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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 COLLEGE OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Prof. Upton Palmer
 
 ^:^^VW^^t-A^v"^
 
 Julius Ccesar. 
 
 From the slatiienn the Gallerv of the Louvre, Paris. 
 and Criticai 
 
 
 Or, ^ . i U 1 IN /liVl'S SC 
 YORK AND
 
 H)aniel Mebster ]£Mtion 
 
 THE 
 WORLD'S ORATORS 
 
 Comprising 
 
 THE GREAT ORATIONS OF THE 
 WORLD'S HISTORY 
 
 With 
 
 Introductory Essays, Biographical Sketches 
 and Critical Notes 
 
 GUY CARLETON LEE, Ph.D. 
 
 Editor-in-Chief 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 Orators of Ancient Rome 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 XEbe IRnicF^erbocher press 
 
 MCM III
 
 Copyright, 1900 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 tTbe *nfcfeerbocJjec iprcse, "Hew IJorft
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ORATORS OF ANCIENT ROME 
 
 THE Editors of this volume have endeavored to 
 present such examples of Ancient Roman Ora- 
 tory as may best illustrate its development and may 
 make good its claim to a foremost place among the 
 oratorical systems of the world. 
 
 The scope of the selection covers that portion of 
 the history of Roman oratory that begins with its 
 first authentic recorded speech and ends with the 
 close of the Panegyrical school. In covering this 
 wide field, speeches attributed to the earliest Ro- 
 man orators have been taken from the pages of the 
 historians, examples have been chosen from the 
 works of the rhetoricians, and orations have been 
 selected from those works that have been preserved 
 unaltered. Although the Editors are in accord with 
 the great majority of modern scholars in not accept- 
 ing as certainly authentic the attribution of many 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 vi Preface 
 
 of the speeches cited in ancient historical works, 
 they are of the opinion that among these orations 
 are masterpieces of Roman oratory, and such have 
 been accorded place in this volume. 
 
 Ample selections have been made from the ora- 
 tions of Cicero. The examples given illustrate 
 every phase of the art of this, the greatest orator of 
 Rome, and it is believed that they present a full 
 exemplification of the fullest development reached 
 by Roman oratory. 
 
 The Editor-in-Chief calls attention to the contin- 
 uation in the present volume of the policy of special 
 translations inaugurated in the first volume of this 
 series. A large portion of the famous Panegyric on 
 Trajan, by Pliny the Younger, has been translated 
 for this volume by the Editors, who also have ren- 
 dered into English a number of hitherto untrans- 
 lated examples from the works of Florus, Quintilian, 
 and Seneca. 
 
 The Ciceronian orations, as well as the quota- 
 tions from the historians, have either been newly 
 translated or have been specially edited for this 
 volume. In these versions the attempt has been 
 made to present the true oratorical spirit of these 
 masterpieces. 
 
 In selecting the illustrations for the volume, the 
 Editors have sought to secure those portraits that 
 have been long associated with the orators whose 
 names they bear. No more trustworthy portraits
 
 Preface vii 
 
 exist, and yet, for obvious reasons, the Editors are 
 not in a position to vouch for their authenticity. 
 
 The Editors are under obligations to Kirby F. 
 Smith, Ph.D., Professor of Latin in Johns Hopkins 
 University, for valuable counsel on the preparation 
 of this volume. 
 
 G. C. L. 
 
 Historical Department, 
 
 Johns Hopkins University, 
 
 1899.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Introductory Essay 
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome . 
 
 C. Sallustiiis Crispus 
 
 Introduction . . . . . . • S^ 
 
 From "The Conspiracy of Catiline " 
 
 Speech of Catiline to the Conspirators , . jj 
 Speech of Catiline to his Troops . . . j6 
 Oration ofCccsar on Punishing the Conspirators }g 
 Oration of M. Porcius Cato against the Con- 
 spirators 47 
 
 From " The fugurthine War " 
 
 Oration of Cains Memmius against the Power 
 of the Nobility $4 
 
 From "The History of Rome " 
 
 Oration of Marcus /Emilius Lepidus against 
 Sulla 61 
 
 Oration of Lucius Philippus against Marcus 
 /Emilius Lepidus 68 
 
 A Declamation against Cicero . ... yd 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 l.\
 
 X Contents 
 
 Titus Lmiis Pataviniis 
 
 Introduction 83 
 
 From "The History of Rome " 
 
 The Appeal of Horathis for his Son 's Life . 85 
 The Address of Appius Claudius against the 
 
 Power of the Tribunes 87 
 
 The Speech of Lucius Lentulus against Treating 
 
 with the Gauls 98 
 
 The Speech of Scipio to his Soldiers at his Camp 
 
 on the Ticino loi 
 
 The Speech of Hannibal to his Soldiers before 
 
 his First Battle with Scipio .... loj 
 The Appeal of Marcus Junius for Ransom for 
 
 the Romans Held Prisoners by Hannibal . 112 
 The Reply of Titus Manlius Torquatus to the 
 
 Appeal of Marcus Junius . . . .116 
 
 Annmis Seneca 
 
 Introduction 121 
 
 Example of Suasoria /2^ 
 
 Aulus Gellius 
 
 Introduction /J/ 
 
 From " Nodes Attica^ " 
 
 Part of the Speech of M. Porcius Cato in Be- 
 half of the Rhodians 133 
 
 Fragments of a Speech by Gains Gracchus . /J5
 
 Contents xi 
 
 Marcus Tnllius Cicero 
 
 
 Introduction . . . . . 
 
 . 139 
 
 Against Verres 
 
 
 Part of the Fifth Oration 
 
 . 143 
 
 Against Catiline 
 
 
 The First Oration .... 
 
 . 174 
 
 Against Antonius 
 
 
 Part of the Second Philippic 
 
 , 196 
 
 M. Fabius QuintiUanus 
 
 
 Introduction 
 
 . 243 
 
 Orator, Physician, Philosopher 
 
 . 245 
 
 C. Cornelius Tacitus 
 
 Introduction 253 
 
 From the "Agricola " 
 
 Calgacus to the Britons . . , . . 255 
 
 Agricola to his Soldiers 260 
 
 The Death of Agricola . . , . . 263 
 
 C. Plinius Ccecilius Secundiis 
 
 Introduction 267 
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 269 
 
 P. Annius Flo r us 
 
 Introduction ^05 
 
 Introduction to the Dialogue, " Was Virgil an 
 
 Orator or a Poet } " 307
 
 THE WORLD'S ORATORS 
 
 THE ORATORY OF ANCIENT ROME 
 
 ROMAN oratory is as old as the Roman State. 
 Latin eloquence existed before the tribes 
 settled on the Seven Hills. The earliest literary 
 monuments of Italy are transcriptions of vocal 
 effort, and the Arvalian and Salian chants were 
 centuries old when their oral transmission from 
 one brother to another was replaced by the written 
 records of a more highly organized priesthood. 
 
 A peculiar fascination attends the study of the 
 growth of national life, and it has led students of 
 the history of literature to an enthusiastic investi- 
 gation of the long and shadowy period of Roman 
 progress in eloquence which culminated in the 
 Ciceronian era. For the history of eloquence — the 
 spoken word — cannot be separated from that of 
 literature — the written expression of thought, — and 
 
 VOL. II. — I.
 
 2 The World's Orators 
 
 during this long course of progress Roman elo- 
 quence and Roman rhetoric had their beginning 
 and passed through every stage of a well moulded 
 development. 
 
 The efforts of learned scholars in this field of 
 research, though of great value, have not been 
 productive of as definite or abundant results as are 
 to be desired. For study is checked at its outset 
 by the almost entire absence of examples of the 
 work of the early public speakers. Investigators 
 are brought face to face with the fact that a few 
 hundred lines of doubtful authenticity are all that 
 remain of the vital words that must have stirred 
 the men of Ancient Rome. 
 
 Few students are prepared to admit the authen- 
 ticity of the quotations credited to early orators 
 by Livy, Gellius, Cicero, Seneca, Tacitus, Sallust, 
 Quintilian, and other historians and rhetoricians. 
 Yet the mere existence of such quotations must 
 have no small weight with the most sceptical, in 
 establishing the fact that, long before any authentic 
 oration which has been preserved in its original form, 
 there existed a system and art of oratory that was 
 of a high order of merit. The historians did not 
 create orators from their imagination ; although it 
 may well be that, because the traditions of the 
 past established beyond a doubt the existence of 
 such orators and handed down some memory of 
 their eloquence, the historians put speeches into
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 3 
 
 their mouths. The existence of a systematic study 
 of oratory, however imperfect it might be when 
 compared with later methods, is abundantly and 
 convincingly shown in the incidental references in 
 historical works to orators, to eloquence, and to 
 the training of the young in the art of public 
 speaking. 
 
 The argument from comparative literature is 
 no less convincing. This science establishes the 
 proposition that no people of remote antiquity in 
 the beginning ot their collected existence used 
 written language as a means of ordinary communi- 
 cation between men as men, or between men as 
 rulers and ruled. The admitted absence at Rome 
 of an early national literature, a deficiency the 
 more striking by its continuance to the third cen- 
 tury before Christ, proves the necessity of elo- 
 quence as a means of expressing the thought of 
 the nation. 
 
 For though the assertion that the nation did not 
 write is susceptible of proof, yet the declaration 
 that a nation does not think has never been made. 
 Thought must have expression, and Roman 
 thought found voice in ballads, sagas, prose reci- 
 tations, and speeches of which to-day only mem- 
 ories remain. The history of the eloquence of 
 early Rome is a record of memories. We listen 
 for the voices of her orators, and only broken 
 echoes reverberate from the past.
 
 4 The World's Orators 
 
 The splendor of Grecian oratory has often 
 dazzled the student and prevented him from ob- 
 taining a correct view of the eloquence of Rome. 
 A step from the sunlight of imagination into the 
 sober shade of fact will give the critic a new point 
 of view, and since the statement that eloquence 
 existed before Cicero has already been proved, he 
 will the more easily pass to a consideration of 
 the scope and value of early Roman oratory. 
 
 In the beginning of its history, the eloquence of 
 Rome was, as were the people, rude and vehement. 
 It appealed to sentiment and passion, rather than 
 to intellect. The Romans were men of action, and 
 their public speakers were strong men who gained 
 the attention of the people by the force of their 
 personality. They spoke extemporaneously and 
 briefly. Their speeches contained little of logical 
 arrangement or formal argument, but were positive 
 and passionate appeals in which conclusions were 
 stated rather than proved. With this view the 
 historians Livy, Gellius, Dionysius, as well as 
 Cicero, Tacitus, and Quintilian, are in accord. 
 
 Irrespective of the historical value of such 
 orations as those of Romulus to the Sabines, of 
 Servius Tullius to the people, of Brutus standing 
 by the body of Lucretia and arousing Rome to ex- 
 pel the Tarquins, these speeches, by whomsoever 
 composed and to whatever epoch attributable, 
 voice the historical conception of the character of
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 5 
 
 the earliest oratory and are as clear, forceful, and 
 effective as the most stirring words of the modern 
 agitators. 
 
 Why should not the men of Rome have been 
 virile orators ? The history of their city was filled 
 with stirring incidents in which force triumphed ; 
 it bristled with critical periods in which might 
 prevailed ; it teemed with adventures in which 
 strength bore off the prize. Force, might, strength, 
 — and the synonyms are capable of extended 
 multiplication, — all express manliness, the distin- 
 guishing attribute of the Roman. 
 
 The Senate, the Forum, and the battle-field rang 
 with energetic, powerful, convincing v^ords, such 
 as those which were used by Menenius Agrippa, , 
 when he moved the Plebeians to return to the city, 
 when its existence was threatened by their seces- 
 sion ; by Memmius, when he denounced the 
 tyranny of the nobility ; and by Appius Claudius 
 CiEcus, when he stirred the halting Senate to 
 patriotic action, and saved Rome from the intrigues 
 of the King of Pontus. 
 
 Roman eloquence was strong and convincing. 
 It was of the every-day as well as the special oc- 
 casion. It was, except where emotion or passion 
 moved the speaker, essentially matter-of-fact, and, 
 by a natural sequence of events, became more and 
 more logical as it adapted itself to the needs of an 
 eminently practical and progressive people. We
 
 6 The World's Orators 
 
 must not lose sight of the fact that this materialistic 
 eloquence had another side, not so highly de- 
 veloped, it is true, but still important ; for though 
 Roman eloquence did not possess that imagination 
 and grace that distinguished the Grecian style, yet 
 it was by no means devoid of beauty, imagery, and 
 poetry, and these qualities increased until in the 
 Ciceronian epoch the oratory of Rom.e rivalled that 
 of Greece. The Roman nature was not without 
 stimulus to create and to appreciate the beautiful, 
 for the nation possessed a host of heroes, about 
 whom arose a national religion. The heroes be- 
 came demi-gods, rivalling the Pantheon. The 
 stories of the Roman gods and the legends of the 
 years of the kings were stimulating influences that 
 left their trace upon the national eloquence. 
 
 Whether or no we may regard the eloquence of 
 early Rome as true oratory depends upon the 
 meaning given to the terms ; if oratory is eloquence 
 shaped by art, then we have no proof of its exist- 
 ence in the first centuries of Roman history ; if, on 
 the contrary, eloquence and oratory are synonyms 
 for effective speech in public, then the early exist- 
 ence of true oratory cannot be denied. But with- 
 out quibbling upon definitions, we are justified in 
 asserting that the growth of oratory, as most 
 strictly defined, began to take form during the first 
 years of the Republic, if not earlier, in the funeral 
 oration, — a type of expression that we may call
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 7 
 
 the second stage in Roman oratorical development, 
 as we may call the oration of action, in its various 
 forms, the first. 
 
 The funeral oration, or Eulogy, is a type of 
 oratory which has been asserted with some plausi- 
 bility, but no certainty, to have originated in 
 Rome. The differences between the Roman and 
 the Grecian eulogy have been used as an argument 
 for the Roman claim ; for when the orators of 
 Greece commenced to devote themselves to this 
 form of address, they seemed to improve rather 
 than to originate it. The eulogies of Rome were 
 narrower in their scope, more private in their 
 nature, and directed to fewer auditors than those 
 of Greece. There, the eulogists addressed the 
 many, and taking for their themes subjects of ab- 
 sorbing and national interest, used their opportunity 
 to rouse the people to seek higher planes of 
 thought or to carry out meritorious lines of action. 
 The early Roman eulogies were essentially per- 
 sonal, and were pronounced as a tribute to the 
 deceased by a near relative or intimate friend. 
 They may, in fact, be characterized as the mourn- 
 ing of a family for its dead. 
 
 Cicero, in the Brutus, has ridiculed the eulogy ; ^ 
 but his strictures, when applied to the early types, 
 lose somewhat in force, not so much because of 
 an error in criticism, for eulogies notoriously falsi- 
 fied history, but because of a failure to give proper
 
 8 The World's Orators 
 
 importance to the eulogy as a step in oratorical 
 development. For, despite the fact that in the 
 days of Cicero it had degenerated into a despised 
 type of extravagant declamation much affected by 
 ambitious youth, the funeral oration was the 
 foundation of formal public speech. 
 
 The first funeral oration cited by the historians 
 is that of Valerius Publicola, in the fifth century 
 before Christ, upon L. Junius Brutus, leader of the 
 revolutionary movement by which the Tarquins 
 were driven from Rome. This oration, with those 
 of Fabius Maximus upon Quintus Fabius and Cn. 
 Manlius, of Appius Claudius and of Q. Metellus 
 upon Lucius Metellus, all quoted by Livy, give us 
 the conception of that author of the form of the 
 earliest eulogy. 
 
 One of the most celebrated funeral orations is 
 that ascribed by Livy and Plutarch to L. Paullus 
 y^milius. This great oration was pronounced be- 
 fore the people of Rome by L. Paullus y^milius 
 after his return from the victorious campaign in 
 which he had defeated Perseus of Macedonia at the 
 battle of Pydna. On this occasion, while render- 
 ing an account of his campaign, y^milius could not 
 refrain from speaking of his two sons, one of whom 
 had died five days before, and the other five days 
 after, the returning general's triumph. In this beau- 
 tiful speech, which is a masterpiece of oratory, 
 whether it be the work of Livy or of y^milius, the
 
 The Oratoiy of Ancient Rome 9 
 
 speaker contrasted the fortunes of the Republic 
 with the fortunes of his house. The successes of 
 the Republic had been glorious, but he had feared 
 a change in the will of the gods. This change had 
 come, but he rejoiced that misfortune fell on him 
 and not on the Republic, and that his personal 
 unhappiness had averted the disasters with which 
 Rome was threatened. 
 
 Funeral orations were of two classes : The family < 
 eulogy — a narrow, boastful production that, be- 
 cause of its exclusive and personal character, did 
 not keep pace with the literary development of 
 Rome, — and the public eulogy, one of the most im- ^ 
 portant types of oratory, and worthy of the efforts 
 of the most talented orators, by whom it was given 
 a splendor and richness unknown to other forms of 
 early eloquence. 
 
 The third type of oratory, which originated in 
 the early period of Rome's history, was the mili- 
 tary oration. It was born of the camp and the 
 battle-field, and a martial tone rang through its 
 spirited periods. If we are to judge the value of 
 this form of oration from the examples given by 
 the historians,— and we have no other guide, — 
 we must assign to it an important place. When 
 we consider the character of the Roman people, 
 the endless strife, the constant wars, we are led 
 to agree in this estimate with Livy, Gellius, Sal- 
 lust, and other chroniclers, in whose pages are
 
 lo The World's Orators 
 
 recorded such striking examples of miHtary elo- 
 quence as the speeches of Hannibal, Scipio, and 
 Catiline to their soldiers. Whether we assign 
 these orations to the soldier or to the historian, 
 whether to the earliest centuries or to the first 
 before Christ, we must admit them to be striking 
 examples of effective speaking. 
 
 In the third century before the Christian era, the 
 art of oratory had become, through native aptitude 
 and Grecian influence, a necessary part of the edu- 
 cation of a Roman. From this period, oratory was 
 especially cultivated, but it was taught by imita- 
 — tion and practice rather than by formal rules and 
 elaborate systems. It is probable that no impor- 
 tant treatise on oratory antedates the De Oratore 
 of Cicero. The youth were encouraged to listen to 
 w the words of the great orators, and then by imita- 
 tion of word and gesture to perfect themselves in 
 public speaking. This training was not reserved 
 for the special occasion and stated and limited 
 times, but was a matter of every-day occurrence. 
 It was carried on in the market-place, law court, 
 Forum, and Senate, and went hand in hand with 
 the practical preparations for the work of life. 
 From such a system of instruction came the prac- 
 tical, logical, and withal vital method of oratory 
 that distinguished the art at Rome. 
 
 Stirring as was the military address, emotional 
 as was the funeral oration, and effective as was the
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome ii 
 
 eloquence of action, yet the early forms of these 
 types of oratory were inadequate to the needs of 
 the many-sided, rapidly developing people dwell- 
 ing by the Tiber. Interest in the study of orator- 
 ical forms and their practice became general. 
 Roman life was active, advancing, conquering. 
 The nation was successfully solving the greatest 
 problems of law and government. The heroic 
 legends had been woven into a vital and personal 
 religion. In the absence of a literature the orators 
 voiced the people's thought, and the necessity for 
 a development of the oratorical art was brought 
 home to the people. The ability to speak in pub- 
 lic became, of necessity, an attribute of the Ro- 
 man. It was not confined to the adult, nor even 
 to the males. It was a national characteristic. 
 
 With the progress of the nation came the fourth 
 and greatest of the types of Roman eloquence. 
 This was Political oratory, with its two great 
 divisions, the eloquence of the Senate, and the 
 eloquence of the Forum. The latter includes the 
 eloquence of the public meeting, or irregular, non- 
 official gathering. 
 
 We must not be too precise in this separation of 
 oratorical types and endeavor to assign them to 
 immutable bounds and limits of character and of 
 time. Any such limitation would be inaccurate, 
 for the progress of oratorical development shows 
 no distinct starting-points of this or of that type, 
 
 i^"
 
 12 The World's Orators 
 
 no rigid exclusion-lines of quality, and as in char- 
 acteristics, so is it in time limits. The end of one 
 form blends with the beginning of another, or 
 again, two or more forms may exist side by side, 
 sometimes distinct, sometimes blending. 
 
 Political oratory, from the beginning of the third 
 century, gained that preeminence which it main- 
 tained through the life of the Republic. At the 
 downfall of that form of government it declined 
 ___ and yielded the first place to the fifth form, of 
 Roman oratory, that of the law courts, which con- 
 tested for public appreciation with the last type of 
 eloquence to be considered, the oratory of display, 
 as exemplified in the Declamation and the Pane- 
 ^' i gyric, which, in their turn, were displaced by the 
 oratory of the Christian Church. 
 The two varieties of political oratory present 
 y ^ many contrasts: they^differ in method, orators, 
 ^ and audience. They ^fe alike only in purpose. 
 
 Such great senatorial orators as Antonius, Crassus, 
 Hortensius, and Cicero were the leading scholars, 
 as they were the leading statesmen of their period. 
 In the Senate they addr^sed a small, aristocratic 
 body of grave, thoughtful, educated, experienced, 
 and generally able men. The speeches delivered 
 in the Senate were noted for calm, cool argument, 
 and although, as a rule, the oration was brief, it 
 was not abrupt, nor was it devoid of ornamenta- 
 tion. A certain majestic flow of clear, smooth.
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 13 
 
 fervent, authoritative statement, gave to senatorial 
 oratory an unparalleled effectiveness. 
 
 The oratory of the Forum was all that the 
 oratory of the Senate was not. In the Forum the 
 speech was part of a polemical debate — a struggle 
 between orators. There, movement, force, fire, 
 and brilliant display were necessary to success. 
 There, gesture, little used in the Senate, played an 
 important part. There, multitudes — thousands of 
 the common people, ignorant, passionate, easy to 
 move, and difficult to control — listened to the type 
 of orator exemplified by Memmius, Cato, and the 
 Gracchi. 
 
 The world has had five great schools of secular 
 oratory. These are the Grecian, Roman, Oriental, 
 Modern Latin, and the Anglo-Saxon. Each has 
 subdivisions, and yet each possesses the elements 
 of a more or less homogeneous whole. We may 
 better study the nature of the political oratory of 
 the Roman Republic by comparing it with the 
 same type of Grecian and Anglo-Saxon eloquence. 
 Roman oratory of this period had little in common 
 with the Asiatic school, and still less with the 
 modern Oriental. Though Roman oratory may be 
 the foundation of the Modern Latin school, which 
 embraces the oratory of France, Spain, and the 
 other Latin nations, yet this foundation was not 
 the oratory of the Republic, but of a later period 
 with which we are not here concerned. We are, 
 
 v_ 
 
 1^
 
 14 The World's Orators 
 
 therefore, justified in excluding the Oriental and 
 Modern Latin schools from our comparison. 
 
 The oratory of Greece and Rome was popular, 
 as popular as that of the Anglo-Saxon. Yet as the 
 Grecian and Roman people differed, so did the / 
 oratory. The forceful Roman demanded from an 
 orator a virility unknown to Greece. The con- 
 quering Latin was moved by his passions ; his 
 public speakers sacrificed grace to force, but gained 
 in grandeur what they lost in polish. Greece re- 
 quired finished grace, exquisite style and polished 
 logic ; her orators were armed with rapiers that 
 would have shivered before the broadsword of 
 Roman eloquence. 
 
 Yet Roman eloquence, though forceful, was not 
 rude ; it was strong, but well adapted to its audi- 
 tors, upon whom the Greek style would have 
 been ineffective, because it would have been re- 
 garded as artificial, cold, and insincere. The elo- 
 quence of Rome, in its earliest historical period, 
 found its highest expression in the Senate, and 
 Senatorial eloquence is comparable to Parliamen- 
 tary eloquence in England and Congressional ora- 
 tory in America. It should not be compared to 
 the oratory of either the House of Lords or the 
 American Senate, although it often bore that aris- 
 tocratic stamp which marks the debates of those 
 exclusive bodies. Neither was Roman Senatorial 
 oratory exactly comparable to the oratory of the
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 15 
 
 House of Commons or that of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, although the party spirit and freedom 
 of speech that were marked features of Senatorial 
 oratory gave it a popular cast. In fact, the oratory 
 of the Roman Senate contained these elements 
 which we find in both the upper and lower 
 houses of modern legislative bodies. It may, 
 therefore, be characterized as resembling, in a 
 marked degree, the form of oratory known as 
 Parliamentary. 
 
 The oratory of the Forum, like that of the Sen- 
 ate, has no exact modern analogue. It contained 
 the same elements that compose the modern 
 political speech, combined in many cases with 
 those predominating in the appeal of a modern 
 lawyer to a jury sitting in a criminal case. It 
 was, of necessity, broader and freer than the ora- 
 tory of the Senate. Yet it was by no means of 
 inferior rank. The greatest orators of the day ad- 
 dressed the people, and the fortunes of the nation 
 time and again hung in the balance, depending 
 for their rise or fall on the weight of eloquence. 
 
 It was in the field of political oratory that 
 Cicero, Rome's greatest public speaker, won his 
 most distinguished success. Cicero stands un- 
 questionably the foremost of Roman orators. In 
 the long record of a thousand years, between the 
 founding of the city and the downfall of the 
 Western Empire, Cicero is the one orator whose 
 
 ) \ 
 
 ,^i
 
 1 6 The World's Orators 
 
 utterances we can place so far above others as to 
 enable us to say that the oratorical development 
 of Rome culminated with his era. Before Cicero 
 we have not a single orator of whose work an 
 entire speech has been preserved in authentic 
 form. After Cicero, with few exceptions, we have 
 no public speakers whose oratory was worth pre- 
 servation as such. 
 
 Yet the list of Roman orators is by no means a 
 short one. It numbers hundreds of names, from 
 that of Romulus to the least and latest Panegyrist 
 under the Empire. Yet as a Canon of the Orators 
 of Greece has been established, so may one be in- 
 dicated for Rome. This can only be accomplished 
 by a strict policy of exclusion. This method is 
 the more difficult because we cannot judge the 
 Roman, as we can the Grecian orators, by exten- 
 sive literary remains. We must establish their 
 right to a place in the Canon by the statements 
 made concerning them and the fragrnents at- 
 tributed to them by Roman writers. 
 
 In the chapters devoted to early Roman history 
 we find oratorical prominence given to many 
 noble Romans. In this uncertain history we read 
 that the list of great orators includes Q. Junius 
 Brutus, the expeller of the Tarquins, Menenius 
 Agrippa, by whose efforts the Plebeians returned to 
 Rome, Valerius Potitius, leader of the movement 
 against the Decemviri, Appius Claudius C^cus, the
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 1 7 
 
 blind Claudius, who opposed the treaty with 
 Pyrrhus, C. Fabricius, the envoy sent to Rome 
 by the prisoners taken by Pyrrhus, Tiberius Cor- 
 uncanus, reported by the Pontifical Records to 
 be an orator of great merit, M. Curius, the op- 
 ponent of Appius Claudius, C. Flaminius, killed 
 at Trasimenus, Q. Fabius Maximus the Cunc- 
 tator, Q. Metellus the consul, and a host of 
 others whose names are associated with momen- 
 tous periods of their country's history. Many of 
 the speeches attributed to these early Romans rank 
 as masterpieces of oratory, but, because of the 
 haze of doubt and uncertainty which surrounds 
 them, not one of these orators can be given a 
 place in the Canon of Rome's orators. 
 
 In the construction of the Canon we will place 
 as its earliest name that of: 
 
 M. Cornelius Cethegus, consul in 203 b. c. 
 His eloquence was distinctly persuasive, and his 
 language, chosen with regard for beauty and finish, 
 won for him the epithets of "the fine flower of the 
 people," the orator " whose mouth drops honeyed 
 speech." 
 
 Next we admit M. Porcius Cato (The Censor) 
 (b. arm 23 1 B.C.). An orator and statesman highly 
 regarded by Cicero, but because of the bitterness 
 of his words and the rudeness of his manners held 
 by his contemporaries in light esteem as an orator. 
 Cicero had abundant opportunity and sufficient 
 
 VOL, II. — 2.
 
 1 8 The World's Orators 
 
 material — over one hundred and hfty orations — 
 to give an opinion of Cato's abilities which is en- 
 titled to great respect. We can, if able to divest 
 ourselves of the intruding belief that personal pre- 
 dilection warped the critical judgment of Cicero, 
 agree with that author in estimating Cato's oratory 
 as dignified in commendation, pitiless in sarcasm, 
 pointed in phraseology, and subtle in argument. 
 
