other storms and tempests in these billows of the assemblies be- 
 cause he always espoused the cause of the good against the bad ; 
 but in a court of justice, and in that council in which the most 
 
 8 Munatius Plancus, the day before, had exhorted the people not to suffer 
 Milo to escape.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 203 
 
 honorable men of all ranks are sitting as judges, I never imag- 
 ined that Milo's enemies could have any hope of diminishing 
 his glory by the aid of such men, much less of at all injuring his 
 safety. 
 
 Although in this cause, O judges, we shall not employ the 
 tribuneship of Titus Annius, and all the exploits which he has 
 performed for the safety of the republic, as topics for our de- 
 fence against this accusation, unless you see with your own eyes 
 that a plot was laid against Milo by Clodius; and we shall not 
 entreat you to pardon us this one offence in consideration of our 
 many eminent services to the republic, nor shall we demand, if 
 the death of Publius Qodius was your safety, that on that ac- ' 
 count you should attribute it rather to the virtue of Milo, than to 
 the good fortune of the Roman people ; but if his plots are made 
 clearer than the day, then indeed I shall entreat, and shall de- 
 mand of you, O judges, that, if we have lost everything else, this 
 at least may be left us namely, the privilege of defending our 
 lives from the audacity and weapons of our enemies with im- 
 punity. 
 
 But before I come to that part of my speech which especially 
 belongs to this trial, it seems necessary to refute those things 
 which have been often said, both in the Senate by our enemies, 
 and in the assembly of the people by wicked men, and lately, 
 too, by our prosecutors ; so that when every cause of alarm is re- 
 moved, you may be able distinctly to see the matter which is the 
 subject of this trial. They say that that man ought no longer 
 to see the light who confesses that another man has been slain 
 by him. In what city, then, are these most foolish men using 
 this argument? In this one, forsooth, where the first trial for a 
 man's life took place at all was that of Marcus Horatius, a most 
 brave man, who even before the city was free was yet acquitted 
 by the assembly of the Roman people, though he avowed that 
 his sister had been slain by his hand. 
 
 Is there anyone who does not know, that when inquiry is 
 made into the slaying of a man, it is usual either altogether to 
 deny that the deed has been done, or else to defend it on the 
 ground that it was rightly and lawfully done? unless, indeed, you 
 think that Publius Africanus was out of his mind, who, when he 
 was asked in a seditious spirit by Caius Carbo, a tribune of the 
 people, what was his opinion of the death of Tiberius Gracchus,
 
 204 CICERO 
 
 answered that he seemed to have been rightly slain. For 
 neither could Servilius Ahala, that eminent man, nor Publius 
 Nasica, nor Lucius Opimius, nor Caius Marius, nor indeed the 
 Senate itself during my consulship, have been accounted any- 
 thing but wicked, if it was unlawful for wicked citizens to be put 
 to death. And therefore, O judges, it was not without good 
 reason, that even in legendary fables learned men have handed 
 down the story, that he, who for the sake of avenging his father 
 had killed his mother, when the opinions of men varied, was ac- 
 quitted not only by the voices of the gods, but even by the very 
 wisest goddess. And if the Twelve Tables have permitted that 
 a nightly robber may be slain anyway, but a robber by day if he 
 defends himself, w r ith a weapon, who is there who can think a 
 man to be punished for slaying another, in whatever way he is 
 slain, when he sees that sometimes a sw r ord to kill a man with is 
 put into our hands by the very laws themselves? 
 
 But if there be any occasion on which it is proper to slay a 
 man and there are many such surely that occasion is not only 
 a just one, but even a necessary one when violence is offered, and 
 can only be repelled by violence. When a military tribune 
 offered violence to a soldier in the army of Caius Marius, the 
 kinsman of that commander was slain by the man whom he was 
 insulting; for the virtuous youth chose to act, though with dan- 
 ger, rather than to suffer infamously; and his illustrious com- 
 mander acquitted him of all guilt, and treated him well. But 
 what death can be unjust when inflicted on a secret plotter and 
 robber? 
 
 What is the meaning of our retinues, what of our swords? 
 Surely it would never be permitted to us to have them if we 
 might never use them. This, therefore, is a law, O judges, not 
 written, but born with us which we have not learned, or re- 
 ceived by tradition, or read, but which we have taken and 
 sucked in and imbibed from nature herself; a law which we were 
 not taught, but to which we were made which we were not 
 trained in, but which is ingrained in us namely, that if our life 
 be in danger from plots, or from open violence, or from the 
 weapons of robbers or enemies, every means of securing our 
 safety is honorable. For laws are silent when arms are raised, 
 and do not expect themselves to be waited for, when he who 
 waits will have to suffer an undeserved penalty before he can 
 exact a merited punishment.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 265 
 
 The law very wisely, and in a manner silently, gives a man a 
 right to defend himself, and does not merely forbid a man to be 
 slain, but forbids anyone to have a weapon about him with the 
 object of slaying a man; so that, as the object, and not the 
 weapon itself, is made the subject of the inquiry, the man who 
 had used a weapon with the object of defending himself would 
 be decided not to have had his weapon about him with the object 
 of killing a man. Let, then, this principle be remembered by 
 you in this trial, O judges; for I do not doubt that I shall make 
 good my defence before you, if you only remember what you 
 cannot forget that a plotter against one may be lawfully slain. 
 
 The next point is one which is often asserted by the enemies 
 of Milo, who say that the Senate has decided that the slaughter 
 by which Publius Clodius fell was contrary to the interests of the 
 republic. But, in fact, the Senate has approved, not merely by 
 their votes, but even zealously. For how often has that cause 
 been pleaded by us in the Senate ? with what great assent of the 
 whole body ? and that no silent nor concealed assent ; for when 
 in a very full Senate were there ever four or five men found who 
 did not espouse Milo's cause ? Those lifeless assemblies of this 
 nearly burnt 4 tribune of the people show the fact ; assemblies in 
 which he daily used to try and bring my power into unpopularity, 
 by saying that the Senate did not pass its decrees according to 
 what it thought itself, but as I chose. 
 
 And if indeed that ought to be called power rather than a 
 moderate influence in a righteous cause on account of great ser- 
 vices done to the republic, or some popularity among the good 
 on account of dutiful labors for its sake, let it be called so, as 
 long as we employ it for the safety of the good in opposition to 
 the madness of the wicked. 
 
 But this investigation, though it is not an unjust one, yet is 
 not one which the Senate thought ought to be ordered ; for there 
 were regular laws and forms of trial for murder, or for assault ; 
 nor did the death of Publius Clodius cause the Senate such con- 
 cern and sorrow that any new process of investigation need have 
 been appointed ; for when the Senate had had the power of de- 
 
 4 After Clodius's death, Munatius made a pile of the seats to burn it, in 
 
 Plancus, the tribune, exposed his body doing which they burnt the Senate- 
 
 on the rostrum, and harangued the peo- house, and Plancus himself with dif- 
 
 ple against Milo; the populace carried ficulty escaped, 
 the body into the senate-house, and
 
 206 CICERO 
 
 creeing a trial in the matter of that impious pollution of which 
 he was guilty taken from it, who can believe it thought it neces- 
 sary to appoint a new form of trial about his death? Why then 
 did the Senate decide that this burning of the senate-house, this 
 siege laid to the house of M. Lepidus, and this very homicide, 
 had taken place contrary to the interest of the republic? Why, 
 because no violence from one citizen to another can ever take 
 place in a free state which is not contrary to the interests of the 
 republic. For the defending of one's self against violence is 
 never a thing to be wished for ; but it is sometimes necessary, 
 unless, indeed, one could say that that day on which Tiberius 
 Gracchus was slain, or that day when Caius was, or the day 
 when the arms of Saturnius were put down, even if they ended 
 as the welfare of the republic demanded, were yet no wound and 
 injury to the republic. 
 
 Therefore I myself voted, when it was notorious that a homi- 
 cide had taken place on the Appian road, not that he who had 
 defended himself had acted in a manner contrary to the interests 
 of the republic; but as there was violence and treachery in the 
 business, I reserved the charge for trial, I expressed my disap- 
 probation of the business. And if the Senate had not been hin- 
 dered by that frantic tribune from executing its wishes, we 
 should not now have this novel trial. For the Senate voted that 
 an extraordinary investigation should take place according to 
 the ancient laws. A division took place, it does not signify on 
 whose motion, for it is not necessary to mention the worthless- 
 ness of everyone, and so the rest of the authority of the Senate 
 was destroyed by this corrupt intercession. 
 
 " Oh, but Cnaeus Pompeius, by his bill, gave his decision 
 both about the fact and about the cause. For he brought in 
 a bill about the homicide which had taken place on the Appian 
 road, in which Publius Clodius was slain." What then did he 
 propose ? That an inquiry should be made. What is to be in- 
 quired about? Whether it was committed? That is clear. By 
 whom ? That is notorious. He saw that a defence as to the law 
 and right could be undertaken, even at the very moment of the 
 confession of the act. But if he had not seen that he who con- 
 fessed might yet be acquitted, when he saw that we did not con- 
 fess the fact, he would never have ordered an investigation to
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 207 
 
 take place, nor would he have given you at this trial the power 5 
 of acquitting as well as that of condemning. But it seems to 
 me that Cnaeus Pompeius not only delivered no decision at all 
 unfavorable to Milo, but that he also pointed out what you 
 ought to turn your attention to in deciding. For he who did not 
 assign a punishment to the confession, but required a defence 
 of it, he clearly thought that what was inquired into was the 
 cause of the death, and not the mere fact of the death. Now he 
 himself shall tell us whether what he did of his own accord was 
 done out of regard for Publius Clodius, or from a compliance 
 with the times. 
 
 A most noble man, a bulwark, and in those times, indeed, 
 almost a protector of the Senate, the uncle of this our judge, 
 of that most fearless man Marcus Cato, Marcus Drusus, a trib- 
 une of the people, was slain in his own house. The people had 
 never any reference made to them in the matter of his death, 
 no investigation was voted by the Senate. What great grief 
 was there, as we have heard from our forefathers in this city, 
 when that attack was made by night on Publius Africanus, 
 while sleeping in his own house ! Who was there then who 
 did not groan, who did not burn with indignation, that men 
 should not have waited even for the natural and inevitable 
 death of that man whom, if possible, all would have wished 
 to be immortal ? 
 
 Was there, then, any extraordinary investigation into the 
 death of Africanus 8 voted? Certainly none. Why so? Be- 
 cause the crime of murder is not different when eminent men, or 
 when obscure ones are slain. Let there be a difference be- 
 tween the dignity of the lives of the highest and lowest citizens. 
 If their death be wrought by wickedness, that must be avenged 
 by the same laws and punishments in either case ; unless, indeed, 
 he be more a parricide who murders a father of consular rank 
 
 ' Literally, " this wholesome letter, as bed without a wound. The cause and 
 
 well as that melancholy one." The let- manner of his death were unknown; 
 
 ter A was the " wholesome " letter, be- some said it was natural ; some, that he 
 
 ing the initial of absolvo, I acquit; the had slain himself; some, that his wife 
 
 letter C the melancholy one, being the Sempronia, the sister of Gracchus, had 
 
 initial of condemno, I condemn. strangled him. His slaves, it was said, 
 
 After the death of Tiberius Gracchus, declared that some strangers had been 
 
 Publius jEmilianus Africanus Scipio, introduced into the house at the back, 
 
 the conqueror of Carthage and Numan- who had strangled him, and the trium- 
 
 tia, was known to be hostile to the vir Carbo is generally believed to have 
 
 agrarian law, and threw every obstacle been the chief agent in his murder, and 
 
 in the way of it; his enemies gave out is expressly mentioned as the murderer 
 
 that he intended to abrogate it by force. by Cicero, Ep. ad Q. Fr. ii. 3. 
 One morning he was found dead in his
 
 208 CICERO 
 
 than he who murders one of low degree ; or, as if the death of 
 Publius Clodius is to be more criminal because he was slain 
 among the monuments of his ancestors for this is constantly 
 said by that party ; as if, I suppose, that illustrious Appius Csecus 
 made that road, not that the nation might have a road to use, 
 but that his own posterity might have a place in which to rob 
 with impunity. 
 
 Therefore in that same Appian road, when Publius Clodius 
 had slain a most accomplished Roman knight, Marcus Papir- 
 ius, that crime was not to be punished ; for a nobleman among 
 his own family monuments had slain a Roman knight. Now 
 what tragedies does the name of that same Appian road 
 awaken? which, though nothing was said about it formerly, 
 when stained with the murder of an honorable and innocent 
 man, is now incessantly mentioned ever since it has been dyed 
 with the blood of a robber and a parricide. But why do I 
 speak of these things ? A slave of Publius Clodius was arrested 
 in the temple of Castor, whom he had placed there to murder 
 Cnaeus Pompeius ; the dagger was wrested from his hands and 
 he confessed his design ; after that Pompeius absented himself 
 from the forum, absented himself from the Senate, and from 
 all public places ; he defended himself within his own doors and 
 walls, not by the power of the laws and tribunals. 
 
 Was any motion made ? was any extraordinary investigation 
 voted ? But if any circumstance, if any man, if any occasion 
 was ever important enough for such a step, certainly all these 
 things were so in the greatest degree in that cause. The as- 
 sassin had been stationed in the forum, and in the very vestibule 
 of the Senate. Death was being prepared for that man on 
 whose life the safety of the Senate depended. Moreover, at 
 that crisis of the republic, when, if he alone had died, not only 
 this state, but all the nations in the world would have been 
 ruined unless, indeed, the crime was not to be punished be- 
 cause it was not accomplished, just as if the execution of crimes 
 was chastised by the laws, and not the intentions of men cer- 
 tainly there was less cause to grieve, as the deed was not accom- 
 plished, but certainly not a whit the less cause to punish. How 
 often, O judges, have I myself escaped from the weapons and 
 from the bloody hands of Publius Clodius ! But if my good 
 fortune, or that of the republic, had not preserved me from
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 209 
 
 them, who would have proposed any investigation into my 
 death ? 
 
 But it is foolish of us to dare to compare Drusus, Africanus, 
 Pompeius, or ourselves, with Publius Clodius. All these things, 
 were endurable. The death of Publius Clodius no one can bear 
 with equanimity. The Senate is in mourning; the knights 
 grieve ; the whole state is broken down as if with age ;the munic- 
 ipalities are in mourning ; the colonies are bowed down ; the 
 very fields even regret so beneficent, so useful, so kind-hearted 
 a citizen ! That was not the cause, O judges, it was not indeed, 
 why Pompeius thought an investigation ought to be proposed 
 by him ; but being a man wise and endowed with lofty and al- 
 most divine intellect, he saw many things that Clodius was his 
 personal enemy, Milo his intimate friend ; he feared that, if he 
 were to rejoice in the common joy of all men, the belief in his re- 
 conciliation with Clodius would be weakened. He saw many 
 other things, too, but this most especially that in whatever 
 terms of severity he proposed the motion, still you would decide 
 fearlessly. Therefore, he selected the very lights of the most 
 eminent ranks of the state. He did not, indeed, as some are 
 constantly saying, exclude my friends in selecting the tribunals ; 
 for neither did that most just man think of this, nor, when he 
 was selecting good men, could he have managed to do so, even 
 had he wished ; for my influence would not be limited by my 
 intimacies, which can never be very extensive, because one can- 
 not associate habitually with many people ; but, if we have any 
 influence, we have it on this account, because the republic has 
 associated us with the virtuous ; and, when he was selecting the 
 most excellent of them, and as he thought that it especially 
 concerned his credit to do so, he was unable to avoid selecting 
 men who were well-disposed toward me. 
 
 But as for his especially appointing you, O Lucius Domitius, 
 to preside over this investigation, in that he was seeking noth- 
 ing except justice, dignity, humanity, and good faith. He 
 passed a law that it must be a man of consular dignity, because, 
 I suppose, he considered the duty of the men of the highest rank 
 to resist both the fickleness of the multitude and the rashness 
 of the profligate ; and of the men of consular rank he selected 
 you above all ; for from your earliest youth you had given the 
 14
 
 210 CICERO 
 
 most striking proofs how you despised the madness of the 
 people. 
 
 Wherefore, O judges, that we may at last come to the sub- 
 ject of action and the accusation, if it is neither the case that all 
 avowal of the deed is unprecedented, nor that anything has been 
 determined about our cause by the Senate differently to what 
 we could wish ; and if the proposer of the law himself when 
 there was no dispute as to the deed, yet thought that there 
 should be a discussion as to the law ; and if the judges had been 
 chosen, and a man appointed to preside over the investigation, 
 to decide these matters justly and wisely ; it follows, O judges, 
 that you have now nothing else to inquire into but which plot- 
 ted against the other ; and that you may the more easily discern 
 this, attend carefully, I entreat you, while I briefly explain to 
 you the matter as it occurred. 
 
 When Publius Clodius had determined to distress the repub- 
 lic by all sorts of wickedness during his prsetorship, and saw 
 that the comitia were so delayed the year before, that he would 
 not be able to continue his praetorship many months, as he 
 had no regard to the degree of honor, as others have, but both 
 wished to avoid having Lucius Paullus, a citizen of singular 
 virtue, for his colleague, and also to have an entire year to man- 
 gle the republic ; on a sudden he abandoned his own year, and 
 transferred himself to the next year, not from any religious 
 scruple, but that he might have, as he said himself, a full and 
 entire year to act as praetor, that is, to overthrow the republic. 
 
 It occurred to him that his praetorship would be crippled and 
 powerless, if Milo was consul ; and, moreover, he saw that he 
 was being made consul with the greatest unanimity of the 
 Roman people. He betook himself to his competitors, but in 
 such a manner that he alone managed the whole election, even 
 against their will that he supported on his own shoulders, as 
 he used to say, the whole comitia he convoked the tribes he 
 interposed he erected a new Colline tribe by the enrollment 
 of the most worthless of the citizens. In proportion as the one 
 caused greater confusion, so did the other acquire additional 
 power every day. When the fellow, prepared for every atroc- 
 ity, saw that a most brave man, his greatest enemy, was a most 
 certain consul, and that that was declared, not only by the con- 
 versation of the Roman people, but also by their votes, he began
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 211 
 
 to act openly, and to say without disguise that Milo must be 
 slain. 
 
 He had brought down from the Apennines rustic and barba- 
 rian slaves, whom you saw, with whom he had ravaged the pub- 
 lic woods and Etrnria. The matter was not concealed at all. 
 In truth, he used to say undisguisedly that the consulship could 
 , not be taken from Milo, but that life could. He often hinted as 
 much in the Senate ; he said it plainly in the public assembly. 
 Besides, when Favonius, a brave man, asked him what he hoped 
 for by giving way to such madness while Milo was alive? he 
 answered him, that in three, or at most in four days, he would 
 be dead. And this saying of his Favonius immediately report- 
 ed to Marcus Cato, who is here present. 
 
 In the mean time, as Clodius knew and it was not hard to 
 know it that Milo was forced to take a yearly, legitimate, nec- 
 essary journey on the twentieth of January to Lanuvium to 
 appoint a priest, 7 because Milo was dictator of Lanuvium, on a 
 sudden he himself left Rome the day before, in order (as was 
 seen by the event) to lay in ambush for Milo in front of his 
 farm ; and he departed, so that he was not present at a turbulent 
 assembly in which his madness was greatly missed, and which 
 was held that very day, and from which he never would have 
 been absent, if he had not desired to avail himself of the place 
 and opportunity for a crime. 
 
 But Milo, as he had been that day in the Senate till it was 
 dismissed, came home, changed his shoes and his garments, 
 waited a little, as men do, while his wife was getting ready, and 
 then started at the time when Clodius might have returned, if, 
 'indeed, he had been coming to Rome that day. Clodius meets 
 him unencumbered on horseback, with no carriage, with no 
 baggage, with no Greek companions, as he was used to, without 
 his wife, which was scarcely ever the case ; while this plotter, 
 who had taken, forsooth, that journey for the express purpose 
 of murder, was driving with his wife in a carriage, in a heavy 
 travelling cloak, with abundant baggage, and a delicate com- 
 pany of women, and maid servants, and boys. He meets Clo- 
 dius in front of his farm, about the eleventh hour, or not far 
 from it. Immediately a number of men attack him from the 
 higher ground with missile weapons. The men who are in 
 
 T It was the priest of Juno Sospita, who was the patroness of Lanuvium.
 
 212 CICERO 
 
 front kill his driver, and when he had jumped down from his 
 chariot and flung aside his cloak, and while he was defending 
 himself with vigorous courage, the men who were with Clodius 
 drew their swords, and some of them ran back toward his char- 
 iot in order to attack Milo from behind, and some, because they 
 thought that he was already slain, began to attack his servants 
 who were behind him ; and those of the servants who had pres- 
 ence of mind to defend themselves, and were faithful to their 
 master, were some of them slain, and the others, when they saw 
 a fierce battle taking place around the chariot, and as they were 
 prevented from getting near their master so as to succor him, 
 when they heard Clodius himself proclaim that Milo was slain, 
 and they thought that it was really true, they, the servants of 
 Milo (I am not speaking for the purpose of shifting the guilt 
 onto the shoulders of others, but I am saying what really oc- 
 curred) did, without their master either commanding it, or 
 knowing it, or even being present to see it, what everyone would 
 have wished his servants to do in a similar case. 
 
 These things were all done, O judges, just as I have related 
 them. The man who laid the plot was defeated ; violence was 
 defeated by violence; or, I should rather say, audacity was 
 crushed by valor. I say nothing about what the republic, noth- 
 ing about what you, nothing about what all good men gained 
 by the result. I do not desire it to be any advantage to me to 
 hear that he was born with such a destiny that he was unable 
 even to save himself, without at the same time saving the repub- 
 lic and all of you. If he had not a right to do so, then I have 
 nothing which I can urge in his defence. But if both reason 
 has taught this lesson to learned men, and necessity to barba- 
 rians, and custom to all nations, and nature itself to the beasts, 
 that they are at all times to repel all violence by whatever means 
 they can from their persons, from their liberties, and from 
 their lives, then you cannot decide this action to have been 
 wrong, without deciding at the same time that all men who fall 
 among thieves must perish, either by their weapons, or by your 
 sentence. 
 
 And if he had thought that this was the law, it would have 
 been preferable for Milo to offer his throat to Publius Clodius 
 which was not attacked by him once only, nor for the first time 
 on that day rather than now to be destroyed by you because
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 213 
 
 he did not surrender himself then to be destroyed by him. But 
 if there is no one of you who entertains such an opinion as that, 
 then the question which arises for the consideration of the court 
 is, not whether he was slain or not, which we admit, but 
 whether he was slain legally or illegally, which is an inquiry 
 which has often been instituted in many causes. It is quite 
 plain that a plot was laid ; and that is a thing which the Senate 
 has decided to be contrary to the laws of the republic. By 
 whom it was laid is a question. And on this point an inquiry 
 has been ordered to be instituted. So the Senate has marked 
 its disapproval of the fact, not of the man ; and Pompeius has 
 appointed this inquiry into the merits of the case, and not into 
 the fact of its existence. 
 
 Does, then, any other point arise for the decision of the court, 
 except this one, Which laid a plot against the other? None 
 whatever. The case comes before you in this way, that if Milo 
 laid a plot against Clodius, then he is not to be let off with im- 
 punity. If Clodius laid it against Milo, then we are acquitted 
 from all guilt. 
 
 How, then, are we to prove that Clodius laid a plot against 
 Milo ? It is quite sufficient in the case of such a wicked, of such 
 an audacious monster as that, to prove that he had great reason 
 to do so ; that he had great hopes founded on Milo's death ; that 
 it would have been of the greatest service to him. Therefore, 
 that maxim of Cassius, to see to whose advantage it was, may 
 well have influence in respect of these persons. For although 
 good men cannot be induced to commit crimes by any advan- 
 tage whatever, wicked men often can by a very trifling one. And, 
 if Milo were slain, Clodius gained this, not only that he should 
 be praetor without having him for a consul, under whom he 
 would not be able to commit any wickedness, but also that he 
 should have those men for consuls while he was praetor, who, if 
 they did not aid him, would at all events connive at all his pro- 
 ceedings to such an extent that he hoped he should be able to es- 
 cape detection in all the frantic actions which he was contem- 
 plating ; as they (so he argued to himself) would not, even if they 
 were able to do so, be anxious to check his attempts when they 
 considered that they were under such obligations to him ;and on 
 the other hand, if they did wish to do so, perhaps they would 
 hardly be able to crush the audacity of that most wicked man
 
 2i 4 CICERO 
 
 when it got strength by its long continuance. Are you, O judges, 
 the only persons ignorant of all this ? Are you living in this city 
 as ignorant of what passes as if you were visitors ? Are your 
 ears all abroad, do they keep aloof from all the ordinary topics 
 of conversation of the city, as to what laws (if, indeed, they are 
 to be called laws, and not rather firebrands to destroy the city, 
 pestilences to annihilate the republic) that man was intending 
 to impose upon all of us, to brand on our foreheads ? Exhibit, 
 I beg you, Sextus Clodius, produce, I beg, that copy of your 
 laws which they say that you saved from your house, and from 
 the middle of the armed band which threatened you by night, 
 and bore aloft, like another palladium, in order, forsooth, to be 
 able to carry that splendid present, that instrument for dis- 
 charging the duties of the tribuneship, to someone, if you could 
 obtain his election, who would discharge those duties according 
 to your directions. And he was going to divide the freed- 
 men among all the tribes, and by his new law to add all the 
 slaves who were going to be emancipated, but who had not yet 
 received their freedom, so that they might vote equally with the 
 free citizens]. 8 
 
 Would he have dared to make mention of this law, which 
 Sextus Clodius boasts was devised by him, while Milo was 
 alive, not to say while he was consul? For all of us I can- 
 not venture to say all that I was going to say. But do you con- 
 sider what enormous faults the law itself must have had, when 
 the mere mention of it, for the purpose of finding fault with it, 
 is so offensive. And he looked at me with the expression of 
 countenance which he was in the habit of putting on when he 
 was threatening everybody with every sort of calamity. That 
 light of the senate-house moves me. 8 
 
 What ? do you suppose, O Sextus, that I am angry with you ; 
 I, whose greatest enemy you have punished with even much 
 greater severity than my humanity could resolve to demand? 
 You cast the bloody carcass of Publius Clodius out of the house, 
 you threw it out into the public street, you left it destitute of all 
 images, of all funeral rites, of all funeral pomp, of all funeral 
 panegyric, half consumed by a lot of miserable logs, to be torn 
 
 8 The passage in brackets is a very 8 Cicero here supposes Sextus Clodius 
 
 doubtful supplement of Beier; which, to look menacingly at him, in order to 
 however, Orellius prefers to any other. check him in his attack on this intended 
 
 law.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 215 
 
 to pieces by the dogs who nightly prowl about the streets. 
 Wherefore, although in so doing you acted most impiously, 
 still you were wreaking all your cruelty on my enemy ; though 
 I cannot praise you, I certainly ought not to be angry with 
 you. 
 
 [I have demonstrated now, O judges, of what great conse- 
 quence it was to Clodius] that Milo should be slain. Now turn 
 your attention to Milo. What advantage could it be to Milo 
 that Clodius should be slain? What reason was there why 
 Milo, I will not say should do such an action, but should even 
 wish for his death? Oh, Clodius was an obstacle to Mile's 
 hope of obtaining the consulship. But he was obtaining it in 
 spite of him. Ay, I might rather say he was obtaining it all the 
 more because Clodius was opposing him ; nor in fact was I a 
 more efficient support to him than Clodius was. The recollec- 
 tion, O judges, of the services which Milo had done to me and 
 to the republic had weight with you. My entreaties and my 
 tears, with which I perceived at that time that you were greatly 
 moved, had weight with you ; but still more weight had your 
 own fear of the dangers which were impending. For who of 
 the citizens was there who could turn his eyes to the unre- 
 strained praetorship of Publius Clodius, without feeling the 
 greatest dread of a revolution ? and unrestrained you saw that it 
 would be unless you had a consul who had both courage and 
 power to restrain him ; and as the whole Roman people saw that 
 Milo alone was that man, who could hesitate by his vote to re- 
 lease himself from fear, and the republic from danger ? 
 
 But now, now that Clodius is removed, Milo has got to labor 
 by more ordinary practices to preserve his dignity. That pre- 
 eminent glory, which was then attributed to him alone, and 
 which was daily increasing in consequence of his efforts to re- 
 press the frenzy of Clodius, has been put an end to by the death 
 of Clodius. You have gained your object of being no longer 
 afraid of any one of the citizens ; he has lost that incessant arena 
 for his valor, that which procured him votes for the consulship, 
 that ceaseless and ever-springing fountain of his glory. There- 
 fore, Mile's canvass for the consulship, which could not be hin- 
 dered from prospering while Clodius was alive, now, the mo- 
 ment that he is dead, is attempted to be checked. So that the 
 death of Clodius is not only no advantage, but is even a positive 
 injury to Milo.
 
 216 CICERO 
 
 " Oh, but his hatred prevailed with him ; he slew him in a 
 passion ; he slew him because he was his enemy ; he acted as the 
 avenger of his own injury; he was exacting atonement to ap- 
 pease his private indignation." But what will you say if these 
 feelings, I do not say existed in a greater degree in Clodius than 
 in Milo, but if they existed in the greatest possible degree in the 
 former, and not at all in the latter ? What will you require be- 
 yond that? For why should Milo have hated Clodius, the 
 material and ground-work of his glory, except as far as that 
 hatred becoming a citizen goes, with which we hate all worth- 
 less men ? There was plenty of reason for Clodius to hate Milo, 
 first, as the defender of my safety ; secondly, as the represser of 
 his frenzy, the defeater of his arms ; and lastly, also, as his prose- 
 cutor. For Clodius was liable to the prosecution of Milo, ac- 
 cording to the provisions of the Plotian law, as long as he lived. 
 And with what feelings do you suppose that that tyrant bore 
 that? how great do you suppose was his hatred toward him? 
 and, indeed, how reasonable a hatred was it for a wicked man 
 to entertain. 
 
 It remains for me now to urg>e his natural disposition and his 
 habits of life in the defence of the one, and the very same things 
 as an accusation against the other. Clodius, I suppose, had 
 never done anything by violence ; Milo had done everything by 
 violence. What, then, shall I say, O judges? When, amid 
 the grief of all of you, I departed from the city, was I afraid of 
 the result of a trial? was I not afraid of slaves, and arms and 
 violence ? What, I pray you, was the first ground of my restor- 
 ation, except that I had been unjustly driven out? Clodius, I 
 suppose, had commenced a formal prosecution against me ; he 
 had named a sum as damages ; he had commenced an action for 
 high treason ; and, I suppose, too, I had cause to fear your de- 
 cision in a cause which was an unjust one, which was my own 
 private cause, not one which was a most righteous one, and 
 which was, in reality, your cause, and not mine? No I was 
 unwilling that my fellow-citizens, who had been saved by my 
 prudence and by my own personal danger, should be exposed 
 to the arms of slaves and needy citizens and convicted malefac- 
 tors. For I saw I saw, I say, this very Quintus Hortensius, 
 the light and ornament of the republic, almost slain by the hand 
 of slaves, while he was standing by me. In which crowd Caius
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 217 
 
 Vibienus, a senator, a most excellent man, who was with Hor- 
 tensius, was so maltreated that he lost his life. 
 
 When, then, was it that that assassin's dagger of his, which 
 he had received from Catiline, rested? It was aimed at us; 
 I would not allow you all to be exposed to it for my sake. It 
 was prepared in treachery for Pompeius. It stained with 
 blood, through the murder of Papirius, the very Appian road, 
 the monument of his name ; this, this same dagger, after a long 
 interval was again turned against me ; lately, as you know, it 
 nearly murdered me close to the palace of Ancus. 
 
 What is there of Milo's conduct like all this ? when all the vio- 
 lence that he has ever displayed has amounted to this, that he 
 wished to prevent Publius Clodius (as he could not be brought 
 to trial) from oppressing the city by violence. And if he wished 
 to put him to death, what great, what repeated, and what splen- 
 did opportunities he had of doing so ! Might he not have 
 avenged himself without violating the law when he was defend- 
 ing his own house and his household gods from his attacks? 
 might he not have done so when that illustrious citizen and 
 most gallant man, Publius Sextius, his own colleague, was 
 wounded ? might he not have done so when that most excellent 
 man, Quintus Fabricius, while carrying a bill for my restora- 
 tion, was driven away, and when a most cruel slaughter was 
 taking place in the forum ? Might he not have done so when 
 the house of Lucius Caecilius, that most upright and fearless 
 praetor was attacked ? might he not have done so on the day on 
 which the law concerning me was passed, and when that vast 
 concourse of people from all parts of Italy, whom a regard for 
 my safety had roused up, would have gladly recognized and 
 adopted as its own the glory of that action ? so that, even if Milo 
 had performed it, the whole state would claim the praise of it 
 as belonging to itself? 
 
 And what a time was it ? A most illustrious and fearless con- 
 sul, Publius Lentulus, an enemy to Clodius, the avenger of his 
 wickedness, the bulwark of the Senate, the defender of your 
 inclinations, the patron of that general unanimity, the restorer 
 of my safety ; seven praetors, eight tribunes of the people, ad- 
 versaries of him, defenders of me ; Cnseus Pompeius, the prime 
 mover of and chief agent in my return, his open enemy ; whose 
 opinion respecting my return, delivered in the most dignified
 
 218 CICERO 
 
 and most complimentary language, the whole Senate adopted ; 
 he who exhorted the whole Roman people, and, when he passed 
 a decree concerning me at Capua, gave himself the signal to all 
 Italy, which was eager for it, and which was imploring his good 
 faith, to join together for the purpose of restoring me to Rome ; 
 in short, universal hatred on the part of all the citizens, was ex- 
 cited against him, while their minds were inflamed with as ear- 
 nest a regret for me ; so that if anyone had slain him at that time, 
 people's thoughts would have been, not how to procure impu- 
 nity for such a man, but how to reward him sufficiently. 
 
 Nevertheless, Milo restrained himself, and twice summoned 
 Publius Clodius before the court, but never once invited him 
 to a trial of strength in scenes of violence. What do I say? 
 while Milo was a private individual, and on his trial before the 
 people, on the accusation of Publius Clodius, when an attack 
 was made on Cnseus Pompeius, while speaking in defense of 
 Milo, was there not then not only an admirable opportunity of, 
 but a reasonable pretext for slaying him ? And lately, when 
 Marcus Antonius had inspired all virtuous men with the very 
 greatest hope of safety, and when he, being a most noble young 
 man, had with the greatest gallantry espoused the cause of the 
 republic, and had that beast almost in his toils in spite of his 
 avoiding the snares of the law ; what an opportunity, what a 
 time and place were there, O ye immortal gods! And when 
 Clodius had fled and hidden himself in the darkness of the stairs, 
 there was a fine opportunity for Milo to slay him without incur- 
 ring the slightest odium himself, and to load Antonius at the 
 same time with the greatest glory! What? How repeatedly 
 had he a similar chance in the comitia ! when he had broken into 
 the voting booth, and contrived to have swords drawn and 
 stones thrown, and then on a sudden, terrified at the look of 
 Milo, fled toward the Tiber, and you and all virtuous men 
 prayed to heaven that Milo might take it into his head to give 
 full scope to his valor. 
 
 If then he did not choose to slay him, when he might have 
 done so with the gratitude of everyone, is it likely that he should 
 have chosen to do so when some people were sure to complain 
 of it ? If he did not venture to do it when he might have done so 
 lawfully, when he had both place and time in his favor, when he 
 might have done so with impunity, can we believe that he did
 
 SPEECH *N DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 219 
 
 not hesitate to slay him unjustly at a time and place which sup- 
 plied him with no excuse for the deed, when it was at the haz- 
 ard of his life ? especially, O judges, when the day of contest for 
 the greatest distinction of the state, and the day of the comitia, 
 was at hand. At which time (for I know what a nervous thing 
 ambition is, how vehement and how anxious is the desire for 
 the consulship), we are afraid of everything, not only of those 
 things which can be openly found fault with, but even of what- 
 ever can be secretly thought; we shudder at every rumor, at 
 every idle and empty story; we look anxiously at everyone's 
 countenance, at everyone's eye. For there is nothing so soft, 
 so tender, so frail, so flexible, as the inclinations and feelings of 
 our fellow-citizens toward us ; for they are not only angry 
 at any impropriety in the conduct of candidates, but they often 
 even take a disgust at our virtuous actions. 
 
 Did Milo, then, keeping in view this long hoped-for and 
 wished-for day of the Campus Martius, propose to himself to 
 come to those venerable auspices of the centuries with bloody 
 hands, owning and confessing a wickedness and a crime ? How 
 perfectly incredible is such conduct in such a man! At the 
 same time, how undoubted is it in the case of Clodius, who 
 thought that he should be a king as soon as Milo was slain. 
 What shall I say more ? This is the very mainspring of audac- 
 ity, O judges, for who is there who does not know that the 
 greatest temptation of all to do wrong is the hope of impunity ? 
 Now, in which of the two did this exist ? In Milo ? who is even 
 now on his trial for an action which I contend was an illustrious 
 one, but which was at all events a necessary one ; or in Clodius ? 
 who had shown such contempt for courts of justice and punish- 
 ment, that he took no pleasure in anything which was not either 
 impious, from its disregard of the prohibitions of nature, or ille- 
 gal, from its violation of law. 
 
 But what am I arguing about ? why do I keep on disputing at 
 greater length ? I appeal to you, O Quintus Petillius, a most 
 virtuous and fearless citizen ; I call you to witness, O Marcus 
 Cato ; whom some heavenly interposition has given me for 
 judges. You have heard from Marcus Favonius, and you 
 heard it, too, while Clodius was alive, that he, Clodius, had said 
 to him that Milo would die within three days and on the third 
 day the deed which he had mentioned was put in execution.
 
 220 CICERO 
 
 When he did not hesitate to reveal what he was thinking of, 
 can you have any doubt what he did ? 
 
 How, then, was it, that he was so correct in the day ? I told 
 you that just now. There was no great difficulty in knowing 
 the regular days of sacrifice for the dictator of Lanuvium. He 
 saw that it was necessary for Milo to go to Lanuvium on the 
 very day in which he did go therefore, he anticipated him. 
 But on what day ? Why, on the day on which, as I have said 
 before, there was a most furious assembly of the people, 
 stirred up by the tribune of the people whom he had in 
 his pay a day, and an assembly, and an uproar which he would 
 never have missed if he had not been hastening to some premed- 
 itated crime. Therefore, he had not only no reason for going 
 on a journey, but he had even a reason for stopping at home. 
 Milo had no possibility of stopping at home, and he had not 
 only a reason, but a positive necessity for going on a journey. 
 What more? Suppose, while he knew that Milo must go on 
 the road on that day, so, on the other hand, Milo could not even 
 suspect that Clodius would ? For, first of all, I ask, how could 
 Milo know it ? a question which you cannot ask respecting Clo- 
 dius. For even if he had not asked anyone beyond his own 
 intimate friend Titus Patina, he could have ascertained from 
 him that on that particular day a priest must absolutely be ap- 
 pointed at Lanuvium by Milo as the dictator there. But there 
 were plenty more people from whom he could easily learn that ; 
 for instance, all the people of Lanuvium. Of whom did Milo 
 make any inquiry about the return of Clodius ? Grant that he 
 did make inquiry ; see what large allowances I am making you ; 
 grant even that he bribed his slave, as my good friend Quintus 
 Arrius said. Read the evidence of your own witnesses. 
 
 Caius Cassinius Schola, a man of Interamna, gave his evi- 
 dence a most intimate friend of Publius Clodius, and more, 
 a companion of his at the very time ; according to whose testi- 
 mony, Publius Clodius was at Interamna and at Rome at the 
 very same time. Well, he said, that Publius Clodius had in- 
 tended to remain that day at his Alban villa ; but that on a sud- 
 den news was brought to him, that Cyrus his architect was 
 dead ; and, therefore, that he determined to proceed to Rome 
 immediately. Caius Clodius, who was also a companion of 
 Publius Clodius, said the same.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 221 
 
 Take notice, O judges, what the real effect of this evidence 
 must be. First of all, Milo is certainly acquitted of having set 
 out with the express intention of waylaying Clodius on his road ; 
 this must be, since there was apparently no chance whatever 
 of his meeting him. In the next place (for I see no reason why 
 I should not do something for myself at the same time), you 
 know, O judges, that there have been men found to say, while 
 urging on this bill against Milo, that the murder was committed 
 by the hand indeed of Milo, but by the plan of someone of more 
 importance than he. Those abject and profligate men, for- 
 sooth, pointed me out as a robber and assassin. Now they lie 
 convicted by their own witnesses, who say that Clodius would 
 not have returned to Rome that day if he had not heard the news 
 about Cyrus. I breathed again ; I was delivered ; I am not any 
 longer afraid of being supposed to have contemplated an action 
 which I could not possibly have suspected. 
 
 Now I will examine the other point. For this expression 
 occurs in their speech : " Therefore, Clodius never even 
 thought of the plot against Milo, since he intended to remain in 
 his Alban villa." Yes, he meant to remain there, if he did not 
 rather intend to go out and commit a murder. For I see that 
 the messenger who is said to have brought him news of Cyrus's 
 death did not announce that to him, but told him that Milo was 
 at hand. For why should he bring any news about Cyrus, 
 whom Clodius had left at Rome on his death-bed ? I was with 
 him ; I signed his will as a witness together with Clodius ; and 
 he had openly made his will, and had left him and me his heirs. 
 When he had left him the day before, at the third hour, at the 
 very point of death, was news sent express to him the next day, 
 at the tenth hour, that he was at last dead? 
 
 Well, be it so ; what reason had he for hastening to Rome ? 
 for starting at nightfall ? Why should the fact of his being his 
 heir cause him to make so much haste? In the first place, 
 there was no reason why there should be need of any haste; 
 secondly, even if there was, still what was there which he could 
 obtain that night, but which he would lose if he arrived at Rome 
 early the next morning ? And as an arrival in the city by night 
 was rather to be avoided by him than to be desired, so it was just 
 suited for Milo to lie in ambush and wait for him, as he was a 
 plotter of that sort, if he knew that he was likely to come to the
 
 222 CICERO 
 
 city by night. He would have slain him by night, in a place 
 calculated for an ambush and full of robbers ; no one would have 
 refused to have believed him if he denied it, when now all men 
 wish to save him even when he confesses it. The brunt of the 
 blame would have fallen on the place itself, so well suited to 
 receive and conceal robbers, while neither the voiceless solitude 
 would have informed against, nor the dark night discovered 
 Milo ; secondly, the numbers of men who had been insulted by 
 Clodius, or plundered by him, or stripped of all their property 
 by him, many, too, who were in constant fear of such misfor- 
 tunes, would have fallen under suspicion ; in short, the whole 
 of Etruria would have been impeached in people's opinion. 
 
 And certainly on that day Clodius returning from Aricia did 
 turn aside to his Alban villa. But although Milo knew that 
 he was at Aricia, still he ought to have suspected that he, even 
 if he was desirous to return to Rome that day, would turn aside 
 to his own villa, the grounds of which skirted the road. Why, 
 then, did he not meet him before, and prevent his going to his 
 villa ? nor wait in that place where he would certainly arrive by 
 night? 
 
 I see tnat all things up to this point are plain and consistent. 
 That it was even desirable for Milo that Clodius should live; 
 that for Clodius the death of Milo was the most advantageous 
 thing possible, with reference to those objects on which he had 
 set his heart ; that he bore him the most bitter hatred, but that 
 Milo had no such feelings toward him ; that the one lived in a 
 perpetual round of violence, that the other's habits were limited 
 to repelling it; that Milo had been threatened by him with 
 death, and that his death had been openly predicted by him ; 
 that no such expression had ever been heard from Milo ; that 
 the day of Mile's journey was well known to Clodius, but that 
 Clodius's return was unknown to Milo ; that the journey of the 
 one was inevitable, and that of the other was even inconvenient 
 to himself; that the one had openly declared that on that day 
 he should set out from Rome, that the other had concealed the 
 fact of his intending to return on that day ; that the one had in 
 no respect whatever changed his intention, that the other had 
 invented a false pretence for changing his mind ; that the one, 
 if he were plotting, would naturally wish night to come on when 
 he was near the city, while an arrival at the city by night was to
 
 223 
 
 be feared by the other, even if he had no apprehension of dan- 
 ger from this man. 
 
 Let us now consider this, which is the main point of all ; for 
 which of the two the identical spot where they did meet was the 
 best suited for planting an ambush. But is that, O judges, a 
 matter about which one can possibly doubt or think seriously 
 for a moment ? In front of Clodius's farm that farm on which, 
 on account of those absurd erections and excavations for foun- 
 dations of his, there were pretty well a thousand vigorous men 
 employed on that high and raised ground belonging to his 
 adversary, did Milo think that he should get the better in the 
 contest, and had he with that view selected that spot above all 
 others ? Or was he rather waited for in that place by a man 
 who had conceived the idea of attacking, because of the hopes 
 that that particular spot suggested to him? The facts, O 
 judges, speak for themselves; facts, which are always of the 
 greatest weight in a cause. If you were not hearing of this 
 transaction, but were looking at a picture of it, still it would be 
 quite visible which of the two was the plotter, which was think- 
 ing no evil, when one of the two was driving in a chariot 
 wrapped up in a mantle, with his wife sitting by his side. It is 
 hard to say which was the greatest hinderance to him, his dress, 
 or his carriage, or his wife. How could a man be less ready for 
 battle than when he was entangled in a mantle as in a net, ham- 
 pered with a carriage, and fettered, as it were, by his wife cling- 
 ing to him ? Look, on the other hand, at Clodius, first setting 
 out from his villa ; all on a sudden : why ? It was evening. 
 Why was he forced to set out at such a time? Going slowly. 
 What was the object of that, especially at that time of night? 
 He turns aside to the villa of Pompeius. To see Pompeius? 
 He knew that he was near Alsium. To see the villa ? He had 
 been in it a thousand times. What, then, was his object ? De- 
 lay ; he wanted to waste the time. He did not choose to leave 
 the spot till Milo arrived. 
 
 Come, now, compare the journey of this unencumbered ban- 
 dit with all the hinderances which beset Milo. Before this time 
 he always used to travel with his wife ; now he was without her. 
 He invariably went in a carriage ; now he was on horseback. 
 His train were a lot of Greeklings wherever he was going ; even
 
 224 CICERO 
 
 when he was hastening to the camp in Etruria ; 10 but this time 
 there were no triflers in his retinue. Milo, who was never in 
 the habit of doing so, did by chance have with him some musi- 
 cal slaves belonging to his wife, and troops of maid-servants. 
 The other man, who was always carrying with him prostitutes, 
 worn-out debauchees both men and women, this time had no 
 one with him except such a band that you might have thought 
 every one of them picked men. Why, then, was he defeated ? 
 Because the traveller is not always murdered by the robber; 
 sometimes the robber is killed by the traveller; because, al- 
 though Clodius in a state of perfect preparation was attacking 
 men wholly unprepared, still it was the case of a woman falling 
 upon men. And, indeed, Milo was never so utterly unprepared 
 for his violence as not to be nearly sufficiently prepared. He 
 was always aware how greatly it concerned the interest of Pub- 
 lius Clodius that he should be slain, how greatly he hated him, 
 and how great was his daring. Wherefore, he never exposed 
 his life to danger without some sort of protection and guard, 
 knowing that it was threatened, and that a large price, as it 
 were, were set upon it. 
 
 Add to this consideration all the chances; add the always 
 uncertain result of a battle, and the common fortune of Mars, 
 who often overthrows the man who is already exulting and 
 stripping his enemy, and strikes him to the ground by some 
 mean agent ; add the blundering conduct of a leader who had 
 dined and drank, and who was yawning and drowsy ; who, when 
 he had left his enemy cut off in the rear, never thought of his 
 companions on the outskirts of his train ; and then when he fell 
 among them inflamed with anger, and despairing of saving the 
 life of their master, he fell on that punishment which the faithful 
 slaves inflicted on him as a retribution for their master's death. 
 Why, then, has Milo emancipated them? He was afraid, I 
 suppose, lest they should give information against him; lest 
 they should be unable to bear pain ; lest they should be com- 
 pelled by tortures to confess that Publius Clodius was slain in 
 the Appian road by the slaves of Milo. 
 
 What need is there of any torturer ? What do you want to 
 know? whether he was slain ? He was slain. Whether he was 
 
 10 That is, to Manlius's camp in Etru- in which, in all probability, Clodius was 
 ria at the time of Catiline's conspiracy, implicated.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 225 
 
 slain lawfully or unlawfully? That is beyond the province of 
 the torturer. For the rack can only inquire into the fact ; it is 
 the bench of judges that must decide on the law. 
 
 Let us, then, here confine our attention to what must be in- 
 vestigated in this trial. All that you can want to find out by 
 tortures we admit. But if you prefer asking why he emanci- 
 pated his slaves, rather than why he gave them inadequate re- 
 wards, you are but a bungling hand at finding fault with an 
 enemy. For Marcus Cato, who says everything with great 
 wisdom, and consistency, and courage, said the same thing; 
 and he said, too, in a very turbulent assembly of the people,' 
 which, however, was pacified by his authority, that those slaves 
 were worthy not only of liberty, but even of every sort of reward 
 possible, who had defended the life of their master. For what 
 reward can be sufficiently great for such well-affected, such vir- 
 tuous, such faithful slaves, owing to whom it is that he is still 
 alive ? Although even that is not putting it so strongly as to 
 say, that it is owing to those very men that he did not glut the 
 eyes and mind of his most cruel enemy with his blood and 
 wounds. And if he had not emancipated them, then those pre- 
 servers of their master, those avengers of wickedness, those 
 defenders of their master from death, must have even been sur- 
 rendered to torture. But in all these misfortunes the most com- 
 fortable reflection which Milo has is, that, even if anything 
 should happen to himself, still he has given them the reward 
 which they deserved. 
 
 But now the examinations which have just been conducted 
 in the hall of liberty, are said to press against Milo. Who are 
 the slaves who have been examined? Do you ask? The 
 slaves of Publius Clodius. Who demanded that they should 
 be examined? Appius. Who produced them? Appius. 
 Where were they brought from ? From the house of Appius. 
 O ye good gods, what can be done with more animosity? 
 There is no law which authorizes slaves to be examined as wit- 
 nesses against their master, except on accusations of impiety, 
 as was the case in the prosecution instituted against Clodius. 
 Clodius has been raised nearly to the gods, more nearly than 
 even when he penetrated into their sanctuary, when an investi- 
 gation into the circumstances of his death is carried on like one 
 into a profanation of sacred ceremonies. But still, our ances- 
 15
 
 226 CICERO 
 
 tors did not think it right that slaves should be examined as wit- 
 nesses against their masters; not because the truth could not 
 be discovered, but because it seemed a scandalous thing to do, 
 and more oppressive to the masters than even death itself. 
 Well, then, when the slaves of the prosecutor are examined as 
 witnesses against the defendant, can the truth be found out ? 
 
 Come, however, what was the examination ; and how was it 
 conducted? Holloa, you Rufio (that name will do as well as 
 another), take care you tell the truth. Did Clodius lay a plot 
 against Milo? " He did." He is sure to be crucified for say- 
 ing so. " Certainly not." He has hopes of obtaining his lib- 
 erty. What can be more certain than this mode of examina- 
 tion ? The men are suddenly carried off to be examined ; they 
 are separated from all the rest, and put into cells that no one 
 may be able to speak to them. Then, when they have been kept 
 a hundred days in the power of the prosecutor, they are pro- 
 duced as witnesses by the prosecutor himself. What can be 
 imagined more upright than this sort of examination ? What 
 can be more free from all suspicion of corruption ? 
 
 And if you do not yet see with sufficient clearness (though 
 the transaction is evident of itself by so many and such irresisti- 
 ble arguments and proofs), that Milo was returning to Rome 
 with a pure and guiltless intention, with no taint of wick- 
 edness, under no apprehension, without any consciousness 
 of crime to disquiet him; recollect, I implore you, in the 
 name of the immortal gods, how rapid his speed while returning 
 was ; how he entered the forum while the senate-house was all 
 on fire with eagerness ; how great was the magnanimity which 
 he displayed ; how he looked, and what he said. Nor did he 
 trust himself to the people only, but also to the Senate ; nor to 
 the Senate only, but also to the public guards and their arms ; 
 nor to them only, but also to the power of that man to whom the 
 Senate had already intrusted " the whole republic, all the youth 
 
 11 The disturbances on the death of for the examination of witnesses, and 
 
 Clodius arose to such a height, that the on the fourth day the accuser was only 
 
 Senate at last passed a resolution that allowed two hours to enforce the ac- 
 
 Marcus Lepidus the Interrex, assisted cusation, and the defendant three hours 
 
 by the tribunes of the people and Pom- to speak in his defence. Ccelius en- 
 
 peius, should take care that the republic deavored to arrest these laws by his 
 
 received no injury. And at last the veto as tribune, declaring that they were 
 
 Senate appointed Pompeius consul with- framed solely with a vjew to crush Milo, 
 
 out a colleague, who immediately pub- whom Pompeius certainly desired to get 
 
 lished several new laws, and among rid of; to effect which he even descended 
 
 them the one under which this trial was to the artifice of pretending to believe 
 
 conducted, and he now limited the dura- that Milo had laid a plot to assassinate 
 
 tion of trials, allowing only three days him.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 227 
 
 of Italy, and all the arms of the Roman people. And surely he 
 never would have put himself in his power, if he had not been 
 confident in the justice of his cause ; especially as he was one 
 who heard everything, and feared great danger, and suspected 
 many things, and even believed some. The power of con- 
 science is very great, O judges, and is of great weight on both 
 sides ; so that they fear nothing who have done no wrong, and 
 they, on the other hand, who have done wrong think that pun- 
 ishment is always hanging over them. 
 
 Nor, indeed, is it without good reason that Mile's cause has 
 always been approved of by the Senate. For these wisest of 
 men took into their consideration the whole circumstances of 
 the case ; Milo's presence of mind, and vigor in defending him- 
 self. Have you forgotten, O judges, when the news of Clo- 
 dius's death was still recent, the opinions and the language 
 which were held, not only by Milo's enemies, but also by other 
 ignorant people ? They said that he would not return to Rome 
 at all. For if he had committed the deed in a passionate and 
 excited mood, so that he had slain his enemy while under the 
 influence of strong hatred, they thought that he would con- 
 sider the death of Publius Clodius an event of such importance, 
 that he would bear being deprived of his country with equanim- 
 ity, as he had sated his hatred in the blood of his enemy ; or, if 
 he had deliberately intended to deliver his country by the 
 slaughter of Clodius, then they thought that he, as a brave man, 
 would not hesitate, after having brought safety to his country 
 at his own risk, to submit with equanimity to the laws, to carry 
 off with himself everlasting renown, and to leave those things 
 to us to enjoy which he had preserved for us himself. 
 
 Many also spoke of Catiline and the monsters of his train. 
 " We shall have another Catiline breaking out. He will oc- 
 cupy some strong place ; he will make war on his country." 
 Wretched sometimes is the fate of those citizens who have faith- 
 fully served the republic ! when men not only forget the illustri- 
 ous exploits which they have performed, but even suspect them 
 of the most nefarious designs ! Therefore, all those things 
 were false, which would certainly have turned out true if Milo 
 had committed any action which he could not defend with 
 honor and with truth. 
 
 What shall I say of the charges which were afterward heaped
 
 228 CICERO 
 
 upon him ? which would have crushed anyone who was con- 
 scious of even trifling offences. How nobly did he support 
 them ! O ye immortal gods, do I say support them ? Say 
 rather, how did he despise them, and treat them as nothing! 
 Charges which no guilty man, were he ever so high-minded, 
 and, indeed, no innocent man, unless he were also a most fear- 
 less man, could possibly have disregarded. It was said that a 
 vast collection of shields, swords, bridles, lances, and javelins 
 had been seized. They said that there was no street, no alley in 
 the whole city, in which there was not a house hired for Milo ; 
 that arms had been carried down the Tiber to his villa at Oric- 
 ulum ; that his house on the Capitoline Hill was full of shields ; 
 that every place was full of firebrands prepared for the burning 
 of the city. These things were not only reported, but were 
 almost believed, and were not rejected till they had been thor- 
 oughly investigated. I praised, indeed, the incredible diligence 
 of Cnaeus Pompeius ; but still I will say what I really think, O 
 judges. 
 
 Those men are compelled to listen to too many statements ; 
 indeed, they cannot do otherwise, who have the whole republic 
 intrusted to them. It was necessary even to listen to that eat- 
 ing-house keeper Licinius, if that was his name, a fellow out of 
 the Circus Maximus, who said that Milo's slaves had got drunk 
 in his house, that they had confessed to him that they were en- 
 gaged in a conspiracy to assassinate Cnaeus Pompeius, and that 
 he himself was afterward stabbed by one of them to prevent 
 him from giving information. He went to Pompeius's villa to 
 tell him this. I am sent for among the first. By the advice 
 of his friends, Pompeius reports the affair to the Senate. It was 
 impossible for me to be otherwise than frightened almost to 
 death at the bare suspicion of such danger to one who was the 
 protector both of me and of my country ; but still I wondered 
 that an eating-house keeper should be at once believed, that the 
 confession of the slaves should be listened to, and that a wound 
 in the side, which looked like the prick of a needle, should be 
 admitted to be a wound inflicted by a gladiator. But, as I take 
 the fact to have been, Pompeius was rather taking precautions 
 than feeling any actual alarm, guarding not only against those 
 things which it was reasonable to fear, but also against every- 
 thing which could possibly disquiet you.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 229 
 
 The house of Caius Caesar, that most illustrious and gallant 
 man, was besieged, as was reported, during many hours of the 
 night. No one in that frequented part of the city had either 
 seen or heard of any such thing. Still such a report was spread 
 about. I could not possibly suspect Cnaeus Pompeius, a man 
 of the most admirable valor, of being timid ; and I thought no 
 diligence could be overstrained in a man who had undertaken 
 the management and protection of the whole of the republic. 
 In a very full meeting of the Senate, lately held in the Capitol, 
 a senator was found to say that Milo had a weapon about him. 
 He threw back his garments in that most sacred temple, that, 
 since the life of so good a citizen and so good a man could not 
 procure him credit, the facts themselves might speak for him, 
 while he held his peace. 
 
 Every word was ascertained to be a false and treacherous in- 
 vention. And if people are even now afraid of Milo, we are not 
 now under apprehension because of the charge respecting Clo- 
 dius, but we are shuddering at your suspicions at yours, I 
 say, O Cnaeus Pompeius (for I address you yourself, and I speak 
 loudly so that you may be able to hear me). If you are afraid 
 of Milo if you believe that he either now cherishes wicked 
 designs against your life, or that he ever has entertained such ; 
 if the levying of troops throughout Italy, as some of your re- 
 cruiting sergeants pretend if these arms if these cohorts in 
 the Capitol if these watchmen, these sentinels if this picked 
 body of youths, which is the guard of your person and your 
 house, is all armed against an attack on the part of Milo ; and if 
 all these measures have been arranged, and prepared, and aimed 
 against him alone then certainly he must be a man of great 
 power, of incredible courage ; surely it must be more than the 
 power and resources of one single man which are attributed to 
 him, if the most eminent of our generals is invested with a com- 
 mand, and all Italy is armed against this one man. But who is 
 there who does not understand that all the diseased and feeble 
 parts of the republic were intrusted to you, O Pompeius, that 
 you might heal and strengthen them with your arms ? And if 
 an opportunity had been afforded to Milo, he would, doubtless, 
 have proved to you yourself that no man was ever more dear to 
 another than you are to him ; that he had never shunned any 
 danger which might be of service in promoting your dignity ;
 
 230 CICERO 
 
 that he had often contended against that most foul pest on be- 
 half of your glory ; that his conduct in his tribuneship had been 
 entirely regulated by your counsels for the protection of my 
 safety, which was an object very dear to you ; that he afterward 
 had been defended by you when in danger of his life, 12 and had 
 been assisted by you when he was a candidate for the praetor- 
 ship; and that he had always believed that the two firmest 
 friends whom he had were you and I you, as shown by the 
 kindness of your behavior to him, and I, secured to him by the 
 services which he himself had done me. And if he could not 
 convince you of this if that suspicion had sunk so deep in your 
 mind that it could not possibly be eradicated ; if, in short, Italy 
 was never to have any rest from those levies, nor the city from 
 arms, till Milo was ruined then no doubt he, without hesita- 
 tion, would have departed from his country, a man born to 
 make such sacrifices and accustomed to make them ; but still he 
 would have cited you, O Magnus, as a witness in his favor, as 
 he now does. 
 
 See, now, how various and changeable is the course of human 
 life, how fickle and full of revolutions is fortune; what in- 
 stances of perfidy are seen in friends, how they dissemble and 
 suit their behavior to the occasion ; when dangers beset one, 
 how one's nearest connections fly off, and what cowardice they 
 show. The time will come, ay, will most certainly come 
 that day will surely dawn some time or other, when you, though 
 your affairs are all, as I trust they will be, in a really sound con- 
 dition, though they may, perhaps, wear an altered appearance in 
 consequence of some commotion of the times, such as we are 
 all liable to (and how constantly such things happen we may 
 know from experience) when you, I say, may be in need of the 
 good-will of one who is most deeply attached to you, and the 
 good faith of a man of the greatest weight and dignity, and the 
 magnanimity of the very bravest man that ever lived in the 
 world. Although, who would believe that Cnaeus Pompeius, 
 a man most thoroughly versed in public law, in the usages of 
 our ancestors, and in all the affairs of the republic, after the Sen- 
 
 12 When Clodius was aedile, he insti- heard, he made a long speech, lasting 
 
 tuted a prosecution against Milo for three hours, in his defence. The trial 
 
 violence. Pompeius, Crassus and Cicero was adjourned from February till May. 
 
 appeared for him; and though Clodius's and does not appear to have ever been 
 
 mob raised a great uproar, and endea- brought to a regular termination, 
 vored to prevent Pompeius from being
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 231 
 
 ate has intrusted to him the charge of taking care " that the 
 republic suffered no injury," by which one line the consuls have 
 always been sufficiently armed, even though no warlike 
 weapons were given to them that he, I say, after having had 
 an army and a levy of troops given to him, would wait for a 
 legal decision to repress the designs of that man who was seek- 
 ing by violence to abolish the courts of justice themselves? 
 
 It was sufficiently decided by Pompeius, quite sufficiently, 
 that all those charges were falsely brought against Milo ; when 
 he passed a law by which, as I conceive, he was bound to be ac- 
 quitted by you at all events, as all men allow, might legally 
 be acquitted. But when he sits in that place, surrounded by all 
 those bands of public guards, he declares plainly enough that 
 he is not striking terror into you (for what could be less worthy 
 of him than to condemn a man whom he himself might punish 
 if guilty, both by his own authority and in strict accordance 
 with the precedents of our ancestors ?), but that he keeps them 
 about him for the sake of protection ; that you may be aware 
 that it is allowed to you to decide with freedom according to 
 your own opinions, in contradiction to that assembly of the 
 people which was held yesterday. 
 
 Nor, O judges, am I at all moved by the accusation respect- 
 ing Clodius. Nor am I so insane, and so ignorant of, and in- 
 experienced in, your feelings, as not to be aware what your 
 opinions are about the death of Clodius, concerning which, if 
 I were unwilling to do away with the accusation in the manner 
 in which I have done away with it, still I assert that it would 
 have been lawful for Milo to proclaim openly, with a false but 
 glorious boast, " I have slain, I have slain, not Spurius Mselius, 
 who fell under the suspicion of aiming at kingly power by 
 lowering the price of corn, and by squandering his own family 
 estate, because by that conduct he was thought to be paying 
 too much court to the common people ; not Tiberius Gracchus, 
 who, out of a seditious spirit, abrogated the magistracy of his 
 own colleague, whose slayers have filled the whole world with 
 the renown of their name ; but him " (for he would venture to 
 name him when he had delivered his country at his own risk) 
 " who was detected in the most infamous adultery in the most 
 sacred shrine, by most noble women ; him, by the execution of 
 whom the Senate has repeatedly resolved that solemn religious
 
 232 
 
 CICERO 
 
 observances required to be propitiated ; him whom Lucius Lu- 
 cullus, when he was examined on the point, declared on his oath 
 that he had detected in committing unhallowed incest with his 
 own sister; him, who by means of armed bands of slaves drove 
 from his country that citizen whom the Senate, whom the 
 Roman people, whom all nations had declared to be the saviour 
 of the city and of the lives of all the citizens ; him, who gave 
 kingdoms, took them away, and distributed the whole world 
 to whomsoever he pleased ; him who, after having committed 
 numberless murders in the forum, drove a citizen of the most 
 extraordinary virtue and glory to his own house by violence 
 and by arms ; him, to whom nothing was ever too impious to be 
 done, whether it was a deed of atrocity or of lust; him, who 
 burnt the temple of the nymphs, in order to extinguish the pub- 
 lic record of the census which was committed to the public reg- 
 isters ; lastly, him who acknowledged no law, no civil rights, no 
 boundaries to any man's possessions, who sought to obtain 
 other people's estates, not by actions at law and false accusa- 
 tions, not by unjust claims and false oaths, but by camps, by an 
 army, by regular standards and all the pomp of war, who, by 
 means of arms and soldiers, endeavored to drive from their pos- 
 sessions, not only the Etrurians, for he thoroughly despised 
 them, but even this Publius Varius, that most gallant man and 
 most virtuous citizen, one of our judges, who went into many 
 other people's villas and grounds with architects and surveyors, 
 who limited his hopes of acquiring possessions by Janiculum 
 and the Alps ; him who, when he was unable to prevail on an 
 estimable and gallant Roman knight, Marcus Paconius, to sell 
 him his villa on the Prelian Lake, suddenly conveyed timber, 
 and lime, and mortar, and tools in barks to the island, and while 
 the owner of the island was looking at him from the opposite 
 bank, did not hesitate to build a house on another man's land ; 
 who said to Titus Furfanius O ye immortal gods, what a man ! 
 (for why should I mention that insignificant woman, Scantia, or 
 that youth Aponius, both of whom he threatened with death if 
 they did not abandon to him the possession of their villas ?) but 
 he dared to say to Furfanius, that if he did not give him as much 
 money as he demanded, he would carry a dead body into his 
 house, and so raise a storm of unpopularity against him ; who 
 turned his brother Appius, a man connected with me by the
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 
 
 2 33 
 
 most faithful friendship, while he was absent, out of the posses- 
 sion of his farm ; who determined to run a wall across the vesti- 
 bule of his sister's house in such a manner, and to draw the line 
 of foundation in such a direction, as not only to deprive his sis- 
 ter of her vestibule, but of all access to her house, and of her 
 own threshold." 
 
 Although all these things appeared such as might be endured 
 although he attacked with equal fury the republic, and private 
 individuals, and men who were at a distance, and men who were 
 near, people who had no connection with him, and his own rela- 
 tions ; yet somehow or other the incredible endurance of the 
 state had by long use grown hardened and callous. But as for 
 the things which were at hand, and were impending over you, 
 in what manner was it possible for you either to avert them or 
 to bear them ? If he had once obtained real power I say noth- 
 ing of our allies, of foreign nations, and kings, and tetrarchs ; 
 for you would have prayed that he might turn himself against 
 them rather than against your possessions, your houses, and 
 your money ; money do I say ? your children rather I solemnly 
 swear he would never have restrained himself from your chil- 
 dren and from your wives. Do you think that these things are 
 inventions of mine ? They are evident ; they are notorious to 
 everyone ; they are proved. Is it an invention of mine that he 
 was about to enlist an army of slaves in the city, by whose in- 
 strumentality he might take possession of the whole republic, 
 and of the private fortune of everyone ? 
 
 Wherefore, if Titus Annius, holding in his hand a bloody 
 sword, had cried out, " Come hither, I beg of you, and listen 
 to me, O citizens : I have slain Publius Clodius ; with this sword 
 and with this right hand I have turned aside from your necks 
 the frenzied attacks of that man whom we were unable to re- 
 strain by any laws, or by any judicial proceedings whatever; 
 by my single efforts has it been brought to pass that right, and 
 equity, and laws, and liberty, and modesty, and chastity remain 
 in this city ; " would there in truth have been any reason to fear 
 in what manner the city would receive this announcement? 
 For now, as it is, who is there who does not approve of what has 
 been done ? who does not praise it ? who does not both say and 
 feel that of all men to whom recollection can reach back, Titus 
 Annius has done the republic the greatest service ; that of all
 
 234 CICERO 
 
 men he has diffused the greatest joy among the Roman people, 
 and over the whole of Italy, and throughout all nations? I 
 cannot form a conception of what would have been the old- 
 fashioned joy of the Roman people. Already our age has seen 
 many, and those most illustrious victories, won by consummate 
 generals ; but not one of them has brought with it a joy that 
 either lasted so long, or that was so excessive while it did last. 
 
 Commit this fact to memory, O judges. I trust that you and 
 your children will see many happy days in the republic. On 
 every occasion these will always be your feelings that if Pub- 
 lius Clodius had been alive, you never would have seen one of 
 them. We have been led now to conceive the greatest, and, as 
 I feel sure, the best-founded hopes, that this very day, this most 
 admirable man being made our consul, when the licentiousness 
 of men is checked, their evil passions put down, the laws and 
 courts of justice re-established on a firm footing, will be a salu- 
 tary day for the republic. Is there, then, anyone so insane as 
 to think that he could have obtained all this while Publius Clo- 
 dius was alive ? What ? why, what power of perpetual posses- 
 sion could you have had even in those things which you pos- 
 sess as your private property and in the strictest sense your 
 own, while that frenzied man held the reins of government ? 
 
 I have no fear, O judges, lest it should seem that, because I 
 am inflamed with hatred against him, on account of my own 
 personal enmity to the man, I am vomiting forth these charges 
 against him with more zeal than truth. In truth, though it is 
 natural that that should be an especial stimulus to me, yet he 
 was so completely the common enemy of all men, that my own 
 hatred only bore about its fair proportion to the general detes- 
 tation with which he was regarded. It cannot be expressed, O 
 judges, it cannot even be imagined, how much wickedness, how 
 much mischief there was in that man. 
 
 Moreover, attend to me with this idea, O judges. This in- 
 vestigation relates to the death of Publius Clodius. Imagine in 
 your minds for our thoughts are free, and contemplate what- 
 ever they choose in such a manner that we do discern those 
 things which we think we see place, therefore, before your 
 mind's eye the image of this my condition ; if I am able to induce 
 you to acquit Milo, but still only on condition of Publius Clo- 
 dius being restored to life. What fear is that that you show
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 235 
 
 by your countenances? How would he affect you if alive, 
 when even now that he is dead he has so agitated you by the 
 bare thought of him ? What ? if Cnaeus Pompeius himself, who 
 is a man of such virtue and such good fortune that he has at all 
 times been able to do things which no one except him ever could 
 have done if even he, I say, had been able, in the same manner 
 as he has ordered an investigation into the death of Publius Clo- 
 dius to take place, so also to raise him from the dead, which do 
 you think he would have preferred to do ? Even if out of friend- 
 ship he had been willing to raise him from the shades below, 
 out of regard for the republic he would not have done it. You, 
 then, are sitting now as avengers of the death of that man, 
 whom you would not restore to life if you thought it possible 
 that his life could be restored by you. And this investigation 
 is appointed to be made into the death of a man who would 
 never have seen such a law passed, if the law which ordered the 
 inquiry had been able to restore him to life. Ought, then, the 
 slayer of this man, if any such slayer there be, to have any rea- 
 son, while confessing the deed, to fear punishment at the hand 
 of those men whom he delivered by the deed ? 
 
 Grecian nations give the honors of the gods to those men 
 who have slain tyrants. What have I not seen at Athens ? what 
 in the other cities of Greece ? What divine honors have I not 
 seen paid to such men? What odes, what songs have I not 
 heard in their praise ? They are almost consecrated to immor- 
 tality in the memories and worship of men. And will you not 
 only abstain from conferring any honors on the saviour of so 
 great a people, and the avenger of such enormous wickedness, 
 but will you even allow him to be borne off for punishment? 
 He would confess ; I say, if he had done it, he would confess 
 with a high and willing spirit that he had done it for the sake 
 of the general liberty ; a thing which would certainly deserve 
 not only to be confessed by him, but even to be boasted of. 
 
 In truth, if he does not deny an action from which he seeks 
 no advantage beyond being pardoned for having done it, would 
 he hesitate to avow an action for which he would be entitled to 
 claim rewards? Unless indeed he thinks it more pleasing to 
 you to look upon him as having been the defender of his own 
 life, rather than of you ; especially as from that confession, if 
 you were to choose to be grateful, he would reap the very high-
 
 236 CICERO 
 
 est honors. If his action were not approved of by you (al- 
 though, how is it possible that anyone should not approve of 
 what secured his own safety ?), but still, if the virtue of a most 
 gallant man had happened to be at all unpleasing to his fellow- 
 citizens, then with a lofty and firm mind he would depart from 
 an ungrateful city. For what could be more ungrateful than for 
 all other men to be rejoicing, and for him alone to be mourning, 
 to whom it was owing that the rest were rejoicing ? Although 
 we have all at all times been of this disposition with respect to 
 crushing traitors to our country that since the glory would be 
 ours, we should consider the danger and the unpopularity ours 
 also. For what praise should I have deserved to have given 
 to me, when I showed so much courage in my consulship on 
 behalf of you and of your children, if I had supposed that I could 
 venture on the exploits which I was attempting without very 
 great struggles and dangers to myself ? What woman is there 
 who would not dare to slay a wicked and mischievous citizen, 
 if she was not afraid of the danger of the attempt? But the 
 man who, though unpopularity, and death, and punishment are 
 before his eyes, still ventures to defend the republic with no less 
 alacrity than if no such evils threatened him, he deserves to be 
 considered really a man. 
 
 It behooves a grateful people to reward those citizens who 
 have deserved well of the republic ; it is the part of a brave man, 
 not to be so moved even by execution itself, as to repent of hav- 
 ing acted bravely. Wherefore, Titus Annius may well make 
 the same confession which Ahala made, which Nasica, which 
 Opimius, which Marius, which we ourselves have made ; and 
 then, if the republic were grateful, he would rejoice ; if ungrate- 
 ful, then, though under the pressure of heavy misfortune, he 
 would still be supported by his own conscience. 
 
 But, O judges, the fortune of the Roman people, and your fe- 
 licity, and the immortal gods, all think that they are entitled to 
 your gratitude for this service which has been thus done to you. 
 Nor, indeed, can anyone think otherwise except it be a man 
 who thinks that there is no such thing at all as any divine power 
 or authority a man who is neither moved by the vastness of 
 your empire, nor by that sun above us, nor by the motions of 
 heaven and of the stars, nor by the vicissitudes and regular 
 order of things, nor (and that is the greatest thing of all) by the
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 237 
 
 wisdom of our ancestors ; who both themselves cultivated with 
 the most holy reverence the sacred rites and religious ceremo- 
 nies and auspices, and also handed them down to us their pos- 
 terity to be so cultivated by us. 
 
 There is, there is indeed, such a heavenly power. It is not 
 the truth, that in these bodies and in this feebleness of ours there 
 is something which is vigorous and endued with feeling, and 
 nothing which is so in this vast and beautiful movement of 
 nature. Unless perhaps some people think that there is no such 
 thing in existence because it is not apparent, nor visible ; just as 
 if we were able to see our own mind that by which we are wise, 
 by which we have foresight, by which we do and say these very 
 things which we are doing and saying ; or as if we could plainly 
 feel what sort of thing it is, or where it is. That divine power, 
 that very same divine power which has often brought incredible 
 prosperity and power to this city, has extinguished and de- 
 stroyed this mischief ; by first of all inspiring it with the idea of 
 venturing to irritate by violence and to attack with the sword 
 the bravest of men, and so leading it on to be defeated by the 
 man whom if it had only been able to defeat it would have en- 
 joyed endless license and impunity. That result was brought 
 about, O judges, not by human wisdom, nor even by any mod- 
 erate degree of care on the part of the immortal gods. In truth, 
 those very holy places themselves which beheld that monster 
 fall, appear to have been moved themselves, and to have as- 
 serted their rights over him. 
 
 I implore you, I call you to witness you, I say, O ye Alban 
 hills and groves, and you, O ye altars of the Albans, now over- 
 thrown, but nevertheless partners of and equals in honor with 
 the sacred rites of the Roman people ye, whom that man with 
 headlong insanity, having cut down and destroyed the most 
 holy groves, had overwhelmed with his insane masses of build- 
 ings ; it was your power then that prevailed, it was the divinity 
 of your altars, the religious reverence due to you, and which 
 he had profaned by every sort of wickedness, that prevailed; 
 and you, too, O sacred Jupiter of Latium, whose lakes and 
 groves and boundaries he had constantly polluted with every 
 sort of abominable wickedness and debauchery, you at last, 
 from your high and holy mountain, opened your eyes for the 
 purpose of punishing him ; it is to you, to all of you, that those
 
 238 CICERO 
 
 punishments, late indeed, but still just and well deserved, have 
 been made an atonement for his wickedness. 
 
 Unless, perchance, we are to say that it was by accident that 
 it happened that it was before the very shrine of the good god- 
 dess which is in the farm of Titus Sextus Gallius, a most honor- 
 able and accomplished young man before the good goddess 
 herself, I say, that when he had begun the battle, he received 
 that first wound under which he gave up that foul soul of his ; 
 so that he did not seem to have been acquitted in that iniquitous 
 trial, but only to have been reserved for this conspicuous pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Nor, indeed, did that same anger of the gods abstain from 
 inflicting the very same insanity on his satellites, so that with- 
 out the images of his ancestors, without any funeral song or 
 funeral games, without any obsequies, any lamentation, or any 
 panegyric without, in short, any funeral at all, smeared over 
 with gore and mud, and deprived even of the honors which are 
 paid to everyone on that last day, and which even enemies are 
 wont to allow to a man, he was cast out in the street half burnt. 
 It was not right, I suppose, for the effigies of most illustrious 
 men to confer any honor on that most foul parricide ; nor was 
 there any place in which it was more seemly that his corpse 
 should be ill-treated than that where his life had been con- 
 demned. 
 
 I swear to you, the fortune of the Roman people appeared 
 to me hard and cruel, while it for so many years beheld and en- 
 dured that man triumphing over the republic. He had pol- 
 luted the holiest religious observances with his debauchery; 
 he had broken the most authoritative decrees of the Senate ; 
 he had openly bought himself from the judges with money ; he 
 had harassed the Senate in his tribuneship ; he had rescinded 
 acts which had been passed for the sake of the safety of the re- 
 public, by the consent of all orders of the state ; he had driven 
 me from my country ; he had plundered my property ; he had 
 burnt my house ; he had ill-treated my children and my wife ; 
 he had declared a wicked war against Cnaeus Pompeius ; he had 
 made slaughter of magistrates and private individuals ; he had 
 burnt the house of my brother; he had laid waste Etruria; he 
 had driven numbers of men from their homes and their profes- 
 sions. He kept pursuing and oppressing men ; the whole state,
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 
 
 2 39 
 
 all Italy, all the provinces, all foreign kingdoms could not con- 
 tain his trenzy. Laws were already being drawn up in his 
 house which were to hand us over to the power of our slaves. 
 There was nothing belonging to anyone, which he had taken 
 a fancy to, which he did not think would become his in the 
 course of this year. No one was aa obstacle to his expecta- 
 tions except Milo ; the very man who was most able to be an 
 obstacle to them he thought when he returned again would be 
 reconciled and, as it were, bound to him. The power of Caesar, 
 he said, was all his own. The inclinations of all good men he 
 had treated with contempt, while accomplishing my ruin. Milo 
 alone weighed on his mind. 
 
 On this the immortal gods, as I have said before, put into the 
 head of that abandoned and frantic man the idea of laying an 
 ambush for Milo. That pest was not to perish any other way : 
 the republic would never have chastened him by her laws. The 
 Senate, I suppose, would have been able to restrain him when 
 praetor. Why, it had not been able to do anything when it 
 tried to restrain him while a private individual. Would the 
 consuls have been vigorous in bridling a praetor? In the first 
 place, if Milo had been slain, he would have had his own con- 
 suls. Secondly, what consul would have behaved fearlessly 
 against him as praetor, who remembered that he, when tribune, 
 had offered the most cruel injuries to the virtue of the consuls? 
 He would have oppressed everything; he would have taken 
 possession and held possession of everything. By a new law, 
 the draft of which was found in his house, with the rest of the 
 Clodian laws, he would have made all our slaves his own freed- 
 men. Lastly, if the immortal gods had not inspired him with 
 such ideas that he, an effeminate creature, attempted to slay a 
 most gallant man, you would have no republic at all this day. 
 Would that man when praetor, much more when consul, pro- 
 vided only that these temples and these walls could have stood 
 so long if he had been alive, and could have remained till his 
 consulship ; would he, I say, if alive, have done no harm, when 
 even after he was dead he burned the senate-house, one of his 
 satellites, Sextus Clodius, being the ringleader in the tumult ? 
 What more miserable, more grievous, more bitter sight have 
 we ever seen than that ? that that temple of sanctity, of honor, 
 of wisdom, of the public council, the head of the city, the altar
 
 240 CICERO 
 
 of the allies, the harbor of all nations, the abode granted by the 
 universal Roman people to one of the orders of the state, should 
 be burnt, profaned, and destroyed? 13 and that that should be 
 done, not by an ignorant mob, although that would have been 
 a miserable thing, but by one single person ? who, if he dared 
 so much in his character of burner of a dead man, what would 
 he not have done as standard-bearer of a living one ? He se- 
 lected the senate-house, of all the places in the city, to throw 
 him down in, in order that when dead he might burn what he 
 had overturned while alive. 
 
 And are there men, then, who complain of what took place 
 in the Appian road, and say nothing of what happened in the 
 senate-house? and who think that the forum could have been 
 defended from him when alive, whose very corpse the senate- 
 house was unable to resist ? Arouse the man himself ; resusci- 
 tate him, if you can, from the shades below. Will you be able 
 to check his violence when alive, when you were hardly able to 
 support his fury while he lies unburied? unless, indeed, you did 
 support the sight of those men who ran with firebrands to the 
 senate-house, with scythes to the temple of Castor, and \vho 
 ranged over the whole forum sword in hand. You saw the 
 Roman people slaughtered, you saw the assembly disturbed by 
 the drawn swords, while Marcus Ccelius, a tribune of the peo- 
 ple, was listened to in silence, a man of the greatest courage in 
 the affairs of state, of the greatest firmness in any cause which 
 he undertook, wholly devoted to the service of the virtuous part 
 of the citizens, and to the authority of the Senate, and in this 
 shall I say unpopularity, or misfortune of Milo's? behaving 
 with singular, and godlike, and incredible good faith. 
 
 But I have said enough about the cause; and, perhaps, too 
 much that was foreign to the cause. What remains, except for 
 me to pray and entreat you, O judges, to show that mercy to a 
 most gallant man, which he himself does not implore; but 
 which I, even against his will, implore and demand in his be- 
 half? Do not, if amid the tears of all of us you have seen no 
 tears shed by Milo if you see his countenance always the same, 
 his voice and language steady and unaltered do not, on that 
 account, be the less inclined to spare him. I know not whether 
 he does not deserve to be assisted all the more on that account. 
 
 13 See note 4 on page 205.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 241 
 
 In truth, if in the battles of gladiators, and in the case of men 
 of the very lowest class and condition and fortune, we are ac- 
 customed to dislike those who are timid and suppliant, and who 
 pray to be allowed to live, and if we wish to save those who are 
 brave and courageous, and who offer themselves cheerfully to 
 death ; and if we feel more pity for those men who do not ask 
 our pity, than for those who entreat it ; how much more ought 
 we to nourish those feelings in the case of our bravest citizens ? 
 As for me, O judges, I am dispirited and almost killed by those 
 expressions of Milo, which I hear continually, and at the utter- 
 ance of which I am daily present : " May my fellow-citizens 
 fare well," says he ; " may they fare well. May they be safe, 
 and prosperous, and happy; may this illustrious city, and my 
 country, which I love so well, long endure, however it may treat 
 me ; may my fellow-citizens (since I may not enjoy it with them) 
 enjoy the republic in tranquillity without me, but still in conse- 
 quence of my conduct, I will submit, and depart ; if it cannot be 
 allowed me to enjoy a virtuous republic, at least I shall be at 
 a distance from a bad one ; and the first well-regulated and free 
 city that I arrive at, in that will I rest. Oh, how vain," says he, 
 " are the labors which I have undertaken ! Oh, how fallacious 
 have been my hopes ! Oh, how empty all my thoughts ! When 
 as tribune of the people, when the republic was oppressed, I 
 had devoted myself to the Senate, which, when I came into 
 office, was utterly extinct ; and to the Roman knights, whose 
 power was enfeebled, and to the virtuous part of the citizens, 
 who had given up all their authority under the arms of Clodius ; 
 could I ever have thought that I should fail to find protection 
 from the citizens ? When I had restored you " (for he very 
 frequently converses with me and addresses me) " to your coun- 
 try, could I ever suppose that I myself should have no place 
 in my country ? Where now is the Senate which we followed ? 
 where are those Roman knights, those knights," says he, " so 
 devoted to you ? where is the zeal of the municipal towns ? where 
 is the voice of Italy ? what, above all, has become of that voice 
 of yours, O Marcus Tullius, which has been an assistance to 
 many ; what has become of your voice and defensive eloquence? 
 am I the only person whom it is unable to help, I who have so 
 often exposed myself to death for your sake ? " 
 
 Nor does he say these things to me, O judges, weeping, as I 
 16
 
 242 
 
 CICERO 
 
 now repeat them ; but with the same unmoved countenance that 
 you behold. For he says, he never did all the things which he 
 had done for citizens who are ungrateful ; ungrateful, he says, 
 they are not. That they are timid, and thinking too much of 
 every danger he does not deny. He says that he treated the com- 
 mon people, and that multitude of the lower class which, while 
 they had Publius Clodius for their leader, threatened the safety 
 of all of you, in such a way, in order to render all your lives more 
 secure ; that he not only subdued it by his virtue, but won it over 
 at the expense of three estates which he inherited. Nor has he 
 any apprehension that, while he was conciliating the common 
 people by his liberality, he was not also securing your attach- 
 ment by his singular services to the republic. He says that the 
 good-will of the Senate toward him has been repeatedly exper- 
 ienced by him in the times that have lately gone by ; and that 
 he shall carry with him, and ever retain in his recollection, the 
 way in which you and all your order flocked to meet him, the 
 zeal you showed in his behalf, and the kindness of your lan- 
 guage to him, whatever may be the destiny which fortune allots 
 to him. He remembers, also, that the voice of the crier, pro- 
 claiming his triumph, was the only thing wanting to him ; but 
 that he was declared consul by the unanimous vote of the peo- 
 ple, and that was the great object of his ambition. And now if 
 all these things are to go against him, it will be only the suspic- 
 ion of guilt, not the reality of any crime which has injured him. 
 He adds this, which is unquestionably true ; that brave and wise 
 men are not in the habit of setting their hearts so much on the 
 rewards for virtuous conduct, as on the fact of their conduct 
 being so ; that he has never acted throughout his life in any but 
 the most honorable manner, since there can be nothing better 
 for a man to do than to deliver his country from dangers ; that 
 those men are happy for whom such conduct procures honor 
 among their fellow-citizens, but yet, that those men are not 
 miserable who have exceeded their fellow-citizens in good 
 deeds. Moreover, that of all the rewards of virtue, if one is to 
 make an estimate of the different rewards, the most honorable 
 of all is glory; that this is the only reward which can make 
 amends for the shortness of life, by the recollection of posterity ; 
 which can cause us while absent to be present, when dead to be 
 still alive ; that this is the thing by the steps of which men appear 
 to mount even to heaven.
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 243 
 
 " Concerning me," says he, " the Roman people and all na- 
 tions will be continually talking. The remotest ages will never 
 be silent about me. Even at this very time when the firebrands 
 of envy are being hurled against me by my enemies, still I am 
 celebrated in every company of men, who express their thanks 
 to me, who congratulate themselves on my conduct, who make 
 me the sole topic of their conversation. I say nothing of the 
 days of festival, and sacrifice, and joyful celebration in Etruria. 
 This is the hundredth, or I rather think the hundred and first 
 day since the death of Publius Clodius ; a day on which, wher- 
 ever the boundaries of the Roman Empire extend, there did not 
 only the report of, but the joy caused by that occurrence pene- 
 trate. Wherefore," said he, " I am not anxious as to where this 
 body of mine may be ; since the glory of my name already is and 
 always will be in every country upon earth." 
 
 This is what you have constantly said to me, O Milo, when 
 these men who hear me now have been absent ; but this is what 
 I say to you when they are present to listen. I cannot, indeed, 
 praise you sufficiently for being of such a spirit as you are ; but 
 the more godlike that virtue of yours is, the greater is the pain 
 which I feel at being separated from you. Nor, indeed, if you 
 are taken from me, will the complaints, which are all that is left 
 to me, do anything to comfort me, or to prevent my being angry 
 with those men from whom I have received so severe a blow. 
 For it is not my enemies who will tear you from me, but those 
 who are my greatest friends. It is not men who have at times 
 deserved ill at my hands, but those who have always deserved 
 exceedingly well. You never, O judges, will inflict such grief 
 upon me (although, what grief can be so great as this?), but 
 you will never inflict this particular grief upon me, of forcing 
 me to forget how greatly you have always regarded me. And 
 if you, yourselves, have forgotten it, or if any part of my con- 
 duct has offended you, why do you not make me atone for that 
 offence rather than Milo? For I shall have lived gloriously 
 enough if I die before seeing any such great misfortune happen 
 to him. 
 
 At present one consolation supports me, that no exertion 
 that affection, or that zeal, or that gratitude could possibly 
 make has been wanting on my part to promote your interest, 
 O Titus Annius. For your sake I have courted the enmity of
 
 244 CICERO 
 
 powerful citizens ; I have repeatedly exposed my person and my 
 life to the weapons of your enemies ; I have thrown myself as a 
 suppliant at the feet of many for your sake ; I have considered 
 my fortunes and those of my children as united with yours in 
 the time of your necessities. Lastly, on this very day, if any 
 violence is prepared against you, or any struggle, or any dan- 
 ger of death, I claim my share in that. What remains now ? 
 What is there that I can say, or that I can do in return for your 
 services to me, except considering whatever fortune is yours 
 mine also? I do not object, I do not refuse so to consider it. 
 And I entreat you, O judges, either to add to the kindnesses 
 which you have already conferred on me by granting me this 
 man's safety, or else to take notice that they will all perish in 
 his fall. ' 
 
 These tears of mine have no effect on Milo. He is of an in- 
 credible strength of mind. He thinks that any place where 
 there is no room for virtue is a place of banishment ; and death 
 he considers the end appointed by nature, and not a punish- 
 ment. Let him continue to cherish these ideas in which he was 
 born. What will you think yourselves, O judges? What will 
 be your feelings? Will you preserve the recollection of Milo, 
 and drive away the man himself ? And will you allow any place 
 in the whole earth to be more worthy to receive this virtue of 
 his than this place which produced him ? You, you, I appeal to 
 you, O you brave men, who have shed much of your blood for 
 the sake of the republic. I appeal to you, O centurions, and to 
 you, O soldiers, in this time of danger to a brave man and an 
 invincible citizen. While you are not only looking on, but 
 armed, and standing as guards around this court of justice, 
 shall this mighty virtue be driven from the city, be banished, 
 be cast out? 
 
 Oh, miserable man that I am ! Oh, unhappy man that I am ! 
 Were you, O Milo, able through the instrumentality of these 
 men to recall me to my country, and cannot I through the 
 agency of the very same men even retain you in yours ? What 
 answer shall I make to my children, who consider you a second 
 father ? What answer shall I make to you, O my brother Quin- 
 tus, you who are now absent, you who were my companion in 
 that cruel time? Shall I reply that I was unable to preserve 
 the safety of Milo by the instrumentality of those very men by
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO 
 
 245 
 
 whose means he had preserved mine ? And what is the cause 
 in which I shall have failed to do so ? One which is sanctioned 
 by all the nations of the earth. From whom must I say that I 
 failed to procure it ? From those very men who of all others 
 have gained the greatest tranquillity by the death of Publius 
 Clodius. And who will it be who has entreated in vain? I. 
 What great wickedness is it that I planned, what enormous 
 crime did I commit, O judges, when I traced out, and laid open, 
 and revealed, and forever crushed those beginnings and signs 
 of the general destruction that was intended ? For that is the 
 spring from which all the distresses of myself and my friends 
 arise. Why did you wish me to return to my country ? Was 
 it in order that I might look on while those men were being 
 driven out, by whose efforts I had been restored? Do not, I 
 entreat you, suffer my return to be more miserable than even 
 my departure was. For how can I think that I have been re- 
 stored if I am torn from those men by whom I was restored ? 
 
 Would that the immortal gods had granted (I must entreat 
 your permission to say it, O my country, for I fear lest it should 
 be a wicked wish as far as you are concerned, though it may be 
 a pious one for Milo) would that they had granted that Pub- 
 lius Clodius should not only be alive, but should even be praetor, 
 consul, dictator, rather than I should see his sight ! O ye im- 
 mortal gods, before I should see this brave man, this man who 
 deserves to be saved by you, O judges, in this plight ! " Say 
 not so, say not so," says Milo. " Rather let him have suffered 
 the penalty which he deserved, and let us, if so it must be, suffer 
 what we have not deserved." 
 
 Shall this man, born for his country, die in any other land 
 except his country? or, as it may perchance turn out, for his 
 country? Will you preserve the monuments of this man's 
 courage, and yet allow no sepulchre containing his body to ex- 
 ist in Italy ? Will anyone by his vote banish this man from this 
 city, when all other cities will gladly invite him to them if he is 
 driven out from among you ? O happy will that land be which 
 shall receive him ! Ungrateful will this land be if it banishes 
 him ; miserable if it loses him. 
 
 However, I must make an end. Nor, indeed, can I speak 
 any longer for weeping ; and this man forbids me to defend him 
 by tears. I pray and entreat you, O judges, when you are giv-
 
 246 CICERO 
 
 ing your votes, to dare to decide as you think just. And believe 
 me that man 14 will be sure greatly to approve of your virtue, 
 and justice, and good faith ; who, in selecting the judges, se- 
 lected all the best, and wisest, and most fearless men whom he 
 could find. 15 
 
 14 Cnaeus Pompeius. deavored to raise some public commo- 
 M Milo, as has been said before, was tion in favor of Pompey, between whom 
 convicted by a majority of thirty-eight and Caesar (who was in his second con- 
 to thirteen, though Cato voted openly sulship) the civil war was just breaking 
 for his acquittal. He went into exile out. But he and Ccelius were both 
 to Marseilles. Some years afterward, killed by the soldiers with whom they 
 A.U.C. 706, Ccelius, when praetor, re- were tampering, 
 called him from banishment, and en-
 
 SPEECH 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF 
 CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 When Gabinius, the colleague of Piso, returned from his province 
 of Syria, he was prosecuted on two indictments; in the first prosecu- 
 tion Cicero appeared as a witness against him; but he was acquitted, 
 as Cicero says in his letters to his brother Quintus, in consequence of 
 the stupidity of Lentulus, the prosecutor, and the great exertion of 
 Pompey, and the corruption of the judges. In the second prosecu- 
 tion Cicero was prevailed on by Pompey to defend him; but he was 
 condemned to perpetual banishment 
 
 The trial of Caius Rabirius Postumus, a Roman knight, arose out 
 of that trial of Gabinius. It had been one of the articles against him, 
 that he had received an enormous sum for restoring Ptolemy to his 
 kingdom of Egypt; but when he was convicted, his estate was found 
 inadequate to meet the damages which he was condemned to pay, 
 and the deficiency was now demanded from those through whose 
 hands the management of his money affairs had passed, and who were 
 supposed to have been sharers in the spoil; and of these men the chief 
 was Rabirius, who was now accused of having advised Gabinius to 
 undertake Ptolemy's restoration; of having accompanied him; of 
 having been employed by him to solicit the payment of the money, 
 and of having lived at Alexandria for that purpose in the king's service 
 as the public receiver of the king's taxes, and wearing the dress of an 
 Egyptian. The prosecution was instituted under the provisions of 
 the Lex Julia, concerning extortion and peculation. It was conducted 
 by Caius Memmius Gemellus. Rabirius was acquitted; and, though 
 it was to please Pompey that Cicero had undertaken his defence, he 
 afterwards attached himself to Caesar, and was employed by him in 
 the war in Africa and in Sicily. 
 
 248
 
 SPEECH 
 IN DEFENCE OF CA1US RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 
 
 IF there is anyone, O judges, who thinks Caius Rabirius 
 to be blamed for having intrusted his securely founded 
 and well-established fortunes to the power and caprice of 
 a sovereign, he may back his opinion by a reference not only to 
 mine, but also to the feelings of the man himself who did so. 
 For there is no one who is more grieved at the line of conduct 
 which he then adopted than he is himself. Although we are 
 very much in the habit of judging of the wisdom of a plan 
 by the result, and of saying that the man whose designs have 
 succeeded has shown a great deal of foresight, and that he who 
 has failed has shown none at all. If the king had had any 
 honesty, nothing would have been considered more sagacious 
 than the conduct of Postumus ; but because the king deceived 
 him he is said to have acted as madly as possible; so that it 
 appears now that nothing is a proof of a man being wise, un- 
 less he can foresee the future. 
 
 But still, if there be anyone who thinks that Postumus's 
 conduct, whether it proceeded from a vain hope, or from a 
 hot sufficiently considered calculation, or (to use the strongest 
 possible terms) from pure rashness, deserves to be blamed, I 
 will not object to his entertaining that opinion. But I do 
 beg this, that as he sees that his designs have been punished 
 with the greatest cruelty by fortune herself, he will not think 
 it necessary to add any additional bitterness to the ruin with 
 which he is already overwhelmed. It is quite enough not to 
 help to set men up again who have fallen through imprudence ; 
 but to press down those already fallen, or to increase their im- 
 petus when falling, is unquestionably most barbarous. Espe- 
 cially, O judges, when this principle is almost implanted by 
 nature in the race of man, that those men who are of a family 
 
 249
 
 250 
 
 CICERO 
 
 which considerable glory has already distinguished, should with 
 the greatest eagerness pursue the same path as their ancestors, 
 seeing that the virtue of their fathers is celebrated in the 
 recollection and conversation of all men ; just as not only did 
 Scipio imitate Paullus in his renown gained by military ex- 
 ploits; not only did his son imitate Maximus; but his own 
 son also imitated Decius in the devotion of his life, and the 
 exact manner of his death. Let small things, O judges, be 
 compared in this way to great things. 
 
 For, when we were children, this man's father, Caius Curius, 
 was a most gallant chief of the equestrian order, and a most 
 extensive farmer of the public revenues, a man whose great- 
 ness of spirit as displayed in carrying on his business men 
 would not have so greatly esteemed, if an incredible kindness 
 had not also distinguished him ; so that while increasing his 
 property, he seemed not so much to be seeking to gratify his 
 avarice, as to procure additional means for exerting his kind- 
 ness. My client, being this man's son, although he had never 
 seen his father, still under the guidance of nature herself 
 who is a very powerful guide and instigated by the continual 
 conversation of everyone in his family, was naturally led on 
 to adopt a similar line of conduct to that of his father. He 
 engaged in extensive business. He entered into many con- 
 tracts. He took a great share of the public revenues. He 
 trusted different nations. His transactions spread over many 
 provinces. He devoted himself also to the service of kings. 
 He had already previously lent a large sum of money to this 
 very king of Alexandria; and in the mean time he never 
 ceased enriching his friends ; sending them on commissions ; 
 giving them a share in his contracts ; increasing their estates, 
 or supporting them with his credit. Why need I say more? 
 He gave a faithful representation of his father's career and 
 habits of life in his own magnanimity and liberality. 
 
 In the mean time, Ptolemaeus being expelled from his king- 
 dom with treachery, with evil designs (as the Sibyl said, an 
 expression of which Postumus found out the meaning) came 
 to Rome. This unhappy man lent him money, as he was in 
 want and asked for it ; and that was not the first time (for he 
 had lent him money before while he was king, without seeing 
 him). And he thought that he was not lending his money
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 251 
 
 rashly, because no one doubted that he would be restored to 
 his kingdom by the Senate and people of Rome. But he went 
 still farther in making him presents and loans. And he lent 
 him not his own money only, but also that of his friends. A 
 very foolish thing to do who denies it? at all events, who is 
 there who does not now remind him of it? How could one 
 think that a sensible proceeding which has turned out ill? 
 But it is difficult not to carry out to the end a line of conduct 
 which one has begun with sanguine hopes. 
 
 The king was a suppliant to him. He asked him every 
 sort of favor ; he promised him every sort of recompense. So 
 that Postumus was at last compelled to fear that he might lose 
 what he had already lent, if he put a stop to his loans. But 
 no one could possibly be more affable, no one could be more 
 kind than the king; so that it was easier to repent having be- 
 gun to lend than to find out how to stop. 
 
 Here first rises a charge against my client. They say that 
 the Senate was bribed. O ye immortal gods ! is this that much- 
 desired impartiality of the courts of justice? Those who have 
 bribed us are put on their trial, we who have been bribed are 
 exposed to no such dangers. What, then, shall I do? Shall 
 I here defend the Senate, O judges? I ought, indeed, to do so 
 here and everywhere, so well has that body deserved at my 
 hands. But that is not the question at the present moment ; 
 nor is that affair in the least connected with the cause of Pos- 
 tumus. Although money was supplied by Postumus for the 
 expense of his journey, and for the splendor of his appoint- 
 ments, and for the royal retinue, and though contracts were 
 drawn up in the Alban villa of Cnaeus Pompeius when he 
 left Rome; still he who supplied the money had no right to ask 
 on what he who received the money was spending it. For 
 he was lending it not to a robber, but to a king; nor to a 
 king who was an enemy of the Roman people, but to him 
 whose return to his kingdom he saw was granted to him by 
 the Senate, and intrusted to the consul to provide for; nor 
 to a king who was a stranger to this empire, but to one with 
 whom he had seen a treaty made in the Capitol. 
 
 But if the man who lends money is to blame, and not the 
 man who has made a scandalous use of the money which has 
 been lent to him, then let that man be condemned who has
 
 252 CICERO 
 
 made a sword and sold it, and not the man who with that 
 sword has slain a citizen. Wherefore, neither you, O Caius 
 Memmius, ought to wish the Senate, to support the authority 
 of which you have devoted yourself from your youth upward, 
 to labor under such disrepute, nor ought I to speak in defence 
 of conduct which is not the subject of the present inquiry. 
 For the cause of Postumus, whatever it is, is at all events un- 
 connected with the cause of the Senate. And if I show that 
 it has no connection with Gabinius either, then certainly you 
 will have not a leg to stand upon. 
 
 For this cause is an inquiry, " What has become of the 
 money ? " a sort of appendix as it were to an action which has 
 been already decided, and in which a man has been convicted. 
 An action was brought successfully against Aulus Gabinius, 
 and he was condemned in damages ; but no securities were 
 given for the payment of them, nor did the people get out of 
 his property a sum sufficient for the payment of those dam- 
 ages. The law is impartial. The Julian law orders that requisi- 
 tion should be made on those who received the money which the 
 culprit may have obtained. If this is a new provision in the 
 Julian law as there are many clauses of a severer and stricter 
 tendency than those which are found in the ancient laws let us 
 also have this new description of tribunal before which to prose- 
 cute the inquiry. But if this clause is transferred word for word 
 not only from the Cornelian law but from the Servilian law, 
 which is older still; then, in the name of the immortal gods, what 
 is it that we are doing, O judges? Or what is this new prin- 
 ciple of new legal proceedings that we are introducing into 
 the republic? For the ancient mode of proceeding was well 
 '.known to all of you, and if practice is the best of teachers 
 it ought to be known to me above all men. For I have prose- 
 cuted men for extortion and peculation ; I have sat as judge ; 
 I have conducted inquiries as praetor; I have defended many 
 men; there is no step in such proceedings which can give 
 a man any facility in speaking in which I have not taken a 
 part. 
 
 This is what I assert : That no one ever was put on his trial 
 on the formula, " What had become of that money," who had 
 not been summoned as a witness on the action for damages. 
 But in the action in this instance, no one was summoned ex-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 253 
 
 cept in consequence of something said by witnesses, or some- 
 thing which appeared in the accounts of private individuals, 
 or in the accounts of the cities. Therefore, when actions were 
 being brought, those men were usually present who had some 
 apprehension about themselves; and then when they were 
 summoned, then, if they thought it advantageous for them, 
 they proceeded at once to contradict what had been said. But 
 if they were afraid of unpopularity, because the facts in ques- 
 tion were recent, they answered at some future time; and 
 when they had done this, many of them gained their object. 
 
 But this is quite a novel way of managing business, and 
 one utterly unheard of before this time. In the previous ac- 
 tion Postumus's name never once occurs. In the action, do I 
 say? You yourselves, O judges, lately sat as judges on Aulus 
 Gabinius. Did any one witness then mention Postumus? Any 
 witness? did ever the prosecutor name him? Did you, in 
 short, in the whole of that trial once hear the name of Pos- 
 tumus ? 
 
 Postumus, then, is nqt an additional criminal implicated 
 in the cause which has been already decided. But still one 
 Roman knight has been dragged before the court as a defend- 
 ant, on a charge of extortion and peculation. On what ac- 
 count-books is this charge founded? On some which were 
 not read on the trial of Aulus Gabinius. By what witness is 
 it suported? By someone who never once mentioned his 
 name at that time. On the sentence of what arbitrator do 
 they reply? On one in which no mention whatever was made 
 of Postumus. In accordance with the provisions of what law ? 
 Of one under which he is not liable. 
 
 Here now, O judges, the affair is one which has need of all 
 your acuteness and of all your good sense. For you ought to 
 consider what it is becoming to you to do, and not what is 
 lawful for you. For if you ask what is lawful, you certainly 
 have the power to remove anyone whom you please out of the 
 city. It is the voting tablet which gives you that power; 
 and at the same time it conceals the capricious exercise of it. 
 No one has any need to fear the consciousness of the tablet, 
 if he has no reverence for his own conscience. Where, then, 
 is the wisdom of the judge shown? In this, that he considers 
 not only what he has the power to do, but also what he ought
 
 254 
 
 CICERO 
 
 to do; and he does not recollect only what power has been 
 committed to him, but also to what extent it has been com- 
 mitted. You have a tablet given you on which to record your 
 judgment. According to what law? To the Julian law about 
 extortion and peculation. Concerning what defendant? Con- 
 cerning a Roman knight. But that body is not liable to the 
 operation of that law. But now I hear what you say. Postu- 
 mus, then, is prosecuted under that law, from the operation of 
 which not only he, but his whole order, is released and wholly 
 free. 
 
 Here I will not at present implore your aid, O Roman 
 knights you whose privileges are attacked by this prosecu- 
 tion before I implore you, O senators, whose good faith to- 
 ward this order of knights is at stake; that good faith which 
 has been often experienced before, and which has been lately 
 proved in this very cause. For when when that most vir- 
 tuous and admirable consul Cnaeus Pompeius made a motion 
 with respect to this very inquiry some, but very few, unfa- 
 vorable opinions were delivered, which voted that prefects, 
 and scribes, and all the retinue of magistrates were liable to 
 the provisions of this law, you you yourselves, I say and 
 the Senate, in a very full house, resisted this ; and although at 
 that time, on account of the offences committed by many men, 
 people's minds were inflamed so that even innocent people 
 were in danger, still, though you could not wholly extinguish 
 its unpopularity, at all events you would not allow fuel to be 
 added to the existing fire. 
 
 In this spirit did the Senate act. What next? What are 
 you, O Roman knights, what are you about to do, I pray? 
 Glaucia, a profligate but still a shrewd man, was in the habit 
 of warning the people when any law was being read to attend 
 to the first line of it. If the first word was " dictator, consul, 
 praetor, master of the horse," then not to trouble themselves 
 about it ; they might know that it was no concern of theirs. 
 But if it began " Whoever after the passing of this law," then 
 they had better take care that they were not made liable to 
 any new judicial proceedings. 
 
 Now do you, O Roman knights, take care. You know that 
 I was born of your order; that all my feelings have always 
 been enlisted in your cause. I say nothing of what I am now
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 255 
 
 saying but with the deepest anxiety and the greatest regard 
 for your order. Other men may be attached to other men and 
 to other orders ; I have always been devoted to you. I warn 
 you, I forewarn you ; I give you notice while the affair and the 
 cause are still undecided; I call all men and gods to witness. 
 While you have it in your power, while it is lawful for you, 
 beware lest you establish for yourselves and for your order a 
 harder condition than you may be able to bear. This evil 
 (believe me) will crawl on and extend further than you fancy. 
 When a most powerful and noble tribune of the people, 
 Marcus Drusus, proposed one formula of inquiry affecting 
 the equestrian order " If anyone had taken money on ac- 
 count of a judicial decision " the Roman knights openly re- 
 sisted it. Why? Did they wish to be allowed to act in such 
 a manner? Far from it. They thought this cause of receiv- 
 ing money not only shameful, but actually impious. But they 
 argued in this way : that those men only ought to be made 
 liable to the operation of any law, who of their own judgment 
 submitted to such conditions of life. " The highest rank," say 
 they, " in the state is a great pleasure ; and the curule chair, 
 and the fasces, and supreme command, and a province, and 
 priesthoods, and triumphs, and even the fact of having an im- 
 age to keep alive the recollection of one with posterity. There 
 is also some anxiety mingled with this pleasure, and a greater 
 apprehension of laws and of trials. We have never despised 
 those considerations" (for so they argued); "but we have 
 adopted this tranquil and easy kind of life, which, because it 
 does not bring honors with it, is also free from annoyance." 
 " You are just as much a judge as I am a senator." " Just 
 so, but you sought for the one honor, and I am compelled to 
 accept of the other; wherefore, it ought to be lawful for me 
 either to decline being a judge, or else I ought not to be sub- 
 ject to any new law which ought properly to regulate only the 
 conduct of senators." Will you, O Roman knights, abandon 
 this privilege which you have received from your fathers? I 
 warn you not to do so. Men will be hurried before these 
 courts of justice, not only whenever they fall into all deserved 
 unpopularity, but whenever spiteful people say a word against 
 them, if you do not take care to prevent it. If it were now 
 told you that opinions were pronounced in the Senate that you
 
 256 CICERO 
 
 should be liable to be proceeded against under these laws, you 
 would think it necessary to run in crowds to the senate-house. 
 If the law was passed, you would throng to the rostra. The 
 Senate has decided that you are exempt from the operation of 
 this law; the people has never subjected you to it; you have 
 met together here free from it ; take care that you do not de- 
 part entangled in its toils. 
 
 For if it was imputed as a crime to Postumus, who was 
 neither a tribune, nor a prefect, nor one of his companions 
 from Italy, nor even a friend of Gabinius's, how will these men 
 hereafter defend themselves, who, being of your order, have 
 been implicated with our magistrates in these causes ? 
 
 " You," says the prosecutor, " instigated to Gabinius to re- 
 store the king." My own good faith does not allow me to 
 speak with severity of Gabinius. For after having been rec- 
 onciled to him, and given up that most bitter hostility with 
 which I regarded him, and after having defended him with 
 the greatest zeal, I ought not to attack him now that he is in 
 distress. And even if the influence of Cnaeus Pompeius had 
 not reconciled me to him while he was in prosperity, his own 
 disasters would do so now. But still, when you say that 
 Gabinius went to Alexandria at the instigation of Postumus, 
 if you place no confidence in what was alleged in the defence 
 of Gabinius, do you forget also what you stated in your own 
 speech for the prosecution? Gabinius said that he did that 
 for the sake of the republic, because he was afraid of the 
 fleet of Archelaus because he thought that otherwise the 
 sea would be entirely full of pirates. He said, moreover, that 
 he was authorized to do so by a law. You, his enemy, deny 
 that. I pardon your denial, and so much the more because 
 the decision was contrary to the statement of Gabinius. 
 
 I return, therefore, to the charge, and to your speech for the 
 prosecution. Why did you keep crying out that ten thousand 
 talents had been promised to Gabinius? I suppose it was 
 necessary to find out a very civil man indeed, who should be 
 able to prevail on one whom you call the most avaricious of 
 men, not to despise immoderately two hundred and forty mill- 
 ions of sesterces. Whatever may have been the intention with 
 which Gabinius acted, it certainly was his own unsuggested 
 intention. Whatever sort of idea it was, it was Gabinius's
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 257 
 
 own. Whether, as he said himself, his object was glory, or 
 whether, as you insist, it was money, it was for himself that 
 he sought it. Had Gabinius any companion or attendant? 
 He says, no. For he had departed from Rome in deference 
 to the authority, not of Gabinius, whose business it was not, 
 but of Publius Lentulus, a most illustrious man, given to him 
 by the Senate, and with a definite design, and with very san- 
 guine hopes. 
 
 But he was the king's steward. Ay, and he was in the 
 king's prison, and his life was nearly taken away. He bore 
 many things besides, which the caprice of the king and neces- 
 sity compelled him to endure. So that all these matters come 
 under one single reproach, that he entered his kingdom, and 
 that he intrusted himself to the power of the king. A very 
 foolish action, if we must say the truth. For what can be 
 more foolish than for a Roman knight, a man of this city, I 
 say, a citizen of this republic, which, of all others, is, and al- 
 ways has been, most especially free, to go into a place where 
 he is forced to obey and be the steward of another ? 
 
 But, nevertheless, may I not pardon this in Postumus, who is 
 not a man of much learning, when I see that the very wisest 
 men have fallen into the same error? We have heard that 
 that great man, beyond all comparison the most learned man 
 that all Greece ever produced, Plato, was in the greatest danger, 
 and was exposed to the most treacherous designs by the wick- 
 edness of Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, to whom he had 
 trusted himself. We know that Callisthenes, a very learned 
 man, the companion of Alexander the Great, was slain by 
 Alexander. We know that Demetrius he, too, being a citizen 
 of the free republic of Athens, the affairs of which he had 
 conducted with the greatest ability, and being also a man emi- 
 nent for, and deeply impressed with, learning the one I mean, 
 who was surnamed Phalereus, was deprived of his life in that 
 self-same kingdom of Egypt, having ha"d an asp applied to his 
 body. I plainly confess that nothing more insane can be done, 
 than for a man willingly to come into a place where he will 
 lose his liberty. But the still greater folly which he had al- 
 ready committed is his excuse for the folly of this subsequent 
 conduct; for that causes this most stupid action, the act, I 
 mean, of going into the kingdom, and of trusting himself to the 
 17
 
 2 5 8 
 
 CICERO 
 
 king, to appear a wise and sensible step. At all events, it is 
 not so much the act of one who is forever a fool, as one who is 
 wise too late, after he has got into difficulties through his folly, 
 to endeavor to release himself by whatever means he can. Let, 
 then, that be regarded as a fixed and certain point, which can 
 neither be moved nor changed, in which those who look fairly 
 at the matter say that Postumus had entertained hopes, those 
 who are unfavorable to him say that he made a blunder, and 
 he himself confesses that he acted like a madman, in lending 
 his own money, and that of his friends, to the king, to the 
 great danger of his own fortunes ; still, when this had once been 
 begun, it was necessary to endure these other evils, in order, 
 at last, to reunite himself to his friends. Therefore, you may 
 reproach him as often as you please with having worn an 
 Egyptian robe, and with having had about him other orna- 
 ments which are not worn by a Roman citizen. For every 
 time that you mention any one of these particulars, you are only 
 repeating that same thing that he lent money rashly to the 
 king, and that he trusted his fortunes and his character to the 
 royal caprice. He did so rashly, I confess it; but the case 
 could not possibly be changed then ; either he was forced to put 
 on an Egyptian cloak at Alexandria, in order afterward to be 
 able to wear his gown at Rome ; or, if he retained his gown 
 in Egypt, he must have discarded all hope of recovering his 
 fortunes. 
 
 For the sake of luxury and pleasure we have often seen, 
 not only ordinary Roman citizens, but youths of high birth, 
 and even some senators, men born in the highest rank, wear- 
 ing little caps, not in their country-seats or their suburban 
 villas, but at Naples, in a much-frequented town. We have 
 even seen Lucius Sylla, that great commander, in a cloak. 
 And you can now see the statue of Lucius Scipio, who con- 
 ducted the war in Asia, and defeated Antiochus, standing in 
 the Capitol, not only with a cloak, but also with Grecian slip- 
 pers. And yet these men not only were not liable to be tried 
 for wearing them, but they were not even talked about ; and, 
 at all events, the excuse of necessity will be a more valid de- 
 fence for Publius Rutilius Rufus ; for when he had been caught 
 at Mitylene by Mithridates, he avoided the cruelty with which 
 the king treated all who wore the Roman gown, by changing
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 259 
 
 his apparel. Therefore, that Rutilius, who was a pattern to 
 our citizens of virtue, and of the ancient dignity, and of pru- 
 dence, and a man of consular rank, put on slippers and a cloak. 
 Nor did anyone think of reproaching the man with having 
 done so, but all imputed it to the necessity of the time. And 
 shall that garment bring an accusation upon Postumus, which 
 afforded him a hope that he might at some time or other re- 
 cover his fortune? 
 
 For when he came to Alexandria to Auletes, 1 O judges, this 
 one means of saving his money was proposed to Postumus by 
 the king namely, that he should undertake the management, 
 and, as it were, the stewardship of the royal revenues. And 
 he could not do that unless he became the steward. For he 
 uses that title which had been given to the office by the king. 
 The business seemed an odious one to Postumus, but he had 
 actually no power of declining it. The name itself, too, was 
 annoying ; but the business had that name of old among those 
 people, it was not now newly imposed by the king. He de- 
 tested also that dress, but without it he could neither have the 
 title nor fill his office. Therefore, I say, that he was com- 
 pelled by force to act as he did by force which, as our great 
 poet says 
 
 " Breaks and subdues the loftiest dignity." 
 
 He should have died, you will say ; for that is the alternative. 
 And so he would have done, if, while his affairs were in such 
 a state of embarrassment, he could have died without the 
 greatest disgrace. 
 
 Do not, then, impute his hard fortune to him as a fault ; do 
 not think the injury done to him by the king his crime ; do not 
 judge of his intentions by the compulsions under which he 
 was, nor of his inclination by the force to which he submitted. 
 Unless, indeed, you think those men deserving of reproach who 
 have fallen among enemies or among thieves, and who then 
 act differently under compulsion from what they would if they 
 were free. No one of us is ignorant, even if we have had no 
 personal experience of it, of the mode of proceeding adopted 
 by a king. These are the orders given by kings : " Take no- 
 tice," " Obey orders," " Do not complain when you are not 
 
 1 Ptolemaeus was surnamed Auletes.
 
 2 6o CICERO 
 
 asked." These are their threats : " If I catch you here to- 
 morrow, you shall die." Expressions which we ought to read 
 and consider, not only for the purpose of being amused by 
 them, but in order to learn to beware of their authors, and to 
 avoid them. 
 
 But from the circumstance of this employment itself an- 
 other charge arises. For the prosecutor says, that while Pos- 
 tumus was collecting the money for Gabinius, he also amassed 
 money for himself out of the tenths belonging to the generals. 
 I do not quite understand what this charge means ; whether 
 Postumus is charged with having made an addition of one per 
 cent, to the tenth, as our own collectors are in the habit of 
 doing, or whether he deducted that sum from the total amount 
 of the tenths. If he made that addition, then eleven thousand 
 talents came to Gabinius. But not only was the amount men- 
 tioned by you ten thousand talents, but that also was the sum 
 at which it was estimated by them. I add this consideration 
 also. How can it be likely, that when the burden of the tributes 
 was already so heavy, an addition of one thousand talents 
 could be made to so large a sum which was to be collected? 
 or that, when a man, a most avaricious man as you make him 
 out, was to receive so large a reward, he would put up with a 
 diminution of a thousand talents ? For it was not like Gabinius, 
 to give up so vast a portion of what he had a right to ; nor was 
 it natural for the king to allow him to impose so great an addi- 
 tional tax on his subjects. Witnesses will be produced, depu- 
 ties from Alexandria. They have not said a word against 
 Gabinius. Nay, they have even praised Gabinius. Where, 
 then, is that custom ; what has become of the usages of courts 
 of justice? Where are your precedents ? Is it usual to produce 
 a witness to give evidence against a man who has been the 
 collector of money, when he has not been able to say a word 
 against the man in whose name the money was collected ? Nay 
 more ; if it is usual to produce a man who has said nothing, is 
 it usual to produce one who has spoken in his praise ? Is it not 
 customary rather to look on such a cause as already decided, 
 and to think that it is sufficient to read the previous evidence 
 of the witnesses, without producing the men themselves? 
 
 And this intimate companion and friend of mine says also 
 that the men of Alexandria had the same reason for prais-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 261 
 
 ing Gabinius that I had for defending him. My reason, O 
 Caius Memmius, for defending him was, that I had become 
 reconciled to him. Nor do I repent of considering my friend- 
 ships immortal, but my enmities mortal. For if you think 
 that I defended him against my will, because I did not like to 
 offend Pompeius, you are very ignorant both of his character 
 and of mine. For Pompeius would not have wished me to 
 do anything contrary to my inclination for his sake. Nor 
 would I, to whom the liberty of all the citizens has always 
 been the dearest object, ever have abandoned my own. As 
 long as I was on terms of the greatest enmity to Gabinius, 
 Pompeius was in no respect the less my dearest friend. Nor 
 after I had made to his authority that concession to which it 
 was entitled from me, did I feign anything; I could not be- 
 have with treachery so as to injure the very man whom I had 
 just been obliging. For by refusing to be reconciled to my 
 enemy, I was doing no harm to Pompeius; but if I had al- 
 lowed him to reconcile us, and yet had myself been recon- 
 ciled to Gabinius with a treacherous intention, I should have 
 behaved dishonestly, principally, indeed, to myself, but in the 
 next degree to him also. 
 
 But, however, I will say no more about myself. Let us re- 
 turn to those Alexandrians. What a face those men have ! 
 What audacity ! The other day, when we were present at 
 the trial of Gabinius, they were cross-examined at every third 
 word they said. They declared that the money had not been 
 given to Gabinius. The evidence of Pompeius was read at 
 the same time, to the effect that he had written to the king 
 that no money had been given to Gabinius except for mili- 
 tary purposes. "At that time," says the prosecutor, "the 
 judges refused to believe the Alexandrians." What does he 
 say next ? " Now they do believe them." Why so ? " Be- 
 cause they now affirm what they then denied." What of 
 that? Is this the way in which we are to regard witnesses 
 to refuse them belief when they deny a thing, but to be- 
 lieve the very same men when they affirm a thing? But if 
 they told the truth then, when they spoke with every appear- 
 ance of truth, they are telling lies now. If they told lies then, 
 they must give us. good proof that they are now speaking the 
 truth. Why need I say more? Let them hold their tongues.
 
 262 CICERO 
 
 We have heard men speak of Alexandria before. Now we 
 know it from our own experience. Thence it is, that every 
 sort of chicanery comes. Thence, I say, comes every sort of 
 deceit. It is from that people that all the plots of the farce- 
 writers are derived. And, indeed, there is nothing which I 
 wish for more, O judges, than to see the witnesses face to face. 
 
 They gave their evidence a little while ago before this tri- 
 bunal, at the same time that we ourselves did. With what ef- 
 frontery did they then repudiate the charge of this ten thou- 
 sand talents ! You are acquainted by this time with the absurd 
 ways of the Greeks. They shrugged their shoulders at that 
 time, I suppose, in respect of the existing emergency; but 
 now there is no such necessity. When anyone has once per- 
 jured himself he cannot be believed afterward, not even if he 
 swears by more gods than he did before ; especially, O judges, 
 when in trials of this sort there is not usually any room for 
 a new witness ; and on that account the same judges are re- 
 tained who were judges in the case of the original defendant, 
 because everything is already known to them, and nothing 
 new can be invented. 
 
 Actions on the formula, " What has become of that money ? " 
 are usually decided, not by any proceedings taken especially 
 with reference to them, but by those which were adopted in 
 the case of the original defendant. Therefore, if Gabinius 
 had either given sureties, or if the people had got as large a 
 sum out of his property as the damages amounted to, then, 
 however large a sum had been obtained from him by Postu- 
 mus, none would have been demanded back again. So that 
 it may easily be seen, that in a case of this sort, the money is 
 only demanded back again from anyone who has been clearly 
 proved in the former action to have become possessed of it, 
 But at present what is the question under discussion? Where 
 in the world are we? What can be either said or imagined 
 so unprecedented, so unsuitable, so preposterous as this ? That 
 man is being prosecuted who did not receive any money from 
 the king, as it has been decided that Gabinius did, but who 
 lent a vast sum of money to the king. Therefore, he gave it to 
 Gabinius, as he certainly did not repay it to Postumus. Tell 
 me now, I beg, since the man who owed Postumus money did 
 not pay it to him, but gave money to Gabinius, now that Ga-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS 263 
 
 binius is condemned has he paid him back that money, or does 
 he owe it to him still ? 
 
 " Oh, but Postumus has the money, and is hiding it." For 
 there are men who talk in this way. What a strange sort 
 of ostentation and vain-gloriousness is this! If he had never 
 originally had anything, still, if he had acquired a fortune, 
 there could be no reason why he should conceal his having 
 it. But in the case of a man who had inherited two ample 
 and splendid patrimonial estates, and who had, moreover, in- 
 creased his property by legitimate and honorable means, what 
 reason could there possibly be why he should wish to be sup- 
 posed to have nothing? Are we to believe that, when he was 
 induced by the hope of interest to lend his money, his object 
 was to have as large an estate as possible, but that after he had 
 got back the money which he had lent, he then wished to be 
 thought to be in want ? He is certainly aiming at quite a new 
 sort of glory. " And again," says the prosecutor, " he acted 
 in a very arbitrary manner at Alexandria." I should rather 
 say he was treated in a most arbitrary, ay, in a most insolent 
 manner; he himself had to endure imprisonment. He saw 
 his intimate friends thrown into prison. Death was constantly 
 before his eyes. And at last, naked and needy, he fled from 
 the kingdom. " But his money was employed in commerce in 
 other quarters. We have heard that ships belonging to Pos- 
 tumus arrived at Puteoli, and merchandise belonging to him 
 was seen there, things only showy and of no real value, made 
 of paper, and linen, and glass; and there were several ships 
 entirely filled with such articles ; but there was also one little 
 ship, the contents of which were not known." That voyage 
 to Puteoli (such was the conversation at that time), and the 
 course taken by the crew, and the parade they made, and the 
 fact, too, of the name of Postumus being rather unpopular 
 with some spiteful people, on account of some idea or other 
 respecting his money, filled in one summer numbers of ears 
 with those topics of conversation. 
 
 But if, O judges, you wish to know the truth if the lib- 
 erality of Caius Caesar, which is very great to everyone, had 
 not been quite incredible toward my client, we should long 
 since have ceased to have Postumus among us in the forum. 
 He by himself, took upon himself the burden of many of Pos-
 
 264 CICERO 
 
 tumus's friends; and those responsibilities, which during the 
 prosperity of Postumus many of his friends supported by 
 dividing them, now that he is unfortunate, Caesar supports 
 the whole of. You see, O judges, the shadow and phantom 
 of a Roman knight, preserved by the assistance and good faith 
 of one single friend. Nothing can be taken from him except 
 this image of his former dignity, and that Caesar by himself 
 preserves and maintains. And that, even amid his greatest 
 distresses, is still to be attributed to him in an eminent degree. 
 
 Unless, indeed, this can be effected by a moderate degree of 
 virtue, that so just a man as Caesar should think this my client 
 of so much consequence, especially now that he is in distress 
 and absent, and while he himself is in the enjoyment of such 
 splendid fortune that it is a great thing for him to give a 
 thought to the fortunes of others ; while he is so incessantly 
 busied about the mighty achievements which he has performed 
 and is still performing, that it would be no wonder if he for- 
 got other people altogether; and even if he afterward recol- 
 lected that he had forgotten them, he would easily find excuse 
 for so doing. 
 
 I have, indeed, before now, become acquainted with many 
 virtues of Caius Caesar, great and incredible virtues. But 
 those other virtues of his are suited as it were to a more ex- 
 tensive theatre, are what I may almost call virtues to catch 
 the eye of the people. To select a place for a camp, to array 
 an army, to storm cities, to put to flight the army of the ene- 
 my, to endure the severity of cold and bad weather, which we 
 can hardly support sheltered by the houses of this city; at 
 this very time 2 to be pursuing the enemy, at a time when 
 even the wild beasts hide themselves in their lurking-places, 
 and when all wars are suspended by the general consent of 
 nations; these are great deeds: who denies it? But still 
 they are prompted by vast rewards, being handed down to the 
 eternal recollection of men. So that there is less reason to 
 wonder at a man's performing them who is ambitious of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 This is wonderful praise, which is not celebrated by the 
 verses of poets, nor by the records of annals, but is estimated 
 by the judgments of wise men. He took up the cause of a 
 
 * This trial took place in January.
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABINIUS POSTUMUS 265 
 
 Roman knight, his own ancient friend, one zealous for, at- 
 tached and devoted to himself, who was getting involved in 
 difficulties; not through licentiousness, nor through any dis- 
 creditable expense and waste to gratify his passions, but 
 through an honest endeavor to increase his fortune ; he would 
 not allow him to fall; he propped him up and supported him 
 with his estate, his fortune, and his good faith, and he supports 
 him to this day. Nor will he allow his friend, trembling in 
 the balance as he is, to fall ; nor does the splendor of his own 
 reputation at all dazzle his eyes, nor does the height of his own 
 position and of his own renown at all obscure the piercing 
 vision of his mind. Grant that those achievements of his are 
 great things, as in truth they are; everyone else may agree 
 with my opinion or not, as he pleases, for I, amid all his power 
 and all his good fortune, prefer this liberality of his toward 
 his friends, and his recollection of old friendship, to all the rest 
 of his virtues. And you, O judges, ought not only not to de- 
 spise or to regret this goodness of so novel a kind, so unusual 
 in illustrious and pre-eminently powerful men, but even to em- 
 brace and increase it ; and so much the more, because you see 
 that these days have been taken for the purpose of, as it were, 
 undermining his dignity; from which nothing can be taken 
 which he will not either bravely bear, or easily replace. But 
 if he hears that his dearest friend has been stripped of his hon- 
 orable position, that he will not endure without just indigna- 
 tion ; and yet he will not have lost what he can have no possi- 
 ble hope of ever recovering. 
 
 These arguments ought to be quite sufficient for men who 
 are of a just disposition; and more than sufficient for you, 
 who we feel sure are men of the greatest justice. But, in order 
 fully to satisfy everybody's suspicions or malevolence, or 
 even cruelty, we will take this statement too. " Postumus 
 is hiding his money ; the king's riches are concealed." Is there 
 any one of all this people who would like to have all the prop- 
 erty of Caius Rabirius Postumus knocked down to him for 
 one single sesterce ? 3 But, miserable man that I am ! with 
 what great pain do I say this: Come, Postumus, are you the 
 son of Caius Curius, the son, as far as his judgment and in- 
 clination go, of Caius Rabirius, not in reality and by nature 
 
 1 Those who bought a property took it with all its liabilities.
 
 2 66 CICERO 
 
 the son of his sister? Are you the man who is so liberal to 
 all his relations; whose kindness has enriched many men; 
 who has never wasted anything; who has never spent any 
 money on any profligacy ? and all your property, O Postumus, 
 knocked down by me for one single sesterce? Oh, how mis- 
 erable and bitter is my office as an auctioneer! But he, mis- 
 erable man, even wishes to be convicted by you ; and to have 
 his property sold, so that everyone may be repaid his principal. 
 He has no concern about anything except his own good faith. 
 Nor will you, if you should, in his case, think fit to forget your 
 habitual humanity, be able to take from him anything beyond 
 his property. But, O judges, I beg and entreat you not to for- 
 get that usual course of yours, and so much the more as in this 
 instance money which he has nothing to do with is being 
 claimed of a man who is not even repaid his own. Odium is 
 sought to be stirred up against a man who ought to find an ally 
 in the general pity. 
 
 But now, since, as I hope, I have discharged as well as I 
 have been able to, the obligations of good faith to you, O Pos- 
 tumus, I will give you also the aid of my tears, as I well may ; 
 for I saw abundant tears shed by you at the time of my own 
 misfortune. That miserable night is constantly present to the 
 eyes of all my friends, on which you came to me with your 
 forces, and devoted yourself wholly to me. You supported 
 me at that time of my departure with your companions, with 
 your protection, and even as much gold as that time would 
 admit of. During the time of my absence you were never de- 
 ficient in comforting and aiding my children, or my wife. I 
 can produce many men who have been recalled from banish- 
 ment as witnesses of your liberality; conduct which I have 
 often heard was of the greatest assistance to your father, whose 
 behavior was like your own, when he was tried for his life. 
 But at present I am afraid of everything: I dread even the 
 unpopularity which your very kindness of disposition may pro- 
 voke. Already the weeping of so many men as we behold in- 
 dicates how beloved you are by your own relations; but, as 
 for me, grief enfeebles and stifles my voice. I do entreat you, 
 O judges, do not deprive this most excellent man, than whom 
 no more virtuous man has ever lived, of the name of a Roman 
 knight, of the enjoyment of this light, and of the pleasure of
 
 IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABINIUS POSTUMUS 267 
 
 beholding you. He begs nothing else of you, except to be al- 
 lowed with uplifted eyes to behold this city, and to pace around 
 the forum ; a pleasure which fortune would have already de- 
 prived him of, if the power of one single friend had not come 
 to his assistance.
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF 
 MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Marcus Claudius Marcellus was descended from the most illustrious 
 families at Rome, and had been consul with Servius Sulpicius Rufus; 
 in which office he had given great offence to Caesar by making a mo- 
 tion in the Senate to deprive him of his command; and in the civil 
 war he espoused the side of Pompeius, and had been present at the 
 battle of Pharsalia, after which he retired to Lesbos. But after some 
 time the whole Senate interceded with Caesar to pardon him, and to 
 allow him to return to his country. And when he yielded to their 
 entreaties, Cicero made the following speech, thanking Caesar for his 
 magnanimity; though he had, as he says himself (Ep. Fam. iv. 4), 
 determined to say nothing ; but he was afraid that if he continued silent 
 Caesar would interpret it as a proof that he despaired of the republic. 
 
 Caesar, though he saw the Senate unanimous in their petition for 
 Marcellus, yet had the motion for his pardon put to the vote, and 
 called for the opinion of every individual senator on it. Cicero appears 
 at this time to have believed that Caesar intended to restore the repub- 
 lic, as he mentions in his letters (Ep. Fam. xiii. 68). 
 
 270
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF 
 MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 
 
 THIS day, O conscript fathers, has brought with it an end 
 to the long silence in which I have of late indulged; 
 not out of any fear, but partly from sorrow, partly from 
 modesty ; and at the same time it has revived in me my ancient 
 habit of saying what my wishes and opinions are. For I can- 
 not by any means pass over in silence such great humanity, 
 such unprecedented and unheard-of clemency, such moderation 
 in the exercise of supreme and universal power, such incredi- 
 ble and almost godlike wisdom. For now that Marcus Mar- 
 cellus, O conscript fathers, has been restored to you and the 
 republic, I think that not only his voice and authority are pre- 
 served and restored to you and to the republic, but my own 
 also. 
 
 For I was concerned, O conscript fathers, and most exceed- 
 ingly grieved, when I saw such a man as he is, who had 
 espoused the same cause which I myself had, not enjoying 
 the same good fortune as myself; nor was I able to persuade 
 myself to think it right or fair that I should be going on in 
 my usual routine, while that rival and imitator of my zeal 
 and labors, who had been a companion and comrade of mine 
 throughout, was separated from me. Therefore, you, O Caius 
 Caesar, have reopened to me my former habits of life, which 
 were closed up, and you have raised, as it were, a standard to 
 all these men, as a sort of token to lead them to entertain 
 hopes of the general welfare of the republic. For it was seen 
 by me before in many instances, and especially in my own, 
 and now it is clearly understood by everybody, since you have 
 granted Marcus Marcellus to the Senate and people of Rome, 
 in spite of your recollection of all the injuries you have received 
 at his hands, that you prefer the authority of this order and 
 
 271
 
 2?2 CICERO 
 
 the dignity of the republic to the indulgence of your own re- 
 sentment or your own suspicions. 
 
 He, indeed, has this day reaped the greatest possible reward 
 for the virtuous tenor of his previous life ; in the great una- 
 nimity of the Senate in his favor, and also in your own most 
 dignified and important opinion of him. And from this you, 
 in truth, must perceive what great credit there is in conferring 
 a kindness, when there is such glory to be got even by receiv- 
 ing one. And he, too, is fortunate whose safety is now the 
 cause of scarcely less joy to all other men than it will be to 
 himself when he is informed of it. And this honor was de- 
 servedly and most rightfully fallen to his lot. For who is 
 superior to him either in nobleness of birth, or in honesty, or 
 in zeal for virtuous studies, or in purity of life, or in any de- 
 scription whatever of excellence ? 
 
 No one is blessed with such a stream of genius, no one is 
 endowed with such vigor and richness of eloquence, either as 
 a speaker, or as a writer, as to be able, I will not say to extol, 
 but even, O Caius Caesar, plainly to relate all your achieve- 
 ments. Nevertheless, I assert, and with your leave I main- 
 tain, that in all of them you never gained greater and truer 
 glory than you have acquired this day. I am accustomed often 
 to keep this idea before my eyes, and often to affirm in fre- 
 quent conversations, that all the exploits of our own generals, 
 all those of foreign nations and of most powerful states, all the 
 mighty deeds of the most illustrious monarchs, can be com- 
 pared with yours neither in the magnitude of your wars, nor 
 in the number of your battles, nor in the variety of countries 
 which you have conquered, nor in the rapidity of your con- 
 quests, nor in the great difference of character with which 
 your wars have been marked; and that those countries the 
 most remote from each other could not be travelled over more 
 rapidly by anyone in a journey, than they have been visited 
 by your, I will not say, journeys, but victories. 
 
 And if I were not to admit, that those actions are so great 
 that scarcely any man's mind or comprehension is capable of 
 doing justice to them, I should be very senseless. But there 
 are other actions greater than those. For some people are in 
 the habit of disparaging military glory, and of denying the 
 whole of it to the generals, and of giving the multitude a share
 
 IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 273 
 
 of it also, so that it may not be the peculiar property of the 
 commanders. And, no doubt, in the affairs of war, the valor 
 of the troops, the advantages of situation, the assistance of 
 allies, fleets, and supplies, have great influence; and a most 
 important share in all such transactions, Fortune claims for 
 herself, as of her right ; and whatever has been done success- 
 fully she considers almost entirely as her own work. 
 
 But in this glory, O Caius Caesar, which you have just earned, 
 you have no partner. The whole of this, however great it 
 may be and surely it is as great as possible the whole of 
 it, I say, is your own. The centurion can claim for himself 
 no share of that praise, neither can the prefect, nor the bat- 
 talion, nor the squadron. Nay, even that very mistress of all 
 human affairs, Fortune herself, cannot thrust herself into any 
 participation in that glory; she yields to you; she confesses 
 that it is all your own, your peculiar private desert. For rash- 
 ness is never united with wisdom, nor is chance ever admitted 
 to regulate affairs conducted with prudence. 
 
 You have subdued nations, savage in their barbarism, count- 
 less in their numbers, boundless, if we regard the extent of 
 country peopled by them, and rich in every kind of resource ; 
 but still you were only conquering things, the nature and con- 
 dition of which was such that they could be overcome by force. 
 For there is no strength so great that it cannot be weakened 
 and broken by arms and violence. But to subdue one's inclina- 
 tions, to master one's angry feelings, to be moderate in the hour 
 of victory, to not merely raise from the ground a prostrate 
 adversary, eminent for noble birth, for genius, and for virtue, 
 but even to increase his previous dignity they are actions of 
 such a nature, that the man who does them, I do not compare 
 to the most illustrious man, but I consider equal to God. 
 
 Therefore, O Caius Caesar, those military glories of yours 
 will be celebrated not only in our own literature and language, 
 but in those of almost all nations ; nor is there any age which 
 will ever be silent about your praises. But still, deeds of that 
 sort, somehow or other, even when they are read, appear to 
 be overwhelmed with the cries of the soldiers and the sound 
 of the trumpets. But when we hear or read of anything 
 which has been done with clemency, with humanity, with jus- 
 tice, with moderation, and with wisdom, especially in a time 
 18
 
 274 
 
 CICERO 
 
 of anger, which is very adverse to prudence, and in the hour 
 of victory, which is naturally insolent and haughty, with what 
 ardor are we then inflamed (even if the actions are not such 
 as have really been performed, but are only fabulous), so as 
 often to love those whom we have never seen! But as for 
 you, whom we behold present among us, whose mind, and 
 feelings, and countenance, we at this moment see to be such, 
 that you wish to preserve everything which the fortune of 
 war has left to the republic, oh, with what praises must we 
 extol you? with what zeal must we follow you? with what 
 affection must we devote ourselves to you? The very walls, 
 I declare, the very walls of this senate-house appear to me 
 eager to return you thanks ; because, in a short time, you will 
 have restored their ancient authority to this venerable abode 
 of themselves and of their ancestors. 
 