 As contemporaries of Cato the names of Aulus 
 Postumius Albinus (consul 150 b.c), an orator of 
 force and a man of sterling virtue, Spurius Albinus 
 (consul 147 or 146 B.C.), Servius Fulvius, Sulpicius 
 Callus, and P. Cornelius Scipio force themselves 
 upon our notice. Atliough the speech of Scipio 
 delivered upon the anniversary of the battle of 
 Zama, in defence of his conduct, impeached by the 
 consul N^evius, will endure as an example of 
 eloquence, we cannot include him among the 
 orators of the first rank as we must his son Scipio 
 Africanus Minor (/Emilianus) (185-129 B.C.), a 
 vigorous, clear speaker in whom the influence of 
 Greek culture was at work. We next include C. 
 LvtLius, known as Sapiens (consul 141 B.C.), a 
 popular orator of great ability. His eloquence, 
 though lacking in force, was in its way remarkably 
 effective. ''The charm of his delivery," says 
 Cicero, "was a kind of religious unction than 
 which nothing could be sweeter, nothing holier." 
 We have a characteristic specimen of the oratory
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 19 
 
 of Laslius in the eulogy upon Scipio Africanus 
 Minor : 
 
 ''Needs must be that the empire of the whole 
 earth should be where that man was : wherefore 
 neither such great thanks can be paid to the im- 
 mortal gods as ought to be paid, that he, with such a 
 mind and such a spirit, was born in this city out of 
 all others, nor yet such moan and lament be made 
 as ought to be made since he died of that disease, 
 and was taken away in that same season, when to 
 you and all others who would have this common- 
 wealth safe there was most need of his life, ye men 
 of Rome." 
 
 Servius Sulpicius Galba (180-136 B.C.). A 
 man of the blackest character and of the most de- 
 praved tastes, yet withal one of the most powerful 
 orators of his era. A man capable of feeling that 
 which he spoke and convincing his audience that 
 he did feel it. He was the first Roman public 
 speaker to give a true oratorical form to eloquence, 
 " he was the first to introduce deliberate digression 
 for the sake of ornament, the first to delight the 
 mind, to move it, to raise his subject, the first to 
 use commonplaces and topics of pity." 
 
 y^milius Lepidus Porcina is not of the Canon, 
 although his speeches were highly commended by 
 Cicero. He deserves especial notice because he 
 was the first to adopt the Greek style and to write 
 an oration as a purely literary composition in which
 
 20 The World's Orators 
 
 grace and beauty were the first aims of the 
 speaker. 
 
 In the period directly following that of Lepidus, 
 we note the orators Gains Fannius (consul in 122 
 B. c), — best known by the speech against Gaius 
 Gracchus, attributed to him as well as to C. Per- 
 sius of the same century, — Mucins Sc^vola the 
 Augur, and Spurius Mummius, brother of Lucius 
 Mummius (consul 145 b. c), the destroyer of 
 Corinth. Of these brothers, Cicero says : '' Lucius 
 is simple and antique, Spurius not much more 
 ornamental but more condensed in style, for he 
 has been taught the doctrines of the Stoics." 
 All these men, together with L. Scribonius Libo, 
 tribune of the people and accuser of Galba, Q. Ful- 
 vius Nobilior, the energetic defender of the same 
 Galba in the famous trial of his conduct as Praetor 
 of Lusitania, have left their impress upon the 
 history of oratory, but none of them can rank with 
 Carbo, the next orator we place upon the Canon. 
 
 Carbo ( 1 64-1 19 B.C.) was of as base character 
 as Galba, and like Galba was an orator of the first 
 rank ; Cicero classes him as the greatest of his day. 
 He was essentially a popular speaker. He was the 
 first among the Romans to give prominence to wit 
 and humor as an element of the public speech. 
 He revelled in anecdote and jest, was a fluent 
 speaker and keen thinker, painstaking in prepara- 
 tion and artistic in delivery.
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 21 
 
 The next names of commanding eminence are 
 those of the Gracchi, Tiberius and Gains. These 
 great orators may be said to have inaugurated an 
 era in their art. 
 
 Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (169-133) was 
 the greatest orator Rome had yet known. His fame 
 was shortly to be surpassed by that of his brother 
 Gains, yet during his brief activity he was the 
 prince of the Forum. The eloquence of Tiberius 
 was based upon a study of Greek models, though 
 it was in no sense a copy of them. His speeches 
 were distinguished for their high moral tone, their 
 earnestness, temperance, and purity, as well as for 
 their classical cast. In the oratory of Tiberius, and 
 more particularly in that of Gains, is to be noticed, 
 for the first time in Roman history, that reserved 
 force which is the crowning attribute of oratory. 
 
 Gaius Gracchus (i 54-121) was a greater orator 
 than Tiberius and " for most people the history of 
 Latin eloquence began with Gaius Gracchus." If 
 one word should be selected to characterize his 
 style of oratory, that word would be intensity. 
 Following the Gracchi, the greatest speaker of the 
 period was C. Fimbria, and with him must be 
 mentioned Drusus, who tried to carry out the best 
 elements of the plans of the Gracchi ; P. Scipio, the 
 wittiest speaker of his day ; Scaurus (163-90 b.c), 
 scholar, philosopher, and historian, whose oratory 
 was remarkable for its dignity and commanding
 
 2 2 The World's Orators 
 
 ■jfMi''' tone; Rutilius Riifus (158-78 B.C.), and Catukis 
 (consul 102 B.C.), all aristocratic and senatorial 
 orators of no mean force. 
 
 ''The era inaugurated by the Gracchi was in the 
 highest degree favorable to eloquence. The dis- 
 ordered state of the Republic, in which party spirit 
 had banished patriotism and was itself surrender- 
 ing to armed violence, called for a style of speaking 
 commensurate with the turbulence of public life. 
 Never in the world's history has fierce passion 
 found such exponents in so great a sphere. It is 
 not only the vehemence of their language, — that 
 may have been paralleled elsewhere, — it is the 
 reality of it that impresses us. The words that 
 denounced an enemy were not idly flung into the 
 "^ Forum ; they fell among those who had the power 
 and the will to act upon them. He who sent 
 them forth must expect them to ruin either his 
 antagonist or himself. Each man chose his side, 
 with the daggers of the other party before his face. 
 His eloquence, like his sword, was a weapon for 
 life and death. Only in the French Revolution 
 have oratory and assassination thus gone hand in 
 hand. Demosthenes could lash the Athenians into 
 enthusiasm so great that in delight at his elo- 
 quence, they forgot his advice. ' I want you,' he 
 said, 'not to applaud me, but to march against 
 Philip.' There was no danger of the Roman 
 people forgetting action in applause. They rejoiced
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 23 
 
 to hear the orator, but it was that he might < 
 impel them to tumultuous activity ; he was caterer 
 not for the satisfaction of their ears, but for the 
 employment of their hands. Thus he paid a heavy 
 price for eminence. Few of Rome's greatest 
 orators died in their beds. Carbo put an end to 
 his own life ; the two Gracchi, Antonius, Drusus, 
 and Cicero himself perished by the assassin's 
 hand ; Crassus was delivered by sudden illness 
 from the same fate. It is not wonderful if with ^' 
 the sword hanging over their heads, Roman orators 
 attained to a vehemence beyond example in other 
 nations. The charm that danger lends to daring 
 is nowhere better shown than in the case of Cicero. 
 Timid by nature, he not only in his speeches 
 hazarded his life, but even when the dagger of An- 
 tony was waiting for him, could not bring himself 
 to flee. With the civil war, however, eloquence 
 was for a time suppressed. Neither argument 
 nor menace could make head against the furious 
 brutality of Marius or the colder butcheries of 
 Sulla. But the intervening period produced two 
 of the greatest speakers Rome ever saw, both of 
 whom Cicero places at the very summit of their 
 art, between whom he professes himself unable to 
 decide, and about whom he gives the most 
 authentic anc' copious account." 
 
 "Antonius (143-87 B.C.) and Crassus (139-91 
 B.C.) were," says Cicero, "the Demosthenes and
 
 
 
 24 The World's Orators 
 
 Hyperides of Rome." There can be no question 
 of their place in the Canon. 
 
 Contemporaneous with these orators we find L. 
 Marcius Philippus, a free and eloquent speaker, T. 
 Albucius Barra of Asculum, P. Canutius and C. 
 Julius C^sar, the elder; but the greatest speakers 
 of this period, between Crassus and Cicero, were 
 C. Aurelius Cotta, P. Sulpicius Rufus — of whom 
 Cicero said that he was the ''grandest," the " most 
 tragic," speaker he had heard — and Q. Hortensius, 
 the undisputed leader of the courts, the rival and 
 friend of Cicero. Of these three men, Cicero says : 
 ''Cotta lacked pomp, Sulpicius gentleness, and 
 Hortensius gravity," but all three were orators of 
 high rank, and the last, Q. Hortensius, is to be 
 placed in the Canon. He was a master of style, 
 his language was beautiful, and by the most elab- 
 orate preparation, rehearsal, and practice he pro- 
 duced, in his days of full power, an' oration of 
 unrivalled excellence. 
 
 The name of Hortensius brings us to Cicero, the 
 prince of Roman orators. To avoid duplicating the 
 introduction to the selections from his orations, 
 we pass immediately to his successors, in order to 
 complete our Canon. 
 
 Great as was Cicero, he left no permanent im- 
 press upon the oratory of Rome. He stood unique 
 among her speakers, challenging comparison, and 
 in his prime finding no rivals.
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 25 
 
 Cicero left no disciples, unless, indeed, we may 
 so call M. Claudius Marcellus (consul 51 b. c). 
 Among the contemporaries of Cicero were many 
 speakers of high rank. Of these Julius CiEsar was 
 the greatest. He was a consummate orator. His 
 remarkable ability, as such, would have made him 
 Cicero's rival if his great executive force had not 
 led him to other lines of action. We must include 
 C^sar in our Canon, although we reject M. Clau- 
 dius, one of the most polished and graceful speak- 
 ers of the period. We have next to note three 
 orators who formed the connecting link between 
 Ciceronian and Augustan eloquence, — C. Curio, M. 
 Caslius Rufus, and C. Licinius Calvus (49 B.C.), 
 all remarkable men. Of these Calvus is the 
 most important ; by a narrow chance he failed to 
 gain the fame that Cicero won. Calvus was the 
 leader of the bitter opposition that arose against 
 the Ciceronian type of oratory. He pleased the 
 public which Cicero in his old age no longer 
 charmed, and he must be added to the list of 
 Rome's greatest orators, together with M. Brutus, 
 nephew of Cato, an orator of great power and 
 effectiveness. C. Asinius Pollio and M. Valerius 
 Messala, the last orators of the old school, com- 
 plete the tale of the great orators of the days of 
 Cicero. The tradition that Antonius the Triumvir 
 was an orator of the first rank lacks authentic evi- 
 dence to substantiate it.
 
 26 The World's Orators 
 
 We now arrive at a period in the history of 
 oratory when great names are infrequent and the 
 lesser ones unworthy of especial notice. Yet in 
 this era of oratorical decadence we meet with six 
 men whose claims to inclusion in our Canon can- 
 not be seriously disputed, although their great 
 abilities in other fields of effort have made them 
 better known to the general reader of modern 
 times as historians and rhetoricians. Students will, 
 however, agree that Seneca, Livy, Sallust, Pliny 
 the Younger, Tacitus, and Quintilian were great 
 orators. We know that these men were trained 
 in the art, that they exercised it in a preeminently 
 successful manner. If their speeches, with the 
 exception of one of Pliny's, have not been pre- 
 served, we need only turn to their other writings 
 to find abundant examples of oratorical master- 
 pieces. In Livy's Roman History are a score of 
 such examples, which are attributed by the author 
 to early Roman orators. Though the orations may 
 embody the ideas of these orators, yet the con- 
 struction and language are Livy's, and even the 
 thought itself may be his. As with this author, 
 so is it with the others whose names we have 
 added to the Canon. This authorship, together 
 with the information which we have of their lives, 
 warrants us in placing Livy and Sallust among the 
 great orators of Rome, to which rank Seneca, Pliny 
 the Younger, Tacitus, and Quintilian unquestionably
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 27 
 
 belong. We may in recapitulation present, as a 
 tentative Canon of Roman orators, the following 
 names : 
 
 Cethegus Hortensius 
 
 Cato (the elder) Cicero 
 
 SCIPIO (y^MILIANUS) JULIUS C^SAR 
 
 Ly€LIUS Calvus 
 
 Galea Brutus 
 
 Carbo Seneca 
 
 Gracchus, T. Livy 
 
 Gracchus, G. Sallust 
 Antonius, M. (the orator) Pliny the Younger 
 
 Crassus Tacitus 
 
 QyiNTILIAN 
 
 The fifth type of Roman oratory, that of the 
 Law Courts, began to grow in importance in the 
 third century before Christ. It continued to en- 
 gage the attention of the orators throughout the 
 Republic, and gained in power and influence with 
 the Imperial era. It survived the Christianizing 
 of the Empire. Roman legal or judicial oratory 
 is by no means its highest type. Yet no other 
 form, except the oratory of the Forum, excelled it 
 in persuasive and emotional characteristics. That 
 such oratory was eloquent cannot be denied, but 
 in it the absence of ethical and even truthful 
 standards was conspicuous. Manipulation of evi- 
 dence, plays upon emotion, and passionate appeals 
 won success in the courts. The successful judi- 
 cial orators were powerful speakers, but whatever 
 their private probity might have been, they did
 
 \/ 
 
 28 The World's Orators 
 
 not scruple to use the most reprehensible methods 
 to gain their cases. Form and precedent choked 
 oratory in the last days of Rome, and the elo- 
 quence of the courts ceased, while dry formalism, 
 with no touch of greater justice, prevailed. 
 
 As Democratic liberty gave place to Imperial 
 control, the practice of this type of oratory de- 
 clined, until it might well be said that political 
 oratory of the type of the Republic was dead. 
 But its place was taken by a new school, by 
 another type of public speaking, that of the 
 Rhetoricians or Declaimers. This sixth form of 
 Roman oratory was a natural consequence, since 
 ''speech-making and speech-hearing were deeply 
 rooted in the Roman nature. Hence, when the 
 Forum became dull, speech-making retired to the 
 school-room to continue there a shadowy life; 
 rhetoric supplanted oratory, rhetoricians took the 
 place of orators, and speaking was superseded by 
 declaiming." The first school of Roman rhetoric 
 was opened by L Plotius Gallus, about 90 B.C., 
 and this school and its successors superseded the 
 private instruction in the art of public speaking 
 which had existed for many years. 
 
 Declamation became the fashion, and the rhe- 
 toricians were the idols of the hour. The orators 
 became declaimers, and in the reign of Augustus 
 we meet the eminent names of Messalinus and 
 Haterius, Porcius Latro, Fuscus Arellius, Albucius
 
 The Oratory of Ancient Rome 29 
 
 Selus, and Rutulus Lupus. The greatest of these 
 declaimers was Latro, but even his rank is below 
 that of AnUcTus Seneca. The declamations of this 
 period are of two principal forms : The Contro- 
 versia, a discussion of legal questions, and the 
 Suasoria, a debate upon imaginary themes. These 
 two types are, perhaps, best preserved in the 
 works of Seneca and Qiiintilian. 
 
 The Panegyric was the direct result of the teach- 
 ing of the rhetoricians. It was the crowning 
 effort of their school. This type of oratory reached 
 its greatest development under the later C^sars. 
 Its period of degeneracy was soon reached, and 
 panegyrists devoted their talents to the praise of 
 the most trivial and even debasing subjects for 
 the purpose of gain. In all this prostitution of 
 eloquence, a certain grace, beauty, and wealth 
 of thought remained to charm the great crowds 
 which thronged to listen with eager attention to 
 the orators. Of those panegyrics that have been 
 preserved to us, that of Pliny the Younger (100 
 A.D.) on Trajan is esteemed the best, but we have 
 other examples of this style of oratory that must 
 be noted. The first important panegyric was that 
 of Cicero upon Pompey ; this forms a part of the 
 oration upon the Manilian Law. The next was 
 upon Marcellus, and was the work of CTsar. 
 But these panegyrics antedated the Empire, dur- 
 ing the existence of which flourished Pliny the 
 
 /
 
 30 The World's Orators 
 
 Younger, Claudius Mamertinus, with his orations 
 on Diocletian (289 a. d.), and on Maximianus 
 (292 A.D.) ; Eunimius, with two panegyrics on 
 Constantine Chlorus (296 a.d.), and those upon 
 Constantine (310, 311-313 a.d.); Nazarius, with 
 one upon the same emperor (321 a.d.); Mamer- 
 tinus, who delivered an oration upon Julian (362 
 A.D.), as did Ausonius on Gratian (379 a.d.). The 
 last of these orators is Pacatus, and his oration 
 upon Theodosius (389 a.d.) is the latest of the 
 major panegyrics that have been preserved to us. 
 
 With the passing of the panegyrists we enter 
 upon a new era in the history of eloquence, an 
 era lasting ten centuries, in which the orators of 
 the Christian Church stood unrivalled.
 
 C. SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS 
 
 C. Sallustius Crispus, commonly known as Sallust, was 
 born in the year 84 b.c. at Amiternum. His family was ple- 
 beian. Little is known of his early life. He was prominent 
 in political affairs, and during the civil war attached himself 
 to the party of Caesar, whose warm friend he was. Despite 
 his plebeian origin he rose steadily through the various politi- 
 cal official grades, was quaestor, tribune of the Plebeians, and 
 a member of the Senate, from which body he was expelled in 
 50 B.C., because, as was alleged, the viciousness of his life dis- 
 graced the senatorial body. In all probability, without refer- 
 ence to the truth of the charge, he was degraded because the 
 dominant party was opposed to him as a partisan of Caesar. 
 In 47 B.C. Caesar rewarded him for his zeal and fidelity by the 
 praetorship of Numidia and the restoration of his senatorial 
 rank. He returned from Numidia in 45 e.c, with an enormous 
 fortune, and retired from public activity, spending the balance 
 of his life in pleasure and literary employment. It was in this 
 period that his great works were produced. An examination 
 of his political activity shows that from the moment of his 
 entrance into public life he was continually addressing the 
 Romans, in the Law Courts, in the Forum, and in the Senate. 
 His talents as an orator won him the favor of the leaders and 
 the support of the people, and the speeches in his History are 
 the outgrowth of his oratorical training. He died at the age of 
 fifty-two. 
 
 His style was cultured, classic, and a trifle archaic. It is 
 supposed he sought to acquire the style of Thucydides. With 
 all his faults, the charm of Sallust's writings has won him the 
 distinction of disputing with Livy the title of Rome's greatest 
 historian. 
 
 The great works of this prince of Roman historians are 
 Jugurtha, the Conspiracy of Catiline and the History of 
 
 31
 
 32 The World's Orators 
 
 Rome ; by them his fame was made, and through them it 
 will remain secure. In these works we find masterpieces 
 of oratory ascribed to early Romans, but in many cases such 
 ascription is manifestly false. We know that they are from 
 the pen of Sallust. 
 
 One of the best text of the works of Sallust is that published 
 in the Teubner series. Several translations have been made. 
 
 For bibliographies consult the works of Teuffel and 
 Engleman.
 
 TO THE CONSPIRATORS 
 
 L. Sergius Catiline. 
 
 This speech is put in the mouth of Catiline by Sallust, but is essentially the 
 work of the historian. 
 
 IF your courage and fidelity had not been suf- 
 ficiently proved by me, this favorable oppor- 
 tunity would have occurred to no purpose ; 
 mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be 
 within our grasp ; nor should I, depending on 
 irresolution or fickle-mindedness, pursue contin- 
 gencies instead of certainties. But as 1 have, on 
 many remarkable occasions, experienced your 
 bravery and attachment to me, I have ventured 
 to engage in a most important and glorious enter- 
 prise. 1 am aware, too, that whatever advantages 
 or evils affect you, the same affect me ; and to 
 have the same desires and the same aversions 
 is assuredly a firm bond of friendship. 
 
 What I have been meditating, you have already 
 separately heard. But my ardor for action is daily 
 more and more excited, when 1 consider what our 
 
 VOL. U.— 3 
 
 33
 
 34 Catiline 
 
 future condition of life must be, unless we our- 
 selves assert our claims to liberty. For since the 
 government has fallen under the power and juris- 
 diction of a few men, kings and princes have con- 
 stantly been their tributaries ; nations and States 
 have paid them taxes ; but all the rest of us, how- 
 ever brave or worthy, whether noble or plebeian, 
 have been regarded as a mere mob, without inter- 
 est or authority, and subject to those to whom, 
 if the State were in a sound condition, we should 
 be a terror. Hence, all influence, power, honor, 
 and wealth, are in their hands, or where they 
 dispose of them ; to us they have left only insults, 
 dangers, persecutions. To such indignities, O 
 bravest of men, how long will you submit ? Is it 
 not better to die in a glorious attempt than, after 
 having been the sport of other men's insolence, to 
 resign with ignominy a wretched and degraded 
 existence ? 
 
 But success (I call gods and men to witness !) is 
 in our own hands. We are in the flush of youth ; 
 our spirit is unbroken : among our oppressors, on 
 the contrary, through age and wealth, a general 
 debility has been produced. We have, therefore, 
 only to make a beginning ; the course of events 
 will accomplish the rest. 
 
 Who in the world, indeed, that has the feelings 
 of a man, can endure that these men should have 
 a superfluity of riches to squander in bridging
 
 To the Conspirators 35 
 
 seas and levelling mountains, and that means 
 should be wanting to us to procure even the 
 necessaries of life ; that they should join together 
 two houses or more, and that we should not have 
 a hearth to call our own ? They, though they 
 purchase pictures, statues, and embossed plate ; 
 though they pull down new buildings and erect 
 others, and lavish and abuse their wealth in every 
 possible way, yet cannot, with the utmost efforts 
 of caprice, exhaust it. But for us there is poverty 
 at home, debts abroad ; our present circumstances 
 are bad, our prospects much worse ; and what, 
 in a word, is left to us but a miserable existence ? 
 Will you not, then, awake to action ? Behold, 
 that liberty, that liberty for which you have so often 
 wished, with wealth, honor, and glory, is set be- 
 fore your eyes. All these prizes Fortune offers to 
 the victorious. Let the enterprise itself, then, let 
 the opportunity, let your poverty, your dangers, 
 and the glorious spoils of war, animate you far 
 more than my words. Use me either as your 
 leader or as your fellow-soldier ; neither my heart 
 nor my hand shall be wanting to you. These 
 objects I hope to effect, in union with you, in the 
 character of consul ; unless, indeed, my expecta- 
 tion deceives me, and you prefer to be slaves rather 
 than masters. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 TO HIS SOLDIERS 
 
 L. Sergiiis Catiline. 
 
 This speech is attributed by Sallust to Catiline. It is not authentic, yet 
 presents a good illustration of the speeches which Roman generals often 
 addressed to their troops. Sallust says : " When Catiline saw that he was 
 surrounded by mountains and by hostile forces, that his schemes in the city had 
 been unsuccessful, and that there was no hope either of escape or of succor, 
 tiiinking it best, in such circumstances, to try the fortune of a battle, he resolved 
 upon engaging, as speedily as possible, with Antonius. Having, therefore, 
 assembled his troops, he addressed them in the following words : " 
 
 I AM well aware, soldiers, that words cannot in- 
 spire courage ; that a spiritless army cannot be 
 rendered active, or a timid army valiant, by the 
 speech of its commander. Whatever courage is in 
 the heart of a man, whether from nature or from 
 habit, so much will be shown by him in the field ; 
 and on him whom neither glory nor danger can 
 move, exhortation is bestowed in vain ; for the 
 terror in his breast stops his ears. 
 
 I have called you together, however, to give 
 you a few instructions, and to explain to you, at 
 the same time, my reasons for the course which I 
 have adopted. You all know, soldiers, how severe 
 
 a penalty the inactivity and cowardice of Lentulus 
 
 36
 
 To his Soldiers 37 
 
 has brought upon himself and us ; and how, while 
 waiting for reinforcements from the city, I was un- 
 able to march into Gaul. In what situation our 
 affairs now are, you all understand as well as 1 
 myself. Two armies of the enemy, one on the 
 side of Rome, and the other on that of Gaul, 
 oppose our progress ; while the want of corn and 
 of other necessaries prevents us from remaining in 
 our present position, however strongly we may 
 desire to do so. Whithersoever we would go, we 
 must open a passage with our swords. I conjure 
 you, therefore, to maintain a brave and resolute 
 spirit ; and to remember, when you advance to 
 battle, that on your own right hands depend riches, 
 honor, and glory, with the enjoyment of your 
 liberty and of your country. If we conquer, all 
 will be safe ; we shall have provisions in abundance, 
 and the colonies and corporate towns will open 
 their gates to us. But if we lose the victory 
 through want of courage, those same places will 
 turn against us ; for neither place nor friend will 
 protect him whom his arms have not protected. 
 Furthermore, soldiers, the exigency that presses 
 upon us does not press upon our adversaries ; we 
 fight for our country, for our liberty, for our life ; 
 they contend for that which matters to them but 
 little, the power of a small party. Attack them, 
 therefore, with so much the greater confidence, and 
 call to mind your achievements of old.
 
 38 Catiline 
 
 We might, with the utmost ignominy, have 
 passed the rest of our days in exile. Some of you, 
 after losing your property, might have waited at 
 Rome for assistance from others. But because such 
 a life was disgusting and unendurable to men of 
 spirit, you resolved upon your present course. If 
 you wish to accomplish your ends, you must exert 
 all your resolution, for none but conquerors have 
 ever exchanged war for peace. To hope for safety 
 in flight, when you have turned away from the 
 enemy the arms with which you should defend 
 the body, is sheer madness. In battle, those who 
 are most afraid are always in most danger ; while 
 courage is a rampart. 
 
 When 1 look upon you, soldiers, and consider 
 your past exploits, a strong hope of victory ani- 
 mates me. Your spirit, your age, your valor, give 
 me confidence, to say nothing of necessity, which 
 makes even cowards brave. Our confined situation 
 is sufficient to prevent the numbers of the enemy 
 from surrounding us. But should Fortune be un- 
 just to your valor, take care not to lose your lives 
 unavenged ; take care not to be taken and 
 butchered like cattle, but rather, fighting like men, 
 leave to your enemies a bloody and mournful 
 victory. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 ON PUNISHING THE CONSPIRATORS 
 
 Ccesar, 
 
 This oration, delivered against Catiline and the conspirators, is considered by 
 some scholars to be preserved essentially as it was delivered by Caesar. If so, it 
 is the only speech of Caesar's which is extant. Without entering into a discus- 
 sion of the authenticity of the oration, it may be said that there is no valid 
 reason why Sallust should not have been able to preserve the exact words of 
 Caesar. If the speech had been read from a manuscript, Sallust's intimacy with 
 Caesar would have procured its use. If spoken without notes, the exact words 
 could have been secured by the system of short-hand in use at Rome. Then, 
 too, in care and painstaking accuracy Sallust was in advance of his age. Of 
 this speech we can only say, quoting Sallust, "Caesar, when it came to his 
 turn, was asked his opinion by the consul, and spoke to the following effect : " 
 
 IT becomes all men, Conscript Fathers, who 
 deliberate on dubious matters, to be influenced 
 neither by hatred, affection, anger, nor pity. The 
 mind, when such feelings obstruct its view, cannot 
 easily see what is right ; nor has any human being 
 ever consulted, at the same moment, both his 
 passions and his interest. When the mind is free 
 to exert itself, its reasoning is sound ; but passion, 
 if it gain possession of it, becomes its tyrant, and 
 reason is powerless. 
 
 I could easily mention. Conscript Fathers, 
 numerous examples of kings and nations who, 
 
 39
 
 40 Caesar 
 
 swayed by resentment or compassion, have 
 adopted injudicious courses of conduct ; but I had 
 rather speak of those instances in which our an- 
 cestors, in opposition to the impulse of passion, 
 acted with wisdom and sound policy. 
 
 In the Macedonian war, which we carried on 
 against King Perses, the great and powerful state 
 of Rhodes, which had risen by the aid of the 
 Roman people, was faithless and hostile to us ; 
 yet, when the war was ended and the conduct of 
 the Rhodians was taken into consideration, our 
 forefathers left them unmolested, lest any should 
 say that war was made upon them in order to seize 
 their wealth, rather than to punish their faithless- 
 ness. Throughout the Punic wars, too, though 
 the Carthaginians, both during peace and in suspen- 
 sions of arms, were guilty of many acts of injustice, 
 yet our ancestors never took occasion to retaliate, 
 but considered what was worthy of themselves, 
 rather than what might justly be inflicted on their 
 enemies. 
 