 In truth, O conscript fathers, when I just now, in common 
 with you, beheld the tears of Caius Marcellus, a most virtuous 
 man, endowed with a never-to-be-forgotten affection for his 
 brother, the recollection of all the Marcelli presented itself to 
 my heart. For you, O Caesar, have, by preserving Marcus 
 Marcellus, restored their dignity even to those Marcelli who 
 are dead, and you have saved that most noble family, now re- 
 duced to a small number, from perishing. You, therefore, 
 justly prefer this day to all the splendid and innumerable 
 congratulations which at different times have been addressed 
 to you. For this exploit is your own alone ; the other achieve- 
 ments which have been performed by you as general, were 
 great indeed, but still they were performed by the agency of a 
 great and numerous band of comrades. But in this exploit 
 you are the general, and you are your own sole comrade: and 
 the act itself is such that no lapse of time will ever put an end 
 to your monuments and trophies; for there is nothing which 
 is wrought by manual labor which time will not sometime or 
 other impair or destroy; but this justice and lenity of yours 
 will every day grow brighter and brighter, so that, in propor- 
 tion as time takes away from the effect of your deed, in the 
 same degree it will add to your glory. And you had already 
 surpassed all other conquerors in civil wars, in equity, and 
 clemency, but this day you have surpassed even yourself. I 
 fear that this which I am saying cannot, when it is only heard,
 
 IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 275 
 
 be understood as fully as I myself think and feel it ; you ap- 
 pear to have surpassed victory itself, since you have remitted 
 in favor of the conquered those things which victory had put 
 in your power. For though by the conditions of the victory 
 itself, we who were conquered were all ruined, we still have 
 been preserved by the deliberate decision of your clemency. 
 You, therefore, deserve to be the only man who is never con- 
 quered, since you conquer the conditions and the violent priv- 
 ileges of victory itself. 
 
 And, O conscript fathers, remark how widely this deci- 
 sion of Caius Caesar extends. For by it, all of us who, under 
 the compulsion of some miserable and fatal destiny of the re- 
 public, were driven to take up arms as we did, though we are 
 still not free from the fault of having erred as men may, are 
 at all events released from all imputation of wickedness. For 
 when, at your entreaty, he preserved Marcus Marcellus to the 
 republic, he, at the same time, restored me to myself and to 
 the republic though no one entreated him in my favor, and 
 he restored all the other most honorable men who were in the 
 same case to ourselves and to their country; whom you now 
 behold in numbers and dignity present in this very assembly. 
 He has not brought his enemies into the senate-house ; but he 
 has decided that the war was undertaken by most of them 
 rather out of ignorance, and because of some ungrounded and 
 empty fear, than out of either any depraved desires or cruelty. 
 
 And in that war, I always thought it right to listen to all 
 proposals that gave any hope of peace, and I always grieved, 
 that not only peace, but that even the language of those citi- 
 zens who asked for peace, should be rejected. For I never 
 approved of either that or of any civil war whatever ; and my 
 counsels were always allied to peace and peaceful measures, 
 not to war and arms. I followed the man from my own pri- 
 vate feelings, not because of my judgment of his public con- 
 duct; and the faithful recollection of the grateful disposition 
 which I cherish had so much influence with me, that though 
 I had not only no desire for victory, but no hope even of it, 
 I rushed on, knowingly, and with my eyes open, as it were, 
 to a voluntary death. And, indeed, my sentiments in the mat- 
 ter were not at all concealed ; for in this assembly, before any 
 decisive steps were taken either way, I said many things in
 
 276 
 
 CICERO 
 
 favor of peace, and even while the war was going on I retained 
 the same opinions, even at the risk of my life. 1 And from 
 this fact, no one will form so unjust an opinion as to doubt 
 what Caesar's own inclination respecting the war was, when, 
 the moment that it was in his power, he declared his opinion 
 in favor of saving the advisers of peace, but showed his anger 
 against the others. And, perhaps, that was not very strange 
 at a time when the event of the war was still uncertain, and 
 its fortune still undecided. But he who, when victorious, at- 
 taches himself to the advisers of peace, plainly declares that 
 he would have preferred having no war at all even to con- 
 quering. 
 
 And in this matter I myself am a witness in favor of Marcus 
 Marcellus. For as our opinions have at all times agreed in 
 time of peace, so did they then in respect of that war. How 
 often have I seen him affected with the deepest grief at the 
 insolence of certain men, and dreading also the ferocity of 
 victory! On which account your liberality, O Caius Caesar, 
 ought to be more acceptable to us who have seen those things. 
 For now we may compare, not the causes of the two parties 
 together, but the use which each would have made of victory. 
 We have seen your victory terminated at once by the result 
 of 'your battles ; we have seen no sword unsheathed in the 
 city. The citizens whom we have lost were stricken down by 
 the force of Mars, not by evil feelings let loose by victory ; so 
 that no man can doubt that Caius Caesar would even raise 
 many from the dead if that were possible, since he does pre- 
 serve all those of that army that he can. 
 
 But of the other party I will say no more than what we 
 were all afraid of at the time, namely, that theirs would have 
 been too angry a victory. For some of them were in the habit 
 of indulging in threats not only against those of their enemies 
 who were in arms, but even against those who remained 
 quiet; and they used to say that the matter to be considered 
 was not what each man had thought, but where he had been. 
 
 1 Cicero was not present at the battle that on his refusal of it, young Pompey 
 
 of Pharsalia, but remained at Dyr- was so enraged, that he would have 
 
 rachium, vexed at his advice being to- killed him on the spot if Cato had not 
 
 tally disregarded. Cato also remained prevented him. And this is what Mid- 
 
 at Dyrrachium. When Labienus brought dleton (who quotes the sentence in the 
 
 them the news of Pompey's defeat, Cato text) thinks that Cicero is alluding to 
 
 offered Cicero the command, as the su- here, 
 perior in dignity; and Plutarch relates,
 
 IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 277 
 
 So that it appears to me that the immortal gods, even if they 
 were inflicting punishment on the Roman people for some of- 
 fense, when they stirred up so serious and melancholy a civil 
 war, are at length appeased, or at all events satiated, and have 
 now made all our hopes of safety depend on the clemency and 
 wisdom of the conqueror. 
 
 Rejoice, then, in that admirable and virtuous disposition of 
 yours; and enjoy not only your fortune and glory, but also 
 your own natural good qualities, and amiable inclinations and 
 manners ; for those are the things which produce the greatest 
 fruit and pleasure to a wise man. When you call to mind 
 your other achievements, although you will often congratulate 
 yourself on your valor, still you will often have reason to thank 
 your good fortune also. But as often as you think of us 
 whom you have chosen to live safely in the republic as 
 well as yourself, you will be thinking at the same time of 
 your own exceeding kindness, of your own incredible liberal- 
 ity, of your own unexampled wisdom ; qualities which I will 
 venture to call not only the greatest, but the only real bless- 
 ings. For there is so much splendor in genuine glory, so 
 much dignity in magnanimity and real practical wisdom, that 
 these qualities appear to be given to a man by virtue, while 
 all other advantages seem only lent to him by fortune. 
 
 Be not wearied then in the preservation of virtuous men; 
 especially of those who have fallen, not from any evil desires, 
 or depravity of disposition, but merely from an opinion of 
 their duty a foolish and erroneous one perhaps, but certainly 
 not a wicked one and because they were misled by imaginary 
 claims which they fancied the republic had on them. For it 
 is no fault of yours if some people were afraid of you ; and, 
 on the other hand, it is your greatest praise that they have 
 now felt that they had no reason to fear you. 
 
 But now I come to those severe complaints, and to those 
 most terrible suspicions that you have given utterance to; of 
 dangers which should be guarded against not more by you 
 yourself than by all the citizens, and most especially by us 
 who have been preserved by you. And although I trust that 
 the suspicion is an ungrounded one, still I will not speak so 
 as to make light of it. For caution for you is caution for 
 ourselves. So that, if we must err on one side or the other, I
 
 278 
 
 CICERO 
 
 would rather appear too fearful, than not sufficiently prudent. 
 But still, who is there so frantic? Anyone of your own 
 friends? And yet who are more your friends than those to 
 whom you have restored safety which they did not venture to 
 hope for? Anyone of that number who were with you? It 
 is not credible that any man should be so insane as not to pre- 
 fer the life of that man who was his general when he obtained 
 the greatest advantages of all sorts, to his own. But if your 
 friends have no thoughts of wickedness, need you take precau- 
 tions lest your enemies may be entertaining such? Who are 
 they? For all those men who were your enemies have either 
 already lost their lives through their obstinacy, or else have 
 preserved them through your mercy; so that either none of 
 your enemies survive, or those who do survive are your most 
 devoted friends. 
 
 But still, as there are so many hiding-places and so many 
 dark corners in men's minds, let us increase your suspicions, 
 for by so doing we shall at the same time increase your dili- 
 gence. For who is there so ignorant of everything, so very 
 new to the affairs of the republic, so entirely destitute of 
 thought either for his own or for the general safety, as not to 
 understand that his own safety is bound up with yours? that 
 the lives of all men depend on your single existence? I my- 
 self, in truth, while I think of you day and night as I ought 
 to do fear only the chances to which all men are liable, and 
 the uncertain events of health and the frail tenure of our com- 
 mon nature, and I grieve that, while the republic ought to be 
 immortal, it depends wholly on the life of one mortal man. 
 But if to the chances of human life and the uncertain condi- 
 tion of man's health there were to be added also any conspiracy 
 of wickedness and treachery, then what god should we think 
 able to assist the republic, even if he were to desire to do so? 
 
 All things, O Caius Caesar, which you now see lying strick- 
 en and prostrate as it was inevitable that they should be 
 through the violence of war, must now be raised up again 
 by you alone. The courts of justice must be reestablished, 
 confidence must be restored, licentiousness must be repressed, 
 the increase of population must be encouraged, everything 
 which has become lax and disordered must be braced up and 
 strengthened by strict laws. In so vast a civil war, when
 
 IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 
 
 279 
 
 there was such ardor of feeling and of warlike preparation 
 on both sides, it was impossible but that whatever the ulti- 
 mate result of the war might be the republic which had been 
 violently shaken by it should lose many ornaments of its dig- 
 nity and many bulwarks of its security, and that each general 
 should do many things while in arms, which he would have 
 forbidden to have been done while clad in the garb of peace. 
 And all those wounds of war thus inflicted now require your 
 attention, and there is no one except you who is able to heal 
 them. Therefore, I was concerned when I heard that cele- 
 brated and wise saying of yours, " I have lived long enough 
 to satisfy either nature or glory." Sufficiently long, if you 
 please, for nature, and I will add, if you like, for glory ; but, 
 which is of the greatest consequence of all, certainly not long 
 enough for your country. 
 
 Give up then, I entreat you, that wisdom of learned men 
 shown in their contempt of death ; do not be wise at our ex- 
 pense. For it has often come to my ears that you are in the 
 habit of using that expression much too frequently that you 
 have lived long enough for yourself. I dare say you have; 
 but I could only be willing to hear you say so if you lived 
 for yourself alone, or if you had been born for yourself alone. 
 But as it is, as your exploits have brought the safety of all 
 the citizens and the entire republic to a dependence on you, 
 you are so far from having completed your greatest labors, 
 that you have not even laid the foundations which you design 
 to lay. And will you then limit your life, not by the welfare 
 of the republic, but by the tranquillity of your own mind? 
 What will you do, if that is not even sufficient for your 
 glory, of which wise men though you be you will not deny 
 that you are exceedingly desirous ? " Is it then," you will 
 say, " but small glory that we shall leave behind us ? It may, 
 indeed, be sufficient for others, however many they may be, 
 and insufficient for you alone. For whatever it is, however 
 ample it may be, it certainly is insufficient, as long as there 
 is anything greater still. And if, O Caius Caesar, this was to 
 be the result of your immortal achievements, that after con- 
 quering all your enemies, you were to leave the republic in 
 the state in which it now is ; then beware, I beg of you, lest 
 your virtue should earn admiration rather than solid glory;
 
 2 8o CICERO 
 
 since the glory which is illustrious and which is celebrated 
 abroad, is the fame of many and great services done either to 
 one's own friends, or to one's country, or to the whole race of 
 mankind. 
 
 This, then, is the part which remains to you ; this is the cause 
 which you have before you ; this is what you must now labor at 
 to settle the republic, and to enjoy it yourself, as the first of its 
 citizens, in the greatest tranquillity and peacefulness. And then, 
 if you please, when you have discharged the obligations which 
 you owe to your country, and when you have satisfied nature 
 herself with the devotion of your life, then you may say that 
 you have lived long enough. For what is the meaning of this 
 very word " long " when applied to what has an end ? And when 
 the end comes, then all past pleasure is to be accounted as noth- 
 ing, because there is none to come after it. Although that 
 spirit of yours has never been content with this narrow space 
 which nature has afforded us to live in ; but has always been 
 inflamed with a desire of immortality. Nor is this to be con- 
 sidered your life which is contained in your body and in your 
 breath. That that, I say, is your life, which will flourish in 
 the memory of all ages ; which posterity will cherish ; which 
 eternity itself will always preserve. This is what you must be 
 subservient to ; it is to this that you ought to display yourself ; 
 which indeed has long ago had many actions of yours to ad- 
 mire, and which now is expecting some which it may also 
 praise. 
 
 Unquestionably, posterity will stand amazed when they hear 
 and read of your military commands ; of the provinces which 
 you have added to the empire ; of the Rhine, of the ocean, of 
 the Nile, all made subject to us ; of your countless battles, of 
 your incredible victories, of your innumerable monuments and 
 triumphs. But unless this city is now securely settled by your 
 counsels and by your institutions, your name will indeed be 
 talked about very extensively, but your glory will have no 
 secure abode, no sure home in which to repose. There will be 
 also among those who shall be born hereafter, as there has 
 been among us, great disputes, when some with their praises 
 will extol your exploits to the skies, and others, perhaps, will 
 miss something in them and that, too, the most important 
 thing of all unless you extinguish the conflagration of civil
 
 IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS 281 
 
 war by the safety of the country, so that the one shall appear 
 to have been the effect of destiny and the other the work of your 
 own practical wisdom. Have regard, then, to those judges 
 who will judge you many ages afterward, and who will very 
 likely judge you more honestly than we can. For their judg- 
 ment will be unbiased by affection or by ambition, and at the 
 same time it will be untainted by hatred or by envy. And even 
 if it will be incapable of affecting you at that time (which is the 
 false opinion held by some men), at all events, it concerns you 
 now to conduct yourself in such a manner that no oblivion 
 shall ever be able to obscure your praises. 
 
 The inclinations of the citizens have been very diverse, and 
 their opinions much distracted ; for we showed our variance, 
 not only by our counsels and desires, but by arms and warlike 
 operations. And there was no obscurity in the designs of, and 
 contention between, the most illustrious generals: many 
 doubted which was the best side; many, what was expedient 
 for themselves; many, what was becoming; some even felt 
 uncertain as to what it was in their power to do. The repub- 
 lic has at last come to the end of this miserable and fatal war ; 
 that man has been victorious who has not allowed his animos- 
 ities to be inflamed by good fortune, but who has mitigated 
 them by the goodness of his disposition ; and who did not con- 
 sider all those with whom he was displeased deserving on that 
 account of exile or of death. Arms were laid aside by some, 
 were wrested from the hands of others. He is an ungrateful 
 and an unjust citizen, who, when released from the danger of 
 arms, still retains, as it were, an armed spirit, so that that man 
 is better who fell in battle, who spent his life in the cause. For 
 that which seems obstinacy to some people may appear con- 
 stancy in others. But now all dissension is crushed by the 
 arms and extinguished by the justice of the conqueror ; it only 
 remains for all men for the future to be animated by one wish, 
 all at least who have not only any wisdom at all, but who are 
 at all in their senses. Unless you, O Caius Caesar, continue 
 safe, and also in the same sentiments as you have displayed on 
 previous occasions, and on this day most eminently, we can 
 not be safe either. Wherefore we all we who wish this consti- 
 tution and these things around us to be safe exhort and en- 
 treat you to take care of your own life, to consult your own
 
 282 CICERO 
 
 safety ; and we all promise to you (that I may say also on behalf 
 of others what I feel respecting myself), since you think that 
 there is still something concealed, against which it is necessary 
 to guard we promise you, I say, not only our vigilance and our 
 wariness also to assist in those precautions, but we promise to 
 oppose our sides and our bodies as a shield against every dan- 
 ger which can threaten you. 
 
 But let my speech end with the same sentiment as it began. 
 We all, O Caius Caesar, render you the greatest thanks, and we 
 feel even deeper gratitude that we express ; for all feel the same 
 thing, as you might have perceived from the entreaties and tears 
 of all. But because it is not necessary for all of them to stand 
 up and say so, they wish it at all events that by me, who am 
 forced in some degree to rise and speak, should be expressed 
 both all that they feel, and all that is becoming, and all that I 
 myself consider due to Marcus Marcellus, who is thus by you 
 restored to this order, and to the Roman people, and to the re- 
 public. For I feel that all men are exulting, not in the safety 
 of one individual alone, but in the general safety of all. And as 
 it becomes the greatest possible affection, such as I was always 
 well known by all men to have toward him, so that I scarcely 
 yielded to Caius Marcellus, his most excellent and affectionate 
 brother, and certainly to no one except him, that love for him 
 which I displayed by my solicitude, by my anxiety, and my 
 exertions, as long as there was a doubt of his safety, I certainly 
 ought to display at this present time, now that I am relieved 
 from my great care and distress and misery on his account. 
 
 Therefore, O Caius Caesar, I thank you, as if though I have 
 not only been preserved in every sort of manner, but also loaded 
 with distinctions by you still, by this action of yours, a crown- 
 ing kindness of the greatest importance was added to the al- 
 ready innumerable benefits which you have heaped upon me, 
 which I did not before believe were capable of any augmenta- 
 tion.
 
 SPEECH 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Quintus Ligarius was a Roman knight, who had been one of the 
 lieutenants of Considius, the proconsul of Africa, and one of Pompey's 
 partisans, and as such had borne arms against Caesar in Africa, on 
 which account he had gone into voluntary exile, to get out of the 
 reach of the conqueror. But his two brothers had been on Caesar's 
 side, and had joined Pansa and Cicero in interceding with Caesar to 
 pardon him. While Caesar was hesitating, Quintus Tubero, who was 
 an ancient enemy of his, knowing that Caesar was very unwilling to 
 restore him (for Ligarius was a great lover of liberty), impeached him 
 as having behaved with great violence in the prosecution of the African 
 War against Caesar, who privately encouraged this proceeding, and 
 ordered the action to be tried in the forum, where he sat in person 
 as judge to decide it; and so determined was he against Ligarius, 
 that he is said to have brought the sentence of condemnation with 
 him into court, already drawn up and formally signed and sealed. 
 But he was prevailed upon by Cicero's eloquence, which extorted 
 from him a verdict of acquittal against his will; and he afterward 
 pardoned Ligarius and allowed him to return to Rome. Ligarius 
 afterwards became a great friend of Brutus, and joined him in the 
 conspiracy against Caesar. 
 
 284
 
 SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 
 
 IT is a new crime, and one never heard of before this day, O 
 Caius Caesar, which my relation Quintus Tubero has 
 brought before you, when he accuses Quintus Ligarius 
 with having been in Africa; and that charge Caius Panso, a man 
 of eminent genius, relying perhaps on that intimacy with you 
 which he enjoys, has ventured to confess. Therfore I do not 
 know which way I had best proceed. For I had come prepared, 
 as you did not know that fact of your own knowledge, and could 
 not have heard it from any other quarter, to abuse your igno- 
 rance in order to further the safety of a miserable man. But, 
 however, since that which was previously unknown has been 
 ferreted out by the diligence of his enemy, we must, I suppose, 
 confess the truth ; especially as my dear friend Caius Pansa has 
 so acted that it would not now be in my power to deny it. 
 Therefore, abandoning all dispute of the fact, all my speech 
 must be addressed to your mercy ; by which many have already 
 been preserved, having besought of you, not a release from all 
 guilt, but pardon from admitted error. 
 
 You, therefore, O Tubero, have that which is of all things 
 most desirable for a prosecutor, a defendant who confesses his 
 fault ; but still, one who confesses it only so far as he admits 
 that he was of the same party as you yourself, O Tubero, were, 
 and as that man worthy of all praise, your father, also was. 
 Therefore you must inevitably confess yourselves also to be 
 guilty, before you can find fault with any part of the conduct of 
 Ligarius. 
 
 Quintus Ligarius, then, at a time when there was no sus- 
 picion of war, went as lieutenant into Africa with Caius Con- 
 sidius, in which lieutenancy he made himself so acceptable, both 
 to our citizens there and to our allies, that Considius on depart- 
 ing from the province could not have given satisfaction to those 
 men if he had appointed any one else to govern it. Therefore, 
 
 285
 
 286 CICERO 
 
 Quintus Ligarius, after refusing it for a long time without ef- 
 fect, took upon himself the government of the province against 
 his will. And while peace lasted he governed it in such a man- 
 ner that his integrity and good faith were most acceptable 
 both to our citizens and to our allies. On a sudden, war broke 
 out, which those who were in Africa heard of as being actually 
 raging before any rumor of its preparation had reached them. 
 But when they did hear of it, partly out of an inconsiderate 
 eagerness, partly out of some blind apprehension, they sought 
 for some one as a leader, at first only with the object of secur- 
 ing their safety, and afterward with that of indulging their 
 party spirit ; while Ligarius, keeping his eyes fixed on home, 
 and wishing to return to his friends, would not allow himself 
 to be implicated in any business of the sort. In the meantime, 
 Publius Attius Varus, who as praetor had obtained the province 
 of Africa, came to Utica. Every one immediately flocked to 
 him, and he seized on the government with no ordinary eager- 
 ness, if that may be called government which was conferred 
 on him, while a private individual, by the clamor of an ignorant 
 mob, without the sanction of any public council. Therefore, 
 Ligarius, who was anxious to avoid being mixed up in any 
 transactions of the sort, remained quiet for some time on the 
 arrival of Varus. 
 
 Up to this point, O Caius Caesar, Quintus Ligarius is free 
 from all blame. He left his home, not only not for the purpose 
 of joining in any war, but when there was not even the slightest 
 suspicion of war. Having gone as lieutenant in time of peace, 
 he behaved himself in a most peaceful province in such a man- 
 ner, that it wished that peace might last forever. Beyond all 
 question, his departure from Rome with such an object ought 
 not to be and cannot be offensive to you. Was, then, his remain- 
 ing there offensive? Much less. For if it was no discreditable 
 inclination that led to his going thither, it was even an honora- 
 ble necessity which compelled him to remain. Both these 
 times, then, are free from all fault the time when he first went 
 as lieutenant, and the time when, having been demanded by the 
 province, he was appointed governor of Africa. 
 
 There is a third time : that during which he remained in 
 Africa after the arrival of Varus ; and if that is at all criminal, 
 the crime is one of necessity, not of inclination. Would he,
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 287 
 
 if he could possibly have escaped thence by any means what- 
 ever, would he .rather have been at Utica than at Rome with 
 Publius Attius, in preference to his own most united brothers ? 
 would he rather have been among strangers, than with his 
 own friends ? When his lieutenancy itself had been full of re- 
 gret and anxiety on account of the extraordinary affection sub- 
 sisting between him and his brothers, could he possibly remain 
 there with any equanimity when separated from those brothers 
 by the discord of war ? 
 
 You have, therefore, O Csesar, no sign as yet of the affec- 
 tions of Quintus Ligarius being alienated from you. And ob- 
 serve, I entreat you, with what good faith I am defending his 
 cause. I am betraying my own by so doing. O the admira- 
 ble clemency, deserving to be celebrated by all possible praise, 
 and publicity, and writings, and monuments ! Marcus Cicero 
 is urging in Ligarius's defense before you, that the inclinations 
 of another were not the same as he admits his own to have 
 been ; nor does he fear your silent thoughts, nor is he under 
 any apprehension as to what, while you are hearing of the con- 
 duct of another, may occur to you respecting his own. 
 
 See how entirely free from fear I am. See how brilliantly the 
 light of your liberality and wisdom rises upon me while speak- 
 ing before you ! As far as I can, I will lift up my voice so that 
 the Roman people may hear me. When the war began, O 
 Caesar, when it was even very greatly advanced toward its end, I, 
 though compelled by no extraneous force, of my own free judg- 
 ment and inclination went to join that party which had taken 
 up arms against you. Before whom now am I saying this? 
 Forsooth, before the man who, though he was acquainted with 
 this, nevertheless restored me to the republic before he saw me ; 
 who sent letters to me from Egypt, to desire me to behave as I 
 always had behaved ; who, when he himself might have been 
 the sole leader of the Roman people in the whole empire, still 
 permitted me to be the other; by whose gift it was (this very 
 Caius Pansa, who is here present, bringing me the news) that 
 I retained the fasces wreathed with laurel, as long as I thought 
 it becoming to retain them at all, and who would not have con- 
 sidered that he was giving me safety at all, if he did not give it 
 me without my being stripped of any of my previous distinc- 
 tions.
 
 2 88 CICERO 
 
 Observe, I pray you, O Tubero, how I, who do not hesitate 
 to speak of my own conduct, do not venture to make any con- 
 fession with respect to Ligarius : and I have said thus much 
 respecting myself, to induce Tubero to excuse me when I say 
 the same things of him. For I look in the forum on his in- 
 dustry and desire of glory, either on account of the nearness 
 of our relationship, or because I am delighted with his genius 
 and with his earnestness, or because I think that the praises 
 of a young man who is my relative redound somewhat to my 
 own credit. But I ask this, Who is it who thinks that it was 
 any crime in Ligarius to have been in Africa ? Why, the very 
 man who himself also wished to be in Africa, and who com- 
 plains that he was prevented by Ligarius from going there, 
 and who certainly was in arms and fought against Caesar. For, 
 O Tubero, what was that drawn sword of yours doing in the 
 battle of Pharsalia? against whose side was that sword-point 
 of yours aimed? What was the feeling with which you took 
 up arms ? What was your intention ? Where were your eyes ? 
 your hands ? your eagerness of mind ? What were you desirous 
 of? What were you wishing for? I am pressing you too 
 hard. The young man appears to be moved. I will return to 
 myself. I also was in arms in the same camp. 
 
 But what other object had we, O Tubero, except to be able 
 to do what this man can do now? Shall, then, O Caesar, the 
 speech of those men spur you on to deeds of cruelty, whose im- 
 punity is the great glory of your clemency ? And in this cause, 
 in truth, O Tubero, I am somewhat at a loss to discern your 
 usual prudence, but much more so to see the sagacity of your 
 father, since that man, eminent both for genius and erudition, 
 did not perceive what sort of case this was. For if he had per- 
 ceived it, he would, I doubt not, have preferred that you should 
 conduct it in any manner in the world, rather than as you did. 
 
 You are accusing one who confesses the facts which you 
 allege against him. That is not enough. You are accusing 
 one who has a case, as I say, better than your own, or, as you 
 yourself allow, at least as good as yours. This is strange 
 enough ; but what I am about to say is a perfect miracle. That 
 accusation of yours does not tend to the point of procuring 
 the condemnation of Quintus Ligarius, but of causing his 
 death. And this is an object which no Roman citizen has ever
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 289 
 
 pursued before you. That way of acting is quite foreign. It 
 is the hatred of fickle Greeks or of savage barbarians that is 
 usually excited to the pitch of thirsting for blood. For what 
 else is your object? To prevent him from being at Rome? 
 To prevent him of his country? To hinder him from living 
 with his excellent brothers, with this Titus Brocchus, whom you 
 see in court, his uncle, or with Brocchus's son, his cousin ? To 
 prevent his appearing in his country ? Is that it ? Can he be 
 more deprived of all these things than he is already? He is 
 prevented from approaching Italy ; he is banished. You, there- 
 fore, do not wish to deprive him of his country, of which he al- 
 ready is deprived, but of his life. 
 
 But even in the time of that dictator who punished with 
 death every one whom he disliked, no one ever proceeded in 
 that manner to accomplish such an end. He himself ordered 
 men to be slain, without any one asking him ; he even invited 
 men to slay them by rewards ; and that cruelty of his was 
 avenged some years afterward by this self-same man whom 
 you now wish to become cruel ! 
 
 " But I am not asking for his death," you will say. I think 
 indeed that you do not intend to do so, O Tubero. For I know 
 you, I know your father, I know your birth and your name, 
 and the pursuits of your race and family ; your love of virtue, 
 and civilization, and learning ; your many admirable qualities 
 all are known to me. Therefore I know for a certainty that you 
 are not thirsting for blood, but you give no heed to the effect 
 of your prosecution. For the transaction has this tendency, 
 to make you seem not contented with that punishment under 
 which Quintus Ligarius is at present suffering. What further 
 punishment then is there but death ? For if he be in exile, as 
 he is, what more do you require ? That he may never be par- 
 doned ? But this is much more bitter and much harsher. That 
 which we begged for at his house with prayers and tears, throw- 
 ing ourselves at his feet, trusting not so much to the strength 
 of our cause as to his humanity, will you now struggle 
 to prevent our obtaining? Will you interrupt our weeping? 
 and will you forbid us to speak, lying at his feet, with the voice 
 of suppliants ? If, when we were doing this at his house, as we 
 did, and as I hope we did not do in vain, you had all on a sudden 
 burst in, and had begun to cry out, " O Caius Caesar, beware 
 19
 
 290 CICERO 
 
 how you pardon, beware how you pity brothers entreating 
 you for the safety of their brother," would you not have re- 
 nounced all humanity by such conduct? How much harder 
 is this, for you to oppose in the forum what we begged of him 
 in his own house! and while numbers are in this distress, to 
 take away from them the refuge which they might find in his 
 clemency ! 
 
 I will speak plainly, O Caius Caesar, what I feel. If in this 
 splendid fortune of yours your lenity had not been as great as 
 you of your own accord of your own accord, I say (I know 
 well what I am saying), make it, that victory of yours would 
 have been pregnant with the bitterest grief to the state. For 
 how many of the conquering party must have been found who 
 would have wished you to be cruel, when some of even the con- 
 quered party are found to wish it! how many who, wishing 
 no one to be pardoned by you, would have thrown obstacles in 
 the way of your clemency, when even those men whom you 
 yourself have pardoned are unwilling that you should be merci- 
 ful to others ! 
 
 But if we could prove to Caesar that Ligarius was actually 
 not in Africa at all, if we wished to save an unfortunate citi- 
 zen by an honorable and merciful falsehood ; still it would not 
 be the act of a man, in a case of such danger and peril to a fel- 
 low-citizen, to contradict and refute our falsehood ; and if it 
 were decent for anyone else to do so, it would certainly not be so 
 for one who had himself been in the same case and condition. 
 But, however, it is one thing to be unwilling that Caesar should 
 make a mistake, and another to be unwilling that he should be 
 merciful. Therf you would say, " Beware, O Caesar, of believ- 
 ing all this Ligarius was in Africa. He did bear arms against 
 you." But now what is it that you say ? " Take care you do 
 not pardon him." This is not the language of a man ; but he 
 who uses it to you, O Caius Caesar, will find it an easier matter 
 to abjure his own humanity than to strip you of yours. 
 
 And the first beginning, and the first proposition of Tubero, 
 I imagine, was this; that he intended to speak of the wicked- 
 ness of Quintus Ligarius. I make no doubt that you wondered 
 how it was that no one made this statement respecting some 
 one else, or how it was that he made it who had been in the same 
 condition himself, or what new crime it was which he was bring-
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 291 
 
 ing forward. Do you call that wickedness, Tubero ? Why so ? 
 For that cause has not as yet been attacked by that name. Some 
 call it mistake; some call it fear; those who give it a harder 
 name term it hope, ambition, hatred, obstinacy ; those who use 
 the hardest language style it rashness. But up to this time 
 no one except you has ever called it wickedness. My own 
 opinion is, if any one seeks for a proper and accurate name for 
 our misfortune, that some disaster sent by destiny descended 
 upon and occupied the improvident minds of men ; so that no 
 one ought to \vonder that human counsels were overruled by 
 divine necessity. 
 
 Let it be allowed to us to be miserable, although that we 
 cannot be when this man is our conqueror. But I am not 
 speaking of those who have perished. Grant that they were 
 ambitious, that they were angry, that they were obstinate men ; 
 but still let Cnaeus Pompeius, for he is dead, and let many 
 others with him, be free from the imputation of wickedness, 
 of insanity, of parricide. When did any one hear such an ex- 
 pression from you, O Caius Caesar? or what other object did 
 your arms propose to themselves except the repelling insult 
 from yourself? What was it that was accomplished by that 
 invincible army of yours, beyond the preservation of its own 
 rights, and of your dignity? What? when you were anxious 
 for peace, was it your object to be able to come to terms of 
 agreement with the wicked, or with the virtuous part of the 
 citizens? To me, of a truth, O Caesar, your services toward 
 me, immense as they are, would certainly not appear so great, 
 if I thought that I had been preserved by you while you con- 
 sidered me a wicked man. And how could you possibly have 
 deserved well of the republic, if you had wished so many wick- 
 ed men to remain with all their dignity unimpaired? Orig- 
 inally, O Caesar, you considered that as a secession, not as a 
 declaration of war ; you considered it as a demonstration, not 
 of hostile hatred, but of civil dissension, in which both parties 
 desired the safety of the republic, but some departed from 
 measures calculated for the general welfare out of an error of 
 judgment, and some out of party spirit. The dignity of the 
 leaders was nearly on a par; but that of those who followed 
 them was perhaps not quite equal; the justice of the cause, 
 too, was at that time doubtful, because there was something
 
 292 CICERO 
 
 on each side which deserved to be approved of ; but now that 
 is unquestionably entitled to be thought the better cause which 
 even the gods assisted. But now that your clemency is known, 
 who is there who does not think well of that victory, in which 
 no one has fallen except those who fell with arms in their 
 hands ? 
 
 But to say no more of the general question, let us come to 
 our own individual case. Which do you think was easiest, O 
 Tubero, for Ligarius to depart from Africa, or for you to ab- 
 stain from coming into Africa ? " Could we so abstain," you 
 will say, " after the Senate had voted that we should do so ? " 
 If you ask me, I say, certainly not. But still the same Senate 
 had appointed Ligarius lieutenant. And he obeyed them at a 
 time when men were forced to obey the Senate ; but you obeyed 
 at a time when no one obeyed them who did not like it. Do I 
 then find fault with you? By no means; for a man of your 
 family, of your name, of your race, of your hereditary princi- 
 ples, could not act otherwise. But I do not grant that you 
 have a right to reprove in others the very same conduct which 
 you boast of in yourselves. 
 
 Tubero's lot was drawn in pursuance of a resolution of the 
 Senate when he himself was not present, when he was even 
 hindered by sickness from being present. He had made up 
 his mind to excuse himself. I know all this from the great 
 intimacy which exists between Lucius Tubero and myself; 
 we were brought up together, in our campaigns we were com- 
 rades, afterward we became connected by marriage, and 
 throughout the whole of our lives, in short, we have been 
 friends ; it has been, moreover, a great bond between us, that 
 we have been devoted to the same studies. I know, therefore, 
 that Tubero wished to remain at home ; but there was a person 
 who contrived matters in such a way, who put forth that most 
 holy name of the republic so artfully, that even had his senti- 
 ments been different from what they were, he would not have 
 been able to support the weight of his language. He submitted 
 to the authority of a most distinguished man, or, I should rather 
 say, he obeyed him. He went off at the same time with those 
 men who were already embarked in the same cause, but he 
 made his journey slower than they. Therefore, he arrived in 
 Africa when it was already occupied ; and from this it is that
 
 2 93 
 
 the charge against Ligarius, or rather the enmity against him, 
 has its rise. For if it be a crime in him to have wished to hinder 
 you, it is a no less serious one for you to have wished to obtain 
 Africa, the citadel of all the provinces, a land created for the 
 purpose of waging war against this city, than for somebody 
 else to have preferred obtaining it himself and that some- 
 body was not Ligarius. Varus kept saying that he had the 
 command there ; the fasces he certainly had. But however the 
 case, as to that part of it, may be, what weight is there, O Tu- 
 bero, in this complaint of yours ? " We were admitted into 
 the province." Well, suppose you had been admitted? was it 
 your object to deliver it up to Caesar, or to hold it against 
 Caesar? 
 
 See, O Caesar, what license, or rather what audacity, your 
 liberality gives us. If Tubero replies that his father would 
 have given up to you that province to which the Senate and the 
 lot which he drew had sent him, I will not hesitate in severe 
 language to reprove that design of his before you yourself, to 
 whose advantage it was that he should do so. For even if the 
 action had been an acceptable one to you, it would not have 
 been thought an honest one by you. But, however, all these 
 topics I will pass over, not so much for fear of offending your 
 most patient ears, as because that I do not wish that Tubero 
 should appear to have been likely to do what he never thought 
 of. 
 
 You two came, then, into the province of Africa the prov- 
 ince of all others that was most hostile to the views of this vic- 
 torious party, in which there was a most powerful king, an en- 
 emy to this cause, and in which the inclinations of a large and 
 powerful body of Roman settlers were entirely adverse to it. 
 I ask what you intend to do? Though I do not really 
 doubt what you intended to do, when I see what you have done. 
 You were forbidden to set foot in your province, and forbidden, 
 as you state yourselves, with the greatest insults. How did 
 you bear that ? To whom did you carry your complaints of the 
 insults which you had received ? Why, to that man whose au- 
 thority you had followed when you came to join his party in 
 the war. If it had been in Caesar's cause that you were coming 
 to the province, unquestionably, when excluded from the prov- 
 ince, it was to him that you would have gone. But you came
 
 294 
 
 CICERO 
 
 to Pompeius. What is the meaning, then, of this complaint 
 which you now urge before Caesar, when you accuse that man 
 by whom you complain that you were prevented from waging 
 war against Caesar? And as to this part of the business you 
 may boast, for all I care, even though it will be falsely, that you 
 would have given the province up to Caesar, even if you had 
 been forbidden by Varus, and by some others. But I will con- 
 fess that the fault was all Ligarius's, who deprived you of an 
 opportunity of acquiring so much glory. 
 
 But observe, I pray you, O Caius Caesar, the consistency of 
 that most accomplished man, Lucius Tubero, which even though 
 I thought as highly of it as I do, I still would not mention, if 
 I were not aware that that is a virtue which you are in the habit 
 of praising as much as any. Where, then, was there ever an 
 example of such great consistency in any man? Consistency, 
 do I say? I do not know whether I might not more fitly call it 
 patience. For how few men would have acted in such a man- 
 ner as to return to that same party by which he had been re- 
 jected in a time of civil dissension, and rejected even with 
 cruelty! That is the act of a great mind, and of a man whom 
 no contumely, no violence, and no danger can turn from a side 
 which he has espoused, and from an opinion which he has 
 adopted. Grant that in all other respects Tubero and Varus 
 were on a par, as to honor, that is, and nobleness of birth, and 
 respectability, and genius, which, however, was by no means 
 the case; at all events, Tubero had this great advantage, that 
 he had come to his own province with a legitimate command, 
 in pursuance of a resolution of the Senate. When he was pre- 
 vented from entering it, he did not betake himself to Caesar, 
 lest he should appear to be in a passion ; he did not go home, lest 
 he should be thought inactive ; he did not go into any other dis- 
 trict, lest he might seem to condemn that cause which he had 
 espoused. He came into Macedonia to the camp of Cnaeus 
 Pompeius, to join that very party by whom he had been repulsed 
 with every circumstance of insult. 
 
 What? when that affair had had no effect on the mind of 
 the man to whom you came, you behaved, after that, with a 
 more languid zeal, I suppose, in his cause? You only stayed 
 in some garrison? But your affections were alienated from 
 his cause? Or were we all, as is the case in a civil war, and
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 295 
 
 not more with respect to you two, than with respect to others 
 were we all wholly occupied with a desire of victory? I, in- 
 deed, was at all times an advocate of peace, but that time I was 
 too late. For it was the part of a madman to think of peace 
 when he saw the hostile army in battle array. We all, every one 
 of us, I say, were eager for victory ; you most especially, as you 
 had come into a place where you must inevitably perish if your 
 side were not victorious. Although, as the result now turns 
 out, I make no doubt that you consider your present safety 
 preferable to what would have been the consequences of vic- 
 tory. 
 
 I would not say these things, O Tubero, if you had any rea- 
 son to repent of your consistency, or Caesar of his kindness. 
 I ask now whether you are seeking to avenge your own injuries, 
 or those of the republic? If those of the republic, what reply 
 can you make with respect to your perseverance in the cause 
 of that other party ? If your own, take care that you are not 
 making a great mistake in thinking that Caesar will be angry 
 with your enemies, after he has pardoned his own. 
 
 Do I, then, appear to you, O Caesar, to be occupied in the 
 cause of Ligarius ? Do I appear to be speaking of his conduct ? 
 In whatever I said, I have endeavored to refer everything to 
 the leading idea of your humanity, or clemency, or mercy, 
 whichever may be its most proper name. I have, indeed, O 
 Caius Caesar, pleaded many causes with you, while your pur- 
 suit of honors detained you in the forum ; but certainly I never 
 pleaded in this way, "Pardon my client, O judges; he has 
 erred, he has tripped, he did not think. He will never offend 
 again." This is the sort of way in which one pleads with a 
 parent ; to judges one says, " He never did it, he never thought 
 of it, the witnesses are false, the accusation is false." Say, O 
 Caesar, that you are sitting as judge on the conduct of Ligarius. 
 Ask me in what garrison he was. I make no reply. I do not 
 even adduce these arguments, which, perhaps, might have 
 weight even with a judge : " He went as a lieutenant before 
 the war broke out : he was left there in time of peace ; he was 
 overtaken by the war ; in the war itself he was not cruel ; he was 
 in disposition and zeal wholly yours." This is the way in which 
 men are in the habit of pleading before a judge. But I am ad- 
 dressing a parent. " I have erred ; I have acted rashly ; I re-
 
 296 CICERO 
 
 pent ; I flee to your clemency ; I beg pardon for my fault ; I en- 
 treat you to pardon me :" If no one has gained such indulgence 
 from you, it is an arrogant address. But if many have, then 
 do you give us assistance who have already given us hope. Is 
 it possible that Ligarius should have no reason for hope, when 
 I am allowed to approach you even for the purpose of entreat- 
 ing mercy for another? Although the hope which we entertain 
 in this cause does not rest upon this oration of mine, nor en 
 the zeal of those who entreat you for Ligarius, intimate friends 
 of your own. 
 
 For I have seen and known what it was that you mainly con- 
 sidered when many men were exerting themselves for any- 
 one's safety; I have seen that the causes of those who were en- 
 treating you had more weight with you than the persons of 
 the advocates, and that you considered, not how much the man 
 who was entreating you was your friend, but how much he was 
 the friend of him for whom he was exerting himself. There- 
 fore, you grant your friends so many favors, that they who en- 
 joy your liberality appear to me sometimes to be happier than 
 you yourself who give them so much. But, however, I see, as 
 I said before, that the causes of those who entreat your mercy 
 have more weight with you than the entreaties themselves; 
 and that you are most moved by those men whose grief, which 
 they display in their petitions to you, is the most genuine. 
 
 In preserving Quintus Ligarius you will do what will be ac- 
 ceptable to numbers of your intimate friends; but, I entreat 
 you, give weight to the considerations which are accustomed 
 to influence you. I can mention to you most brave men, Sa- 
 bines, men most highly esteemed by you; and the whole of the 
 Sabine district, the flower of Italy and the chief strength of the 
 republic. You are well acquainted with the men. Observe the 
 sadness and grief of all these men. You see yourself the tears 
 and mourning attire of Titus Brocchus, who is here present, 
 and I am in no doubt as to what your opinion of him is : you 
 see the grief of his son. Why need I speak of the brothers of 
 Ligarius? Do not fancy, O Caesar, that we are pleading for 
 the life of one individual only. You must either retain all three 
 of the Lagarii in the city, or banish them all three from the city. 
 Any exile is more desirable for them than their own country, 
 their own house, and their own household gods will be, if this
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 297 
 
 their brother is banished by himself. If they act as brothers 
 should if they behave with affection and with genuine grief, 
 then let their tears, their affection, and their relationship as 
 brothers move you. Let that expression of yours have weight 
 now which gained the victory; for we heard that you said that 
 we thought all men are enemies but those who were with us; 
 but that you considered all men as your friends who were not 
 actually arrayed against you. Do you see, then, this most re- 
 spectable band; do you see the whole house of the Brocchi 
 here present, and Lucius Marcius, and Caius Caesetius, and 
 Lucius Corfidius, and all these Roman knights, who are present 
 here in mourning garments men who are not only well known 
 to, but highly esteemed by you ? They all were with you then ; 
 and we were full of anger against them we were attacking 
 them ; some even personally threatened them. Preserve, there- 
 fore, their friends to your friends ; so that, like everything else 
 which has been said by you, this, too, may be found to be 
 strictly true. 
 
 But if you were able to look into the hearts of the Ligarii, 
 so as to see the perfect unanimity which subsists between 
 them, you would think that all the brothers were on your 
 side. Can anyone entertain a doubt that, if Quintus Ligarius 
 had been able to be in Italy, he would also have adopted the 
 same opinions as his brothers adopted? Who is there who 
 is not acquainted with the harmony existing between them, 
 united and molten together, as I may say, by their nearness 
 of age to one another? Who does not feel that anything in 
 the world was more likely than that these brothers should 
 adopt different opinions and embrace different parties? By 
 inclination, therefore, they were all with you. Owing to the 
 necessity of the times, one was separated from you; but he, 
 even if he had done what he did deliberately, would still have 
 been only like those men whom, nevertheless, you have shown 
 yourself desirous to save. 
 
 However, grant that he went up of his own accord to the 
 war, and that he departed, not only from you, but also from 
 his brothers. These friends of your own entreat you to par- 
 don him. I, indeed, at the time when I was present at, and 
 mixed up in, all your affairs, remember well what was the be- 
 havior of Titus Ligarius at that time, when he was city quaes-
 
 29 8 CICERO 
 
 tor, with reference to you and your dignity. But it is of no 
 importance for me to remember this. I hope that you, too, 
 who are not in the habit of forgetting anything, except the in- 
 juries which have been done to you, since it is a part of your 
 character, a part of your natural disposition, to do so, while 
 you are thinking of the manner in which he conducted him- 
 self 1 in the discharge of his duty as quaestor, and while you 
 remember, too, how some other quaestors behaved, I hope, I 
 say, that you will also recollect this. 
 
 This Titus Ligarius, then, who had at that time no other 
 object except to induce you to think him attached to your 
 interests, and a virtuous man also (for he could never foresee 
 these present circumstances), now as a suppliant begs the safe- 
 ty of his brother from you. And when, urged by the recol- 
 lection of his devotion to you, you have granted that safety to 
 these men, you will by so doing have made a present of three 
 most virtuous and upright brothers, not only to themselves, 
 nor to these men, numerous and respectable as they are, nor 
 to us who are their intimate friends, but also to the republic. 
 That, therefore, which in the case of that most noble and most 
 illustrious man, Marcus Marcellus, you lately did in the sen- 
 ate-house, do now also in the forum with respect to these most 
 virtuous brothers, who are so highly esteemed by all the crowd 
 here present. As you granted him to the Senate, so grant this 
 man to the people, whose affections you have always consid- 
 ered most important to you. And if that day was one most 
 glorious to you, and at the same time most acceptable to the 
 Roman people, do not, I entreat you do not hesitate to earn 
 the praise of a glory like that as frequently as possible. 
 
 For there is nothing so calculated to win the affections of 
 the people as kindness. Of all your many virtues, there is 
 none more admirable, none more beloved than your mercy. 
 For there is no action by which men make a nearer approach 
 to the gods, than by conferring safety on others. Fortune has 
 no greater gifts for you than when it bestows on you the abil- 
 
 * There is some uncertainty as to what affairs, which is certainly true, while 
 
 Cicero alludes to here. Most of the he says here that he had at the time that 
 
 commentators think that Ligarius must he alludes to. He thinks, therefore, that 
 
 have been quaestor when Metellus and Cicero is alluding to what took place 
 
 the rest of his colleagues endeavored to in the consulship of Lentulus and 
 
 prevent Caesar from taking the money Philippus (the year of Cicero's recall), 
 
 from the public treasury; but Fabritius respecting the vote of pay to Caesar's 
 
 objects to this view, that at that time army in Gaul. 
 Cicero had no connection with Caesar's
 
 IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS 299 
 
 ity nature has no better endowment for you than when it 
 bestows on you the will, to save as many people as possible. 
 The cause of my client, perhaps, requires a longer speech than 
 this : a shorter one would certainly be sufficient for a man of 
 your natural disposition. Wherefore, as I think it more de- 
 sirable for you to converse, as it were, with yourself, than for 
 me or anyone else to be speaking to you, I shall now make 
 an end. This only will I remind you of, that if you do grant 
 this protection to him who is absent, you will be giving it also 
 to all these men who are here present.
 
 SPEECH 
 IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 This speech, like those for Marcellus and Ligarius, was addressel 
 to Caesar. Deiotarus was king of Galatia, and during Cicero's pro- 
 consulship in Cilicia he had formed a friendship with him, and had 
 been of great assistance to him in his campaign against Pacorus and 
 the Parthians. Having been an adherent of Pompey, he had already 
 been deprived of a considerable part of his dominions by Csesar, and 
 he was now accused by his grandson, who was aware of Caesar's in- 
 veterate dislike of him, of having formed a design against Caesar's 
 life four years before, when he entertained him in his palace on his 
 return from Egypt. It is probable that Csesar was aware of the ground- 
 lessness of the charge, but countenanced it, and allowed it to be 
 brought before him, in the hopes of finding a pretext for stripping 
 the king of all the rest of his dominions. Brutus espoused Deiotarus's 
 cause very warmly, and went towards Spain to meet Caesar, and made 
 him a most earnest address in favor of Deiotarus. 
 
 The present trial was held in Caesar's house, and Cicero proved the 
 king's innocence so completely that Caesar was unable to condemn 
 him; but, as he would not acquit him, he adjourned the further con- 
 sideration of the matter till he himself could go into the East and 
 investigate the affair on the spot. This speech was delivered in the 
 year of Caesar's fourth consulship; the year before he was killed. 
 
 302
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 
 
 IN all causes of more than ordinary importance, O Caius 
 Caesar, I am accustomed, at the beginning of my speech, 
 to be more vehemently affected than either common cus- 
 tom or my own age appears to require. And in this particular 
 cause I am agitated by so many considerations, that in pro- 
 portion as my fidelity to my friend inspires me with zeal to 
 defend the safety of King Deiotarus, in the same proportion do 
 my fears take away from my ability to do so. In the first 
 place, I am speaking in defence of the life and fortunes of a 
 king; and although there is no particular injustice in such a 
 fact, especially when it is one's self who is in danger, yet it is 
 so unusual for a king to be tried for his life, that up to this 
 time no such thing has ever been heard of. In the second place, 
 I am compelled now to defend against a most atrocious accusa- 
 tion that very king whom I, in common with all the Senate, 
 used formerly to extol on account of his uninterrupted services 
 toward our republic. There is this further consideration, that 
 I am disturbed by the cruelty of one of the prosecutors, and by 
 the unworthy conduct of the other. 
 
 O cruel, not to say wicked and impious, Castor! a grand- 
 son, who has brought his grandfather into danger of his life, 
 and has caused that man to dread his youth, whose old age he 
 was bound to defend and protect ; who has sought to recom- 
 mend his entrance into life to our favor by impiety and wick- 
 edness; who has instigated his grandfather's slave, whom he 
 corrupted by bribes, to accuse his master, and has carried him 
 away from the feet of the king's ambassadors. 
 
 But when I saw the countenance and heard the words of 
 this runaway slave, accusing his master his absent master 
 his master, who was a most devoted friend to our republic 
 I did not feel so much grief at the depressed condition of the 
 monarch himself, as fear for the general fortunes of everyone. 
 
 33
 
 304 CICERO 
 
 For though, according to the usage of our ancestors, it is not 
 lawful to examine a slave as a witness against his master, not 
 even by torture in which mode of examination pain might, 
 perhaps, elicit the truth from a man even against his will 
 a slave has arisen, who, without any compulsion, accuses him 
 against whom he might not legally say a word even on the 
 rack. 
 
 This thing also, O Caius Caesar, at times disturbs me; 
 which, however, I cease to fear when I come to a complete 
 recollection of your disposition. For in principle it is an un- 
 just thing, but by your wisdom it becomes a most just one. 
 For it is a serious business (if you consider the matter by 
 itself) to speak concerning a crime before that man against 
 whose life you are accused of having meditated that crime; 
 for there is hardly anybody who, when he is a judge in any 
 matter in which his own safety is at stake, does not act with 
 more partiality toward himself than toward the accused per- 
 son; but, O Caius Caesar, your admirable and extraordinary 
 natural virtue to a great extent releases me from this fear. 
 For I am not so much afraid what you may wish to decide 
 with respect to King Deiotarus, as I am sure what you wish 
 to decide in all other cases. 
 
 I am affected, also, by the unusual circumstances of the trial 
 in this place ; because I am pleading so important a cause 
 one, the fellow of which has never been brought under discus- 
 sion within the walls of a private house ; I am pleading it 
 out of the hearing of any court or body of auditors, which are 
 a great support and encouragement to an orator. I rest on 
 nothing but your eyes, your person and countenance ; I behold 
 you alone ; the whole of my speech is necessarily confined to 
 you alone. And if those considerations are very important as 
 regards my hope of establishing the truth, they for all that are 
 impediments of the energy of my mind, and to the proper en- 
 thusiasm and ardor of speaking. 
 
 For if, O Caius Caesar, I were pleading this cause in the 
 forum, still having you for my auditor and my judge, with what 
 great cheerfulness would the concourse of the Roman people 
 inspire me ! For what citizen would do otherwise than favor 
 that king, the whole of whose life he would recollect had been 
 spent in the wars of the Roman people ? I should be beholding
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 305 
 
 the senate-house, I should be surveying the forum, I should call 
 the heaven above me itself to witness ; and so, while calling to 
 mind the kindness of the immortal gods, and of the Roman 
 people, and of the Senate to king Deiotarus, it would be im- 
 possible for me to be at a loss for topics or arguments for my 
 speech. But since the walls of a house narrow all these topics, 
 and since the pleading of the cause is greatly crippled by the 
 place, it behooves you, O Csesar, who have yourself often 
 pleaded for many defendants, to consider within yourself what 
 my feelings at present must be; so that your justice, and also 
 your careful attention in listening to me, may the more easily 
 lessen my natural agitation and anxiety. 
 
 But before I say anything about the accusation itself, I will 
 say a few words about the hopes entertained by the accusers. 
 For though they appear to be possessed of no great skill or ex- 
 perience in affairs, nevertheless they have never, surely, under- 
 taken this cause without some hope or other and some definite 
 design. 
 
 They were not ignorant that you were offended with king 
 Deiotarus. They recollected that he had been already exposed 
 to some inconvenience and loss on account of the displeasure 
 with which you regarded him ; and while they knew that you 
 were angry with him, they had had proofs also that you were 
 friendly to them. And as they would be speaking before you 
 of a matter involving personal danger to yourself, they reck- 
 oned that a fictitious charge would easily lodge in your mind, 
 which was already sore. Wherefore, O Caius Caesar, first of 
 all by your good faith, and wisdom, and firmness, and clemency 
 deliver us from this fear, and prevent our suspecting that there 
 is any ill temper lurking in you. I entreat you by that right 
 hand of yours which you pledged in token of everlasting friend- 
 ship to king Deiotarus ; by that right hand, I say, which is not 
 more trustworthy in wars or in battles than in promises and 
 pledges of good faith. You have chosen to enter his house, 
 you have chosen to renew with him the ancient ties of friend- 
 ship and hospitality. His household gods have received 
 you under their protection; the altars and hearths of king 
 Deiotarus have beheld you at peace with and friendly towards 
 him. 
 
 You are accustomed, O Caius Caesar, not only to be prevailed
 
 306 
 
 CICERO 
 
 upon by entreaties easily, but to be prevailed on once for all. 
 No enemy has ever been reconciled to you who has found any 
 remnant of hostility remaining in your breast afterward. Al- 
 though, who is there who has not heard of your complaints 
 against king Deiotarus ? You have never accused him as being 
 an enemy to you, but as being a friend very slack in his duty; 
 because his inclination led him more to friendships with Cnaeus 
 Pompeius than with you. And yet that very fact you said that 
 you would have pardoned, if when he sent reinforcements and 
 even his son to Pompeius, he had himself availed himself of the 
 excuse furnished him by his age. And in this way, while you 
 were acquitting him of the most important charges, you left be- 
 hind only the little blame of his friendship for another. There- 
 fore, you not only abstained from punishing him, but you re- 
 leased him from all apprehension; you acknowledged him as 
 your friend, you left him king. And, indeed, his proceedings 
 were not dictated by any hatred of you ; he fell by the general 
 error of us all. That king, whom the Senate had repeatedly ad- 
 dressed by this name, using it in decrees most complimentary to 
 him, and who from his youth up had always considered that 
 order most important and most sacred, being a man living at a 
 great distance, and a foreigner by birth, was perplexed by the 
 same affairs which embarrassed us who were born and who at all 
 times had lived in the middle of the republic. 
 
 When he heard that men had taken arms by the authority of 
 the Senate, acting with great unanimity; that the defence of the 
 republic had been intrusted to the consuls, the praetors, the 
 tribunes of the people, and to all of us who had received the title 
 of Imperator, he was agitated in his mind, and being a man most 
 deeply attached to this empire, he became alarmed for the safety 
 of the Roman people, in which also he considered that his own 
 was bound up. And being in a state of the greatest alarm, he 
 thought it best to remain quiet himself. But he was beyond 
 measure agitated when he heard that the consuls had fled from 
 Italy, and all the men of consular rank (for so it was reported) 
 with them, and all the Senate, and that the whole of Italy was 
 emptied. For the road was wide open for all such messengers 
 and reports to travel to the East, and no true accounts followed. 
 He never heard a word of the conditions which you offered, nor 
 of your eagerness for concord and peace, nor of the way in
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 
 
 37 
 
 which certain men conspired against your dignity. And though 
 this was the state of things, still he continued quiet until ambas- 
 sadors and letters came to him from Cnaeus Pompeius. Pardon 
 Deiotarus, pardon him, I entreat you, O Caesar, if he, though a 
 king, yielded to the authority of that man whom we all followed, 
 and on whom both gods and men had heaped every sort of dis- 
 tinction, and on whom you yourself had conferred the most 
 numerous and most important honors 1 of all. Nor, indeed, 
 does it follow that, because your exploits have thrown a cloud 
 over the praises of others, we have, therefore, entirely lost all 
 recollection of Cnaeus Pompeius. Who is there who is ignorant 
 how great the name of that man was, how great his influence, 
 how great his renown in every description of war, how great 
 were the honors paid him by the Roman people, and by the 
 Senate, and by you yourself? He had surpassed all his prede- 
 cessors in glory as much as you have surpassed all the world. 
 Therefore, we used to count up with admiration the wars and 
 the victories, and the triumphs, and the consulships, of Cnaeus 
 Pompeius. But yours we are wholly unable to reckon. 
 
 To him then came king Deiotarus in this miserable and fatal 
 war, to him whom he had previously assisted in his regular wars 
 against the enemies of Rome, and with whom he was bound, not 
 only by ties of hospitality, but also by personal intimacy. And 
 he came, either because he had been asked, as a friend; or be- 
 cause he had been sent for as an ally; or because he had been 
 summoned, like one who had learned to obey the Senate; and 
 last of all, he joined the losing, not the winning side. 
 
 Therefore, after the result of the battle of Pharsalia, he de- 
 parted from Pompeius; he did not choose to persist in hopes of 
 which he saw no end. He thought he had done quite enough to 
 satisfy the claims of duty, if indeed he was under any such obli- 
 gations, and that he had made quite mistake enough if he had 
 ignorantly erred. He returned home; and all the time that you 
 were engaged in the Alexandrian War, he consulted your in- 
 terests. He supported in his palaces and from his own resources 
 the army of Cnaeus Domitius, that most distinguished man. He 
 sent money to Ephesus to him whom you selected as the most 
 faithful and most highly esteemed of all your friends. He gave 
 him money a second time; he gave him money a third time for 
 
 1 For Caesar had given Pompey his daughter in marriage.
 
 3 o8 CICERO 
 
 you to employ in the war, though he was forced to sell property 
 by auction in order to raise it. He exposed his own person to 
 danger, and he was with you, serving in your army against 
 Pharnaces, and he considered him as his dwn enemy because he 
 was yours. And all those actions of his were accepted by you, 
 O Caius Caesar, in such a spirit that you paid him the highest 
 possible honors, and confirmed him in the dignity and title of 
 king. 
 
 He, therefore, having been not only released from danger by 
 you, but having been also distinguished by you with the highest 
 honors, is now accused of having intended to assassinate you in 
 his own house a thing which you cannot in truth possibly 
 suspect, unless you consider him to have been utterly mad. 
 For, to say nothing of what a deed of enormous wickedness it 
 would have been to assassinate his guest in the sight of his own 
 household gods; what a deed of enormous unreasonableness it 
 would have been to have extinguished the brightest light of all 
 nations, and of all human recollection ; what a deed of enormous 
 ferocity it would have been to have had no dread of the con- 
 queror of the whole earth; what a sign of an inhuman and un- 
 grateful disposition it would have been to be found to behave 
 like a despot to the very man by whom he had been addressed as 
 a king; to say nothing of all this, what a deed of utter frenzy 
 would it have been to rouse all kings, of whom there were num- 
 bers on the borders of his own kingdom, all free nations, all the 
 allies, all the provinces, all the arms, in short, of every people on 
 earth against himself alone ! To what misery would he not have 
 exposed his kingdom, his house, his wife, and his beloved son, 
 not merely by the accomplishment of such a crime, but even by 
 the bare idea of it! 
 
 But I suppose that improvident and rash man did not see all 
 this! On the contrary, who is a more considerate man than he? 
 Who is more secret in his plans? Who is more prudent? Al- 
 though in this place it is not so much on the ground of clever- 
 ness and prudence that it seems to me that I should defend Deio- 
 tarus, as on that of good faith and religious feeling and conduct. 
 You are well acquainted, O Caius Caesar, with the honesty of the 
 man, with his virtuous habits, with his wisdom and firmness. 
 Indeed, who is there who has ever heard of the name of the 
 Roman people, who has not heard also of the integrity, and wis-
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 309 
 
 dom, and virtue, and good faith of Deiotarus? A crime, then, 
 that cannot be imputed to an imprudent man, on account of his 
 fear of instant destruction, nor to an unscrupulous man, unless 
 he be at the same time utterly insane; will you pretend that such 
 a crime was thought of by a most virtuous man, and one too 
 who was never accounted a fool? 
 
 And in what a way do you try and support this invention! in 
 a way not only not calculated to win belief, but not even such as 
 to give rise to the least suspicion. When, says the prosecutor, 
 you had come to the Luceian fort, and had turned aside to the 
 palace of the king your entertainer, there was a certain place 
 where all those things were arranged which the king had settled 
 to offer you as presents. To this place he intended to conduct 
 you on coming out of the bath, before you lay down ; for there 
 were armed men stationed in that very place on purpose to kill 
 you. This is the charge; this is the reason why a runaway 
 should accuse a monarch, a slave accuse his master! I, in truth, 
 O Caius Caesar, at the very beginning, when the cause was origi- 
 nally laid before me, was struck with a suspicion that Phidippus 
 the physician, one of the king's slaves, who had been sent with 
 the ambassadors, had been corrupted by that young man. He 
 has suborned the physician to act as informer, thought I ; he will 
 be sure to invent some accusation of poisoning. Although my 
 conjecture was some way from the exact truth, it was not much 
 out as to the general principle of the accusation. What says the 
 physician? Not a word about poison. But in the first place, 
 that might have been administered much more secretly in a 
 potion or in food ; in the second place, a crime is committed in 
 that way with greater impunity, because when it has been done, 
 it can be denied. If he had assassinated you openly, he would 
 have brought upon himself not only the hatred of all nations, 
 but their arms also. If he had slain you by poison, to be sure 
 he never would have been able to conceal the action from the 
 divine wrath of the Jupiter who presides over hospitality, but he 
 might perhaps have concealed it from men. Are we, then, to 
 suppose that that which he might have attempted in secret, and 
 have executed with great caution, he never intrusted to you who 
 were a skilful physician, and, as he believed, a faithful servant, 
 and yet that he could conceal nothing from you with respect to 
 arms, and blood, and ambuscade? And how cleverly is the
 
 3IO CICERO 
 
 whole accusation worked up! It was your own good fortune, 
 says he, that fortune which always preserves you, which saved 
 you then. You said that you did not wish at that moment to see 
 the presents. 
 
 What happened afterward? Did Deiotarus, after he had 
 failed in accomplishing the business at that time, at once dismiss 
 his army? was there no other place where he could set an am- 
 bush? But you said that when you had supped you would 
 come back again the same way; and you did so. Was it a very 
 difficult job to detain the armed men one or two hours in the 
 place where they had been stationed? After you had spent your 
 time at the banquet courteously and merrily, then you went back 
 that way, as you had said ; and then and there you found that the 
 behavior of Deiotarus to you resembled that of king Attalus to 
 Publius Africanus: to whom, as we have read, he sent the most 
 magnificent gifts from Asia to Numantia; which Africanus ac- 
 cepted in the sight of all his army. And when Deiotarus, being 
 present with you, had done all this in a kingly spirit and with 
 royal courtesy, you departed to your chamber. I entreat you, 
 O Caesar, trace back your recollection of that time, bring that 
 day back before your eyes, remember the countenances of the 
 men who were then gazing on you and admiring you; was there 
 any trepidation among them? any disorder? Was anything 
 done except in an orderly and quiet manner except as became 
 the establishment of a dignified and honorable man? What rea- 
 son then can be imagined why he should have intended to mur- 
 der you after you had bathed, and why he should not have 
 chosen to do so after you had supped? " Oh, he put it off," 
 says the prosecutor, " till the next day, in order that when he 
 arrived at the Luceian fort, he might there put his designs in 
 execution." I do not understand the effect of his changing the 
 place; but still the whole case was conducted in an incrimina- 
 tory manner. " When," says the prosecutor, " you said after 
 supper that you wished to vomit, they began to lead you to the 
 bath-room; for that was the place where the ambuscade was; 
 but still that same fortune of yours saved you ; you said that you 
 had rather go to your bedroom." May the gods forgive you, 
 you runaway slave! Are you so utterly, not only worthless and 
 infamous, but also stupid and senseless? What? were they 
 brazen statues that he had planted in ambush, so that they could 
 not be moved from the bath-room to the bed-chamber?
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 311 
 
 Here you have the whole charge as to the ambuscade : for he 
 said nothing further. " In all this," says he, " I was his accom- 
 plice." What do you mean? Was he so demented as to allow 
 a man to leave him who was privy to so enormous a wickedness? 
 As even to send him to Rome, where he knew his grandson was, 
 who was most bitterly hostile to him, and where Caius Caesar 
 was, against whom he had laid this plot? especially when he was 
 the only man who could give any information against him in his 
 absence. " My brothers too," says he, " because they also were 
 privy to it, he threw into prison." When, then, he was putting 
 those men in prison whom he had with him, did he leave you at 
 large and send you to Rome you who knew the very same facts 
 which you say that they knew? 
 
 The remainder of the accusation was of a twofold character; 
 one part of which was, that the king was always at his watch- 
 tower because he was so disaffected to your interests; the other, 
 that he had levied a large army against you. As to the army, I 
 will reply to that charge in a very few words, as I will to the rest 
 of the charges. King Deiotarus never had any forces with 
 which he could have made war upon the Roman people; but 
 only just sufficient to protect his own territories from the incur- 
 sions of enemies, and to send reinforcements to our generals. 
 And before this timehe was able to maintain a larger force than 
 he can now; at present he can with difficulty keep up a very small 
 one. " Oh, but he sent to Caecilius; I don't know who it was he 
 sent, but he threw those whom he sent, or rather ordered to go, 
 into prison, because they would not go." I do not stop to ask 
 how far it is probable that a king should have had no one to 
 send; or that those whom he ordered to go should not have 
 obeyed him ; or how it was that those men who refused obedi- 
 ence in so important an affair, were put in prison, and not exe- 
 cuted; but still, when he was sending Caecilius, 2 was he ignor- 
 ant that that party had been defeated, or did he think that 
 Caecilius a person of great importance? a man whom he, who 
 was well acquainted with our leading men, would have despised 
 because he knew him, and just as much because he did not know 
 him. He added, also, that he did not send his best cavalry; I 
 dare say, they were old troops, O Caesar : nothing to your cav- 
 
 * This was Quintius Ca-cilius Brassus, some of the remnants of his army in 
 a zealous partisan of Pompey's, who Syria, with which he afterward joined 
 after the battle of Pharsalia collected Cassius after the death of Caesar.
 
 312 
 
 CICERO 
 
 airy; but still they were the best men he had, his picked men. 
 He says that one of the body was recognized as being a slave ; 
 I do not believe it; I never heard of it. But still, even if such a 
 thing had happened, I should not conceive that that was any 
 fault of the king's. 
 
 " He was very ill-disposed towards you." How so? He 
 hoped, I suppose, that you would find it difficult to get out of 
 Alexandria, on account of the nature of the country and of the 
 river. But, at that very time, he supplied you with money, and 
 with provisions for your army ; he co-operated to the utmost of 
 his power with the officer to whom you had given command in 
 Asia; he assisted you when victorious, not only in the way of 
 affording you hospitality, but with you he encountered danger, 
 and stood by your side in the array of battle. 
 
 The African War followed: there were unfavorable reports 
 spread about you, which also roused that frantic Caecilius. 
 What on that occasion was the disposition evinced towards you 
 by the king? He sold property by auction, and preferred strip- 
 ping himself, to not supplying you with money. " But," says 
 the prosecutor, " at that very time he was sending men to Nicaea, 
 and to Ephesus, to catch every report that came from Africa, and 
 to bring it to him with all speed." Therefore, when news came 
 that Domitius had perished by shipwreck, and that you were 
 blockaded in some fortress, he quoted a Greek verse with refer- 
 ence to Domitius, having the same meaning as that of our poet: 
 
 " So can we well afford to lose our friends, 
 If our foes perish in the same destruction: " 3 
 
 an expression which he would never have uttered had he been 
 ever so much an enemy to you. For he himself is a man of a 
 humane disposition; and that verse is a savage one. Besides, 
 how could a man be a friend to Domitius, who was an enemy to 
 you? Moreover, why should he be an enemy to you, by whom 
 he might even have been put to death according to the laws of 
 war, and by whom he recollected that he and his son had been 
 appointed kings? 
 