 You should observe similar caution. Conscript 
 Fathers, that the guilt of Lentulus and the other 
 conspirators may not have greater weight with 
 you than your own dignity, and that you may not 
 regard your indignation more than your character. 
 If, indeed, a punishment adequate to their crimes 
 be discovered, I consent to extraordinary measures ; 
 but if the enormity of their crimes exceeds whatever
 
 On Punishing the Conspirators 41 
 
 can be devised, I think that we should inflict only 
 such penalties as the laws have provided. 
 
 Most of those who have given their opinions 
 before me have deplored in studied and impressive 
 language the sad fate that threatens the Republic ; 
 they have recounted the barbarities of war and 
 the afflictions that would fall on the vanquished ; 
 they have told us that maidens would be dis- 
 honored and youths abused ; that children would 
 be torn from the embraces of their parents ; that 
 matrons would be subjected to the passions of the 
 conquerors ; that temples and dwelling-houses 
 would be plundered ; that massacres and fires 
 would follow ; and that every place would be filled 
 with arms, corpses, blood, and lamentation. But 
 to what end, in the name of the eternal gods ! was 
 such eloquence directed ? Was it intended to ren- 
 der you indignant with the conspiracy ? A speech, 
 doubtless, will inflame him whom so frightful and 
 monstrous a reality has not provoked ! Far from 
 it ; for to no man does evil directed against himself 
 appear a light matter ; many, on the contrary, have 
 felt it more seriously than was right. 
 
 But to different persons, Conscript Fathers, 
 different degrees of license are allowed. If those 
 who pass a life sunk in obscurity commit any error 
 through excessive anger, few become aware of it, 
 for their fame is as limited as their fortune ; but 
 the whole world knows the acts of those who live
 
 42 Caesar 
 
 invested with extensive power and in an exalted 
 station. Tlius in the highest positions there is least 
 liberty of action ; and it becomes us to indulge 
 neither partiality nor aversion, and least of all 
 animosity ; for what in others is called resentment 
 is in the powerful termed violence and cruelty. 
 
 1 am indeed of the opinion, Conscript Fathers, 
 that the utmost degree of torture is inadequate to 
 punish their crime ; but the generality of mankind 
 dwell on that which happens last, and in the case 
 of malefactors forget their guilt and talk only of 
 their punishment, should that punishment have 
 been inordinately severe. 1 feel assured, too, that 
 Decimus Silanus, a man of spirit and resolution, 
 made the suggestions which he offered from zeal 
 for the State, and that he had no thought of favor 
 or enmity in so important a matter ; such 1 know 
 to be his character, and such his discretion. Yet 
 his proposal appears to me, I will not say cruel (for 
 what can be cruel that is directed against such 
 characters ?) but foreign to our policy. For assur- 
 edly, Silanus, either your fears or their treasons 
 must have induced you, a consul elect, to propose 
 this new kind of punishment. Of fear it is un- 
 necessary to speak when, by the prompt activity of 
 that distinguished man, our consul, such numerous 
 forces are under arms ; and of the punishment, we 
 may say, what is indeed the truth, that in trouble 
 and distress death is a relief from suffering, and
 
 Opx Punishing the Conspirators 43 
 
 not a torment ; that it puts an end to all human 
 woes ; and that, beyond it, there is no place either 
 for sorrow or joy. 
 
 But why, in the name of the immortal gods, 
 did you not add to your proposal, Silanus, that, 
 before they were put to death, they should be 
 punished with the scourge ? Was it because the 
 Porcian law forbids it ? But other laws forbid con- 
 demned citizens to be deprived of life, and allow 
 them to go into exile. Or was it because scourging 
 is a severer penalty than death ? Yet what can be 
 too severe, or too harsh, towards men convicted of 
 such an offence ? But if scourging be a milder 
 punishment than death, how is it consistent to ob- 
 serve the law as to the smaller point, when you 
 disregard it as to the greater ? 
 
 But who, it may be asked, will blame any sever- 
 ity that shall be decreed against these parricides 
 of their country ? I answer that time, the course 
 of events, and fortune, whose caprice governs 
 nations, may blame it. Whatever shall fall on the 
 traitors, will fall on them justly ; but it is for you, 
 Conscript Fathers, to consider well what you re- 
 solve to inflict on others. All precedents productive 
 of evil effects have had their origin in what was 
 good ; but when a government passes into the 
 hands of the ignorant or unprincipled, any new ex- 
 ample of severity, inflicted on deserving and 
 suitable objects, is extended to those who are not
 
 44 Caesar 
 
 properly deserving of it. The Lacedaemonians, 
 when they had conquered the Athenians, appointed 
 thirty men to govern their State. These thirty be- 
 gan their administration by putting to death, even 
 without a trial, all who were notoriously wicked 
 or publicly detestable ; acts at which the people 
 rejoiced, and extolled their justice. But afterwards, 
 when their lawless power gradually increased, 
 they proceeded at their pleasure to kill the good 
 and bad indiscriminately and to strike terror into 
 all; and thus the State, overpowered and enslaved, 
 paid a heavy penalty for its imprudent exultation. 
 Within our own memory, too, when the 
 victorious Sulla ordered Damasippus, and others 
 of similar character, who had risen by distressing 
 their country, to be put to death, who did not 
 commend the proceeding ? All exclaimed that 
 wicked and factious men, who had troubled the 
 State with their seditious practices, had justly for- 
 feited their lives. Yet this proceeding was the 
 commencement of great bloodshed. For when- 
 ever anv one coveted the mansion or villa, or even 
 the plate or apparel of another, he exerted his 
 influence to have him numbered among the pro- 
 scribed. Thus they to whom the death of Da- 
 masippus had been a subject of joy were soon 
 after dragged to death themselves ; nor was there 
 any cessation of slaughter until Sulla had glutted 
 all his partisans with riches.
 
 On Punishing the Conspirators 45 
 
 Such excesses, indeed, I do not fear from 
 Marcus Tullius, or in these times. But in a large 
 State there arise many men of various dispositions. 
 At some other period, and under another consul, 
 who, like the present, may have an army at his 
 command, some false accusation may be credited 
 as true ; and when, with our example for a prece- 
 dent, the consul shall have drawn the sword on 
 the authority of the Senate, who shall stay its 
 progress or temper its fury ? 
 
 Our ancestors, Conscript Fathers, were never 
 deficient in conduct or courage ; nor did pride 
 prevent them from imitating the customs of other 
 nations, if these appeared deserving of regard. 
 Their armor and weapons of war they borrowed 
 from the Samnites ; their insignia of authority, for 
 the most part, from the Etrurians ; and, in short, 
 whatever appeared eligible to them, whether 
 among allies or among enemies, they adopted at 
 home with the greatest readiness, being more in- 
 clined to emulate merit than to be jealous of it. 
 But at the same time, adopting a practice from 
 Greece, they punished their citizens with the 
 scourge, and inflicted capital punishment on such 
 as were condemned. When the Republic, how- 
 ever, became powerful, and faction grew strong 
 because of the vast number of citizens, men began 
 to involve the innocent in condemnation, and other 
 like abuses were practised ; and it was then that
 
 46 Caesar 
 
 the Porcian and other laws were provided, by which 
 condemned citizens were allowed to go into exile. 
 This lenity of our ancestors, Conscript Fathers, 1 
 regard as a very strong reason that we should not 
 adopt any new measures of severity. For assuredly 
 there was greater merit and wisdom in those, who 
 raised so mighty an empire from humble means, 
 than in us, who can scarcely preserve what they so 
 honorably acquired. Am I of the opinion, then, 
 you will ask, that the conspirators should be set 
 free, and that the army of Catiline should thus be 
 increased ? Far from it ; my recommendation is, 
 that their property be confiscated, and that they 
 themselves be kept in custody in such of the muni- 
 cipal towns as are best able to bear the expense ; 
 that no one hereafter bring their case before the 
 Senate or speak of it to the people ; and that the 
 Senate now give their judgment that he who shall 
 act contrary to this, will act against the Republic 
 and the general safety. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST THE CONSPIRATORS 
 
 Marcus Porcius Cato 
 
 The same question of authenticity mentioned in the note to the oration of 
 Caesar On Punishing the Conspirators applies to the speech of Cato. Sallust 
 says : " When Caesar had ended his speech, the rest briefly expressed iheir assent, 
 some to one speaker and some to another, in support of their different proposals ; 
 but Marcus Porcius Cato, having been asked his opinion, made a speech to the 
 following purport " : 
 
 MY feelings, Conscript Fathers, are altogether 
 different when 1 contemplate our circum- 
 stances and dangers, and when I revolve in my 
 mind the sentiments of some who have spoken 
 before me. Those speakers, as it seems to me, 
 have considered only how to punish the traitors 
 who have raised war against their country, their 
 parents, their altars, and their homes ; but the 
 state of affairs warns us rather to secure ourselves 
 against them than to take counsel as to what 
 sentence we should pass upon them. Other crimes 
 you may punish after they have been committed ; 
 but with this, unless you prevent its commission, 
 you will, when it has once taken effect, appeal to 
 justice in vain. When the city is taken, no power 
 is left to the vanquished. 
 
 47
 
 48 Marcus Porcius Cato 
 
 But in the name of the immortal gods, I call 
 upon you who have always valued your mansions 
 and villas, your statues and pictures, at a higher 
 price than the welfare of your country, if you 
 wish to preserve those possessions, whatever kind 
 they are, to which you are attached ; if you wish 
 to secure quiet for the enjoyment of your pleasures, 
 arouse yourselves, and act in defence of your 
 country. We are not debating on the revenues, 
 or on injuries done to our allies; our liberty and 
 our lives are at stake. 
 
 Often, Conscript Fathers, have I spoken at great 
 length in this assembly ; often have I complained 
 of the luxury and avarice of our citizens, and, by 
 that very means, have incurred the displeasure of 
 many. 1, who never excused to myself, or to my 
 own conscience, the commission of any fault, could 
 not easily pardon the misconduct or condone the 
 licentiousness of others. But though you little 
 regarded my remonstrances, yet the Republic 
 remained secure ; its own strength was proof 
 against your remissness. The question, however, 
 at present under discussion, is not whether we live 
 in a good or bad state of morals ; not how great or 
 how splendid is the Empire of the Roman people ; 
 but whether these things around us, of whatever 
 value they are, are to remain our own or are to fall, 
 with ourselves, into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 In such a case, does any one talk to me of
 
 Against the Conspirators 49 
 
 gentleness and compassion ? For some time past, 
 it is true, we have forgotten the real names of 
 things ; for to lavish the property of others is called 
 generosity, and audacity in wickedness is called 
 heroism ; and hence the State is reduced to the 
 brink of ruin. But let those who thus misname 
 things be liberal, since such is the practice, out of 
 the property of our allies ; let them be merciful to 
 the robbers of the treasury ; but let them not lavish 
 our blood, and, while they spare a few criminals, 
 bring destruction on all the guiltless. 
 
 Caius Caesar, a short time ago, spoke in fair 
 and elegant language before this assembly on the 
 subject of Life and Death ; considering as false, I 
 suppose, that which is said of the dead : that the 
 bad, going a different way from the good, inhabit 
 places which are gloomy, desolate, dreary, and full 
 of horror. He accordingly proposed that the 
 property of the conspirators should be confiscated, 
 and themselves kept in custody in the municipal 
 towns ; fearing, it seems, that if they remain at 
 Rome they may be rescued either by their accom- 
 plices in the conspiracy or by a hired mob ; as if, 
 forsooth, the mischievous and profligate were to be 
 found only in the city and not throughout the 
 whole of Italy, or as if desperate attempts would 
 not be more likely to succeed where there is less 
 power to resist them. His proposal, therefore, if 
 he fears any danger from them, is absurd ; but if, 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 50 Marcus Porcius Cato 
 
 amidst such universal terror, he alone is free from 
 alarm, it the more concerns me to fear for you and 
 for myself 
 
 Be sure, then, that when you decide on the 
 fate of Lentulus and the other prisoners, you at the 
 same time determine that of the army of Catiline 
 and of all the conspirators. The more spirit you 
 display in your decision, the more will their confi- 
 dence be diminished ; but if they perceive you in 
 the smallest degree irresolute, they will advance 
 upon you with fury. 
 
 Do not suppose that our ancestors, from so 
 small a commencement, raised the Republic to 
 greatness merely by force of arms. If such had 
 been the case, we should now enjoy it in a most 
 excellent condition ; for of allies and citizens, as 
 well as arms and horses, we have a much greater 
 abundance than they. But there were other 
 things which made them great, but which no 
 longer exist among us : such as industry at home, 
 equitable government abroad, and minds impartial 
 in council, uninfluenced by any immoral or im- 
 proper feeling. Instead of such virtues, we have 
 luxury and avarice, public distress and private 
 superfluity ; we extol wealth, and yield to indo- 
 lence ; no distinction is made between good men 
 and bad ; and ambition usurps the honors due to 
 virtue. Nor is this wonderful, since each of you 
 studies his own interest, since at home you are
 
 Against the Conspirators 51 
 
 slaves to pleasure, and here to money or to favor ; 
 and hence it happens that an attack is made on 
 the defenceless State. 
 
 But on these subjects 1 shall say no more. Cer- 
 tain citizens, of the highest rank, have conspired 
 to ruin their country ; they are inciting the Gauls, 
 the bitterest foes of the Roman name, to join in a 
 war against us ; the leader of the enemy is ready to 
 make a descent upon us, and do you hesitate, even 
 in such circumstances, how to treat armed incendi- 
 aries arrested within your walls ? 1 advise you to 
 have mercy upon them ; they are young men who 
 have been led astray by ambition ; send them 
 away, even with arms in their hands. But if they 
 turn those arms against you, such mercy and such 
 clemency will end in misery to yourselves. The 
 case, assuredly, is dangerous, but you do not feel 
 it ; yes, you fear it greatly, but through weakness 
 and want of spirit you hesitate how to act, wait- 
 ing one for another, and trusting to the immortal 
 gods, who have so often preserved your country 
 in the greatest dangers. But the protection of the 
 gods is not obtained by vows and womanish sup- 
 plications ; it is by vigilance, activity, and prudent 
 measures that general welfare is secured. When 
 you are once resigned to sloth and indolence, it 
 is in vain that you implore the gods ; they are 
 then indignant and threaten vengeance. 
 
 In the days of our forefathers, Titus Manlius
 
 52 Marcus Porcius Cato 
 
 Torquatus, during a war with the Gauls, ordered 
 his own son to be put to death, because he had 
 fought with an enemy contrary to orders. That 
 noble youth suffered for excess of bravery ; and do 
 you hesitate in determining what sentence to pass 
 on the most inhuman of traitors ? Perhaps their 
 former life is at variance with their present crime. 
 Spare, then, the dignity of Lentulus, if he has ever 
 spared his own honor or character, or had any re- 
 gard for gods or for men. Pardon the youth of 
 Cethegus, unless this be the second time that he 
 has made war upon his country. As to Gabinius, 
 Statilius, Coeparius, why should 1 make any re- 
 mark upon them ? Had they ever possessed the 
 smallest share of discretion, they would not have 
 engaged in such a plot against their country. 
 
 In conclusion. Conscript Fathers, if there were 
 time to amend an error, 1 might easily suffer you, 
 since you disregard words, to be corrected by ex- 
 perience of consequences. But we are beset by 
 dangers on all sides : Catiline, with his army, is 
 ready to devour us, while there are other enemies 
 within the walls and in the heart of the city ; and 
 no measures can be taken, no plans arranged, 
 without their knowledge. The more necessary is 
 it, therefore, to act with promptitude. What 1 
 advise, then, is this : since the State, by a 
 treasonable combination of abandoned citizens, 
 has been brought into the greatest peril, and
 
 Against the Conspirators 
 
 53 
 
 since the conspirators have been convicted, on the 
 evidence of Titus Volturcius and of the deputies 
 of the Allobroges, and on their own confession, 
 of having concerted massacres, conflagrations, and 
 other horrible and cruel outrages against their 
 fellow-citizens and their country, that, therefore, 
 punishment ought to be inflicted, according to the 
 usage of our ancestors, on the prisoners who have 
 confessed their guilt, as on men convicted of 
 capital crimes. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST THE POWER OF THE NOBILITY 
 
 Cuius Memmius, 
 
 " When rumor had made known the affairs transacted in Africa [the conduct of 
 the Roman generals in treating with Jugurtha] and the mode in which they had 
 been brought to pass, the conduct of the consul became a subject of discussion 
 in every place and company at Rome. Among the people there was violent in- 
 dignation ; as to the Senators, it was a matter of doubt whether they would 
 ratify so flagitious a proceeding or annul the act of the consul. The influence of 
 Scaurus, who was said to be the supporter and accomplice of Bestia, was what 
 chiefly restrained the Senate from acting with justice and honor. But Caius 
 Memmius, of whose boldness of spirit and hatred to the power of the nobility I 
 have already spoken, incited the people by his harangues, during the perplexity 
 and delay of the Senators, to take vengeance on the authors of the treaty ; he 
 exhorted them not to abandon the public interest or their own liberty ; he set 
 before them the many tyrannical and violent proceedings of the nobles, and 
 omitted no art to inflame the popular passions. As the eloquence of Memmius, 
 at that period, had great reputation and influence, I have thought proper to give 
 in full one out of many of his speeches ; and 1 take, in preference to others, that 
 which he delivered in the assembly of the people, after the return of Bestia, in 
 words of the following effect : " (Sallust.) 
 
 WERE not my zeal for the good of the State, 
 my fellow-citizens, superior to every other 
 feeling, there are many considerations which would 
 deter me from appearing in your cause ; I allude to 
 the power of the opposite party, your own tameness 
 of spirit, the absence of all justice, and, above all, 
 the fact that integrity is attended with more danger 
 
 54
 
 Against the Power of the Nobility 55 
 
 than honor, hideed, it grieves me to relate how, 
 during the last fifteen years, you have been a sport 
 to the arrogance of an oligarchy ; how dishonor- 
 ably and how utterly unavenged your defenders 
 have perished ; and how your spirit has become 
 degenerate by sloth and indolence ; for not even 
 now, when your enemies are in your power, will 
 you rouse yourselves to action, but you continue 
 still to stand in awe of those to whom you should 
 be a terror. 
 
 Notwithstanding this state of things, I still feel 
 prompted to make an attack on the power of that 
 faction. That liberty of speech, therefore, which 
 has been left me by my father 1 shall assuredly ex- 
 ert against them ; but whether 1 shall use it in vain, 
 or for your advantage, must, my fellow-citizens, 
 depend upon yourselves. 1 do not, however, ex- 
 hort you, as your ancestors have often done, to rise 
 in arms against injustice. There is at present no 
 need of violence, no need of secession ; for your 
 tyrants must work their fall by their own 
 misconduct. 
 
 After the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, whom 
 they accused of aspiring to be king, persecutions 
 were instituted against the common people of 
 Rome ; and after the slaughter of Gains Gracchus 
 and Marcus Fulvius, many of your order were put 
 to death in prison. But let us leave these pro- 
 ceedings out of the question ; let us admit that to
 
 56 Caius Memmius 
 
 restore their rights to the people was to aspire to 
 sovereignty ; let us allow that what cannot be 
 avenged without shedding the blood of citizens 
 was done with justice. You have seen with silent 
 indignation, however, in past years, the treasury 
 pillaged ; you have seen kings and free people pay- 
 ing tribute to a small party of Patricians, in whose 
 hands were both the highest honors and the 
 greatest wealth ; but they now deem it but a small 
 matter to have carried on such proceedings with 
 impunity ; and, at last, your laws and your honor, 
 with every civil and religious obligation, have been 
 sacrificed for the benefit of your enemies. Nor do 
 they who have done these things show either shame 
 or contrition, but parade proudly before your faces, 
 displaying their sacerdotal dignities, their consul- 
 ships, and some of them their triumphs, as if they 
 regarded them as marks of honor and not as fruits 
 of their dishonesty. Even slaves, purchased with 
 money, will not submit to unjust commands from 
 their masters ; yet you, my fellow-citizens, who 
 were born to empire, tamely endure oppression. 
 
 But who are these, who have thus taken the 
 government into their hands ? Men of the most 
 abandoned character, of blood-stained hands, of 
 insatiable avarice, of enormous guilt, and of match- 
 less pride ; men by whom integrity, reputation, 
 public spirit, and indeed everything, whether hon- 
 orable or dishonorable, is converted to a means
 
 Against the Power of the Nobility 57 
 
 of gain. Some of them make it their defence 
 that they have killed tribunes of the people ; 
 others, that they have instituted unjust prosecu- 
 tions ; others, that they have shed your blood ; 
 and thus, the more atrocities each has committed, 
 the greater is his security ; while your oppressors, 
 whom the same desires, the same aversions, and 
 the same fears combine in strict union (a union 
 among good men is friendship, but among the 
 bad is confederacy in guilt), have excited in you, 
 through your want of spirit, that terror which they 
 ought to feel for their own crimes. 
 
 If your concern to preserve your liberty were as 
 great as their ardor to increase their power of op- 
 pression, the State would not be distracted as it is 
 at present ; and the marks of favor which proceed 
 from you would be conferred, not on the most 
 shameless, but on the most deserving. Your fore- 
 fathers, in order to assert their rights and establish 
 their authority, twice seceded in arms to Mount 
 Aventine ; and will not you exert yourselves, to 
 the utmost of your power, in defence of that lib- 
 erty which you received from them ? Will you 
 not display so much the more spirit in the cause, 
 from the reflection that it is a greater disgrace to 
 lose what has been gained, than not to have 
 gained it at all ? 
 
 But some will ask me, "What course of conduct, 
 then, would you advise us to pursue ? " I would
 
 58 Caius Memmius 
 
 advise you to inflict punishment on those who 
 have sacrificed the interests of their country to the 
 enemy ; not, indeed, by arms, or any violence 
 (which would be more unbecoming, however, for 
 you to inflict than for them to suffer), but by prose- 
 cutions, and by the evidence of Jugurtha himself, 
 who, if he has really surrendered, will doubtless 
 obey your summons ; whereas, if he shows con- 
 tempt for it, you will at once judge what sort of a 
 peace or surrender it is from which springs im- 
 punity to Jugurtha for his crimes, immense wealth 
 to a few men in power, and loss and infamy to the 
 Republic. 
 
 But perhaps you are not yet weary of the tyranny 
 of these men ; perhaps these times please you less 
 than those when kingdoms, provinces, laws, rights, 
 the administration of justice, war, and peace, and 
 indeed everything, civil and religious, was in the 
 hands of an oligarchy ; while you, that is, the 
 people of Rome, though unconquered by foreign 
 enemies and rulers of all nations around, were 
 content with being allowed to live ; for which of 
 you had spirit to throw off your slavery ? For 
 myself, indeed, though I think it most disgraceful 
 to receive an injury without resenting it, yet 1 could 
 easily allow you to pardon these basest of traitors, 
 because they are your fellow-citizens, were it not 
 certain that your indulgence would end in your 
 destruction. For such is their presumption, that
 
 Against the Power of the NobiHty 59 
 
 to escape punishment for their misdeeds will have 
 but little effect upon them, unless they be de- 
 prived at the same time of the power of doing 
 mischief; and endless anxiety will remain for you 
 if you shall have to reflect that you must either be 
 slaves or preserve your liberty by force of arms. 
 
 Of mutual trust, or concord, what hope is there ? 
 They wish to be lords ; you desire to be free ; they 
 seek to inflict injury, you to repel it ; they treat 
 your allies as enemies, your enemies as allies. 
 With feelings so opposite, can peace or friendship 
 subsist between you ? 1 warn you, therefore, and 
 exhort you, not to allow such enormous dishon- 
 esty to go unpunished. It is not an embezzlement 
 of the public money that has been committed ; 
 it is not a forcible extortion of money from your 
 allies ; offences, which, though great, are now, 
 from their frequency, considered as nothing ; but 
 the authority of the Senate and your own power 
 have been sacrificed to the bitterest of enemies, 
 and the public interest has been betrayed for 
 money, both at home and abroad ; and unless 
 these misdeeds be investigated and punishment 
 be inflicted on the guilty, what remains for us but 
 to live as the slaves of those who have committed 
 them ? For those who with impunity do what 
 they will are undoubtedly kings. 
 
 1 do not, however, wish to encourage you, O 
 Romans, to be better satisfied by finding your
 
 6o Caius Memmius 
 
 fellow-citizens guilty than innocent, but merely to 
 warn you not to bring ruin on the good by suffer- 
 ing the bad to escape. It is far better, in any 
 government, to be unmindful of a service than of 
 an injury ; for a good man, if neglected, only be- 
 comes less active ; but a bad man becomes more 
 daring. Besides, if the crimes of the wicked are 
 suppressed, the State will seldom need extraordi- 
 nary support from the virtuous. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST SULLA 
 
 Marcus y^milius Lepidus. 
 
 This oration has been declared authentic by early critics. There is at present 
 little doubt that, though the thoughts may possibly be those of Lepidus, the 
 composition is the work of Sallust. 
 
 YOUR clemency and probity, O Romans, for 
 which you are eminent and renowned among 
 other nations, excite in me the greatest apprehen- 
 sions concerning the tyranny of Sulla, lest either 
 by disbelieving about others what you yourselves 
 think wrongful, you should allow imposition to be 
 practised upon you (especially since all his hopes 
 depend on dishonesty and perfidy, and he does not 
 deem himself safe otherwise than by becoming 
 more abandoned and infamous than ever your fears 
 can forebode, so that, when you are completely sub- 
 jected to him, your sufferings may suppress in you 
 all care of recovering your liberty) ; or lest, if you 
 foresee his machinations, you should occupy your 
 thoughts rather in guarding against them than in 
 taking revenge for them. 
 His satellites, men of the highest name and with 
 
 6i
 
 62 Marcus ^milius Lepidus 
 
 the noblest examples of their forefathers for their 
 imitation, sacrifice their own freedom (I cannot 
 sufficiently wonder at their conduct) as a price for 
 the opportunity of domineering over you, and pre- 
 fer slavery and tyranny without laws to liberty 
 under the best laws. Illustrious descendants of 
 the Bruti, /Emilii, and Lutatii, born to overthrow 
 that which the virtue of their ancestors estab- 
 lished ! For what was it that they defended 
 against Pyrrhus, and Hannibal, and Philip, and 
 Antiochus, but liberty, and the security of our 
 homes, and obedience to nothing but the laws ? 
 But all these privileges this cruel Romulus with- 
 holds from us, as spoils torn from foreign enemies ; 
 nor is he satiated with the destruction of so many 
 armies, of a consul, and of other eminent men 
 whom the fortune of war has overwhelmed in 
 death, but grows still more bloodthirsty at a time 
 when victory converts the fury of most command- 
 ers into compassion. He is the only one, in the 
 memory of man, who has appointed punishments 
 for children yet unborn, to whom suffering is thus 
 insured before life. He revels in his atrocities, de- 
 fended as yet by the enormity of his crimes ; while 
 you, through dread of heavier servitude, are de- 
 terred from making an effort to recover your liberty. 
 Such despotism, my fellow-citizens, you must 
 exert yourselves to oppose, that your spoils may 
 not remain in the hands of the oppressor ; you
 
 Aerainst Sulla 63 
 
 '^fc) 
 
 must not delay, or think of trusting for relief to 
 entreaties ; unless, perchance, you expect that, 
 growing at length tired or ashamed of his tyranny, 
 he will venture on the greater hazard of resigning 
 what he has unjustly usurped. But he has pro- 
 ceeded to such a point that he thinks no conduct 
 is glorious but such as conduces to his safety, and 
 deems everything laudable that assists in preserv- 
 ing his power. It is in vain for you to expect that 
 peace and tranquillity, therefore, which, with the 
 enjoyment of liberty, many good men have sought 
 in preference to toil with honor ; you must either 
 be slaves or rulers, my fellow-citizens, you must 
 either be subjects of terror or objects of it. For 
 what else is left to you ? What human objects or 
 desires remain ? Or does anything divine continue 
 inviolate ? The people of Rome, once the lords 
 of other nations, but now deprived of empire, dig- 
 nity, and authority, and rendered helpless and 
 despicable, fmd left to them not even the allow- 
 ance made to slaves. The vast multitude of the 
 allies and the Latins, whom you presented with 
 the civil franchise for their many honorable ser- 
 vices, are excluded therefrom by the will of a 
 single individual, whose small band of satellites 
 have seized, as the rewards of their villanies, the 
 patrimonial lands of the innocent commonalty. 
 The laws, the administration of justice, the treas- 
 ury, the provinces, the tributary princes, are all
 
 64 Marcus ^milius Lepidus 
 
 under the direction of one man. You have seen 
 even human sacrifices offered by him, and tombs 
 dyed with the blood of Roman citizens. And does 
 any other course remain, then, for those who 
 would act as men, but to put an end to such injus- 
 tice, or to die honorably in attempting to do so ? 
 For nature has appointed one end to all men, even 
 though a man should be encased in steel ; nor will 
 any one, unless he has but the heart of a woman, 
 await without an effort the last extremity. 
 