 What is the next statement? What is the next step taken by 
 this scoundrel? He says that Deiotarus was so elated at this, 
 
 1 The Greek proverb is given by from any Latin poet, it is not known 
 Plutarch as tpptrta <friAos <rbv IX S PV- If the who he was. 
 Latin iambic quoted by Cicero comes
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 313 
 
 that he drowned his joy in wine, and danced naked at a banquet. 
 What cross is there that could be a sufficient punishment for this 
 slave? Did anyone ever see Deiotarus dancing, did anyone 
 ever see him drunk? All kingly virtues are united in that man, 
 and that I think yourself are well aware of, O Caesar, but most 
 especially is that singular and admirable economy of his con- 
 spicuous. Although this is an attribute for which I know that it 
 is not usual to praise kings. To say that a man is economical is 
 not much praise for a king. To be brave, just, severe, dignified, 
 magnanimous, open-handed, beneficent, liberal these are the 
 praises suited to a king. Economy is a virtue for a private in- 
 dividual. Let everyone take it as he please: but I consider 
 economy that is to say, moderation and temperance the 
 very greatest of virtues. And this existed in this man from his 
 earliest youth, and was experienced by, and known to, all Asia, 
 and by all our magistrates and ambassadors, and by all the Ro- 
 man knights who trafficked in Asia. 
 
 It was by many successive steps of dutiful service towards our 
 republic that he arrived at this title of king; but still, whatever 
 leisure he had from the wars of the Roman people, he devoted 
 entirely to cultivating friendship and intimacy with our citizens, 
 and to uniting his affairs and interests to theirs. So that he was 
 not only considered a noble tetrarch, but also an excellent father 
 of a family, and a most industrious farmer and grazier. Did he, 
 then, who, while a young man, before he had arrived at his sub- 
 sequent high rank, never did anything that was inconsistent with 
 the most rigid virtue and the greatest dignity, after he had raised 
 to himself the esteem in which he is now held, and when he had 
 become of so advanced an age, did he dance? 
 
 You ought, O Castor, rather to imitate the manner and prin- 
 ciples of your grandfather, than calumniate a most virtuous and 
 most illustrious man with the language of a runaway slave. 
 Even if you had had a grandfather who was a dancer, and not a 
 man from whom examples of modesty and chastity might be de- 
 prived, still this reproach is one which is very little suited to your 
 age. Those pursuits to which he had been habituated from his 
 earliest age not dancing, but such as would train him to wield 
 his arms and manage his horses in the best manner those all 
 had now failed him at his advanced time of life ; so that we used to 
 wonder, when several men had lifted Deiotarus on his horse, how
 
 3I4 CICERO 
 
 so old a man as he could contrive to stick on. But this young 
 man, who was a soldier of mine in Cilicia, and a comrade of mine 
 in Greece, how was he used to ride about in that army of ours, 
 with his own picked body of cavalry, whom his father had sent 
 with him to join Pompeius! what gallops he used to take! how. 
 he used to display his skill! What a parade he used to make! 
 How did he refuse to yield to anyone in his zeal and eagerness 
 for the success of that cause! But even after the army was lost, 
 I, who had at all times been an adviser of peace, but who, after 
 the battle of Pharsalia, urged everyone not to lay aside, but to 
 throw away their arms, could never bring this young man to 
 adopt my advice, both because of his own eagerness for that war, 
 and because he thought himself bound to satisfy the expecta- 
 tions of his father. 
 
 Happy is that house which has obtained, not only impunity, 
 but license to accuse others! Unfortunate Deiotarus, who is 
 not only accused by one who was in the same camp with him, 
 before you, but who is impeached even by his own relations. 
 Cannot you, O Castor, be content with your own good fortune 
 without bringing misery on your relations? 
 
 Grant that there may be enmity between you; which, how- 
 ever, there ought not to be; for it was king Deiotarus who raised 
 your family, when abject and obscure, from darkness into light. 
 Who ever heard of your father, or who he was, before they heard 
 whose son-in-law he was? But even supposing you repudiated 
 the name of the connection with ever so much ingratitude and 
 impiety, still you might have conducted your quarrel like a man, 
 and not pursue him with a false accusation, not seek his life, not 
 prosecute him on a capital charge. Be it so: let even this ex- 
 cess of bitterness and hatred be permitted. Was it to go to such 
 an extent, that all the laws of ordinary life and of common safety, 
 and even of humanity, are to be violated? to tamper with slaves 
 by words, to corrupt them by hopes and promises ; to lead them 
 away to your own house, to arm them against their masters, to 
 wage an impious war not against one relation, but against every 
 family in the world? For that corruption of slaves, if it be not 
 only unpunished, but even approved by such a great authority 
 as that of this tribunal, no walls, no laws, no rights will be suffi- 
 cient for the protection of our safety. For when that which is 
 in our houses and is our own can sally out with impunity and
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 3x5 
 
 fight against us, slavery then gets the mastery, and the master's 
 position is slavery. 
 
 Shame on the times, and on our present habits! That Cnaeus 
 Domitius, whom we as boys saw consul, and censor, and chief 
 pontiff, when, as tribune of the people, he had impeached Marcus 
 Scaurus, the chief man of the state, before the people, and when 
 a slave of Scaurus had come secretly to him at his own house, 
 and had offered to give information with respect to charges 
 which might be brought against his master, ordered the slave to 
 be apprehended, and taken to Scaurus. See what a difference 
 there is now although it is a shame of me to compare Castor to 
 Domitius; still he sent his slave back to his enemy, you have se- 
 duced one from your grandfather; he refused to listen to one 
 though he had not been bribed, you have bribed one; he rejected 
 a slave as his assistant against his master, you have employed one 
 even as an accuser. But was it only once that that fellow was 
 corrupted by you? Did he not escape back again to the ambas- 
 sadors after he had been brought forward by you, and after he 
 had been with you? Did he not even come to this Cnaeus Do- 
 mitius? Did not he, in the hearing of this Servius Sulpicius, 
 that most illustrious man, who is present here, and of this Titus 
 Torquatus, a most virtuous young man, who is also present, con- 
 fess that he had been bribed by you, and that it was by your 
 promises that he had been instigated to this dishonesty? 
 
 What then is the object of this shameless, and barbarous, and 
 unrestrained inhumanity? Was it for this that you came into 
 this city, that you might corrupt the principles predominant in, 
 and the examples furnished by this city, and that you might pol- 
 lute the humanity of our state by your own private ferocity? 
 
 And how ingeniously have all your charges been collected! 
 Blesamius, says he (for it was in his name, a very excellent man, 
 and one who was a stranger to you, that he was calumniating 
 you, O Deiotarus), used to write to the king, that you, O Caesar, 
 were very unpopular; that you were considered a tyrant; that 
 men were exceedingly offended at your statue having been 
 placed among those of the kings ; that you were never well re- 
 ceived on your appearance in public. Do not you perceive, O 
 Caesar, that these statements were collected by these fellows, from 
 the city conversation of spiteful men? Could Blesamius have 
 written to say that Caesar was a tyrant? Ay, for he had seen the
 
 CICERO 
 
 heads of many citizens exposed; he had seen many men by the 
 orders of Caesar ill-treated, scourged and executed ; he had seen 
 many houses pillaged and destroyed ; he had seen the forum filled 
 with armed troops! No; those things which previously we 
 always have felt after victories in civil war, we have not seen now, 
 when you have been our conqueror. You are the only man 
 you I say, O Caius Caesar, are the only man, by whose victory no 
 one has perished except with arms in his hand. And can the 
 man whom we, free men, born in the enjoyment of the perfect 
 liberty of the Roman people, consider not only no tyrant, but as 
 even the most merciful man possible in the use of victory, can he 
 appear a tyrant to Blesamius, who is living under a king? For 
 who complains about a statue, especially about one single statue, 
 when he sees such a number? Great reason have we, indeed, to 
 envy a man his statues, when we do not grudge him trophies; 
 for if it be the place which provokes envy, surely there is no place 
 more open and fit for a statue than the rostra. And as to the 
 way in which he is received in public, why need I make any reply 
 at all? for public applause has never been desired by you, and 
 sometimes, owing to the amazement with which men have 
 viewed your achievements, it has even been stifled by the excess 
 of their admiration; and perhaps, too, it has been omitted be- 
 cause nothing vulgar could possibly appear worthy of you. 
 
 I do not think that anything has been omitted by me; but 
 some topics have been reserved for the end of my speech, and they 
 are of such a nature that they ought to reconcile you cordially to 
 Deiotarus for I am not now afraid of your being angry with 
 him ; I am apprehensive rather of your suspecting that he har- 
 bors some resentment against you. And that suspicion, believe 
 me, O Caesar, is as remote as possible from the truth. For he 
 recollects only what he still has left owing to you, and not what 
 he has lost by your means ; nor does he consider that he has been 
 deprived of anything by you, but, being aware that it was neces- 
 sary for you to give many rewards to many people, he did not 
 think it hard that you should take something from him who had 
 been on the other side. In truth, if that great prince, Antiochus 
 the Great, the king of Asia, who, after he had been conquered by 
 Scipio, was ordered to consider Mount Taurus as the boundary 
 of his dominions, and was deprived of all this Asia which is now 
 a province of our own if he was accustomed to say that he had
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 317 
 
 been kindly treated by the Roman people, because he had been 
 released by them from the care of an overgrown empire, and was 
 now at liberty to enjoy a kingdom of moderate extent, Deiotarus 
 can comfort himself more easily. For Antiochus had suffered 
 a chastisement for his insanity, my client only for an error. 
 You, O Caesar, gave everything to Deiotarus when you gave 
 him and his son the title of king; and as long as he is allowed to 
 retain and preserve this title, he does not think that the kindness 
 of the Roman people is at all diminished, or that the Senate has 
 come to any unfavorable decision respecting him. He pre- 
 serves a great and lofty spirit, and will never succumb to his 
 enemies, nor even to fortune. 
 
 He thinks that by his previous conduct he has given birth to 
 much, and that by his own courage and virtue he still has much 
 which he cannot possibly be deprived of. For what fortune, or 
 what accident, or what injury can happen to Deiotarus of such 
 severity as to efface the decrees of all our generals respecting 
 him? For he has been complimented and distinguished ever 
 since he was of an age to serve in their camps, by all those men 
 who had had the conduct of our wars in Asia, and in Cappadocia, 
 and in Pontus, and in Cilicia, and in Syria. And what length of 
 time will ever efface, what forgetfulness will ever obliterate those 
 numerous and honorable resolutions of the Senate respecting 
 him, which have been recorded in the public writings and memo- 
 rials of the Roman people? 
 
 Why need I speak of his valor? why of his greatness of mind? 
 of his wisdom? of his firmness and consistency? qualities which 
 not only have all wise and learned men pronounced to be the 
 greatest blessings, but which some have even considered the 
 only real ones, and have said that virtue wanted nothing more 
 than these for the purpose of living not only well, but even hap- 
 pily. He, considering these things, and reflecting on them day 
 and night, is so far from feeling resentment against you (for he 
 would not only be ungrateful, but even mad to do so), that he 
 attributes the whole of the tranquillity and quiet of his old age 
 which he enjoys, to your clemency. 
 
 And as these were his sentiments previously, I do not doubt 
 also that after the receipt of your letters, of which I have read a 
 copy, which you gave to this Blesamius at Tarraco for Deiotarus, 
 his spirit became loftier still, and that he ceased to feel any anx-
 
 3I g CICERO 
 
 iety whatever. For in them you bid him entertain good hopes, 
 and to be of good courage expressions which I know you are 
 not in the habit of using without a meaning; for I recollect that 
 you wrote to me in almost the same language, and that when 
 you bade me entertain good hopes of the future you were not 
 deceiving me. 
 
 I am anxious, indeed, in this cause of king Deiotarus, \vith 
 whom the affairs of this republic have united me in friendship, 
 while our mutual regard for one another has connected us by 
 ties of hospitality, with whom long acquaintance has engendered 
 intimacy, and his great services to me and to my army have 
 wrought in me the greatest affection for him. But while I am 
 anxious about him, I am anxious also about many most dis- 
 tinguished men, who have been pardoned by you, and who 
 ought to be able to consider their pardon, whenever pronounced, 
 as binding forever; and who ought not to feel that a doubt is 
 thrown on the permanency of your kindness to them, nor to have 
 a perpetual anxiety implanted in their minds; nor, in short, 
 ought it to be allowed to happen that any one of those men 
 should begin again to feel apprehension, who has once been re- 
 leased by you from fear. 
 
 I ought not, O Caesar, to endeavor, as is often done by men in 
 such danger as this, to move your pity by my language. There 
 is no need of my doing so. Your feelings are of their own ac- 
 cord accustomed to come to the aid of the suppliant and unfor- 
 tunate, without being elicited by the eloquence of anybody. 
 Place before your eyes two kings, and contemplate with your 
 mind what you cannot behold with your eyes. You will surely 
 yield to your feelings of compassion what you refused to your 
 resentment. There are many monuments of your clemency, but 
 the chief, sure, are the secure happiness of those men to whom it 
 is you have been the author of safety. And if such an action is 
 glorious in the case of a private individual, much more will it be 
 celebrated when it is a king who is the object of it. The title of 
 king has always been accounted a holy name in this city; but the 
 names of ally and king, when united together, are then the holi- 
 est of all titles. 
 
 And these kings were afraid that if you were victorious they 
 might lose that name. But now that they have been allowed to 
 retain it, and have been confirmed in it by you, I confidently trust
 
 SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS 319 
 
 that they will even transmit it to their posterity. Moreover, 
 these ambassadors whom you see before you, Hieras, and Blesa- 
 mius, and Antigonus, men with whom you and all of us have 
 long been acquainted, and also Dorylaus, a man of the same loy- 
 alty and virtue as they, who was lately sent as ambassador to you 
 in company with Hieras, devoted friends of the king, and men 
 too who, as I hope, are highly esteemed by you, offer you their 
 persons as hostages and pledges to secure the safety of their 
 prince. Ask Blesamius whether he ever wrote anything to the 
 king to the disparagement of your dignity. Hieras, indeed, 
 undertakes the whole cause of Deiotarus, and offers himself as 
 the defendant against all these charges in behalf of, and instead 
 of the king. He implores the aid of your recollection in his 
 favor; a quality in which you greatly excel: he declares that all 
 the time that you were in the tetrarchy of Deiotarus he never 
 left your side. He says that he met you on the frontier, and 
 that he attended you to the borders on the opposite side of the 
 country; that when you left the bath he was with you, and when 
 you surveyed all those presents after supper, and when you re- 
 tired to rest in your bed-chamber. And he says, too, that he at- 
 tended you in the same unremitting manner all the next day. 
 
 Wherefore, if any one of those things which Deiotarus has 
 been accused of, really was thought of, he does not object to 
 your thinking the crime his. I entreat you, O Caius Caesar, to 
 consider that on this day your sentence will bring on those kings 
 either most miserable calamity, accompanied with infinite dis- 
 grace, or an unsullied reputation attended with safety; and to 
 desire the one of those results would be an act of cruelty, to 
 secure the other is an action suitable to your clemency.
 
 THE FIRST ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the First Philippic
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 When Julius, or, as he is usually called by Cicero, Caius Caesar was 
 slain on the fifteenth of March, A.U.C. 710, B.C. 44, Marcus Antonius 
 was his colleague in the consulship; and he, being afraid that the 
 conspirators might murder him too (and it is said that they had 
 debated among themselves whether they would or no), concealed 
 himself on that day, and fortified his house; till perceiving that noth- 
 ing was intended against him, he ventured to appear in public the day 
 following. Lepidus was in the suburbs of Rome with a regular army, 
 ready to depart for the government of Spain, which had been as- 
 signed to him with a part of Gaul. In the night, after Caesar's death, 
 he occupied the forum with his troops, and thought of making him- 
 self master of the city, but Antonius dissuaded him from that idea, 
 and won him over to his views by giving his daughter in marriage 
 to Lepidus's son, and by assisting him to seize on the office of Pontifex 
 Maximus, which was vacant by Caesar's death. 
 
 To the conspirators he professed friendship, sent his son among 
 them as a hostage of his sincerity, and so deluded them, that Brutus 
 supped with Lepidus, and Cassius with Antonius. By these means he 
 got them to consent to his passing a decree for the confirmation of 
 all Caesar's acts, without describing or naming them more precisely. 
 At last, on the occasion of Caesar's public funeral, he contrived so 
 to inflame the populace against the conspirators, that Brutus and Cas- 
 sius had some difficulty in defending their houses and their lives; 
 and he gradually alarmed them so much, and worked so cunningly 
 on their fears, that they all quitted Rome. Cicero also left Rome, 
 disapproving greatly of the vacillation and want of purpose in the 
 conspirators. On the first of June Antonius assembled the Senate to 
 deliberate on the affairs of the republic, and in the interval visited all 
 parts of Italy. 
 
 In the mean time young Octavius appeared on the stage; he had 
 been left by Caesar, who was his uncle, the heir to his name and 
 estate. He returned from Apollonia, in Macedonia, to Italy as soon 
 as he heard of his uncle's death, and arrived at Naples on the eigh- 
 teenth of April, where he was introduced by Hirtius and Pansa to 
 Cicero, whom he promised to be guided in all respects by his direc- 
 tions. He was now between eighteen and nineteen years of age. 
 
 He began by the representation of public spectacles and games in 
 honor of C?esar's victories. In the mean time Antonius, in his prog- 
 ress through Italy, was making great use of the decree confirming 
 
 323
 
 3*4 
 
 CICERO 
 
 all Caesar's acts, which he interpolated and forged in the most shame- 
 less manner. Among other things he restored Deiotarus to all his 
 dominions, having been bribed to do so by a hundred millions of 
 sesterces by the king's agents; but Deiotarus himself, as soon as he 
 heard of Caesar's death, seized all his dominions by force. He also 
 seized the public treasure which Caesar had deposited in the temple of 
 Opis, amounting to above $22,000,000 of our money, and with this 
 he won over Dolabella, who had seized the consulship on the death 
 of Caesar, and the greater part of the army. 
 
 At the end of May Cicero began to return towards Rome, in order 
 to arrive there in time for the meeting of the Senate on the first of 
 June; but many of his friends dissuaded him from entering the city, 
 and at last he determined not to appear in the Senate on that day, 
 but to make a tour in Greece; to assist him in which, Dolabella named 
 him of his lieutenants. Antonius also gave Brutus and Cassius com- 
 missions to buy corn in Asia and Sicily for the use of the republic, 
 in order to keep them out of the city. 
 
 Meantime Sextus Pompeius, who was at the head of a considerable 
 army in Spain, addressed letters to the consuls proposing terms of 
 accommodation, which after some debate, and some important modi- 
 fications, were agreed to, and he quitted Spain, and came as far as 
 Marseilles on his road towards Rome. 
 
 Cicero, having started for Greece, was forced to put back by con- 
 trary winds, and returned to Velia on the seventeenth of August, 
 where he had a long conference with Brutus, who soon after left 
 Italy for his province of Macedonia, which Caesar had assigned him 
 before his death, though Antonius now wished to compel him to 
 exchange it for Crete. After this conference Cicero returned to Rome, 
 where he was received with unexampled joy, immense multitudes 
 thronging out to meet him, and to escort him into the city. He 
 arrived in Rome on the last day of August. The next day the Senate 
 met, to which he was particularly summoned by Antonius, but he 
 excused himself as not having recovered from the fatigue of his 
 journey. 
 
 Antonius was greatly offended, and in his speech in the Senate 
 threatened openly to order Cicero's house to be pulled down; the 
 real reason of Cicero's absenting himself from the Senate being, that 
 the business of the day was to decree some new and extraordinary 
 honors to Caesar, and to order supplications to him as a divinity, which 
 Cicero was determined not to concur in, though he knew it would be 
 useless to oppose them. 
 
 The next day also the Senate met, and Antonius absented himself; 
 but Cicero came down and delivered the first of that celebrated series 
 of fourteen speeches made in opposition to Antonius and his measures, 
 and called Philippics from the orations of Demosthenes against Philip, 
 to which the Romans were in the habit of comparing them.
 
 THE FIRST ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the First Philippic 
 
 BEFORE, O conscript fathers, I say those things concern- 
 ing the republic which I think myself bound to say at the 
 present time, I will explain to you briefly the cause of my 
 departure from, and of my return to the city. When I hoped 
 that the republic was at last recalled to a proper respect for your 
 wisdom and for your authority, I thought that it became me to 
 remain in a sort of sentinelship, which was imposed upon me by 
 my position as a senator and a man of consular rank. Nor did 
 I depart anywhere, nor did I ever take my eyes off from the re- 
 public, from the day on which we were summoned to meet in the 
 temple of Tellus; 1 in which temple, I, as far as was in my power, 
 laid the foundations of peace, and renewed the ancient precedent 
 set by the Athenians; I even used the Greek word, 2 which that 
 city employed in those times in allaying discords, and gave my 
 vote that all recollection of the existing dissensions ought to be 
 effaced by everlasting oblivion. 
 
 The oration then made by Marcus Antonius was an admirable 
 one; his disposition, too, appeared excellent; and lastly, by his 
 means and by his sons', peace was ratified with the most illus- 
 trious of the citizens; and everything else was consistent with 
 this beginning. He invited the chief men of the state to those 
 deliberations which he held at his own house concerning the 
 state of the republic; he referred all the most important matters 
 to this order. Nothing was at that time found among the 
 papers of Caius Caesar except what was already well known to 
 everybody; and he gave answers to every question that was 
 asked of him with the greatest consistency. Were any exiles re- 
 
 1 This meeting took place on the third day after Caesar's death. 
 
 1 Ml) filTjaiKOHtll'. 
 
 325
 
 CICERO 
 
 stored? He said that one was, and only one. Were any im- 
 munities granted? He answered, None. He wished us even to 
 adopt the proposition of Servius Sulpicius, that most illustrious 
 man, that no tablet purporting to contain any decree or grant of 
 Caesar's should be published after the Ides of March were ex- 
 pired. I pass over many other things, all excellent for I am 
 hastening to come to a very extraordinary act of virtue of Mar- 
 cus Antonius. He utterly abolished from the constitution of 
 the republic the dictatorship, which had by this time attained to 
 the authority of regal power. And that measure was not even 
 offered to us for discussion. He brought with him a decree of 
 the Senate, ready drawn up, ordering what he chose to have 
 done : and when it had been read, we all submitted to his author- 
 ity in the matter with the greatest eagerness; and, by another 
 resolution of the Senate, we returned him thanks in the most 
 honorable and complimentary language. 
 
 A new light, as it were, seemed to be brought over us, now 
 that not only the kingly power which we had endured, but all 
 fear of such power for the future, was taken away from us; and 
 a great pledge appeared to have been given by him to the repub- 
 lic that he did wish the city to be free, when he utterly abolished 
 out of the republic the name of dictator, which had often been a 
 legitimate title, on account of our late recollection of a perpetual 
 dictatorship. A few days afterward the Senate was delivered 
 from the danger of bloodshed, and a hook 3 was fixed into that 
 runaway slave who had usurped the name of Caius Marius. 
 And all these things he did in concert with his colleague. Some 
 other things that were done were the acts of Dolabella alone; 
 but if his colleague had not been absent, would, I believe, have 
 been done by both of them in concert. 
 
 For when enormous evil was insinuating itself into the repub- 
 lic, and was gaining more strength day by day; and when the 
 same men were erecting a tomb 4 in the forum, who had per- 
 formed that irregular funeral ; and when abandoned men, with 
 slaves like themselves, were every day threatening with more 
 and more vehemence all the houses and temples of the city; so 
 severe was the rigor of Dolabella, not only toward the audacious 
 
 The hook was to drag his carcass * This refers to a pillar that was raised 
 
 along the streets to throw it into the in the forum in honor of Cesar, with 
 
 Tiber. So Juvenal says the inscription " To the Father of his 
 
 bejanus ducitur unco Country." 
 Spectandus." x. 66.
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 327 
 
 and wicked slaves, but also toward the profligate and unprinci- 
 pled freemen, and so prompt was his overthrow of that accursed 
 pillar, that it seems marvellous to me that the subsequent time 
 has been so different from that one day. 
 
 For behold, on the first of June, on which day they had given 
 notice that we were all to attend the Senate, everything was 
 changed. Nothing was done by the Senate, but many and im- 
 portant measures were transacted by the agency of the people, 
 though that people was both absent and disapproving. The 
 consuls elect said that they did not dare to come into the Senate. 
 The liberators of their country were absent from that city from 
 the neck of which they had removed the yoke of slavery; though 
 the very consuls themselves professed to praise them in their 
 public harangues and in all their conversation. Those who 
 were called veterans, men of whose safety this order had been 
 most particularly careful, were instigated not to the preservation 
 of those things which they had, but to cherish hopes of new 
 booty. And as I preferred hearing of those things to seeing 
 them, and as I had an honorary commission as lieutenant, I went 
 away, intending to be present on the first of January, which ap- 
 peared likely to be the first day of assembling the Senate. 
 
 I have now explained to you, O conscript fathers, my design 
 in leaving the city. Now I will briefly set before you, also, my 
 intention in returning, which may perhaps appear more unac- 
 countable. As I had avoided Brundusium, and the ordinary 
 route into Greece, not without good reason, on the first of 
 August I arrived at Syracuse, because the passage from that city 
 into Greece was said to be a good one. And that city, with 
 which I had so intimate a connection, could not, though it was 
 very eager to do so, detain me more than one night. I was 
 afraid that my sudden arrival among my friends might cause 
 some suspicion if I remained there at all. But after the winds 
 had driven me, on my departure from Sicily, to Leucopetra, 
 which is a promontory of the Rhegian district, I went up the 
 gulf from that point, with the view of crossing over. And I had 
 not advanced far before I was driven back by a foul wind to the 
 very place which I had just quitted. And as the night was 
 stormy, and as I had lodged that night in the villa of Publius 
 Valerius, my companion and intimate friend, and as I remained 
 all the next day at his house waiting for a fair wind, many of the
 
 328 CICERO 
 
 citizens of the municipality of Rhegium came to me. And of 
 them there were some who had lately arrived from Rome ; from 
 them I first heard of the harangue of Marcus Antonius, with 
 which I was so much pleased that, after I had read it, I began 
 for the first time to think of returning. And long afterward the 
 edict of Brutus and Cassius is brought to me; which (perhaps 
 because I love those men, even more for the sake of the repub- 
 lic than of my own friendship for them) appeared to me, indeed, 
 to be full of equity. They added besides (for it is a very common 
 thing for those who are desirous of bringing good news to in- 
 vent something to make the news which they bring seem more 
 joyful) that parties were coming to an agreement; that the Sen- 
 ate was to meet on the first of August; that Antonius having dis- 
 carded all evil counsellors, and having given up the provinces of 
 Gaul, was about to return to submission to the authority of the 
 Senate. 
 
 But on this I was inflamed with such eagerness to return, that 
 no oars or winds could be fast enough for me ; not that I thought 
 that I should not arrive in time, but lest I should be later than 
 I wished in congratulating the republic; and I quickly arrived 
 at Velia, where I saw Brutus; how grieved I was, I cannot ex- 
 press. For it seemed to be a discreditable thing for me myself, 
 that I should venture to return into that city from which Brutus 
 was departing, and that I should be willing to live safely in a 
 place where he could not. But he himself was not agitated in 
 the same manner that I was; for, being elevated with the con- 
 sciousness of his great and glorious exploit, he had no com- 
 plaints to make of what had befallen him, though he lamented 
 your fate exceedingly. And it was from him that I first heard 
 what had been the language of Lucius Piso, in the Senate of 
 August; who although he was but little assisted (for that I 
 heard from Brutus himself) by those who ought to have sec- 
 onded him, still according to the testimony of Brutus (and what 
 evidence can be more trustworthy?), and to the avowal of every- 
 one whom I saw afterward, appeared to me to have gained great 
 credit. I hastened hither, therefore, in order that as those who 
 were present had not seconded him, I might do so; not with the 
 hope of doing any good, for I neither hoped for that, nor did I 
 well see how it was possible; but in order that if anything hap- 
 pened to me (and many things appeared to be threatening me
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 329 
 
 out of the regular course of nature, and even of destiny), I might 
 still leave my speech on this day as a witness to the republic of 
 my everlasting attachment to its interests. 
 
 Since then, O conscript fathers, I trust that the reason of my 
 adopting each determination appears praiseworthy to you, be- 
 fore I begin to speak of the republic, I will make a brief com- 
 plaint of the injury which Marcus Antonius did me yesterday ; 
 to whom I am friendly, and I have at all times admitted having 
 received some services from him which make it my duty to 
 be so. 
 
 What reason had he then for endeavoring, with such bitter 
 hostility, to force me into the Senate yesterday? Was I the only 
 person who was absent? Have you not repeatedly had thinner 
 houses than yesterday? Or was a matter of such importance 
 under discussion, that it was desirable for even sick men to be 
 brought down? Hannibal, I suppose, was at the gates, or there 
 was to be a debate about peace with Pyrrhus; on which occasion 
 it is related that even the great Appius, old and blind as he was, 
 was brought down to the Senate-house. There was a motion 
 being made about some supplications; a kind of measure when 
 Senators are not usually wanting; for they are under the com- 
 pulsion, not of pledges, but of the influence of those men whose 
 honor is being complimented; and the case is the same when the 
 motion has reference to a triumph. The consuls are so free 
 from anxiety at these times, that it is almost entirely free for a 
 senator to absent himself if he pleases. And as the general cus- 
 tom of our body was well known to me, and as I was hardly re- 
 covered from the fatigue of my journey, and was vexed with 
 myself, I sent a man to him, out of regard for my friendship to 
 him, to tell him that I should not be there. . But he, in the hear- 
 ing of you all, declared that he would come with masons to my 
 house; this was said with too much passion and very intemper- 
 ately. For, for what crime is there such a heavy punishment 
 appointed as that, that anyone should venture to say in this as- 
 sembly that he, with the assistance of a lot of common operatives, 
 would pull down a house which had been built at the public ex- 
 pense in accordance with a vote of the Senate? And who ever 
 employed such compulsion as the threat of such an injury as 
 that to a senator? or what severer punishment has ever been im- 
 posed for absence than the forfeiture of a pledge, or a fine? But
 
 33 o CICERO 
 
 if he had known what opinion I should have delivered on the 
 subject, he would have remitted somewhat of the rigor of his 
 compulsion. 
 
 Do you think, O conscript fathers, that I would have voted 
 for the resolution which you adopted against your own wills, of 
 mingling funeral obsequies with supplications? of introducing 
 inexplicable impiety into the republic? of decreeing supplica- 
 tions in honor of a dead man? I say nothing about who the 
 man was. Even had he been that great Lucius Brutus who him- 
 self also delivered the republic from kingly power, and who has 
 produced posterity nearly five hundred years after himself of 
 similar virtue, and equal to similar achievements even then I 
 could not have been induced to join any dead man in a religious 
 observance paid to the immortal gods; so that a supplication 
 should be addressed by public authority to a man who has no- 
 where a sepulchre at which funeral obsequies may be celebrated. 
 
 I, O conscript fathers, should have delivered my opinion, 
 which I could easily have defended against the Roman people, 
 if any heavy misfortune had happened to the republic, such as 
 war, or pestilence, or famine; some of which, indeed, do exist 
 already, and I have my fears lest others are impending. But I 
 pray that the immortal gods may pardon this act, both to the 
 Roman people, which does not approve of it, and to this order, 
 which voted it with great unwillingness. What? may I not 
 speak of the other misfortunes of the republic? At all events it 
 is in my power, and it always will be in my power, to uphold my 
 own dignity and to despise death. Let me have only the power 
 to come into this house, and I will never shrink from the danger 
 of declaring my opinion ! 
 
 And, O conscript fathers, would that I had been able to be 
 present on the first of August; not that I should have been able 
 to do any good, but to prevent anyone saying that not one sena- 
 tor of consular rank (as was the case then) was found worthy of 
 that honor and worthy of the republic. And this circumstance 
 indeed gives me great pain, that men who have enjoyed the most 
 honorable distinctions which the Roman people can confer, did 
 not second Lucius Piso, the proposer of an excellent opinion. Is 
 it for this that the Roman people made us consuls, that, being 
 placed on the loftiest and most honorable step of dignity, we 
 should consider the republic of no importance? Not only did
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 331 
 
 no single man of consular dignity indicate his agreement with 
 Lucius Piso by his voice, but they did not venture even to look 
 as if they agreed with him. What, in the name of all that is hor- 
 rible, is the meaning of this voluntary slavery? Some submis- 
 sion may have been unavoidable: nor do I require this from 
 every one of the men who deliver their opinions from the con- 
 sular bench; the case of those men whose silence I pardon is 
 different from that of those whose expression of their sentiments 
 I require; and I do grieve that those men have fallen under the 
 suspicion of the Roman people, not only as being afraid which 
 of itself would be shameful enough but as having different pri- 
 vate causes for being wanting to their proper dignity. 
 
 Wherefore, in the first place, I both feel and acknowledge 
 great obligations to Lucius Piso, who considered not what he 
 was able to effect in the republic, but what it was his own duty to 
 do ; and, in the next place, I entreat of you, O conscript fathers, 
 even if you have not quite the courage to agree with my speech 
 and to adopt my advice, at all events to listen to me with kind- 
 ness as you have always hitherto done. 
 
 In the first place, then, I declare my opinion that the acts of 
 Caesar ought to be maintained : not that I approve of them ; (for 
 who indeed can do that?) but because I think that we ought 
 above all things to have regard to peace and tranquillity. I 
 wish that Antonius himself were present, provided he had no 
 advocates with him. But I suppose he may be allowed to feel 
 unwell, a privilege which he refused to allow me yesterday. He 
 would then explain to me, or rather to you, O conscript fathers, 
 to what extent he himself defended the acts of Caesar. Are all 
 the acts of Caesar which may exist in the bits of note-books, and 
 memoranda, and loose papers, produced on his single authority, 
 and indeed not even produced, but only recited, to be ratified? 
 And shall the acts which he caused to be engraved on brass, in 
 which he declared that the edicts and laws passed by the people 
 were valid forever, be considered as of no power? I think, in- 
 deed, that there is nothing so well entitled to be called the acts of 
 Caesar as Caesar's laws. Suppose he gave anyone a promise, is 
 that to be ratified, even if it were a promise that he himself was 
 unable to perform? As, in fact, he has failed to perform many 
 promises made to many people. And a great many more of 
 those promises have been found since his death, than the num-
 
 332 CICERO 
 
 her of all the services which he conferred on and did to people 
 during all the years that he was alive would amount to. 
 
 But all those things I do not change, I do not meddle with. 
 Nay, I defend all his good acts with the greatest earnestness. 
 Would that the money remained in the temple of Opis! Blood- 
 stained, indeed, it may be, but still needful at these times, since 
 it is not restored to those to whom it really belongs. Let that, 
 however, be squandered too, if it is so written in his acts. Is 
 there anything whatever that can be called so peculiarly the act 
 of that man who, while clad in the robe of peace, was yet invested 
 with both civil and military command in the republic, as a law 
 of his? Ask for the acts of Gracchus, the Sempronian laws will 
 be brought forward ; ask for those of Sylla, you will have the 
 Cornelian laws. What more? In what acts did the third con- 
 sulship of Cnaeus Pompeius consist? Why, in his laws. And 
 if you could ask Caesar himself what he had done in the city and 
 in the garb of peace, he would reply that he had passed many 
 excellent laws; but his memoranda he would either alter or not 
 produce at all; or, if he did produce them, he would not class 
 them among his acts. But, however, I allow even these things 
 to pass for acts; at some things I am content to wink; but I 
 thing it intolerable that the acts of Caesar in the most important 
 instances, that is to say, in his laws, are to be annulled for their 
 sake. 
 
 What law was ever better, more advantageous, more frequent- 
 ly demanded in the best ages of the republic, than the one which 
 forbade the praetorian provinces to be retained more than a year, 
 and the consular provinces more than two? If this law be abro- 
 gated, do you think that the acts of Caesar are maintained? 
 What? Are not all the laws of Caesar respecting judicial pro- 
 ceedings abrogated by the law which has been proposed concern- 
 ing the third decury? And are you the defenders of the acts of 
 Caesar who overturn his laws? Unless, indeed, anything which, 
 for the purpose of recollecting it, he entered in a note-book, is to 
 be counted among his acts, and defended, however unjust or use- 
 less it may be; and that which he proposed to the people in the 
 comitia centuriata and carried, is not to be accounted one of the 
 acts of Caesar. But what is that third decury? The decury of 
 centurions, says he. What? Was not the judicature open to 
 that order by the Julian law, and even before that by the Pom-
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONlUS 333 
 
 peian and Aurelian laws? The income of the men, says he, was 
 exactly defined. Certainly, not only in the case of a centurion, 
 but in the case, too, of a Roman knight. Therefore, men of the 
 highest honor and of the greatest bravery, who have acted as 
 centurions, are and have been judges. I am not asking about 
 those men, says he. Whoever has acted as centurion, let him 
 be a judge. But if you were to propose a law, that whoever 
 had served in the cavalry, which is a higher post, should be a 
 judge, you would not be able to induce anyone to approve of 
 that; for a man's fortune and worth ought to be regarded in a 
 judge. I am not asking about those points, says he; I am 
 going to add as judges, common soldiers of the legion of Alau- 
 dae; 5 for our friends say, that that is the only measure by which 
 they can be saved. Oh, what an insulting compliment it is to 
 those men whom you summon to act as judges though they 
 never expected it! For the effect of the law is, to make those 
 men judges in the third decury who do not dare to judge with 
 freedom. And in that how great, O ye immortal gods! is the 
 error of those men who have desired that law. For the meaner 
 the condition of each judge is, the greater will be the severity of 
 judgment with which he will seek to efface the idea of his mean- 
 ness; and he will strive rather to appear worthy of being classed 
 in the honorable decuries, than to have deservedly ranked in a 
 disreputable one. 
 
 Another law was proposed, that men who had been con- 
 demned of violence and treason may appeal to the public if they 
 please. Is this now a law, or rather an abrogation of all laws? 
 For who is there at this day to whom it is an object that that law 
 should stand? No one is accused under those laws; there is no 
 one whom we think likely to be so accused. For measures 
 which have been carried by force of arms will certainly never be 
 impeached in a court of justice. But the measure is a popular 
 one. I wish, indeed, that you were willing to promote any 
 popular measure; for, at present, all the citizens agree with one 
 mind and one voice in their view of its bearing on the safety of 
 the republic. 
 
 What is the meaning, then, of the eagerness to pass the law 
 which brings with it the greatest possible infamy, and no popu- 
 larity at all? For what can be more discreditable than for a 
 
 This was the name of a legion raised ably, from the ornament worn on their 
 by Caesar in Gaul, and called so, prob- helmets.
 
 334 
 
 CICERO 
 
 man who has committed treason against the Roman people by 
 acts of violence, after he has been condemned by a legal decision, 
 to be able to return to that very course of violence, on account of 
 which he has been condemned? But why do I argue any more 
 about this law? as if the object aimed at were to enable anyone 
 to appeal. The object is, the inevitable consequence must be, 
 that no one can ever be prosecuted under those laws. For what 
 prosecutor will be found insane enough to be willing, after the 
 defendant has been condemned, to expose himself to the fury of 
 a hired mob? or what judge will be bold enough to venture 
 to condemn a criminal, knowing that he will immediately be 
 dragged before a gang of hireling operatives? It is not, there- 
 fore, a right of appeal that is given by that law, but two most 
 salutary laws and modes of judicial investigation that are abol- 
 ished. And what is this but exhorting young men to be turbu- 
 lent, seditious, mischievous citizens? 
 
 To what extent of mischief will it not be possible to instigate 
 the frenzy of the tribunes, now that these two rights of impeach- 
 ment for violence and for treason are annulled? What more? 
 Is not this a substitution of a new law for the laws of Caesar, 
 which enact that every man who has been convicted of violence, 
 and also every man who has been convicted of treason, shall be 
 interdicted from fire and water? And, when those men have a 
 right of appeal given them, are not the acts of Caesar rescinded? 
 And those acts, O conscript fathers, I, who never approved of 
 them, have still thought it advisable to maintain for the sake of 
 concord; so that I not only did not think that the laws which 
 Caesar had passed in his lifetime ought to be repealed, but I did 
 not approve of meddling with those even which since the death 
 of Caesar you have seen produced and published. 
 
 Men have been recalled from banishment by a dead man ; the 
 freedom of the city has been conferred, not only on individuals, 
 but on entire nations and provinces by a dead man ; our reve- 
 nues have been diminished by the granting of countless exemp- 
 tions by a dead man. Therefore, do we defend these measures 
 which have been brought from his house on the authority of a 
 single, but, I admit, a very excellent individual ; and as for the 
 laws which he, in your presence, read, and declared, and passed 
 in the passing of which he gloried, and on which he believed 
 that the safety of the republic depended, especially those con-
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 335 
 
 earning provinces and concerning judicial proceedings can we, 
 I say, we who defend the acts of Caesar, think that those laws de- 
 serve to be upset? 
 
 And yet, concerning those laws which were proposed, we 
 have, at all events, the power of complaining; but concerning 
 those which are actually passed we have not even had that privi- 
 lege. For they, without any proposal of them to the people, 
 were passed before they were framed. Men ask, what is the 
 reason why I, or why any one of you, O conscript fathers, should 
 be afraid of bad laws while we have virtuous tribunes of the 
 people? We have men ready to interpose their veto; ready to 
 defend the republic with the sanctions of religion. We ought to 
 be strangers to fear. What do you mean by interposing the 
 veto? says he; what are all these sanctions of religion which you 
 are talking about? Those, forsooth, on which the safety of the 
 republic depends. We are neglecting those things, and think- 
 ing them too old-fashioned and foolish. The forum will be sur- 
 rounded, every entrance of it will be blocked up; armed men will 
 be placed in garrison, as it were, at many points. What then? 
 Whatever is accomplished by those means will be law. And 
 you will order, I suppose, all those regularly passed decrees to be 
 engraved on brazen tablets. " The consuls consulted the people 
 in regular form," (Is this the way of consulting the people that 
 we have received from our ancestors?) " and the people voted it 
 with due regularity." What people? that which was excluded 
 from the forum? Under what law did they do so? under that 
 which has been wholly abrogated by violence and arms? But I 
 am saying all this with reference to the future; because it is the 
 part of a friend to point out evils which may be avoided : and if 
 they never ensue, that will be the best refutation of my speech. 
 I am speaking of laws which have been proposed; concerning 
 which you have still full power to decide either way. I am 
 pointing out the defects; away with them! I am denouncing 
 violence and arms; away with them too! 
 
 You and your colleague, O Dolabella, ought not, indeed, to 
 be angry with me for speaking in defence of the republic. Al- 
 though I do not think that you yourself will be; I know your 
 willingness to listen to reason. They say that your colleague, in 
 this fortune of his, which he himself thinks so good, but which 
 would seem to me more favorable if (not to use any harsh Ian-
 
 33 6 CICERO 
 
 guage) he were to imitate the example set him by the consulship 
 of his grandfathers and of his uncle they say that he has been 
 exceedingly offended. And I see what a formidable thing it is 
 to have the same man angry with me and also armed; espe- 
 cially at a time when men can use their swords with such im- 
 punity. But I will propose a condition which I myself think 
 reasonable, and which I do not imagine Marcus Antonius will 
 reject. If I have said anything insulting against his way of life 
 or against his morals, I will not object to his being my bitterest 
 enemy. But if I have maintained the same habits that I have 
 already adopted in the republic that is, if I have spoken my 
 opinions concerning the affairs of the republic with freedom in 
 the first place, I beg that he will not be angry with me for that; 
 but, in the next place, if I cannot obtain my first request, I beg 
 at least that he will show his anger only as he legitimately may 
 show it to a fellow-citizen. 
 
 Let him employ arms, if it is necessary, as he says it is, for his 
 own defence: only let not those arms injure those men who have 
 declared their honest sentiments in the affairs of the republic. 
 Now, what can be more reasonable than this demand? But if, as 
 has been said to me by some of his intimate friends, every speech 
 which is at all contrary to his inclination is violently offensive to 
 him, even if there be no insult in it whatever; then we will bear 
 with the natural disposition of our friend. But those men, at 
 the same time, say to me, " You will not have the same license 
 granted to you who are the adversary of Caesar as might be 
 claimed by Piso his father-in-law." And then they warn me of 
 something which I must guard against; and certainly, the ex- 
 cuse which sickness supplies me with, for not coming to the 
 Senate, will not be a more valid one than that which is furnished 
 by death. 
 
 But, in the name of the immortal gods! for while I look upon 
 you, O Dolabella, who are most dear to me, it is impossible for 
 me to keep silence respecting the error into which you are both 
 falling; for I believe that you, being both men of high birth, en- 
 tertaining lofty views, have been eager to acquire, not money, as 
 some too credulous people suspect, a thing which has at all 
 times been scorned by every honorable and illustrious man, nor 
 power procured by violence and authority such as never ought 
 to be endured by the Roman people, but the affection of your
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 337 
 
 fellow-citizens, and glory. But glory is praise for deeds which 
 have been done, and the fame earned by great services to the re- 
 public; which is approved of by the testimony borne in its favor, 
 not only by every virtuous man, but also by the multitude. I 
 would tell you, O Dolabella, what the fruit of good actions is, if 
 I did not see that you have already learned it by experience be- 
 yond all other men. 
 
 What day can you recollect in your whole life, as ever having 
 beamed on you with a more joyful light than the one on which, 
 having purified the forum, having routed the throng of wicked 
 men, having inflicted due punishment on the ringleaders in 
 wickedness, and having delivered the city from conflagration 
 and from fear of massacre, you returned to your house? What 
 order of society, what class of people, what rank of nobles even 
 was there who did not then show their zeal in praising and con- 
 gratulating you? Even I, too, because men thought that you 
 had been acting by my advice in those transactions, received the 
 thanks and congratulations of good men in your name. Re- 
 member, I pray you, O Dolabella, the unanimity displayed on 
 that day in the theatre, when everyone, forgetful of the causes 
 on account of which they had been previously offended with you, 
 showed that in consequence of your recent service they had 
 banished all recollection of their former indignation. Could 
 you, O Delabella (it is with great concern that I speak) could 
 you, I say, forfeit this dignity with equanimity? 
 
 And you, O Marcus Antonius (I address myself to you, 
 though in your absence), do you not prefer that day on which 
 the Senate was assembled in the temple of Tellus, to all those 
 months during which some who differ greatly in opinion from 
 me think that you have been happy? What a noble speech was 
 that of yours about unanimity ! From what apprehensions were 
 the veterans, and from what anxiety was the whole state relieved 
 by you on that occasion! when, having laid aside your enmity 
 against him, you on that day first consented that your present 
 colleague should be your colleague, forgetting that the auspices 
 had been announced by yourself as augur of the Roman people; 
 and when your little son was sent by you to the Capitol to be a 
 hostage for peace. On what day was the Senate ever more joy- 
 ful than on that day? or when was the Roman people more de- 
 lighted? which had never met in greater numbers in any assem-
 
 33 8 CICERO 
 
 bly whatever. Then, at last, we did appear to have been really 
 delivered by brave men, because, as they had willed it to be, 
 peace was following liberty. On the next day, on the day after 
 that, on the third day, and on all the following days, you went 
 on without intermission, giving every day, as it were, some fresh 
 present to the republic; but the greatest of all presents was that, 
 when you abolished the name of the dictatorship. This was in 
 effect branding the name of the dead Caesar with everlasting 
 ignominy, and it was your doing yours, I say. For as, on ac- 
 count of the wickedness of one Marcus Manlius, by a resolution 
 of the Manlian family it is unlawful that any patrician should be 
 called Manlius, so you, on account of the hatred excited by one 
 dictator, have utterly abolished the name of dictator. 
 
 When you had done these mighty exploits for the safety of 
 the republic, did you repent of your fortune, or of the dignity 
 and renown and glory which you had acquired? Whence then 
 is this sudden change? I cannot be induced to suspect that 
 you have been caught by the desire of acquiring money; every 
 one may say what he pleases, but we are not bound to believe 
 such a thing; for I never saw anything sordid or anything mean 
 in you. Although a man's intimate friends do sometimes cor- 
 rupt his natural disposition, still I know your firmness; and I 
 only wish that, as you avoid that fault, you had been able also to 
 escape all suspicion of it. 
 
 What I am more afraid of is lest, being ignorant of the true 
 path to glory, you should think it glorious for you to have more 
 power by yourself than all the rest of the people put together, 
 and lest you should prefer being feared by your fellow-citizens 
 to being loved by them. And if you do think so, you are ignor- 
 ant of the road to glory. For a citizen to be dear to his fellow- 
 citizens, to deserve well of the republic, to be praised, to be re- 
 spected, to be loved, is glorious ; but to be feared, and to be an 
 object of hatred, is odious, detestable; and, moreover, pregnant 
 with weakness and decay. And we see that, even in the play, 
 the very man who said, 
 
 " What care I though all men should hate my name, 
 So long as fear accompanies their hate? " 
 
 found that it was a mischievous principle to act upon. 
 
 I wish, O Antonius, that you could recollect your grandfather,
 
 FIRST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 339 
 
 of whom, however, you have repeatedly heard me speak. Do 
 you think that he would have been willing to deserve even im- 
 mortality, at the price of being feared in consequence of his 
 licentious use of arms? What he considered life, what he con- 
 sidered prosperity, was the being equal to the rest of the citizens 
 in freedom, and chief of them all in worth. Therefore, to say 
 no more of the prosperity of your grandfather, I should prefer 
 that most bitter day of his death to the domination of Lucius 
 Cinna, by whom he was most barbarously slain. 
 
 But why should I seek to make an impression on you by my 
 speech? For, if the end of Caius Caesar cannot influence you 
 to prefer being loved to being feared, no speech of anyone will 
 do any good or have any influence with you; and those who 
 think him happy are themselves miserable. No one is happy 
 who lives on such terms that he may be put to death not merely 
 with impunity, but even to the great glory of his slayer. Where- 
 fore, change your mind, I entreat you, and look back upon your 
 ancestors, and govern the republic in such a way that your fel- 
 low-citizens may rejoice that you were born; without which no 
 one can be happy nor illustrious. 
 
 And, indeed, you have both of you had many judgments de- 
 livered respecting you by the Roman people, by which I am 
 greatly concerned that you are not sufficiently influenced. For 
 what was the meaning of the shouts of the innumerable crowd of 
 citizens collected at the gladiatorial games? or of the verses 
 made by the people? or of the extraordinary applause at the 
 sight of the statue of Pompeius? and at that sight of the two 
 tribunes of the people who are opposed to you? Are these 
 things a feeble indication of the incredible unanimity of the en- 
 tire Roman people? What more? Did the applause at the 
 games of Apollo, or, I should rather say, testimony and judg- 
 ment there given by the Roman people, appear to you of small 
 importance? Oh, happy are those men who, though they 
 themselves were unable to be present on account of the violence 
 of arms, still were present in spirit, and had a place in the breasts 
 and hearts of the Roman people. Unless, perhaps, you think 
 that it was Accius who was applauded on that occasion, and who 
 bore off the palm sixty years after his first appearance, and not 
 Brutus, who was absent from the games which he himself was 
 exhibiting, while at that most splendid spectacle the Roman
 
 34 o CICERO 
 
 people showed their zeal in his favor though he was absent, and 
 soothed their own regret for their deliverer by uninterrupted 
 applause and clamor. 
 
 I myself, indeed, am a man who have at all times despised that 
 applause which is bestowed by the vulgar crowd, but at the same 
 time, when it is bestowed by those of the highest, and of the mid- 
 dle, and of the lowest rank, and, in short, by all ranks together, 
 and when those men who were previously accustomed to aim at 
 nothing but the favor of the people keep aloof, I then think that, 
 not mere applause, but a deliberate verdict. If this appears to 
 you unimportant, which is in reality most significant, do you 
 also despise the fact of which you have had experience namely, 
 that the life of Aulus Hirtius is so dear to the Roman people? 
 For it was sufficient for him to be esteemed by the Roman people 
 as he is; to be popular' among his friends, in which respect he 
 surpasses everybody; to be beloved by his own kinsmen, who do 
 love him beyond measure; but in whose case before do we ever 
 recollect such anxiety and such fear being manifested? Cer- 
 tainly in no one's. 
 
 What, then, are we to do? In the name of the immortal 
 gods, can you interpret these facts, and see what is their purport? 
 What do you think that those men think of your lives, to whom 
 the lives of those men who they hope will consult the welfare of 
 the republic are so dear? I have reaped, O conscript fathers, 
 the reward of my return, since I have said enough to bear testi- 
 mony of my consistency whatever event may befall me, and 
 since I have been kindly and attentively listened to by you. 
 And if I have such opportunities frequently without exposing 
 both myself and you to danger, I shall avail myself of them. If 
 not, as far as I can I shall reserve myself not for myself, but 
 rather for the republic. I have lived long enough for the course 
 of human life, or for my own glory. If any additional life is 
 granted to me, it shall be bestowed not so much on myself as on 
 you and on the republic.
 
 THE SECOND ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Second Philippic
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 This second speech was not actually spoken at all. Antonius was 
 greatly enraged at the first speech, and summoned another meeting 
 of the Senate for the nineteenth day of the month, giving Cicero 
 especial notice to be present, and he employed the interval in prepar- 
 ing an invective against Cicero, and a reply to the first Philippic. The 
 Senate met in the temple of Concord, but Cicero himself was per- 
 suaded not to attend by his friends, who were afraid of Antonius 
 proceeding to actual violence against him (and indeed he brought a 
 strong guard of armed men with him to the Senate). He spoke with 
 the greatest fury against Cicero, charging him with having been the 
 principal author and contriver of Caesar's murder, hoping by this to 
 inflame the soldiers, whom he had posted within hearing of his 
 harangue. 
 
 Soon after this Cicero removed to a villa near Naples for greater 
 safety, and here he composed this second Philippic, which he did 
 not publish immediately, but contented himself at first with sending 
 a copy to Brutus and Cassius, wh^ were much pleased with it. 
 
 342
 
 THE SECOND ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Second Philippic 
 
 TO what destiny of mine, O conscript fathers, shall I say 
 that it is owing, that none for the last twenty years has 
 been an enemy to the republic without at the same time 
 declaring war against me? Nor is there any necessity for 
 naming any particular person; you yourselves recollect in- 
 stances in proof of my statement. They have all hitherto suf- 
 fered severer punishments than I could have wished for them ; 
 but I marvel that you, O Antonius, do not fear the end of those 
 men whose conduct you are imitating. And in others I was 
 less surprised at this. None of those men of former times was 
 a voluntary enemy to me ; all of them were attacked by me for 
 the sake of the republic. But you, who have never been injured 
 by me, not even by a word, in order to appear more audacious 
 than Catiline, more frantic than Clodius, have of your own 
 accord attacked me with abuse, and have considered that your 
 alienation from me would be a recommendation of you to im- 
 pious citizens. 
 
 What am I to think? that I have been despised? I see 
 nothing either in my life, or in my influence in the city, or in 
 my exploits, or even in the moderate abilities with which I am 
 endowed, which Antonius can despise. Did he think that it 
 was easiest to disparage me in the Senate? a body which has 
 borne its testimony in favor of many most illustrious citizens 
 that they governed the republic well, but in favor of me alone, 
 of all men, that I preserved it. Or did he wish to contend 
 with me in a rivalry of eloquence? This, indeed, is an act 
 of generosity? for what could be a more fertile or richer sub- 
 ject for me, than to have to speak in defence of myself, and 
 against Antonius? This, in fact, is the truth. He thought 
 
 343
 
 344 
 
 CICERO 
 
 it impossible to prove to the satisfaction of those men who re- 
 sembled himself, that he was an enemy to his country, if he 
 was not also an enemy to me. And before I make him any 
 reply on the other topics of his speech, I will say a few words 
 respecting the friendship formerly subsisting between us, which 
 he has accused me of violating, for that I consider a most 
 serious charge. 
 
 He has complained that I pleaded once against his inter- 
 est. Was I not to plead against one with whom I was quite 
 unconnected, in behalf of an intimate acquaintance, of a dear 
 friend? Was I not to plead against interest acquired not by 
 hopes of virtue, but by the disgrace of youth? Was I not to 
 plead against an injustice which that man procured to be done 
 by the obsequiousness of a most iniquitous interposer of his 
 veto, not by any law regulating the privileges of the praetor? 
 But I imagine that this was mentioned by you, in order that 
 you might recommend yourself to the citizens, if they all rec- 
 ollected that you were the son-in-law of a freedman, and that 
 your children were the grandsons of Quintus Fadius, a freed- 
 man. 
 
 But you had entirely devoted yourself to my principles (for 
 this is what you said) ; you had been in the habit of com- 
 ing to my house. In truth, if you had done so, you would 
 more have consulted your own character and your reputation 
 for chastity. But you did not do so, nor, if you had wished it, 
 would Caius Curio have ever suffered you to do so. You have 
 said that you retired in my favor from the contest for the au- 
 gurship. Oh, the incredible audacity! oh, the monstrous im- 
 prudence of such an assertion ! For, at the time when Cnaeus 
 Pompeius and Quintus Hortensius named me as augur, after 
 I had been wished for as such by the whole college (for it 
 was not lawful for me to be put in nomination by more than 
 two members of the college), you were notoriously insolvent, 
 nor did you think it possible for your safety to be secured by 
 any other means than by the destruction of the republic. But 
 was it possible for you to stand for the augurship at a time 
 when Curio was not in Italy? or even at the time when you 
 were elected, could you have got the votes of one single tribe 
 without the aid of Curio? whose intimate friends even were 
 convicted of violence for having been too zealous in your favor.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 345 
 
 But I availed myself of your friendly assistance. Of what 
 assistance? Although the instance which you cite I have my- 
 self at all times openly admitted. I preferred confessing that 
 I was under obligations to you, to letting myself appear to 
 any foolish person not sufficiently grateful. However, what 
 was the kindness that you did me? not killing me at Brun- 
 dusium? Would you then have slain the man whom the con- 
 queror himself, who conferred on you, as you used to boast, 
 the chief rank among all his robbers, had desired to be safe, 
 and had enjoined to go to Italy? Grant that you could have 
 slain him, is not this, O conscript fathers, such a kindness as 
 is done by banditti, who are contented with being able to boast 
 that they have granted their lives to all those men whose lives 
 they have not taken? and if that were really a kindness, then 
 those who slew that man by whom they themselves had been 
 saved, and whom you yourself are in the habit of styling most 
 illustrious men, would never have acquired such immortal 
 glory. But what sort of kindness is it, to have abstained from 
 committing nefarious wickedness? It is a case in which it 
 ought not to appear so delightful to me not to have been killed 
 by you, as miserable, that it should have been in your power 
 to do such a thing with impunity. However, grant that it 
 was a kindness, since no greater kindness could be received 
 from a robber, still in what point can you call me ungrateful? 
 Ought I not to complain of the ruin of the republic, lest I 
 should appear ungrateful toward you? But in that com- 
 plaint, mournful indeed and miserable, but still unavoidable 
 for a man of that rank in which the Senate and people of Rome 
 have placed me, what did I say that was insulting? that was 
 otherwise than moderate? that was otherwise than friendly? 
 and what instance was it not of moderation to complain of 
 the conduct of Marcus Antonius, and yet to abstain from any 
 abusive expressions ? especially when you had scattered abroad 
 all relics of the republic ; when everything was on sale at your 
 house by the most infamous traffic; when you confessed that 
 those laws which had never been promulgated, had been passed 
 with reference to you, and by you ; when you, being augur, 
 had abolished the auspices, being consul, had taken away the 
 power of interposing the veto ; when you were escorted in the 
 most shameful manner by armed guards ; when, worn out with
 
 34 6 CICERO 
 
 drunkenness and debauchery, you were every day performing 
 all sorts of obscenities in that chaste house of yours. But 1, 
 as if I had to contend against Marcus Crassus, with whom I 
 have had many severe struggles, and not with a most worth- 
 less gladiator, while complaining in dignified language of the 
 state of the republic, did not say one word which could be 
 called personal. Therefore, to-day I will make him under- 
 stand with what great kindness he was then treated by me. 
 
 But he also read letters which he said that I had sent to 
 him, like a man devoid of humanity and ignorant of the 
 common usages of life. For who ever, who was even but 
 slightly acquainted with the habits of polite men, produced in 
 an assembly and openly read letters which had been sent to 
 him by a friend, just because some quarrel had arisen between 
 them? It not this destroying all companionship in life, de- 
 stroying the means by which absent friends converse together ? 
 How many jests are frequently put in letters, which, if they 
 were produced in public, would appear stupid! How many 
 serious opinions, which, for all that, ought not to be published ! 
 Let this be a proof of your utter ignorance of courtesy. Now 
 mark, also, his incredible folly. What have you to oppose 
 to me, O you eloquent man, as you seem at least to Mus- 
 tela Tamisius, and to Tiro Numisius? And while these men 
 are standing at this very time in the sight of the Senate with 
 drawn swords, I too will think you an eloquent man if you 
 will show how you would defend them if they were charged 
 with being assassins. However, what answer would you make 
 if I were to deny that I ever sent those letters to you? By 
 what evidence could you convict me ? by my handwriting? Of 
 handwriting indeed you have a lucrative knowledge. 1 How 
 can you prove it in that manner? for the letters are written 
 by an amanuensis. By this time I envy your teacher, who 
 for all that payment, which I shall mention presently, has 
 taught you to know nothing. 
 
 For what can be less like, I do not say an orator, but a man, 
 than to reproach an adversary with a thing which if he denies 
 by one single word, he who has reproached him cannot ad- 
 vance one step further? But I do not deny it; and in this 
 very point I convict you not only of inhumanity, but also of 
 
 1 He means to insinuate that Antonius had been forging Caesar's handwriting 
 and signature.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 347 
 
 madness. For what expression is there in those letters which 
 is not full of humanity and service and benevolence? and the 
 whole of your charge amounts to this, that I do not express a 
 bad opinion of you in those letters; that in them I wrote as 
 to a citizen, and as to a virtuous man, not as to a wicked man 
 and a robber. But your letters I will not produce, although 
 I fairly might, now that I am thus challenged by you ; letters 
 in which you beg of me that you may be enabled by my con- 
 sent to procure the recall of someone from exile ; and you 
 will not attempt it if I have any objection, and you prevail 
 on me by your entreaties. For why should I put myself in 
 the way of your audacity? when neither the authority of this 
 body, nor the opinion of the Roman people, nor any laws are 
 able to restrain you. However, what was the object of your 
 addressing these entreaties to me, if the man for whom you 
 were entreating was already restored by a law of Caesar's? I 
 suppose the truth was that he wished it to be done by me 
 as a favor; in which matter there could not be any favor 
 done even by himself, if a law was already passed for the 
 purpose. 
 
 But as, O conscript fathers, I have many things which 
 I must say both in my own defence and against Marcus An- 
 tonius, one thing I ask you, that you will listen to me with 
 kindness while I am speaking for myself ; the other I will in- 
 sure myself, namely, that you shall listen to me with attention 
 while speaking against him. At the same time also, I beg 
 this of you ; that if you have been acquainted with my mod- 
 eration and modesty throughout my whole life, and especially 
 as a speaker, you will not, when to-day I answer this man in 
 the spirit in which he has attacked me, think that I have for- 
 gotten my usual character. I will not treat him as a consul, 
 for he did not treat me as a man of consular rank; and al- 
 though he in no respect deserves to be considered a consul, 
 whether we regard his way of life, or his principle of govern- 
 ing the republic, or the manner in which he was elected, I am 
 beyond all dispute a man of consular rank. 
 
 That, therefore, you might understand what sort of a con- 
 sul he professed to be himself, he reproached me with my 
 consulship a consulship which, O conscript fathers, was in 
 name, indeed, mine, but in reality yours. For what did I de-
 
 34 8 CICERO 
 
 termine, what did I contrive, what did I do, that was not de- 
 termined, contrived, or done, by the counsel and authority and 
 in accordance with the sentiments of this order? And have 
 you, O wise man, O man not merely eloquent, dared to find 
 fault with these actions before the very men by whose counsel 
 and wisdom they were performed? But who was ever found 
 before, except Publius Clodius, to find fault with my consul- 
 ship? And his fate indeed awaits you, as it also awaited 
 Caius Curio ; since that is now in your house which was fatal 
 to each of them. 2 
 
 Marcus Antonius disapproves of my consulship ; but it was 
 approved of by Publius Servilius to name that man first of 
 the men of consular rank who had died most recently. It was 
 approved of by Quintus Catulus, whose authority will always 
 carry weight in this republic ; it was approved of by the two 
 Luculli, by Marcus Crassus, by Quintus Hortensius, by Caius 
 Curio, by Caius Piso, by Marcus Glabrio, by Marcus Lepidus, 
 by Lucius Volcatius, by Caius Figulus, by Decimus Silanus 
 and Lucius Murena, who at that time were the consuls elect; 
 the same consulship also which was approved of by those men 
 of consular rank, was approved of by Marcus Cato ; who es- 
 caped many evils by departing from this life, and especially 
 the evil of seeing you consul. But, above all, my consulship 
 was approved of by Cnaeus Pompeius, who, when he first saw 
 me, as he was leaving Syria, embracing me and congratulating 
 me, said, that it was owing to my services that he was about 
 to see his country again. But why should I mention individ- 
 uals ? It was approved of by the Senate, in a very full house, 
 so completely, that there was no one who did not thank me 
 as if I had been his parent, who did not attribute to me the 
 salvation of his life, of his fortunes, of his children, and of the 
 republic. 
 
 But, since the republic has been now deprived of those 
 men whom I have named, many and illustrious as they were, 
 let us come to the living, since two of the men of consular 
 rank are still left to us : Lucius Cotta, a man of the greatest 
 genius and the most consummate prudence, proposed a sup- 
 plication in my honor for those very actions with which you 
 
 * Fulvia, who had been the wife of Clodius, and afterward of Curio, was 
 now the wife of Antonius.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 349 
 
 find fault, in the most complimentary language, and those very 
 men of consular rank whom I have named, and the whole Sen- 
 ate, adopted his proposal ; an honor which has never been paid 
 to anyone else in the garb of peace from the foundation of 
 the city to my time. With what eloquence, with what firm 
 wisdom, with what a weight of authority did Lucius Caesar, 
 your uncle, pronounce his opinion against the husband of his 
 own sister, your step-father. But you, when you ought to have 
 taken him as your adviser and tutor in all your designs, and 
 in the whole conduct of your life, preferred being like your 
 step-father to resembling your uncle. I, who had no connec- 
 tion with him, acted by his counsels while I was consul. Did 
 you, who were his sister's son, ever once consult him on the 
 affairs of the republic ? 
 
 But who are they whom Antonius does consult? O ye im- 
 mortal gods, they are men whose birth-days we have still to 
 learn. To-day Antonius is not coming down. Why? He is 
 celebrating the birth-day feast at his villa. In whose honor? 
 I will name no one. Suppose it is. in honor of some Phormio, 
 or Gnatho, or even Ballio. 3 Oh, the abominable profligacy 
 of the man ! oh, how intolerable is his impudence, his debauch- 
 ery, and his lust ! Can you, when you have one of the chiefs 
 of the Senate, a citizen of singular virtue, so nearly related to 
 you, abstain from ever consulting him on the affairs of the re- 
 public, and consult men who have no property whatever of 
 their own, and are draining yours ? 
 
 Yes, your consulship, forsooth, is a salutary one for the 
 state, mine a mischievous one. Have you so entirely lost all 
 shame as well as all chastity, that you could venture to say 
 this in that temple in which I was consulting that Senate 
 which formerly in the full enjoyment of its honors presided 
 over the world? And did you place around it abandoned 
 men armed with swords? But you have dared besides (what 
 is there which you would not dare?) to say that the Capito- 
 line Hill, when I was consul, was full of armed slaves. I was 
 offering violence to the Senate, I suppose, in order to com- 
 pel the adoption of those infamous decrees of the Senate. O 
 wretched man, whether those things are not known to you 
 (for you know nothing that is good), or whether they are, 
 
 * These were the names of slaves.
 
 350 CICERO 
 
 when you dare to speak so shamelessly before such men ! For 
 what Roman knight was there, what youth of noble birth ex- 
 cept you, what man of any rank or class who recollected that 
 he was a citizen, who was not on the Capitoline Hill while 
 the Senate was assembled in this temple ? who was there, who 
 did not give in his name? Although there could not be pro- 
 vided checks enough, nor were the books able to contain their 
 names. 
 
 In truth, when wicked men, being compelled by the reve- 
 lations of the accomplices, by their own handwriting, and by 
 what I may almost call the voices of their letters, were con- 
 fessing that they had planned the parricidal destruction of their 
 country, and that they had agreed to burn the city, to massacre 
 the citizens, to devastate Italy, to destroy the republic; who 
 could have existed without being roused to defend the com- 
 mon safety? especially when the Senate and people of Rome 
 had a leader then ; and if they had one now like he was then, 
 the same fate would befall you which did overtake them. 
 
 He asserts that the body of his step-father was not allowed 
 burial by me. But this is an assertion that was never made 
 by Publius Clodius, a man whom, as I was deservedly an en- 
 emy of his, I grieve now to see surpassed by you in every sort 
 of vice. But how could it occur to you to recall to our rec- 
 ollection that you had been educated in the house of Publius 
 Lentulus? Were you afraid that we might think that you 
 could have turned out as infamous as you are by the mere 
 force of nature, if your natural qualities had not been strength- 
 ened by education ? 
 
 But you are so senseless that throughout the whole of 
 your speech you were at variance with yourself; so that you 
 said things which had not only no coherence with each other, 
 but which were most inconsistent with and contradictory to 
 one another ; so that there was not so much opposition between 
 you and me as there was between you and yourself. You 
 confessed that your step-father had been implicated in that 
 enormous wickedness, yet you complained that he had had 
 punishment inflicted on him. And by doing so you praised 
 what was peculiarly my achievement, and blamed that which 
 was wholly the act of the Senate. For the detection and ar- 
 rest of the guilty parties was my work, their punishment was
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 35! 
 
 the work of the Senate. But that eloquent man does not 
 perceive that the man against whom he is speaking is being 
 praised by him, and that those before whom he is speaking 
 are being attacked by him. But now what an act, I will not 
 say of audacity (for he is anxious to be audacious), but (and 
 that is what he is not desirous of) what an act of folly, in 
 which he surpasses all men, is it to make mention of the Cap- 
 itoline Hill, at a time when armed men are actually between 
 our benches when men, armed with swords, are now stationed 
 in this same temple of Concord, O ye immortal gods, in which, 
 while I was consul, opinions most salutary to the state were 
 delivered, owing to which it is that we are all alive at this day. 
 Accuse the Senate; accuse the equestrian body, which at 
 that time was united with the Senate; accuse every order of 
 society, and all the citizens, as long as you confess that this 
 assembly at this very moment is besieged by Ityrean 4 soldiers. 
 It is not so much a proof of audacity to advance these state- 
 ments so impudently, as of utter want of sense to be unable 
 to see their contradictory nature. For what is more insane 
 than, after you yourself have taken up arms to do mischief to 
 the republic, to reproach another with having taken them up 
 to secure its safety? On one occasion you attempted even to 
 be witty. O ye good gods, how little did that attempt suit 
 you ! And yet you are a little to be blamed for your failure 
 in that instance, too. For you might have got some wit from 
 your wife, who was an actress. " Arms to the gown must 
 yield." Well, have they not yielded? But afterward the 
 gown yielded to your arms. Let us inquire then whether it 
 was better for the arms of wicked men to yield to the free- 
 dom of the Roman people, or that our liberty should yield to 
 your arms. Nor will I make any further reply to you about 
 the verses. I will only say briefly that you do not understand 
 them, nor any other literature whatever. That I have never 
 at any time been wanting to the claims that either the repub- 
 lic or my friends had upon me; but nevertheless that in all 
 the different sorts of composition on which I have employed 
 myself, during my leisure hours, I have always endeavored to 
 make my labors and my writings such as to be some advan- 
 tage to our youth, and some credit to the Roman name. But, 
 
 * Ityra was a town at the foot of Mount Taurus.
 