 But I, according to Sulla's representations, am 
 a promoter of sedition, because 1 complain of the 
 rewards obtained by civil commotions ; and a 
 lover of war, because I seek to recover the priv- 
 ileges of peace. To make such a charge is to say 
 that you cannot be safe or secure under his gov- 
 ernment, unless Vettius Picens and Cornelius the 
 accountant be allowed to squander what others 
 have honorably acquired, and unless you approve 
 all the proscriptions of the innocent for the sake 
 of their wealth, the torture of illustrious citizens, 
 the depopulation of the city by banishment and 
 slaughter, and the practice of selling or giving 
 away, as if spoils taken from the Cimbri, the pos- 
 sessions of your unfortunate countrymen. He, 
 however, objects to me, further, that I myself have 
 a share in the property of those proscribed ; but 
 that 1 have such a share is the very greatest proof 
 of his tyranny, since neither I nor any one of us all
 
 Against Sulla 65 
 
 would have been safe from his vengeance if we 
 had strictly adhered to honesty. Yet that very 
 property, which I then bought under the influence 
 of terror, 1 am ready to restore, on repayment of 
 the purchase money, to the rightful owners ; for it 
 is not my design to sanction the spoliation of my 
 fellow-citizens. Let the sufferings which have re- 
 sulted from the indulgence of our angry passions, 
 from allowing Roman armies to encounter each 
 other, and from turning our arms from our ene- 
 mies against ourselves, be sufficient. Let there 
 be an end of injustice and outrage ; of which, 
 however, Sulla himself is so far from repenting, 
 that he glories in the perpetration of it, and would 
 pursue it with greater avidity if he had greater 
 power. 
 
 But I am not so much concerned about the 
 opinion which you may have of his character 
 as about the courage which you may find to op- 
 pose him. 1 am apprehensive lest, while each 
 waits for his neighbor to begin to act, you should 
 all be absolutely reduced to subjection (not indeed 
 by his power, which is weakened and impaired, 
 but by your own indolence) before you can pro- 
 ceed against him, and before he can venture to 
 flatter himself with the hopes of such success. 
 For, except his corrupt partisans, what man ap- 
 proves his proceedings ? Who does not wish that 
 every part of his course, except his victory, had 
 
 VOL. II.— 5.
 
 66 Marcus ^milius Lepidus 
 
 been of a different character ? The soldiers, by 
 whose blood wealth has been gained for Tarrula 
 and Scyrrus, the worst of slaves ? Or those to 
 whom, in competition for office, was preferred Fu- 
 fidius, a disgrace to his sex and a dishonor to 
 every magistracy ? To the victorious army, ac- 
 cordingly, I look for the strongest support, by 
 whom, through so many sufferings and hardships, 
 nothing has been gained but an oppressor ; unless 
 we suppose, indeed, that they took the field pur- 
 posely to destroy the tribunitial power which was 
 established by their ancestors, or to divest them- 
 selves of their own privileges and right of judica- 
 ture ? Glorious, in truth, was their recompense, 
 when, banished to woods and marshes, they found 
 reproach and hatred their only portion, and saw 
 the spoils of conquest in the hands of an oli- 
 garchy ! 
 
 How is it, then, that he presents himself before 
 us with such a train of followers, and with such 
 audacity ? Because success throws a wonderful 
 veil over vice ; (though, should fortune fail him, he 
 will be as much despised as he is now dreaded ;) 
 unless, perchance, he seeks to delude you with a 
 prospect of concord and peace, names which he 
 himself has given to his wickedness and treachery, 
 saying that Rome can never have an end of war, 
 unless the commonalty remain expelled from their 
 lands (a calamitous prey of civil war), and the
 
 Against Sulla 67 
 
 power and judicial authority in all matters, which 
 once belonged to the Roman people, be vested in 
 himself alone. If such an arrangement be thought 
 peace and concord, give your approval, I pray you, 
 to the most extravagant disturbances and altera- 
 tions of the State ; grant your sanction to the laws 
 which are imposed upon you ; accept tranquillity 
 and servitude ; and afford to posterity an example 
 for enslaving the people of Rome by the hire of 
 their own blood. 
 
 For myself, although, by my elevation to this 
 high office, enough has been attained for my an- 
 cestral name, for my own dignity, and even for 
 my personal protection, it was never my design to 
 pursue merely my own interests. Liberty, gained 
 with peril, appears to me more desirable than indo- 
 lent servitude. And if you, my fellow-citizens, 
 approve this sentiment, give me your support, 
 and, relying on the gracious assistance of the gods, 
 follow your consul, Marcus y^milius, as your leader 
 and guide to the recovery of your freedom. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST LEPIDUS 
 
 Lucius Philippus. 
 
 This creation is without doubt the wori< of Sallust. It is the companion 
 speech to that of Lepidus against Sulla, although not delivered until some time 
 after the date assigned to the latter oration. 
 
 1 COULD wish, beyond all things, Conscript 
 Fathers, that the State should be at peace, or 
 that, if it be in danger, it should be defended by 
 its ablest citizens, and that mischievous plots 
 should prove the ruin of their contrivers. But, on 
 the contrary, everything is disordered by factious 
 disturbances, disturbances excited by those whom 
 it would better become to suppress them than to 
 incite them. What the worst and weakest, more- 
 over, have determined upon, is to be executed by 
 the good and wise. For, though averse to your 
 inclinations, we are to undertake war because it 
 pleases Lepidus ; unless any of us, perchance, 
 choose to secure him peace on our part, and to 
 suffer hostilities on his. 
 
 Just heaven ! ye, who yet rule this city, but take 
 no thought for its interests, behold Lepidus, the 
 
 68
 
 Against Lepidus 69 
 
 worst of all infamous characters, of whom it can- 
 not be decided whether his wickedness or baseness 
 is the greater, heads an army for the purpose of 
 oppressing our liberties, and he who was once 
 contemptible has made himself formidable ; while 
 you, whispering and shrinking back, influenced 
 by words and the predictions of augurs, desire to 
 have peace rather than to maintain it, unmindful 
 that, by the weakness of your resolutions, you 
 lessen at once your dignity and his fears. And 
 this is a natural consequence, when, by plun- 
 der, he has gained from you a consulship, and, 
 by his factious proceedings, a province and an 
 army. What would he have received for good 
 deeds, when you have bestowed such rewards on 
 his villanies ? 
 
 But, you will say, those who have voted to the 
 last for the sending of deputies, for peace, concord, 
 and other things of the kind, have obtained favor 
 from him. On the contrary, they have been held 
 in contempt, thought unworthy of any share in the 
 administration, and fit only to be the prey of others, 
 as persons who sue for peace with the same weak- 
 ness with which they lost it when it was in their 
 possession. For myself, when, at the very first, 
 I saw Etruria conspiring with him, the proscribed 
 called to his support, and the Republic rent into 
 factions by his bribes, I thought that no time was 
 to be lost, and accordingly followed, with a few
 
 70 Lucius Philippus 
 
 others, the measures of Catulus. But that party 
 which extolled the services which the /Emilian 
 family rendered the State, and said that the great- 
 ness of the Romans had been increased by lenity, 
 could not then perceive that Lepidus had done 
 anything extraordinary ; and even when he had 
 taken up arms without your authority and for the 
 destruction of your liberty, each of them, by seek- 
 ing wealth and patronage for himself, weakened 
 the public counsels. At that time, however, Lepi- 
 dus was merely a marauder, at the head of a few 
 camp-followers and cutthroats, each of whom 
 would have perilled his life for a day's wages ; 
 now he is a proconsul with full authority — an 
 authority not bought, but conferred on him by you 
 yourselves — and with officers still obliged by law 
 to obey him ; while there have flocked to his stand- 
 ard the most profligate characters of every rank, 
 men who are turbulent from distress and cupidity 
 and harassed with the consciousness of crimes ; 
 men who are at ease in broils and restless in 
 peace ; men who excite tumult after tumult and 
 war after war ; and men who were first the fol- 
 lowers of Saturninus, then of Sulpicius, next of 
 Marius and Damasippus, and have now become 
 the instruments of Lepidus. Etruria, moreover, 
 is in insurrection ; all the embers of the last war 
 are rekindled ; the Spains are solicited to take 
 arms ; Mithridates, on the very frontier of the
 
 Against Lepidus 71 
 
 tributaries that still support us, is watching an op- 
 portunity to commence hostilities ; and nothing but 
 a proper leader is wanting to subvert our govern- 
 ment. I therefore entreat and conjure you, Con- 
 script Fathers, to give your serious attention to this 
 matter, and not to suffer the unbridled influence of 
 corruption, like the ravages of a disease, to spread 
 by contact to the uninfected. For when honors 
 are heaped on the unprincipled, scarcely will any 
 one maintain an integrity which is unrewarded. 
 Or are you waiting till, having again brought his 
 army upon you, he attacks the city with fire and 
 sword ? — a much shorter step from his present 
 assumptions than that from peace and concord to 
 civil war ; a war which he commenced in defiance 
 of every obligation, human and divine ; not to re- 
 dress his own grievances, or those of the persons 
 whose cause he pretends to vindicate, but to sub- 
 vert our laws and our liberty. For he is disquieted 
 and harassed with raging desires and terror for his 
 crimes ; he is undecided and restless, pursuing 
 sometimes one scheme and sometimes another ; 
 dreading peace, and hating war ; feeling that he 
 must abstain from luxury and licentiousness, yet 
 taking advantage meantime of your inactivity, in- 
 activity which I do not know whether I should not 
 rather call fear, or pusillanimity, or infatuation ; for 
 while you see peril threatening you like a thun- 
 derbolt, you merely wish, each for himself, that it
 
 72 Lucius Philippus 
 
 may not fall upon you, but do not make the least 
 effort to prevent it. 
 
 Consider, I pray you, how the temper of the 
 times is changed from what it was. Formerly, 
 designs against the Commonwealth were con- 
 ducted secretly, and measures for its defence with 
 openness, and thus the lovers of their country had 
 a great advantage over incendiaries ; now peace 
 and concord are publicly impugned, and supported 
 only by plans concerted in secret. Those who 
 espouse a bad cause show themselves in arms ; 
 you, Conscript Fathers, shrink back in terror. But 
 for what do you wait, unless you are ashamed or 
 unwilling to act as becomes you ? Do the declar- 
 ations of Lepidus influence you ? — of Lepidus, who 
 says that each should have his own, and yet re- 
 tains the property of others ; who proclaims that 
 laws established by arms should be abrogated, and 
 yet seeks to bring us under his yoke by a civil 
 war ; who asserts that the civic franchise should 
 be restored to those from whom he denies that it 
 has been taken ; and who insists, for the sake 
 of concord, on the reestablishment of the tribunal 
 power, by which all our discords have been in- 
 flamed. O most abandoned and shameless of 
 men ! Have the distresses and troubles of the 
 citizens become objects of thy care, who hast 
 in thy possession nothing but what has been ob- 
 tained by violence and injustice ? Thou demandest
 
 Against Lepidus 7o 
 
 a second consulship, as if thou hadst resigned 
 the first ; thou seekest a pretended peace by 
 means of a war that breaks the real peace which 
 we enjoyed ; thou art a traitor to us, a deceiver 
 of thy party, and the enemy of all honest men ! 
 Hast thou no shame before either gods or men, 
 both of whom thou hast offended by thy perfidies 
 and perjuries ? But, since thou art what thou art, 
 I exhort thee to persist in thy course, and to keep 
 thy weapons in thy hands ; and do not make thy- 
 self uneasy, and keep us in suspense, by delaying 
 thy traitorous purposes. Neither our provinces, 
 nor our laws, nor our household gods endure thee 
 as a citizen. Proceed, then, as thou hast begun, that 
 thou mayest as soon as possible meet thy deserts ! 
 But you, O Conscript Fathers, how long will 
 you keep the Republic in insecurity by your de- 
 lays, and meet arms only with words ? Forces 
 are levied against you ; money is raised publicly 
 and privately, by extortion ; troops are led out 
 and placed in garrisons ; the laws are under arbi- 
 trary and capricious management ; and yet you, 
 meanwhile, think only of sending deputies and 
 preparing resolutions. But, be assured, the more 
 earnestly you sue for peace, the more vigorously 
 will war be urged against you, for your enemy 
 will find himself better supported by your fields 
 than by the justice and goodness of his cause. 
 For whoever professes a hatred of civil broils, and
 
 74 Lucius Philippus 
 
 of the shedding of Roman blood, and keeps you, 
 for that reason, defenceless while Lepidus is in 
 arms, recommends you to submit to the treatment 
 which the vanquished must endure, when you 
 yourselves might inflict it on others. Such coun- 
 sellors advise peace on your part towards him, and 
 war on his towards you. If exhortations of this 
 nature please you, if such insensibility has taken 
 possession of your breasts that, forgetful of the 
 crimes of Cinna, by whose return into the city all 
 the dignity of your order was trampled in the dust, 
 you will nevertheless put yourselves, your wives, 
 your children, into the power of Lepidus, what 
 need is there of resolutions, or what is the use of 
 the aid of Catulus ? He, and all other honest 
 men, concern themselves for the State in vain. 
 But act as you please ; the bands of Cethegus and 
 other traitors stand ready for you, eager to renew 
 their ravages and burnings, and to arm their hands 
 afresh against our household gods. If liberty and 
 honor, however, have more attractions for you, 
 decide on what is worthy of the name of Rome, 
 and stimulate the courage of your valiant support- 
 ers. A new army is at your command, with colo- 
 nies of veterans, with all the nobility, and the most 
 able commanders. Fortune follows the braver 
 side ; and the force which the enemy has collected 
 through our remissness will dwindle away when 
 we begin to exert ourselves.
 
 Against Lepidus 75 
 
 My opinion therefore is, since Lepidus is ad- 
 vancing to the gates of the city with an army, 
 raised on his own responsibility, and with the 
 worst enemies of the Commonwealth, and in de- 
 fiance of the authority of the Senate, that Appius 
 Claudius, the interrex, Quintus Catulus, the pro- 
 consul, and others who are in authority, shall be 
 directed to guard the city, and to make it their care 
 that the Republic receive no injury. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 DECLAMATION AGAINST CICERO 
 
 This speech has been attributed to Sallust, to Vibius Crispus, and to Porcius 
 Latro. It is impossible to definitely settle its authorship. 
 
 1 SHOULD bear your reproaches, Marcus Tullius, 
 with concern and indignation if I thought that 
 you indulged in such insolence from conviction, 
 and not from disease of mind. But, perceiving in 
 you neither moderation nor modesty, I will give 
 you an answer, in order that, if you have received 
 any pleasure from speaking evil of me, you may 
 feel it diminished by hearing evil of yourself. 
 
 To whom shall I complain, or before whom shall 
 I lament. Conscript Fathers, that our country is 
 despoiled by different parties, and become a prey 
 to the dishonesty of the most audacious of man- 
 kind ? Shall I address myself to the Roman people, 
 who are so corrupted with bribes that they are 
 ready to sell themselves and all that belongs to 
 them ? Or shall I plead before you. Conscript 
 Fathers, whose authority is grown a jest to the 
 
 most infamous and abandoned, and before whom 
 
 76
 
 Declamation Against Cicero "j^ 
 
 Marcus Tullius defends the laws and judgments of 
 the people, and exerts his influence with the Sen- 
 ate as if he were the sole remaining descendant 
 of the illustrious Scipio Africanus, and not a per- 
 son who has merely crept into the city and been 
 recently adopted and engrafted into it ? But are 
 your deeds, Marcus Tullius, or your words, un- 
 known to us ? Have you not lived in such a 
 manner, from your boyhood, as to think nothing 
 that gratified another disgraceful to yourself? Did 
 you not learn your extraordinary eloquence under 
 Marcus Piso at the cost of your modesty ? Doubt- 
 less ; and it is by no means surprising that you 
 display to your infamy that which you acquired 
 with infamy. 
 
 But 1 suppose the splendor of your affairs at 
 home exalts your spirits ; that home, where you 
 have a wife polluted with sacrilege and perjury, 
 and a daughter who is a rival to her mother, and 
 more compliant and submissive to you than she 
 ought to be to her father. Your very home itself, 
 thus fatal to you and yours, you secured by force 
 and lawlessness ; as if with a view to remind us 
 how much the State is altered, when you, a most 
 infamous character, dwell in that house which 
 once belonged to Publius Crassus, a man of con- 
 sular honors. And though these things are so, 
 Cicero nevertheless says that he has been at the 
 council of the immortal gods, whence he who
 
 yS Vibius Crispus 
 
 turns the disaster of the country to his own glory 
 was despatched as a guardian to our city and its 
 inhabitants, and not as an executioner ; as if, for- 
 sooth, your consulship itself had not been the 
 cause of the conspiracy, and as if the State had 
 not then been disordered in consequence of having 
 you for a protector. But, as 1 conceive, you must 
 pride yourself still more on those measures which 
 you adopted after your consulship, in concert with 
 your wife, Terentia, when you conducted trials 
 at your house under the Plautian law, condemning 
 some of the conspirators to death, and others to 
 pay fines ; when one built you a Tusculan, another 
 a Pompeian villa, and a third bought you a house ; 
 but he who could do nothing for you was devoted 
 to obloquy ; he had come to attack your dwelling, 
 or had laid a plot against the Senate, and you 
 were quite sure of his guilt. If the charges which 
 I make are false, state what property you inherited 
 from your father, how much you have acquired by 
 pleading causes, from what resources you bought 
 your house and reared, at such vast expense, your 
 Tusculan and Pompeian villas. 
 
 But, we may suppose, a new man of Arpinum, 
 of the stock of Caius Marius, imitates his virtue, 
 contemns the enmity of the nobility, holds his 
 country dear, is to be influenced neither by intimi- 
 dation nor by interest ; such would be his love 
 for the State, and such his virtuous magnanimity.
 
 Declamation Against Cicero 79 
 
 On the contrary, he is a man of the lightest 
 character, suppliant to his enemies, insolent to his 
 friends ; a follower sometimes of one party, and 
 sometimes of another, but faithful to none ; an 
 unstable senator, a mercenary patron ; a person 
 whose every member is polluted with turpitude, 
 whose tongue is false, whose hands are rapa- 
 cious, whose feet are fugitive, and what cannot de- 
 cently be named, the most dishonored of all. Yet 
 he, a person of this description, dares to exclaim, 
 
 " O fortunatam natam, me consule, Romam ! " 
 
 Rome fortunate under your consulship, Cicero? 
 Nay, indeed, most unfortunate and wretched, suf- 
 fering a most cruel proscription of her citizens, 
 when you, in the disturbed condition of the State, 
 compelled all the respectable classes to shrink be- 
 fore your severity ; when all causes and all laws 
 were under your control, and when, having set 
 aside the Porcian law and despoiled us of our 
 liberty, you took into your own hands the power 
 of life and death over every one of us. Nor are you 
 content to have done this with impunity ; you re- 
 proach us by reminding us of it, and we are not 
 allowed to forget our slavish submission. But let 
 it suffice, I entreat you, Cicero, that you have 
 effected and accomplished what you pleased ; it is 
 sufficient that we have endured it ; would you, in
 
 8o Vibius Crispus 
 
 addition, burden our ears with the odious repeti- 
 tion of your deeds, and harass them with those 
 most offensive words, 
 
 " Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae" ? 
 
 As if you had perpetrated the deeds of which you 
 boast with the aid of the toga, and not with arms, 
 or as if there were any difference between you and 
 Sulla the dictator, except in your title of authority. 
 But why should I expose your presumption, 
 when you yourselfpretend that Minerva has taught 
 you all arts, and when the good and great Jupiter 
 has admitted you to the council of the gods, and 
 Italy brought you back from exile on her shoulders ? 
 Let me ask you, O Romulus of Arpinum, you who, 
 in your extraordinary merit, have surpassed all the 
 Paulli, Fabii, and Scipios, what place do you hold 
 in the State, what party in the Republic suits you ? 
 Whom do you choose as a friend, whom as an 
 enemy ? Him for whom you laid a plot in the 
 State you now serve. With what justice, when 
 you returned from your exile at Dyrrhachium, did 
 you follow him ? Of those whom you called ty- 
 rants you now support the power ; those whom 
 you thought men of honor you now call fools and 
 madmen. You plead the cause of Vatinius ; you 
 have a bad opinion of Sextius ; you assail Bibu- 
 lus with the most insolent language ; you extol 
 Cassar ; whomsoever you most hated, to him you
 
 Declamation Against Cicero 
 
 8i 
 
 are the most submissive ; you have one opinion on 
 political affairs when you are standing, and you 
 have another when you are sitting ; some you 
 slander, and others you hate ; and, O most fickle 
 of renegades, you are trusted neither by one party 
 nor by the other. 
 
 VOL. n. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume. 
 
 -6.
 
 TITUS LIVIUS PATAVINUS 
 
 Titus Livius Patavinus, commonly called Titus Livius, was 
 born of noble parentage in 59 or 57 B.C., in the city of Pata- 
 vium (Padua). Despite the fact that he was the most eloquent 
 historian of Rome, we know nothing of his early life. When 
 he arrived at maturity we find him at Padua, studying phi- 
 losophy, teaching rhetoric, and publicly declaiming. In middle 
 life he established himself at Rome, and there attained great 
 eminence. His fame was by no means local, but extended to 
 all parts of the Empire. After a life of which the activities 
 continued until the last, Livy died at Rome in his eightieth 
 year. 
 
 Livy was preeminently an orator, and his "talent for devel- 
 oping an idea, for explaining events as an orderly sequence, 
 for establishing conclusions, for moving the feelings, for 
 throwing himself into a cause, for clothing his arguments in 
 noble language, shine conspicuous in his work, while he has 
 the good faith, sincerity, and patriotism which mark off the 
 orator from a mere advocate." 
 
 Livy's great work was The History of Rome. This work 
 originally consisted of one hundred and forty-two books, of 
 which only thirty-two complete and five fragmentary books 
 have been preserved. It became, as soon as issued, the 
 authoritative history of Rome. Every year increased the high 
 regard in which it was held. In the pages of The History 
 of Home we find a score of the most effective speeches that 
 have ever been written. It is for these oratorical masterpieces 
 that we have given place in this volume to the great historian 
 and orator. 
 
 An excellent text of Livy is that of Weissenborn (Leipzig), 
 Berlin, 18S3-1878. Annotated English edition by George 
 Baker, London, 1779. A good French edition, which is in 
 some respects the best of the translations, is that of Gaucher, 
 Paris, 1877. 
 
 83
 
 THE APPEAL OF HORATIUS 
 
 Horatius. 
 
 This is one of the most effective of the speeches of Livy. It is put into the 
 mouth of Horatius, whose three sons had engaged in combat with the three Cu- 
 riatii, the champions of the Etruscans. The conflict was to decide whether Rome 
 or Tuscany should rule. The three Curiatii were slain, hut with them fell two 
 of the Horatii. The survivor returning proudly, laden with the spoils of the 
 vanquished, was met by his sister, whose betrothed one of the Curiatii had 
 been. She reviled the victorious youth, and he, in an outburst of passion, 
 killed her. He was tried for his life. His condemnation was about to be spoken 
 when his father appealed from the judges to the people. Then he spoke to the 
 waiting multitude with such success that his son was saved. 
 
 ROMANS, can you bear to see bound beneath 
 a gallows, amidst scourges and tortures, him 
 whom you just now beheld marching decorated 
 and exulting in victory ; a sight so shocking as the 
 eyes even of the Albans could scarcely endure ? 
 Go, lictor, bind those hands, which, but a little 
 while since, being armed, established sovereignty 
 for the Roman people. Go, cover the head of the 
 liberator of this city ; hang him on the gallows ; 
 scourge him, either within the pomoerium, so it be 
 only amid those javelins and spoils of the enemy ; 
 or without the pomoerium, only amid the graves 
 
 85
 
 86 
 
 Horatius 
 
 of the Curiatii. For whither can you bring this 
 youth where his own glories must not redeem 
 him from such ignominy of punishment ? 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST THE TRIBUNES 
 
 Appiiis Claudius. 
 
 The war against Veii (405-396 B.c.)had lasted many weeks, for the strength 
 of the city was so great that the Roman generals thought an assault might result 
 in failure. Plans for a winter siege were made. Such prolonged and difficult 
 service was contrary to Roman custom. The tribunes of the people feared that 
 the result would be a standing army, the destruction of the hardly-won Plebeian 
 privileges, and the aggrandizement of the Patricians. They endeavored to incite 
 the people to resist the proposed plan of campaign. The military tribunes, with 
 consular powers, in whose hands was the conduct of the war, had anticipated 
 this action of the tribunes of the peopl:, and left their colleague Appius Claudius 
 to check any demonstration. He waited until his opponents had spoken, and 
 then he is reported by Livy to have delivered the following address: 
 
 IF, Romans, there was ever reason to doubt 
 whether the tribunes of the people have ever 
 promoted sedition for your sake or their own, I am 
 certain that in the course of this year that doubt 
 must have ceased to exist ; and while I rejoice that 
 an end has at length been put to a mistake of such 
 long continuance, I also congratulate you, and on 
 your account the Republic, that this delusion has 
 been removed during a course of prosperous events. 
 Is there any person who can feel a doubt that the 
 tribunes of the commons were never so highly dis- 
 pleased and provoked by any wrongs done to you, 
 
 87
 
 88 Appius Claudius 
 
 if ever such did happen, as by the munificence of 
 the patricians to the commons, when pay was 
 established for those serving in the army ? What 
 else do you suppose that they either then dreaded, 
 or now wish to disturb, except the union between 
 the orders, which they think contributes most to 
 the dissolution of the tribunitian power ? Thus, by 
 Jupiter ! like workers in iniquity, they are seeking 
 employment, they who also wish that there should 
 be always some diseased part in the Republic, that 
 there may be something for the cure of which they 
 may be employed by you. For [tribunes,] do you 
 defend or attack the commons ? Are you the ene- 
 mies of those in the service, or do you plead their 
 cause ? Unless perhaps you say, whatever the 
 patricians do displeases us ; whether it is for the 
 commons, or against the commons ; and just as 
 masters forbid their slaves to have any dealings 
 with those belonging to others, and deem it right 
 that they should equally refrain from having any 
 commerce with them, either for kindness or unkind- 
 ness, ye, in like manner, interdict us, the patri- 
 cians, from all intercourse with the people, lest by 
 our courtesy and munificence we may challenge 
 their regard, and they become tractable and obe- 
 dient to our direction. And if there were in you 
 anything of the feelings, 1 say not of fellow-citi- 
 zens, but of human beings, how much more ought 
 you to favor and, as far as in you lay, to promote
 
 Against the Tribunes 89 
 
 the kindly demeanor of the patricians and the tract- 
 ability of the commons ! And if such concord were 
 once permanent, who would not venture to guar- 
 antee that this Empire would in a short time become 
 far superior to the neighboring States ? 
 