 352 
 
 CICERO 
 
 however, all this has nothing to do with the present occasion. 
 Let us consider more important matters. 
 
 You have said that Publius Clodius was slain by my con- 
 trivance. What would men have thought if he had been 
 slain at the time when you pursued him in the forum with a 
 drawn sword, in the sight of all the Roman people ; and when 
 you would have settled his business if he had not thrown 
 himself up the stairs of a bookseller's shop, and, shutting them 
 against you, checked your attack by that means? And I con- 
 fess that at that time I fayored you, but even you yourself 
 do not say that I had advised your attempt. But as for Milo, 
 it was not possible even for me to favor his action. For he 
 had finished the business before anyone could suspect that he 
 was going to do it. Oh, but I advised it. I suppose Milo 
 was a man of such a disposition that he not able to do a 
 service to the republic if he had not someone to advise him 
 to do it. But I rejoiced at it. Well, suppose I did; was I 
 to be the only sorrowful person in the city, when everyone 
 else was in such delight? Although that inquiry into the 
 death of Publius Clodius was not instituted with any great 
 wisdom. For what was the reason for having a new law to 
 inquire into the conduct of the man who had slain him, when 
 there was a form of inquiry already established by the laws? 
 However, an inquiry was instituted. And have you now 
 been found, so many years afterward, to say a thing which, 
 at the time that the affair was under discussion, no one ven- 
 tured to say against me? But as to the assertion that you 
 have dared to make, and that at great length too, that it was 
 by my means that Pompeius was alienated from his friendship 
 with Caesar, and that on that account it was my fault that 
 the civil war was originated ; in that you have not erred so 
 much in the main facts, as (and that is of the greatest impor- 
 tance) in the times. 
 
 When Marcus Bibulus, a most illustrious citizen, was 
 consul, I omitted nothing which I could possibly do or at- 
 tempt to draw off Pompeius from his union with Caesar. In 
 which, however, Caesar was more fortunate than I, for he 
 himself drew off Pompeius from his intimacy with me. But 
 afterward, when Pompeius joined Caesar with all his heart, 
 what could have been my object in attempting to separate
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 353 
 
 them then? It would have been the part of a fool to hope 
 to do so, and of an impudent man to advise it. However, 
 two occasions did arise, on which I gave Pompeius advice 
 against Caesar. You are at liberty to find fault with my con- 
 duct on those occasions if you can. One was when I advised 
 him not to continue Caesar's government for five years more. 
 The other, when I advised him not to permit him to be con- 
 sidered as a candidate for the consulship when he was absent. 
 And if I had been able to prevail on him in either of these 
 particulars, we should never have fallen into our present mis- 
 eries. 
 
 Moreover, I also, when Pompeius had now devoted to the 
 service of Caesar all his own power, and all the power of the 
 Roman people, and had begun when it was too late to perceive 
 all those things which I had foreseen long before, and when I 
 saw that a refarious war was about to be waged against our 
 country, I never ceased to be the adviser of peace, and concord, 
 and some arrangement. And that language of mine was well 
 known to many people " I wish, O Cnaeus Pompeius, that 
 you had either never joined in a confederacy with Caius Caesar, 
 or else that you had never broken it off. The one conduct 
 would have become your dignity, and the other would have 
 been suited to your prudence." This, O Marcus Antonius, 
 was at all times my advice both respecting Pompeius and con- 
 cerning the republic. And if it had prevailed, the republic 
 would still be standing, and you would have perished through 
 your own crimes, and indigence, and infamy. 
 
 But these are all old stories now. This charge, however, 
 is quite a modern one, that Caesar was slain by my contrivance. 
 I am afraid, O conscript fathers, lest I should appear to you 
 to have brought up a sham accuser against myself (which is 
 a most disgraceful thing to do) ; a man not only to distin- 
 guish me by the praises which are my due, but to load me also 
 with those which do not belong to me. For who ever heard 
 my name mentioned as an accomplice in that most glorious 
 action? and whose name has been concealed who was in the 
 number of that gallant band ? Concealed, do I say ? Whose 
 name was there which was not at once made public ? I should 
 sooner say that some men had boasted in order to appear to 
 have been concerned in that conspiracy, though they had in 
 23
 
 354 
 
 CICERO 
 
 reality known nothing of it, than that anyone who had been 
 an accomplice in it could have wished to be concealed. More- 
 over, how likely it is, that among such a number of men, some 
 obscure, some young men who had not the wit to conceal any- 
 one, my name could possibly have escaped notice ! Indeed, 
 if leaders were wanted for the purpose of delivering the coun- 
 try, what need was there of my instigating the Bruti, one of 
 whom saw every day in his house the image of Lucius Brutus, 
 and the other saw also the image of Ahala? Were these the 
 men to seek counsel from the ancestors of others rather than 
 from their own ? and out of doors rather than at home ? What ? 
 Caius Cassius, a man of that family which could not endure, 
 I will not say the domination, but even the power of any indi- 
 vidual he, I suppose, was in need of me to instigate him? a 
 man who, even without the assistance of these other most il- 
 lustrious men, would have accomplished this same deed in Cili- 
 cia, at the mouth of the river Cydnus, if Caesar had brought 
 his ships to that bank of the river which he had intended, and 
 not to the opposite one. Was Cnaeus Domitius spurred on to 
 seek to recover his dignity, not by the death of his father, a 
 most illustrious man, nor by the death of his uncle, nor by 
 the deprivation of his own dignity, but by my advice and au- 
 thority? Did I persuade Caius Trebonius? a man whom I 
 should not have ventured even to advise. On which account 
 the republic owes him even a larger debt of gratitude, because 
 he preferred the liberty of the Roman people to the friendship 
 of one man, and because he preferred overthrowing arbitrary 
 power to sharing it. Was I the instigator whom Lucius Tillius 
 Cimber followed ? a man whom I admired for having performed 
 that action, rather than ever expected that he would perform it ; 
 and I admired him on this account, that he was unmindful of 
 the personal kindnesses which he had received, but mindful 
 of his country. What shall I say of the two Servilii ? Shall I 
 call them Cascas, or Ahalas ? and do you think that those men 
 were instigated by my authority rather than by their affection 
 for the republic ? It would take a long time to go through all the 
 rest ; and it is a glorious thing for the republic that they were so 
 numerous, and a most honorable thing also for themselves. 
 
 But recollect, I pray you, how that clever man convict- 
 ed me of being an accomplice in the business. When Cassar
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 355 
 
 was slain, says he, Marcus Brutus immediately lifted up on high 
 his bloody dagger, and called on Cicero by name; and con- 
 gratulated him on liberty being recovered. Why on me above 
 all men? Because I knew of it beforehand? Consider rather 
 whether this was not his reason for calling on me, that, when 
 he had performed an action very like those which I myself had 
 done, he called me above all men to witness that he had been 
 an imitator of my exploits. But you, O stupidest of all men, 
 do not you perceive, that if it is a crime to have wished that 
 Caesar should be slain which you accuse me of having wished 
 it is a crime also to have rejoiced at his death? For what 
 is the difference between a man who has advised an action, and 
 one who has approved of it? or what does it signify whether 
 I wished it to be done, or rejoice that it has been done? Is 
 there anyone then, except you yourself and those men who 
 wished him to become a king, who was unwilling that that 
 deed should be done, or who disapproved of it after it was 
 done? All men, therefore, are guilty as far as this goes. In 
 truth, all good men, as far as it depended on them, bore a part 
 in the slaying of Caesar. Some did not know how to contrive 
 it, some had not courage for it, some had no opportunity 
 everyone had the inclination. 
 
 However, remark the stupidity of this fellow I should 
 rather say, of this brute beast. For thus he spoke : " Mar- 
 cus Brutus, whom I name to do him honor, holding aloft 
 his bloody dagger, called upon Cicero, from which it must be 
 understood that he was privy to the action." Am I then called 
 wicked by you because you suspect that I suspected something ; 
 and is he who openly displayed his reeking dagger, named by 
 you that you may do him honor? Be it so. Let this stupidity 
 exist in your language : how much greater is it in your actions 
 and opinions ! Arrange matters in this way at last, O consul ; 
 pronounce the cause of the Bruti, of Caius Cassius, of Cnaeus 
 Domitius, of Caius Trebonius and the rest to be whatever you 
 please to call it: sleep off that intoxication of yours, sleep it 
 off and take breath. Must one apply a torch to you to waken 
 you while you are sleeping over such an important affair? 
 Will you never understand that you have to decide whether 
 those men who performed that action are homicides or as- 
 sertors of freedom ?
 
 356 CICERO 
 
 For just consider a little ; and for a moment think of the 
 business like a sober man. I who, as I myself confess, am an 
 intimate friend of those men, and, as you accuse me, an ac- 
 complice of theirs, deny that there is any medium between 
 these alternatives. I confess that they, if they be not deliverers 
 of the Roman people and saviours of the republic, are worse 
 than assassins, worse than homicides, worse even than parri- 
 cides : since it is a more atrocious thing to murder the father 
 of one's country, than one's own father. You wise and con- 
 siderate man, what do you say to this? If they are parri- 
 cides, why are they always named by you, both in this as- 
 sembly and before the Roman people, with a view to do them 
 honor? Why has Marcus Brutus been, on your motion, ex- 
 cused from obedience to the laws, and allowed to be absent 
 from the city more than ten days ? 5 Why were the games of 
 Apollo celebrated with incredible honor to Marcus Brutus? 
 why were provinces given to Brutus and Cassius? why were 
 quaestors assigned to them? why was the number of their 
 lieutenants augmented? And all these measures were ow- 
 ing to you. They are not homicides then. It follows that in 
 your opinion they are deliverers of their country, since there 
 can be no other alternative. What is the matter? Am I em- 
 barrassing you? 'For perhaps you do not quite understand 
 propositions which are stated disjunctively. Still this is the 
 sum total of my conclusion; that since they are acquitted by 
 you of wickedness, they are at the same time pronounced 
 most worthy of the very most honorable rewards. 
 
 Therefore, I will now proceed again with my oration. I 
 will write to them, if anyone by chance should ask whether 
 what you have imputed to me be true, not to deny it to any- 
 one. In truth, I am afraid that it must be considered either 
 a not very creditable thing to them, that they should have 
 concealed the fact of my being an accomplice ; or else a most 
 discreditable one to me that I was invited to be one, and that 
 I shirked it. For what greater exploit (I call you to witness, 
 O august Jupiter!) was ever achieved not only in this city, 
 but in all the earth? What more glorious action was ever 
 done ? What deed was ever more deservedly recommended to 
 
 5 Brutus was the Praetor urbanus this by law to be absent more than ten days 
 year, and that officer's duty confined at a time during his year of office, 
 him to the city; and he was forbidden
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 357 
 
 the everlasting recollection of men? Do you, then, shut me 
 up with the other leaders in the partnership in this design, as 
 in the Trojan horse? I have no objection; I even thank you 
 for doing so, with whatever intent you do it. For the deed 
 is so great a one, that I cannot compare the unpopularity 
 which you wish to excite against me on account of it, with its 
 real glory. 
 
 For who can be happier than those men whom you boast 
 of having now expelled and driven from the city? What 
 place is there either so deserted or so uncivilized, as not to 
 seem to greet and to covet the presence of those men wherever 
 they have arrived? What men are so clownish as not, when 
 they have once beheld them, to think that they have reaped 
 the greatest enjoyment that life can give? And what poster- 
 ity will be ever so forgetful, what literature will ever be found 
 so ungrateful, as not to cherish their glory with undying recol- 
 lection? Enroll me then, I beg, in the number of those men. 
 
 But one thing I am afraid you may not approve of. For 
 if I had really been one of their number, I should have not 
 only got rid of the king, but of the kingly power also out 
 of the republic; and if I had been the author of the piece, as 
 it is said, believe me, I should not have been contented with 
 one act, but should have finished the whole play. Although, 
 if it be a crime to have wished that Caesar might be put to 
 death, beware, I pray you, O Antonius, of what must be your 
 own case, as it is notorious that you, when at Narbo, formed 
 a plan of the same sort with Caius Trebonius ; and it was on 
 account of your participation in that design that, when Csesar 
 was being killed, we saw you called aside by Trebonius. But 
 I (see how far I am from any horrible inclination toward,) 
 praise you for having once in your life had a righteous inten- 
 tion ; I return you thanks for not having revealed the matter ; 
 and I excuse you for not having accomplished your purpose. 
 That exploit required a man. 
 
 And if anyone should institute a prosecution against you, 
 and employ that test of old Cassius, " who reaped any advan- 
 tage from it ? " take care, I advise you, lest you suit that de- 
 scription. Although, in truth, that action was, as you used 
 to say, an advantage to everyone who was not willing to be 
 a slave, still it was so to you above all men,who are not
 
 358 
 
 CICERO 
 
 merely not a slave, but are actually a king; who delivered 
 yourself from an enormous burden of debt at the temple of 
 Ops; who, by your dealings with the account-books, there 
 squandered a countless sum of money; who have had such 
 vast treasures brought to you from Caesar's house; at whose 
 own house there is set up a most lucrative manufactory of 
 false memoranda and autographs, and a most iniquitous market 
 of lands, and towns, and exemptions, and revenues. In truth, 
 what measure except the death of Caesar could possibly have 
 been any relief to your indigent and insolvent condition ? You 
 appear to be somewhat agitated. Have you any secret fear 
 that you yourself may appear to have had some connection 
 with that crime? I will release you from all apprehension; 
 no one will ever believe it; it is not like you to deserve well 
 of the republic; the most illustrious men in the republic are 
 the authors of that exploit; I only say that you are glad it 
 was done ; I do not accuse you of having done it. 
 
 I have replied to your heaviest accusations, I must now also 
 reply to the rest of them. 
 
 You have thrown in my teeth the camp of Pompeius and 
 all my conduct at that time. At which time, indeed, if, as 
 I have said before, my counsels and my authority had pre- 
 vailed, you would this day be in indigence, we should be free, 
 and the republic would not have lost so many generals and so 
 many armies. For I confess that, when I saw that these 
 things certainly would happen, which now have happened, I 
 was as greatly grieved as all the other virtuous citizens would 
 have been if they had foreseen the same things. I did grieve, 
 I did grieve, O conscript fathers, that the republic which had 
 once been saved by your counsels and mine, was fated to perish 
 in a short time. Nor was I so inexperienced in and ignorant 
 of this nature of things, as to be disheartened on account of 
 a fondness for life, which while it endured would wear me out 
 with anguish, and when brought to an end would release me 
 from all trouble. But I was desirous that those most illustri- 
 ous men, the lights of the republic, should live : so many men 
 of consular rank, so many men of praetorian rank, so many 
 most honorable senators; and besides them all the flower of 
 our nobility and of our youth ; and the armies of excellent 
 citizens. And if they were still alive, under ever such hard
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 359 
 
 conditions of peace (for any sort of peace with our fellow- 
 citizens appeared to me more desirable than civil war), we 
 should be still this day enjoying the republic. 
 
 And if my opinion had prevailed, and if those men, the 
 preservation of whose lives was my main object, elated with 
 the hope of victory, had not been my chief opposers, to say 
 nothing of other results, at all events you would never have 
 continued in this order, or rather in this city. But say you, 
 my speech alienated from me the regard of Pompeius ? Was 
 there anyone to whom he was more attached? anyone with 
 whom he conversed or shared his counsels more frequently? 
 It was, indeed, a great thing that we, differing as we did re- 
 specting the general interests of the republic, should continue 
 in uninterrupted friendship. But I saw clearly what his opin- 
 ions and views were, and he saw mine equally. I was for 
 providing for the safety of the citizens in the first place, in 
 order that we might be able to consult their dignity after- 
 ward. He thought more of consulting their existing dignity. 
 But because each of us had a definite object to pursue, our 
 disagreement was the more endurable. But what that extra- 
 ordinary and almost godlike man thought of me is known to 
 those men who pursued him to Paphos from the battle of 
 Pharsalia. No mention of me was ever made by him that 
 was not the most honorable that could be, that was not full 
 of the most friendly regret for me ; while he confessed that I 
 had had the most foresight, but that he had had more san- 
 guine hopes. And do you dare taunt me with the name of 
 that man whose friend you admit that I was, and whose as- 
 sassin you confess yourself? 
 
 However, let us say no more of that war, in which you 
 were too fortunate. I will not reply even with those jests to 
 which you have said that I gave utterance in the camp. That 
 camp was in truth full of anxiety, but although men are in 
 great difficulties, still, provided they are men, they sometimes 
 relax their minds. But the fact that the same man finds fault 
 with my melancholy, and also with my jokes, is a great proof 
 that I was very moderate in each particular. 
 
 You have said that no inheritances come to me. Would 
 that this accusation of yours were a true one ; I should have 
 more of my friends and connections alive. But how could
 
 360 
 
 CICERO 
 
 such a charge ever come into your head? For I have re- 
 ceived more than twenty millions of sesterces in inheritances. 
 Although in this particular I admit that you have been more 
 fortunate than I. No one has ever made me his heir except 
 he was a friend of mine, in order that my grief of mind for 
 his loss might be accompanied also with some gain, if it was 
 to be considered as such. But a man whom you never even 
 saw, Lucius Rubrius, of Casinum, made you his heir. And 
 see now how much he loved you, who, though he did not 
 know whether you were white or black, passed over the son 
 of his brother, Quintus Fufius, a most honorable Roman knight, 
 and most attached to him, whom he had on all occasions openly 
 declared his heir (he never even names him in his will), and 
 he makes you his heir whom he had never seen, or at all events 
 had never spoken to. 
 
 I wish you would tell me, if it is not too much trouble, 
 what sort of countenance Lucius Turselius was of; what sort 
 of height ; from what municipal town he came ; and of what 
 tribe he was a member. " I know nothing," you will say, 
 " about him, except what farms he had." Therefore, he, dis- 
 inheriting his brother, made you his heir. And besides these 
 instances, this man has seized on much other property be- 
 longing to men wholly unconnected with him, to the exclu- 
 sion of the legitimate heirs, as if he himself were the heir. 
 Although the thing that struck me with most astonishment 
 of all was, that you should venture to make mention of in- 
 heritances, when you yourself had not received the inheritance 
 of your own father. 
 
 And was it in order to collect all these arguments, O you 
 most senseless of men, that you spent so many days in prac- 
 tising declamations in another man's villa? Although, indeed 
 (as your most intimate friends usually say), you are in the 
 habit of declaiming not for the purpose of whetting your 
 genius, but of working off the effects of wine. And, indeed, 
 you employ a master to teach you jokes, a man appointed 
 by your own vote and that of your boon companions ; a rhet- 
 orician, whom you have allowed to say whatever he pleased 
 against you, a thoroughly facetious gentleman; but there are 
 plenty of materials for speaking against you and against your 
 friends. But just see now what a difference there is between
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 361 
 
 you and your grandfather. He used with great deliberation to 
 bring forth arguments advantageous to the cause he was ad- 
 vocating ; you pour forth in a hurry the sentiments which you 
 have been taught by another. And what wages have you 
 paid this rhetorician? Listen, listen, O conscript fathers, and 
 learn the blows which are inflicted on the republic. You have 
 assigned, O Antonius, two thousand acres 6 of land, in the 
 Leontine district, to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and 
 those, too, exempt from every kind of tax, for the sake of 
 putting the Roman people to such a vast expense that you 
 might learn to be a fool. Was this gift, too, O you most auda- 
 cious of men, found among Caesar's papers? But I will take 
 another opportunity to speak about the Leontine and the 
 Campanian district; where he has stolen lands from the re- 
 public to pollute them with most infamous owners. For now, 
 since I have sufficiently replied to all his charges, I must say 
 a little about our corrector and censor himself. And yet I 
 will not say all I could, in order that if I have often to battle 
 with him I may always come to the contest with fresh arms ; 
 and the multitude of his vices and atrocities will easily enable 
 me to do so. 
 
 Shall we, then, examine your conduct from the time when 
 you were a boy ? I think so. Let us begin at the beginning. 
 Do you recollect that, while you were still clad in the praetexta, 
 you became a bankrupt? That was the fault of your father, 
 you will say. I admit that. In truth, such a defence is full of 
 filial affection. But it is peculiarly suited to your own audacity, 
 that you sat among the fourteen rows of the knights, though 
 by the Roscian law there was a place appointed for bankrupts, 
 even if anyone had become such by the fault of fortune and not 
 by his own. You assumed the manly gown, which you soon 
 made a womanly one ; at first a public prostitute, with a regular 
 price for your wickedness, and that not a low one. But very 
 soon Curio stepped in, who carried you off from your public 
 trade, and, as if he had bestowed a matron's robe upon you, 
 settled you in a steady and durable wedlock. No boy bought 
 for the gratification of passion was ever so wholly in the power 
 of his master as you were in Curio's. How often has his father 
 
 8 The Latin word jugerurn " an the same time it was nearly three times 
 
 acre," because it is usually so trans- as large as the Greek v\i8pov, which is 
 
 lated, but in point of fact it was not often translated acre also, 
 quite two-thirds of an English acre. At
 
 362 CICERO 
 
 turned you out of his house ? How often has he placed guards 
 to prevent you from entering? while you, with night for your 
 accomplice, lust for your encourager, and wages for your com- 
 peller, were let down through the roof. That house could no 
 longer endure your wickedness. Do you not know that I am 
 speaking of matters with which I am thoroughly acquainted ? 
 Remember that time when Curio, the father, lay weeping in his 
 bed; his son, throwing himself at my feet with tears, recommend- 
 ed to me you ; he entreated me to defend you against his own 
 father, if he demanded six millions of sesterces of you ; for that 
 he had been bail for you to that amount. And he himself, burn- 
 ing with love, declared positively that because he was unable to 
 bear the misery of being separated from you, he should go into 
 banishment. And at that time what misery of that most flour- 
 ishing family did I allay, or rather did I remove ! I persuaded 
 the father to pay the son's debts ; to release the young man, en- 
 dowed as he was with great promise of courage and ability, by 
 the sacrifice of part of his family estate ; and to use his privileges 
 and authority as a father to prohibit him not only from all inti- 
 macy with, but from every opportunity of meeting, you. When 
 you recollected that all this was done by me, would you have 
 dared to provoke me by abuse if you had not been trusting to 
 those swords which we behold ? 
 
 But let us say no more of your profligacy and debauchery. 
 There are things which it is not possible for me to mention with 
 honor ; but you are all the more free for that, inasmuch as you 
 have not scrupled to be an actor in scenes which a modest 
 enemy cannot bring himself to mention. 
 
 Mark now, O conscript fathers, the rest of his life, which I 
 will touch upon rapidly. For my inclination hastens to arrive 
 at those things which he did in the time of the civil war, amid 
 the greatest miseries of the republic and at those things which 
 he does every day. And I beg of you, though they are far bet- 
 ter known to you than they are to me, still to listen attentively, 
 as you are doing, to my relation of them. For in such cases as 
 this, it is not the mere knowledge of such actions that ought to 
 excite the mind, but the recollection of them also. Although 
 we must at once go into the middle of them, lest otherwise we 
 should be too long in coming to the end. 
 
 He was very intimate with Clodius at the time of his tribune-
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 363 
 
 ship ; he, who now enumerates the kindnesses which he did me. 
 He was the firebrand to handle all conflagrations ; and even in 
 his house he attempted something. He himself well knows 
 what I allude to. From thence he made a journey to Alexan- 
 dria, in defiance of the authority of the Senate, and against the 
 interests of the republic, and in spite of religious obstacles ; but 
 he had Gabinius for his leader, with whom whatever he did was 
 sure to be right. What were the circumstances of his return 
 from thence ? what sort of return was it ? He went from Egypt 
 to the farthest extremity of Gaul before he returned home. 
 And what was his home ? For at that time every man had pos- 
 session of his own house ; and you had no house anywhere, O 
 Antonius. House, do you say? what place was there in the 
 whole world where you could set your foot on anything that 
 belonged to you except Misenum which you farmed with your 
 partners, as if it had been Sisapo ? 7 
 
 You came from Gaul to stand for the qusestorship. Dare to 
 say that you went to your own father before you came to me. 
 I had already received Caesar's letters, begging me to allow 
 myself to accept of your excuses ; and therefore, I did not allow 
 you even to mention thanks. After that, I was treated with re- 
 spect by you, and you received attentions from me in your can- 
 vass for the qusestorship. And it was at that time, indeed, that 
 you endeavored to slay Publius Clodius in the forum, with the 
 approbation of the Roman people ; and though you made the 
 attempt of your own accord, and not at my instigation, still you 
 clearly alleged that you did not think, unless you slew him, that 
 you could possibly make amends to me for all the injuries which 
 you had done me. And this makes me wonder why you should 
 say that Milo did that deed at my instigation ; when I never once 
 exhorted you to do it, who of your own accord attempted to do 
 me the same service. Although, if you had persisted in it, I 
 should have preferred allowing the action to be set down en- 
 tirely to your own love of glory rather than to my influence. 
 
 You were elected quaestor. On this, immediately, without 
 any resolution of the Senate authorizing such a step, without 
 drawing lots, without procuring any law to be passed, you has- 
 tened to Caesar. For you thought the camp the only refuge 
 
 7 Sisapo was a town in Spain, celebrated for some mines of vermilion, 
 which were farmed by a company.
 
 3 6 4 
 
 CICERO 
 
 on earth for indigence, and debt, and profligacy for all men, in 
 short, who were in a state of utter ruin. Then, when you had 
 recruited your resources again by his largesses and your own 
 robberies (if, indeed, a person can be said to recruit, who only 
 acquires something which he may immediately squander), you 
 hastened, being again a beggar, to the tribuneship, in order 
 that in that magistracy you might, if possible, behave like your 
 friend. 
 
 Listen now, I beseech you, O conscript fathers, not to those 
 things which he did indecently and profligately to his own in- 
 jury and to his own disgrace as a private individual ; but to the 
 actions which he did impiously and wickedly against us and 
 our fortunes that is to say, against the whole republic. For 
 it is from his wickedness that you will find that the beginning 
 of all these evils had arisen. 
 
 For when, in the consulship of Lucius Lentulus and Marcus 
 Marcellus, you, on the first of January, were anxious to prop up 
 the republic, which was tottering and almost falling, and were 
 willing to consult the interests of Caius Caesar himself, if he 
 would have acted like a man in his senses, then this fellow op- 
 posed to your counsels his tribuneship, which he had sold and 
 handed over to the purchaser, and exposed his own neck to that 
 axe under which many have suffered for smaller crimes. It was 
 against you, O Marcus Antonius, that the Senate, while still in 
 the possession of its rights, before so many of its luminaries 
 were extinguished, passed that decree which, in accordance 
 with the usage of our ancestors, is at times passed against an 
 enemy who is a citizen. And have you dared, before these con- 
 script fathers, to say anything against me, when I have been 
 pronounced by this order to be the saviour of my country, and 
 when you have been declared by it to be an enemy of the repub- 
 lic? The mention of that wickedness of yours has been inter- 
 rupted, but the recollection of it has not been effaced. As long 
 as the race of men, as long as the name of the Roman people 
 shall exist (and that, unless it is prevented from being so by 
 your means, will be everlasting), so long will that most mis- 
 chievous interposition of your veto be spoken of. What was 
 there that was being done by the Senate either ambitiously or 
 rashly, when you, one single young man, forbade the whole 
 order to pass decrees concerning the safety of the republic ? and
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 365 
 
 when you did so, not once only, but repeatedly ? nor would you 
 allow anyone to plead with you in behalf of the authority of the 
 Senate ; and yet, what did anyone entreat of you, except that 
 you would not desire the republic to be entirely overthrown 
 and destroyed ; when neither the chief men of the state by their 
 entreaties, nor the elders by their warnings, nor the Senate in a 
 full house by pleading with you, could move you from the deter- 
 mination which you had already sold and as it were delivered 
 to the purchaser ? Then it was, after having tried many other 
 expedients previously, that a blow was of necessity struck at 
 you which had been struck at only few men before you, and 
 which none of them had ever survived. Then it was that this 
 order armed the consuls, and the rest of the magistrates who 
 were invested with either military or civil command, against 
 you, and you never would have escaped them, if you had not 
 taken refuge in the camp of Caesar. 
 
 It was you, I say, O Marcus Antonius, who gave Caius 
 Caesar, desirous as he already was to throw everything into 
 confusion, the principal pretext for waging war against his 
 country. For what other pretence did he allege? what cause 
 did he give for his own most frantic resolution and action, ex- 
 cept that the power of interposition by the veto had been disre- 
 garded, the privileges of the tribunes taken away, and Antoni- 
 us's rights abridged by the Senate? I say nothing of how false, 
 how trivial these pretences were; especially when there could 
 not possibly be any reasonable cause whatever to justify anyone 
 in taking up arms against his country. But I have nothing 
 to do with Caesar. You must unquestionably allow, that the 
 cause of that ruinous war existed in your person. 
 
 O miserable man if you are aware, more miserable still if you 
 are not aware, that this is recorded in writings, is handed down 
 to men's recollection, that our very latest posterity in the most 
 distant ages will never forget this fact, that the consuls were 
 expelled from Italy, and with them Cnaeus Pompeius, who was 
 the glory and light of the empire of the Roman people ; that 
 all the men of consular rank, whose health would allow them to 
 share in that disaster and that flight, and the praetors, and men 
 of praetorian rank, and the tribunes of the people, and a great 
 part of the Senate, and all the flower of the youth of the city, 
 and, in a word, the republic itself was driven out and expelled
 
 3 66 CICERO 
 
 from its abode. As, then, there is in seeds the cause which 
 produces trees and plants, so of this most lamentable war you 
 were the seed. Do you, O conscript fathers, grieve that these 
 armies of the Roman people have been slain ? It is Antonius 
 who slew them. Do you regret your most illustrious citizens ? 
 It is Antonius, again, who has deprived you of them. The 
 authority of this order is overthrown ; it is Antonius who has 
 overthrown it. Everything, in short, which we have seen since 
 that time (and what misfortune is there that we have not seen ?) 
 we shall, if we argue rightly, attribute wholly to Antonius. As 
 Helen was to the Trojans, so has that man been to this republic 
 the cause of war, the cause of mischief, the cause of ruin. 
 The rest of his tribuneship was like the beginning. He did 
 everything which the Senate had labored to prevent, as being 
 impossible to be done consistently with the safety of the repub- 
 lic. And see, now, how gratuitously wicked he was even in ac- 
 complishing his wickedness. 
 
 He restored many men who had fallen under misfortune. 
 Among them no mention was made of his uncle. If he were 
 severe, why was he not so to everyone? If he was merciful, 
 why was he not merciful to his own relations ? But I say noth- 
 ing of the rest. He restored Licinius Lenticula, a man who 
 had been condemned for gambling, and who was a fellow-game- 
 ster of his own. As if he could not play with a condemned 
 man ; but in reality, in order to pay by a straining of the law in 
 his favor, what he had lost by the dice. What reason did you 
 allege to the Roman people why it was desirable that he should 
 be restored ? I suppose you said that he was absent when the 
 prosecution was instituted against him ; that the cause was de- 
 cided without his having been heard in his defence; that there 
 was not by a law any judicial proceeding established with refer- 
 ence to gambling ; that he had been put down by violence or by 
 arms ; or lastly, as was said in the case of your uncle, that the 
 tribunal had been bribed with money. Nothing of this sort 
 was said. Then he was a good man, and one worthy of the 
 republic. That, indeed, would have been nothing to the pur- 
 pose, but still, since being condemned does not go for much, I 
 would forgive you if that were the truth. Does not he restore 
 to the full possession of his former privileges the most worth- 
 less man possible one who would not hesitate to play at dice
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 367 
 
 even in the forum, and who had been convicted under the law 
 which exists respecting gambling does not he declare in the 
 most open manner his own propensities ? 
 
 Then in this same tribuneship, when Caesar while on his way 
 into Spain had given him Italy to trample on, what journeys 
 did he make in every direction ! how did he visit the municipal 
 towns ! I know that I am only speaking of matters which have 
 been discussed in everyone's conversation, and that the things 
 which I am saying and am going to say are better known to 
 everyone who was in Italy at that time, than to me, who was not. 
 Still I mention the particulars of his conduct, although my 
 speech cannot possibly come up to your own personal knowl- 
 edge. When was such wickedness ever heard of as existing 
 upon earth ? or shamelessness ? or such open infamy ? 
 
 The tribune of the people was borne along in a chariot, lictors 
 crowned with laurel preceded him ; among whom, on an open 
 litter, was carried an actress ; whom honorable men, citizens of 
 the different municipalities, coming out from their towns under 
 compulsion to meet him, saluted not by the name by which she 
 was well known on the stage, but by that of Volumnia. 8 A car 
 followed full of pimps ; then a lot of debauched companions ; 
 and then his mother, utterly neglected, followed the mistress 
 of her profligate son, as if she had been her daughter-in-law. 
 O the disastrous fecundity of that miserable woman ! With 
 the marks of such wickedness as this did that fellow stamp every 
 municipality, and prefecture, and colony, and, in short, the 
 whole of Italy. 
 
 To find fault with the rest of his actions, O conscript fathers, 
 is difficult, and somewhat unsafe. He was occupied in war; 
 he glutted himself with the slaughter of citizens who bore no 
 resemblance to himself. He was fortunate if at least there 
 can be any good fortune in wickedness. But since we wish to 
 show a regard for the veterans, although the cause of the sol- 
 diers is very different from yours ; they followed their chief ; 
 you went to seek for a leader ; still (that I may not give you any 
 pretence for stirring up odium against me among them), I will 
 say nothing of the nature of the war. 
 
 8 She was a courtesan who had been lanus, to whose entreaties he had yielded 
 
 enfranchised by her master Volumnius. when he drew off his army from the 
 
 The name of Volumnia was dear to the neighborhood of Rome. 
 Romans as that of the wife of Corio-
 
 368 CICERO 
 
 When victorious, you returned with the legions from Thes- 
 saly to Brundusium. There you did not put me to death. It 
 was a great kindness ! For I confess that you could have done 
 it. Although there was no one of those men who were with 
 you at that time, who did not think that I ought to be spared. 
 For so great is men's affection for their country, that I was 
 sacred even in the eyes of your legions, because they recollected 
 that the country had been saved by me. However, grant that 
 you did give me what you did not take away from me ; and that 
 I have my life as a present from you, since it was not taken from 
 me by you ; was it possible for me, after all your insults, to re- 
 gard that kindness of yours as I regarded it at first, especially 
 after you saw that you must hear this reply from me ? 
 
 You came to Brundusium, to the bosom and embraces of 
 your actress. What is the matter? Am I speaking falsely? 
 How miserable is it not to be able to deny a fact which it is dis- 
 graceful to confess ! If you had no shame before the municipal 
 towns, had you none even before your veteran army? For 
 what soldier was there who did not see her at Brundusium ? 
 who was there who did not know that she had come so many 
 days' journey to congratulate you ? who was there who did not 
 grieve that he was so late in finding out how worthless a man 
 he had been following? 
 
 Again you made a tour through Italy, with that same actress 
 for your companion. Cruel and miserable was the way in 
 which you led your soldiers into the towns; shameful was the 
 pillage in every city, of gold and silver, and above all, of wine. 
 And besides all this, while Caesar knew nothing about it, as he 
 was at Alexandria, Antonius, by the kindness of Caesar's 
 friends, was appointed his master of the horse. Then he 
 thought that he could live with Hippia 9 by virtue of his office, 
 and that he might give horses which were the property of the 
 state to Sergius the buffoon. At that time he had selected for 
 himself to live in, not the house which he now dishonors, but 
 that of Marcus Piso. Why need I mention his decrees, his rob- 
 beries, the possessions of inheritances which were given him, 
 and those, too, which were seized by him? What compelled 
 him ; he did not know where to turn. That great inheritance 
 from Lucius Rubrius, and that other from Lucius Turselius, 
 
 This is a play on the name Hippia, as derived from ivwos, a horse.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 369 
 
 had not yet come to him. He had not yet succeeded as an un- 
 expected heir to the place of Cnaeus Pompeius, and of many 
 others who were absent. He was forced to live like a robber, 
 having nothing beyond what he could plunder from others. 
 
 However, we will say nothing of these things, which are acts 
 of a more hardy sort of villany. Let us speak rather of his 
 meaner descriptions of worthlessness. You, with those jaws 
 of yours, and those sides of yours, and that strength of body 
 suited to a gladiator, drank such quantities of wine at the mar- 
 riage of Hippia, that you were forced to vomit the next day in 
 the sight of the Roman people. O action disgraceful not 
 merely to see, but even to hear of! If this had happened to you 
 at supper amid those vast drinking-cups of yours, who would 
 not have thought it scandalous? But in an assembly of the 
 Roman people, a man holding a public office, a master of the 
 horse, to whom it would have been disgraceful even to belch, 
 vomiting filled his own bosom and the whole tribunal with 
 fragments of what he had been eating reeking with wine. But 
 he himself confesses this among his other disgraceful acts. Let 
 us proceed to his more splendid offences. 
 
 Caesar came back from Alexandria, fortunate, as he seemed 
 at least to himself ; but in my opinion no one can be fortunate 
 who is unfortunate for the republic. The spear was set up in 
 front of the temple of Jupiter Stator, and the property of Cnaeus 
 Pompeius Magnus (miserable that I am, for even now that 
 my tears have ceased to flow, my grief remains deeply implant- 
 ed in my heart) the property, I say, of Cnaeus Pompeius the 
 Great was submitted to the pitiless voice of the auctioneer. On 
 that one occasion the state forgot its slavery, and groaned 
 aloud ; and though men's minds were enslaved, as everything 
 was kept under by fear, still the groans of the Roman people 
 were free. While all men were waiting to see who would be so 
 impious, who would be so mad, who would be so declared an 
 enemy to gods and to men as to dare to mix himself up with that 
 wicked auction, no one was found except Antonius, even 
 though there were plenty of men collected round that spear 10 
 who would have dared anything else. One man alone was 
 
 10 The custom of erecting a spear the ancient practice of selling under a 
 wherever an auction was held is well spear the booty acquired in war. 
 known; it is said to have arisen from 
 
 24
 
 37 
 
 CICERO 
 
 found to dare to do that which the audacity of everyone else had 
 shrunk from and shuddered at. Were you, then, seized with 
 such stupidity or, I should rather say, with such insanity 
 as not to see that if you, being of the rank in which you were 
 born, acted as a broker at all, and above all as a broker in the 
 case of Pompeius's property, you would be execrated and 
 hated by the Roman people, and that all gods and all men must 
 at once become and forever continue hostile to you ? But with 
 what violence did that glutton immediately proceed to take pos- 
 session of the property of that man, to whose valor it had been 
 owing that the Roman people had been more terrible to foreign 
 nations, while its justice had made it dearer to them. 
 
 When, therefore, this fellow had begun to wallow in the treas- 
 ures of that great man, he began to exult like a buffoon in a play, 
 who has lately been a beggar, and has become suddenly rich. 
 But, as some poet or other says : 
 
 " Ill-gotten gains come quickly to an end." 
 
 It is an incredible thing, and almost a miracle, how he in a few, 
 not months, but days, squandered all that vast wealth. There 
 was an immense quantity of wine, an excessive abundance of 
 very valuable plate, much precious apparel, great quantities of 
 splendid furniture, and other magnificent things in many places, 
 such as one was likely to see belonging to a man who was not 
 indeed luxurious, but who was very wealthy. Of all this in a 
 few days there was nothing left. What Charybdis was ever so 
 voracious? Charybdis, do I say? Charybdis, if she existed 
 at all, was only one animal. The ocean, I swear most solemnly, 
 appears scarcely capable of having swallowed up such numbers 
 of things so widely scattered, and distributed in such different 
 places, with such rapidity. Nothing was shut up, nothing 
 sealed up, no list was made of anything. Whole storehouses 
 were abandoned to the most worthless of men. Actors seized 
 on this, actresses on that ; the house was crowded with gam- 
 blers, and full of drunken men ; people were drinking all day, 
 and that, too, in many places ; there were added to all this ex- 
 pense (for this fellow was not invariably fortunate) heavy gam- 
 bling losses. You might see in the cellars of the slaves, couches 
 covered with the most richly embroidered counterpanes of 
 Cnaeus Pompeius. Wonder not, then, that all these things
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 371 
 
 were so soon consumed. Such profligacy as that could have 
 devoured not only the patrimony of one individual, however 
 ample it might have been (as indeed his was), but whole cities 
 and kingdoms. 
 
 And then his houses and gardens! Oh, the cruel audacity! 
 Did you dare to enter into that house ? Did you dare to cross 
 that most sacred threshold ? and to show your most profligate 
 countenance to the household gods who protect that abode? 
 A house which for a long time no one could behold, no one 
 could pass by without tears ! Are you not ashamed to dwell so 
 long in that house? one in which, stupid and ignorant as you 
 are, still you can see nothing which it not painful to you. 
 
 When you behold those beaks of ships in the vestibule, and 
 those warlike trophies, do you fancy that you are entering into 
 a house which belongs to you? It is impossible. Although 
 you are devoid of all sense and all feeling as in truth you are 
 still you are acquainted with yourself, and with your trophies, 
 and with your friends. Nor do I believe that you, either wak- 
 ing or sleeping, can ever act with quiet sense. It is impossible 
 but that, were you ever so drunk and frantic as in truth you 
 are when the recollection of the appearance of that illustrious 
 man comes across you, you should be roused from sleep by your 
 fears, and often stirred up to madness if awake. I pity even 
 the walls and the roof. For what had that house ever beheld 
 except what was modest, except what proceeded from the 
 purest principles and from the most virtuous practice? For 
 that man was, O conscript fathers, as you yourselves know, not 
 only illustrious abroad, but also admirable at home ; and not 
 more praiseworthy for his exploits in foreign countries, than for 
 his domestic arrangements. Now in his house every bed- 
 chamber is a brothel, and every dining-room a cookshop. Al- 
 though he denies this : Do not, do not make inquiries. He is 
 become economical. He desired that mistress of his to take 
 possession of whatever belonged to her, according to the laws 
 of the Twelve Tables. He has taken his keys from her, and 
 turned her out of doors. What a well-tried citizen ! of what 
 proved virtue is he ! the most honorable passage in whose life 
 is the one when he divorced himself from this actress. 
 
 But how constantly does he harp on the expression " the 
 consul Antonius " ! This amounts to say " that most de-
 
 372 
 
 CICERO 
 
 bauched consul," " that most worthless of men, the consul." 
 For what else is Antonius? For if any dignity were implied 
 in the name, then, I imagine, your grandfather would some- 
 times have called himself " the consul Antonius." But he 
 never did. My colleague, too, your own uncle, would have 
 called himself so. Unless you are the only Antonius. But I 
 pass over those offences which have no peculiar connection 
 with the part you took in harassing the republic; I return to 
 that in which you bore so principal a share that is, to the civil 
 war ; and it is mainly owing to you that that was originated, 
 and brought to a head, and carried on. 
 
 Though you yourself took no personal share in it, partly 
 through timidity, partly through profligacy, you had tasted, or 
 rather had sucked in, the blood of fellow-citizens : you had been 
 in the battle of Pharsalia as a leader; you had slain Lucius 
 Domitius, a most illustrious and high-born man ; you had pur- 
 sued and put to death in the most barbarous manner many men 
 who had escaped from the battle, and whom Caesar would per- 
 haps have saved, as he did some others. 
 
 And after having performed these exploits, what was the rea- 
 son why you did not follow Caesar into Africa ; especially when 
 so large a portion of the war was still remaining ? And accord- 
 ingly, what place did you obtain about Caesar's person after his 
 return from Africa ? What was your rank ? He whose quaes- 
 tor you had been when general, whose master of the horse 
 when he was dictator, to whom you had been the chief 
 cause of war, the chief instigator of cruelty, the sharer of his 
 plunder, his son, as you yourself said, by inheritance, proceeded 
 against you for the money which you owed for the house and 
 gardens, and for the other property which you had bought at 
 that sale. At first you answered fiercely enough; and that I 
 may not appear prejudiced against you in every particular, you 
 used a tolerably just and reasonable argument. " What, does 
 Caius Caesar demand money of me ? why should he do so, any 
 more than I should claim it of him ? Was he victorious with- 
 out my assistance? No; and he never could have been. It 
 was I who supplied him with a pretext for civil war ; it was I 
 who proposed mischievous laws; it was I who took up arms 
 against the consuls and generals of the Roman people, against 
 the Senate and people of Rome, against the gods of the coun-
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 373 
 
 try, against its altars and hearths, against the country itself. 
 Has he conquered for himself alone? Why should not those 
 men whose common work the achievement is, have the booty 
 also in common? You were only claiming your right, but 
 what had that to do with it ? He was the more powerful of the 
 two. % 
 
 Therefore, stopping all your expostulations, he sent his sol- 
 diers to you, and to your sureties ; when all on a sudden out 
 came that splendid catalogue of yours. How men did laugh ! 
 That there should be so vast a catalogue, that there should be 
 such a numerous and various list of possessions, of all of which, 
 with the exception of a portion of Misenum, there was nothing 
 which the man who was putting them up to sale could call his 
 own. And what a miserable sight was the auction. A little 
 apparel of Pompeius's, and that stained ; a few silver vessels 
 belonging to the same man, all battered ; some slaves in wretch- 
 ed condition ; so that we grieved that there was anything re- 
 maining to be seen of these miserable relics. This auction, 
 however, the heirs of Lucius Rubrius prevented from proceed- 
 ing, being armed with a decree of Caesar to that effect. The 
 spendthrift was embarrassed. He did not know which way to 
 turn. It was at this very time that an assassin sent by him was 
 said to have been detected with a dagger in the house of Caesar. 
 And of this Caesar himself complained in the Senate, inveighing 
 openly against you. Caesar departs to Spain, having granted 
 you a few days' delay for making the payment, on account of 
 your poverty. Even then you do not follow him. Had so 
 good a gladiator as you retired from business so early? Can 
 anyone, then, fear a man who was as timid as this man in up- 
 holding his party, that is, in upholding his own fortunes ? 
 
 After some time he at last went into Spain ; but, as he says, 
 he could not arrive there in safety. How, then, did Dolabella 
 manage to arrive there ? Either, O Antonius, that cause ought 
 never to have been undertaken, or when you had undertaken it, 
 it should have been maintained to the end. Thrice did Caesar 
 fight against his fellow-citizens ; in Thessaly, in Africa, and in 
 Spain. Dolabella was present at all these battles. In the bat- 
 tle in Spain he even received a wound. If you ask my opinion, 
 I wish he had not been there. But still, if his design at first was 
 blamable, his consistency and firmness were praiseworthy.
 
 374 CICERO 
 
 But what shall we say of you ? In the first place, the children 
 of Cnaeus Pompeius sought to be restored to their country. 
 Well, this concerned the common interests of the whole party. 
 Besides that, they sought to recover their household gods, the 
 gods of their country, their altars, their hearths, the tutelar gods 
 of their family ; all of which you had seized upon. And when 
 they sought to recover those things by force of arms which be- 
 longed to them by the laws, who was it most natural (although 
 in unjust and unnatural proceedings what can there be that is 
 natural ?) still, who was it most natural to expect would fight 
 against the children of Cnaeus Pompeius ? Who ? Why, you 
 who had bought their property. Were you at Narbo to be sick 
 over the tables of your entertainers, while Dolabella was fight- 
 ing your battles in Spain ? 
 
 And what return was that of yours from Narbo ? He even 
 asked why I had returned so suddenly from my expedition. 
 I have just briefly explained to you, O conscript fathers, the 
 reason of my return. I was desirous, if I could, to be of service 
 to the republic even before the first of January. For, as to your 
 question, how I had returned ; in the first place, I returned by 
 daylight, not in the dark; in the second place, I returned in 
 shoes, and in my Roman gown, not in any Gallic slippers, or 
 barbarian mantle. And even now you keep looking at me; 
 and, as it seems, with great anger. Surely you would be recon- 
 ciled to me if you knew how ashamed I am of your worthless- 
 ness, which you yourself are not ashamed of. Of all the profli- 
 gate conduct of all the world, I never saw, I never heard of any 
 more shameful than yours. You, who fancied yourself a mas- 
 ter of the horse, when you were standing for, or I should rather 
 say begging for the consulship for the ensuing year, ran in 
 Gallic slippers and a barbarian mantle about the municipal 
 towns and colonies of Gaul from which we used to demand the 
 consulship when the consulship was stood for and not begged 
 for. 
 
 But mark now the trifling character of the fellow. When 
 about the tenth hour of the day he had arrived at Red Rocks, 
 he skulked into a little petty wine-shop, and, hiding there, kept 
 on drinking till evening. And from thence getting into a gig 
 and being driven rapidly to the city, he came to his own house 
 with his head veiled. " Who are you? " says the porter. "An
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 375 
 
 express from Marcus." He is at once taken to the woman for 
 whose sake he had come; and he delivered the letter to her. 
 And when she had read it with tears (for it was written in a 
 very amorous style, but the main subject of the letter was that 
 he would have nothing to do with that actress for the future ; 
 that he had discarded all his love for her, and transferred it to 
 his correspondent), when she, I say, wept plentifully, this soft- 
 hearted man could bear it no longer ; he uncovered his head and 
 threw himself on her neck. Oh, the worthless man (for what 
 else can I call him ? there is no more suitable expression for me 
 to use) ! was it for this that you disturbed the city by nocturnal 
 alarms, and Italy with fears of many days' duration, in order 
 that you might show yourself unexpectedly, and that a woman 
 might see you before she hoped to do so ? And he had at home 
 a pretence of love ; but out of doors a cause more discreditable 
 still ; namely, lest Lucius Plancus should sell up his sureties. 
 But after you had been produced in the assembly by one of the 
 tribunes of the people, and had replied that you had come on 
 your own private business, you made even the people full of 
 jokes against you. But, however, we have said too much about 
 trifles. Let us come to more important subjects. 
 
 You went a great distance to meet Caesar on his return from 
 Spain. You went rapidly, you returned rapidly, in order that 
 we might see that, if you were not brave, you were at least 
 active. You again became intimate with him ; I am sure I do 
 not know how. Caesar had this peculiar characteristic ; who- 
 ever he knew to be utterly ruined by debt, and needy, even if he 
 knew him also to be an audacious and worthless man, he will- 
 ingly admitted him to his intimacy. You then, being admira- 
 bly recommended to him by these circumstances, were ordered 
 to be appointed consul, and that, too, as his own colleague. I 
 do not make any complaint against Dolabella, who was at that 
 time acting under compulsion, and was cajoled and deceived. 
 But who is there who does not know with what great perfidy 
 both of you treated Dolabella in that business ? Caesar induced 
 him to stand for the consulship. After having promised it to 
 him, and pledged himself to aid him, he prevented his getting 
 it, and transferred it to himself. And you indorsed his treach- 
 ery with your own eagerness. 
 
 The first of January arrives. We are convened in the Senate.
 
 376 
 
 CICERO 
 
 Dolabella inveighed against him with much more fluency and 
 premeditation than I am doing now. And what things were 
 they which he said in his anger, O ye good gods ! First of all, 
 after Caesar had declared that before he departed he would order 
 Dolabella to be made consul (and they deny that he was a king 
 who was always doing and saying something of this sort) 
 but after Caesar had said this, then this virtuous augur said that 
 he was invested with a pontificate of that sort that he was able, 
 by means of the auspices, either to hinder or to vitiate the comi- 
 tia, just as he pleased; and he declared that he would do so. 
 And here, in the first place, remark the incredible stupidity of 
 the man. For what do you mean ? Could you not just as well 
 have done what you said you had now the power to do by the 
 privileges with which that pontificate had invested you, even 
 if you were not an augur, if you were consul? Perhaps you 
 could even do it more easily. For we augurs have only the 
 power of announcing that the auspices are being observed, but 
 the consuls and other magistrates have the right also of observ- 
 ing them whenever they choose. Be it so. You said this out 
 of ignorance. For one must not demand prudence from a man 
 who is never sober. But still remark his impudence. Many 
 months before, he said in the Senate that he would either pre- 
 vent the comitia from assembling for the election of Dolabella 
 by means of the auspices, or that he would do what he actually 
 did do. Can anyone divine beforehand what defect there will 
 be in the auspices, except the man who has already determined 
 to observe the heavens ? which in the first place it is forbidden 
 by law to do at the time of the comitia. And if anyone has 
 been observing the heavens, he is bound to give notice of it, 
 not after the comitia are assembled, but before they are held. 
 But this man's ignorance is joined to impudence, nor does he 
 know what an augur ought to know, nor do what a modest man 
 ought to do. And just recollect the whole of his conduct dur- 
 ing his consulship from that day up to the ides of March. What 
 lictor was ever so humble, so abject? He himself had no 
 power at all ; he begged everything of others ; and thrusting his 
 head into the hind part of his litter, he begged favors of his col- 
 leagues, to sell them himself afterward. 
 
 Behold, the day of the comitia for the election of Dolabella 
 arrives. The prerogative century draws its lot. He is quiet.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 377 
 
 The vote is declared ; he is still silent. The first class is called. 11 
 Its vote is declared. Then, as is the usual course, the votes are 
 announced. Then the second class. And all this is done faster 
 than I have told it. When the business is over, that excellent 
 augur (you would say he must be Caius Laelius) says, " We ad- 
 journ it to another day." Oh, the monstrous impudence of 
 such a proceeding! What had you seen? what had you per- 
 ceived? what had you heard? For you did not say that you 
 had been observing the heavens, and indeed you do not say so 
 this day. That defect, then, has arisen, which you on the first 
 of January had already foreseen would arise, and which you had 
 predicted so long before. ' Therefore, in truth, you have made a 
 false declaration respecting the auspices, to your own great 
 misfortune, I hope, rather than to that of the republic. You 
 laid the Roman people under the obligations of religion ; you 
 as augur interrupted an augur; you as consul interrupted a 
 consul by a false declaration concerning the auspices. 
 
 I will say no more, lest I should seem to be pulling to pieces 
 the acts of Dolabella ; which must inevitably some time or other 
 be brought before our college. But take notice of the arro- 
 gance and insolence of the fellow. As long as you please, Dol- 
 abella is a consul irregularly elected ; again, while you please, 
 he is a consul elected with all proper regard to the auspices. 
 If it means nothing when an augur gives this notice in those 
 words in which you gave notice, then confess that you, when 
 you said, " We adjourn this to another day," were not sober. 
 But if those words have any meaning, then I, an augur, demand 
 of my colleague to know what that meaning is. 
 
 But lest by any chance, while enumerating his numerous 
 exploits, our speech should pass over the finest action of Mar- 
 cus Antonius, let us come to the Lupercalia. 
 
 He does not dissemble, O conscript fathers ; it is plain that 
 he is agitated ; he perspires ; he turns pale. Let him do what 
 he pleases, provided he is not sick, and does not behave as he 
 did in the Minucian colonnade. What defence can be made for 
 such beastly behavior? I wish to hear, that I may see the fruit 
 of those high wages of that rhetorician, of that land given in 
 Leontini. Your colleague was sitting in the rostra, clothed in 
 purple robe, on a golden chair, wearing a crown. You mount 
 
 " There seems some corruption here. Orellius apparently thinks the case 
 hopeless.
 
 378 CICERO 
 
 the steps ; you approach his chair (if you were a priest of Pan, 
 you ought to have recollected that you were consul too) ; you 
 display a diadem. There is a groan over the whole forum. 
 Where did the diadem come from ? For you had not picked it 
 up when lying on the ground, but you had brought it from 
 home with you, a premeditated and deliberately planned wick- 
 edness. You placed the diadem on his head amidst the groans 
 of the people ; he rejected it amidst great applause. You then 
 alone, O wicked man, were found, both to advise the assump- 
 tion of kingly power, and to wish to have him for your master 
 who was your colleague ; and also to try what the Roman peo- 
 ple might be able to bear and to endure. Moreover, you even 
 sought to move his pity; you threw yourself at his feet as a 
 supplicant ; begging for what ? to be a slave ? You might beg 
 it for yourself, when you had lived in such a way from the time 
 that you were a boy that you could bear everything, and would 
 find no difficulty in being a slave; but certainly you had no 
 commission from the Roman people to try for such a thing for 
 them. 
 
 Oh, how splendid was that eloquence of yours, when you 
 harangued the people stark naked ! What could be more foul 
 than this ? more shameful than this ? more deserving of every 
 sort of punishment? Are you waiting for me to prick you 
 more ? This that I am saying must tear you and bring blood 
 enough if you have any feeling at all. I am afraid that I may be 
 detracting from the glory of some most eminent men. Still my 
 indignation shall find a voice. What can be more scandalous 
 than for that man to live who placed a diadem on a man's head, 
 when everyone confesses that that man was deservedly slain 
 who rejected it? And, moreover, he caused it to be recorded 
 in the annals, under the head of Lupercalia, " That Marcus An- 
 tonius, the consul, by command of the people, had offered the 
 kingdom to Caius Caesar, perpetual dictator; and that Caesar 
 had refused to accept it." I now am not much surprised at 
 your seeking to disturb the general tranquillity ; at your hating 
 not only the city but the light of day ; and at your living with a 
 pack of abandoned robbers, disregarding the day, and yet re- 
 garding nothing beyond the day. 12 For where can you be safe 
 
 a The Latin is, " non solum de die, commentators explain, " De die is to 
 sed etiam in diem, vivere;" which the feast every day and all day. Banquets
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 379 
 
 in peace? What place can there be for you where laws and 
 courts of justice have sway, both of which you, as far as in you 
 lay, destroyed by the substitution of kingly power ? Was it for 
 this that Lucius Tarquinius was driven out ; that Spurius Cas- 
 sius, and Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were slain ; that 
 many years afterward a king might be established at Rome by 
 Marcus Antonius, though the bare idea was impiety? How- 
 ever, let us return to the auspices. 
 
 With respect to all the things which Caesar was intending to 
 do in the Senate on the ides of March, I ask whether you have 
 done anything? I heard, indeed, that you had come down pre- 
 pared, because you thought that I intended to speak about your 
 having made a false statement respecting the auspices, though 
 it was still necessary for us to respect them. The fortune of the 
 Roman people saved us from that day. Did the death of Caesar 
 also put an end to your opinion respecting the auspices ? But 
 I have come to mention that occasion which must be allowed 
 to precede those matters which I had begun to discuss. What 
 a flight was that of yours ! What alarm was yours on that 
 memorable day ! How, from the consciousness of your wick- 
 edness, did you despair of your life ! How, while flying, were 
 you enabled secretly to get home by the kindness of those men 
 who wished to save you, thinking you would show more sense 
 than you do! Oh, how vain have at all times been my too true 
 predictions of the future ! I told those deliverers of ours in the 
 Capitol, when they wished me to go to you to exhort you to 
 defend the republic, that as long as you were in fear you would 
 promise everything, but that as soon as you had emancipated 
 yourself from alarm you would be yourself again. Therefore, 
 while the rest of the men of consular rank were going back- 
 ward and forward to you, I adhered to my opinion, nor did I 
 see you at all that day, or the next ; nor did I think it possible 
 for an alliance between virtuous citizens and a most unprinci- 
 pled enemy to be made, so as to last, by any treaty or engage- 
 ment whatever. The third day I came into the temple of Tel- 
 lus, even then very much against my will, as armed men were 
 blockading all the approaches. What a day was that for you, 
 O Marcus Antonius ! Although you showed yourself all on a 
 
 de die are those which begin before the diem is to live so as to have no thought 
 regular hour." (Like Horace's " Partern for the future." Graevius. 
 solido demere de die.") "To live in
 
 380 CICERO 
 
 sudden an enemy to me ; still I pity you for having envied your- 
 self. 
 
 What a man, O ye immortal gods ! and how great a man 
 might you have been, if you had been able to preserve the in- 
 clination you displayed that day; we should still have peace 
 which was made then by the pledge of a hostage, a boy of noble 
 birth, the grandson of Marcus Bambalio. Although it was 
 fear that was then making you a good citizen, which is never a 
 lasting teacher of duty ; your own audacity, which never departs 
 from you as long as you are free from fear, has made you a 
 worthless one. Although even at that time, when they thought 
 you an excellent man, though I indeed differed from that opin- 
 ion, you behaved with the greatest wickedness while presiding 
 at the funeral of the tyrant, if that ought to be called a funeral. 
 All that fine panegyric was yours, that commiseration was 
 yours, that exhortation was yours. It was you you, I say 
 who hurled those firebrands, both those with which your friend 
 himself was nearly burned, and those by which the house of 
 Lucius Bellienus was set on fire and destroyed. It was you 
 who let loose those attacks of abandoned men, slaves for the 
 most part, which we repelled by violence and our own personal 
 exertions; it was you who set them on to attack our houses. 
 And yet you, as if you had wiped off all the soot and smoke in 
 the ensuing days, carried those excellent resolutions in the Cap- 
 itol, that no document conferring any exemption, or granting 
 any favor, should be published after the ides of March. You 
 recollect yourself, what you said about the exiles; you know 
 what you said about the exemption ; but the best thing of all 
 was, that you forever abolished the name of the dictatorship in 
 the republic. Which act appeared to show that you had con- 
 ceived such a hatred of kingly power that you took away all fear 
 of it for the future, on account of him who had been the last 
 dictator. 
 
 To other men the republic now seemed established, but it did 
 not appear so at all to me, as I was afraid of every sort of ship- 
 wreck, as long as you were at the helm. Have I been deceived ? 
 or, was it possible for that man long to continue unlike himself? 
 While you were all looking on, documents were fixed up over 
 the whole Capitol, and exemptions were being sold, not merely 
 to individuals, but to entire states. The freedom of the city
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 381 
 
 was also being given now not to single persons only, but to 
 whole provinces. Therefore, if these acts are to stand and 
 stand they cannot if the republic stands too then, O conscript 
 fathers, you have lost whole provinces ; and not the revenues 
 only, but the actual empire of the Roman people has been di- 
 minished by a market this man held in his own house. 
 
 Where are the seven hundred millions of sesterces which 
 were entered in the account-books which are in the temple of 
 Ops ? a sum lamentable indeed, as to the means by which it was 
 procured, but still one which, if it were not restored to those to 
 whom it belonged, might save us from taxes. And how was it, 
 that when you owed forty millions of sesterces on the fifteenth 
 of March, you had ceased to owe them by the first of April? 
 Those things are quite countless which were purchased of dif- 
 ferent people, not without your knowledge ; but there was one 
 excellent decree posted up in the Capitol affecting king Deiot- 
 arus, a most devoted friend to the Roman people. And when 
 that decree was posted up, there was no one who, amid all his 
 indignation, could restrain his. laughter. For who ever was a 
 more bitter enemy to another than Caesar was to Deiotarus? 
 He was as hostile to him as he was to this order, to the eques- 
 trian order, to the people of Massilia, and to all men whom he 
 knew to look on the republic of the Roman people with attach- 
 ment. But this man, who neither present nor absent could 
 ever obtain from him any favor or justice while he was alive, 
 became quite an influential man with him when he was dead. 
 When present with him in his house he had called for him 
 though he was his host, he had made him give in his accounts 
 of his revenue, he had exacted money from him ; he had estab- 
 lished one of his Greek retainers in his tetrarchy, and he had 
 taken Armenia from him which had been given to him by the 
 Senate. While he was alive he deprived him of all these things ; 
 now that he is dead, he gives them back again. And in what 
 words? At one time he says, " that it appears to him to be just. 
 . . ." at another, " that it appears not to be unjust. . . ." 
 What a strange combination of words ! But while alive (I 
 know this, for I always supported Deiotarus, who was at a dis- 
 tance), he never said that anything which we were asking for, 
 for him, appeared just to him. A bond for ten millions of ses- 
 terces was entered into in the women's apartment (where many
 
 3 8 2 CICERO 
 
 things have been sold, and are still being sold), by his ambassa- 
 dors, well-meaning men, but timid and inexperienced in busi- 
 ness, without my advice or that of the rest of the hereditary 
 friends of the monarch. And I advise you to consider carefully 
 what you intend to do with reference to this bond. For the 
 king himself, of his own accord, without waiting for any of 
 Caesar's memoranda, the moment that he heard of his death, 
 recovered his own rights by his own courage and energy. He, 
 like a wise man, knew that this was always the law, that those 
 men from whom the things which tyrants had taken away had 
 been taken, might recover them when the tyrants were slain. 
 No lawyer, therefore, not even he who is your lawyer and yours 
 alone, and by whose advice you do all these things, will say that 
 anything is due to you by virtue of that bond for those things 
 which had been recovered before that bond was executed. For 
 he did not purchase them of you ; but, before you undertook to 
 sell him his own property, he had taken possession of it. He 
 was a man we, indeed, deserve to be despised, who hate the 
 author of the actions, but uphold the actions themselves. 
 
 Why need I mention the countless mass of papers, the innum- 
 erable autographs which have been brought forward? writings 
 of which there are imitators who sell their forgeries as openly 
 as if they were gladiator's play-bills. Therefore, there are now 
 such heaps of money piled up in that man's house, that it is 
 weighed out instead of being counted. 13 But how blind is av- 
 arice ! Lately, too, a document has been posted up by which 
 the most wealthy cities of the Cretans are released from tribute ; 
 and by which it is ordained that after the expiration of the con- 
 sulship of Marcus Brutus, Crete shall cease to be a province. 
 Are you in your senses? Ought you not to be put in confine- 
 ment ? Was it possible for there really to be a decree of Caesar's 
 exempting Crete after the departure of Marcus Brutus, when 
 Brutus had no connection whatever with Crete while Caesar 
 v/as alive ? But by the sale of this decree (that you may not, O 
 conscript fathers, think it wholly ineffectual) you have lost the 
 province of Crete. There was nothing in the whole world 
 which anyone wanted to buy that this fellow was not ready to 
 sell. 
 
 13 This accidental resemblance to the incident in the " Forty Thieves " in the 
 " Arabian Nights " is curious.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 383 
 
 Caesar, too, I suppose, made the law about the exiles which 
 you have posted up. I do not wish to press upon anyone in 
 misfortune ; I only complain, in the first place, that the return 
 of those men has had discredit thrown upon it, whose cause 
 Caesar judged to be different from that of the rest; and in the 
 second place, I do not know why you do not mete out the same 
 measure to all. For there cannot be more than three or four 
 left. Why do not they who are in similar misfortune enjoy a 
 similar degree of your mercy ? Why do you treat them as you 
 treated your uncle? about whom you refused to pass a law 
 when you were passing one about all the rest ; and whom at the 
 same time you encouraged to stand for the censorship, and in- 
 stigated him to a canvass, which excited the ridicule and the 
 complaint of everyone. 
 
 But why did you not hold that comitia? Was it because a 
 tribune of the people announced that there had been an ill- 
 omened flash of lightning seen ? When you have any interest 
 of your own to serve, then auspices are all nothing ; but when 
 it is only your friends who are concerned, then you become 
 scrupulous. What more ? Did you not also desert him in the 
 matter of the septemvirate ? 14 "Yes, for he interfered with 
 me." What were you afraid of? I suppose you were afraid 
 that you would be able to refuse him nothing if he were restored 
 to the ful possession of his rights. You loaded him with every 
 species of insult, a man whom you ought to have considered in 
 the place of a father to you, if you had had any piety or natural 
 affection at all. You put away his daughter, your own cousin, 
 having already looked out and provided yourself beforehand 
 with another. That was not enough. You accused a most 
 chaste woman of misconduct. What can go beyond this ? Yet 
 you were not content with this. In a very full Senate held on 
 the first of January, while your uncle was present, you dared to 
 say that this was your reason for hatred of Dolabella, that you 
 had ascertained that he had committed adultery with your 
 cousin and your wife. Who can decide whether it was more 
 
 14 The septemviri, at full length sep- Caesar added three more, but that al- 
 
 temyiri epulones or epulonum, were teratiqn did not last. They formed a 
 
 originally triumviri. They were first collegium, and were one of the four 
 
 created B.C. 198, to attend to the epulum great religious corporations at Rome 
 
 Jovis, and the banquets given in honor with the pontjfices, the augures, and the 
 
 of the other gods, which duty had orig- quindecemviri. Smith, Dictionary of 
 
 inally belonged to the pontifices. Julius Antiquities, v. Epulones.
 
 384 CICERO 
 
 shameless of you to make such profligate and such impious 
 statements against that unhappy woman in the Senate, or more 
 wicked to make them against Dolabella, or more scandalous to 
 make them in the presence of her father, or more cruel to make 
 them at all ? 
 
 However, let us return to the subject of Caesar's written 
 papers. How were they verified by you? For the acts of 
 Caesar were for peace's sake confirmed by the Senate ; that is to 
 say, the acts which Caesar had really done, not those which An- 
 tonius said that Caesar had done. Where do all these come 
 from ? By whom are they produced and vouched for ? If they 
 are false, why are they ratified ? If they are true, why are they 
 sold? But the vote which was come to enjoined you, after the 
 first of June, to make an examination of Caesar's acts with the 
 assistance of a council. What council did you consult? whom 
 did you ever invite to help you ? what was the first of June that 
 you waited for? Was it that day on which you, having trav- 
 elled all through the colonies where the veterans were settled, 
 returned escorted by a band of armed men ? 
 
 Oh, what a splendid progress of yours was that in the months 
 of April and May, when you attempted even to lead a colony to 
 Capua ! How you made your escape from thence, or rather 
 how you barely made your escape, we all know. And now you 
 are still threatening that city. I wish you would try, and we 
 should not then be forced to say " barely." However, what a 
 splendid progress of yours that was ! Why need I mention 
 your preparations for banquets, why your frantic hard drink- 
 ing? Those things are only an injury to yourself; these are 
 injuries to us. We thought that a great blow was inflicted on 
 the republic when the Campanian district was released from 
 the payment of taxes, in order to be given to the soldiery ; but 
 you have divided it among your partners in drunkenness and 
 gambling. I tell you, O conscript fathers, that a lot of buffoons 
 and actresses have been settled in the district of Campania. 
 Why should I now complain of what has been done in the dis- 
 trict o{ Leontini ? Although formerly these lands of Campania 
 and Leontini were considered part of the patrimony of the 
 Roman people, and were productive of great revenue, and very 
 fertile. You gave your physician three thousand acres ; what 
 would you have done if he had cured you? and two thousand
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 385 
 
 to your master of oratory ; what would you have done if he had 
 been able to make you eloquent? However, let us return to 
 your progress, and to Italy. 
 