 I shall hereafter explain to you how not merely 
 expedient, but even necessary, has been this plan 
 of my colleagues, according to which they could 
 not draw off the army from Veil until the affair had 
 been completed. For the present, I am disposed to 
 speak concerning the condition of the soldiers. 
 And these observations of mine 1 think would be 
 reasonable not only in your opinion, but, if they 
 were delivered in the camp, even in the opinion of 
 the soldiers themselves ; on which subject, if noth- 
 ing could suggest itself to my own mind to say, 1 
 certainly should be satisfied with what is suggested 
 by the arguments of my adversaries. They lately 
 said that pay should not be given to the soldiers 
 because it had never been given. How, then, can 
 they now feel displeased that additional labor should 
 be imposed in due proportion on those to whom 
 some addition of profit has been added ? In no case 
 is there either labor without emolument, or emolu- 
 ment in general without the expense of labor. Toil 
 and pleasure, in their natures most unlike, are yet 
 linked together by a sort of natural connection. 
 Formerly, the soldier thought it a hardship that he 
 gave his labor to the Commonwealth at his own
 
 90 Appius Claudius 
 
 expense ; at the same time lie was glad to have a 
 part of the year to till his own ground ; to acquire 
 that means by which he might support himself and 
 his family at home and in war. Now, he feels 
 pleasure that the Republic is a source of advantage 
 to him, and gladly receives his pay. Let him 
 therefore bear with patience that he is a little longer 
 absent from home and his family affairs, to which 
 no heavy expense is now attached. But if the 
 Commonwealth should call him to a settlement of 
 accounts, would it not justly say, "You are paid by 
 the year, perform labor by the year ; do you think 
 it just to receive a whole year's pay for six months' 
 service ? " Romans, with reluctance do I dwell on 
 this topic ; for so ought to proceed they who em- 
 ploy mercenary troops. But we wish to treat as 
 with fellow-citizens, and we think it only just that 
 you treat with us as with the country. Either the 
 war should not have been undertaken, or it ought 
 to be conducted suitably to the dignity of the Ro- 
 man people, and brought to a close as soon as pos- 
 sible. But it will be brought to a close if we press 
 on the besieged ; if we do not retire until we have 
 consummated our hopes by the capture of Veii. 
 In truth, if there were no other motive, the very 
 discredit of the thing should impose on us perse- 
 verance. In former times, on account of one 
 woman, a city was for ten years besieged by all 
 Greece. At what a distance from their homes I
 
 Against the Tribunes 91 
 
 how many lands, how many seas intervened ! We 
 grumble at enduring a siege of a year's duration 
 within twenty miles of us, almost within sight of 
 own city ; because, I suppose, the cause of the war 
 is trifling, nor is there resentment sufficiently just 
 to stimulate us to persevere. Seven times have 
 the Veientes rebelled ; in peace they never acted 
 faithfully. They have laid waste our lands a thou- 
 sand times ; they forced the Fidenatians to revolt 
 against us ; they have put to death our colonists 
 there ; contrary to the law of nations, they have 
 been the instigators of the impious murder of our 
 ambassadors ; they wished to excite all Etruria 
 against us, and are at this day busily employed in 
 this ; and they scarcely refrained from violating our 
 ambassadors when demanding restitution. With 
 such people, ought war to be conducted in a remiss 
 and dilatory manner ? 
 
 If such just resentment have no influence with 
 us, will you not, 1 entreat you, let the following 
 considerations influence you ? The enemy's city 
 has been enclosed with immense works, by which 
 they are confined within their walls. They have 
 not tilled their land, and what was previously tilled 
 has been laid waste in the war. If we withdraw 
 our army, who can doubt that they will invade 
 our territory, not only from a desire of revenge, 
 but from the necessity also imposed on them of 
 plundering the property of others, since they have
 
 92 Appius Claudius 
 
 lost their own ? By such measures, then, we do 
 not put off the war, but admit it within our own 
 frontiers. 
 
 What shall I say of that which properly interests 
 the soldiers, for whose interests those worthy 
 tribunes of the commons are now suddenly so 
 anxious to provide, after they have endeavored to 
 wrest their pay from them ? How does the matter 
 stand ? They have formed a rampart and a trench, 
 both works of great labor on account of the great 
 extent of ground ; they have erected forts, at first 
 only a few, afterwards very many, when the army 
 became increased ; they have raised ramparts, not 
 only towards the city, but towards Etruria also, 
 against any succors which may come thence. 
 What need is there to mention towers, vinae, tes- 
 tudines, and the other apparatus used in attacking 
 towns ? When so much labor has been expended, 
 and they have now at length reached the end of 
 the work, do you think that all these preparations 
 should be abandoned in order that, next summer, 
 the same course of toil may have to be again un- 
 dergone in forming them anew ? How much less 
 trouble to maintain the works already completed, 
 to press on and persevere, and to get rid of our 
 task ! For certainly the matter will be of short 
 duration, if it be conducted with a uniform course 
 of exertions ; nor do we by these intermissions 
 and interruptions expedite the attainment of our
 
 Against the Tribunes 93 
 
 hopes. 1 am now speaking of labor and of loss 
 of time. What ! do these so frequent meetings in 
 Etruria on the subject of sending aid to Veil permit 
 us to disregard the danger which we encounter 
 by procrastinating the war ? As matters now 
 stand, the Etruscans are incensed, they dislike the 
 Veientes, they refuse to send any aid ; as far as 
 they are concerned, we are at liberty to take Veii. 
 Who can promise that their temper will be the 
 same hereafter if the war is suspended ? When, 
 if you suffer any relaxation, more respectable and 
 more frequent embassies will go to Etruria ; when 
 that which now displeases the Etruscans, the estab- 
 lishment of a king at Veii, may, after an interval, 
 be done away with, either by the joint determina- 
 tion of the State that they may recover the good- 
 will of the Etruscans, or by a voluntary act of the 
 king, who may be unwilling that his reign should 
 stand in the way of the welfare of his countrymen. 
 See how many and what detrimental circum- 
 stances follow that line of conduct : the loss of 
 works formed with so great labor ; the threatening 
 devastation of our frontiers ; an Etruscan feud ex- 
 cited instead of a Veientine war. These, O trib- 
 unes, are your measures, much the same, in truth, 
 as if a person for the sake of present meat or drink 
 should render a disease tedious and perhaps incur- 
 able in a patient who, by resolutely suffering himself 
 to be treated, might soon have recovered his health.
 
 t 
 
 94 Appius Claudius 
 
 If, by Jupiter ! it were of no consequence with 
 respect to the present war, yet it certainly would 
 be of the utmost importance to military discipline 
 that our soldiers should be accustomed not only to 
 enjoy the victory obtained by them, but, even 
 though matters should proceed more slowly than 
 was anticipated, to brook the tediousness and 
 await the issue of their hopes, however tardy ; and 
 if the war be not finished in the summer, to wait 
 for the winter, and not, like summer birds, in the 
 very commencement of autumn look out for shelter 
 and a retreat. The eagerness and pleasure of hunt- 
 ing hurries men into snow and frost, over mountains 
 and woods ; shall we not employ in the exigencies 
 of war that patience which even sport and pleasure 
 are wont to call forth ? Are we to suppose that 
 the bodies of our soldiers are so effeminate, their 
 minds so feeble, that they cannot hold out for one 
 winter in a camp, and be absent from home ? that, 
 like persons who wage a naval war by taking 
 advantage of the weather and observing the sea- 
 son of the year, they are able to endure neither 
 heat nor cold ? They would certainly blush, 
 should any one lay these things to their charge ; and 
 would maintain that both their minds and their 
 bodies were possessed of manly endurance ; that 
 they were able to conduct war equally well in 
 summer and in winter ; that they had not con- 
 signed to the tribunes the patronage of indolence
 
 Aeainst the Tribunes 95 
 
 and sloth, and that they remembered that their 
 ancestors had created this very power neither in 
 the shade nor beneath their own roofs. Such sen- 
 timents are worthy of the valor of your soldiers, 
 such sentiments are worthy of the Roman name, 
 not to consider merely Veii, nor this war which is 
 nov/ pressing us, but to seek a reputation for the 
 future for other wars and in other States. Do you 
 consider the difference of opinion likely to result 
 from this matter as something trivial ? Pray, are 
 the neighboring States to suppose that the Roman 
 people are such that if any one should sustain their 
 first assault, and that of very short continuance, 
 they have nothing afterwards to fear ? Or should 
 such be the terror of our name that neither the 
 tediousness of a distant siege nor the inclemency 
 of winter can dislodge the Roman army from a 
 city once invested, that they know no other ter- 
 mination of war than victory, and that they carry 
 on wars not more by briskness than by persever- 
 ance ? This perseverance is doubtless necessary in 
 every kind of war, but more especially in besieging 
 cities ; most of which, though impregnable both by 
 their works and by natural situation, time itself 
 overpowers and reduces by famine and thirst ; as 
 it will reduce Veii, unless the tribunes of the com- 
 mons shall afford aid to the enemy, and the 
 Veientes find in Rome reinforcements which they 
 seek in vain in Etruria.
 
 96 Appius Claudius 
 
 Is there anything which can happen so much in 
 accordance with the wishes of the Veientes as that 
 first the Roman city, then the camp, as it were by 
 contagion, should be filled with sedition ? But, by 
 Jupiter! so forbearing a state of mind prevails among 
 the enemy that not a single change has taken place 
 among them, either through disgust at the length 
 of the siege or even of the kingly form of govern- 
 ment ; nor has the refusal of aid by the Etruscans 
 aroused their tempers. For, among them, whoever 
 may be the abettor of sedition will be instantly 
 put to death ; nor will it be permitted to any one 
 to utter those sentiments which amongst you are 
 expressed with impunity. He who forsakes his 
 colors or quits his post is sure to receive the basti- 
 nado. Persons advising not one or two soldiers, 
 but whole armies, to relinquish their colors, or to 
 forsake their camp, are openly listened to in your 
 public assemblies. Accordingly you are accus- 
 tomed to hear with partiality whatever a trib- 
 une of the people says, although it tends to the 
 ruin of the country or the dissolution of the Com- 
 monwealth ; and, captivated with the charms of 
 that authority, you suffer all sorts of crimes to lie 
 concealed beneath it. The only thing that remains 
 is, that that which they vociferate here, the same 
 projects do they realize in the camp and among the 
 soldiers ; and so they seduce the armies, and do not 
 suffer them to obey their officers, since that, and
 
 Against the Tribunes 
 
 97 
 
 that only, is liberty in Rome : to show no deference 
 to the Senate, nor to magistrates, nor to laws, nor 
 to the customs of ancestors, nor to the institutions 
 of our fathers, nor to military discipline. 
 
 VOL. II.— 7. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 ON TREATING WITH THE SAMNITES 
 
 Lucius Lentulus. 
 
 The Romans from 326 to 304 b.c. were engaged in the Second Samnite War. 
 In 321 B.C. two consuls with their armies had been entrapped within the Caudine 
 Pass. They were forced to enter into a treaty, to give six hundred hostages, and, 
 together with their forces, go under the yoke as a token of submission. But all 
 this was not done without remonstrance from the bravest of the Romans. Livy 
 makes Lucius Lentulus, one of the leaders next in rank to the consuls, overcome 
 the opposition in the following words : 
 
 CONSULS, I have often heard my father say 
 that he was the only man in the Capitol 
 who did not advise the senators to ransom the 
 State from the Gauls with gold ; and he would not 
 concur in this because they had not been enclosed 
 with a trench and rampart by the enemy (who 
 were remarkably slothful with respect to works and 
 raising fortifications), and because they might sally 
 forth, if not without great danger, yet without cer- 
 tain destruction. Now if, in like manner as they 
 had it in their power to rush in arms from the 
 Capitol against their foe, as men besieged have 
 often sallied out on the besiegers, so it were possi- 
 ble for us to come to blows with the enemy, either 
 
 98
 
 On Treating with the Samnites 99 
 
 on equal or on unequal ground, 1 would not be 
 wanting in the high quality of my father's spirit in 
 stating my advice. 1 acknowledge, indeed, that 
 death in defence of our country is highly glo- 
 rious ; and 1 am ready either to devote myself for 
 the Roman people and the legions, or to plunge 
 into the midst of the enemy. But in this spot 1 
 behold my country ; in this spot I behold the 
 whole of the Roman legions : and unless these 
 choose to rush on death in defence of their own 
 individual characters, what is there which can be 
 preserved by their death ? The houses of the 
 city, some may say, and the walls of it, and the 
 crowd dwelling in it, by whom the city is inhab- 
 ited. But in fact, in case of the destruction of this 
 army, all these are betrayed, not preserved. For 
 who will protect them ? An unwarlike and un- 
 armed multitude, shall I suppose ? Yes, just as 
 they defended them against the attacks of the 
 Gauls. Will they call to their succor an army 
 from Veil, with Camillus at its head ? Here, on 
 the spot, are our hopes and strength ; by preserv- 
 ing them we preserve our country ; by delivering 
 them to death, we abandon and betray our country. 
 But to surrender is shameful and ignominious. 
 True ; but such ought to be our affection for our 
 country that we should save it by our own dis- 
 grace, if necessity required, as freely as by our 
 death. Let, therefore, that indignity be undergone,
 
 lOO 
 
 Lucius Lentulus 
 
 howsoever great, and let us submit to that neces- 
 sity which even the gods themselves do not over- 
 come. Go, consuls, ransom for arms the State 
 which your ancestors ransomed with gold. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 SCIPIO TO HIS SOLDIERS 
 
 p. Cornelius Scipio. 
 
 During the Second Punic War (218-201 b.c.) Hannibal, the greatest general of 
 the Carthaginians, made his daring campaign in Italy. He crossed the Pyrenees 
 with fifty thousand foot, nine thousand horse, and thirty-seven elephants. He 
 was opposed by the Roman consul, P. Cornelius Scipio. The first important bat- 
 tle upon Italian soil between the Carthaginians led by Hannibal and the Romans 
 under Scipio, was the cavalry engagement (September, 218 b.c.) on the banks 
 of the Ticinus, one of the northern branches of the Po. It resulted in the defeat 
 of Scipio. Before the battle Scipio is said to have addressed his soldiers in the 
 following stirring words, which form one of the most celebrated of the Roman 
 military orations : 
 
 IF, soldiers, I were leading out to battle that army 
 which I had with me in Gaul, I should have 
 thought it superfluous to address you ; for of what 
 use would it be to exhort either those horsemen 
 who so gloriously vanquished the cavalry of the 
 enemy at the river Rhone, or those legions with 
 whom, pursuing this very enemy flying before us, 
 I obtained, in lieu of victory, a confession of supe- 
 riority, shown by his retreat and refusal to flght ? 
 But now because that army, levied for the province 
 of Spain, maintains the war under my auspices and 
 the command of my brother, Cneius Scipio, in the 
 
 lOI 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
 
 I02 Scipio 
 
 country where the Senate and the people of Rome 
 wished him to serve ; and since I have offered my- 
 self voluntarily for this contest, that you might 
 have a consul for your leader against Hannibal and 
 the Carthaginians, a few words are required to 
 be addressed from a new commander to soldiers 
 unacquainted with him. 
 
 That you may not be ignorant of the nature either 
 of the war or of the enemy, let me remind you, 
 soldiers, that you have to fight with those whom in 
 the former war you conquered both by land and 
 sea ; from whom you have exacted tribute for 
 twenty years ; from whom you hold Sicily and 
 Sardinia, taken as the prizes of victory. In the 
 present contest, therefore, you and they will have 
 those feelings which are wont to belong to the 
 victors and the vanquished. They are now about 
 to fight, not because they are daring, but because 
 it is unavoidable ; unless you can believe that 
 those who declined the engagement when their 
 forces were entire should have now gained more 
 confidence when two thirds of their infantry and 
 cavalry have been lost in the passage of the Alps, 
 and when almost greater numbers have perished 
 than survive. Yes, they are few, indeed (some 
 may say), but they are vigorous in mind and 
 body ; men whose strength and power almost no 
 force may withstand. On the contrary, they are 
 but the semblances, nay, they are rather the
 
 To his Soldiers lo 
 
 o 
 
 shadows of men ; for they are worn out with 
 hunger, cold, dirt, and filth, and bruised and en- 
 feebled among stones and rocks. Besides all this, 
 their joints are frost-bitten, their sinews stiffened 
 with the snow, their limbs withered up by the 
 frost, their armor battered and gaping, their horses 
 lame and powerless. With such cavalry, with 
 such infantry, you have to fight ; you will not 
 have enemies in reality, but rather their last re- 
 mains. And I fear nothing more than that when 
 you have fought Hannibal, the Alps may appear to 
 have conquered him. But perhaps it was fitting 
 that the gods themselves should, without any 
 human aid, commence and carry forward a war 
 against a leader and a people who violate the faith 
 of treaties; and that we, who have been. injured 
 next to the gods, should finish the contest thus 
 commenced and now nearly completed. 
 
 I do not fear lest any one should think that 1 say 
 this ostentatiously for the sake of encouraging you, 
 while in my own mind I am differently affected. 
 I was at liberty to go with my army into Spain, 
 my own province, whither 1 had already set out. 
 There I should have had a brother as a sharer of 
 my councils and my dangers, and Hasdrubal for 
 my antagonist, and without question a less labori- 
 ous war. Nevertheless, as 1 sailed along the coast 
 of Gaul, I landed on hearing of this enemy, and 
 having sent forward the cavalry, I moved my camp
 
 I04 Scipio 
 
 to the Rhone, hi a battle of cavalry, for with that 
 part of my forces the opportunity was afforded of 
 engaging, I routed the enemy ; and because I 
 could not overtake by land his army of infantry, 
 which was rapidly hurried away as if in flight, 
 having returned to the ships with all the speed 
 I could, after compassing such an extent of sea 
 and land, I have met him at the foot of the Alps. 
 Do 1 appear to have fallen in unexpectedly with 
 this dreaded foe while declining the contest, or to 
 encounter him in his track, to challenge him and 
 drag him out to decide the contest ? I am anxious 
 to try whether the earth has suddenly, in these 
 twenty years, sent forth a new race of Carthagin- 
 ians, or whether these are the same who fought 
 at the islands of Agates, and whom you permitted 
 to depart from Eryx, valued at eighteen denarii 
 a head ; and whether this Hannibal be, as he him- 
 self gives out, the rival of the expeditions of Hercu- 
 les, or one left by his father the tributary, the 
 subject and the slave of the Roman people ; who, 
 if his guilt at Saguntum did not drive him to 
 frenzy, would certainly reflect, if not upon his 
 conquered country, at least on his family, his 
 father, and the treaties written by the hand of 
 Hamilcar ; who, at the command of our consul, 
 withdrew the garrison from Eryx ; who, indig- 
 nant and grieving, submitted to the harsh condi- 
 tions imposed on the conquered Carthaginians ;
 
 To his Soldiers 105 
 
 who agreed to depart from Sicily and pay tribute 
 to the Roman people. 
 
 I would therefore have you fight, soldiers, not 
 only with that spirit with which you are wont to 
 encounter other enemies, but with a certain indig- 
 nation and resentment, as if you saw your slaves 
 suddenly taking up arms against you. We might 
 have killed them, when shut up in Eryx, by 
 hunger, the most dreadful of human tortures ; we 
 might have carried our victorious fleet over to 
 Africa, and in a few days have destroyed Carthage 
 without any opposition. We granted pardon to 
 their prayers ; we released them from the block- 
 ade ; we made peace with them when conquered ; 
 and we afterwards considered them under our pro- 
 tection when they were oppressed by the African 
 war. In return for these benefits, they come, 
 under the command of a furious youth, to attack 
 our country. And 1 wish that the contest on your 
 side was for glory, and not for safety. It is not 
 about the possession of Sicily and Sardinia, con- 
 cerning which the dispute was formerly, but for 
 Italy, that you must fight ; nor is there another 
 army behind, which, if we should not conquer, 
 can resist the enemy ; nor are there other Alps, 
 during the passage of which fresh forces may be 
 procured. Here, soldiers, we must make our stand, 
 as if we fought beneath the walls of Rome. Let 
 every one consider that he defends with his
 
 io6 
 
 Scipio 
 
 weapons not only his own person, but his wife 
 and young children ; nor let him only entertain 
 domestic cares and anxieties, but at the same time 
 let him bear in mind that the Senate and people 
 of Rome are now anxiously regarding our efforts ; 
 and that, according to what our strength and valor 
 shall be, such henceforward will be the fortune of 
 that city and of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 HANNIBAL TO HIS SOLDIERS 
 
 Hannibal. 
 
 The companion address to that of Scipio To his Soldiers is that of Hannibal 
 To his Soldiers, before the same engagement at the Ticinus. Livy says : 
 
 " Hannibal, thinking that his soldiers ought to be roused by deeds rather than 
 by words, having drawn his army around for the spectacle, placed in their midst 
 the captive mountaineers in fetters ; and after Gallic arms had been thrown at 
 their feet, he ordered the interpreter to ask, ' whether any among them, on con- 
 dition of being released from chains, and receiving, if victorious, armor and a 
 horse, was willing to fight with the sword ? ' When they all, to a man, de- 
 manded the combat and the sword, and lots were cast into the urn for that pur- 
 pose, each wished himself the person whom fortune might select for the contest. 
 As the lot of each man came out, eager and exulting with joy amidst the con- 
 gratulations of his comrades, and dancing after the national custom, he hastily 
 snatched up the arms ; but when they fought, such was the state of feeling, not 
 only among their companions in the same circumstances, but among the specta- 
 tors in general, that the fortune of those who conquered was not praised more 
 than that of those who died bravely. 
 
 " When he had dismissed the soldiers, thus affected after viewing several pairs 
 of combatants, having then summoned an assembly, he is said to have addressed 
 them in these terms " : 
 
 IF, soldiers, you shall by and by, in judging of 
 your own fortune, preserve the same feelings 
 which you experienced a little before in the exam- 
 ple of the fate of others, we shall have already con- 
 quered ; for neither was that merely a spectacle, 
 but, as it were, a certain representation of your con- 
 dition. And 1 know not whether fortune has not 
 
 107
 
 ro8 Hannibal 
 
 thrown around you still stronger chains and more 
 urgent necessities than around your captives. On 
 the right and left two seas enclose you, without your 
 possessing even a single ship for escape. The river 
 Po before you, the Po larger and more impetuous 
 than the Rhone, the Alps behind, with difficulty 
 passed when you were fresh and vigorous, hem 
 you in. Here, soldiers, where you first met the en- 
 emy, you must conquer or die ; and the same for- 
 tune which has imposed the necessity of fighting 
 holds out to you, if victorious, rewards greater than 
 which men are not wont to desire, even from the 
 immortal gods. If we were only about to recover 
 by our valor Sicily and Sardinia, wrested from our 
 fathers, the recompense would be sufficiently am- 
 ple ; but whatever, acquired and amassed by so 
 many triumphs, the Romans possess, all, with its 
 masters themselves, will become yours. To gain 
 this rich reward, hasten, then, and seize your arms, 
 with the favor of the gods. Long enough, in pur- 
 suing cattle among the desert mountains of Lusita- 
 nia and Celtiberia, you have gained no emolument 
 from so many toils and dangers ; it is time to make 
 rich and profitable campaigns, and to gain the great 
 reward of your labors, after having accomplished 
 such a length of journey over so many mountains 
 and rivers, and so many nations in arms. Here 
 fortune has granted you the termination of your 
 labors ; here she will bestow a reward worthy of
 
 To his Soldiers 109 
 
 the service you have undergone. Nor ought you 
 to consider that the victory will be difficult in pro- 
 portion as the war is great in name. A despised 
 enemy has often maintained a sanguinary contest, 
 and renowned States and kings have been con- 
 quered by a very slight effort. For, setting aside 
 only the splendor of the Roman name, what re- 
 mains in which they can be compared to you ? To 
 pass over in silence your service for twenty years, 
 distinguished by such valor and success, you have 
 made your way to this place from the pillars of 
 Hercules, from the ocean and the remotest limits 
 of the world, advancing victorious through so many 
 of the fiercest nations of Gaul and Spain ! you will 
 fight against a raw army, which this very summer 
 was beaten, conquered, and surrounded by the 
 Gauls, an army as yet unknown to its general, and 
 ignorant of him. Shall I compare myself, almost 
 born, and certainly bred in the tent of my father, 
 that most illustrious commander, myself the subju- 
 gator of Spain and Gaul, the conqueror too not only 
 of the Alpine nations, but, what is much more, of 
 the Alps themselves, with this six-months' general, 
 the deserter from his army ? to whom, if any one, 
 having taken away their standards, should to-day 
 show the Carthaginians and Romans, 1 am sure 
 that he would not know of which army he was 
 consul. I do not regard it, soldiers, as of small 
 account that there is not a man among you before
 
 no Hannibal 
 
 whose eyes I have not often achieved some military 
 exploit ; and to whom, in like manner, I, as specta- 
 tor and witness of his valor, could not recount his 
 own gallant deeds, particularized by time and place. 
 With soldiers who have a thousand times received 
 my praises and gifts, 1, who was the pupil of you 
 all before I became your commander, will march 
 out in battle-array against those who are unknown 
 to and ignorant of each other. 
 
 On whatever side 1 turn my eyes I see nothing 
 but what is full of courage and energy ; a veteran 
 infantry ; cavalry, both those with and those with- 
 out the bridle, composed of the most gallant na- 
 tions, you, our most faithful and valiant allies, you, 
 Carthaginians, who are about to fight as well for 
 the sake of your country as from the justest resent- 
 ment. We are the assailants in the war, and de- 
 scend into Italy with hostile standards, about to 
 engage so much more boldly and bravely than the 
 foe as the confidence and courage of the assailants 
 are greater than those of him who acts on the de- 
 fensive. Besides, suffering, injury, and indignity 
 inflame and excite our minds ; they first demanded 
 for punishment me, your leader, and then all of you 
 who had laid siege to Saguntum ; and had we been 
 given up they would have visited us with the se- 
 verest tortures. That most cruel and haughty 
 nation considers everything its own, and at its own 
 disposal ; it thinks it right that it should regulate
 
 To his Soldiers m 
 
 with whom we are to have war, with whom peace ; 
 it circumscribes and shuts us up by the boundaries of 
 mountains and rivers which we must not pass ; and 
 then does not adhere to those boundaries which it 
 appointed. Pass not the Iberus ; have nothing to 
 do with the Saguntines. Saguntum is on the Ibe- 
 rus ; you must not move a step in any direction. 
 Is it a small thing that you take away my most an- 
 cient provinces Sicily and Sardinia ? Will you 
 take Spain also ? and should I withdraw thence, 
 you will cross over into Africa — will cross, did I say? 
 They have sent the two consuls of this year, one 
 to Africa, the other to Spain ! there is nothing left 
 to us in any quarter, except what we can assert to 
 ourselves by arms. Those may be cowards and 
 dastards who have something to look back upon ; 
 whom, flying through safe and unmolested roads, 
 their own lands and their own country will receive. 
 There is a necessity for you to be brave, and, since 
 all between victory and death is broken off from 
 you by inevitable despair, either to conquer, or, if 
 fortune should waver, to meet death in battle rather 
 than in flight. If this be well fixed and determined 
 in the minds of you all, I will repeat, you have al- 
 ready conquered ; no stronger incentive to victory 
 has ever been given to man by the immortal gods. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 ON RANSOMING THE PRISONERS 
 
 Marcus Junius. 
 
 The first years of the Second Punic War were filled with a succession of bril- 
 liant Carthaginian victories. Ticinus, Trebici, Trasimene, were bloody defeats for 
 the Roman arms, but the loss to them in the three battles together was trifling 
 when compared with the result of the terrible defeat at Canns (216 b.c). There 
 seventy thousand Romans were killed, and nine thousand either made captive or 
 driven as fugitives into the wilderness. 
 
 Livy says that Hannibal treated the prisoners kindly, dismissed the Italians 
 without ransom, and offered the Romans their liberty upon terms that were joy- 
 fully accepted. The prisoners were allowed to choose and send delegates to 
 Rome to secure their ransom. Having arrived there, an audience of the Senate 
 was granted by the dictator, and Marcus Junius, the leader of the delegates, said: 
 
 THERE is not one of us, Conscript Fathers, who 
 is not aware that there never was a nation 
 which held prisoners in greater contempt than our 
 own. But, unless our own cause is dearer to us 
 than it should be, never did men fall into the hands 
 of the enemy who less deserved to be disregarded 
 than we do ; for we did not surrender our arms in 
 battle through fear ; but, having prolonged the bat- 
 tle almost till nightfall, standing upon heaps of our 
 slaughtered countrymen, we betook ourselves to 
 our camp. For the remainder of the day and dur- 
 ing the following night, although exhausted with 
 
 112
 
 On Ransoming the Prisoners 113 
 
 exertions and wounds, we guarded our ramparts. 
 On the following day, when beset by the enemy, 
 we were deprived of water, and there was no hope 
 of breaking through the dense bands of the foe ; 
 and moreover, since we did not consider it an im- 
 piety that any Roman soldier should survive the 
 battle of Cannae, after fifty thousand of our army 
 had been butchered we at length agreed upon 
 terms on which we might be ransomed and re- 
 leased ; and our arms, in which there was no longer 
 any protection, we delivered to the enemy. We 
 had been informed that our ancestors also had re- 
 deemed themselves from the Gauls with gold, and 
 that, though so rigid as to the terms of peace, they 
 had sent ambassadors to Tarentum for the purpose 
 of ransoming the captives. And yet both the fight 
 at the Alia with the Gauls, and at Heraclea with 
 Pyrrhus, were disgraceful, not so much on account 
 of the loss as on account of the panic and flight. 
 
 Heaps of Roman corpses cover the plains of 
 Cannae ; not one of us would have survived the 
 battle, had not the enemy wanted the strength and 
 the swords to slay us. There are, too, some of us 
 who did not even retreat from the field, but, being 
 left to guard the camp, fell into the hands of the 
 enemy when it was surrendered. For my part, I 
 envy not the good fortune or condition of any citi- 
 zen or fellow-soldier, nor would I endeavor to 
 raise myself by depreciating another ; but not even 
 
 VOL. U.— 8
 
 114 Marcus Junius 
 
 those men who, for the most part, leaving their 
 arms, fled from the field, and stopped not till they 
 arrived at Venusia or Canusium : not even those 
 men, unless some reward is due to them on account 
 of their swiftness of foot and running, could justly 
 set themselves before us or boast that there is more 
 protection to the State in them than in us. But you 
 will find them to be both good and brave soldiers, 
 and you will find us still more zealous, because, 
 through your kindness, we shall have been ran- 
 somed and restored to our country. You are levy- 
 ing from every age and condition ; I hear that 
 eight thousand slaves are being armed. We are no 
 fewer in number ; nor will the expense of redeem- 
 ing us be greater than that of purchasing these. 
 Should I compare ourselves with them, I should 
 slander the name of a Roman. 
 
 1 should think also. Conscript Fathers, that in 
 deliberating on such a measure it ought also to be 
 considered (if you are disposed to be over severe, 
 which you cannot be from any demerit of ours) to 
 what sort of enemy you would abandon us. Is it 
 to Pyrrhus, for instance, who treated us, when his 
 prisoners, like guests ; or to a barbarian, to a Cartha- 
 ginian, of whom it is difficult to determine whether 
 his rapacity or cruelty be the greater ? If you were 
 to see the chains, the squalid appearance, the loath- 
 someness of your countrymen, such a spectacle 
 would affect you, I am confident, not less than if
 
 On Ransoming the Prisoners 115 
 
 you beheld your legions prostrate on the plains of 
 Cannae. You may behold the solicitude and the 
 tears of our kinsmen, as they stand in the lobby of 
 your Senate-house and await your verdict. When 
 they are in so much suspense and anxiety in behalf 
 of us and those who are absent, what think you 
 must be our own feelings, whose lives and liberty 
 are at stake ? By Hercules ! should Hannibal him- 
 self, contrary to his nature, be disposed to be le- 
 nient towards us, yet we should not consider our 
 lives worth possessing, since we have seemed to 
 you unworthy of ransom. At a former time, pris- 
 oners dismissed by Pyrrhus, without ransom, re- 
 turned to Rome ; but they returned in company 
 with ambassadors, the chief men of the State, who 
 were sent to ransom them. Would 1 return to my 
 country, a citizen, when 1 was not considered 
 worth three hundred denarii ? Every man has his 
 own way of thinking. Conscript Fathers. I know 
 that my life and person are at stake. But the dan- 
 ger which threatens my reputation if we should go 
 away rejected and condemned by you affects me 
 most ; for men will never suppose that you 
 merely grudged the price of our redemption. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST RANSOMING THE PRISONERS 
 
 Titus Manlius Torquatus. 
 
 The appeal of Marcus Junius was answered by Titus Manlius Torquatus, to 
 whom Livy ascribes the " over-righteous severity " of his ideal of the primitive 
 Roman. So effective was the reply of Manlius that the captives were refused 
 ransom, although many of them were nearly related to members of the Senate. 
 
 HAD the deputies confined themselves to mak- 
 ing a request, in behalf of those who are in 
 the hands of the enemy, that they might be ran- 
 somed, I should have briefly given my opinion 
 without inveighing against any one. For what 
 else would have been necessary but to admonish 
 you that you ought to adhere to the customs 
 handed down from your ancestors, a precedent in- 
 dispensable to military discipline ? But now, since 
 they have almost boasted of having surrendered 
 themselves to the enemy, and have claimed to be 
 preferred, not only to those who were captured by 
 the enemy in the field, but to those who came to 
 Venusia and Canusium, and even to the consul 
 Terentius himself, I will not suffer you to remain in 
 ignorance of things which were done there. 
 
 I wish that what I am about to bring before you 
 were stated at Canusium, before the army itself, 
 
 ii6
 
 Against Ransoming the Prisoners 117 
 
 the best witness to every man's cowardice or valor ; 
 or at least that there might have been here 
 one person, Publius Sempronius, whom had they 
 followed as their leader, then they would this day 
 have been soldiers in the Roman camp, and not 
 prisoners in the power of the enemy. But though 
 the enemy was fatigued with fighting and engaged 
 in rejoicing for their victory, and the greater part of 
 them had retired into their camp ; though they had 
 the night at their disposal for making a sally, and 
 as they were seven thousand armed troops, they 
 might have forced their way through the troops of 
 the enemy, however closely arrayed ; yet they 
 neither attempted of themselves to do this, nor 
 were willing to follow another. Throughout nearly 
 the whole night Sempronius ceased not to ad- 
 monish and exhort them, while but few of the 
 enemy were about the camp, while there was still- 
 ness and quiet, while the night would conceal their 
 design, that they should follow him ; that before 
 daybreak they might reach places of security, 
 the cities of their allies. If, as Publius Decius, 
 the military tribune in Samnium, said within the 
 memory of our grandfathers ; or as Calpurnius 
 Flamma, in the First Punic War, when we were 
 youths, said to the three hundred volunteers, when 
 he was leading them to seize upon an eminence 
 situated in the midst of the enemy : " Let us die, 
 soldiers, and by our death rescue the surrounding
 
 iiS Titus Manlius Torquatus 
 
 legions from ambuscade " ; — if Publius Sempronius 
 has said thus, he would have considered you as 
 neither Romans nor men had no one stood forward 
 as his companion in so valorous an attempt. He 
 points out to you the road that leads not to glory 
 more than to safety ; he restores you to your 
 country, your parents, your wives and children. 
 Do you want courage to effect your preservation ? 
 What would you do if you had to die for your 
 country ? Fifty thousand of your countrymen and 
 allies on that very day lay around you slain. If so 
 many examples of courage did not move you, 
 nothing ever will. If so great a carnage did not 
 make life less dear, nothing ever will. 
 
 While in freedom and safety, show your affec- 
 tion for your country ; nay, rather do so always 
 while it is your country and you its citizens. Too 
 late you now endeavor to evince your regard for 
 her when degraded, disfranchised from the rights 
 of citizens, and become the slaves of the Carthagin- 
 ians. Shall you return by purchase to that degree 
 which you have forfeited by cowardice and neglect ? 
 You did not listen to Sempronius, your countryman, 
 when he bid you take arms and follow him ; but a 
 little after you listened to Hannibal, when he ordered 
 your arms to be surrendered and your camp be- 
 trayed. But why do 1 charge those men with 
 cowardice when I might tax them with villany ? 
 They not only refused to follow him who gave them
 
 Against Ransoming the Prisoners 119 
 
 good advice, but endeavored to oppose and hold 
 him back, and would have done so, had not some 
 men of the greatest bravery, drav^ing their sv/ords, 
 removed the cowards. Publius Sempronius, I say, 
 was obliged to force his way through a band of his 
 countrymen before he burst through the enemy's 
 troops. Can our country regret such citizens as 
 these, whom if all the rest resembled she would not 
 have one citizen of all those who fought at Cann^ ? 
 Out of seven thousand armed men, there were 
 six hundred who had the courage to force their 
 way through, who returned to their country free, 
 and in arms ; nor did forty thousand of the enemy 
 successfully oppose them. How safe, think you, 
 would a passage have been for nearly two legions ? 
 Then you would have had this day at Canusium, 
 Conscript Fathers, twenty thousand bold and faith- 
 ful men. But now how can these men be called 
 faithful and good citizens (for they do not even call 
 themselves brave), except one assumes that they 
 showed themselves such when they opposed those 
 who were desirous of forcing their way through 
 the enemy, or unless one assumes that they do not 
 envy those men their safety and glory acquired by 
 valor, when they must know that their timidity and 
 cowardice were the cause of their ignominious 
 servitude ? Skulking in their tents, they preferred 
 to wait for the light and the enemy together, when 
 they had an opportunity of sallying forth during
 
 120 Titus x^Ianlius Torquatus 
 
 the silence of tlie night. But though they had not 
 courage to sally forth from the camp, had they 
 courage to defend it strenuousl}' ? Having endured 
 a siege for several days and nights, did they pro- 
 tect their rampart by their arms, and themselves by 
 their rampart ? At length, having dared and suf- 
 fered every extremity, when ever>' means of sus- 
 tenance was lost, their strength exhausted with 
 famine, and themselves unable to hold their arms, 
 were they subdued by the necessities of nature 
 rather than b\' arms ? At sunrise, the enemy ap- 
 proached the rampart ; before the second hour, 
 without hazarding any contest, they delivered up 
 their arms and themselves. Here is their military 
 service for }'ou during two days. When they 
 ought to have stood tlrm in array and fought on, 
 then they tied back into their camps ; good for 
 nothing either in the field or the camp. I redeem 
 >'ou ? When you ought to sall\' from the camp, 
 you linger and hesitate ; and when you ought to 
 stay and protect your camp in arms, you surrender 
 the camp, your arms, and \'ourselves to the enemy. 
 I am of the opinion. Conscript Fathers, that these 
 men should no more be ransomed than that those 
 should be surrendered to Hannibal who sallied 
 from the camp through the midst of the enemy, 
 and, with the most distinguished courage, restored 
 themselves to their country. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 M. ANNy^US SENECA 
 
 M. Annaeus Seneca was born in Cordova about 54 b.c. His 
 youth was spent in the study of rhetoric, and when he 
 attained manhood he became a professor of that art. His 
 fluency and prodigious power of memory, united to great 
 imaginative ability, soon won him fame, and he became re- 
 nowned as the most eloquent rhetorician of his day. He spent 
 much of his life in Rome, and died either there or at Cordova 
 in ^8 A.D. He has left but few writings, and these probably 
 did not rank among his masterpieces, but those extant are 
 valuable as examples of a type of declamation which formed 
 an important period in the history of oratory. His Controver- 
 siae, or discussions on legal subjects, were designed for use 
 as practice selections by the orators of the law courts ; the 
 Suasoriae were discussions upon imaginary themes, and were 
 adapted to the study of students of rhetoric. Seneca the 
 rhetorician must not be confounded with L. Annaeus Seneca, 
 his grandson, also born in Hispania, and who was tutor to 
 Nero and eminent alike as statesman and writer. 
 
 Seneca's style, as far as known, was inclined to simplicity 
 and lucidity. It must, however, be remembered that the 
 works which have been preserved were intended only for 
 study. 
 
 The only extant works of Seneca are five books of the 
 Contr over sari iim, Libri X., and the Suason'ariim Liber. His 
 works have not been translated into English. 
 
 121
 
 SUASORIA VII 
 
 M. y4nn£eus Seneca. 
 
 The following has been selected as an excellent example of the style of Seneca 
 in the composition termed suasoria. This, as will be seen, consisted in a 
 hortatory oration, or series thereof, and was much in vogue in the days of Seneca, 
 In that selected, Cicero is represented as deliberating whether he should burn his 
 writings, thereby earning the clemency of Antony, who has promised him life 
 upon this condition. His friends exhort him to accept death rather than thus 
 dearly purchase life. 
 
 Q, Hateriiis — ''You will not listen to Antony. 
 Success only renders an evil character unendurable, 
 because nothing more encourages an avaricious 
 man than the consciousness of his baseness being 
 successful. The position is a difficult one. You 
 will not listen to him, 1 say, and you will again 
 stir up your personal enemy to your destruction. 
 As to me, indeed, 1 am not of great help to Cicero ; 
 but I am not so much disgusted with my life as 
 ashamed of it, because not even in this is it of much 
 use to Cicero. You are proud of your talent, the 
 very thing which Antony hates more than he hates 
 you. He says that you may live, when he has al- 
 ready contrived a plan to rob you of that by which 
 
 you truly live. More cruel, therefore, is Antony's 
 
 123
 
 124 Annaeus Seneca 
 
 promise than his proscription. The arms of the 
 triumvirs had no power over your genius. Then 
 Antony deliberated hov/ he might destroy through 
 Cicero that which he was unable to proscribe to- 
 gether with Cicero, if freedom held her place in 
 the Republic, if eloquence held her place in free- 
 dom, and if the lives of the citizens were not mere- 
 ly sported with, I should exhort you, O Cicero, to 
 place a high value upon your life. But now An- 
 tony promises you life, that you may see that death 
 is the best portion. The list of that accursed pro- 
 scription is yet unfmished ; many praetorians, many 
 men of consular rank, many of the order of knights 
 have perished ; no one is left except those who can 
 be made slaves. I do not know if at this time you 
 desire to live, O Cicero ; there is no one left with 
 whom you would care to live. But, by Hercules ! 
 there was a time when you lived worthily ; it was 
 when C^sar of his own accord asked that you 
 might live, and that too without any bargain ; at 
 which time the State could not be said to be stand- 
 ing, for it had fallen into the arms of a benevolent 
 prince." 
 
 Cestiiis Pius — '' Has my expectation deceived 
 me ? Antony comprehended that if the memorials 
 of Cicero's eloquence remained secure, Cicero could 
 not die. You are therefore asked to make a com- 
 pact according to which your nobler part is threat- 
 ened with destruction. Lend me for a moment
 
 Suasoria VII 125 
 
 some of your own eloquence. I ask Cicero, who 
 is soon to die, whether Ciesar and Pompey, refus- 
 ing your advice, did not enter into a base alliance, 
 did not break it ? 1 ask whether, if they had been 
 willing to follow your counsel, Pompey would have 
 deserted C^sar, or C^sar Pompey ? I ask, what 
 of your consulship which brought safety to the 
 city ? What of your exile, even more honorable to 
 you than your consulship ? what of the power of 
 Sulla, provoked by you at the very beginning of 
 your manhood ? what of Antony, torn from Cati- 
 line and restored to the Republic ? Pardon me, O 
 Cicero, if I have spoken at too great length of these 
 things ; it may be that this day they will be heard for 
 the last time. If Cicero be slain, he will lie beside 
 Pompey the Elder and Pompey the Younger, beside 
 Afranius Petreius, Quintus Catulus, and that Marcus 
 Antonius who did not deserve such a successor as 
 the present Antonius. If Cicero be saved, he will 
 live among the Ventidii, the Canicii, and the Sax«. 
 Can it be doubted whether it would be better for 
 him to lie dead among the former or to live among 
 the latter ? To save one man, yourself, you would 
 sell that which is of great value to the whole State. 
 1 know that any price which Antony might fix 
 would be unjust ; no one would buy the life of 
 Cicero at the only price for which Antony would 
 sell it. If he should keep his compact with you, 
 you would indeed live, but your eyes would be
 
 126 Annaeus Seneca 
 
 torn out ; you would live, but your feet would be 
 lamed ; and even if in regard to all other bodily 
 losses you manifested patience and resignation, 
 you could not feel these at the loss of your tongue. 
 Where is that sacred voice of yours ? For to die is 
 the end of nature, not a penalty ; is it only to you 
 that this is not clear ? Rather preserve yourself to 
 liberty, and thus add one more crime to those of 
 your enemy. Make Antony yet more criminal by 
 your death." 
 
 P. Asprenas — '' In order that Antony may spare 
 Cicero, will Cicero sin against his own eloquence. 
 Besides, what is promised you ? Is it that Cn^eus 
 Pompey and Marcus Cato and that ancient and 
 most dignified Senate of the State shall be again 
 brought to life, and that Cicero shall speak in their 
 presence ? Many, when on the verge of success, 
 have been struck down by that soul's scorn of life ; 
 many, when at the point of perishing, have been 
 sustained by mere admiration for that soul ; and 
 with them, to die bravely was to truly live. In- 
 trust yourself to the Roman people against Antony. 
 If you burn your writings, Antony promises you a 
 few years ; but if you do not burn them, the Ro- 
 man people promise you eternity." 
 
 Pompeiiis Silo—'' What sort of a compact is this, 
 that we should destroy the eloquence of Cicero and 
 accept the pledge of Antony ? Do you call that 
 pity, that which would be the most severe punish-
 
 Suasoria VII 127 
 
 ment to the talents of Cicero ? We should trust 
 Antony, O Cicero, if money-lenders would do well 
 to trust their money to him, if Brutus and Cassius 
 would do well to trust their safety to him, — to him, 
 a man rendered crazy both by nature and by the 
 license of the times, a man who, amid his love- 
 affairs with actors, revels in the blood of the citi- 
 zens ; a man who pledged the Republic to his 
 creditors, and whose avarice was not to be satisfied 
 with the wealth of two princes, Csesar and Pom- 
 pey. I will quote your own words, O Cicero : Is 
 that safety, which Antony can bestow or take 
 away, precious to any one ? To owe to Antony 
 the preservation of Cicero would be to purchase 
 the preservation of Cicero at too great a price." 
 
 Triarius— "The Roman people were once driven 
 to such straits that nothing was left to them except 
 the besieged temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the 
 exiled Camillus ; yet no act of Camillus was nobler 
 than that he thought it unworthy of a man to owe 
 his safety to a bargain. Life, even though it be 
 granted without payment, is only a burden. An- 
 tony, once adjudged an enemy by the Republic, 
 now adjudges the Republic an enemy. Lepidus, 
 in order that the world might not think that as a 
 colleague he was distasteful to Antony, exceeds 
 him in frenzy : the slave of both colleagues is our 
 master." 
 
 y1rgentarws—''We must put no confidence in
 
 128 Annaeus Seneca 
 
 Antony. For what might he not do who could kill 
 Cicero, or who would save him only by a cruelty 
 worse than death ? Do you believe that he for- 
 gives you, he who hates your talents ? Do you 
 hope for life at the hands of him from whose mem- 
 ory your words have not faded ? Should genius, 
 which is eternal, perish, that the body, which is 
 weak and fragile, should be preserved for a time ? 
 I wondered if Antony's favor would not be more 
 cruel than his punishments. A noble death placed 
 among the ranks of the Scipios, Publius Scipio, who 
 in life fell far below the distinction of his ancestors. 
 Antony delivers you from death in order that that 
 which alone of you is immortal may perish. What 
 a promise ! The genius of Cicero is to be taken 
 away, and only his life remain. A few years of 
 servitude are promised you, but with oblivion for 
 your name added. Antony does not wish you to 
 live, but only to make you the survivor of your ge- 
 nius. Live, that Cicero may listen to Lepidus, that 
 Cicero may listen to Antony, but that no one may 
 listen to Cicero ! Can you endure that the best of 
 you shall die the first ? Let rather your genius and 
 the infamous proscription of Antony survive you." 
 Arelliiis Fuscus — *'As long as the human race 
 survives, as long as literature survives, honor will 
 reward the noblest eloquence. As long as the for- 
 tune of our State exists or memory endures, splen- 
 did genius will be esteemed by posterity ; though
 
 Suasoria VII 129 
 
 yourself proscribed in this generation, you shall 
 proscribe Antony forever. Believe me, it is but the 
 most trivial part of you which can be taken from or 
 bestowed upon you. That Cicero who Antony 
 thinks cannot be proscribed except by Cicero him- 
 self, that is the real Cicero. He does not abandon 
 your proscription, but he desires to avert his own. 
 If Antony should break his promise, you will die ; 
 if he should keep it, you will live a slave. As far 
 as I am concerned, 1 would choose to foil him. By 
 yourself, Marcus Tullius, by your four-and-sixty 
 years of noble life, by the welfare of the Republic, 
 by your consulship, by the memory of your eternal 
 genius, if you permit it to be eternal, by the Re- 
 public, which perished before you that you might 
 not think that you left behind you anything dear 
 to you, I urge and beseech you not to die having 
 confessed that you were unwilling to die." 
 
 Translated by the Editors of this volume. 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 AULUS GELLIUS 
 
 Aulus Gellius is supposed to have been born at Rome about 
 117 A. D. He studied rhetoric at Rome and philosophy at 
 Athens. He became a distinguished member of the Roman 
 bar. He died about 181 a.d. 
 
 His style is somewhat artificial and inclined to the pedantic. 
 Yet his work is interesting from the vitality of his anecdotes 
 and reminiscences. 
 
 His extant work, Nodes Atticce, is valuable because of many 
 quotations from ancient writers. 
 
 The best edition of his work is that of Hertz, Leipzig ; 1871, 
 Teubner. Translations in English, French, and German have 
 been made. 
 
 131
 
 FRAGMENTS 
 
 Aulus Gellius. 
 
 The following fragments taken from the Nodes Atticce are attributed to 
 Gaius Gracchus and M. Porcius Cato respectively. If authentic, they are im- 
 portant examples of the work of these orators. 
 
 EXORDIUM OF THE SPEECH FOR THE RHODIANS 
 
 Cato. 
 
 1KN0W that most men are accustomed in pros- 
 perity to be highly elated, and that their 
 haughtiness and ferocity increases and enlarges. 
 Now it is a great care to me that these affairs 
 should advance so successfully that no untoward 
 event may happen to our deliberations nor interfere 
 with our success, and that our joy, our rejoicing 
 over these things, may not be too excessive. Ad- 
 versity teaches what there is need of; prosperity is 
 wont by reason of excessive joy to drive one from 
 just and intelligent deliberation. Wherefore, I ad- 
 vise and recommend strongly that this matter be 
 postponed for some time until we return from our 
 great joy to control of ourselves. And now 1 think 
 
 that the Rhodians did not wish to fight us, as they 
 
 133
 
 134 Marcus Porcius Cato 
 
 did fight. Not only were the Rhodians unwilling, 
 but also I think many nations and peoples were 
 unwilling to fight against us. And 1 am also in- 
 clined to think that there were some of them who 
 did not wish this to turn out as it did, through fear 
 of insult to us ; they also feared that they might 
 come under our sovereign control, and be reduced 
 to a condition of servitude. The Rhodians, never- 
 theless, did not as a State assist King Perses. 
 Reflect how^very careful we are with our own in- 
 dividual affairs. For each one of us, if any one 
 thinks that anything is against his own interests, 
 strives against it with all his might, in order that 
 nothing disadvantageous may befall his affairs ; 
 nevertheless, these (Rhodians) endured this state 
 of affairs. 
 
 Translated for this volume by H. C. Whiting, L.H.D., 
 Professor in Dickinson College. 
 
 FRAGMENT OF SPEECH IN BEHALF OF THE RHODIANS 
 
 Cato. 
 
 Shall we abandon them now when there might 
 be such mutual profit and friendship ? Shall we 
 hasten to be the first to do that which we say they 
 wish to do ? He who speaks most strongly against 
 them says that they wish to become enemies. Is 
 there, pray, any one of you who thinks it just to 
 punish them simply because it is charged that they 
 were willing to act the part of an enemy ? No one,
 
 Fragments 135 
 
 I think ; for I, in so far as in me lies, would not be 
 willing. What then ? Pray, is there any law so 
 severe as to say, if any one had the inclination to 
 become hostile, let him be fined in the half of his 
 household slaves ? For example, if any one simply 
 wished to have more than five hundred acres of 
 land, or if any one wished to have a large number 
 of cattle, would any one say, let him suffer 
 a penalty in proportion to his wishes ? We wish 
 to have many times more than we have ; and yet 
 this is without punishment on our part. But if it 
 is not just to be considered meritorious merely for 
 this reason, that one says that he wishes to do well, 
 and yet does not do it, shall it be a crime in the 
 Rhodians, not because they did the wrong, but 
 because they are said to have wished to do so ? 
 They say the Rhodians are haughty : grant that 
 they are haughty ; how does that concern us? 
 Are we to become angry because one is haughtier 
 than we are ? 
 
 Translated for this volume by H. C. Whiting, L.H.D., 
 Professor in Dickinson College. 
 
 MEN MUST BE TAKEN AS THEY ARE 
 
 Gains Gracchus. 
 
 For you, O Romans, if you are willing to employ 
 wisdom and reason, and if you inquire, will find 
 that no one of us gives his services without pay. 
 All of us who speak ask something, and no one 
 comes to you except that he may take something
 
 136 Gaius Gracchus 
 
 away. I myself, who speak to you that you may 
 increase your revenue, and that you may the more 
 easily administer your personal affairs and those of 
 the State, do not come here gratis. But I ask of 
 you, not money, but good opinion and honor. But 
 those who come forward to persuade you not to 
 accept this law seek not honor at your hands, but 
 money at the hands of Nicomedes. Those who 
 advise you to accept the law also ask of you not a 
 good opinion, but a reward and pay at the hands 
 of Mithridates. Moreover, those in this body and 
 in this place who are silent, are indeed very spirited 
 men, but they accept pay from all. You, when 
 you think that they are far removed from these 
 things, bestow upon them a good opinion. More- 
 over, ambassadors from the kings, when they think 
 that these men are silent for their sake, bestow 
 upon them large sums of money and defray their 
 expenses ; as in the land of Greece, when a Greek 
 tragedian considered it a great glory that a talent 
 was given him for one play, the most eloquent man 
 of his State, Demades, is reported to have said : 
 '' Do you think it wonderful to have received one 
 talent for this spoken production ? I have received 
 ten talents from the king to be silent." So now 
 these people receive the greatest price for being 
 silent. 
 
 Translated for this volume by H. C. Whiting, L.H.D., 
 Professor in Dickinson College.
 
 Fragments 137 
 
 IN VINDICATION OF HIS POLITICAL PURITY 
 
 Gains Gracchus. 
 
 Gaius Gracchus, when he returned from Sardinia, delivered a speech to the 
 people in their assembly. These are his words : — 
 
 I SO conducted myself in the province as I believed 
 would be to your best interests ; not as I thought 
 would conduce to my personal ambition. I had 
 no cook-shop with me, no slaves of beautiful form 
 stood in my presence. I conducted myself so that 
 no one could truly say that 1 received a single 
 farthing as a personal gift ; nor can any one truly 
 say that he was put to expense through my fault. 
 I was two years in the province ; if any disreput- 
 able person entered my home, you may consider 
 me the lowest and most worthless of mankind. 
 When I set out, O Romans, to return to Rome, the 
 money girdles which I carried to the province full 
 of silver I brought back from the province empty. 
 Some persons brought back full of silver the wine 
 jars which they carried to the provinces full of 
 wine. 
 
 Translated for this volume hy H. C. Whiting, L.H.D., 
 Professor in Dickinson College.
 
 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 
 
 Marcus Tullius Cicero was born near Arpinum on January 
 3, io6 B.C. His family was of the Equestrian order, of some 
 wealtii and a large local influence. It had never been con- 
 nected with the political movements of the capital. In ear- 
 liest youth Cicero manifested great intellectual promise. His 
 father, a man of good education and liberal ideas, determined 
 to take the boy to Rome and place him under the leading 
 instructors. The elder Cicero and Quintus, an older son who 
 had already settled at Rome, devoted themselves to the educa- 
 tion of Marcus. The boy had many masters, among them the 
 poet Archias, by whom he was taught grammar, rhetoric, and 
 literature. At sixteen, he, as was the custom, assumed the 
 toga, and was duly enrolled as a Roman citizen. The study 
 of law, oratory, and philosophy was now begun. Philosophy 
 was taught him by Philo the Academic, by Diodotus the 
 Stoic, and Molo gave him instruction in philosophical disputa- 
 tion, which, for the purpose of improving his style, was car- 
 ried on in Greek. He neglected no line of study known to his 
 world, and under the advice of the masters of each branch be- 
 came the most learned man of his day. His legal and ora- 
 torical studies were carried on under the friendly eyes of the 
 Augur Mucins Scaevola and the orators Crassus and Antonius, 
 and under their advice and with constant practice, he prepared 
 himself for his future career. He spent every possible mo- 
 ment in study at the Senate, law courts, or the public meet- 
 ings. He was abstemious to a fault, took little or no exercise, 
 and thought only of his work. Not until he had reached his 
 twenty-sixth year did he consider himself fitted to commence 
 his public career. The name of his first speech is not certain- 
 ly known, but it is thought to be that for Quintus. This was 
 soon followed by the great oration in defence of Roscius. in 
 one year these orations gave him rank as one of the greatest 
 
 139
 
 I40 The World's Orators 
 
 of Roman orators. But Cicero had drawn upon him the wrath 
 of Sulla, as Chrysogonus, a favorite of the dictator, had been 
 the accuser of Roscius. Then, too, Cicero joined, with the en- 
 thusiasm of early manhood, the popular party. His health 
 began to fail under the tremendous exertions he had made. 
 He decided to travel and continue his studies. He visited 
 Greece, and at Athens studied philosophy with Antiochus, the 
 Academic, and with Zeno and Phaedrus, the Epicureans. He 
 next travelled in Asia Minor, visiting Stratonice, Magnesia, 
 Cnidos, and Adramyttium, where he held counsel with the 
 leading philosophers and rhetoricians. He then studied at 
 Rhodes under his old preceptor Molo. After two years' ab- 
 sence, he returned to Rome in perfect health and with widely 
 augmented knowledge. From the delivery of his first speech 
 after returning, his position as the foremost of Roman orators 
 was universally acknowledged. He passed through the va- 
 rious political offices, and was elected to the consulship. His 
 life was passed in constant and varied activity. He was the 
 leading lawyer, the most eminent statesman, the most learned 
 scholar of his generation, and the greatest orator of Roman 
 history. He was murdered on December 7, 43 B.C., by com- 
 mand of Antonius and with the consent of Octavius. 
 