 You led a colony to Casilinum, a place to which Caesar had 
 previously led one. You did indeed consult me by letter about 
 the colony of Capua (but I should have given you the same 
 answer about Casilinum), whether you could legally lead a new 
 colony to a place where there was a colony already. I said that 
 a new colony could not be legally conducted to an existing col- 
 ony, which had been established with a due observance of the 
 auspices, as long as it remained in a flourishing state; but I 
 wrote you word that new colonists might be enrolled among 
 the old ones. But you, elated and insolent, disregarding all 
 the respect due to the auspices, led a colony to Casilinum, 
 whither one had been previously led a few years before ; in order 
 to erect your standard there, and to mark out the line of the new 
 colony with a plough. And by that plough you almost grazed 
 the gate of Capua, so as to diminish the territory of that flour- 
 ishing colony. After this violation of all religious observances, 
 you hasten off to the estate of Marcus Varro, a most conscien- 
 tious and upright man, at Casinum. By what right ? with what 
 face do you do this ? By just the same, you will say, as that by 
 which you entered on the estates of the heirs of Lucius Rubrius, 
 or of the heirs of Lucius Turselius, or on other innumerable 
 possessions. If you got the right from any auction, let the auc- 
 tion have all the force to which it is entitled ; let writings be of 
 force, provided they are the writings of Caesar, and not your 
 own ; writings by which you are bound, not those by which you 
 have released yourself from obligation. 
 
 But who says that the estate of Varro at Casinum was ever 
 sold at all ? who ever saw any notice of that auction ? who ever 
 heard the voice of the auctioneer? You say that you sent a 
 man to Alexandria to buy it of Caesar. It was too long to wait 
 for Caesar himself to come ! But who ever heard (and there 
 was no man about whose safety more people were anxious) that 
 any part whatever of Varro's property had been confiscated? 
 What ? what shall we say if Caesar even wrote you that you were 
 to give it up ? What can be said strong enough for such enor- 
 mous impudence? Remove for a while those swords which 
 we see around us. You shall now see that the cause of Caesar's 
 25
 
 3 86 CICERO 
 
 auctions is one thing, and that of your confidence and rashness 
 is another. For not only shall the owner drive you from that 
 estate, but any one of his friends, or neighbors, or hereditary 
 connections, and any agent, will have the right to do so. 
 
 But how many days did he spend revelling in the most scan- 
 dalous manner in that villa ! From the third hour there was 
 one scene of drinking, gambling, and vomiting. Alas for the 
 unhappy house itself! how different a master from its former 
 one has it fallen to the share of ! Although, how is he the mas- 
 ter at all ? but still by how different a person has it been occu- 
 pied ! For Marcus Varro used it as a place of retirement for 
 his studies, not as a theatre for his lusts. What noble discus- 
 sions used to take place in that villa ! what ideas were originated 
 there ! what writings were composed there ! The laws of the 
 Roman people, the memorials of our ancestors, the considera- 
 tion of all wisdom and all learning, were the topics that used to 
 be dwelt on then ; but now, while you were the intruder there 
 (for I will not call you the master), every place was resounding 
 with the voices of drunken men ; the pavements were floating 
 with wine ; the walls were dripping ; nobly-born boys were mix- 
 ing with the basest hirelings ; prostitutes with mothers of fami- 
 lies. Men came from Casinnm, from Aquinum, from Inter- 
 amna to salute him. No one was admitted. That, indeed, was 
 proper. For the ordinary marks of respect were unsuited to 
 the most profligate of men. When going from thence to Rome 
 he approached Aquinum, a pretty numerous company (for it 
 is a populous municipality) came out to meet him. But he was 
 carried through the town in a covered litter, as if he had been 
 dead. The people of Aquinum acted foolishly, no doubt ; but 
 still they were in his road. What did the people of Anagnia do ? 
 who, although they were out of his line of road, came down to 
 meet him, in order to pay him their respects, as if he were con- 
 sul. It is an incredible thing to say, but still it was only too 
 notorious at the time, that he returned nobody's salutation ; es- 
 pecially as he had two men of Anagnia with him, Mustela and 
 Laco ; one of whom had the care of his swords, and the other 
 of his drinking-cups. 
 
 Why should I mention the threats and insults with which 
 he inveighed against the people of Teanum Sidicinum, with 
 which he harassed the men of Puteoli, because they had adopted
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 387 
 
 Caius Cassius and the Bruti as their patrons ? a choice dictated, 
 in truth, by great wisdom, and great zeal, benevolence, and 
 affection for them ; not by violence and force of arms, by which 
 men have been compelled to choose you, and Basilus, and 
 others like you both men whom no one would choose to have 
 for his own clients, much less to be their client himself. 
 
 In the mean time, while you yourself were absent, what a day 
 was that for your-colleague when he overturned that tomb in 
 the forum, which you were accustomed to regard with venera- 
 tion ! And when that action was announced to you, you as 
 is agreed upon by all who were with you at the time fainted 
 away. What happened afterward I know not. I imagine that 
 terror and arms got the mastery. At all events, you dragged 
 your colleague down from his heaven ; and you rendered him, 
 not even now like yourself, at all events very unlike his own 
 former self. 
 
 After that what a return was that of yours to Rome ! How 
 great was the agitation of the whole city! We recollected 
 Cinna being too powerful ; after him we had seen Sylla with ab- 
 solute authority, and we had lately beheld Caesar acting as king. 
 There were perhaps swords, but they were sheathed, and they 
 were not very numerous. But how great and how barbaric a 
 procession is yours ! Men follow you in battle array with 
 drawn swords ; we see whole litters full of shields borne along. 
 And yet by custom, O conscript fathers, we have become inured 
 and callous to these things. When on the first of June we 
 wished to come to the Senate, as it had been ordained, we were 
 suddenly frightened and forced to flee. But he, having no 
 need of a Senate, did not miss any of us, and rather rejoiced at 
 our departure, and immediately proceeded to those marvellous 
 exploits of his. He who had defended the memoranda of Caesar 
 for the sake of his own profit, overturned the laws of Caesar 
 and good laws, too for the sake of being able to agitate the 
 republic. He increased the number of years that magistrates 
 were to enjoy their provinces ; moreover, though he was bound 
 to be the defender of the acts of Csesar, he rescinded them both 
 with reference to public and private transactions. 
 
 In public transactions nothing is more authoritative than 
 law ; in private affairs the most valid of all deeds is a will. Of 
 the laws, some he abolished without giving the least notice;
 
 388 CICERO 
 
 others he gave notice of bills to abolish. Wills he annulled, 
 though they have been at all times held sacred even in the case 
 of the very meanest of the citizens. As for the statues and 
 pictures which Caesar bequeathed to the people, together with 
 his gardens, those he carried away, some to the house which 
 belonged to Pompeius, and some to Scipio's villa. 
 
 And are you, then, diligent in doing honor to Caesar's mem- 
 ory ? Do you love him even now that he is dead ? What greater 
 honor had he obtained than that of having a holy cushion, an 
 image, a temple, and a priest ? As then Jupiter, and Mars, and 
 Quirinus have priests, so Marcus Antonius is the priest of the 
 god Julius. Why, then, do you delay ? why are not you inaugu- 
 rated ? Choose a day ; select someone to inaugurate you ; we 
 are colleagues; no one will refuse. O you detestable man, 
 whether you are the priest of a tyrant, or of a dead man ! I ask 
 you, then, whether you are ignorant what day this is ? Are you 
 ignorant that yesterday was the fourth day of the Roman games 
 in the Circus ? and that you yourself submitted a motion to the 
 people, that a fifth day should be added besides, in honor of 
 Caesar ? Why are we not all clad in the praetexta ? Why are 
 we permitting the honor which by your law was appointed for 
 Caesar to be deserted? Had you no objection to so holy a day 
 being polluted by the addition of supplications, while you did 
 not choose it to be so by the addition of ceremonies connected 
 with a sacred cushion ? Either take away religion in every case 
 or preserve it in every case. 
 
 You will ask whether I approve of his having a sacred 
 cushion, a temple, and a priest? I approve of none of those 
 things. But you, who are defending the acts of Caesar, what 
 reason can you give for defending some, and disregarding 
 others? unless, indeed, you choose to admit that you measure 
 everything by your own gain, and not by his dignity. What 
 will you now reply to these arguments (for I am waiting to wit- 
 ness your eloquence ; I knew your grandfather, who was a most 
 eloquent man, but I know you to be a more undisguised speaker 
 than he was ; he never harangued the people naked ; but we have 
 seen your breast, man, without disguise as you are) ? Will you 
 make any reply to these statements ? will you dare to open your 
 mouth at all? Can you find one single article in this long 
 speech of mine, to which you trust that you can make any an- 
 swer? However, we will say no more of what is past.
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 389 
 
 But this single day, this very day that now is, this very mo- 
 ment while I am speaking, defend your conduct during this 
 very moment, if you can. Why has the Senate been surround- 
 ed with a belt of armed men ? Why are your satellites listening 
 to me sword in hand ? Why are not the folding-doors of the 
 temple of Concord open? Why do you bring men of all na- 
 tions the most barbarous, Ityreans, armed with arrows, into the 
 forum? He says that he does so as a guard. Is it not, then, 
 better to perish a thousand times than to be unable to live in 
 one's own city without a guard of armed men? But believe 
 me, there is no protection in that ; a man must be defended by 
 the affection and good-will of his fellow-citizens, not by arms. 
 The Roman people will take them -from you, will wrest them 
 from your hands ; I wish that they may do so while we are still 
 safe. But however you treat us, as long as you adopt those 
 counsels, it is impossible for you, believe me, to last long. In 
 truth, that wife of yours, who is so far removed from covetous- 
 ness, and whom I mention without intending any slight to her, 
 has been too long owing 15 her third payment to the state. The 
 Roman people has men to whom it can intrust the helm of the 
 state ; and wherever they are, there is all the defence of the re- 
 public, or rather, there is the republic itself; which as yet has 
 only avenged, but has not re-established itself. Truly and 
 surely has the republic most high-born youths ready to defend 
 it, though they may for a time keep in the background from a 
 desire for tranquillity, still they can be recalled by the republic 
 at any time. 
 
 The name of peace is sweet, the thing itself is most salutary. 
 But between peace and slavery there is a wide difference. Peace 
 is liberty in tranquillity ; slavery is the worst of all evils to be 
 repelled, if need be, not only by war, but even by death. But 
 if those deliverers of ours have taken themselves away out of 
 our sight, still they have left behind the example of their con- 
 duct. They have done what no one else had done. Brutus 
 pursued Tarquinius with war; who was a king when it was law- 
 ful for a king to exist in Rome. Spurius Cassius, Spurius Mae- 
 lius, and Marcus Manlius were all slain because they were sus- 
 pected of aiming at regal power. These are the first men who 
 
 1B It has been explained before that and of Curio, before she married An- 
 Fulvia had been the widow of Clodius tonius.
 
 39 
 
 CICERO 
 
 have ever ventured to attack, sword in hand, a man who was not 
 aiming at regal power, but actually reigning. And their action 
 is not only of itself a glorious and godlike exploit, but it is also 
 one put forth for our imitation ; especially since by it they have 
 acquired such glory as appears hardly to be bounded by heaven 
 itself. For although in the very consciousness of a glorious 
 action there is a certain reward, still I do not consider immor- 
 tality of glory a thing to be despised by one who is himself 
 mortal. 
 
 Recollect, then, O Marcus Antonius, that day on which you 
 abolished the dictatorship. Set before you the joy of the Senate 
 and people of Rome ; compare it with this infamous market held 
 by you and by your friends ; and then you will understand how 
 great is the difference between praise and profit. But in truth, 
 just as some people, through some disease which has blunted 
 the senses, have no conception of the niceness of food, so men 
 who are lustful, avaricious, and criminal, have no taste for true 
 glory. But if praise cannot allure you to act rightly, still can- 
 not even fear turn you away from the most shameful actions ? 
 You are not afraid of the courts of justice. If it is because you 
 are innocent, I praise you ; if because you trust in your power 
 of overbearing them by violence, are you ignorant of what that 
 man has to fear, who on such an account as that does not fear 
 the courts of justice ? 
 
 But if you are not afraid of brave men and illustrious citizens, 
 because they are prevented from attacking you by your armed 
 retinue, still, believe me, your own fellows will not long endure 
 you. And what a life is it, day and night to be fearing danger 
 from one's own people ! Unless, indeed, you have men who are 
 bound to you by greater kindnesses than some of those men by 
 whom he was slain were bound to Caesar ; or unless there are 
 points in which you can be compared with him. 
 
 In that man were combined genius, method, memory, litera- 
 ture, prudence, deliberation, and industry. He had performed 
 exploits in war which, though calamitous for the republic, were 
 nevertheless mighty deeds. Having for many years aimed at 
 being a king, he had with great labor, and much personal dan- 
 ger, accomplished what he intended. He had conciliated the 
 ignorant multitude by presents, by monuments, by largesses of 
 food, and by banquets ; he had bound his own party to him by
 
 SECOND ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 391 
 
 rewards, his adversaries by the appearances of clemency. Why 
 need I say much on such a subject? He had already brought 
 a free city, partly by fear, partly by patience, into a habit of 
 slavery. 
 
 With him I can, indeed, compare you as to your desire to 
 reign ; but in all other respects you are in no degree to be com- 
 pared to him. But from the many evils which by him have 
 been burned into the republic, there is still this good, that the 
 Roman people has now learned how much to believe everyone, 
 to whom to trust itself, and against whom to guard. Do you 
 never think on these things? And do you not understand that 
 it is enough for brave men to have learned how noble a thing it 
 is as to the act, how grateful it is as to the benefit done, how 
 glorious as to the fame acquired, to slay a tyrant? When men 
 could not bear him, do you think they will bear you? Believe 
 me, the time will come when men will race with one another to 
 do this deed, and when no one will wait for the tardy arrival of 
 an opportunity. 
 
 Consider, I beg you, Marcus Antonius, do some time or other 
 consider the republic : think of the family of which you are born, 
 not of the men with whom you are living. Be reconciled to the 
 republic. However, do you decide on your conduct. As to 
 mine, I myself will declare what that shall be. I defended the 
 republic as a young man, I will not abandon it now that I am 
 old. I scorned the sword of Catiline, I will not quail before 
 yours. No, I will rather cheerfully expose my own person, if 
 the liberty of the city can be restored by my death. 
 
 May the indignation of the Roman people at last bring forth 
 what it has been so long laboring with. In truth, if twenty 
 years ago in this very temple I asserted that death could not 
 come prematurely upon a man of consular rank, with how much 
 more truth must I now say the same of an old man ? To me, 
 indeed, O conscript fathers, death is now even desirable, after 
 all the honors which I have gained, and the deeds which I have 
 done. I only pray for these two things : one, that dying I may 
 leave the Roman people free. No greater boon than this can 
 be granted me by the immortal gods. The other, that every- 
 one may meet with a fate suitable to his deserts and conduct 
 toward the republic.
 
 THE NINTH ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Ninth Philippic
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Servius Sulpicius had died on his embassy to Marcus Antonius, be- 
 fore Mutina ; and Pansa called the Senate together to deliberate on the 
 honors to be paid to his memory. Pansa himself proposed a public 
 funeral, a sepulchre, and a statue. Servilius opposed the statue, as due 
 only to those who had been slain by violence while in the discharge of 
 their duties as embassadors. Cicero delivered the following oration in 
 support of Pansa's proposition, which was carried. 
 
 394
 
 THE NINTH ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Ninth Philippic 
 
 I WISH, O conscript father, that the immortal gods had 
 granted to us to return thanks to Servius Sulpicius while 
 alive, rather than thus to devise honors for him now that 
 he is dead. Nor have I any doubt, but that if that man had 
 been able himself to give us his report of the proceedings of 
 his embassy, his return would have been acceptable to you and 
 salutary to the republic. Not that either Lucius Piso or Lucius 
 Philippus have been deficient in either zeal or care in the per- 
 formance of so important a duty and so grave a commission ; 
 but, as Servius Sulpicius was superior in age to them, and in 
 wisdom to everyone, he, being suddenly taken from the busi- 
 ness, left the whole embassy crippled and enfeebled. 
 
 But if deserved honors have been paid to any embassador 
 after death, there is no one by whom they can be found to 
 have been ever more fully deserved than by Servius Sulpicius. 
 The rest of those men who have died while engaged on an 
 embassy, have gone forth, subject indeed to the usual uncer- 
 tainties of life, but without any especial danger or fear of death. 
 Servius Sulpicius set out with some hope indeed of reaching 
 Antonius, but with none of returning. But though he was 
 so very ill that if any exertion were added to his bad state of 
 health, he would have no hope of himself, still he did not refuse 
 to try, even while at his last gasp, to be of some service to the 
 republic. Therefore neither the severity of the winter, nor the 
 snow, nor the length of the journey, nor the badness of the 
 roads, nor his daily increasing illness, delayed him. And when 
 he had arrived where he might meet and confer with the man 
 to whom he had been sent, he departed this life in the midst 
 
 395
 
 396 CICERO 
 
 of his care and consideration as to how he might best dis- 
 charge the duty which he had undertaken. 
 
 As therefore, O Caius Pansa, you have done well in other 
 respects, so you have acted admirably in exhorting us this day 
 to pay honor to Servius Sulpicius, and in yourself making an 
 eloquent oration in his praise. And after the speech which 
 we have heard from you, I should have been content to say 
 nothing beyond barely giving my vote, if I did not think it 
 necessary to reply to Publius Servilius, who has declared his 
 opinion that this honor of a statue ought to be granted to no 
 one who has not been actually slain with a sword while per- 
 forming the duties of his embassy. But I, O conscript fathers, 
 consider that this was the feeling of our ancestors, that they 
 considered that it was the cause of death, and not the manner 
 of it, which was a proper subject for inquiry. In fact, they 
 thought fit that a monument should be erected to any man 
 whose death was caused by an embassy, in order to tempt men 
 in perilous wars to be the more bold in undertaking the office 
 of an embassador. What we ought to do, therefore, is, not 
 to scrutinize the precedents afforded by our ancestors, but to 
 explain their intentions from which the precedents themselves 
 arose. 
 
 Lar Tolumnius, the king of Veii, slew four ambassadors of 
 the Roman people, at Fidenae, whose statues were standing 
 in the rostra till within my recollection. The honor was well 
 deserved. For our ancestors gave those men who had encoun- 
 tered death in the cause of the republic an imperishable memory 
 in exchange for this transitory life. We see in the rostra the 
 statue of Cnseus Octavius, an illustrious and great man, the first 
 man who brought the consulship into that family, which after- 
 ward abounded in illustrious men. There was no one then who 
 envied him, because he was a new man ; there was no one who 
 did not honor his virtue. But yet the embassy of Octavius 
 was one in which there was no suspicion of danger. For hav- 
 ing been sent by the Senate to investigate the dispositions of 
 kings and of free nations, and especially to forbid the grandson 
 of king Antiochus, the one who had carried on war against our 
 forefathers, to maintain fleets and to keep elephants, he was 
 slain at Laodicea, in the gymnasium, by a man of the name of 
 Leptines. On this a statue was given to him by our ancestors 
 as a recompense for his life, which might ennoble his progeny
 
 NINTH ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 397 
 
 for many years, and which is now the only memorial left of 
 so illustrious a family. But in his case, and in that of Tullus 
 Cluvius, 1 and Lucius Roscius, and Spurius Antius, and Caius 
 Fulcinius, who were slain by the king of Veii, it was not the 
 blood that was shed at their death, but the death itself which 
 was encountered in the service of the republic, which was the 
 cause of their being thus honored. 
 
 Therefore, O conscript fathers, if it had been chance which 
 had caused the death of Servius Sulpicius, I should sorrow 
 indeed over such a loss to the republic, but I should consider 
 him deserving of the honor, not of a monument, but of a public 
 mourning. But, as it is, who is there who doubts that it was 
 the embassy itself which caused his death ? For he took death 
 away with him ; though, if he had remained among us, his own 
 care, and the attention of his most excellent son and his most 
 faithful wife, might have warded it off. But he, as he saw that, 
 if he did not obey your authority, he should not be acting like 
 himself; but that if he did obey, then that duty, undertaken 
 for the welfare of the republic, would be the end of his life ; 
 preferred dying at a most critical period of the republic, to ap- 
 pearing to have done less service to the republic than he might 
 have done. 
 
 He had an opportunity of recruiting his strength and taking 
 care of himself in many cities through which his journey lay. 
 He was met by the liberal invitation of many entertainers, as 
 his dignity deserved, and the men too who were sent with him 
 exhorted him to take rest, and to think of his own health. But 
 he, refusing all delay, hastening on, eager to perform your 
 commands, persevered in this his constant purpose, in spite of 
 the hinderances of his illness. And as Antonius was above all 
 things disturbed by his arrival, because the commands which 
 were laid upon him by your orders had been drawn up by the 
 authority and wisdom of Servius Sulpicius, he showed plainly 
 how he hated the Senate by the evident joy which he displayed 
 at the death of the adviser of the Senate. 
 
 Leptines then did not kill Octavius, nor did the king of Veii 
 slay those whom I have just named, more clearly than Antonius 
 killed Servius Sulpicius. Surely he brought the man death, 
 who was the cause of his death. Wherefore, I think it of con- 
 sequence, in order that posterity may recollect it, that there 
 
 1 There is some corruption of the text here.
 
 398 CICERO 
 
 should be a record of what the judgment of the Senate was con- 
 cerning this war. For the statue itself will be a witness that 
 the war was so serious a one, that the death of an ambassador in 
 it gained the honor of an imperishable memorial. 
 
 But if, O conscript fathers, you would only recollect the ex- 
 cuses alleged by Servius Sulpicius why he should not be ap- 
 pointed to this embassy, then no doubt will be left on your 
 minds that we ought to repair by the honor paid to the dead the 
 injury which we did to him while living. For it is you, O con- 
 script fathers (it is a grave charge to make, but it must be 
 uttered), it is you, I say, who have deprived Servius Sulpicius 
 of life. For when you saw him pleading his illness as an ex- 
 cuse more by the truth of the fact than by any labored plea 
 of words, you were not indeed cruel (for what can be more 
 impossible for this order to be guilty of than that), but as you 
 hoped that there was nothing that could not be accomplished 
 by his authority and wisdom, you opposed his excuse with 
 great earnestness, and compelled the man, who had always 
 thought your decisions of the greatest weight, to abandon his 
 own opinion. But when there was added the exhortation of 
 Pansa, the consul, delivered with more weight than the ears 
 of Servius Sulpicius had learned to resist, then at last he led 
 me and his own son aside, and said that he was bound to prefer 
 your authority to his own life. And we, admiring his virtue, 
 did not dare to oppose his determination. His son was moved 
 with extraordinary piety and affection, and my own grief did 
 not fall far short of his agitation ; but each of us was compelled 
 to yield to his greatness of mind, and to the dignity of his 
 language, when he, indeed, amid the loud praises and con- 
 gratulations of you all, promised to do whatever you wished, 
 and not to avoid the danger which might be incurred by the 
 adoption of the opinion of which he himself had been the au- 
 thor. And we the next day escorted him early in the morning 
 as he hastened forth to execute your commands. And he, in 
 truth, when departing, spoke with me in such a manner that 
 his language seeemed like an omen of his fate. 
 
 Restore then, O conscript fathers, life to him from whom 
 you have taken it. For the life of the dead consists in the recol- 
 lection cherished of them by the living. Take ye care that 
 he, whom you without intending it sent to his death, shall 
 from you receive immortality. And if you by your decree erect
 
 NINTH ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 399 
 
 a statue to him in the rostra, no forgetfulness of posterity will 
 ever obscure the memory of his embassy. For the remainder 
 of the life of Servius Sulpicius will be recommended to the 
 eternal recollection of all men by many and splendid memorials. 
 The praise of all mortals will forever celebrate his wisdom, his 
 firmness, his loyalty, his admirable vigilance and prudence in 
 upholding the interests of the public. Nor will that admirable, 
 and incredible, and almost godlike skill of his in interpreting 
 the laws and explaining the principles of equity be buried in 
 silence. If all the men of all ages, who have ever had any ac- 
 quaintance with the law in this city, were got together into one 
 place, they would not deserve to be compared to Servius Sul- 
 picius. Nor was he more skilful in explaining the law than 
 in laying down the principles of justice. Those maxims 
 which were derived from laws, and from the common law, he 
 constantly referred to the original principles of kindness and 
 equity. Nor was he more fond of arranging the conduct of 
 lawsuits than of preventing disputes altogether. Therefore he 
 is not in want of this memorial which a statue will provide ; he 
 has other and better ones. For this statue will be only a wit- 
 ness of his honorable death ; those actions will be the memorial 
 of his glorious life. So that this will be rather a monument of 
 the gratitude of the Senate, than of the glory of the man. 
 
 The affection of the son, too, will appear to have great in- 
 fluence in moving us to honor the father ; for although, being 
 overwhelmed with grief, he is not present, still you ought to be 
 animated with the same feelings as if he were present. But he 
 is in such distress, that no father ever sorrowed more over the 
 loss of an only son than he grieves for the death of his father. 
 Indeed, I think that it concerns also the fame of Servius Sul- 
 picius the son, that he should appear to have paid all due re- 
 spect to his father. Although Servius Sulpicius could leave no 
 nobler monument behind him than his son, the image of his 
 own manners, and virtues, and wisdom, and piety, and genius ; 
 whose grief can either be alleviated by this honor paid to his 
 father by you, or by no consolation at all. 
 
 But when I recollect the many conversations which in 
 the days of our intimacy on earth I have had with Servius 
 Sulpicius, it appears to me,, that if there be any feeling in 
 the dead, a brazen statue, and that too a pedestrian one, will 
 be more acceptable to him than a gilt equestrian one, such as
 
 400 CICERO 
 
 was first erected to Lucius Sylla. For Servius was wonder- 
 fully attached to the moderation of our forefathers, and was 
 accustomed to reprove the insolence of this age. As if, there- 
 fore, I were able to consult himself as to what he would wish, 
 so I give my vote for a pedestrian statue of brass, as if I 
 were speaking by his authority and inclination ; which by 
 the honor of the memorial will diminish and mitigate the great 
 grief and regret of his fellow-citizens. And it is certain that 
 this my opinion, O conscript fathers, will be approved of by- 
 the opinion of Publius Servilius, who has given his vote that 
 a sepulchre be publicly decreed to Servius Sulpicius, but has 
 voted against the statue. For if the death of an embassador 
 happening without bloodshed and violence requires no honor, 
 why does he vote for the honor of a public funeral, which is 
 the greatest honor that can be paid to a dead man? If he 
 grants that to Servius Sulpicius which was not given to Cnaeus 
 Octavius, why does he think that we ought not to give to the 
 former what was given to the latter? Our ancestors, indeed, 
 decreed statues to many men; public sepulchres to few. But 
 statues perish by weather, by violence, by lapse of time; but 
 the sanctity of the sepulchres is in the soil itself, which can 
 neither be moved nor destroyed by any violence; and while 
 other things are extinguished, so sepulchres became holier by 
 age. 
 
 Let, then, that man be distinguished by that honor also, a 
 man to whom no honor can be given which is not deserved. 
 Let us be grateful in paying respect in death to him to whom 
 we can now show no other gratitude. And by that same 
 step let the audacity of Marcus Antonius, waging a nefarious 
 war, be branded with infamy. For when these honors have 
 been paid to Servius Sulpicius, the evidence of his embassy 
 having been insulted and rejected by Antonious will remain for 
 everlasting. 
 
 On which account I give my vote for a decree in this form : 
 " As Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of Quintus, of the 
 Lemonian tribe, at a most critical period of the republic, and 
 being ill with a very serious and dangerous disease, preferred 
 the authority of the Senate and the safety of the republic to 
 his own life, and struggled against the violence and severity 
 of his illness, in order to arrive at the camp of Antonius, to
 
 NINTH ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 401 
 
 which the Senate had sent him; and as he, when he had al- 
 most arrived at the camp, being overwhelmed by the violence 
 of the disease, has lost his life in discharging a most impor- 
 tant office of the republic ; and as his death has been in strict 
 correspondence to a life passed with the greatest integrity and 
 honor, during which he, Servius Sulpicius, has often been of 
 great service to the republic, both as a private individual and 
 in the discharge of various magistracies ; and as he, being such 
 a man, has encountered death on behalf of the republic while 
 employed on an embassy, the Senate decrees that a brazen 
 pedestrian statue of Servius Sulpicius be erected in the rostra 
 in compliance with the resolution of this order, and that his 
 children and posterity shall have a place round this statue 
 of five feet in every direction, from which to behold the games 
 and gladiatorial combats, because he died in the cause of the 
 republic; and that this reason be inscribed on the pedestal of 
 the statue ; and that Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius the con- 
 suls, one or both of them, if it seem good to them, shall com- 
 mand the quaestors of the city to let out a contract for mak- 
 ing that pedestal and that statue, and erecting them in the 
 rostra; and that whatever price they contract for, they shall 
 take care the amount is given and paid to the contractor; 
 and as in old times the Senate has exerted its authority with 
 respect to the obsequies of, and honors paid to brave men, it 
 now decrees that he shall be carried to the tomb on the day 
 of his funeral with the greatest possible solemnity. And as 
 Servius Sulpucius Rufus, the son of Quintus of the Lemonian 
 tribe, has deserved so well of the republic as to be entitled to 
 be complimented with all those distinctions ; the Senate is of 
 opinion, and thinks it for the advantage of the republic, that 
 the consule aedile should suspend the edict which usually pre- 
 vails with respect to funerals in the case of the funeral of 
 Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of Quintus of the Lemonian 
 tribe; and that Caius Pansa, the consul, shall assign him a 
 place for a tomb in the Esquiline plain, or in whatever place 
 shall seem good to him, extending thirty feet in every direc- 
 tion, where Servius Sulpicius may be buried; and that that 
 shall be his tomb, and that of his children and posterity, as 
 having been a tomb most deservedly given to them by the 
 public authority." 
 26
 
 THE LAST ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Fourteenth Philippic
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 Brutus gained great advantages in Macedonia over Caius Antonius, 
 and took him prisoner. He treated him with great lenity, so much 
 so as to displease Cicero, who remonstrated with him strongly on his 
 design of setting him at liberty. He was also under some apprehension 
 as to the steadiness of Plancus's loyalty to the Senate; but on his 
 writing to that body to assure them of his obedience, Cicero procured 
 a vote of some extraordinary honors to him. 
 
 Cassius also about the same time was very successful in Syria, of 
 which he wrote Cicero a full account. Meantime reports were being 
 spread in the city by the partisans of Antonius, of his success before 
 Mutina; and even of his having gained over the consuls. Cicero too 
 was personally much annoyed at a report which they spread of his 
 having formed the design of making himself master of the city and 
 assuming the title of dictator; but when Apuleius, one of his friends, 
 and a tribune of the people, proceeded to make a speech to the people 
 in Cicero's justification, the people all cried out that he had never 
 done anything which was not for the advantage of the republic. About 
 the same time news arrived of a victory gained over Antonius at 
 Mutina. 
 
 Pansa was now on the point of joining Hirtius with four new 
 legions, and Antonius endeavored to surprise him on the road before 
 he could effect that junction. A severe battle ensued, in which 
 Hirtius came to Pansa's aid, and Antonius was defeated with great 
 loss. On the receipt of the news the populace assembled about Cicero's 
 house, and carried him in triumph to the Capitol. The next day 
 Marcus Cornutus, the praetor, summoned the Senate to deliberate on 
 the letters received from the consuls and Octavius, giving an account 
 of the victory. Servilius declared his opinion that the citizens should 
 relinquish the sagurn, or robe of war; and that a supplication should 
 be decreed in honor of the consuls and Octavius. Cicero rose next 
 and delivered the following speech, objecting to the relinquishment of 
 the robe of war, and blaming Servilius for not calling Antonius an 
 enemy. The measures which he himself proposed were carried. 
 
 404
 
 THE LAST ORATION AGAINST 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS 
 
 Called also the Fourteenth Philippic 
 
 IF, O conscript fathers, while I learned from the letters 
 which have been read that the army of our most wicked 
 enemies had been defeated and routed, I had also learned 
 what we all wish for above all things, and which we do sup- 
 pose has resulted from that victory which has been achieved 
 namely, that Decimus Brutus had already quitted Mutina 
 then I should without any hesitation give my vote for our 
 returning to our usual dress out of joy at the safety of that 
 citizen on account of whose danger it was that we adopted the 
 robe of war. But before any news of that event which the city 
 looks for with the greatest eagerness arrives, we have sufficient 
 reason indeed for joy at this most important and most illus- 
 trious battle; but reserve, I beg yeu, your return to your 
 usual dress for the time of complete victory. But the com- 
 pletion of this war is the safety of Decimus Brutus. 
 
 But what is the meaning of this proposal that our dress 
 shall be changed just for to-day, and that to-morrow we 
 should again come forth in the garb of war? Rather when 
 we have once turned to that dress which we wish and desire 
 to assume, let us strive to retain it forever; for this is not 
 only discreditable, but it is displeasing also to the immortal 
 gods, to leave their altars, which we have approached in the 
 attire of peace, for the purpose of assuming the garb of war. 
 And I notice, O conscript fathers, that there are some who 
 favor this proposal : whose intention and design is, as they see 
 that that will be a most glorious day for Decimus Brutus on 
 which we return to our usual dress out of joy for his safety, 
 to deprive him of this great reward, so that it may not be 
 
 405
 
 406 CICERO 
 
 handed down to the recollection of posterity that the Roman 
 people had recourse to the garb of war on account of the dan- 
 ger of one single citizen, and then returned to their gowns 
 of peace on account of his safety. Take away this reason, 
 and you will find no other for so absurd a proposal. But 
 do you, O conscript fathers, preserve your authority, adhere 
 to your own opinions, preserve in your recollection what you 
 have often declared, that the whole result of this entire war 
 depends on the life of one most brave and excellent man. 
 
 For the purpose of effecting the liberation of Decimus Bru- 
 tus, the chief men of the state were sent as ambassadors, to 
 give notice to that enemy and parricidal traitor to retire from 
 Mutina ; for the sake of preserving that same Decimus Brutus, 
 Aulus Hirtius, the consul, went by lot to conduct the war; 
 a man the weakness of whose bodily health was made up for 
 by the strength of his courage, and encouraged by the hope 
 of victory ; Caesar, too, after he, with an army levied by his 
 own resources and on his own authority, had delivered the 
 republic from the first dangers that assailed it, in order to 
 prevent any subsequent wicked attempts from being origi- 
 nated, departed to assist in the deliverance of the same Bru- 
 tus, and subdued some family vexation which he may have 
 felt by his attachment to his country. What other object had 
 Caius Pansa in holding the levies which he did, and in collect- 
 ing money, and in carrying the most severe resolutions of 
 the Senate against Antonius, and in exhorting us, and in in- 
 viting the Roman people to embrace the cause of liberty, except 
 to insure the deliverance of Decimus Brutus? For the Roman 
 people in crowds demanded at his hands the safety of Decimus 
 Brutus with such unanimous outcries, that he was compelled 
 to prefer it not only to any consideration of his own personal 
 advantage, but even to his own necessities. And that end we 
 now, O conscript fathers, are entitled to hope is either at the 
 point of being achieved, or is actually gained ; but it is right 
 for the reward of our hopes to be reserved for the issue and 
 event of the business, lest we should appear either to have 
 anticipated the kindness of the gods by our over-precipitation, 
 or to have despised the bounty of fortune through our own 
 folly. 
 
 But since the manner of your behavior shows plainly enough
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 407 
 
 what you think of this matter, I will come to the letters which 
 have arrived from the consuls and the propraetor, after I have 
 said a few words relating to the letters themselves. 
 
 The swords, O conscript fathers, of our legions and armies 
 have been stained with, or rather, I should say, dipped deep 
 in blood in two battles which have taken place under the con- 
 suls, and a third, which has been fought under the command 
 of Caesar. If it was the blood of enemies, then great is the 
 piety of the soldiers ; but it is nefarious wickedness if it was 
 the blood of citizens. How long, then, is that man, who has 
 surpassed all enemies in wickedness, to be spared the name of 
 enemy ? unless you wish to see the very swords of our soldiers 
 trembling in their hands while they doubt whether they are 
 piercing a citizen or an enemy. You vote a supplication ; you 
 do not call Antonius an enemy. Very pleasing indeed to the 
 immortal gods will our thanksgivings be, very pleasing to 
 the victims, after a multitude of our citizens has been slain! 
 " For the victory," says the proposer of the supplication, " over 
 wicked and audacious men." For that is what this most il- 
 lustrious man calls them; expressions of blame suited to law- 
 suits carried on in the city, not denunciations of searing infamy 
 such as deserved by internecine war. I suppose they are forg- 
 ing wills, or trespassing on their neighbors, or cheating some 
 young men; for it is men implicated in these and similar 
 practices that we are in the habit of terming wicked and auda- 
 cious. One man, the foulest of all banditti, is waging an ir- 
 reconcilable war against four consuls. He is at the same time 
 carrying on war against the Senate and people of Rome. He 
 is (although he is himself hastening to destruction, through 
 the disasters which he has met with) threatening all of us 
 with destruction, and devastation, and torments, and tortures. 
 He declares that that inhuman and savage act of Dolabella's, 
 which no nation of barbarians would have owned, was done 
 by his advice; and what he himself would do in this city, if 
 this very Jupiter, who now looks down upon us assembled in 
 his temple, had not repelled him from this temple and from 
 these walls, he showed, in the miseries of those inhabitants of 
 Parma, whom, virtuous and honorable men as they were, and 
 most intimately connected with the authority of this order, 
 and with the dignity of the Roman people, that villain and
 
 408 CICERO 
 
 monster, Lucius Antonius, that object of the extraordinary 
 detestation of all men, and (if the gods hate those whom they 
 ought) of all the gods also, murdered with every circumstance 
 of cruelty. My mind shudders at the recollection, O conscript 
 fathers, and shrinks from relating the cruelties which Lucius 
 Antonius perpetrated on the children and wives of the citizens 
 of Parma. Whatever disgrace the Antonii voluntarily under- 
 went that they strove to lay upon others against their will. 
 But it is a miserable violence which they offered to them ; 
 most unholy lust, such as the whole life of the Antonii is pol- 
 luted with. 
 
 Is there then anyone who is afraid to call those men ene- 
 mies, whose wickedness he admits to have surpassed even 
 the inhumanity of the Carthaginians ? For in what city, when 
 taken by storm, did Hannibal even behave with such ferocity 
 as Antonius did in Parma, which he filched by surprise? Un- 
 less, mayhap, Antonius is not to be considered the enemy of 
 this colony, and of the others toward which he is animated 
 with the same feelings. But if he is beyond all question the 
 enemy of the colonies and municipal towns, then what do you 
 consider him with respect to this city which he is so eager for, 
 to satiate the indigence of his band of robbers? which that 
 skilful and experienced surveyor of his, Saxa, has already 
 marked out with his rule. Recollect, I entreat you, in the 
 name of the immortal gods, O conscript fathers, what we have 
 been fearing for the last two days, in consequence of infamous 
 rumors carefully disseminated by enemies within the walls. 
 Who has been able to look upon his children or upon his wife 
 without weeping? who has been able to bear the sight of his 
 home, of his house, and his household gods? Already all of 
 us were expecting a most ignominious death, or meditating a 
 miserable flight. And shall we hesitate to call the men at 
 whose hands we feared all these things enemies? If anyone 
 should propose a more severe designation I will willingly agree 
 to it; I am hardly content with this ordinary one, and will 
 certainly not employ a more moderate one. 
 
 Therefore, as we are bound to vote, and as Servilius has al- 
 ready proposed a most just supplication for those letters which 
 have been read to you; I will propose altogether to increase 
 the number of the days which it is to last, especially as it is
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 409 
 
 to be decreed in honor of three generals conjointly. But first 
 of all I will insist on styling those men imperator by whose 
 valor, and wisdom, and good fortune we have been released 
 from the most imminent danger of slavery and death. Indeed, 
 who is there within the last twenty years who has had a sup- 
 plication decreed to him without being himself styled impera- 
 tor, though he may have performed the most insignificant ex- 
 ploits, or even almost none at all? Wherefore, the senator 
 who spoke before me ought either not to have moved for a 
 supplication at all, or he ought to have paid the usual and 
 established compliment to those men to whom even new and 
 extraordinary honors are justly due. 
 
 Shall the Senate, according to this custom which has 
 now obtained, style a man imperator if he has slain a thou- 
 sand or two of Spaniards, or Gauls, or Thracians; and now 
 that so many legions have been routed, now that such a mul- 
 titude of enemies has been slain ay, enemies, I say, al- 
 though our enemies within the city do not fancy this expres- 
 sion shall we pay to our most illustrious generals the honor 
 of a supplication, and refuse them the name of imperator? 
 For with what great honor, and joy, and exultation ought 
 the deliverers of this city themselves to enter into this tem- 
 ple, when yesterday, on account of the exploits which they 
 have performed, the Roman people carried me in an ovation, 
 almost in a triumph from my house to the Capitol, and back 
 again from the Capitol to my own house? That is indeed 
 in my opinion a just and genuine triumph, when men who 
 have deserved well of the republic receive public testimony 
 to their merits from the unanimous consent of the Senate. 
 For if, at a time of general rejoicing on the part of the Ro- 
 man people, they addressed their congratulations to one in- 
 dividual, that is a great proof of their opinion of him; if 
 they gave him thanks, that is a greater still; if they did 
 both, then nothing more honorable to him can be possibly 
 imagined. 
 
 Are you saying all this of yourself? someone will ask. It 
 is indeed against my will that I do so ; but my indignation at 
 injustice makes me boastful, contrary to my usual habit. Is 
 it not sufficient that thanks should not be given to men who 
 have well earned them, by men who are ignorant of the very
 
 4io 
 
 CICERO 
 
 nature of virtue? And shall accusations and odium be at- 
 tempted to be excited against those men who devote all their 
 thoughts to insuring the safety of the republic? For you 
 well know that there has been a common report for the last 
 few days that the day before the wine feast, 1 that is to say, 
 on this very day, I was intending to come forth with the 
 fasces as dictator. One would think that this story was in- 
 vented against some gladiator, or robber, or Catiline, and not 
 against a man who had prevented any such step from ever 
 being taken in the republic. Was I, who defeated and over- 
 threw and crushed Catiline, when he was attempting such 
 wickedness, a likely man myself all on a sudden to turn out 
 Catiline? Under what auspices could I, an augur, take those 
 fasces? How long should I have been likely to keep them? 
 to whom was I to deliver them as my successor? The idea of 
 anyone having been so wicked as to invent such a tale! or 
 so mad as to believe it! In what could such a suspicion, or 
 rather such gossip, have originated ? 
 
 When, as you know, during the last three or four days a 
 report of bad news from Mutina has been creeping abroad, 
 the disloyal part of the citizens, inflated with exultation and 
 insolence, began to collect in one place, at that senate-house 
 which has been more fatal to their party than to the republic. 
 There, while they were forming a plan to massacre us, and 
 were distributing the different duties among one another, and 
 settling who was to seize on the Capitol, who on the rostra, 
 who on the gates of the city, they thought that all the citizens 
 would flock to me. And in order to bring me into unpopu- 
 larity, and even into danger of my life, they spread abroad 
 this report about the fasces. They themselves had some idea 
 of bringing the fasces to my house ; and then, on pretence of 
 that having been done by my wish, they had prepared a band 
 of hired ruffians to make an attack on me as on a tyrant, and 
 a massacre of all of you was intended to follow. The fact is 
 already notorious,* O conscript fathers, but the origin of all 
 this wickedness will be revealed in its fitting time. 
 
 Therefore Publius Apuleius, a tribute of the people, who 
 
 1 There were two wine feasts, Vinalia. October. This was the urbana vinalia; 
 
 at Rome: the vinalia urbana, celebrated on which occasion the wine-casks which 
 
 on the twenty-third of April; and the had been filled in the autumn were 
 
 vinalia rustica, on the nineteenth of tasted for the first time.
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 411 
 
 ever since my consulship has been the witness and partaker 
 of, and my assistant in all my designs and all my dangers, 
 could not endure the grief of witnessing my indignation. He 
 convened a numerous assembly, as the whole Roman people 
 were animated with one feeling on the subject. And when 
 in the harangue which he then made, he, as was natural from 
 our great intimacy and friendship, was going to exculpate me 
 from all suspicion in the matter of the fasces, the whole as- 
 sembly cried out with one voice, that I had never had any 
 intentions with regard to the republic which were not excel- 
 lent. After this assembly was over within two or three hours, 
 these most welcome messengers and letters arrived; so that 
 the same day not only delivered me from a most unjust odium, 
 but increased my credit by that most extraordinary act with 
 which the Roman people distinguished me. 
 
 I have made this digression, O conscript fathers, not so 
 much for the sake of speaking of myself (for I should be in a 
 sorry plight if I were not sufficiently acquitted in your eyes 
 without the necessity of making a formal defence), as with 
 the view of warning some men of too grovelling and narrow 
 minds, to adopt the line of conduct which I myself have al- 
 ways pursued, and to think the virtue of excellent citizens 
 worthy of imitation, not of envy. There is a great field in 
 the republic, as Crassus used very wisely to say; the road to 
 glory is open to many. 
 
 Would that those great men were still alive, who, after 
 my consulship, when I myself was willing to yield to them, 
 were themselves desirous to see me in the post of leader. 
 But at the present moment, when there is such a dearth of 
 wise and fearless men of consular rank, how great do you not 
 suppose must be my grief and indignation, when I see some 
 men absolutely disaffected to the republic, others wholly in- 
 different to everything, others incapable of persevering with 
 any firmness in the cause which they have espoused ; and 
 regulating their opinions not always by the" ad vantage of the 
 republic, but sometimes by hope, and sometimes by fear. 
 But if anyone is anxious and inclined to struggle for the 
 leadership though struggle there ought to be none he acts 
 very foolishly, if he proposes to combat virtue with vices. 
 For as speed is only outstripped by speed, so among brave
 
 412 
 
 CICERO 
 
 men virtue is only surpassed by virtue. Will you, if I am 
 full of excellent sentiments with respect to the republic, adopt 
 the worse possible sentiments yourself for the purpose of ex- 
 celling me? Or if you see a race taking place for the ac- 
 quisition of honors, will you summon all the wicked men you 
 can find to your banner? I should be sorry for you to do 
 so ; first of all, for the sake of the republic, and secondly, for 
 that of your own dignity. But if the leadership of the state 
 were at stake, which I have never coveted, what could be 
 more desirable for me than such conduct on your part? For 
 it is impossible that I should be defeated by wicked sentiments 
 and measures by good ones perhaps I might be, and I will- 
 ingly would be. 
 
 Some people are vexed that the Roman people should see, 
 and take notice of, and form their opinion on these matters. 
 Was it possible for men not to form their opinion of each in- 
 dividual as he deserved? For as the Roman people form a 
 most correct judgment of the entire Senate, thinking that at 
 no period in the history of the republic was this order ever 
 more firm or more courageous ; so also they all inquire dili- 
 gently concerning every individual among us; and especially 
 in the case of those among us who deliver our sentiments at 
 length in this place, they are anxious to know what those 
 sentiments are; and in that way they judge of each one of 
 us, as they think that he deserves. They recollect that on 
 the nineteenth of December I was the main cause of recover- 
 ing our f redom ; that from the first of January to this hour I 
 have never ceased watching over the republic; that day and 
 night my house and my ears have been open to the instruction 
 and admonition of everyone; that it has been by my letters, 
 and my messengers, and my exhortations, that all men in 
 every part of the empire have been roused to the protection 
 of our country; that it is owing to the open declaration of 
 my opinion ever since the first of January that no ambas- 
 sadors have been ever sent to Antonius ; that I have always 
 called him a public enemy, and this a war ; so that I, who on 
 every occasion have been the adviser of genuine peace, have 
 been a determined enemy to this pretence of fatal peace. 
 
 Have not I also at all times pronounced Ventidius an en- 
 emy, when others wished to call him a tribune of the peo-
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 413 
 
 pie? If the consuls had chosen to divide the Senate on my 
 opinion, their arms would long since have been wrested from 
 the hands of all those robbers by the positive authority of the 
 Senate. 
 
 But what could not be done then, O conscript fathers, at 
 present not only can be, but even must be done. I mean, 
 those men who are in reality enemies must be branded in 
 plain language, must be declared enemies by our formal resolu- 
 tion. Formerly, when I used the words " war " or " enemy," 
 men more than once objected to record my proposition among 
 the other propositions. But that cannot be done on the pres- 
 ent occasion. For in consequence of the letters of Caius 
 Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, and of Caius Caesar, 
 propraetor, we have all voted that honors be paid to the im- 
 mortal gods. The very man who lately proposed and carried 
 a vote for a supplication, without intending it pronounced 
 those men enemies ; for a supplication has never been decreed 
 for success in civil war. Decreed, do I say? It has never 
 even been asked for in the letters of the conqueror. Sylla as 
 consul carried on a civil war; he led his legions into the city 
 and expelled whomsoever he chose; he slew those whom he 
 had in his power: there was no mention made of any suppli- 
 cation. The violent war with Octavius followed. Cinna the 
 conqueror had no supplication voted to him. Sylla as im- 
 perator revenged the victory of Cinna, still no supplication 
 was decreed by the Senate. I ask you yourself, O Publius 
 Servilius, did your colleague send you any letters concerning 
 that most lamentable battle of Pharsalia? Did he wish you 
 to make any motion about a supplication? Certainly not. 
 But he did afterward when he took Alexandria ; when he de- 
 feated Pharnaces; but for the battle of Pharsalia he did not 
 even celebrate a triumph. For that battle had destroyed those 
 citizens whose, I will not say lives, but even whose victory 
 might have been quite compatible with the safety and prosper- 
 ity of the state. And the same thing had happened in the 
 previous civil wars. For though a supplication was decreed in 
 my honor when I was consul, though no arms had been had 
 recourse to at all, still that was voted by a new and wholly 
 unprecedented kind of decree, not for the slaughter of enemies, 
 but for the preservation of the citizens. Wherefore a suppli-
 
 4 i 4 CICERO 
 
 cation on account of the affairs of the republic having been suc- 
 cessfully conducted must, O conscript fathers, be refused by 
 you even though your generals demand it ; a stigma which 
 has never been affixed on anyone except Gabinius ; or else, 
 by the mere fact of decreeing a supplication, it is quite inevi- 
 table that you must pronounce those men, for whose defeat you 
 do decree it, enemies of the state. 
 
 What then Servilius did in effect, I do in express terms, 
 when I style those men imperators. By using this name, 
 I pronounce those who have been already defeated, and those 
 who still remain, enemies in calling their conquerors im- 
 perators. For what title can I more suitably bestow on Pansa ? 
 Though he has, indeed, the title of the highest honor in 
 the republic. What, too, shall I call Hirtius? He, indeed, 
 is consul ; but this latter title is indicative of the kindness of 
 the Roman people ; the other of valor and victory. What ? 
 Shall I hesitate to call Caesar imperator, a man born for the 
 republic by the express kindness of the gods? He who was 
 the first man who turned aside the savage and disgraceful 
 cruelty of Antonius, not only from our throats, but from our 
 limbs and bowels? What numerous and what important vir- 
 tues, O ye immortal gods, were displayed on that single day. 
 For Pansa was the leader of all in engaging in battle and in 
 combating with Antonius ; O general worthy of the Martial 
 legion, legion worthy of its general ! Indeed, if he had been 
 able to restrain its irresistible impetuosity, the whole war 
 would have been terminated by that one battle. But as the 
 legion, eager for liberty, had rushed with too much precipita- 
 tion against the enemy's line of battle, and as Pansa himself 
 was fighting in the front ranks, he received two dangerous 
 wounds, and was borne out of the battle, to preserve his life 
 for the republic. But I pronounce him not only imperator, 
 but a most illustrious imperator ; who, as he had pledged him- 
 self to discharge his duty to the republic either by death or by 
 victory, has fulfilled one-half of his promise ; may the immor- 
 tal gods prevent the fulfilment of the other half ! 
 
 Why need I speak of Hirtius? who, the moment he heard 
 of what was going on, with incredible promptness and cour- 
 age led forth two legions out of the camp; that noble fourth 
 legion, which, having deserted Antonius, formerly united
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 415 
 
 itself to the Martial legion; and the seventh, which, consist- 
 ing wholly of veterans, gave proof in that battle that the 
 name of the Senate and people of Rome was dear to those sol- 
 diers who preserved the recollection of the kindness of Caesar. 
 With these twenty cohorts, with no cavalry, while Hirtius 
 himself was bearing the eagle of the fourth legion and we 
 never heard of a more noble office being assumed by any gen- 
 eral he fought with the three legions of Antonius and with 
 his cavalry, and overthrew, and routed, and put to the sword 
 those impious men who were the real enemies to this temple 
 of the all-good and all-powerful Jupiter, and to the rest of the 
 temples of the immortal gods, and the houses of the city, and 
 the freedom of the Roman people, and our lives and actual ex- 
 istence ; so that that chief and leader of robbers fled away with 
 a very few followers, concealed by the darkness of night, and 
 frightened out of all his senses. 
 
 Oh, what JSL most blessed day was that, which, while the car- 
 casses of those parricidal traitors were strewed about every- 
 where, beheld Antonius flying with a few followers, before he 
 reached his place of concealment. 
 
 But will anyone hesitate to call Caesar imperator? Most 
 certainly his age will not deter anyone from agreeing to this 
 proposition, since he has gone beyond his age in virtue. And 
 to me, indeed, the services of Caius Caesar have always ap- 
 peared the more thankworthy, in proportion as they were 
 less to have been expected from a man of his age. For when 
 we conferred military command on him, we were in fact en- 
 couraging the hope with which his name inspired us; and 
 now that he has fulfilled those hopes, he has sanctioned the 
 authority of our decree by his exploits. This young man of 
 great mind, as Hirtius most truly calls him in his letters, 
 with a few cohorts defended the camp of many legions, and 
 fought a successful battle. And in this manner the republic 
 has on one day been preserved in many places by the valor, 
 and wisdom, and good fortune of three imperators of the Ro- 
 man people. 
 
 I therefore propose supplications of fifty days in the joint 
 names of the three. The reasons I will embrace in the words 
 of the resolution, using the most honorable language that I 
 can devise.
 
 4 i6 CICERO 
 
 But it becomes our good faith and our piety to show plainly 
 to our most gallant soldiers how mindful of their services 
 and how grateful for them we are ; and accordingly I give my 
 vote that our promises, and those pledges too which we prom- 
 ised to bestow on the legions when the war was finished, be 
 repeated in the resolution which we are going to pass this 
 day. For it is quite fair that the honor of the soldiers, es- 
 pecially of such soldiers as those, should .be united with that 
 of their commanders. And I wish, O conscript fathers, that 
 it was lawful for us to dispense rewards to all the citizens; 
 although we will give those which we have promised with 
 the most careful usury. But that remains, as I well hope, 
 to the conquerors, to whom the faith of the Senate is pledged ; 
 and, as they have adhered to it at a most critical period of 
 the republic, we are bound to take care that they never have 
 cause to repent of their conduct. But it is easy for us to 
 deal fairly by those men whose very services, though mute, 
 appear to demand our liberality. This is a much more praise- 
 worthy and more important duty, to pay a proper tribute of 
 grateful recollection to the valor of those men who have shed 
 their blood in the cause of their country. And I wish more 
 suggestions could occur to me in the way of doing honor to 
 those men. The two ideas which principally do occur to me, 
 I will at all events not pass over ; the one of which has refer- 
 ence to the everlasting glory of those bravest of men ; the 
 other may tend to mitigate the sorrow and mourning of their 
 relations. 
 
 I therefore give my vote, O conscript fathers, that the 
 most honorable monument possible be erected to the soldiers 
 of the Martial legion, and to those soldiers also who died 
 fighting by their side. Great and incredible are the services 
 done by this legion to the republic. This was the first legion 
 to tear itself from the piratical band of Antonius; this was 
 the legion which encamped at Alba; this was the legion 
 that went over to Caesar; and it was in imitation of the con- 
 duct of this legion that the fourth legion has earned almost 
 equal glory for its virtue. The fourth is victorious without 
 having lost a man; some of the Martial legion fell in the 
 very moment of victory. O happy death, which, due to nat- 
 ure, has been paid in the cause of one's country ! But I con-
 
 LAST ORATION AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS 417 
 
 sider you men born for your country ; you whose very name 
 is derived from Mars, so that the same god who begot this 
 city for the advantage of the nations, appears to have begotten 
 you for the advantage of this city. Death in flight is infa- 
 mous ; in victory glorious. In truth, Mars himself seems to 
 select all the bravest men from the battle array. Those im- 
 pious men whom you slew, shall even in the shades below 
 pay the penalty of their parricidal treason. But you, who 
 have poured forth your latest breath in victory, have earned 
 an abode and place among the pious. A brief life has been 
 allotted to us by nature ; but the memory of a well-spent life 
 is imperishable. And if that memory were no longer than 
 this life, who would be so senseless as to strive to attain even 
 the highest praise and glory by the most enormous labors and 
 dangers ? 
 
 You then have fared most admirably, being the bravest of 
 soldiers while you lived, and now the most holy of warriors, 
 because it will be impossible for your virtue to be buried, 
 either through the forgetfulness of the men of the present age, 
 or the silence of posterity, since the Senate and Roman people 
 will have raised to you an imperishable monument, I may 
 almost say with their own hands. Many armies at various 
 times have been great and illustrious in the Punic, and Gallic, 
 and Italians wars ; but to none of them have honors been paid 
 of the description which are now conferred on you. And I 
 wish that we could pay you even greater honors, since we have 
 received from you the greatest possible services. You it was 
 who turned aside the furious Antonius from this city; you it 
 was who repelled him when endeavoring to return. There 
 shall therefore be a vast monument erected with the most 
 sumptuous work, and an inscription engraved upon it, as the 
 everlasting witness of your godlike virtue. And never shall 
 the most grateful language of all who either see or hear of your 
 monument cease to be heard. And in this manner you, in 
 exchange for your mortal condition of life, have attained im- 
 mortality. 
 
 But since, O conscript fathers, the gift of glory is conferred 
 on these most excellent and gallant citizens by the honor of 
 a monument, let us comfort their relations, to whom this in- 
 deed is the best consolation. The greatest comfort for their 
 27
 
 4i 8 CICERO 
 
 parents is the reflection that they have produced sons who 
 have been such bulwarks of the republic; for their children, 
 that they will have such examples of virtue in their family ; 
 for their wives, that the husbands whom they have lost are 
 men whom it is a credit to praise, and to have a right to mourn 
 for; and for their brothers, that they may trust that, as they 
 resemble them in their persons, so they do also in their virtues. 
 
 Would that we were able by the expression of our senti- 
 ments and by our votes to wipe away the tears of all these 
 persons; or that any such oration as this could be publicly 
 addressed to them, to cause them to lay aside their grief and 
 mourning, and to rejoice rather, that, while many various 
 kinds of death impend over men, the most honorable kind of 
 all has fallen to the lot of their friends ; and that they are 
 not unburied, nor deserted ; though even that fate, when in- 
 curred for one's country, is not accounted miserable ; nor 
 burned with equable obsequies in scattered graves, but en- 
 tombed in honorable sepulchres, and honored with public of- 
 ferings; and with a building which will be an altar of their 
 valor to insure the recollection of eternal ages. 
 
 Wherefore it will be the greatest possible comfort to their 
 relations, that by the same monument are clearly displayed the 
 valor of their kinsmen, and also their piety, and the good faith 
 of the Senate, and the memory of this most inhuman war, in 
 which, if the valor of the soldiers had been less conspicuous, 
 the very name of the Roman people would have perished by 
 the parricidal treason of Marcus Antonius. And I think also, 
 
 conscript fathers, that those rewards which we promised to 
 bestow on the soldiers when we had recovered the republic, 
 we should give with abundant usury to those who are alive 
 and victorious when the time comes; and that in the case of 
 the men to whom those rewards were promised, but who have 
 died in the defence of their country, I think those same re- 
 wards should be given to their parents or children, or wives or 
 brothers. 
 
 But that I may reduce my sentiments into a formal motion, 
 
 1 give my vote that, 
 
 " As Caius Pansa, consul, imperator, set the example of 
 fighting with the enemy in a battle in which the Martial le- 
 gion defended the freedom of the Roman people with admira-
 
 419 
 
 ble and incredible valor, and the legions of the recruits be- 
 haved equally well; and as Caius Pansa, consul, imperator, 
 while engaged in the middle of the ranks of the enemy received 
 wounds; and as Aulus Hirtius, consul, imperator, the mo- 
 ment that he heard of the battle, and knew what was going 
 on, with a most gallant and loyal soul, led his army out of his 
 camp and attacked Marcus Antonius and his army, and put 
 his troops to the sword, with so little injury to his own army 
 that he did not lose one single man; and as Caius Caesar, 
 propraetor, imperator, with great prudence and energy defend- 
 ed the camp successfully, and routed and put to the sword the 
 forces of the enemy which had come near the camp : 
 
 " On these accounts the Senate thinks and declares that the 
 Roman people has been released from the most disgraceful and 
 cruel slavery by the valor, and military skill, and prudence, 
 and firmness, and perseverance, and greatness of mind and 
 good fortune of these their generals. And decrees that, as 
 they have preserved the republic, the city, the temples of the 
 immortal gods, the property and fortunes and families of all 
 the citizens, by their own exertions in battle, and at the risk 
 of their own lives; on account of these virtuous and gallant 
 and successful achievements, Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, 
 the consuls, imperators, one or both of them, or, in their ab- 
 sence, Marcus Cornutus, the city praetor, shall appoint a sup- 
 plication at all the altars for fifty days. And as the valor of 
 the legions has shown itself worthy of their most illustrious 
 generals, the Senate will with great eagerness, now that the 
 republic is recovered, bestow on our legions and armies all the 
 rewards which it formerly promised them. And as the Mar- 
 tial legion was the first to engage with the enemy, and fought 
 in such a manner against superior numbers as to slay many 
 and take some prisoners; and as they shed their blood for 
 their country without any shrinking; and as the soldiers of 
 the other legions encountered death with similar valor in de- 
 fence of the safety and freedom of the Roman people; the 
 Senate does decree that Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the 
 consuls, imperators, one or both of them if it seems good to 
 them, shall see to the issuing of a contract for, and to the 
 erecting, the most honorable possible monument to those men 
 who shed their blood for the lives and liberties and fortunes
 
 420 CICERO 
 
 of the Roman people, and for the city and temples of the im- 
 mortal gods ; that for that purpose they shall order the city 
 quaestors to furnish and pay money, in order that it may be 
 a witness for the everlasting recollection of posterity of the 
 wickedness of our most cruel enemies, and the godlike valor 
 of our soldiers. And that the rewards which the Senate pre- 
 viously appointed for the soldiers, be paid to the parents or 
 children, or wives or brothers of those men who in this war 
 have fallen in defence of their country ; and that all honors be 
 bestowed on them which should have been bestowed on the 
 soldiers themselves, if those men had lived who gained the 
 victory by their death."
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 The Fourth Book of the Second Pleading
 
 THE ARGUMENT 
 
 The subject of this oration is the manner in which Verres had 
 plundered not only private individuals, but even some temples, of 
 valuable statues, and other works of art. Among the instances given 
 some of the most prominent are the plunder of Heius, a Messanian; 
 of Philarchus, or Centuripa; of several other private citizens; of 
 Antiochus, the king; and of the temples of Diana, Mercury, 'and 
 Ceres. A French translator in commenting on this oration says, with 
 reference to the slighting way in which Cicero speaks of the works 
 of art thus stolen: "The Romans struggled for some time against 
 the seductive power of the arts of Greece, to which for many ages 
 they were strangers. At first they really did despise them; afterwards 
 they affected to despise them; but at last they were forced to bow 
 the head beneath the brilliant yoke of luxury; and Greece, industrious, 
 learned, and polite, subdued by the admiration which it extorted, the 
 ignorant, unlettered, and rude barbarians who had conquered her by 
 force. Faithful to the ancient maxims of the republic, Cicero in this 
 oration speaks only with a sort of disdain of the arts and works of 
 the most famous artists. He even pretends sometimes not to be too 
 well acquainted with the names of the most celebrated statuaries; he 
 often repeats, and with a kind of affectation, that he knows very little 
 of painting or sculpture; and rather prides himself, as one may say, 
 on his ignorance. He seems to regard a taste for art as unworthy of 
 the Romans, and the finest chefs d'ccuvre as children's toys, fit to amuse 
 the trifling and frivolous minds of the Greeks, whose name he usually 
 expresses by a contemptuous'diminutive (Graeculi), but little calculated 
 to fix the attention, or attract the esteem or wishes of a Roman mind. 
 In general there runs through these orations a tone more calculated 
 to render Verres ridiculous than to make one feel how much there 
 was in all his attempts which was odious and horrible. The orator 
 even permitted himself some pleasantries, for which his taste has 
 been, perhaps too severely, called in question. Cicero had no dislike 
 to puns, and has played a good deal on the name of Verres, which 
 means a boar. He was too eager to acquire the reputation of a wit. 
 It is true that the person of Verres was sufficiently inviting as a subject 
 for ridicule. He was one of those gross men overloaded with fat, 
 in whom the bulk of body appears to stifle all delicacy of moral feeling. 
 As he had tried to carry off a statue of Hercules which his people 
 could with difficulty move upon its pedestal, Cicero calls this the thir- 
 teenth of the labors of Hercules. And playing continually on the name 
 
 423
 
 424 
 
 CICERO 
 
 of Verres, he compares him to the boar of Erymanthus. At another 
 time he calls him the drag-net of Sicily, because the name Verres 
 has some resemblance to the word everriuclum, which signifies a drag- 
 net." 
 
 Hortensius endeavored to defend Verres from the charge of having 
 stolen these statues, etc., of which he admits that he had become the 
 possessor, by contending that he had bought them. But it was con- 
 trary to the laws for a magistrate to purchase any such articles in 
 his province; and Cicero shows also that the prices alleged to have 
 been given are so wholly disproportionate to their value that it is 
 ridiculous to assert that the things had been purchased and not 
 taken by force.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 The Fourth Book of the Second Pleading 
 
 I COME now to what Verres himself calls his passion ; what 
 his friends call his disease, his madness; what the Sicilians 
 call his rapine; what I am to call it, I know not. I will 
 state the whole affair to you, and do you consider it according to 
 its own importance and not by the importance of its name. 
 First of all, O judges, suffer me to make you acquainted with 
 the description of this conduct of his; and then, perhaps, you 
 will not be very much puzzled to know by what name to call it. 
 I say that in all Sicily, in all that wealthy and ancient province, 
 that in that number of town and families of such exceeding 
 riches, there was no silver vessel, no Corinthian or Delian plate, 
 no jewel or pearl, nothing made of gold or ivory, no statue of 
 marble or brass or ivory, no picture whether painted or em- 
 broidered, that he did not seek out, that he did not inspect, that, 
 if he liked it, he did not take away. I seem to be making a very 
 extensive charge; listen now to the manner in which I make it. 
 For I am not embracing everything in one charge for the sake 
 of making an impression, or of exaggerating his guilt. When 
 I say that he left nothing whatever of the sort in the whole prov- 
 ince, know that I am speaking according to the strict meaning 
 of the words, and not in the spirit of an accuser. I will speak 
 even more plainly; I will say that he has left nothing in any- 
 one's house, nothing even in the towns, nothing in public places, 
 not even in the temples, nothing in the possession of any Sicilian, 
 nothing in the possession of any Roman citizen ; that he has left 
 nothing, in short, which either came before his eyes or was sug- 
 gested to his mind, whether private property or public, or pro- 
 fane or sacred, in all Sicily. 
 
 Where then shall I begin rather than with that city which was 
 above all others in your affection, and which was your chosen 
 
 425
 
 426 CICERO 
 
 place of enjoyment? or with what class of men rather than with 
 your flatterers? For by that means it will be the more easily 
 seen how you behaved among those men who hate you, who ac- 
 cuse you, who will not let you rest, when you are proved to have 
 plundered among the Mamertines, who are your friends, in the 
 most infamous manner. 
 
 Caius Heius is a Mamertine all men will easily grant me this 
 who have ever been to Messana; the most accomplished man in 
 every point of view in all that city. His house is the very best 
 in all Messana most thoroughly known, most constantly open, 
 most especially hospitable to all our fellow-citizens. That house 
 before the arrival of Verres was so splendidly adorned, as to be an 
 ornament even to the city. For Messana itself, which is admir- 
 able on account of its situation, its fortifications, and its harbor, 
 is very empty and bare of those things in which Verres delights. 
 There was in the house of Heius a private chapel of great sacred- 
 ness, handed down to him from his ancestors, very ancient ; in 
 which he had four very beautiful statues, made with the greatest 
 skill, and of very high character; calculated not only to delight 
 Verres, that clever and accomplished man, but even any one of us 
 whom he calls the mob: one, a statue of Cupid, in marble, a 
 work of Praxiteles; for in truth, while I have been inquiring 
 into that man's conduct, I have learned the names of the work- 
 men; it was the same workman, as I imagine, who made that 
 celebrated Cupid of the same figure as this which is at Thespiae, 
 on account of which people go to see Thespiae, for there is no 
 other reason for going to see it; and therefore that great man 
 Lucius Mummius, when he carried away from that town the 
 statues of the Muses which are now before the temple of Good 
 Fortune, and the other statues which were not consecrated, did 
 not touch this marble Cupid, because it had been consecrated. 
 
 But to return to that private chapel; there was this statue, 
 which I am speaking of, of Cupid, made of marble. On the 
 other side there was a Hercules, beautifully made of brass; that 
 was said to be the work of Myron, as I believe, and it undoubted- 
 ly was so. Also before those gods there were little altars, which 
 might indicate to anyone the holiness of the chapel. There 
 were besides two brazen statues, of no very great size, but of 
 marvellous beauty, in the dress and robes of virgins, which with 
 uplifted hands were supporting some sacred vessels which were
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 427 
 
 placed on their heads, after the fashion of the Athenian virgins. 
 They were called the Canephoroe, but their maker was 
 (who? who was he? thank you, you are quite right), they called 
 him Polycletus. Whenever any one of our citizens went to 
 Messana, he used to go and see these statues. They were 
 open every day for people to go to see them. The house was 
 not more an ornament to its master, than it was to the city. 
 
 Caius Claudius, whose aedileship we know to have been a most 
 splendid affair, used this statue of Cupid, as long as he kept the 
 forum decorated in honor of the immortal gods and the Roman 
 people. And as he was connected by ties of hispitality with the 
 Heii, and was the patron of the Mamertine people as he availed 
 himself of their kindness to lend him this, so he was careful to 
 restore it. There have lately been noble men of the same kind, 
 O judges why do I say lately? Ay, we have seen some very 
 lately, a very little while ago indeed, who have adorned the 
 forum and the public buildings, not with the spoils of the prov- 
 inces, but with ornaments belonging to their friends with 
 splendid things lent by their own connections, not with the pro- 
 duce of the thefts of guilty men and who afterward have re- 
 stored the statues and decorations, each to its proper owner; 
 men who have not taken things away out of the cities of our 
 allies for the sake of a four-day festival, under pretence of the 
 shows to be exhibited in their aedileship, 'and after that carried 
 them off to their own homes, and their own villas. All these 
 statues which I have mentioned, O judges, Verres took away 
 from Heius, out of his private chapel. He left, I say, not one of 
 those things, nor anything else, except one old wooden figure, 
 Good Fortune, as I believe ; that, forsooth, he did not choose to 
 have in his house! 
 