 Any extended criticism of Cicero's style would be out of 
 place in this work. The able treatises upon this subject fill 
 volumes. A bibliography of these valuable contributions to 
 literary criticism may be found in the pages of Engelmann, 
 Teuffel, and others. 
 
 Yet it may be well to note the general characteristics of the 
 style of the great Roman orator. This was always easy and 
 sometimes almost dangerously light of touch ; but it was 
 never ineffective. There was generally a cumulative rapidity, 
 borrowed, but strengthened in the transition, from the Grecian 
 school. Cicero has been charged with verboseness, but this 
 was used for the purpose of attracting and gradually riveting 
 the attention of his auditory. When the subject demanded 
 conciseness, he was never verbose. There is in his style a 
 stateliness and gorgeousness which was the product and the 
 taste of his time. He was always logical, always cogent in
 
 Marcus Tullius Cicero 141 
 
 his reasoning, and liis method of arrangement has never been 
 surpassed. His power as an orator may perhaps be best 
 summed up in the words of Quintilian: ". . . I may not 
 unreasonably believe that the summit of excellence was not 
 attained by him. Nevertheless, no man has made nearer 
 approach to it." 
 
 The works that most concern us are those in the field of 
 oratory. In addition to his Orations we have the De Oratore 
 and the Brutus. 
 
 Many editions of his works have been published. It is diffi- 
 cult to name the best. The bibliographies in such works as 
 Bibliotheca Scriptonim Classicorum, Scriptores Latini, En- 
 gelmann, should be consulted. A very satisfactory edition of 
 Cicero's complete works is that of Teubner, Leipzig, 1874. 
 The Valpy edition of the Orations with English notes, Long- 
 man, London, 1839, is useful. Forsyth's Life of Cicero is 
 the standard. Translations of the Orations, De Oratore, and 
 the Brutus are to be found in French and German, as well as 
 in English.
 
 ON THE PUNISHMENTS 
 
 [Selection.] Cicero. 
 
 FROM THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE SECOND ACTION 
 AGAINST VERRES 
 
 About the period of Sulla's abdication a young noble, named Caius Ven-es, ac- 
 companied the praetor Dolabella to his government of Ciiicia. At Sicyon, in 
 Achaia, as he passed along, he thought fit to demand a sum of money of the chief 
 magistrate of the city, and, being refused, shut him up in a close chamber, with 
 a fire ot green wood, to extort the gratuity he required. From the same place he 
 carried off several of the finest sculptures and paintings. At Athens he shared 
 with his chief the plunder of the temple of Minerva ; at Delos, that of Apollo; 
 at Chios, Erythraea, Halicarnassus, and elsewhere on his route, he perpetrated 
 similar acts of rapine. Samos possessed a temple celebrated throughout Asia ; 
 Verres rifled both the temple and the city itself. The Samians complained to the 
 governor of Asia ; they were recommended to carry their complaints to Rome. 
 Perga boasted a statue of Diana coated with gold ; Verres scraped off the gilding. 
 Miletus offered the escort of one of her finest vessels ; he detained it for his own 
 use and sold it. At Lampsacus he sought to dishonor the daughter of the first 
 citizen of the place ; her father and brother ventured to defend her, and slew one 
 of his attendants. Verres seized the pretext to accuse them both of an attempt 
 on his life, and the governor of the province obliged him by cutting off both 
 their heads. Such were the atrocities of the young ruffian while yet a mere de- 
 pendent of the proconsul, with no charge or office of his own. Being appointed 
 quaestor, he extended his exactions over every district of the provinces, and 
 speedily amassed, as is known from the avowal of his own principal, from two to 
 three millions of sesterces beyond the requisitions of the public service. 
 
 Verres could now pay for his election to the praetorship in the city. For a year 
 he dispensed his favorable judgments to wealthy suitors at home, and on its ter- 
 mination sailed for the province of Sicily. Here his conduct in the tribunal was 
 marked by the most glaring venality. He sold everything, both his patronage and 
 his decisions, making sport of the laws of the country and of his own edicts ; 
 
 143
 
 144 Cicero 
 
 of the religion, the fortunes, and the loves of the provincials. During the three 
 years of his government not a single senator of the sixty-five cities of the island 
 was elected without a gratuity to the propraetor. He imposed arbitrary requisi- 
 tions of many hundred thousand bushels of grain upon communities already 
 overburdened with their authorized tithes. He distributed cities among his crea- 
 tures with the air of a Persian despot ; Lipara he gave to a boon companion, 
 Segesta to an actress, Herbita to a courtesan. These exactions threatened to 
 depopulate the country. At the period of his arrival the territory of Leontium 
 possessed eighty-three farms ; in the third year of the Verrine administration only 
 thirty-two remained in occupation. At Motya the number of tenanted estates 
 had fallen from a hundred and eighty-eight to a hundred and one ; at Herbita, 
 from two hundred and fifty-seven to a hundred and twenty ; at Argyrona, from 
 two hundred and fifty to eighty. Throughout the province more than one half 
 of the cultivated lands were abandoned, as if the scourge of war or pestilence had 
 passed over the island. 
 
 But Verres was an amateur and an antiquary, and had a taste for art as well as 
 a thirst for lucre. At every city where he stopped on his progresses he extorted 
 gems, vases, and trinkets from his host, or from any inhabitant whom he under- 
 stood to possess them. No one ventured to complain. There was no redress 
 even for a potentate in alliance with the Republic, such as Antiochus, King of 
 Syria, who was robbed of a splendid candelabrum enriched with jewels, which 
 he was about to dedicate in the Capitol at Rome. All these objects of art were 
 sent off to Italy to decorate the villa of the propraetor. Nor were the antiques 
 and curiosities he thus amassed less valuable than the ornaments of gold and 
 silver. Finally, Verres laid his hands on certain statues of Ceres and Diana, the 
 special objects of worship among the natives, who were only allowed the consola- 
 tion of coming to offer them their sacrifices in his garden. Nor did the extortion 
 of Verres fall upon the Sicilians only. He cheated the treasury at Rome of the 
 sums advanced to him in payment of corn for the consumption of the city. He 
 withheld the necessary equipments for the fleet which he was directed to send 
 against the pirates, and applied them to his own use. The fleet was worsted by 
 the enemy, and Verres caused its officers to be executed for cowardice. He 
 crowned his enormities by punishing one of the ruling caste with death. Gavius, 
 a Roman trader, he had confined in the quarries of Syracuse. The man 
 escaped, was retaken, and fastened to a cross on the beach within sight of Italy, 
 that he might address to his native shores the ineffectual cry, " I am a Roman 
 citizen." 
 
 Verres was impeached in 70 b.c. The importance of the trial was great. 
 The fate of Verres, the whole system of the oligarchical administration of the 
 provinces, and the right of the Senate to act as a jury were involved. Verres 
 secured the great advocate Hortensius as consul. Every effort was made to de- 
 feat the prosecution before actual trial. Cicero, then in his thirty-sixth year, saw 
 in the trial his opportunity. He seized it. He overcame the schemes of the 
 defence and brought the case to trial. The opening speech, known as the First 
 Oration against Verres, was devoted to the production of evidence against him. 
 The proof was so overwhelming that Hortensius abandoned the defence, and
 
 On the Punishments i45 
 
 Verres went into voluntary exile. Under ordinary circumstances, this would have 
 ended the matter, but so great were the Constitutional and political interests in- 
 volved that Cicero completed the orations he had intended to deliver against 
 Verres, and published them as a weapon against the Sullan Constitution. These 
 Orations are five in number and constitute what is known as the Second Pleading 
 against Verres. From these we have selected a part of the Fifth Oration, that On 
 the Punishments. 
 
 THE remainder of the accusation, O judges, is 
 one which I have not received from any one, 
 but v/hich is, if I may so say, innate in me ; it is 
 one which has not been brought to me, but which 
 is deeply fixed and implanted in all my feelings ; 
 it is one which concerns, not the safety of allies, 
 but the life and existence of Roman citizens, that 
 is to say, of every one of us. And in urging this, 
 do not, O judges, expect to hear any arguments 
 from me, as if the matter was doubtful. Every- 
 thing which I am going to say about the punish- 
 ment of Roman citizens will be so evident and 
 notorious that I could produce many witnesses to 
 prove it. For some insanity, the frequent compan- 
 ion of wickedness and audacity, urged on that 
 man's unrestrained ferocity of disposition and in- 
 human nature to such frenzy that he never 
 hesitated openly, in the presence of the whole 
 body of citizens and settlers, to employ against 
 Roman citizens those punishments which have 
 been instituted only for slaves convicted of crime. 
 Why need 1 tell you how many men he has 
 scourged ? 1 will only say most briefly, O judges, 
 that while that man was pr^tor there was no 
 
 VOL. II.— lO
 
 146 Cicero 
 
 discrimination whatever in the infliction of that sort 
 of punishment, and, accordingly, the hands of the 
 lictor were habitually laid on the persons of Roman 
 citizens, even without any actual order from 
 Verres. 
 
 Can you deny this, O Verres, that in the Forum, 
 at Lilybasum, in the presence of a numerous body 
 of inhabitants, Caius Servilius, a Roman citizen, an 
 old trader of the body of settlers at Panormus, was 
 beaten to the ground by rods and scourges before 
 your tribunal, before your very feet ? Dare first to 
 deny this, if you can. No one was at Lilybasum 
 who did not see it. No one was in Sicily who did 
 not hear of it. I assert that a Roman citizen fell 
 down before your eyes, exhausted by the scourg- 
 ing of your lictors. For what reason, O ye im- 
 mortal gods ? — though in asking that I am doing 
 injury to the common cause of all the citizens, and 
 to the privilege of citizenship, for I am asking what 
 reason there was in the case of Servilius for this 
 treatment, as if there could be any reason for its 
 being legally inflicted on any Roman citizen. 
 Pardon me this one error, O judges, for I will not 
 in the rest of the cases ask for any reason. He 
 had spoken rather freely of the dishonesty and 
 worthlessness of Verres. And as soon as Verres is 
 informed of this, he orders the man to Lilyb^um 
 to give security in a prosecution instituted against 
 him by one of the slaves of Verres. He gives
 
 I 
 
 On the Punishments 147 
 
 security. He comes to Lilybceum. Verres begins 
 by compelling him, though no one proceeded with 
 any action against him, though no one made any 
 claim on him, to be bound over in the sum of two 
 thousand sesterces to appear to a charge brought 
 against him by his own lictor, in the formula, — ''if 
 he had made any profit by robbery." He says that 
 he will appoint judges out of his own revenue. 
 Servilius demurs, and entreats that he may not be 
 proceeded against by a capital prosecution before 
 unjust judges and where there is no prosecutor. 
 While he is urging this with a loud voice, six of 
 the most vigorous lictors surround him, men in full 
 practice in beating and scourging men ; they beat 
 him most furiously with rods ; then the lictor who 
 was nearest to him, the man whom I have already 
 often mentioned, Sextus, turning his stick round, 
 began to beat the wretched man violently on the 
 eyes. Therefore, when blood had filled his mouth 
 and eyes, he fell down, and they nevertheless 
 continued to beat him on the sides while lying on 
 the ground, till he at last said he would give 
 security. He, having been treated in this manner, 
 was taken away from the place as dead, and, in a 
 short time afterwards, he died. But that devoted 
 servant of Venus, that man so rich in wit and 
 courtesy, erected in the temple of Venus a silver 
 statue out of the dead man's property. And in 
 this way he misused the fortunes of men to fulfil
 
 148 Cicero 
 
 the nightly vows made by him for the accomplish- 
 ment of his desires. 
 
 But why should I speak separately of all the 
 other punishments inflicted on Roman citizens, 
 rather than generally, and in the lump? That 
 prison which was built at Syracuse by that most 
 cruel tyrant Dionysius, which is called the stone- 
 quarries, was, under his government, the home of 
 Roman citizens. When any one of them offended 
 this man's eyes or mind, he was instantly thrown 
 into the stone-quarries. I see that this appears a 
 scandalous thing to you, O judges ; and 1 observed 
 that it so appeared at the former pleading, when 
 the witnesses stated these things ; for you thought 
 that the privileges of freedom ought to be main- 
 tained, not only here, where there are tribunes of the 
 people, where there are other magistrates, where 
 there is a Forum with many courts of justice, 
 where there is the authority of the Senate, where 
 there is the opinion of the Roman people to hold 
 a man in check, where the Roman people itself is 
 present in great numbers ; but in whatever country 
 or nation the privileges of Roman citizens are vio- 
 lated, you, O judges, decide that that violation 
 concerns the common cause of freedom and your 
 dignity. Did you, O Verres, dare to confine such 
 a number of Roman citizens in a prison built for 
 foreigners, for wicked men, for pirates, and for 
 enemies ? Did no thoughts of this tribunal, or
 
 On the Punishments 149 
 
 of the public assembly, or of this numerous mul- 
 titude which I see around me, and which is 
 now regarding you with a most hostile and in- 
 imical disposition, occur to your mind ? Did not 
 the dignity of the Roman people, though absent, 
 did not the appearance of such a concourse as 
 this, ever present itself to your eyes or to your 
 thoughts ? Did you never think that you would 
 have to return home to the sight of these men, 
 that you would have to come into the Forum of 
 the Roman people, that you would have to sub- 
 mit yourself to the power of the laws and courts 
 of justice ? 
 
 But what, O Verres, was that passion of yours 
 for practising cruelty ? what was your reason for 
 undertaking so many wicked actions ? It was 
 nothing, O judges, except a new and unprece- 
 dented system of plundering. For, like those men 
 whose histories we have learnt from the poets, 
 who are said to have occupied some bays on the 
 seacoast, or some promontories, or some precipi- 
 tous rocks, in order to be able to murder those 
 who had been driven to such places in their ves- 
 sels, this man also looked down as an enemy over 
 every sea, from every part of Sicily. Every ship 
 that came from Asia, from Syria, from Tyre, from 
 Alexandria, was immediately seized by informers 
 and guards upon whom he could rely ; their 
 crews were all thrown into the stone-quarries, their
 
 150 Cicero 
 
 freights and merchandise carried up into the prae- 
 tor's house. There was seen to range through 
 Sicily, after a long interval, not another Dionysius, 
 not another Phalaris (for that island has at one 
 time or another produced many inhuman tyrants), 
 but a new sort of monster endowed with all the 
 ancient savage barbarity which is said to have 
 formerly existed in those same districts ; for I do 
 not think that either Scylla or Charybdis was such 
 an enemy to sailors as that man has been in the 
 same waters. And in one respect he is far more 
 to be dreaded than they, because he is girdled 
 with more numerous and more powerful hounds 
 than were they. He is a second Cyclops, far more 
 savage than the first, for Verres had possession 
 of the whole island ; Polyphemus is said to have 
 occupied only y^tna and that part of Sicily. But 
 what pretext was alleged at the time by that man 
 for this outrageous cruelty ? The same which is 
 now going to be stated in his defence. He used 
 to say, whenever any one came to Sicily a little 
 better off than usual, that they were soldiers of 
 Sertorius, and that they were flying from Dianium. 
 They brought him presents to gain his protection 
 from danger ; some brought him Tyrian purple, 
 others brought frankincense, perfumes, and linen 
 robes ; others gave jewels and pearls ; some offered 
 great bribes and Asiatic slaves, so that it was seen 
 by their very goods from what place they came.
 
 On the Punishments 151 
 
 They were not aware that those very things which 
 they thought they were employing as aids to in- 
 sure their safety were the causes of their danger. 
 For he would claim that they had acquired those 
 things by partnership with pirates ; he would order 
 the men themselves to be led away to the stone- 
 quarries ; he would see that their ships and their 
 freights were diligently taken care of. 
 
 When by these practices his prison had become 
 full of merchants, then took place those scenes 
 which you have heard related by Lucius Suetius, a 
 Roman knight and a most virtuous man, and by 
 others. The necks of Roman citizens were in- 
 famously broken in the prison, so that that very 
 expression and form of entreaty, 'M am a Roman 
 citizen," which has often brought to many, in 
 the most distant countries, succor and assistance, 
 even among the barbarians, only brought to these 
 men a more bitter death and a more immediate 
 execution. What is this, O Verres ? What reply 
 are you thinking of making to this ? That I am 
 telling lies ? that I am inventing things ? that I 
 am exaggerating this accusation ? Will you dare 
 to say any one of these things to those men who 
 are defending you? Give me, 1 pray you, the 
 documents of the Syracusans taken from his own 
 bosom, which, methinks, were drawn up accord- 
 ing to his will ; give me the register of the prison, 
 which is most carefully made up, stating in what
 
 152 Cicero 
 
 day each individual was committed to prison, 
 when he died, how he was executed. 
 [The documents of the Syracusans are read.] 
 You see that Roman citizens were thrown into 
 the stone-quarries ; you see that a multitude of 
 your fellow-citizens were heaped together in a 
 most unworthy place. Look now for all the traces 
 which are to be found of their departure from that 
 place. There are none. Are they all dead of dis- 
 ease ? If he were able to urge this in his defence, 
 still such a defence would find credit with no one. 
 But there is a word written in these documents 
 which that ignorant and profligate man never no- 
 ticed and would not have understood if he had : 
 'EdiKaiGodrjaav, it says — that is, according to the Sicil- 
 ian language, they were punished and put to death. 
 If any king, if any city among foreign nations, 
 if any nation had done anything of this sort to 
 a Roman citizen, should we not avenge that act 
 by a public revolution ? should we not prosecute 
 our revenge by war ? Could we leave unavenged 
 and unpunished such injury and insult offered to 
 the Roman name ? How many and what serious 
 wars do you think that our ancestors undertook 
 because Roman citizens were said to have been 
 ill treated, Roman vessels detained, or Roman 
 merchants plundered ? But I am not complaining 
 that men have been detained : I think one might 
 pass over their having been plundered ; I am
 
 On the Punishments i53 
 
 impeaching Verres because that, after their ships, 
 their slaves, and their merchandise had been 
 taken from them, the merchants themselves were 
 thrown into prison— because Roman citizens were 
 imprisoned and executed. If I were saying this 
 among Scythians, not before such a multitude 
 of Roman citizens, not before the most select 
 senators of the city, not in the Forum of the 
 Roman people, — if I were relating such numerous 
 and bitter punishments inflicted on Roman citi- 
 zens, I should move the pity of even those bar- 
 barous men. For so great is the dignity of this 
 Empire, so great is the honor in which the Roman 
 name is held among all nations, that the exercise 
 of such cruelty towards our citizens is permitted 
 to no one. Can I think that there is any safety 
 or any refuge for you, Verres, when 1 see you 
 hemmed in by the severity of the judges, and 
 entangled, as it were, in the meshes of a net by 
 the concourse of the Roman people here present ? 
 If, indeed (though I have no idea that this is 
 possible), you were to escape from these toils, and 
 effect your escape by any way or any method, 
 you will then fall into that still greater net in 
 which you must be caught and destroyed by me 
 from the elevation on which I stand. For even 
 if I were to grant him all that he urges in his de- 
 fence, it must turn out not less injurious to him 
 than my true accusation.
 
 154 Cicero 
 
 For what does he urge in his defence ? He 
 says that he arrested men flying from Spain, and 
 put them to death. Who gave you leave to do 
 so ? By what right did you do so ? Who else 
 did the same thing ? How was it lawful for you 
 to do so ? We see the Forum and the Porticos 
 full of those men, and are contented to see them 
 there. For the end of civil dissensions, and of the 
 (shall 1 say) insanity, or destiny, or calamity in 
 which they take their rise, is not so grievous as to 
 make it unlawful for us to preserve the rest of our 
 citizens in safety. This Verres, this ancient be- 
 trayer of his consul, this transferrer of the quaes- 
 torship, this embezzler of the public money, has 
 taken upon himself so much authority in the Re- 
 public that he would have inflicted a bitter and 
 cruel death on all those men whom the Senate, 
 and the Roman people, and the magistrates al- 
 lowed to remain in the Forum in the exercise 
 of their rights of voters, in the city and in 
 the Republic, if fortune had brought them to 
 any part of Sicily. After Perperna was slain, 
 many of the number of Sertorius's soldiers fled to 
 Cn^us Pompeius, that most illustrious and gallant 
 man. Was there one of them whom he did not 
 with the greatest kindness preserve safe and un- 
 hurt ? was there one suppliant citizen to whom 
 that invincible right hand was not stretched out 
 as a pledge of his faith, and as a sure token of
 
 On the Punishments 155 
 
 safety ? Was it, then, so ? Was death and torture 
 appointed by you, who had never done one im- 
 portant service to the Republic, for those who 
 found a harbor of refuge in that man against whom 
 they had borne arms? See what an admirable 
 defence you have imagined for yourself! 
 
 I had rather, I had rather indeed, that the truth 
 of this defence of yours were proved to these 
 judges and to the Roman people than the truth 
 of my accusation. 1 had rather, I say, that you 
 were thought a foe and an enemy to that class of 
 men than to merchants and seafaring men. For 
 the accusation I bring against you impeaches you 
 of excessive avarice ; the defence that you make 
 for yourself accuses you of a sort of frenzy, of 
 savage ferocity, of unheard-of cruelty, and of 
 almost a new proscription. But 1 may not avail 
 myself of such an advantage as that, O judges ; I 
 may not, for all Puteoli is here ; merchants in 
 crowds have come to this trial, wealthy and hon- 
 orable men, who will tell you, some that their 
 partners, some that their freedmen, were plundered 
 by that man, and were thrown into prison ; that 
 some were privately murdered in prison, some 
 publicly executed. See, now, how impartially 1 
 will behave to you. When 1 produce Publius 
 Granius as a witness to state that his freedmen 
 were publicly executed by you, to demand back 
 his ship and his merchandise from you, refute him
 
 156 Cicero 
 
 if you can ; I will abandon my own witness and 
 take your part ; I will assist you, I say ; prove that 
 those men have been with Sertorius, and that, 
 when flying from Dianium, they were driven to 
 Sicily. There is nothing which I would rather 
 have you prove. For no crime can be imagined 
 or produced against you which is worthy of a 
 greater punishment. I will call back the Roman 
 knight, Lucius Flavins, if you wish ; since at the 
 previous pleading, being influenced, as your advo- 
 cates are in the habit of saying, by some unusual 
 prudence, but (as all men are aware), being over- 
 powered by your own conscience and by the 
 authority of my witnesses, you did not put a 
 question to any single witness. Let Flavins be 
 asked, if you like, who Lucius Herennius was, the 
 man who, he says, was a money-changer at Lep- 
 tis ; who, though he had more than a hundred 
 Roman citizens in the body of settlers at Syracuse 
 who not only knew him, but defended him with 
 their tears and with entreaties to you, was still 
 publicly executed by you in the sight of all the 
 Syracusans. 1 am very willing that this witness 
 of mine should also be refuted, and that it should 
 be demonstrated and proved by you that Heren- 
 nius had been one of Sertorius's soldiers. 
 
 What shall we say of that multitude of men who 
 were produced with veiled heads among the pirates 
 and prisoners in order to be executed ? What was
 
 On the Punishments 157 
 
 that new scheme of yours, and on what account 
 was it put in operation ? Had the loud outcries 
 of Lucius Flavins and the rest concerning Lucius 
 Herennius influenced you ? Had the excessive in- 
 fluence of Marcus Annius, a most influential and 
 most honorable man, made you a little more care- 
 ful and more fearful ? he who lately stated in his 
 evidence that it was not some stranger, no one 
 knows who, nor any foreigner, but a Roman citi- 
 zen, who was well known to the whole body of in- 
 habitants, who had been born at Syracuse, who 
 had been publicly executed by you. After this 
 public statement of theirs, — after this had become 
 known by the common conversation and common 
 complaints of all men, he began to be, I will not 
 say more merciful in his punishments, but more 
 careful. He established the rule of bringing out 
 Roman citizens for punishment with their heads 
 muffled up, — whom, however, he put to death in 
 the sight of all men, — because the citizens (as we 
 have said before) were calculating the number of 
 pirates with too much accuracy. Was this the 
 condition that was established for the Roman 
 people while you were prastor ? were these the 
 hopes under which they were to transact their 
 business ? was this the danger in which their lives 
 and condition as freemen were placed ? are there 
 not enough risks at the hands of fortune to be en- 
 countered of necessity by merchants, that they
 
 158 Cicero 
 
 should be also threatened with these terrors by 
 our magistrates, and in our provinces ? Was this 
 a state to which it was fitting to reduce that sub- 
 urban and loyal province of Sicily, — full of most 
 valued allies and of most honorable Roman citizens, 
 which had at all times received with the greatest 
 willingness all Roman citizens within its territo- 
 ries, — that those who were sailing from the most 
 distant parts of Syria or Egypt, who had been held 
 in some honor, even among barbarians, on account 
 of their name as Roman citizens, who had escaped 
 from the ambushes of pirates, from the dangers of 
 tempests, should be publicly executed in Sicily 
 when they thought that they had at last reached 
 their home ? 
 
 Why should I speak of Publius Gavius, a citizen 
 of the municipality of Cosa, O judges ? or with 
 what vigor of language, with what gravity of ex- 
 pression, with what grief of mind, shall I mention 
 him ? But, indeed, words of indignation fail me. 
 I must take more care than usual that what 1 am 
 going to say be worthy of my subject, — worthy 
 of the indignation which I feel. For the charge is 
 of such a nature that when I was first informed of 
 it I thought I should not avail myself of it. For 
 although I knew that it was entirely true, still 
 1 thought that it would not appear credible. Be- 
 ing compelled by the tears of all the Roman citi- 
 zens who are living as traders in Sicily ; being
 
 On the Punishments 159 
 
 influenced by the testimonies of the men of Valen- 
 tia, most honorable men, and by those of all the 
 Rhegians, and of many Roman knights who hap- 
 pened at that time to be at Messana, I produced at 
 the previous pleading only just that amount of 
 evidence which might prevent the matter from 
 appearing doubtful to any one. What shall I do 
 now ? When I have been speaking for so many 
 hours of one class of offences, and of that man's 
 nefarious cruelty ; when I have now expended 
 nearly all my treasure of words of such a sort 
 as are worthy of that man's wickedness on other 
 matters, and have omitted to take precautions 
 to keep your attention on the stretch by diversi- 
 fying my accusations, how am I to deal with an 
 affair of such importance as this ? There is, I 
 think, but one method, but one line open to me : 
 I will place the matter plainly before you, since it 
 is of itself of such importance that there is no need 
 of my eloquence — and eloquence, indeed, I have 
 none, but there is no need of any one's eloquence 
 to excite your feelings. This Gavins of whom 
 I am speaking, a citizen of Cosa, when he (among 
 that vast number of Roman citizens who had been 
 treated in the same way) had been thrown by 
 Verres into prison, and somehow or other had 
 secretly escaped out of the stone-quarries, and had 
 come to Messana, being now almost within sight 
 of Italy and of the walls of Rhegium, and being
 
 i6o Cicero 
 
 revived, after that fear of death and that darkness, 
 by the light, as it were, of liberty and the fra- 
 grance of the laws, began to talk at Messana, and 
 to complain that he, a Roman citizen, had been 
 thrown into prison. He said that he was now go- 
 ing straight to Rome, and that he would meet 
 Verres on his arrival there. 
 