 Oh, for the good faith of gods and men ! What is the meaning 
 of all this? What a cause is this! What impudence is this! 
 The statues which I am speaking of, before they were taken 
 away by you, no commander ever came to Messana without see- 
 ing. So many praetors, so many consuls as there have been in 
 Sicily, in time of peace, and in time of war; so many men of 
 every sort as there have been I do not speak of upright, inno- 
 cent, conscientious men, but so many covetous, so many auda- 
 cious, so many infamous men as there have been, not one of them 
 all was violent enough, or seemed to himself powerful enough or
 
 428 CICERO 
 
 noble enough, to venture to ask for, or to take away, or even to 
 touch anything in that chapel. Shall Verres take away every- 
 thing which is most beautiful everywhere? Shall it not be al- 
 lowed to anyone besides to have anything? Shall that one 
 house of his contain so many wealthy houses? Was it for this 
 reason that none of his predecessors ever touched these things, 
 that he might be able to carry them off? Was this the reason 
 why Caius Claudius Pulcher restored them, that Caius Verres 
 might be able to steal them? But that Cupid had no wish 
 for the house of a pimp and the establishment of a harlot; 
 he was quite content to stay in that chapel where he was heredi- 
 tary; he knew that he had been left to Heius by his ancestors, 
 with the rest of the sacred things which he inherited; he did not 
 require the heir of a prostitute. But why am I borne on so im- 
 petuously? I shall in a moment be refuted by one word. " I 
 bought it," says he. O ye immortal gods, what a splendid de- 
 fence! we sent a broker into the province with military com- 
 mand and with the forces, to buy up all the statues, all the paint- 
 ings, all the silver plate and gold plate, and ivory, and jewels, and 
 to leave nothing to anybody. For this defence seems to me to 
 be got ready for everything; that he bought them. In the first 
 place, if I should grant to you that which you wish, namely, 
 that you bought them, since against all this class of accusations 
 you are going to use this defence alone, I ask what sort of tribu- 
 nals you thought that there would be at Rome, if you thought 
 that anyone would grant you this, that you in your praetorship 
 and in your command bought up so many and such valuable 
 things everything, in short, which was of any value in the 
 whole province. 
 
 Remark the care of our ancestors, who as yet suspected no 
 such conduct as this, but yet provided against the things which 
 might happen in affairs of small importance. They thought 
 that no one who had gone as governor 1 or as lieutenant into a 
 
 1 The Latin word in each case is narrower one ; in its wider signification 
 
 potestas. " According to Paulus, po- it might mean all the power that was 
 
 testas, as applied to a magistrate, is delegated to any person by the state, 
 
 equivalent to imperium. . . . But whatever might be the extent of that 
 
 potestas is applied to magistrates who power; in its narrower signification, it 
 
 had not the imperium, as, for instance, was on the one hand equivalent to im- 
 
 to quaestors and tribunes of the people; perium, and on the other it expressed 
 
 and potestas and imperium are often the power of those functionaries who 
 
 opposed in Cicero. Thus it seems that had not the imperium." Smith, Dic- 
 
 potestas, like many other Roman terms, tionary of Antiquities, p. 721, v. Potestas. 
 had both a wider signification and a
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 429 
 
 province would be so insane as to buy silver, for that was given 
 him out of the public funds; or raiment, for that was afforded 
 him by the laws; they thought he might buy a slave, a thing 
 which we all use, and which is not provided by the laws. They 
 made a law, therefore, " that no one should buy a slave except in 
 the room of a slave who was dead." If any slave had died at 
 Rome? No, if anyone had died in the place where his master 
 was. For they did not mean you to furnish your house in the 
 province, but to be of use to the province in its necessities. 
 What was the reason why they so carefully kept us from mak- 
 ing purchases in the provinces? This was it, O judges, because 
 they thought it a robbery, not a purchase, when the seller was 
 not allowed to sell on his own terms. And they were aware that 
 in the provinces, if he who was there with the command and 
 power of a governor wished to purchase what was in anyone's 
 possession, and was allowed to do so, it would come to pass that 
 he would get whatever he chose, whether it was to be sold or 
 not, at whatever price he pleased. Someone will say, " Do not 
 deal with Verres in that manner; do not try and examine his 
 actions by the standard of old-fashioned conscientiousness; allow 
 him to have bought them without being punished for it, provided 
 he bought them in a fair way, not through any arbitrary exercise 
 of power, nor from anyone against his will, or by violence." I 
 will so deal with him. If Heius had anything for sale, if he sold 
 it for the price at which he valued it, I give up inquiring why you 
 bought it. 
 
 What then are we to do? Are we to use arguments in a case 
 of this sort? We must ask, I suppose, whether Heius was in 
 debt, whether he had an auction; if he had, whether he was in 
 such difficulties about money matters, whether he was oppressed 
 by such want, by such necessity, as to strip his private chapel, to 
 sell his paternal gods. But I see that the man had no auction ; 
 that he never sold anything except the produce of his land ; that 
 he not only had no debts, but that he had always abundance of 
 ready money. Even if all these things were contrary to what I 
 say they were, still I say that he would not have sold things 
 which had been so many years in the household and chapel of 
 his ancestors. " What will you say if he was persuaded by the 
 greatness of the sum given him for them ? " It is not probable 
 that a man, rich as he was, honorable as he was, should have
 
 430 CICERO 
 
 preferred money to his own religious feelings and to the memo- 
 rials of his ancestors. " That may be, yet men are sometimes 
 led away from their habits and principles by large sums of 
 money." Let us see, then, how great a sum this was which could 
 turn Heius, a man of exceeding riches, by no means covetous, 
 away from decency, from affection, and from religion. You 
 ordered him, I suppose, to enter in his account-books, " All these 
 statues of Praxiteles, of Myron, of Polycletus, were sold to 
 Verres for six thousand five hundred sesterces." Read the ex- 
 tracts from his accounts. 
 
 [The accounts of Heius are read.] 
 
 I am delighted that the illustrious names of these workmen, 
 whom those men extol to the skies, have fallen so low in the 
 estimation of Verres the Cupid of Praxiteles for sixteen hun- 
 dred sesterces. From that forsooth has come the proverb, " I 
 had rather buy it than ask for it." 
 
 Someone will say, " What ! do you value those things at a 
 very high price?" But I am not valuing them according to 
 any calculation of my own, or any need which I have for them; 
 but I think that the matter ought to be looked at by you in this 
 light What is the value of these things in the opinion of those 
 men who are judges of these things; at what price they are ac- 
 customed to be sold; at what price these very things could be 
 sold, if they were sold openly and freely; lastly, at what price 
 Verres himself values them? For he would never have been so 
 foolish, if he had thought that Cupid worth only four hundred 
 denarii, as to allow himself to be made a subject for the common 
 conversation and general reproach of men. Who then of you 
 all is ignorant at how great a price these things are valued? 
 Have we not seen at an auction a brazen statue of no great size 
 sold for a hundred and twenty thousand sesterces? What if I 
 were to choose to name men who have bought similar things for 
 no less a price, or even for a higher one? Can I not do so? In 
 truth, the only limit to the valuation of such things is the desire 
 which anyone has for them, for it is difficult to set bounds to the 
 price unless you first set bounds to the wish. I see then that 
 Heius was neither led by his inclination, nor by any temporary 
 difficulties, nor by the greatness of the sum given, to sell these 
 statues; and that you, under the pretence of purchase which you
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 431 
 
 put forward, in reality seized and took away these things by 
 force, through fear, by your power and authority, from that 
 man, whom, along with the rest of our allies in that country, the 
 Roman people had intrusted not only to your power, but also to 
 your upright exercise of it. What can there be, judges, so de- 
 sirable for me in making this charge, as that Heius should say 
 this same thing? Nothing certainly; but let us not wish for 
 what is difficult to be obtained. Heius is a Mamertine. The 
 state of the Mamertines alone, by a common resolution, praises 
 that man in the name of the city. To all the rest of the Sicilians 
 he is an object of hatred; by the Mamertines alone is he liked. 
 But of that deputation which has been sent to utter his praises, 
 Heius is the chief man; in truth, he is the chief man of his city, 
 and too much occupied in discharging the public duties imposed 
 upon him to speak of his private injuries. Though I was aware 
 of and had given weight to these considerations, still, O judges, 
 I trusted myself to Heius. I produced him at the first pleading; 
 and indeed I did it without any danger, for what answer could 
 Heius give even if he turned out a dishonest man, and unlike 
 himself? Could he say that these statues were at his house, and 
 not with Verres? How could he say anything of that sort? If 
 he were the basest of men, and were inclined to lie most shame- 
 lessly, he would say this: that he had had them for sale, and 
 that he had sold them at the price he wanted for them. The man 
 the most noble in all his city, who was especially anxious that 
 you should have a high opinion of his conscientiousness and of 
 his worth, says first, that he spoke in Verres's praise by the 
 public authority of his city, because that commission had been 
 given to him ; secondly, that he had not had these things for sale, 
 and that, if he had been allowed to do what he wished, he could 
 never have been induced by any terms to sell those things which 
 were in his private chapel, having been left to him and handed 
 down to him from his ancestors. 
 
 Why are you sitting there, O Verres? What are you waiting 
 for? Why do you say you are hemmed in and overwhelmed by 
 the cities of Centuripa, of Catina, of Halesa, of Tyndaris, of 
 Enna, of Agyrium, and by all the other cities of Sicily? Your 
 second country, as you used to call it, Messana herself attacks 
 you; your own Messana, I say; the assistant in your crimes, the 
 witness of your lusts, the receiver of your booty and your thefts.
 
 432 CICERO 
 
 For the most honorable man of that city is present, a deputy sent 
 from his home on account of this very trial, the chief actor in the 
 panegyric on you; who praises you by the public order of his 
 city, for so he has been charged and commanded to do. Al- 
 though you recollect, O judges, what he answered when he was 
 asked about the ship; that it had been built by public labor, at 
 the public expense, and that a Mamertine senator had been ap- 
 pointed by the public authority to superintend its building. 
 Heius in his private capacity flees to you for aid, O judges; he 
 avails himself of this law, the common fortress of our allies, by 
 which this tribunal is established. Although there is a law for 
 recovering money which has been unjustly extorted, he says that 
 he does not seek to recover any money; which, though it has 
 been taken from him, he does not so much care about; but he 
 says he does demand back from you the sacred images belong- 
 ing to his ancestors, he does demand back from you his heredi- 
 tary household gods. Have you any shame, O Verres? have 
 you any religion? have you any fear? You have lived in Heius's 
 house at Messana; you saw him almost daily performing sacred 
 rites in his private chapel before those gods. He is not influ- 
 enced by money; he does not even ask to have those things re- 
 stored which were merely ornaments. Keep the Canephorae; 
 restore the images of the gods. And because he said this, be- 
 cause after a given time he, an ally and friend of the Roman 
 people, addressed his complaints to you in a moderate tone, be- 
 cause he was very attentive to religious obligation not only while 
 demanding back his paternal gods, but also in giving his evi- 
 dence on oath ; know that one of the deputies has been sent back 
 to Messana, that very man who superintended the building of 
 that ship at the public expense, to demand from the Senate that 
 Heius should be condemned to an ignominious punishment. 
 
 O most insane of men, what did you think? that you should 
 obtain what you requested? Did you not know how greatly he 
 was esteemed by his fellow-citizens ; how great his influence was 
 considered? But suppose you had obtained your request: sup- 
 pose that the Mamertines had passed any severe vote against 
 Heius, what do you think would have been the authority of their 
 panegyric, if they had decreed punishment to the man who it was 
 notorious had given true evidence? Although, what sort of 
 praise is that, when he who utters it, being questioned, is com-
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 433 
 
 pelled to give answers injurious to him whom he is praising? 
 What! are not those who are praising you my witnesses? 
 Heius is an encomiast of yours; he has done you the most 
 serious injury. I will bring forward the rest; they will gladly 
 be silent about all that they are allowed to suppress; they will 
 say what they cannot help saying, unwillingly. Can they deny 
 that a transport of the largest size was built for that man at 
 Messana? Let them deny it if they can. Can they deny that a 
 Mamertine senator was appointed by the public authority to 
 superintend the building of that ship? I wish they would deny 
 it. There are other points also which I prefer reserving unmen- 
 tioned at present, in order to give as little time as possible to 
 them for planning and arranging their perjury. Let this praise, 
 then, be placed to your account; let these men come to your re- 
 lief with their authority, who neither ought' to help you if they 
 were able, nor could do so if they wished; on whom in their pri- 
 vate capacity you have inflicted many injuries, and put many 
 affronts, while in their city you have dishonored many families 
 forever by your adulteries and crimes. " But you have been of 
 public service to their city." Not without great injury to the 
 republic and to the province of Sicily. They were bound to 
 supply and they used to supply sixty thousand modii of wheat 
 to the Roman people for payment; that was remitted by you of 
 your own sole authority. The republic was injured because by 
 your means its right of dominion over one city was disparaged; 
 the Sicilians were injured, because this quantity was not de- 
 ducted from the total amount of the corn to be provided by the 
 island, but was only transferred to the cities of Centuripa and 
 Halesa, whose inhabitants were exempt from that tax; and on 
 them a greater burden was imposed than they were able to bear. 
 It was your duty to require them to furnish a ship, in compliance 
 with the treaty. You remitted it for three years. During all 
 those years you never demanded one soldier. You acted as 
 pirates are accustomed to act, who, though they are the common 
 enemies of all men, still select some friends, whom they not only 
 spare, but even enrich with their booty; and especially such as 
 have a town in a convenient situation, where they often, and 
 sometimes even necessarily, put in with their vessels. 
 
 The town of Phaselis, which Publius Servilius took, had not 
 been in former times a city of Cilicians and pirates. The Lyci- 
 28
 
 434 CICERO 
 
 ans, a Greek tribe, inhabited it; but because it was in such a 
 situation as it was, and because it projected into the sea, so that 
 pirates from Cilicia often necessarily touched at it when depart- 
 ing on an expedition, and were also often borne thither on their 
 retreats, the pirates connected that city with themselves; at first 
 by commercial intercourse, and afterward by a regular alliance. 
 The city of the Mamertines was not formerly of bad character; 
 it was even a city hostile to dishonest men, and detained the lug- 
 gage of Caius Cato, the one who was consul. But then what 
 sort of a man was he? a most eminent and most influential man ; 
 who, however, though he had been consul, was convicted. So 
 Caius Cato, the grandson of two most illustrious men, Lucius 
 Paullus and Marcus Cato, and the son of the sister of Publius 
 Africanus, who, even when convicted, at a time when severe 
 judgments were in the habit of being passed, found the damages 
 to which he was liable only estimated at eighteen thousand ses- 
 terces; with this man, I say, the Mamertines were angry, who 
 have often expended a greater sum than the damages in the 
 action against Cato were laid at, in one banquet for Timarchides. 
 But this city was the Phaselis for that robber and pirate of 
 Sicily. Hither everything was brought from all quarters ; with 
 them it was left; whatever required to be concealed, they kept 
 separate and stored away. By their agency he contrived every- 
 thing which he wished put on board ship privily, and exported 
 secretly; and in their harbor he contrived to have a vessel of 
 the largest size built, for him to send to Italy loaded with plun- 
 der. In return for these services he gave them immunity from 
 all expense, all labor, all military service, in short, from every- 
 thing. For three years they were the only people, not only in 
 Sicily, but, according to my opinion, in the whole world at such 
 a time, who enjoyed excuse, relief, freedom, and immunity from 
 every sort of expense, and trouble, and office. Hence arose that 
 Verrean festival; hence it was that he ventured to order Sextus 
 Cominius to be dragged before him at a banquet, at whom he 
 attempted to throw a goblet, whom he ordered to be seized by 
 the throat, and to be hurried from the banquet and thrown into a 
 dark prison; hence came that cross, on which, in the sight of 
 many men, he suspended a Roman citizen ; that cross which he 
 never ventured to erect anywhere except among that people, 
 whom he had made sharers in all his crimes and robberies.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 435 
 
 Do you, O Mamertines! dare to come to praise anyone? By 
 what authority? by that which you ought to have with the sena- 
 torial order? by that which you ought to have with the Roman 
 people? Is there any city, not only in our provinces, but in the 
 most distant nations, either so powerful, or so free, or so savage 
 and uncivilized? is there any king, who would not invite a sena- 
 tor of the Roman people to his house and to his home? An 
 honor which is paid not only to the man, but in the first place to 
 the Roman people, by whose indulgence we have risen to this 
 order, and secondly to the authority of this order; and unless 
 that is respected among our allies, where will be the name and 
 dignity of the empire among foreign nations? The Mamertines 
 did not give me any public invitation when I say me, that is a 
 trifle; but when they did not invite a senator of the Roman 
 people, they withheld an honor due not to the man but to his 
 order. For to Tullius himself, the most splendid and magnifi- 
 cent house of Cnaeus Pompeius Basilicus was opened; with 
 whom he would have lodged even if he had been invited by you. 
 There was also the most honorable house of the Percennii, who 
 are now also called Pompeius; where Lucius my brother lodged 
 and was received by them with the greatest eagerness. A 
 senator of the Roman people, as far as depended on you as a 
 body, lay in your town, and passed the night in the public streets. 
 No other city ever did such a thing. " Yes," say you, " for you 
 were instituting a prosecution against our friend." Will you 
 put your own interpretation on what private business I have of 
 my own, by diminishing the honor due to the Senate? But I 
 will make my complaint of this conduct, if ever the time comes 
 that there is any discussion concerning you among that body, 
 which, up to this time, has been affronted by no one but you. 
 With what face have you presented yourself before the eyes of 
 the Roman people? when you have not yet pulled down that 
 cross, which is even now stained with the blood of a Roman 
 citizen, which is fixed up in your city by the harbor, and have 
 not thrown it into the sea and purified all that place, before you 
 came to Rome, and before this tribunal. On the territory of the 
 Mamertines, connected with us by treaty, at peace with us, is 
 that monument of your cruelty raised. Is not your city the only 
 one where, when anyone arrives at it from Italy, he sees the 
 cross of a Roman citizen before he sees any friend of the Roman
 
 436 CICERO 
 
 people? which you are in the habit of displaying to the people of 
 Rhegium, whose city you envy, and to your inhabitants, Roman 
 citizens as they are, to make them think less of themselves, and 
 be less inclined to despise you, when they see the privileges of 
 our citizenship extinguished by such a punishment. 
 
 But you say you bought these things? What? did you for- 
 get to purchase of the same Heius that Attalic 2 tapestry, cele- 
 brated over the whole of Sicily? You might have bought them 
 in the same way as you did the statues. For what did you do? 
 Did you wish to spare the account-books? This escaped the 
 notice of that stupid man; he thought that what he stole from 
 the wardrobe would be less notorious than what he had stolen 
 from the private chapel. But how did he get it? I cannot re- 
 late it more plainly than Heius himself related it before you. 
 When I asked, whether any other part of his property had come 
 to Verres, he answered that he had sent him orders to send the 
 tapestry to Agrigentum to him. I asked whether he had sent it. 
 He replied as he must, that is, that he had been obedient to the 
 praetor; that he had sent it. I asked whether it had arrived at 
 Agrigentum; he said it had arrived. I asked in what condition 
 it had returned; he said it had not returned yet. There was a 
 laugh and a murmur from all the people. Did it never occur to 
 you in this instance to order him to make an entry in his books, 
 that he had sold you this tapestry too, for six thousand five hun- 
 dred sesterces? Did you fear that your debts would increase, if 
 these things were to cost you six thousand five hundred ses- 
 terces, which you could easily sell for two hundred thousand? 
 It was worth that, believe me. You would have been able to 
 defend yourself if you had given that sum for it. No one would 
 then have asked how much it was worth. If you could only 
 prove that you had bought it, you could easily make your causa 
 and your conduct appear reasonable to anyone. But as it is, 
 you have no way of getting out of your difficulty about the 
 tapestry. What shall I say next? Did you take away by force 
 some splendid harness, which is said to have belonged to King 
 Hiero, from Philarchus of Centuripa, a wealthy and high-born 
 man, or did you buy it of him? When I was in Sicily, this is 
 what I heard from the Centuripans and from everybody else, 
 
 ' Attains, king of Pergamus, had been with gold threads interwoven in it was 
 the inventor of weaving gold thread into called by his name, 
 tapestry work, and therefore tapestry
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 437 
 
 for the case was very notorious; people said that you had taken 
 away this harness from Philarchus of Centuripa, and other very 
 beautiful harness from Aristus of Panormus, and a third set 
 from Cratippus of Tyndarus. Indeed, if Philarchus had sold it 
 to you, you would not, after the prosecution was instituted 
 against you, have promised to restore it. But because you saw 
 that many people knew of it, you thought that if you restored it 
 to him, you would only have so much the less, but the original 
 transaction would be proved against you nevertheless; and so 
 you did not restore it. Philarchus said in his evidence, that 
 when he became acquainted with this disease of yours, as your 
 friends call it, he wished to conceal from you the knowledge of 
 the existence of this harness; that when he was summoned by 
 you, he said that he had not got any; and indeed, that he had 
 removed them to another person's house, that they might not be 
 found ; but that your instinct was so great, that you saw them by 
 the assistance of the very man in whose custody they were de- 
 posited; that then he could not deny that you had found him 
 out, and so that the harness was taken from him against his will, 
 and without any payment. 
 
 Now, O judges, it is worth your while to know how he was 
 accustomed to find and trace out all these things. There are 
 two brothers, citizens of Cibyra, Tlepolemus and Hiero, one of 
 whom, I believe, was accustomed to model in wax, the other 
 was a painter. I fancy these men, as they had become suspected 
 by their fellow-citizens of having plundered the temple of Apollo 
 at Cibyra, fearing a trial and the punishment of the law, had fled 
 from their homes. As they had known that Verres was a great 
 connoisseur of such works as theirs, at the time that he, as you 
 learned from the witnesses, came to Cibyra with fictitious bills of 
 exchange, they, when flying from their homes as exiles, came 
 to him when he was in Asia. He has kept them with him ever 
 since that time; and in the robberies he committed, and in the 
 booty he acquired during his lieutenancy, he greatly availed 
 himself of their assistance and their advice. These are the men 
 who were meant when Quintus Tadius made an entry in his 
 books that he had given things by Verres's order to some Greek 
 painters. They were already well known to, and had been 
 thoroughly tried by him, when he took them with him into 
 Sicily. And when they arrived there, they scented out and
 
 438 CICERO 
 
 tracked everything in so marvellous a manner (you might have 
 thought they were blood-hounds), that, wherever anything was, 
 they found it out by some means or other. Some things they 
 found out by threatening, some by promising; this by means of 
 slaves, that through freemen; one thing by a friend, another by 
 an enemy. Whatever pleased them was sure to be lost. They 
 whose plate was demanded had nothing else to hope, than that 
 Tlepolemus and Hiero might not approve of it. 
 
 I will relate to you this fact, O judges, most truly. I recollect 
 that Pamphilus of Lilybaeum, a connection of mine by ties of 
 hospitality, and a personal friend of mine, a man of the highest! 
 birth, told me, that when that man had taken from him, by his 
 absolute power, an ewer made by the hand of Boethus, of ex- 
 quisite workmanship and great weight, he went home very sad 
 in truth, and greatly agitated, because a vessel of that sort, which 
 had been left to him by his father and his forefathers, and which 
 he was accustomed to use on days of festival, and on the arrival 
 of ancient friends, had been taken from him. While I was sit- 
 ting at home, said he, in great indignation, up comes one of the 
 slaves of Venus; he orders me immediately to bring to the 
 praetor some embossed goblets. I was greatly vexed, said he; 
 I had two ; I ordered them both to be taken out of the closet, lest 
 any worse thing should happen, and to be brought after me to 
 the praetor's house. When I got there the praetor was asleep; the 
 Cibyratic brothers were walking about, and when they saw me, 
 they said, Pamphilus, where are the cups? I show them with 
 great grief; they praise them. I begin to complain that I shall 
 have nothing left of any value at all, if my cups too were taken 
 away. Then they, when they see me vexed, say, What are you 
 willing to give us to prevent these from being taken from you? 
 To make my story short, I said that I would give six hundred 
 sesterces. Meantime the praetor summons us ; he asks for the 
 cups. Then they began to say to the praetor, that they had 
 thought from what they had heard, that Pamphilus's cups were 
 of some value, but that they were miserable things, quite un- 
 worthy of Verres's having them among his plate. He said he 
 thought so too. So Pamphilus saved his exquisite goblets. 
 And indeed, before I heard this, though I knew that it was a 
 very trifling sort of accomplishment to understand things of that 
 sort, yet I used to wonder that he had any knowledge of them
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 439 
 
 at all, as I knew that in nothing whatever had he any qualities 
 like a man. 
 
 But when I heard this, I then for the first time understood 
 that that was the use of these two Cibyratic brothers; that in his 
 robberies he used his own hands, but their eyes. But he was so 
 covetous of that splendid reputation of being thought to be a 
 judge of such matters, that lately (just observe the man's mad- 
 ness), after his case was adjourned, when he was already as good 
 as condemned, and civilly dead, at the time of the games of the 
 circus, when early in the morning the couches were spread in 
 preparation for a banquet at the house of Lucius Sisenna, a man 
 of the first consideration, and when the plate was all set out, and 
 when, as was suited to the dignity of Lucius Sisenna, the house 
 was full of honorable men, he came to the plate, and began in a 
 leisurely way to examine and consider every separate piece. 
 Some marvelled at the folly of the man, who, while his trial was 
 actually going on, was increasing the suspicion of that covetous- 
 ness of which he was accused ; others marvelled at his insensi- 
 bility, that any such things could come into his head, when the 
 time for judgment in his cause was so near at hand, and when so 
 many witnesses had spoken against him. But Sisenna's ser- 
 vants, who, I suppose, had heard the evidence which had been 
 given against him, never took their eyes off him, and never de- 
 parted out of reach of the plate. It is the part of a sagacious 
 judge, from small circumstances to form his opinion of every 
 man's covetousness or incontinence. And will anyone believe 
 that this man, when praetor, was able to keep either his covetous- 
 ness or his hands from the plate of the Sicilians, when, though a 
 defendant, and a defendant within two days of judgment, a man 
 in reality, and in the opinion of all men as good as already con- 
 demned, he could not in a large assembly restrain himself from 
 handling and examining the plate of Lucius Sisenna? 
 
 But that my discourse may return to Lilybaeum, from which 
 I have made this digression, there is a man named Diocles, the 
 son-in-law of Pamphilus, of that Pamphilus from whom the 
 ewer was taken away, whose surname is Popillius. From this 
 man he took away every article on his sideboard where his plate 
 was set out. He may say, if he pleases, that he had bought them. 
 In fact, in this case, by reason of the magnitude of the robbery, 
 an entry of it, I imagine, has been made in the account-books.
 
 440 
 
 CICERO 
 
 He ordered Timarchides to value the plate. How did he do it? 
 At as low a price as anyone ever valued anything presented to 
 an actor. Although I have been for some time acting foolishly 
 in saying so much about your purchases, and in asking whether 
 you bought the things, and how, and at what price you bought 
 them, when I can settle all that by one word. Produce me a 
 written list of what plate you acquired in the province of Sicily, 
 from whom, and at what price you bought each article. What 
 will you do? Though I ought not to ask you for these ac- 
 counts, for I ought to have your account-books and to produce 
 them. But you say that you never kept any accounts of your 
 expenses in these years. Make me out at least this one which I 
 am asking for, the account of the plate, and I will not mind the 
 rest at present. " I have no writings of the sort ; I cannot pro- 
 duce any accounts." What then is to be done? What do you 
 think that these judges can do? Your house was full of most 
 beautiful statues already, before your praetorship; many were 
 placed in your villas, many were deposited with your friends; 
 many were given and presented to other people; yet you have 
 no accounts speaking of any single one having been bought. 
 All the plate in Sicily has been taken away. There is nothing 
 left to anyone that can be called his own. A scandalous de- 
 fence is invented, that the praetor bought all that plate ; and yet 
 that cannot be proved by any accounts. If you do produce any 
 accounts, still there is no entry in them how you have acquired 
 what you have got. But of these years during which you say 
 that you bought the greatest number of things, you produce no 
 accounts at all. Must you not inevitably be condemned, both 
 by the accounts which you do, and by those which you do not 
 produce? 
 
 You also took away at Lilybaeum whatever silver vessels you 
 chose from Marcus Cselius, a Roman knight, a most excellent 
 young man. You did not hesitate to take away the whole furni- 
 ture of Caius Cacurius, a most active and accomplished man, and 
 of the greatest influence in this city. You took away, with the 
 knowledge of everybody, a very large and very beautiful table of 
 citron-wood from Quintus Lutatius Diodorus, who, owing to 
 the kind exertion of his interest by Quintus Catulus, was made a 
 Roman citizen by Lucius Sylla. I do not object to you that you 
 stripped and plundered a most worthy imitator of yours in his
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 441 
 
 whole character, Apollonius, the son of Nico, a citizen of Drep- 
 anum, who is now called Aulus Clodius, of all his exquisitely 
 wrought silver plate; I say nothing of that. For he does not 
 think that any injury has been done to him, because you came 
 to his assistance when he was a ruined man, with the rope round 
 his neck, and shared with him the property belonging to their 
 father, of which he had plundered his wards at Drepanum. I 
 am even very glad if you took anything from him, and I say that 
 nothing was ever better done by you. But it certainly was not 
 right that the statue of Apollo should have been taken away from 
 Lyso of Lilybaeum, a most eminent man, with whom you have 
 been staying as a guest. But you will say that you bought it 
 I know that for six hundred sesterces. So I suppose: I know 
 it, I say; I will produce the accounts; and yet that ought not to 
 have been done. Will you say that the drinking-vessels with 
 emblems of Lilybaeum on them were bought from Heius, the 
 minor to whom Marcellus is guardian, whom you had plundered 
 of a large sum of money, or will you confess that they were taken 
 by force? 
 
 But why do I enumerate all his ordinary iniquities in affairs 
 of this sort, which appear to consist only in robberies committed 
 by him, and in losses borne by those whom he plundered? 
 Listen, if you please, O judges, to an action of such a sort as will 
 prove to you clearly his extraordinary madness and frenzy, 
 rather than any ordinary covetousness. 
 
 There is a man of Melita, called Diodorus, who has already 
 given evidence before you. He has been now living at Lily- 
 baeum many years ; a man of great nobility at home, and of great 
 credit and popularity with the people among whom he has set- 
 tled, on account of his virtue. It is reported to Verres of this 
 man that he has some exceedingly fine specimens of chased 
 work; and among them two goblets called Thericlean, 8 made 
 by the hand of Mentor with the most exquisite skill. And when 
 Verres heard of this, he was inflamed with such a desire, not 
 only of beholding, but also of appropriating them, that he sum- 
 moned Diodorus, and demanded them. He replied, as was 
 natural for a man who took great pride in them, that he had not 
 
 * " Thcricles was a potter in the time in imitation of his, whether of wood, 
 
 of Aristophanes, who made earthen- silver, or glass, were called Thericlean." 
 
 ware vessels of a peculiar black clay. Gravius. 
 In subsequent time, any goblets made
 
 442 CICERO 
 
 got them at Lilybaeum; that he had left them at Melita, in the 
 house of a relation of his. On this he immediately sends men 
 on whom he can rely to Melita; he writes to certain inhabitants 
 of Melita to search out those vessels for him; he desires Diodorus 
 to give them letters to that relation of his the time appeared to 
 him endless till he could see those pieces of plate. Diodorus, a 
 prudent and careful man, who wished to keep his own property, 
 writes to his relation to make answer to those men who came 
 from Verres, that he had sent the cups to Lilybseum a few days 
 before. In the mean time he himself leaves the place. He pre- 
 ferred leaving his home, to staying in it and losing that ex- 
 quisitely wrought silverwork. But when Verres heard of this, 
 he was so agitated that he seemed to everyone to be raving, and 
 to be beyond all question mad. Because he could not steal the 
 plate himself, he said that he had been robbed by Diodorus of 
 some exquisitely wrought vessels; he poured out threats against 
 the absent Diodorus; he used to roar out before people; some- 
 times he could not restrain his tears. We have heard in the 
 mythology of Eriphyla being so covetous that when she had 
 seen a necklace, made, I suppose, of gold and jewels, she was so 
 excited by its beauty, that she betrayed her husband for the sake 
 of it. His covetousness was similar; but in one respect more 
 violent and more senseless, because she was desiring a thing 
 which she had seen, while his wishes were excited not only by 
 his eyes, but even by his ears. 
 
 He orders Diodorus to be sought for over the whole province. 
 He had by this time struck his camp, packed up his baggage, 
 and left Sicily. Verres, in order by some means or other to 
 bring the man back to the province, devises this plan, if it is to 
 be called a plan, and not rather a piece of madness. He sets up 
 one of the men he calls his hounds, to say that he wishes to in- 
 stitute a prosecution against Diodorus of Melita for a capital 
 offence. At first all men wondered at such a thing being im- 
 puted to Diodorus, a most quiet man, and as far removed as any 
 man from all suspicion, not only of crime, but of even the slight- 
 est irregularity. But it soon became evident, that all this was 
 done for the sake of his silver. Verres does not hesitate to order 
 the prosecution to be instituted; and that, I imagine, was the 
 first instance of his allowing an accusation to be made against 
 an absent man. The matter was notorious over all Sicily, that
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 443 
 
 men were prosecuted for capital offences because the praetor 
 coveted their chased silver plate; and that prosecutions were in- 
 stituted against them not only when they were present, but even 
 in their absence. Diodorus goes to Rome, and putting on 
 mourning, calls on all his patrons and friends; relates the affair 
 to everyone. Earnest letters are written to Verres by his father, 
 and by his friends, warning him to take care what he did, and 
 what steps he took respecting Diodorus; that the matter was 
 notorious and very unpopular; that he must be out of his senses ; 
 that this one charge would ruin him if he did not take care. At 
 that time he considered his father, if not in the light of a parent, 
 at least in that of a man. He had not yet sufficiently prepared 
 himself for a trial; it was his first year in the province; he was 
 not, as he was by the time of the affair of Sthenius, loaded with 
 money. And so his frenzy was checked a little, not by shame, 
 but by fear and alarm. He does not dare to condemn Diodorus ; 
 he takes his name out of the list of defendants while he is absent. 
 In the meantime Diodorus, for nearly three years, as long as 
 that man was praetor, was banished from the province and from 
 his home. Every one else, not only Sicilians, but Roman citi- 
 zens too, settled this in their minds, that, since he had carried 
 his covetousness to such an extent, there was nothing which 
 anyone could expect to preserve or retain in his own possession 
 if it was admired ever so little by Verres. 
 
 But after they understood that that brave man, Quintus Ar- 
 rius, whom the province was eagerly looking for, was not his 
 successor, they then settled that they could keep nothing so 
 carefully shut up or hidden away, as not to be most open and 
 visible to his covetousness. After that, he took away from an 
 honorable and highly esteemed Roman knight, named Cnaeus 
 Calidius, whose son he knew to be a senator of the Roman peo- 
 ple and a judge, some beautiful silver horses which had belonged 
 to Quintus Maximus. I did not mean to say this, O judges, for 
 he bought those, he did not steal them ; I wish I had not men- 
 tioned them. Now he will boast, and have a fine ride on these 
 horses. " I bought them, I have paid the money for them." I 
 have no doubt account-books also will be produced. It is well 
 worth while. Give me then the account-books. You are at 
 liberty to get rid of this charge respecting Calidius, as long as 
 I can get a sight of these accounts; still, if you had bought them,
 
 444 
 
 CICERO 
 
 what ground had Calidius for complaining at Rome, that, 
 though he had been living so many years in Sicily as a trader, 
 you were the only person who had so despised and so insulted 
 him, as to plunder him in common with all the rest of the Sicil- 
 ians? what ground had he for declaring that he would demand 
 his plate back again from you, if he had sold it to you of his own 
 free will? Moreover, how could you avoid restoring it to 
 Cnaeus Calidius; especially when he was such an intimate friend 
 of Lucius Sisenna, your defender, and as you had restored their 
 property to the other friends of Sisenna? Lastly, I do not sup- 
 pose you will deny that by the intervention of Potarho, a friend 
 of yours, you restored his plate to Lucius Cordius, an honorable 
 man, but not more highly esteemed than Cnaeus Calidius; and it 
 was he who made the cause of the rest more difficult to plead 
 before you ; for though you had promised many men to restore 
 them their property, yet, after Cordius had stated in his evidence 
 that you had restored him his, you desisted from making any 
 more restorations, because you saw that you lost your plunder, 
 and yet could not escape the evidence against you. Under all 
 other praetors Cnaeus Calidius, a Roman knight, was allowed to 
 have plate finely wrought; he was permitted to be able from his 
 own stores to adorn and furnish a banquet handsomely, when he 
 had invited a magistrate or any superior officer. Many men in 
 power and authority have been with Cnaeus Calidius at his 
 house ; no one was ever found so mad as to take from him that 
 admirable and splendid plate; no one was found bold enough to 
 ask for it; no one impudent enough to beg him to sell it. For it 
 is an arrogant thing, an intolerable thing, O judges, for a praetor 
 to say to an honorable, and rich, and well-appointed man in his 
 province, " Sell me those chased goblets." For it is saying, 
 " You do not deserve to have things which are so beautifully 
 made; they are better suited to a man of my stamp." Are you, 
 O Verres, more worthy than Calidius? whom (not to compare 
 your way of life with his, for they are not to be compared, but) I 
 will compare you with in respect of this very dignity owing to 
 which you make yourself out his superior. You gave eighty 
 thousand sesterces to canvassing agents to procure your election 
 as praetor; you gave three hundred thousand to an accuser not 
 to press hardly upon you : do you, on that account, look down 
 upon and despise the equestrian order? Is it on that account
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 445 
 
 that it seemed to you a scandalous thing that Calidius should 
 have anything that you admired rather than that you should? 
 
 He has been long boasting of this transaction with Calidius, 
 and telling everyone that he bought the things. Did you also 
 buy that censer of Lucius Papirius, a man of the highest reputa- 
 tion, wealth, and honor, and a Roman knight? who stated in his 
 evidence that, when you had begged for it to look at, you re- 
 turned it with the emblems torn off; so that you may understand 
 that it is all taste in that man, not avarice ; that it is the fine work 
 that he covets, not the silver. Nor was his abstinence exercised 
 only in the case of Papirius; he practised exactly the same con- > 
 duct with respect to every censer in Sicily; and it is quite incred- 
 ible how many beautifully wrought censers there were. I 
 imagine that, when Sicily was at the height of its power and 
 opulence, there were extensive work-shops in that island; for 
 before that man went thither as praetor there was no house toler- 
 ably rich, in which there were not these things, even if there was 
 no other silver plate besides; namely, a large dish with figures 
 and images of the gods embossed on it, a" goblet which the 
 women used for sacred purposes, and a censer. And all these 
 were antique, and executed with the most admirable skill, so that 
 one may suspect everything else in Sicily was on a similar scale 
 of magnificence ; but that though fortune had deprived them of 
 much, those things were still preserved among them which were 
 retained for purposes of religion. I said just now, O judges, 
 that there were many censers, in almost every house in fact; I 
 assert also, that now there is not even one left. What is the 
 meaning of this? what monster, what prodigy did we send into 
 the province? Does it not appear to you that he desired, when 
 he returned to Rome, to satisfy not the covetousness of one man, 
 not his own eyes only, but the insane passion of every covetous 
 man; for as soon as he ever came into any city, immediately 
 those Cibyratic hounds of his were slipped, to search and find 
 out everything. If they found any large vessel, any consider- 
 able work, they brought it to him with joy; if they could hunt 
 out any smaller vessel of the same sort, they looked on those as a 
 sort of lesser game, whether they were dishes, cups, censers, or 
 anything else. What weepings of women, what lamentations do 
 you suppose took place over these things? things which may 
 perhaps seem insignificant to you, but which excite great and
 
 446 CICERO 
 
 bitter indignation, especially among women, who grieve when 
 those things are torn from their hands which they have been ac- 
 customed to use in religious ceremonies, which they have re- 
 ceived from their ancestors, and which have always been in their 
 family. 
 
 Do not now wait while I follow up this charge from door to 
 door, and show you that he stole a goblet from ^schylus the 
 Tyndaritan; a dish from another citizen of Tyndaris named 
 Thraso; a censer from Nymphodorus of Agrigentum. When 
 I produce my witnesses from Sicily he may select whom he 
 pleases for me to examine about dishes, goblets, and censers. 
 Not only no town, no single house that is tolerably well off will 
 be found to have been free from the injurious treatment of this 
 man; who, even if he had come to a banquet, if he saw any finely 
 wrought plate, could not, O judges, keep his hands from it. 
 There is a man named Cnaeus Pompeius Philo, who was a native 
 of Tyndaris; he gave Verres a supper at his villa in the country 
 near Tyndaris; he did what Sicilians did not dare to do, but 
 what, because he was a citizen of Rome, he thought he could do 
 with impunity, he put before him a dish on which were some ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful figures. Verres, the moment he saw it, de- 
 termined to rob his host's table of that memorial of the Penates 
 and of the gods of hospitality. But yet, in accordance with what 
 I have said before of his great moderation, he restored the rest 
 of the silver after he had torn off the figures; so free was he from 
 all avarice! What want you more? Did he not do the same 
 thing to Eupolemus of Calacta, a noble man, connected with, 
 and an intimate friend of the Luculli ; a man who is now serving 
 in the army under Lucius Lucullus? He was supping with 
 him ; the rest of the silver which he had set before him had no 
 ornament on it, lest he himself should also be left without any 
 ornament ; but there were also two gold goblets, of no large size, 
 but with figures on them. He, as if he had been a professional 
 diner-out, who was not to go away without a present, on the 
 spot, in the sight of all the other guests, tore off the figures. I 
 do not attempt to enumerate all his exploits of this sort; it is 
 neither necessary nor possible. I only produce to you tokens 
 and samples of each description of his varied and universal ras- 
 cality. Nor did he behave in these affairs as if he would some 
 day or other be called to account for them, but altogether as if
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 447 
 
 he was either never likely to be prosecuted, or else as if the more 
 he stole, the less would be his danger when he was brought be- 
 fore the court; inasmuch as he did these things which I am 
 speaking of not secretly, not by the instrumentality of friends or 
 agents, but openly, from his high position, by his own power and 
 authority. 
 
 When he had come to Catina, a wealthy, honorable, influen- 
 tial city, he ordered Dionysiarchus the proagorus, that is to say, 
 the chief magistrate, to be summoned before him ; he openly 
 orders him to take care that all the silver plate which was in 
 anybody's house at Catina, was collected together and brought 
 to him. Did you not hear Philarchus of Centuripa, a man of 
 the highest position as to noble birth, and virtue, and riches, 
 say the same thing on his oath ; namely, that Verres had charged 
 and commanded him to collect together, and ordered to be con- 
 veyed to him, all the silver plate at Centuripa, by far the largest 
 and wealthiest city in all Sicily? In the same manner at Agy- 
 rium, all the Corinthian vessels there were there, in accordance 
 with his command, were transported to Syracuse by the agency 
 of Apollodorus, whom you have heard as a witness. But the 
 most extraordinary conduct of all was this ; when that painstak- 
 ing and industrious prsetor had arrived at Haluntium, he would 
 not himself go up into the town, because the ascent was steep 
 and difficult; but he ordered Archagathus of Haluntium, one 
 of the noblest men, not merely in his own city, but in all Sicily, 
 to be summoned before him, and gave him a charge to take 
 care that all the chased silver that there was at Haluntium, and 
 every specimen of Corinthian work too, should be at once taken 
 down from the town to the sea-side. Archagathus went up into 
 the town. That noble man, as one who wished to be loved and 
 esteemed by his fellow-citizens, was very indignant at having 
 such an office imposed upon him, and did not know what to do. 
 He announces the commands he has received. He orders them 
 to produce what they had. There was great consternation, 
 for the tyrant himself had not gone away to any distance ; lying 
 on a litter by the sea-side below the town, he was waiting for 
 Archagathus and the silver plate. What a gathering of people 
 do you suppose took place in the town ? what an uproar ? what 
 weeping of women ? they who saw it would have said that the 
 Trojan horse had been introduced, and that the city was taken.
 
 448 CICERO 
 
 Vessels were brought out without their cases ; others were 
 wrenched out of the hands of women ; many people's doors were 
 broken open, and their locks forced. For what else can you 
 suppose ? Even if ever, at a time of war and tumult, arms are 
 demanded of private citizens, still men give them unwillingly, 
 though they know that they are giving them for the common 
 safety. Do not suppose, then, that anyone produced his carved 
 plate out of his house for another man to steal, without the 
 greatest distress. Everything is brought down to the shore. 
 The Cibyratic brothers are summoned ; they condemn some 
 articles ; whatever they approve of has its figures in relief or its 
 embossed emblems torn off. And so the Haluntines, having 
 had all their ornaments wrenched off, returned home with the 
 plain silver. 
 
 Was there ever, O judges, a drag-net of such a sort as this in 
 that province? People have sometimes during their year of 
 office diverted some part of the public property to their own use, 
 in the most secret manner ; sometimes they even secretly plun- 
 dered some private citizen of something; and still they were 
 condemned. And if you ask me, though I am detracting some- 
 what from my own credit by saying so, I think those were the 
 real accusers, who traced the robberies of such men as this by 
 scent, or by some lightly imprinted footsteps; for what is it 
 that we are doing in respect of Verres, who has wallowed in the 
 mud till we can find him out by the traces of his whole body ? 
 Is it a great undertaking to say anything against a man, who 
 while he was passing by a place, having his litter put down to 
 rest for a little time, plundered a whole city, house by house, 
 without condescending to any pretences, openly, by his own 
 authority, and by an absolute command? But still, that he 
 might be able to say that he had bought them, he orders Ar- 
 chagathus to give those men, to whom the plate had belonged, 
 some little money, just for form's sake. Archagathus found 
 a few who would accept the money, and those he paid. And 
 still Verres never paid Archagathus that money. Archaga- 
 thus intended to claim it at Rome ; but Cnaeus Lentulus Mar- 
 cellinus dissuaded him, as you heard him state himself. Read 
 the evidence of Archagathus, and of Lentulus, and that you 
 may not imagine that the man wished to heap up such a mass of 
 figures without any reason, just see at what rate he valued you,
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 449 
 
 and in the opinion of the Roman people, and the laws, and the 
 courts of justice, and the Sicilian witnesses and traders. After 
 he had collected such a vast number of figures that he had not 
 left one single figure to anybody, he established an immense 
 shop in the palace at Syracuse ; he openly orders all the manu- 
 facturers, and carvers, and goldsmiths to be summoned and 
 he himself had many in his own employ ; he collects a great mul- 
 titude of men ; he kept them employed uninterruptedly for eight 
 months, though all that time no vessels were made of anything 
 but gold.. In that time he had so skilfully wrought the figures 
 which he had torn off the goblets and censers, into golden gob- 
 lets, or had so ingeniously joined them into golden cups, that 
 you would say that they had been made for that very purpose ; 
 and he, the praetor, who says that it was owing to his vigilance 
 that peace was maintained in Sicily, was accustomed to sit in his 
 tunic and dark cloak the greater part of the day in this work- 
 shop. 
 
 I would not venture, O judges, to mention these things, if 
 I were not afraid that you might perhaps say that you had heard 
 more about that man from others in common conversation, 
 than you had heard from me in this trial ; for who is there who 
 has not heard of this work-shop, of the golden vessels, of 
 Verres's tunic and dark cloak? Name any respectable man 
 you please out of the whole body of settlers at Syracuse, I will 
 produce him; there will not be one person who will not say 
 that he has either seen this or heard of it. Alas for the age ! 
 alas for the degeneracy of our manners ! I will not mention 
 anything of any great antiquity; there are many of you, O 
 judges, who knew Lucius Piso, the father of this Lucius Piso, 
 who was praetor. When he was praetor in Spain, in which 
 province he was slain, somehow or other, while he was practis- 
 ing his exercises in arms, the golden ring which he had was 
 broken and crushed. As he wanted to get himself another 
 ring, he ordered a goldsmith to be summoned into the forum 
 before his throne of office, at Corduba, and openly weighed him 
 out the gold. He ordered the man to set up his bench in the 
 forum, and to make him a ring in the presence of everyone. 
 Perhaps in truth some may say that he was too exact, and to 
 this extent anyone who chooses may blame him, but no fur- 
 ther. Still such conduct was allowable for him, for he was the 
 
 2Q
 
 450 CICERO 
 
 son of Lucius Piso, of that man who first made the law about 
 extortion and embezzlement. It is quite ridiculous for me to 
 speak of Verres now, when I have just been speaking of Piso 
 the Thrifty; still, see what a difference there is between the 
 men ; that man, while he was making some side-boards full of 
 golden vessels, did not care what his reputation was, not only in 
 Sicily, but also at Rome in the court of justice ; the other wished 
 all Spain to know to half an ounce how much gold it took to 
 make a praetor's ring. Forsooth, as the one proved his right 
 to his name, so did the other to his surname. 
 
 It is utterly impossible for me either to retain in my memory, 
 or to embrace in my speech, all his exploits. I wish just to 
 touch briefly on the different kinds of deeds done by him, just as 
 here the ring of Piso reminded me of what had otherwise en- 
 tirely escaped my recollection. From how many honorable 
 men do you imagine that that man tore the golden rings from 
 off their fingers ? He never hesitated to do so whenever he was 
 pleased with either the jewels or the fashion of the ring belong- 
 ing to anyone. I am going to mention an incredible fact, but 
 still one so notorious that I do not think that he himself will 
 deny it. When a letter had been brought to Valentius his in- 
 terpreter from Agrigentum, by chance Verres himself noticed 
 the impression on the seal; he was pleased with it, he asked 
 where the letter came from ; he was told, from Agrigentum. 
 He sent letters to the men with whom he was accustomed to 
 communicate, ordering that ring to be brought to him as soon 
 as possible. And accordingly, in compliance with his letter, 
 it was torn off the finger of a master of a family, a certain Lucius 
 Titius, a Roman citizen. But that covetousness of his is quite 
 beyond belief. For as he wished to provide three hundred 
 couches beautifully covered, with all other decorations for a 
 banquet, for the different rooms which he has, not only at Rome, 
 but in his different villas, he collected such a number, that there 
 was no wealthy house in all Sicily where he did not set up an 
 embroiderer's shop. 
 
 There is a woman, a citizen of Segasta, very rich, and nobly 
 born, by name Lamia. She, having her house full of spinning 
 jennies, for three years was making him robes and coverlets, all 
 dyed with purple ; Attalus, a rich man at Netum ; Lyso at Lily- 
 bseum; Critolaus at Enna; at Syracuse JEschrio, Cleomenes,
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 451 
 
 and Theomnastus ; at Elorum Archonides and Megistus. My 
 voice will fail me before the names of the men whom he em- 
 ployed in this way will; he himself supplied the purple his 
 friends supplied only the work, I dare say ; for I have no wish 
 to accuse him in every particular, as if it were not enough for 
 me, with a view to accuse him, that he should have had so much 
 to give, that he should have wished to carry away so many 
 things ; and, besides all that, this thing which he admits, namely, 
 that he should have employed the work of his friends in affairs 
 of this sort. But now do you suppose that brazen couches and 
 brazen candelabra were made at Syracuse for anyone but for 
 him the whole of that three years? He bought them, I sup- 
 pose ; but I am informing you so fully, O judges, of what that 
 man did in his province as praetor, that he may not by chance 
 appear to anyone to have been careless, and not to have provid- 
 ed and adorned himself sufficiently when he had absolute 
 power. 
 
 I come now, not to a theft, not to avarice, not to covetous- 
 ness, but to an action of that sort that every kind of wickedness 
 seems to be contained in it, and to be in it ; by which the immor- 
 tal gods were insulted, the reputation and authority of the name 
 of the Roman people was impaired, hospitality was betrayed 
 and plundered, all the kings who were most friendly to us, and 
 the nations which are under their rule and dominion, were 
 alienated from us by his wickedness. For you know that the 
 kings of Syria, the boyish sons of King Antiochus, have lately 
 been at Rome. And they came not on account of the kingdom 
 of Syria ; for that they had obtained possession of without dis- 
 pute, as they had received it from their father and their ances- 
 tors ; but they thought that the kingdom of Egypt belonged to 
 them and to Selene their mother. When they, being hindered 
 by the critical state of the republic at that time, were not able 
 to obtain the discussion of the subject as they wished before 
 the Senate, they departed for Syria, their paternal kingdom. 
 One of them the one whose name is Antiochus wished to 
 make his journey through Sicily. And so, while Verres was 
 praetor, he came to Syracuse. On this Verres thought that an 
 inheritance had come to him, because a man whom he had 
 heard, and on other accounts suspected had many splendid 
 things with him, had come into the kingdom and into his power.
 
 452 
 
 CICERO 
 
 He sends him presents liberal enough for all domestic uses ; 
 as much wine and oil as he thought fit ; and as much wheat as 
 he could want, out of his tenths. After that he invites the king 
 himself to supper. He decorates a couch abundantly and mag- 
 nificently. He sets out the numerous and beautiful silver ves- 
 sels, in which he was so rich ; for he had not yet made all those 
 golden ones. He takes care that the banquet shall be splen- 
 didly appointed and provided in every particular. Why need 
 I make a long story of it ? The king departed, thinking that 
 Verres was superbly provided with everything, and that he him- 
 self had been magnificently treated. After that, he himself 
 invites the praetor to supper. He displays all his treasures ; 
 much silver, also not a few goblets of gold, which, as is the cus- 
 tom of kings, and especially in Syria, were studded all over 
 with most splendid jewels. There was also a vessel for wine, 
 a ladle hollowed out of one single large precious stone, with a 
 golden handle, concerning which, I think, you heard Quintus 
 Minutius speak, a sufficiently capable judge, and sufficiently 
 credible witness. Verres took each separate piece of plate into 
 his hand, praised it admired it. The king was delighted that 
 that banquet was tolerably pleasant and agreeable to a praetor 
 of the Roman people. After the banquet was over, Verres 
 thought of nothing else, as the facts themselves showed, than 
 how he might plunder and strip the king of everything before 
 he departed from the province. He sends to ask for the most 
 exquisite of the vessels which he had seen at Antiochus's lodg- 
 ings. He said that he wished to show them to his engravers. 
 The king, who did not know the man, most willingly sent them, 
 without any suspicion of his intention. He sends also to bor- 
 row the jewelled ladle. He said that he wished to examine it 
 more attentively ; that also is sent to him. 
 
 Now, O judges, mark what followed ; things which you have 
 already heard, and which the Roman people will not hear now 
 for the first time, and which have been reported abroad among 
 foreign nations to the farthest corners of the earth. The kings, 
 whom I have spoken of, had brought to Rome a candelabrum 
 of the finest jewels, made with most extraordinary skill, in order 
 to place it in the Capitol ; but as they found that temple not yet 
 finished, they could not place it there. Nor were they willing 
 to display it and produce it in common, in order that it might
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 453 
 
 seem more splendid when it was placed at its proper time in the 
 shrine of the great and good Jupiter, and brighter, also, as its 
 beauty would come fresh and untarnished before the eyes of 
 men. They determined, therefore, to take it back with them 
 into Syria with the intention, when they should hear that the 
 image of the great and good Jupiter was dedicated, of sending 
 ambassadors who should bring that exquisite and most beauti- 
 ful present, with other offerings, to the Capitol. The matter, 
 I know not how, got to his ears. For the king had wished it 
 kept entirely concealed; not because he feared or suspected 
 anything, but because he did not wish many to feast their eyes 
 on it before the Roman people. He begs the king, and entreats 
 him most earnestly to send it to him ; he says that he longs to 
 look at it himself, and that he will not allow anyone else to see 
 it. Antiochus, being both of a childlike and royal disposition, 
 suspected nothing of that man's dishonesty, and orders his ser- 
 vants to take it as secretly as possible, and well wrapped up, to 
 the praetor's house. And when they brought it there, and 
 placed it on a table, having taken off the coverings, Verres be- 
 gan to exclaim that it was a thing worthy of the kingdom of 
 Syria, worthy of being a royal present, worthy of the 'Capitol. 
 In truth, it was of such splendor as a thing must be which is 
 made of the most brilliant and beautiful jewels ; of such variety 
 of pattern that the skill of the workmanship seemed to vie with 
 the richness of the materials ; and of such a size that it might 
 easily be seen that it had been made not for the furniture of men, 
 but for the decoration of a most noble temple. And when he 
 appeared to have examined it sufficiently, the servants begin 
 to take it up to carry it back again. He says that he wishes to 
 examine it over and over again ; that he is not half satiated with 
 the sight of it ; he orders them to depart and to leave the candel- 
 abrum. So they then return to Antiochus empty-handed. 
 
 The king at first feared nothing, suspected nothing. One 
 day passed two days many days. It was not brought back. 
 Then the king sends to Verres to beg him to return it, if he will 
 be so good. He bids the slaves come again. The king begins 
 to think it strange. He sends a second time. It is not re- 
 turned. He himself calls on the man ; he begs him to restore 
 it to him. Think of the face and marvellous impudence of the 
 man. That thing which he knew, and which he had heard from
 
 454 
 
 CICERO 
 
 the king himself was to be placed in the Capitol, which he knew 
 was being kept for the great and good Jupiter, and for the 
 Roman people, that he began to ask and entreat earnestly to 
 have given to him. When the king said that he was prevented 
 from complying by the reverence due to Jupiter Capitolinus, 
 and by his regard for the opinion of men, because many nations 
 were witnesses to the fact of the candelabrum having been made 
 for a present to the god, the fellow began to threaten him most 
 violently. When he sees that he is no more influenced by 
 threats than he had been by prayers, on a sudden he orders him 
 to leave his province before night. He says, that he has found 
 out that pirates from his kingdom were coming against Sicily. 
 The king, in the most frequented place in Syracuse, in the forum 
 in the forum at Syracuse, I say (that no man may suppose I 
 am bringing forward a charge about which there is any ob- 
 scurity, or imagining anything which rests on mere suspicion), 
 weeping, and calling gods and men to witness, began to cry out 
 that Caius Verres had taken from him a candelabrum made of 
 jewels, which he was about to send to the Capitol, and which he 
 wished to be in that most splendid temple as a memorial to the 
 Roman people of his alliance with and friendship for them. He 
 said that he did not care about the other works made of gold 
 and jewels belonging to him which were in Verres's hands, but 
 that it was a miserable and scandalous thing for this to be taken 
 from him. And that, although it had long ago been conse- 
 crated in the minds and intentions of himself and his brother, 
 still, that he then, before that assembled body of Roman citi- 
 zens, offered, and gave, and dedicated, and consecrated it to the 
 great and good Jupiter, and that he invoked Jupiter himself as a 
 witness of his intention and of his piety. 
 
 What voice, what lungs, what power of mine can adequately 
 express the indignation due to this atrocity? The king Antio- 
 chus, who had lived for two years at Rome in the sight of all of 
 us, with an almost royal retinue and establishment though he 
 had been the friend and ally of the Roman people ; though his 
 father, and his grandfather, and his ancestors, most ancient and 
 honorable sovereigns, had been our firmest friends ; though he 
 himself is monarch of a most opulent and extensive kingdom, 
 is turned headlong out of a province of the Roman people. 
 How do you suppose that foreign nations will take this ? How
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 455 
 
 do you suppose the news of this exploit of yours will be received 
 in the dominions of other kings, and in the most distant coun- 
 tries of the world, when they hear that a king has been insulted 
 by a praetor of the Roman people in his province ? that a guest of 
 the Roman people has been plundered ? a friend and ally of the 
 Roman people insultingly driven out ? Know that your name 
 and that of the Roman people will be an object of hatred and de- 
 testation to foreign nations. If this unheard-of insolence of 
 Verres is to pass unpunished, all men will think, especially as the 
 reputation of our men for avarice and covetousness has been 
 very extensively spread, that this is not his crime only, but that 
 of those who have approved of it. Many kings, many free cities 
 many opulent and powerful private men, cherish intentions of 
 ornamenting the Capitol in such a way as the dignity of the tem- 
 ple and the reputation of our empire requires. And if they 
 understand that you show a proper indignation at this kingly 
 present being intercepted, they will then think that their zeal and 
 their presents will be acceptable to you and to the Roman people. 
 But if they hear that you have been indifferent to the complaint 
 of so great a king, in so remarkable a case, in one of such bitter 
 injustice, they will not be so crazy as to spend their time, and 
 labor, and expense on things which they do not think will be 
 acceptable to you. 
 
 And in this place I appeal to you, O Quintus Catulus ; 4 for I 
 am speaking of your most honorable and most splendid mon- 
 ument. You ought to take upon yourself not only the severity 
 of a judge with respect to this crime, but something like the 
 vehemence of an enemy and an accuser. For, through the kind- 
 ness of the Senate and people of Rome, your honor is connected 
 with that temple. Your name is consecrated at the same time 
 as that temple in the everlasting recollection of men. It is by 
 you that this case is to be encountered ; by you, that this labor 
 is to be undergone, in order that the Capitol, as it has been re- 
 stored more magnificently, may also be adorned more splen- 
 didly than it was originally ; that then that fire may seem to have 
 been sent from heaven not to destroy the temple of the great 
 and good Jupiter, but to demand one for him more noble and 
 more magnificent. You have heard Quintus Minucius Rufus 
 
 The Capitol had been burned in the superintendence of Ouintus Cntulus, to 
 civil war between Marius and Sylla; whom that office had been intrusted by 
 and it was now being restored under the the Senate.
 
 456 CICERO 
 
 say that King Antiochus stayed at his house while at Syracuse; 
 that he knew that this candelabrum had been taken to Verres's 
 house ; that he knew that it had not been returned. You heard, 
 and you shall hear from the whole body of Roman settlers at 
 Syracuse, that they will state to you that in their hearing it was 
 dedicated and consecrated to the good and great Jupiter by 
 King Aniochus. If you were not a judge, and this affair were 
 reported to you, it would be your especial duty to follow it up ; 
 to reclaim the candelabrum, and to prosecute this cause. So 
 that I do not doubt what ought to be your feelings as judge in 
 this prosecution, when before anyone else as judge you ought 
 to be a much more vehement advocate and accuser than I am. 
 
 And to you, O judges, what can appear more scandalous or 
 more intolerable than this ? Shall Verres have at his own house 
 a candelabrum, made of jewels and gold, belonging to the great 
 and good Jupiter? Shall that ornament be set out in his house 
 at banquets which will be one scene of adultery and debauchery, 
 with the brilliancy of which the temple of the great and good 
 Jupiter ought to glow and to be lighted up ? Shall the decora- 
 tions of the Capitol be placed in the house of that most infamous 
 debauchee with the other ornaments which he has inherited 
 from Chelidon ? What do you suppose will ever be considered 
 sacred or holy by him, when he does not now think himself lia- 
 ble to punishment for such enormous wickedness ? who dares 
 to come into this court of justice, where he cannot, like all 
 others who are arraigned, pray to the great and good Jupiter, 
 and entreat help from him ? from whom even the immortal gods 
 are reclaiming their property, before that tribunal which was 
 appointed for the benefit of men, that they might recover what 
 had been extorted unjustly from them? Do we marvel that 
 Minerva at Athens, Apollo at Delos, Juno at Samos, Diana at 
 Perga, and that many other gods besides all over Asia and 
 Greece, were plundered by him, when he could not keep his 
 hands off the Capitol ? That temple which private men are dec- 
 orating and are intending to decorate out of their own riches, 
 that Caius Verres would not suffer to be decorated by a king ; 
 and, accordingly, after he had once conceived this nefarious 
 wickedness, he considered nothing in all Sicily afterward sacred 
 or hallowed ; and he behaved himself in his province for three 
 years in such a manner that war was thought to have been de-
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 457 
 
 clared by him, not only against men, but also against the im- 
 mortal gods. 
 
 Segesta is a very ancient town in Sicily, O judges, which its 
 inhabitants assert was founded by ^neas when he was flying 
 from Troy and coming to this country. And accordingly the 
 Segestans think that they are connected with the Roman peo- 
 ple, not only by a perpetual alliance and friendship, but even by 
 some relationship. This town, as the state of the Segestans 
 was at war with the Carthaginians on its own account and of its 
 own accord, was formerly stormed and destroyed by the Car- 
 thaginians ; and everything which could be any ornament to the 
 city was transported from thence to Carthage. There was 
 among the Segestans a statue of Diana, of brass, not only in- 
 vested with the most sacred character, but also wrought with 
 the most exquisite skill and beauty. When transferred to 
 Carthage, it only changed its situation and its worshippers; it 
 retained its former sanctity. For on account of its eminent 
 beauty it seemed, even to their enemies, worthy of being most 
 religiously worshipped. Some ages afterward, Publius Scipio 
 took Carthage, in the third Punic War; after which victory (re- 
 mark the virtue and carefulness of the man, so that you may 
 both rejoice at your national examples of most eminent virtue, 
 and may also judge the incredible audacity of Verres, worthy 
 of the greater hatred by contrasting it with that virtue), he sum- 
 moned all the Sicilians, because he knew that during a long 
 period of time Sicily had repeatedly been ravaged by the 
 Carthaginians, and bids them seek for all they had lost, and 
 promises them to take the greatest pains to insure the restora- 
 tion to the different cities of everything which had belonged to 
 them. Then those things which had formerly been removed 
 from Himera, and which I have mentioned before, were re- 
 stored to the people of Thermae ; some things were restored to 
 the Gelans, some to the Agrigentines ; among which was that 
 noble bull, which that most cruel of all tyrants, Phalaris, is said 
 to have had, into which he was accustomed to put men for pun- 
 ishment, and to put fire under. And when Scipio restored that 
 bull to the Agrigentines, he is reported to have said, that he 
 thought it reasonable for them to consider whether it was more 
 advantageous to the Sicilians to be subject to their own princes, 
 or to be under the dominion of the Roman people, when they
 
 458 CICERO 
 
 had the same thing as a monument of the cruelty of their do- 
 mestic masters, and of our liberality. 
 
 At that time the same Diana of which I am speaking is re- 
 stored with the greatest care to the Segestans. It is taken back 
 to Segesta ; it is replaced in its ancient situation, to the greatest 
 joy and delight of all the citizens. It was placed at Segesta on 
 a very lofty pedestal, on which was cut in large letters the name 
 of Publius Africanus ; and a statement was also engraved that 
 " he had restored it after having taken Carthage." It was wor- 
 shipped by the citizens ; it was visited by all strangers ; when I 
 was quaestor it was the very first thing they showed me. It was 
 a very large and tall statue with a flowing robe, but in spite of 
 its large size, it gave the idea of the age and dress of a virgin ; 
 her arrows hung from her shoulder, in her left hand she carried 
 her bow, her right hand held a burning torch. When that 
 enemy of all sacred things, that violator of all religious scruples 
 saw it, he began to burn with covetousness and insanity, as if 
 he himself had been struck with that torch. He commands the 
 magistrates to take the statue down and give it to him; and 
 declares to them that nothing can be more agreeable to him. 
 But they said that it was impossible for them to do so ; that they 
 were prevented from doing so, not only by the most extreme 
 religious reverence, but also by the greatest respect for their 
 own laws and courts of justice. Then he began to entreat this 
 favor of them, then to threaten them, then to try and excite their 
 hopes, then to arouse their fears. They opposed to his demands 
 the name of Africanus; they said that it was the gift of the 
 Roman people ; that they themselves had no right over a thing 
 which a most illustrious general, having taken a city of the 
 enemy, had chosen to stand there as a monument of the victory 
 of the Roman people. As he did not relax in his demand, but 
 urged it every day with daily increasing earnestness, the matter 
 was brought before the Senate. His demand raises a violent 
 outcry on all sides. And so at that time, and at his first arrival 
 at Segesta, it is refused. Afterward, whatever burdens could 
 be imposed on any city in respect of exacting sailors and rowers, 
 or in levying corn, he imposed on the Segestans beyond all 
 other cities, and a good deal more than they could bear. Be- 
 sides that, he used to summon their magistrates before him ; he 
 used to send for all the most noble and most virtuous of the citi-
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 459 
 
 zens, to hurry them about with him to all the courts of justice in 
 the province, to threaten every one of them separately to be the 
 ruin of him, and to announce to them all in a body that he would 
 utterly destroy their city. Therefore, at last, the Segestans, 
 subdued by much ill treatment and by great fear, resolved to 
 obey the command of the prsetor. With great grief and lamen- 
 tation on the part of the whole city, with many tears and wail- 
 ings on the part of all the men and women, a contract is adver- 
 tised for taking down the statue of Diana. 
 
 See now with what religious reverence it is regarded. 
 Know, O judges, that among all the Segestans none was found, 
 whether free man or slave, whether citizen or foreigner, to dare 
 to touch that statue. Know that some barbarian workmen 
 were brought from Lilybaeum ; they at length, ignorant of the 
 whole business, and of the religious character of the image, 
 agreed to take it down for a sum of money, and took it down. 
 And when it was being taken out of the city, how great was the 
 concourse of women! how great was the weeping of the old 
 men ! some of them even recollected that day when that same 
 Diana being brought back to Segesta from Carthage, had an- 
 nounced to them, by its return, the victory of the Roman peo- 
 ple. How different from that time did this day seem ! then the 
 general of the Roman people, a most illustrious man, was bring- 
 ing back to the Segestans the gods of their fathers, recovered 
 from an enemy's city ; now a most base and profligate praetor 
 of the same Roman people, was taking away, with the most 
 nefarious wickedness, those very same gods from a city of his 
 allies. What is more notorious throughout all Sicily than that 
 all the matrons and virgins of Segesta came together when 
 Diana was being taken out of their city? that they anointed her 
 with precious unguents? that they crowned her with chaplets 
 and flowers ? that they attended her to the borders of their terri- 
 tory with frankincense and burning perfumes ? If at the time 
 you, by reason of your covetousness and audacity, did not, while 
 in command, fear these religious feelings of the population, do 
 you not fear them now, at a time of such peril to yourself and to 
 your children? What man, against the will of the immortal 
 gods, or what god, when you so trample on all the religious 
 reverence due to them, do you think will come to your assist- 
 ance? Has that Diana inspired you, while in quiet and at
 
 460 CICERO 
 
 leisure, with no religious awe she, who though she had 
 seen two cities, in which she was placed, stormed and burned, 
 was yet twice preserved from the flames and weapons of two 
 wars ; she who, though she changed her situation owing to the 
 victory of the Carthaginians, yet did not lose her holy charac- 
 ter ; and who, by the valor of Publius Africanus, afterward re- 
 covered her old worship, together with her old situation ? And 
 when this crime had been executed, as the pedestal was empty, 
 and the name of Publius Africanus carved on it, the affair ap- 
 peared scandalous and intolerable to everyone, that not only 
 was religion trampled on, but also that Caius Verres had taken 
 away the glory of the exploits, the memorial of the virtues, the 
 monument of the victory of Publius Africanus, that most gal- 
 lant of men. But when he was told afterward of the pedestal 
 and the inscription, he thought that men would forget the whole 
 affair, if he took away the pedestal too, which was serving as a 
 sort of sign-post to point out his crime. And so, by his com- 
 mand, the Segestans contracted to take away the pedestal too ; 
 and the terms of that contract were read to you from the public 
 registers of the Segestans, at the former pleading. 
 
 Now, O Publius Scipio, I appeal to you ; to you, I say, a most 
 virtuous and accomplished youth ; from you I request and de- 
 mand that assistance which is due to your family and to your 
 name. Why do you take the part of that man who has embez- 
 zled the credit and honor of your family ? Why do you wish 
 him to be defended ? Why am I undertaking what is properly 
 your business ? Why am I supporting a burden which ought 
 to fall on you ? Marcus Tullius is reclaiming the monuments 
 of Publius Africanus ; Publius Scipio is defending the man who 
 took them away. Though it is a principle handed down to us 
 from our ancestors, for everyone to defend the monuments of 
 his ancestors, in such a way as not even to allow them to be dec- 
 orated by one of another name, will you take the part of that 
 man who is not charged merely with having in some degree 
 spoiled the view of the monuments of Publius Scipio, but who 
 has entirely removed and destroyed them ? Who, then, in the 
 name of the immortal gods, will defend the memory of Publius 
 Scipio now that he is dead? who will defend the memorials and 
 evidences of his valor, if you desert and abandon them ; and not 
 only allow them to be plundered and taken away, but even de-
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 461 
 
 fend their plunderer and destroyer? The Segestans are pres- 
 ent, your clients, the allies and friends of the Roman people. 
 They inform you that Publius Africanus, when he had de- 
 stroyed Carthage, restored the image of Diana to their ances- 
 tors ; and that was set up among the Segestans and dedicated in 
 the name of that general ; that Verres has had it taken down and 
 carried away, and as far as that is concerned, has utterly effaced 
 and extinguished the name of Publius Scipio. They entreat 
 and pray you to restore the object of their worship to them, its 
 proper credit and glory to your own family, so enabling them by 
 your assistance to recover from the house of a robber, what they 
 recovered from the city of their enemies by the beneficence of 
 Publius Africanus. 
 
 What can you reply to them with honor, or what can they do 
 but implore the aid of you and your good faith? They are 
 present, they do implore it. You, O Publius, can protect the 
 honor of your family renown ; you can, you have every advan- 
 tage which either fortune or nature ever gives to men. I do 
 not wish to anticipate you in gathering the fruit that belongs 
 to you ; I am not covetous of the glory which ought to belong 
 to another. It does not correspond to the modesty of my dis- 
 position, while Publius Scipio, a most promising young man, 
 is alive and well, to put myself forward as the defender and ad- 
 vocate of the memorials of Publius Scipio. Wherefore, if you 
 will undertake the advocacy of your family renown, it will be- 
 hoove me not only to be silent about your monuments, but even 
 to be glad that the fortune of Publius Africanus, though dead, 
 is such, that his honor is defended by those who are of the same 
 family as himself, and that it requires no adventitious assistance. 
 But if your friendship with that man is an obstacle to you if 
 you think that this thing which I demand of you is not so inti- 
 mately connected with your duty then I, as your locum tenens, 
 will succeed to your office, I will undertake that business which 
 I have thought not to belong to me. Let that proud aristoc- 
 racy give up complaining that the Roman people willingly 
 gives, and at all times has given, honors to new and diligent 
 men. It is a foolish complaint that virtue should be of the 
 greatest influence in that city which by its virtue governs all 
 nations. Let the image of Publius Africanus be in the houses 
 of other men ; let heroes now dead be adorned with virtue and
 
 462 CICERO 
 
 glory. He was such a man, he deserved so well of the Roman 
 people, that he deserves to be recommended to the affection, 
 not of one single family, but of the whole state. And so it 
 partly does belong to me also to defend his honors with all my 
 power, because I belong to that city which he rendered great, 
 and illustrious, and renowned; and especially, because I prac- 
 tise, to the utmost of my power, those virtues in which he was 
 pre-eminent equity, industry, temperance, the protection of 
 the unhappy, and hatred of the dishonest ; a relationship in pur- 
 suits and habits which is almost as important as that of which 
 you boast, the relationship of name and family. 
 
 I reclaim from you, O Verres, the monument of Publius Afri- 
 canus ; I abandon the cause of the Sicilians, which I undertook ; 
 let there be no trial of you for extortion at present ; never mind 
 the injuries of the Segestans ; let the pedestal of Publius Afri- 
 canus be restored ; let the name of that invincible commander 
 be engraved on it anew ; let that most beautiful statue, which 
 was recovered when Carthage was taken, be replaced. It is not 
 I, the defender of the Sicilians it is not I, your prosecutor 
 they are not the Segestans who demand this of you ; but he who 
 has taken on himself the defence and "the preservation of the 
 renown and glory of Publius Africanus. I am not afraid of not 
 being able to give a good account of my performance of this 
 duty to Publius Servilius the judge ; who, as he has performed 
 great exploits, and raised very many monuments of his good 
 deeds, and has a natural anxiety about them, will be glad, for- 
 sooth, to leave them an object of care and protection not only 
 to his own posterity, but to all brave men and good citizens ; 
 and not as a mark for the plunder of rogues. I am not afraid 
 of its displeasing you, O Quintus Catulus, to whom the most 
 superb and splendid monument in the whole world belongs, 
 that there should be as many guardians of such monuments as 
 possible, or that all good men should think it was a part of their 
 duty to defend the glory of another. And indeed I am so far 
 moved by the other robberies and atrocities of that fellow, 
 as to think them worthy of great reproof; but that might be 
 sufficient for them. But in this instance I am roused to such 
 indignation, that nothing appears to me possible to be more 
 scandalous or more intolerable. Shall Verres adorn his house, 
 full of adultery, full of debauchery, full of infamy, with the mon-
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 463 
 
 uments of Africanus ? Shall Verres place the memorial of that 
 most temperate and religious man, the image of the ever virgin 
 Diana, in that house in which the iniquities of harlots and pimps 
 are incessantly being practised? 
 
 But is this the only monument of Africanus which you have 
 violated ? What ! did you take away from the people of Tyn- 
 daris an image of Mercury most beautifully made, and placed 
 there by the beneficence of the same Scipio ? And how ? O 
 ye immortal gods ! How audaciously, how infamously, how 
 shamelessly did you do so! You have lately, O judges, heard 
 the deputies from Tyndaris, most honorable men, and the chief 
 men of that city, say that the Mercury, which in their sacred 
 anniversaries was worshipped among them with the extremest 
 religious reverence, which Publius Africanus, after he had taken 
 Carthage, had given to the Tyndaritans, not only as a monu- 
 ment of his victory, but as a memorial and evidence of their 
 loyalty to and alliance with the Roman people, had been taken 
 away by the violence, and wickedness, and arbitrary power of 
 this man ; who, when he first came to their city, in a moment, 
 as if it were not only a becoming, but an indispensable thing to 
 be done as if the Senate had ordered it and the Roman people 
 had sanctioned it in a moment, I say, ordered them to take the 
 statue down and to transport it to Messana. And as this ap- 
 peared a scandalous thing to those who were present and who 
 heard it, it was not persevered in by him during the first period 
 of his visit; but when he departed, he ordered Sopater, their 
 chief magistrate, whose statement you have heard, to take it 
 down. When he refused, he threatened him violently; and 
 then he left the city. The magistrate refers the matter to the 
 Senate ; there is a violent outcry on all sides. To make my story 
 short, some time afterward he comes to that city again. Im- 
 mediately he asks about the statue. He is answered that the 
 Senate will not allow it to be removed ; that capital punishment 
 is threatened to anyone who should touch it without the orders 
 of the Senate ; the impiety of removing is also urged. Then says 
 he, " What do you mean by talking to me of impiety ? or about 
 punishment ? or about the Senate ? I will not leave you alive ; 
 you shall be scourged to death if the statue is not given up." 
 Sopater with tears reports the matter to the Senate a second 
 time, and relates to them the covetousness and the threats of
 
 464 CICERO 
 
 Verres. The Senate gives Sopater no answer, but breaks up 
 in agitation and perplexity. Sopater, being summoned by the 
 praetor's messenger, informs him of the state of the case, and 
 says that it is absolutely impossible. 
 
 And all these things (for I do not think that I ought to omit 
 any particular of his impudence) were done openly in the mid- 
 dle of the assembly, while Verres was sitting on his chair of 
 office, in a lofty situation. It was the depth of winter; the 
 weather, as you heard Sopater himself state, was bitterly cold ; 
 heavy rain was falling; when that fellow orders the lictors to 
 throw Sopater headlong down from the portico on which he 
 himself was sitting, and to strip him naked. The command 
 was scarcely out of his mouth, before you might have seen him 
 stripped and surrounded by the lictors. All thought that the 
 unhappy and innocent man was going to be scourged. They 
 were mistaken. Do you think that Verres would scourge with- 
 out any reason an ally and friend of the Roman people ? He 
 is not so wicked. All vices are not to be found in that man ; he 
 was never cruel. He treated the man with great gentleness 
 and clemency. In the middle of the forum there are some 
 statues of the Marcelli, as there are in most of the other towns 
 of Sicily ; out of these he selected the statue of Caius Marcellus, 
 whose services to that city and to the whole province were most 
 recent and most important. On that statue he orders Sopater, 
 a man of noble birth in his city, and at that very time invested 
 with the chief magistracy, to be placed astride and bound to it. 
 What torture he suffered when he was bound naked in the open 
 air, in the rain and in the cold, must be manifest to everybody. 
 Nor did he put an end to this insult and barbarity, till the peo- 
 ple and the whole multitude, moved by the atrocity of his con- 
 duct and by pity for his victim, compelled the Senate by their 
 outcries to promise him that statue of Mercury. They cried 
 out that the immortal gods themselves would avenge the act, 
 and that in the mean time it was not fit that an innocent man 
 should be murdered. Then the Senate comes to him in a body, 
 and promises him the statue. And so Sopater is taken down 
 scarcely alive from the statue of Marcellus, to which he had 
 almost become frozen. I cannot adequately accuse that man 
 if I were to wish to do so ; it requires not only genius, but an 
 extraordinary amount of skill.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 465 
 
 This appears to be a single crime, this of the Tyndaritan Mer- 
 cury, and it is brought forward by me as a single one ; but there 
 are many crimes contained in it only I do not know how to 
 separate and distinguish them. It is a case of money extorted, 
 for he took away from the allies a statue worth a large sum of 
 money. It is a case of embezzlement, because he did not hesi- 
 tate to appropriate a public statue belonging to the Roman peo- 
 ple, taken from the spoils of the enemy, placed where it was in 
 the name of our general. It is a case of treason, because he 
 dared to overturn and to carry away monuments of our empire, 
 of our glory, and of our exploits. It is a case of impiety, be- 
 cause he violated the most solemn principles of religion. It is 
 a case of inhumanity, because he invented a new and extraor- 
 dinary description of punishment for an innocent man, an ally 
 and friend of our nation. But what the other crime is, that I 
 am unable to say ; I know not by what name to call the crime 
 which he committed with respect to the statue of Caius Marcel- 
 lus. What is the meaning of it? Is it because he was the 
 patron of the Sicilians ? What then ? What has that to do with 
 it ? Ought that fact to have had influence to procure assistance, 
 or to bring disaster on his clients and friends? Was it your 
 object to show that patrons were no protection against your 
 violence ? Who is there who would not be aware that there is 
 greater power in the authority of a bad man who is present, than 
 the protection of good men who are absent ? Or do you merely 
 wish to prove by this conduct, your unprecedented insolence, 
 and pride, and obstinacy ? You thought, I imagine, that you 
 were taking something from the dignity of the Marcelli ? And 
 therefore now the Marcelli are not the patrons of the Sicilians. 
 Verres has been substituted in their place. What virtue or 
 what dignity did you think existed in you, that you should at- 
 tempt to transfer to yourself, and to take away from these most 
 trusty and most ancient patrons, so illustrious a body of clients 
 as that splendid province ? Can you, with your stupidity, and 
 worthlessness, and laziness defend the cause, I will not say of 
 all Sicily, but even of one, the very meanest of the Sicilians ? 
 Was the statue of Marcellus to serve you for a pillory for the 
 clients of the Marcelli ? Did you, out of his honor, seek for 
 punishments of those very men who had held him in honor? 
 What followed? What did you think would happen to your 
 30
 
 466 CICERO 
 
 statues? was it that which did happen? For the people of 
 Tyndaris threw down the statue of Verres, which he had 
 ordered to be erected in his own honor near the Marcelli, and 
 even on a higher pedestal, the very moment that they heard 
 that a successor had been appointed to him. 
 
 The fortune of the Sicilians has then given you Caius Mar- 
 cellus for a judge, so that we may now surrender you, fettered 
 and bound, to appease the injured sanctity of him to whose 
 statue Sicilians were bound while you were praetor. And in the 
 first place, O judges, that man said that the people of Tyndaris 
 had sold his statue to Caius Marcellus /Eserninus, who is here 
 present. And he hoped that Caius Marcellus himself would 
 assert thus much for his sake, though it never seemed to me to 
 be very likely that a young man born in that rank, the patron 
 of Sicily, would lend his name to that fellow to enable him to 
 transfer his guilt to another. But still I made such provision, 
 and took such precaution against every possible bearing of the 
 case, that if anyone had been found who was ever so anxious 
 to take the guilt and crime of Verres upon himself, still he would 
 not have taken anything by his motion, for I brought down to 
 court such witnesses, and I had with me such written docu- 
 ments, that it could not have been possible to have entertained 
 a doubt about that man's actions. There are public documents 
 to prove that that Mercury was transported to Messana at the 
 expense of the state. They state at what expense; and that 
 a man named Poleas was ordered by the public authority to 
 superintend the business what more would you have ? Where 
 is he? He is close at hand, he is a witness, by the command 
 of Sopater the proagorus. Who is he? The man who was 
 bound to the statue. What! where is he? He is a witness 
 you have seen the man, and you have heard his statement. 
 Demetrius, the master of the gymnastic school, superintended 
 the pulling down of the statue, because he was appointed to 
 manage that business. What ? is it we who say this ? No, he 
 is present himself; moreover, that Verres himself lately prom- 
 ised at Rome, that he would restore that statue to the deputies, 
 if the evidence already given in the affair were removed, and if 
 security were given that the Tyndaritans would not give evi- 
 dence against him, has been stated before you by Zosippus and 
 Hismenias, most noble men, and the chief men of the city of 
 Tyndaris.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 467 
 
 * 
 
 What? did you not also at Agrigentum take away a monu- 
 ment of the same Publius Scipio, a most beautiful statue of 
 Apollo, on whose thigh there was the name of Myron, inscribed 
 in diminutive silver letters, out of that most holy temple of 
 ^Esculapius? And when, O judges, he had privily committed 
 that atrocity, and when in that most nefarious crime and robbery 
 he had employed some of the most worthless men of the city as 
 his guides and assistants, the whole city was greatly excited. 
 For the Agrigentines were regretting at the same time the kind- 
 ness of Africanus, and a national object of their worship, and an 
 ornament of their city, and a record of their victory, and an evi- 
 dence of their alliance with us. And therefore a command is 
 imposed on those men who were the chief men of the city, and 
 a charge is given to the quaestors and aediles to keep watch by 
 night over the sacred edifices. And, indeed, at Agrigentum (I 
 imagine, on account of the great number and virtue of these 
 men, and because great numbers of Roman citizens, gallant and 
 intrepid and honorable men, live and trade in that town among 
 the Agrigentines in the greatest harmony) he did not dare open- 
 ly to carry off, or even to beg for the things that took his fancy. 
 There is a temple of Hercules at Agrigentum, not far from the 
 forum, considered very holy and greatly reverenced among the 
 citizens. In it there is a brazen image of Hercules himself, than 
 which I cannot easily tell where I have seen anything finer (al- 
 though I am not very much of a judge of those matters, though 
 I have seen plenty of specimens) ; so greatly venerated among 
 them, O judges, that his mouth and his chin are a little worn 
 away, because men in addressing their prayers and congratula- 
 tions to him, are accustomed not only to worship the statue, but 
 even to kiss it. While Verres was at Agrigentum, on a sudden, 
 one stormy night, a great assemblage of armed slaves, and a 
 great attack on this temple by them, takes place, under the lead- 
 ing Timarchides. A cry is raised by the watchmen and guardi- 
 ans of the temple. And, at first, when they attempted to resist 
 them and to defend the temple, they are driven back much in- 
 jured with sticks and bludgeons. Afterward, when the bolts 
 were forced open, and the doors dashed in, they endeavor to pull 
 down the statue and to overthrow it with levers; meantime, 
 from the outcries of the keepers, a report got abroad over the 
 whole city, that the national gods were being stormed, not by the
 
 468 CICERO 
 
 unexpected invasion of enemies, or by the sudden irruption of 
 pirates, but that a well-armed and fully-equipped band of fugitive 
 slaves from the house and retinue of the praetor had attacked 
 them. No one in Agrigentum was either so advanced in age, or 
 so infirm in strength, as not to rise up on that night, awakened 
 by that news, and to seize whatever weapon chance put into his 
 hands. So in a very short time men are assembled at the temple 
 from every part of the city. Already, for more than an hour, 
 numbers of men had been laboring at pulling down that statue; 
 and all that time it gave no sign of being shaken in any part; 
 while some, putting levers under it, were endeavoring to throw 
 it down, and others, having bound cords to all its limbs, were 
 trying to pull it toward them. On a sudden all the Agrigentines 
 collect together at the place ; stones are thrown in numbers ; the 
 nocturnal soldiers of that illustrious commander run away but 
 they take with them two very small statues, in order not to re- 
 turn to that robber of all holy things entirely empty-handed. 
 The Sicilians are never in such distress as not to be able to say 
 something facetious and neat; as they did on this occasion. 
 And so they said that this enormous boar had a right to be ac- 
 counted one of the labors of Hercules, no less than the other 
 boar of Erymanthus. 
 
 The people of Assorum, gallant and loyal men, afterward imi- 
 tated this brave conduct of the Agrigentines, though they did not 
 come of so powerful or so distinguished a city. There is a river 
 called Chrysas, which flows through the territories of Assorum. 
 Chrysas, among that people, is considered a god, and is wor- 
 shipped with the greatest reverence. His temple is in the fields, 
 near the road which goes from Assorum to Enna. In it there is 
 an image of Chrysas, exquisitely made of marble. He did not 
 dare to beg that of the Assorians on account of the extraordinary 
 sanctity of that temple; so he intrusts the business to Tlepole- 
 mus and Hiero. They, having prepared and armed a body of 
 men, come by night; they break in the doors of the temple; the 
 keepers of the temple and the guardians hear them in time. A 
 trumpet, the signal of alarm well known to all the neighborhood, 
 is sounded; men come in from the country. Tlepolemus is 
 turned out and put to flight; nor was anything missed out of the 
 temple of Chrysas except one very diminutive image of brass. 
 There is a temple of the mighty mother Cybele at Enguinum, for
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 469 
 
 I must now not only mention each instance with the greatest 
 brevity, but I must even pass over a great many, in order to 
 come to the greater and more remarkable thefts and atrocities 
 of this sort which this man has committed. In this temple that 
 same Publius Scipio, a man excelling in every possible good 
 quality, had placed breast-plates and helmets of brass of Corin- 
 thian workmanship, and some huge ewers of a similar descrip- 
 tion, and wrought with the same exquisite skill, and had in- 
 scribed his own name upon them. Why should I make any 
 more statements or utter any farther complaints about that man's 
 conduct? He took away, O judges, every one of those things. 
 He left nothing in that most holy temple except the traces of the 
 religion he had trampled on, and the name of Publius Scipio. 
 The spoils won from the enemy, the memorials of our command- 
 ers, the ornaments and decorations of our temples, will hereafter, 
 when these illustrious names are lost, be reckoned in the furni- 
 ture and appointments of Caius Verres. Are you, forsooth, the 
 only man who delights in Corinthian vases? Are you the best 
 judge in the world of the mixture of that celebrated bronze, and 
 of the delicate tracery of that work? Did not the great Scipio, 
 that most learned and accomplished man, understand it too? 
 But do you, a man without one single virtue, without education, 
 without natural ability, and without any information, understand 
 them and value them? Beware lest he be seen to have sur- 
 passed you and those other men who wished to be thought so 
 elegant, not only in temperance, but in judgment and taste; for 
 it was because he thoroughly understood how beautiful they 
 were, that he thought that they were made not for the luxury of 
 men, but for the ornamenting of temples and cities, in order that 
 they might appear to our posterity to be holy and sacred monu- 
 ments. 
 
 Listen, also, O judges, to the man's singular covetousness, 
 audacity and madness, especially in polluting those sacred 
 things, which not only may not be touched with the hands, but 
 which may not be violated even in thought. There is a shrine 
 of Ceres among the Catenans of the same holy nature as the one 
 at Rome, and worshipped as the goddess is worshipped among 
 foreign nations, and in almost every country in the world. In 
 the inmost part of that shrine there was an extremely ancient 
 statue of Ceres, as to which men were not only ignorant of what
 
 470 CICERO 
 
 sort it was, but even of its existence. For the entrance into that 
 shrine does not belong to men, the sacred ceremonies are accus- 
 tomed to be performed by women and virgins. Verres's slaves 
 stole this statue by night out of that most holy and most ancient 
 temple. The next day the priestesses of Ceres, and the female 
 attendants of that temple, women of great age, noble, and of 
 proved virtue, report the affair to their magistrates. It appeared 
 to all a most bitter, and scandalous, and miserable business. 
 Then that man, influenced by tj^e atrocity of the action, in order 
 that all suspicion of that crime might be removed from himself, 
 employs someone connected with him by ties of hospitality to 
 find a man that he might accuse of having done it, and bids him 
 take care that he be convicted of the accusation, so that he him- 
 self might not be subject to the charge. The matter is not de- 
 layed. For when he had departed from Catana, an information 
 is laid against a certain slave. He is accused; false witnesses are 
 suborned against him; the whole Senate sits in judgment on the 
 affair, according to the laws of the Catanans. The priestesses 
 are summoned ; they are examined secretly in the senate-house, 
 and asked what had been done, and how they thought that the 
 statue had been carried off. They answered that the servants of 
 the praetor had been seen in the temple. The matter, which pre- 
 viously had not been very obscure, began to be clear enough by 
 the evidence of the priestesses. The judges deliberate; the in- 
 nocent slave is acquitted by every vote, in order that you may 
 the more easily be able to condemn this man by all your votes. 
 For what is it that you ask, O Verres? What do you hope for? 
 What do you expect? What god or man do you think will 
 come to your assistance? Did you send slaves to that place to 
 plunder a temple, where it was not lawful for free citizens to go, 
 not even for the purpose of praying? Did you not hesitate to 
 lay violent hands on those things from which the laws of religion 
 enjoined you to keep even your eyes? Although it was not even 
 because you were charmed by the eye that you were led into this 
 wicked and nefarious conduct; for you coveted what you had 
 never seen. You took a violent fancy, I say, to that which you 
 had not previously beheld. From your ears did you conceive 
 this covetousness, so violent that no fear, no religious scruple, no 
 power of the gods, no regard for the opinion of men could re- 
 strain it. Oh! but you had heard of it, I suppose, from some
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 471 
 
 good man, from some good authority. How could you have 
 done that, when you could never have heard of it from any man 
 at all? You heard of it, therefore, from a woman; since men 
 could not have seen it, nor known of it. What sort of woman 
 do you think that she must have been, O judges? What a mod- 
 est woman must she have been to converse with Verres ! What 
 a pious woman, to show him a plan for robbing a temple! But 
 it is no great wonder if those sacred ceremonies which are per- 
 formed by the most extreme chastity of virgins and matrons 
 were violated by his adultery and profligacy. 
 
 What, then, are we to think? Is this the only thing that he 
 began to desire from mere hearing, when he had never seen it 
 himself? No, there were many other things besides; of which 
 I will select the plundering of that most noble and ancient tem- 
 ple, concerning which you heard witnesses give their evidence 
 at the former pleading. Now, I beseech you, listen to the same 
 story once more, and attend carefully as you hitherto have done. 
 There is an island called Melita, O judges, separated from Sicily 
 by a sufficiently wide and perilous navigation, in which there is a 
 town of the same name, to which Verres never went, though it 
 was for three years a manufactory to him for weaving women's 
 garments. Not far from that town, on a promontory, is an an- 
 cient temple of Juno, which was always considered so holy, that 
 it was not only always kept inviolate and sacred in those Punic 
 Wars, which in those regions were carried on almost wholly by 
 the naval forces, but even by the bands of pirates which ravage 
 those seas. Moreover, it has been handed down to us by tra- 
 dition, that once, when the fleet of King Masinissa was forced to 
 put into these ports, the king's lieutenant took away some ivory 
 teeth of an incredible size out of the temple, and carried them 
 into Africa, and gave them to Masinissa; that at first the king 
 was delighted with the present, but afterward, when he heard 
 where they had come from, he immediately sent trustworthy 
 men in a quinquereme to take those teeth back ; and that there 
 was engraved on them in Punic characters, " that Masinissa the 
 king had accepted them ignorantly ; but that, when he knew the 
 truth, he had taken care that they should be replaced and re- 
 stored." There was besides an immense quantity of ivory, and 
 many ornaments, among which were some ivory Victories of 
 ancient workmanship, and wrought with exquisite skill. Not
 
 472 CICERO 
 
 to dwell too long on this, he took care to have all these things 
 taken down and carried off at one swoop by means of the slaves 
 of the Venus whom he had sent thither for that purpose. 
 
 ye immortal gods ! what sort of man is it that I am accus- 
 ing? Whom is it that I am prosecuting according to our laws, 
 and by this regular process? Concerning whom is it that you 
 are going to give your judicial decision? The deputies from 
 Melita sent by the public authority of their state, say that the 
 shrine of Juno was plundered; that that man left nothing in that 
 most holy temple; that that place, to which the fleets of enemies 
 often came, where pirates are accustomed to winter almost every 
 year, and which no pirate ever violated, no enemy ever attacked 
 before, was so plundered by that single man, that nothing what- 
 ever was left in it. What, then, now are we to say of him as a 
 defendant, of me as an accuser, of this tribunal? Is he proved 
 guilty of grave crimes, or is he brought into this court on mere 
 suspicion? Gods are proved to have been carried off, temples 
 to have been plundered, cities to have been stripped of every- 
 thing. And of those actions he has left himself no power of de- 
 nying one, no plea for defending one. In every particular he is 
 convicted by me; he is detected by the witnesses; he is over- 
 whelmed by his own admissions; he is caught in the evident 
 commission of guilt; and even now he remains here, and in 
 silence recognizes his own crimes as I enumerate them. 
 
 1 seem to myself to have been too long occupied with one class 
 of crime. I am aware, O judges, that I have to encounter the 
 weariness of your ears and eyes at such a repetition of similar 
 cases; I will, therefore, pass over many instances. But I en- 
 treat you, O judges, in the name of the immortal gods, in the 
 name of these very gods of whose honor and worship we have 
 been so long speaking, refresh your minds so as to attend to 
 what I am about to mention, while I bring forward and detail to 
 you that crime of his by which the whole province was roused, 
 and in speaking of which you will pardon me if I appear to go 
 back rather far, and trace the earliest recollections of the re- 
 ligious observances in question. The importance of the affair 
 will not allow me to pass over the atrocity of his guilt with 
 brevity. 
 
 It is an old opinion, O judges, which can be proved from the 
 most ancient records and monuments of the Greeks, that the
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 
 
 473 
 
 whole island of Sicily was consecrated to Ceres and Libera. 
 Not only did all other nations think so, but the Sicilians them- 
 selves were so convinced of it, that it appeared a deeply-rooted 
 and innate belief in their minds. For they believe that these 
 goddesses were born in these districts, and that corn was first 
 discovered in this land, and that Libera was carried off, the same 
 goddess whom they call Proserpine, from a grove in the terri- 
 tory of Enna, a place which, because it is situated in the centre 
 of the island, is called the navel of Sicily. And when Ceres 
 wished to seek her and trace her out, she is said to have lit her 
 torches at those flames which burst out at the summit of JEtna, 
 and carrying these torches before her, to have wandered over the 
 whole earth. Eijit Enna, where those things which I am speak- 
 ing of are said to have been done, is in a high and lofty situation, 
 on the top of which is a large level plain, and springs of water 
 which are never dry. And the whole of the plain is cut off and 
 separated, so as to be difficult of approach. Around it are many 
 lakes and groves, and beautiful flowers at every season of the 
 year ; so that the place itself appears to testify to that abduction 
 of the virgin which we have heard of from our boyhood. 5 Near 
 it is a cave turned toward the north, of unfathomable depth, 
 where they say that Father Pluto suddenly rose out of the earth 
 in his chariot, and carried the virgin off from that spot, and that 
 on a sudden, at no great distance from Syracuse, he went down 
 beneath the earth, and that immediately a lake sprang up in that 
 place; and there to this day the Syracusans celebrate anni- 
 versary festivals with a most numerous assemblage of both sexes. 
 On account of the antiquity of this belief, because in those 
 places the traces and almost the cradles of those gods are found, 
 the worship of Ceres of Enna prevails to a wonderful extent, 
 both in private and in public over all Sicily. In truth, many 
 prodigies often attest her influence and divine powers. Her 
 present help is often brought to many in critical circumstances, 
 so that this island appears not only to be loved, but also to be 
 watched over and protected by her. Nor is it the Sicilians only, 
 but even all other tribes and nations greatly worship Ceres of 
 Enna. In truth, if initiation into those sacred mysteries of the 
 Athenians is sought for with the greatest avidity, to which peo- 
 
 B We have the same advantage as, or story from our boyhood told far more 
 rather greater advantages than Cicero beautifully than any Sicilian ever imag- 
 in this respect; for we have heard the ined it. See Ovid. Fasti, iv. 419.
 
 474 CICERO 
 
 pie Ceres is said to have come in that long wandering of hers, 
 and then she brought them corn, how much greater reverence 
 ought to be paid to her by those people among whom it is certain 
 that she was born, and first discovered corn. And, therefore, in 
 the time of our fathers, at a most disastrous and critical time to 
 the republic, when, after the death of Tiberius Gracchus, there 
 was a fear that great dangers were portended to the state by 
 various prodigies, in the consulship of Publius Mucius and 
 Lucius Calpurnius, recourse was had to the Sibylline books, in 
 which it was found set down, " that the most ancient Ceres ought 
 to be appeased." Then, priests of the Roman people, selected 
 from the most honorable college of decemvirs, although there 
 was in our own city a most beautiful and magnificent temple of 
 Ceres, nevertheless went as far as Enna. For such was the 
 authority and antiquity of the reputation for holiness of that 
 place, that when they went thither, they seemed to be going not 
 to a temple of Ceres, but to Ceres herself. I will not din this 
 into your ears any longer. I have been some time afraid that 
 my speech may appear unlike the usual fashion of speeches at 
 trials, unlike the daily method of speaking. This I say, that 
 this very Ceres, the most ancient, the most holy, the very chief 
 of all sacred things which are honored by every people, and in 
 every nation, was carried off by Caius Verres from her temple 
 and her home. Ye who have been to Enna, have seen a statue 
 of Ceres made of marble, and in the other temple a statue of 
 Libera. They are very colossal and very beautiful, but not ex- 
 ceedingly ancient. There was one of brass, of moderate size, 
 but extraordinary workmanship, with the torches in its hands, 
 very ancient, by far the most ancient of all those statues which 
 are in that temple; that he carried off, and yet he was not con- 
 tent with that. Before the temple of Ceres, in an open and an 
 uncovered place, there are two statues, one of Ceres, the other of 
 Triptolemus, very beautiful, and of colossal size. Their beauty 
 was their danger, but their size their safety; because the taking 
 of them down and carrying them off appeared very difficult. 
 But in the right hand of Ceres there stood a beautifully-wrought 
 image of Victory; and this he had wrenched out of the hand 
 of Ceres and carried off. 
 
 What now must be his feelings at the recollection of his 
 crimes, when I, at the mere enumeration of them, am not only
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 475 
 
 roused to indignation in my mind, but even shudder over my 
 whole body? For thoughts of that temple, of that place, of that 
 holy religion come into my mind. Everything seems present 
 before my eyes the day on which, when I had arrived at Enna, 
 the priests of Ceres came to meet me with garlands of vervain, 
 and with fillets; the concourse of citizens, among whom, while 
 I was addressing them, there was such weeping and groaning 
 that the most bitter grief seemed to have taken possession of the 
 whole. They did not complain of the absolute way in which the 
 tenths were levied, nor of the plunder of property, nor of the 
 iniquity of tribunals, nor of that man's unhallowed lusts, nor of 
 his violence, nor of the insults by which they had been oppressed 
 and overwhelmed. It was the divinity of Ceres, the antiquity of 
 their sacred observances, the holy veneration due to their tem- 
 ple, which they wished should have atonement made to them by 
 the punishment of that most atrocious and audacious man. 
 They said that they could endure everything else; that to every- 
 thing else they were indifferent. This indignation of theirs was 
 so great, that you might suppose that Verres, like another king 
 of hell, had come to Enna and had carried off, not Proserpine, 
 but Ceres herself. And, in truth, that city does not appear to be 
 a city, but a shrine of Ceres. The people of Enna think that 
 Ceres dwells among them; so that they appear to me not to be 
 citizens of that city, but to be all priests, to be all ministers and 
 officers of Ceres. Did you dare to take away out of Enna the 
 statue of Ceres? Did you attempt at Enna to wrench Victory 
 out of the hand of Ceres? to tear one goddess from the other? 
 nothing of which those men dared to violate, or even to touch, 
 whose qualities were all more akin to wickedness than to religion. 
 For while Publius Popillius and Publius Rupilius were consuls, 
 slaves, runaway slaves, and barbarians, and enemies, were in 
 possession of that place; but yet the slaves were not so much 
 slaves to their own masters, as you are to your passions; nor 
 did the runaways flee from their masters as far as you flee from 
 all laws and from all right ; nor were the barbarians as barbarous 
 in language and in race as you are in your nature and your 
 habits; nor were the enemies as much enemies to men as you are 
 to the immortal gods. How, then, can a man beg for any mercy 
 who has surpassed slaves in baseness, runaway slaves in rash- 
 ness, barbarians in wickedness, and enemies in inhumanity?
 
 476 CICERO 
 
 You heard Theodorus and Numinius and Nicasio, deputies 
 from Enna, say, in the name of their state, that they had this 
 commission from their fellow-citizens, to go to Verres, and to de- 
 mand from him the restoration of the statues of Ceres and of 
 Victory. And if they obtained it, then they were to adhere to 
 the ancient customs of the state of Enna, not to give any public 
 testimony against him, although he had oppressed Sicily, since 
 these were the principles which they had received from their an- 
 cestors. But if he did not restore them, then they were to go 
 before the tribunal, to inform the judges of the injuries they had 
 received, but, far above all things, to complain of the insults to 
 their religion. And, in the name of the immortal gods, I entreat 
 you, O judges, do not you despise, do not you scorn or think 
 lightly of their complaints. The injuries done to our allies are 
 the present question; the authority of the laws is at stake; the 
 reputation and the honesty of our courts of justice is at stake. 
 And though all these are great considerations, yet this is the 
 greatest of all the whole province is so imbued with religious 
 feeling, such a superstitious dread arising out of that man's con- 
 duct has seized upon the minds of all the Sicilians, that whatever 
 public or private misfortunes happen, appear to befall them be- 
 cause of that man's wickedness. You have heard the Centuri- 
 pans, the Agyrians, the Catenans, the Herbitans, the Ennans, 
 and many other deputies say, in the name of their states, how 
 great was the solitude in their districts, how great the devasta- 
 tion, how universal the flight of the cultivators of the soil; how 
 deserted, how uncultivated, how desolate every place was. And 
 although there are many and various injuries done by that man 
 to which these things are owing, still this one cause, in the opin- 
 ion of the Sicilians, is the most weighty of all ; for, because of 
 the insults offered to Ceres, they believe that all the crops and 
 gifts of Ceres have perished in these districts. Bring remedies, 
 O judges, to the insulted religion of the allies; preserve your 
 own, for this is not a foreign religion, nor one with which you 
 have no concern. But even if it were, if you were unwilling to 
 adopt it yourselves, still you ought to be willing to inflict heavy 
 punishment on the man who violated it. But now that the com- 
 mon religion of all nations is attacked in this way, now that these 
 sacred observances are violated which our ancestors adopted and 
 imported from foreign countries, and have honored ever since
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 477 
 
 sacred observances, which they called Greek observances, as in 
 truth they were even if we were to wish to be indifferent and 
 cold about these matters, how could we be so? 
 
 I will mention the sacking of one city, also, and that the most 
 beautiful and highly decorated of all, the city of Syracuse. And 
 I will produce my proofs of that, O judges, in order at length to 
 conclude and bring to an end the whole history of offences of 
 this sort. There is scarcely any one of you who has not often 
 heard how Syracuse was taken by Marcus Marcellus, and who 
 has not sometimes also read the account in our annals. Com- 
 pare this peace with that war; the visit of this praetor with the 
 victory of that general ; the debauched retinue of the one with 
 the invincible army of the other; the lust of Verres with the 
 continence of Marcellus; and you will say that Syracuse was 
 built by the man who took it; was taken by the man who re- 
 ceived it well established and flourishing. And for the present 
 I omit those things which will be mentioned, and have been 
 already mentioned by me in an irregular manner in different 
 parts of my speech that the market-place of the Syracusans, 
 which at the entrance of Marcellus was preserved unpolluted by 
 slaughter, on the arrival of Verres overflowed with the blood of 
 innocent Sicilians; that the harbor of the Syracusans, which at 
 that time was shut against both our fleets and those of the Car- 
 thaginians, was, while Verres was praetor, open to Cilician pi- 
 rates, or even to a single piratical galley. I say nothing of the 
 violence offered to people of noble birth, of the ravishment of 
 matrons, atrocities which then, when the city was taken, were not 
 committed, neither through the hatred of enemies, nor through 
 military license, nor through the customs of war or the rights of 
 victory. I pass over, I say, all these things which were done by 
 that man for three whole years. Listen rather to acts which are 
 connected with those matters of which I have hitherto been 
 speaking. You have often heard that the city of Syracuse is the 
 greatest of the Greek cities, and the most beautiful of all. It is 
 so, O judges, as it is said to be; for it is so by its situation, which 
 is strongly fortified, and which is on every side by which. you 
 can approach it, whether by sea or land, very beautiful to behold. 
 And it has harbors almost enclosed within the walls, and in the 
 sight of the whole city; harbors which have different entrances, 
 but which meet together, and are connected at the other end.
 
 478 CICERO 
 
 By their union a part of the town, which is called the island, be- 
 ing separated from the rest by a narrow arm of the sea, is again 
 joined to and connected with the other by a bridge. 
 
 That city is so great that it may be said to consist of four cities 
 of the largest size; one of which, as I have said, is that "Island," 
 which, surrounded by two harbors, projects out toward the 
 mouth and entrance of each. In it there is a palace which did 
 belong to king Hiero, which our praetors are in the habit of 
 using; in it are many sacred buildings, but two, which have a 
 great pre-eminence over all the others, one a temple of Diana, 
 and the other one, which before the arrival of that man was the 
 most ornamented of all, sacred to Minerva. At the end of this 
 island is a fountain of sweet water, the name of which is Are- 
 thusa, of incredible size, very full of fish, which would be entirely 
 overwhelmed by the waves of the sea, if it were not protected 
 from the sea by a rampart and dam of stone. There is also an- 
 other city at Syracuse, the name of which is Achradina, in which 
 there is a very large forum, most beautiful porticoes, a highly 
 decorated town-hall, a most spacious senate-house, and a superb 
 temple of Jupiter Olympius; and the other districts of the city 
 are joined together by one broad unbroken street, and divided 
 by many cross-streets, and by private houses. There is a third 
 city, which, because in that district there is an ancient temple of 
 Fortune, is called Tyche, in which there is a spacious gymna- 
 sium, and many sacred buildings, and that district is the most 
 frequented and the most populous. There is also a fourth city, 
 which, because it is the last built, is called Neapolis, 6 in the 
 highest part of which there is a very large theatre, and, besides 
 that, there are two temples of great beauty, one of Ceres, the 
 other of Libera, and a statue of Apollo, which is called Temeni- 
 tes, very beautiful and of colossal size; which, if he could have 
 moved them, he would not have hesitated to carry off. 
 
 Now I will return to Marcellus, that I may not appear to have 
 entered into this statement without any reason. He, when with 
 his powerful army he had taken this splendid city, did not think 
 it for the credit of the Roman people to destroy and extinguish 
 this splendor, especially as no danger could possibly arise from 
 
 Neapolis meaning " new city," or as this passage the description of Syracuse 
 
 we might say, Newtown, from the Greek given by Thucydides in his sixth and 
 
 words Ne'a iroAi?, as Tyche is the Greek seventh books, 
 name of Fortune -fvxv Compare with
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 4?9 
 
 it, and therefore he spared all the buildings, public as well as 
 private, sacred as well as ordinary, as if he had come with his 
 army for the purpose of defending them, not of taking them by 
 storm. With respect to the decorations of the city, he had a 
 regard to his own victory, and a regard to humanity ; he thought 
 it was due to his victory to transport many things to Rome 
 which might be an ornament to this city, and due to humanity 
 not utterly to strip the city, especially as it was one which he was 
 anxious to preserve. In this division of the ornaments, the 
 victory of Marcellus did not covet more for the Roman people 
 than his humanity reserved to the Syracusans. The things 
 which were transported to Rome we see before the temples of 
 Honor and of Virtue, and also in other places. He put nothing 
 in his own house, nothing in his gardens, nothing in his suburban 
 villa; he thought that his house could only be an ornament to 
 the city if he abstained from carrying the ornaments which be- 
 longed to the city to his own house. But he left many things of 
 extraordinary beauty at Syracuse; he violated not the respect 
 due to any god; he laid hands on none. Compare Verres with 
 him; not to compare the man with the man no such injury 
 must be done to such a man as that, dead though he be; but to 
 compare a state of peace with one of war, a state of law and 
 order, and regular jurisdiction, with one of violence and martial 
 law, and the supremacy of arms; to compare the arrival and 
 retinue of the one with the victory and army of the other. 
 
 There is a temple of Minerva in the island, of which I have 
 already spoken, which Marcellus did not touch, which he left 
 full of its treasures and ornaments, but which was so stripped 
 and plundered by Verres, that it seems to have been in the hands, 
 not of an enemy for enemies, even in war, respect the rights of 
 religion, and the customs of the country but of some barbarian 
 pirates. There was a cavalry battle of their king Agathocles, 
 exquisitely painted in a series of pictures, and with these pictures 
 the inside walls of the temple were covered. Nothing could be 
 more noble than those paintings; there was nothing at Syracuse 
 that was thought more worthy going to see. These pictures, 
 Marcus Marcellus, though by that victory of his he had divested 
 everything of its sacred inviolability of character, still, out of re- 
 spect for religion, never touched; Verres, though, in conse- 
 quence of the long peace, and the loyalty of the Syracusan peo-
 
 480 CICERO 
 
 pie, he had received them as sacred and under the protection of 
 religion, took away all those pictures, and left naked and un- 
 sightly those walls whose decorations had remained inviolate 
 for so many ages, and had escaped so many wars: Marcellus, 
 who had vowed that if he took Syracuse he would erect two tem- 
 ples at Rome, was unwilling to adorn the temple which he was 
 going to build with these treasures which were his by right of 
 capture; Verres, who was bound by no vows to Honor or 
 Virtue, as Marcellus was, but only to Venus and to Cupid, at- 
 tempted to plunder the temple of Minerva. The one was un- 
 willing to adorn gods in the spoil taken from gods, the other 
 transferred the decorations of the virgin Minerva to the house of 
 a prostitute. Besides this, he took away out of the same temple 
 twenty-seven more pictures beautifully painted; among which 
 were likenesses of the kings and tyrants of Sicily, which de- 
 lighted one, not only by the skill of the painter, but also by re- 
 minding us of the men, and by enabling us to recognize their 
 persons. And see now, how much worse a tyrant this man 
 proved to the Syracusans than any of the old ones, as they, cruel 
 as they were, still adorned the temples of the immortal gods, 
 while this man took away the monuments and ornaments from 
 the gods. 
 
 But now what shall I say of the folding-doors of that temple? 
 I am afraid that those who have not seen these things may think 
 that I am speaking too highly of, and exaggerating everything, 
 though no one ought to suspect that I should be so inconsiderate 
 as to be willing that so many men of the highest reputation, espe- 
 cially when they are judges in this cause, who have been at Syra- 
 cuse, and who have seen all these things themselves, should be 
 witnesses to my rashness and falsehood. I am able to prove this 
 distinctly, O judges, that no more magnificent doors, none more 
 beautifully wrought of gold and ivory, ever existed in any tem- 
 ple. It is incredible how many Greeks have left written ac- 
 counts of the beauty of these doors : they, perhaps, may admire 
 and extol them too much ; be it so, still it is more honorable for 
 our republic, O judges, that our general, in a time of war, should 
 have left those things which appeared to them so beautiful, than 
 that our praetor should have carried them off in a time of peace. 
 On the folding-doors were some subjects most minutely ex- 
 ecuted in ivory; all these he caused to be taken out; he tore off
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 4 gi 
 
 and took away a very fine head of the Gorgon with snakes for 
 hair; and he showed, too, that he was influenced not only by 
 admiration for the workmanship, but by a desire of money and 
 gain; for he did not hesitate to take away also all the golden 
 knobs from these folding-doors, which were numerous and 
 heavy; and it was not the workmanship of these, but the weight 
 which pleased him. And so he left the folding-doors in such, 
 state, that, though they had formerly contributed greatly to the 
 ornament of the temple, they now seemed to have been made 
 only for the purpose of shutting it up. Am I to speak also of the 
 spears made of grass? for I saw that you were excited at the 
 name of them when the witnesses mentioned them. They were 
 such that it was sufficient to have seen them once, as there was 
 neither any manual labor in them, nor any beauty, but simply an 
 incredible size, which it would be quite sufficient even to hear of, 
 and too much to see them more than once. Did you covet even 
 those? 
 
 For the Sappho which was taken away out of the town-hall 
 affords you so reasonable an excuse, that it may seem almost 
 allowable and pardonable. That work of Silanion, so perfect, 
 so elegant, so elaborate (I will not say what private man, but), 
 what nation could be so worthy to possess, as the most elegant 
 and learned Verres? Certainly, nothing can be said against it. 
 If any one of us, who are not as happy, who cannot be as refined 
 as that man, should wish to behold anything of the sort, let him 
 go to the temple of Good Fortune, to the monument of Catulus, 
 to the portico of Metellus; let him take pains to get admittance 
 into the Tusculan villa of any one of those men; let him see the 
 forum when decorated, if Verres is ever so kind as to lend any of 
 his treasures to the aediles. Shall Verres have all these things at 
 home? shall Verres have his house full of, his villas crammed 
 with, the ornaments of temples and cities? Will you still, O 
 judges, bear with the hobby, as he calls it, and pleasures of this 
 vile artisan? a man who was born in such a rank, educated in 
 such a way, and who is so formed, both in mind and body, that 
 he appears a much fitter person to take down statues than to 
 appropriate them. And how great a regret this Sappho which 
 he carried off left behind her, can scarcely be told; for in the first 
 place it was admirably made, and, besides, it had a very noble 
 Greek epigram engraved upon the pedestal ; and would not that 
 31
 
 482 CICERO 
 
 learned man, that Grecian, who is such an acute judge of these 
 matters, who is the only man who understands them, if he had 
 understood one letter of Greek, have taken that away too? for 
 now, because it is engraved on an empty pedestal, it both de- 
 clares what was once on the pedestal, and proves that it has been 
 taken away. What shall I say more? Did you not take away 
 the statue of Paean from out of the temple of yEsculapius, beauti- 
 fully made, sacred, and holy as it was? a statue which all men 
 went to see for its beauty, and worshipped for its sacred char- 
 acter. What more? was not the statue of Aristaeus openly taken 
 away by your command out of the temple of Bacchus? What 
 more? did you not take away out of the temple of Jupiter that 
 most holy statue of Jupiter Imperator, which the Greeks call 
 Ovpios, most beautifully made? What next? did you hesitate 
 to take away out of the temple of Libera, that most exquisite bust 
 of Parian marble, which we used to go to see? And that Paean 
 used to be worshipped among that people together with ^scu- 
 lapius, with anniversary sacrifices. Aristaeus, who being, as the 
 Greeks report, the son of Bacchus, is said to have been the in- 
 ventor of oil, was consecrated among them together with his 
 father Bacchus, in the same temple. 
 
 But how great do you suppose was the honor paid to Jupiter 
 Imperator in his own temple? You may collect it from this 
 consideration, if you recollect how great was the religious rever- 
 ence attached to that statue of the same appearance and form 
 which Flaminius brought out of Macedonia, and placed in the 
 Capitol. In truth, there were said to be in the whole world 
 three statues of Jupiter Imperator, of the same class, all beauti- 
 fully made: one was that one from Macedonia, which we have 
 seen in the Capitol; a second was the one at the narrow straits, 
 which are the mouth of the Euxine Sea; the third was that 
 which was at Syracuse, till Verres came as praetor. Flaminius 
 removed the first from its habitation, but only to place it in the 
 Capitol, that is to say, in the house of Jupiter upon earth ; but as 
 to the one that is at the entrance of the Euxine, that, though so 
 many wars have proceeded from he shores of that sea, and 
 though so many have been poured into Pontus, has still re- 
 mained inviolate and untouched to this day. This third one, 
 which was at Syracuse, which Marcus Marcellus, when in arms 
 and victorious, had seen, which he had spared to the religion of
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 483 
 
 the place, which both the citzens of, and settlers in Syracuse were 
 used to worship, and strangers not only visited, but often vene- 
 rated, Caius Verres took away from the temple of Jupiter. To 
 return again to Marcellus. Judge of the case, O judges, in this 
 way; think that more gods were lost to the Syracusans owing 
 to the arrival of Verres, than even were owing to the victory of 
 Marcellus. In truth, he is said to have sought diligently for the 
 great Archimedes, a man of the highest genius and skill, and to 
 have been greatly concerned when he heard that he had been 
 killed; but that other man sought for everything which he did 
 seek for, not for the purpose of preserving it, but of carrying it 
 away. 
 
 At present, then, all those things which might appear more 
 insignificant, I will on that account pass over how he took 
 away Delphic tables made of marble, beautiful goblets of 
 brass, an immense number of Corinthian vases, out of every 
 sacred temple at Syracuse ; and therefore, O judges, those 
 men who are accustomed to take strangers about to all those 
 things which are worth going to see, and to show them every 
 separate thing, whom they call mystagogi (or cicerones), now 
 have their description of things reversed ; for as they formerly 
 used to show what there was in every place, so now they show 
 what has been taken from every place. 
 
 What do you think, then? Do you think that those men 
 are affected \vith but a moderate indignation? Not so, O 
 judges: in the first place, because all men are influenced by 
 religious feeling, and think that their paternal gods, whom 
 they have received from their ancestors, are to be carefully 
 worshipped and retained by themselves ; and secondly, because 
 this sort of ornament, these works and specimens of art, these 
 statues and paintings, delight men of Greek extraction to an 
 excessive degree ; therefore by their complaints we can under- 
 stand that these things appear most bitter to those men, which 
 perhaps may seem trifling and contemptible to us. Believe 
 me, O judges, although I am aware to a certainty that you 
 yourselves hear the same things ; that though both our allies 
 and foreign nations have during these past years sustained 
 many calamities and injuries, yet men of Greek extraction 
 have not been, and are' not, more indignant at any than at 
 this ruthless plundering of their temples and altars. Although
 
 484 CICERO 
 
 that man may say that he bought these things, as he is accus- 
 tomed to say, yet, believe me in this, O judges, no city in all 
 Asia or in all Greece has ever sold one statue, one picture, or 
 one decoration of the city, of its own free will to anybody. 
 Unless, perchance, you suppose that, after strict judicial de- 
 cisions had ceased to take place at Rome, the Greeks then be- 
 gan to sell these things, which they not only did not sell when 
 there were courts of justice open, but which they even used to 
 buy up; or unless you think that Lucius Crassus, Quintus 
 Scsevola, Caius Claudius, most powerful men, whose most 
 splendid aedileships we have seen, had no dealings in those 
 sort of matters with the Greeks, but that those men had such 
 dealings who became aediles after the destruction of the courts 
 of justice. 
 
 Know also that that false pretence of purchase was more 
 bitter to the cities than if anyone were privily to filch things, 
 or boldly to steal them and carry them off. For they think 
 it the most excessive baseness, that it should be entered on 
 the public records that the city was induced by a price, and by 
 a small price too, to sell and alienate those things which it 
 had received from men of old. In truth, the Greeks delight 
 to a marvellous degree in those things, which we despise. 
 And therefore our ancestors willingly allowed those things to 
 remain in numbers among the allies, in order that they might 
 be as splendid and as flourishing as possible under our domin- 
 ion; and among those nations whom they rendered taxable 
 or tributary, 7 still they left these things, in order that they 
 who take delight in those things which to us seem insignificant, 
 might have them as pleasures and consolations in slavery. 
 What do you think that the Rhegians, who now are Roman 
 citizens, would take to allow that marble Venus to be taken 
 from them? What would the Tarentines take to lose the Eu- 
 ropa sitting on the Bull ? or the Satyr which they have in the 
 temple of Vesta? or their other monuments? What would 
 the Thespians take to lose the statue of Cupid, the only object 
 for which anyone ever goes to see Thespise? What would 
 the men of Cnidos take for their marble Venus ? or the Coans 
 
 7 The Latin is " quos vectigales aut a fixed sum as tribute; vectigales, those 
 
 stipendiarius fuerant." " Stipendiarii who pay in proportion to their property 
 
 and vectigales are thus distinguished: or income. Riddle's Dictionary, v. 
 
 Stipendiarii are those who pay annually Stipendiarius.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 485 
 
 for their picture of her? or the Ephesians for Alexander? 
 the men of Cyzicus for their Ajax or Medea? What would 
 the Rhodians take for lalysus ? the Athenians for their marble 
 Bacchus, or their picture of Paralus, or their brazen Heifer, the 
 work of Myron ? It would be a long business and an unneces- 
 sary one, to mention what is worth going to see among all the 
 different nations in all Asia and Greece ; but that is the reason 
 why I am enumerating these things, because I wish you to 
 consider that an incredible indignation must be the feeling of 
 those men from whose cities these things are carried away. 
 
 And to say nothing of other nations, judge of the Syra- 
 cusans themselves. For when I went to Syracuse, I originally 
 believed what I had heard at Rome from that man's friends, 
 that the city of Syracuse, on account of the inheritance of 
 Heraclius, was no less friendly to him than the city of the 
 Mamertines, because of their participation in all his booty 
 and robberies. And at the same time I was afraid that, owing 
 to the influence of the high-born and beautiful women at whose 
 will he had directed all the measures of his praetorship for three 
 years, and of the men to whom they were married, I should be 
 opposed not only by an excessive lenity, but even by a feeling 
 of liberality toward that man, if I were to seek for any evi- 
 dence out of the public records of the Syracusans. Therefore 
 when at Syracuse I was chiefly with Roman citizens ; I copied 
 out their papers ; I inquired into their injuries. As I was a 
 long time occupied by that business, in order to rest a little 
 and to give my mind a respite from care, I returned to those 
 fine documents of Carpinatius; in which, in company with 
 some of the most honorable knights of the body of Roman 
 settlers, I unravelled the case of those Verrutii, whom I have 
 mentioned before, but I expected no aid at all, either publicly 
 or privately, from the Syracusans, nor had I any idea of ask- 
 ing for any. While I was doing this, on a sudden Heraclius 
 came to me, who was in office at Syracuse, a man of high birth, 
 who had been priest of Jupiter, which is the highest honor 
 among the Syracusans ; he requests of me and of my brother, 
 if we have no objection, to go to their Senate ; that they were 
 at that moment assembled in full numbers in the senate-house, 
 and he said that he made this request to us to attend by com- 
 mand of the Senate. At first we were in doubt what to do;
 
 486 CICERO 
 
 but afterward it soon occurred to us that we ought not to 
 shun that assembly or that place. 
 
 Therefore we came to the senate-house; they all rise at 
 our entry to do us honor. We sat down at the request of the 
 magistrates. Diodorus the son of Timarchides, who was the 
 first man in that body both in influence and in age, and also 
 as it seemed to me in experience and knowledge of business, 
 began to speak; and the first sentence of his speech was to 
 this effect, That the Senate and people of Syracuse were 
 grieved and indignant, that, though in all the other cities of 
 Sicily I had informed the Senate and people of what I pro- 
 posed* for their advantage or for their safety, and though I had 
 received from them all commissions, deputies, letters and evi- 
 dence, yet in that city I had done nothing of that sort. I an- 
 swered that deputies from the Syracusans had not been present 
 at Rome in that assembly of the Sicilians when my assistance 
 was entreated by the common resolution of all the deputations, 
 and when the cause of the whole of Sicily was intrusted to 
 me ; and that I could not ask that any decree should be passed 
 against Caius Verres in that senate-house in which I saw 
 a gilt statue of Caius Verres. And after I said that, such a 
 groaning ensued at the sight and mention of the statue, that 
 it appeared to have been placed in the senate-house as a mon- 
 ument of his wickedness and not of his services. Then every- 
 one for himself, as fast as each could manage to speak, began 
 to give me information of those things which I have just now 
 mentioned; to tell me that the city was plundered the tem- 
 ples stripped of their treasures that of the inheritance of 
 Heraclius, which he had adjudged to the men of the palaestra, 
 he had taken by far the greatest share himself; and indeed, 
 that they could not expect that he should care for the men of 
 the palaestra, when he had taken away even the god who was 
 the inventor of oil ; that that statue had neither been made at 
 the public expense, nor erected by public authority, but that 
 those men who had been the sharers in the plunder of the in- 
 heritance of Heraclius, had had it made and placed where it 
 was ; and that those same men had been the deputies at Rome, 
 who had been his assistants in dishonesty, his partners in his 
 thefts, and the witnesses of his debaucheries; and that there- 
 fore I ought the less to wonder if they were wanting to the 
 unanimity of the deputies and to the safety of Sicily.
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 487 
 
 When I perceived that their indignation at that man's in- 
 juries was not only not less, but almost greater than that of 
 the rest of the Sicilians, then I explained my own intentions 
 to them, and my whole plan and system with reference to the 
 whole of the business which I had undertaken; then I ex- 
 horted them not to be wanting to the common cause and the 
 common safety, and to rescind that panegyric which they had 
 voted a few days before, being compelled, as they said, by 
 violence and fear. Accordingly, O judges, the Syracusans, 
 that man's clients and friends, do this. First of all, they pro- 
 duce to me the public documents which they had carefully 
 stored up in the most sacred part of the treasury ; in which 
 they show me that everything, which I have said had been 
 taken away, was entered, and even more things than I was 
 able to mention. And they were entered in this way. 
 " What had been taken out of the temple of Minerva . . . 
 This, . . . and that." " What was missing out of the tem- 
 ple of Jupiter." " What was missing out of the temple of 
 Bacchus." As each individual had had the charge of protect- 
 ing and preserving those things, so it was entered ; that each, 
 when according to law he gave in his accounts, being bound 
 to give up what he had received, had begged that he might be 
 pardoned for the absence of these things, and that all had ac- 
 cordingly been released from liability on that account, and that 
 it was kept secret; all which documents I took care to have 
 sealed up with the public seal and brought away. But con- 
 cerning the public panegyric on him this explanation was 
 given : that at first, when the letters arrived from Verres about 
 the panegyric, a little while before my arrival, nothing had 
 been decreed ; and after that, when some of his friends urged 
 them that it ought to be decreed, thef were rejected with the 
 greatest outcry and the bitterest reproaches ; but when I was 
 on the point of arriving, then he who at that time was the 
 chief governor had commanded them to decree it, and that it 
 had been decreed in such a manner that the panegyric did 
 him more damage than it could have done him good. So now, 
 judges, do you receive the truth of that matter from me just 
 as it was shown to me by them. 
 
 It is a custom at Syracuse, that, if a motion on any sub- 
 ject is brought before the Senate, whoever wishes, gives his
 
 488 CICERO 
 
 opinion on it. No one is asked by name for his sentiments ; 
 nevertheless, those are accustomed to speak first of their own 
 accord, and naturally, according as they are superior in honor 
 or in age ; and that precedence is yielded to them by the rest ; 
 but, if at any time all are silent, then they are compelled to 
 speak by lot. This was the custom when the motion was 
 made respecting the panegyric of Verres. On which subject 
 at first great numbers speak, in order to delay coming to any 
 vote, and interpose this objection, that formerly, when they 
 had heard that there was a prosecution instituted against Sex- 
 tus Peducaeus, who had deserved admirably well of that city 
 and of the whole province, and when, in return for his numer- 
 ous and important services, they wished to vote a panegyric 
 on him, they had been prohibited from doing so by Caius Ver- 
 res ; and that it would be an unjust thing, although Peducaeus 
 had now no need of their praise, still not to vote that which 
 at one time they had been eager to vote, before decreeing what 
 they would only decree from compulsion. All shout in assent, 
 and say approvingly that that is what ought to be done. So 
 the question about Peducseus is put to the Senate. Each man 
 gave his opinion in order, according as he had precedence in 
 age and honor. You may learn this from the resolution it- 
 self ; for the opinions delivered by the chief men are generally 
 recorded. Read 
 
 [The list of speeches made on the subject of Sextus Peducaeus is read.] 
 
 It says who were the chief supporters of the motion. The 
 vote is carried. Then the question about Verres is put. Tell 
 me, I pray, what happened. 
 
 [The list of speeches made on the subject of Caius Verres . . . .] 
 
 Well what comes next? 
 
 [As no one rose, and no one delivered his opinion . . . .] 
 
 What is this? 
 
 [They proceed by lot] 
 
 Why was this? Was no one a willing praiser of your prae- 
 torship, or a willing defender of you from danger, especially
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 489 
 
 when by being so he might have gained favor with the prae- 
 tor? No one. Those very men who used to feast with you, 
 your advisers and accomplices, did not venture to utter a word. 
 In that very senate-house in which a statue of yourself and 
 a naked statue of your son were standing, was there no one 
 whom even your naked son in a province stripped naked could 
 move to compassion? Moreover they inform me also of this, 
 that they had passed the vote of panegyric in such a form that 
 all men might see that it was not a panegyric, but rather a 
 satire, to remind everyone of his shameful and disastrous prae- 
 torship. For in truth it was drawn up in these words. " Be- 
 cause he had scourged no one." From which you are to un- 
 derstand that he had caused most noble and innocent men to 
 be executed. " Because he had administered the affairs of the 
 province with vigilance," when all his vigils were well known 
 to have been devoted to debauchery and adultery; moreover, 
 there was this clause added, which the defendant could never 
 venture to produce, and the accuser would never cease to 
 dwell upon ; " Because Verres had kept all pirates at a dis- 
 tance from the island of Sicily ; " men who in his time had 
 entered even into the " island " of Syracuse. And after I had 
 received this information from them, I departed from the sen- 
 ate-house with my brother, in order that they might decree 
 what they chose. 
 
 Immediately they pass a decree. First, " That my brother 
 Lucius should be connected with the city by ties of hospital- 
 ity ; " because he had shown the same good-will to the Syra- 
 cusans that I had always felt myself. That they not only 
 wrote at that time, but also had engraved on brazen tablets 
 and presented to us. Truly very fond of you are your Syra- 
 cusans whom you are always talking of, who think it quite a 
 sufficient reason for forming an intimate connection with your 
 accuser, that he is going to be your accuser, and that he has 
 come among them for the purpose of prosecuting inquiries 
 against you. After that, a decree is passed, not with any dif- 
 ference of opinion, but almost unanimously, " That the pane- 
 gyric which had been decreed to Caius Verres, be rescinded." 
 But, when not only the vote had been come to, but when it 
 had even been drawn up in due form and entered in the rec- 
 ords, an appeal is made to the praetor. But who makes this
 
 490 CICERO 
 
 appeal? Any magistrate? No. Any senator? Not even 
 that. Any Syracusan? Far from it. Who, then, appeals to 
 the praetor ? The man who had been Verres's quaestor, Caese- 
 tius. Oh, the ridiculous business ! Oh, the deserted man ! O 
 man despaired of and abandoned by the Sicilian magistracy! 
 Tn order to prevent the Sicilians passing a resolution of the 
 Senate, or from obtaining their rights according to their own 
 customs and their own laws, an appeal is made to the praetor, 
 not by any friend of his, not by any connection, not, in short, 
 by any Sicilian, but by his own quaestor. Who saw this? 
 Who heard it? That just and wise praetor orders the Senate 
 to be adjourned. A great multitude flocks to me. First of 
 all, the senators cry out that their rights are being taken away ; 
 that their liberty is being taken away. The people praise the 
 Senate and thank them. The Roman citizens do not leave me. 
 And on that day I had no harder task, than with all my ex- 
 ertions to prevent violent hands being laid on the man who 
 made that appeal. When we had gone before the praetor's 
 tribunal, he deliberates, forsooth, diligently and carefully what 
 decision he shall give; for, before I say one word, he rises 
 from his seat, and departs. And so we departed from the fo- 
 rum when it was now nearly evening. 
 
 The next day, the first thing in the morning, I beg of 
 him to allow the Syracusans to give me a copy of the reso- 
 lution which they had passed the day before. But he refuses, 
 and says that it is a great shame for me to have made a speech 
 in a Greek Senate ; and that, as for my having spoken in the 
 Greek language to Greeks, that was a thing which could not 
 be endured at all. I answered the man as I could, as I chose, 
 and as I ought. Among other things, I recollect that I said 
 that it was easy to be seen how great was the difference be- 
 tween him and the great Numidicus, the real and genuine Me- 
 tellus. That that Metellus had refused to assist with his pane- 
 gyric Lucius Lucullus, his sister's husband, with whom he 
 was on the very best terms, but that he was procuring pane- 
 gyrics from cities for a man totally unconnected with himself, 
 by violence and compulsion. But when I understood that it 
 was many recent messengers, and many letters, not of intro- 
 duction but of credit, that had had so much influence over 
 him, at the suggestion of the Syracusans themselves I make
 
 THE PROSECUTION OF VERRES 491 
 
 a seizure of those documents in which the resolutions of the 
 Senate were recorded. And now behold a fresh confusion and 
 strife. That, however, you may not suppose that he was with- 
 out any friends or connections at Syracuse, that he was 
 entirely desolate and forsaken, a man of the name of Theomnas- 
 tus, a man ridiculously crazy, whom the Syracusans call The- 
 oractus, 8 attempted to detain those documents ; a man in such 
 a condition, that the boys follow him, and that everyone 
 laughs at him every time he opens his mouth. But his crazi- 
 ness, which is ridiculous to others, was then in truth very 
 troublesome to me. For while he was foaming at the mouth, 
 his eyes glaring, and he crying out as loud as he could that 
 I was attacking him with violence, we came together before 
 the tribunal. Then I began to beg to be allowed to seal up 
 and carry away the records. He spoke against me; he de- 
 nied that there had been any regular resolution of the Senate 
 passed, since an appeal had been made to the praetor. He 
 said that a copy of it ought not to be given to me. I read 
 the act that I was to be allowed all documents and records. 
 He, like a crazy man as he was, urged that our laws had 
 nothing to do with him. That intelligent praetor decided that 
 he did not choose, as the resolution of the Senate had no 
 business ever to be ratified, to allow me to take a copy of it 
 to Rome. Not to make a long story of it, if I had not threat- 
 ened the man vigorously, if I had not read to him the pro- 
 visions of the act passed in this case, and the penalties enacted 
 by it, I should not have been allowed to have the documents. 
 But that crazy fellow, who had declaimed against me most 
 violently on behalf of Verres, when he found he did not suc- 
 ceed, in order I suppose to recover my favor, gives me a book 
 in which all Verres's Syracusan thefts were set down, which 
 I had already been informed of by, and had a list of from 
 them. 
 
 Now, then, let the Mamertines praise you, who are the 
 only men of all that large province who wish you to get off; 
 but let them praise you on condition that Heius, who is 
 the chief man of that deputation, is present; let them praise 
 you on condition that they are here, ready to reply to me on 
 
 8 Theoractus seems a sort of nickname, while Theomnastus is derived from <*& 
 to indicate his insanity, being derived andj*4*>'>w", to remember, 
 from <*&, God, and frfyw^i, to break;
 
 49* CICERO 
 
 those points concerning which they are questioned. And that 
 they may not be taken by surprise on a sudden, this is what 
 I shall ask them: Are they bound to furnish a ship to the 
 Roman people? They will admit it. Have they supplied it 
 while Verres was praetor? They will say, No. Have they 
 built an enormous transport at the public expense which they 
 have given to Verres ? They will not be able to deny it. Has 
 Verres taken corn from them to send to the Roman people, as 
 his predecessor did? They will say, No. What soldiers or 
 sailors have they furnished during those three years? They 
 will say they furnished none at all. They will not be able to 
 deny that Messana has been the receiver of all his plunder and 
 all his robberies. They will confess that an immense quantity 
 of things were exported from that city ; and besides that, that 
 this large vessel given to him by the Mamertines, departed 
 loaded when the praetor left Sicily. You are welcome, then, 
 to that panegyric of the Mamertines. As for the city of Syra- 
 cuse, we see that that feels toward you as it has been treated 
 by you ; and among them that infamous Verrean festival, in- 
 stituted by you, has been abolished. In truth, it was a most 
 unseemly thing for honors such as belong to the gods to be 
 paid to the man who had carried off the images of the gods. 
 In truth, that conduct of the Syracusans would be deservedly 
 reproached, if, when they had struck a most celebrated and 
 solemn day of festival games out of their annals, because on 
 that day Syracuse was said to have been taken by Marcellus, 
 they should, notwithstanding, celebrate a day of festival in the 
 name of Verres ; though he had plundered the Syracusans of 
 all which that day of disaster had left them. But observe the 
 shamelessness and arrogance of the man, O judges, who not 
 only instituted this disgraceful and ridiculous Verrean festival 
 out of the money of Heraclius, but who also ordered the Mar- 
 cellean festival to be abolished, in order that they might every 
 year offer sacrifices to the man by whose means they had lost 
 the sacred festivals which they had ever observed, and had lost 
 their national deities, and that they might take away the fes- 
 tival days in honor of that family by whose means they had 
 recovered all their other festivals.