 The miserable man was not aware that it made 
 no difference whether he said this at Messana or 
 before the man's face in his own pr^torian palace. 
 For, as I have shown you before, that man had 
 selected this city as the assistant in his crimes, 
 the receiver of his thefts, the partner in all his wick- 
 edness. Accordingly, Gavins is at once brought 
 before the Mamertine magistrates ; and, as it hap- 
 pens, Verres comes on that very day to Messana. 
 The matter is brought before him. He is told that 
 the man is a Roman citizen, who was complaining 
 that at Syracuse he had been confined in the 
 stone-quarries, and who, when he was actually 
 embarking on board ship, uttering violent threats 
 against Verres, has been brought back by them, 
 and held in order that Verres himself might decide 
 what should be done with him. He thanks the 
 men and praises their good-will and diligence in 
 his behalf. He himself, inflamed with wickedness 
 and frenzy, comes into the Forum. His eyes glare ; 
 cruelty is visible in his whole countenance. All 
 men wait to see what steps he is going to take, —
 
 On the Punishments i6i 
 
 what he is going to do ; when suddenly he orders 
 the man to be seized, to be stripped and bound 
 in the middle of the Forum, and the rods to be got 
 ready. The miserable man cries out that he is 
 a Roman citizen, a citizen, also, of the municipal 
 town of Cosa,— that he has served with Lucius 
 Pretius, a most illustrious Roman knight, who is 
 living as a trader at Panormus, and from whom 
 Verres might know that he is speaking the truth. 
 Then Verres says that he has ascertained that the 
 man was sent into Sicily by the leaders of the 
 runaway slaves, in order to act as a spy ; a matter 
 as to which there was no witness, no evidence, 
 nor even the slightest suspicion in the mind of 
 any one. Then he orders the man to be most vio- 
 lently scourged on all sides. In the middle of the 
 Forum of Messana, a Roman citizen, O judges, 
 was beaten with rods ; while in the meantime no 
 groan was heard, no other expression was heard 
 from that wretched man, amid all his pain, and 
 between the sound of the blows, except these 
 words, " I am a citizen of Rome." He fancied 
 that by this one statement of his citizenship 
 he could ward off all blows and remove all tor- 
 ture from his person. He not only did not 
 succeed by his entreaties in averting the vio- 
 lence of the rods, but as he continued to re- 
 peat his entreaties and the assertion of his citi- 
 zenship, a cross, I say, was prepared for that 
 
 VOL. n.— II
 
 1 62 Cicero 
 
 miserable man, who had never witnessed such a 
 stretch of power. 
 
 O the sweet name of liberty ! O the admirable 
 privileges of our citizenship ! O Porcian law ! O 
 Sempronian laws ! O power of the tribunes, bit- 
 terly regretted by, and at last restored to, the Ro- 
 man people ! Have all our rights fallen so far that 
 in a province of the Roman people, in a town of 
 our confederate allies, a Roman citizen should be 
 bound in the Forum and beaten with rods by a 
 man who only had the fasces and the axes through 
 the kindness of the Roman people ? What shall I 
 say, when fire, and red-hot plates, and other in- 
 struments of torture were employed ? If the bitter 
 entreaties and the miserable cries of that man had 
 no power to restrain you, O Verres, were you not 
 moved even by the weeping and loud groans of 
 the Roman citizens who were present ? Did you 
 dare to drag to the cross any one who said that he 
 was a Roman citizen ? I was unwilling, O judges, 
 to press this point so strongly at the former plead- 
 ing ; I was unwilling to do so. For you saw how 
 the feelings of the multitude were excited against 
 him with indignation, hatred, and fear of their 
 common danger. I, at that time, fixed a limit to 
 my oration, and checked the eagerness of Caius 
 Numitorius, a Roman knight, a man of the highest 
 character, one of my witnesses. And I rejoiced 
 that Glabrio had acted (and he had acted most
 
 On the Punishments 163 
 
 wisely) as he did in dismissing that witness imme- 
 diately, in the middle of the discussion. In fact, 
 he was afraid that the Roman people might seem 
 to have inflicted that punishment on Verres by 
 tumultuary violence which he was anxious he 
 should only suffer according to the laws and by 
 your judicial sentence. Now, since it is made clear 
 beyond a doubt to every one in what state your 
 case is, and what will become of you, 1 will deal 
 thus with you : 1 will prove that that Gavius, 
 whom you all of a sudden assert to have been 
 a spy, had been confined by you in the stone- 
 quarries at Syracuse ; and 1 will prove that, not 
 only by the registers of the Syracusans, — lest you 
 should be able to say that, because there is a man 
 named Gavius mentioned in those documents, I 
 have invented this charge, and picked out this 
 name so as to be able to say that this is the man, 
 — but in accordance with your own choice 1 will 
 produce witnesses who will state that that identi- 
 cal man was thrown by you into the stone-quar- 
 ries at Syracuse. I will produce, also, citizens of 
 Cosa, his fellow-citizens and relatives, who shall 
 show you, though it is too late, and who shall 
 also show the judges (for it is not too late for them 
 to know these facts), that Publius Gavius, whom 
 you crucified, was a Roman citizen, and a citizen 
 of the municipality of Cosa, not a spy of runaway 
 slaves.
 
 1 64 Cicero 
 
 When I have made all these points, which I 
 undertake to prove, abundantly plain to your 
 most intimate friends, then I will also turn my 
 attention to that which is granted me by you. 
 I will say that 1 am content with that. For what, 
 — what, I say, did you yourself lately say, when 
 in an agitated state you escaped from the outcry 
 and violence of the Roman people ? Why, that 
 Gavius had only cried out that he was a Roman 
 citizen because he was seeking some respite, but 
 that he was a spy. My witnesses are unimpeach- 
 able. For what else does Caius Numitorius say ? 
 what else do Marcus and Publius Cottius say, 
 most noble men of the district of Tauromenium ? 
 what else does Marcus Lucceius say, who had 
 a great business as a money-changer at Rhegium ? 
 what else do all the others say ? For as yet wit- 
 nesses have only been produced by me of this 
 class ; not men who say that they were ac- 
 quainted with Gavius, but men who say that they 
 saw him at the time he was being dragged to the 
 cross while crying out that he was a Roman 
 citizen. And you, O Verres, say the same thing. 
 You confess that he did cry out that he was a 
 Roman citizen ; but that the name of citizenship 
 did not avail with you even so much as to cause 
 the least hesitation in your mind, or even any 
 brief respite from a most cruel and ignominious 
 punishment. This is the point I press, this is
 
 On the Punishments 165 
 
 what I dwell upon, O judges ; with this single fact 
 I am content. 1 give up, 1 am indifferent to, all 
 the rest. By his own confession he must be en- 
 tangled and destroyed. You did not know who 
 he was, O Verres ; you suspected that he was 
 a spy. I do not ask you what were your grounds 
 for that suspicion, 1 impeach you by your own 
 words. He said that he was a Roman citizen. 
 If you, O Verres, being taken among the Persians 
 or in the remotest parts of India, were being led 
 to execution, what else would you cry out but 
 that you were a Roman citizen ? And if that 
 name of your city, honored and renowned as 
 it is among all men, would have availed you, a 
 stranger among strangers, among barbarians, 
 among men placed in the most remote and distant 
 corners of the earth, ought not he, whoever he 
 was, whom you were hurrying to the cross, who 
 was a stranger to you, to have been able, when 
 he said that he was a Roman citizen, to obtain 
 from you, the pr^tor, if not escape, at least a res- 
 pite from death by his mention of and claims to 
 citizenship ? 
 
 Men of no importance, born in an obscure rank, 
 go to sea ; they go to places which they have 
 never before seen ; where they can neither be 
 known to the men among whom they have ar- 
 rived, nor always find people to vouch for them. 
 But still, owing to this confidence in the mere
 
 1 66 Cicero 
 
 fact of their citizenship, they think that they shall 
 be safe, not only among our own magistrates, who 
 are restrained by fear of the laws and of public 
 opinion, nor only among our fellow-citizens, who 
 are united with them by community of language, 
 of rights, and of many other things ; but wherever 
 they come they think that this will be a protec- 
 tion from Roman citizens. Establish the fact that 
 there is no assistance to be found in the words, 
 "1 am a Roman citizen"; that a praetor or any 
 other officer may with impunity order any pun- 
 ishment he pleases to be inflicted on a man who 
 says that he is a Roman citizen, though no one 
 knows that it is not true ; and at one blow, by 
 admitting that defence, you cut off from the 
 Roman citizens all the provinces, all the king- 
 doms, all the free cities, and indeed the whole 
 world, which has hitherto been open most espe- 
 cially to our countrymen. But what shall be said 
 if Gavius named Lucius Pretius, a Roman knight, 
 who was at that time living in Sicily as a trader, 
 as a man who would vouch for him ? Was it a 
 very great undertaking to send letters to Panor- 
 mus ? to keep the man ? to detain him in prison, 
 confined in the custody of your dear friends, the 
 Mamertines, till Pretius came from Panormus ? 
 Did he know the man ? Then you might remit 
 some part of the extreme punishment. Did he 
 not know him ? Then, if you thought fit, you
 
 On the Punishments 167 
 
 might establish this law for all people, that who- 
 ever was not known to you, and could not pro- 
 duce a rich man to vouch for him, even though he 
 were a Roman citizen, was still to be crucified. 
 
 But why need I say more about Gavins ? as if 
 you were hostile only to Gavius, and not rather an 
 enemy to the name and class of citizens, and to all 
 their rights. You were not, 1 say, an enemy to the 
 individual, but to the common cause of liberty. 
 For what was your object in ordering the Mamer- 
 tines, when, according to their regular custom and 
 usage, they had erected the cross behind the city 
 in the Pompeian road, to place it where it looked 
 toward the strait ; and in adding, what you can by 
 no means deny, what you said openly in the hear- 
 ing of every one, that you chose that place in or- 
 der that the man who said that he was a Roman 
 citizen might be able from his cross to behold Italy 
 and to look towards his own home ? And accord- 
 ingly, O judges, that cross, for the first time since 
 the foundation of Messana, was erected in that 
 place. A spot commanding a view of Italy was 
 picked out by that man for the express purpose 
 that the wretched man who was dying in agony 
 and torture might see that the rights of liberty and 
 of slavery were only separated by a very narrow 
 strait, and that Italy might behold her son mur- 
 dered by the most miserable and most painful 
 punishment, appropriate only to slaves.
 
 1 68 Cicero 
 
 To bind a Roman citizen is a crime ; to scourge 
 him is a wickedness ; to put him to death is almost 
 a parricide. What shall 1 say of crucifying him ? 
 So guilty an action cannot by any possibility be 
 expressed by any name bad enough for it. Yet, 
 with all this, that man was not content. '' Let 
 him behold his country," said he; 'Met him die 
 within sight of laws and liberty." It was not 
 Gavius, it was not one unknown individual, — 
 it was not one Roman citizen, — it was the com- 
 mon cause of freedom and citizenship that you 
 exposed to that torture and nailed on that cross. 
 But now consider the audacity of that man. Do 
 you not think that he was indignant that he could 
 not erect that cross for Roman citizens in the 
 Forum, in the comitium, in the very rostra ? For 
 he selected the place in his province which was 
 the most like those places in celebrity and the 
 nearest to them in point of distance. He chose 
 that monument of his wickedness and audacity 
 to be in sight of Italy, in the very vestibule of 
 Sicily, within sight of all passers-by as they sailed 
 to and fro. 
 
 If I were to choose to make these complaints 
 and to utter these lamentations, not to Roman 
 citizens, not to any friends of our city, not to men 
 who had heard of the name of the Roman people ; 
 if I uttered them not to men but to beasts : or, even 
 to go further, if I uttered them in some most
 
 On the Punishments 169 
 
 desolate wilderness to the stones and rocks, still 
 all things, mute and inanimate as they might be, 
 would be moved by such excessive, by such scan- 
 dalous atrocity of conduct. But now, when I am 
 speaking before senators of the Roman people, the 
 authors of the laws, of the courts of justice, and of 
 all right, 1 ought not to fear that that man will not 
 be judged to be the only Roman citizen deserving 
 of that cross of his, and that all others will not be 
 judged most undeserving of such a danger. A 
 little while ago, O judges, we did not restrain our 
 tears at the miserable and most unworthy death of 
 the naval captains ; and it was right for us to be 
 moved by the misery of our innocent allies : what 
 now ought we to do, when the lives of our relatives 
 are concerned ? For the blood of all Romian citi- 
 zens ought to be accounted kindred blood ; since 
 the consideration of the common safety and truth 
 requires it. All the Roman citizens in this place, 
 both those who are present and those who are 
 absent in distant lands, require your severity, im- 
 plore the aid of your good faith, look anxiously for 
 your assistance. They think that all their priv- 
 ileges, all their advantages, all their defences, — in 
 short, all their liberty, — depend on your sentence. 
 Now, O good and great Jupiter, you whose 
 royal present, worthy of your most splendid tem- 
 ple, worthy of the Capitol and of that citadel of 
 all nations, worthy of being the gift of a king,
 
 1 70 Cicero 
 
 made for you by a king, dedicated and promised 
 to you, that man by his nefarious wickedness 
 wrested from the hands of a monarch ; you whose 
 most costly and most beautiful image he carried 
 away from Syracuse : and you, O royal Juno, 
 whose two temples, situated in two islands of our 
 allies, — at Melita and Samos, — temples of the great- 
 est sanctity and the greatest antiquity, that same 
 man, with similar wickedness, stripped of all their 
 presents and ornaments : and you, O Minerva, 
 whom he also pillaged in two of your most re- 
 nowned and most venerated temples, — at Athens, 
 when he took away a great quantity of gold, and 
 at Syracuse, when he took away everything ex- 
 cept the roof and walls : and you, O Latona, O 
 Apollo, O Diana, whose (I will not say temples, 
 but, as the universal opinion and religious be- 
 lief agrees) ancient birthplace and divine home at 
 Delos he plundered by a nocturnal robbery and 
 attack : you also, O Apollo, whose image he car- 
 ried away from Chios : you, again and again, O 
 Diana, whom he plundered at Perga ; whose most 
 holy image at Segesta, where it had been twice 
 consecrated, — once by their own religious gift, and 
 a second time by the victory of Publius Africanus, 
 — he dared to take away and remove : and you, 
 O Mercury, whom Verres has placed in his villa 
 and in some private palestra, but whom Publius 
 Africanus had placed in a city of the allies, and in
 
 On the Punishments 171 
 
 the gymnasium of the Tyndaritans, as a guardian 
 and protector of the youth of the city : and you, 
 O Hercules, whom that man endeavored, on a 
 stormy night, with a band of slaves properly 
 equipped and armed, to tear down from your situ- 
 ation and to carry off: and you, O most holy 
 mother Cybele, whom he left among the Enguini, 
 in your most august and venerated temple, plun- 
 dered to such an extent that only the name of 
 Africanus and some traces of your worship, thus 
 violated, remain, but the monuments of victory 
 and all the ornaments of the temple are no longer 
 visible : you also, O you judges and witnesses of 
 all forensic matters, and of the most important 
 tribunals, and of the laws, and of the courts of 
 justice : you, placed in the most frequented place 
 belonging to the Roman people, O Castor and 
 Pollux, from whose temple that man, in a most 
 wicked manner, procured gain to himself and 
 enormous booty : and O all ye gods, who, borne 
 on sacred cars, visit the solemn assemblies of our 
 games, whose road that fellow contrived should 
 be adapted, not to the dignity of your religious 
 ceremonies, but to his own profit : and you, O 
 Ceres and Libera, whose sacred worship, as the 
 opinions and religious belief of all men agree, is 
 contained in the most important and most ab- 
 struse mysteries ; you, by whom the principles of 
 life and food, the examples of laws, customs,
 
 172 Cicero 
 
 humanity, and refinement are said to have been 
 given and distributed to nations and to cities ; you, 
 whose sacred rites the Roman people has received 
 from the Greeks and adopted, and now preserves 
 with such religious awe both publicly and pri- 
 vately that they seem not to have been intro- 
 duced from other nations, but rather to have been 
 transmitted from hence to other nations, but which 
 have been polluted and violated by that man alone 
 in such a manner that he had one image of Ceres 
 (which it was impious for a man not only to touch, 
 but even to look upon) pulled down from its place 
 in the temple at Catina, and taken away ; and 
 another image of whom he carried away from its 
 proper seat and home at Enna, which was a work 
 of such beauty that men when they saw it 
 thought either that they saw Ceres herself, or an 
 image of Ceres not wrought by human hand, but 
 one that had fallen from Heaven : to you, again 
 and again, I implore and appeal, most holy god- 
 desses, who dwell around those lakes and groves 
 of Enna, and who preside over all Sicily, which is 
 intrusted to me to be defended ; you whose in- 
 vention and gift of corn, which you have dis- 
 tributed over the whole earth, inspires all nations 
 and all races of men with reverence for your divine 
 power : and I implore and entreat all the other 
 gods and all the goddesses, against whose temples 
 and religious worship that man, inspired by some
 
 On the Punishments 173 
 
 wicked frenzy and audacity, has always waged a 
 sacrilegious and impious war, that if, in dealing 
 with this criminal and this cause, my counsels 
 have always tended to the safety of the allies, the 
 dignity of the Roman people, and the maintenance 
 of my own character for good faith ; if all my cares 
 and vigilance and thoughts have been directed to 
 nothing but the discharge of my duty, and the 
 establishment of truth, — I implore them, O judges, 
 so to influence you that the thoughts which were 
 mine when I undertook this cause, the good faith 
 which has been mine in pleading it, may be yours 
 also in deciding it. Lastly, that if all the actions 
 of Caius Verres are unexampled and unheard-of 
 instances of wickedness, of audacity, of perfidy, 
 of lust, of avarice, and of cruelty, then an end 
 worthy of such a life and such actions may, by 
 your sentence, overtake him ; and that the Repub- 
 lic, and my own duty thereto, may be content 
 with my undertaking this one prosecution, and 
 that 1 may be allowed for the future to defend the 
 good, instead of being compelled to prosecute the 
 infamous. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGAINST CATILINE 
 
 THE FIRST ORATION 
 
 Cicero. 
 
 L. Sergius Catiline, a man of noble birth, of ferocious bravery, and the vilest 
 character, was Praetor in 68 b.c, and Governor of Africa in 67 B.C. In 65 b.c, 
 he sought election as consul, but he was disqualified by charges pending against 
 him for maladministration in Africa. His profligate life had burdened him with 
 debts. His creditors, seeing the defeat of his political aspirations, pressed for pay- 
 ment. He was ruined and disgraced. He planned a political revolution by which 
 he would become ruler of Rome. The conspiracy, in which he was joined by 
 other dissolute and impoverished nobles, became widespread. The plot was 
 betrayed to Cicero, who was consul in 6^ b.c, and he took measures to foil it. 
 On November 6, 63 b.c, Catiline assembled the conspirators and for the first 
 time completely revealed his plans. These included the murder of Cicero and all 
 other opponents if the conspirators, and the sack and burning of Rome. De- 
 spite some objection, the plan was approved, and messengers were despatched to 
 distant members of the conspiracy to order immediate action. Cicero placed 
 the city in a state of defence, sent against the forces of the conspirators in Etruria 
 and Apulia two proconsuls who had opportunely arrived with troops, dispersed 
 the Capuan gladiators, whom Catiline had planned to use against the Romans, 
 and sent forces against the rebels in Picenum. On November 7th, the Senate 
 was convened in the temple of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine. Catiline appeared 
 in his place, for despite his treacherous nature he was rashly brave. Cicero rose, 
 and overwhelmed the guilty man with his famous speech known as the First 
 Oration against Catiline. 
 
 HOW long, O Catiline, will you abuse our 
 patience ? How long is that madness of 
 yours still to mock us ? When is there to be an 
 end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering 
 
 174
 
 Against Catiline 175 
 
 about as it does now ? Do not the guards 
 placed by night 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 precaution 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 every 
 one 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 man 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 execution by command of the consul. That 
 destruction which you have been long plotting
 
 1 76 Cicero 
 
 against us ought already to have fallen on your own 
 head. 
 
 What ! Did not that most illustrious man, Pub- 
 lius Scipio, the Pontifex 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 Cati- 
 line, openly desirous to destroy the whole world 
 with fire and slaughter? For I pass over older 
 instances, such as how Caius Servilius Ahala with 
 his own hand slew Spurius Melius 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 decree against 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. 
 
 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 consular rank, and all
 
 Against Catiline i77 
 
 his children. By a like decree of the Senate 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 pr^tor, 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 decree of the Senate, but 
 we keep it locked up in its parchment — buried, 1 
 may say, in the sheath ; and according to this 
 decree 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 accuse myself of remiss- 
 ness and culpable inactivity. A camp is pitched 
 in Italy, at the entrance of Etruria, hostile 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 — planning every day 
 some internal injury to the Republic. If, O Cat- 
 iline, 1 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 any one should affirm that I acted 
 
 VOL. H.--12.
 
 1 72, Cicero 
 
 cruelly. But yet this, which ought to have been 
 done long since, 1 have good reason for not doing 
 as yet ; 1 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 
 admit 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, sur- 
 rounded by my many and trusty 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 perceive 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 can 
 not conceal the voice of your conspiracy within 
 their walls — if everything is seen and displayed ? 
 Change that purpose of yours : trust me : forget 
 the slaughter and conflagration you are meditating. 
 You are hemmed in on all sides ; all your plans are 
 clearer to us than the day : let me remind you of 
 them. Do you recollect that on the 21st of Octo- 
 ber 1 said in the Senate, that on a certain day, 
 which was to be the 27th of October, C. Manlius, 
 the satellite and servant of your audacity, would 
 be in arms ? Was 1 mistaken, Catiline, not only 
 in so important, so atrocious, so incredible a fact, 
 but, what is much more remarkable, in the very
 
 A«^ainst Catiline 179 
 
 ■■& 
 
 day ? I said also in the Senate that you had fixed 
 the massacre of the nobles for the 28th of October, 
 when many chief men of the Senate had left 
 Rome, not so much for the sake of saving them- 
 selves 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 
 unable to stir one finger against the Republic ; 
 when you said that you would be content with 
 the flight of the rest, and the slaughter of us who 
 remained ? What ! When you made sure that 
 you would be able to seize Pr^eneste on the ist 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 
 every particular of which I do not know. 
 
 Listen while 1 speak of the night before. You 
 shall now see that I watch far more keenly for the 
 safety than you do for the destruction of the Re- 
 public. 1 say that you came the night before (1 
 will say nothing obscurely) into the Scythe-deal- 
 ers' street, to the house of Marcus Lecca ; that 
 many of your accomplices in the same insanity and 
 wickedness came there also. Do you dare to 
 deny it ? Why are you so silent ? I will prove it 
 if you do deny it ; for I see here in the Senate 
 some men who were there with you.
 
 I So Cicero 
 
 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 Con- 
 script 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 de- 
 struction of this city, and of the whole world. I, 
 the consul, see them ; 1 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 every one 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 under- 
 took that you yourself would at once leave the 
 city, and said that there was then only this to de- 
 lay you, — that I was still alive. Two Roman 
 knights were found to deliver you from this anx- 
 iety, and to promise that very night, before day- 
 break, to slay me in my bed. All this I knew 
 almost before your meeting had broken up. 1 
 strengthened and fortified my house with a strong- 
 er guard ; I refused admittance, when they came, 
 to those whom you sent in the morning to salute 
 me, and of whom 1 had foretold to many eminent 
 men that they would come to me at that time. 
 
 As, then, this is the case, O Catiline, continue as
 
 Against Catiline i8i 
 
 you have begun. Leave the city at last : the gates 
 are open ; depart. 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 — 1 will not bear it, I 
 will not permit it, 1 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, 1 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 
 competitors also, in the Campus Martins, I checked 
 your nefarious attempt by the assistance and re- 
 sources of my friends, without publicly exciting 
 any disturbance. In short, as often as you at- 
 tacked me, 1 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.
 
 1 82 Cicero 
 
 You are summoning to destruction and devasta- 
 tion the temples of the immortal gods, the houses 
 of the city, the lives of all 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 con- 
 spirators will still remain in the Republic ; if, as 
 I have long been exhorting you, you depart, your 
 companions, these worthless dregs of the Repub- 
 lic, 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 accord ? 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 conspira- 
 tors of yours, who does not fear you — no one who 
 does not hate you. What brand of domestic base- 
 ness is not stamped upon your life ? What dis- 
 graceful circumstance is wanting 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
 
 Ao^ainst Catiline 183 
 
 "fc) 
 
 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 licen- 
 tious wickedness ? 
 
 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 1 
 pass that over, and willingly allow it to be buried 
 in silence, that so horrible a crime may not be 
 known to have existed in this city without having 
 been chastised. 1 pass over the ruin of your for- 
 tune, which you know is hanging over you against 
 the Ides of the very next month ; I come to those 
 things which relate not to the infamy of your pri- 
 vate 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 atmosphere 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 armed in the assembly ; 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
 
 1 84 Cicero 
 
 say no more of these things, for they are not un- 
 known to every one. How often have you en- 
 deavored to slay me, both as consul elect and as 
 actual consul ? how many shots of yours, so aimed 
 that they seemed impossible to be escaped, have I 
 avoided by some slight stooping aside, and some 
 dodging, as it were, of my body ? You attempt 
 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 con- 
 trive. 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 you can not any longer do without it; 
 and I know not to what sacred mysteries it is con- 
 secrated and devoted by you that you think it 
 necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul. 
 
 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 
 assembly, who of so many friends and connections 
 of yours saluted you ? If this never happened to 
 any one else in the memory of man, are you wait- 
 ing for insults by word of mouth, when you are 
 overwhelmed by the most irresistible condemna- 
 tion of silence ? Is it nothing that at your arrival 
 all those seats were vacated ? that all the men of
 
 Against Catiline 185 
 
 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, 1 should think I must leave 
 my house. Do you not think you should leave the 
 city ? If 1 saw that 1 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 every one. 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 feel neither awe of her authority, 
 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 without you ; 
 you alone, unpunished and unquestioned, have 
 murdered the citizens, have harassed and plundered
 
 1 86 Cicero 
 
 the allies ; you alone have had power not only to 
 neglect all laws and investigations, but to over- 
 throw and break through them. Your former 
 actions, though they ought not to have been borne, 
 1 did yet bear as well as 1 could ; but now that I 
 should be wholly occupied with fear of you alone, 
 that at every sound I should dread Catiline, that no 
 design should seem possible to be entertained 
 against me which does not proceed from your 
 wickedness, — this is no longer endurable. De- 
 part, then, and deliver me from this fear ; that, if it 
 be a just one, I may not be destroyed ; if an imag- 
 inary one, that at least 1 may finally cease to fear. 
 If, as 1 have said, your country were thus to ad- 
 dress you, ought she not to obtain her request, 
 even if she were not able to enforce it ? What 
 shall 1 say of your having given yourself into cus- 
 tody ? what of your having said, for the sake of 
 avoiding suspicion, 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 
 Quintus Metellus, the praetor, and being rejected 
 by him, you passed on to your associate, that 
 most excellent man, Marcus Marcellus, who
 
 Against Catiline 187 
 
 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 can not remain here with tranquil- 
 lity, to depart to some distant land, and to trust your 
 life, saved from just and deserved punishment, 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 Repub- 
 lic 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 ? 
 
 But had I said the same to this excellent young 
 man, Publius Sextius, or to that brave man, Mar- 
 cus Marcellus, before this time the Senate would 
 deservedly have laid violent hands on me, consul 
 though I be, in this very temple. But as to you, 
 Catiline, while they are quiet they approve, while
 
 1 88 Cicero 
 
 they permit me to speak they vote, while they are 
 silent they are loud and eloquent. And not only 
 they, whose authority forsooth is dear to you, 
 though their lives are unimportant, but the Roman 
 knights also, those most honorable and excellent 
 men, and the other virtuous citizens who are now 
 surrounding the Senate, whose numbers you may 
 see, whose desires you may know, and whose 
 voices you a few minutes ago could hear — ay, 
 whose very hands and weapons 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 any thing 
 may change your purpose ? that you may ever 
 amend your life ? that you may meditate 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 memory 
 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 misfortune of my own and is un- 
 connected with the dangers of the Republic. But 
 we cannot expect that you should be concerned at 
 your own vices, that you should fear the penal- 
 ties of the laws, or that you should yield to the
 
 Against Catiline 189 
 
 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 banish- 
 ment at the command 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 citi- 
 zens, 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 1 
 know men have been already sent to wait in arms 
 for you at the Forum Aurelium ; who I know has 
 fixed and agreed with Manlius upon a settled day ; 
 by whom 1 know that that silver eagle, which I 
 trust will be ruinous and fatal to you and to all 
 your friends, and to which there was set up in 
 your house a shrine as it were of your crimes, has 
 already been sent forward. Need I fear that you 
 can long do without that which you used to wor- 
 ship when going out to murder, and from whose
 
 190 Cicero 
 
 altars you have often transferred your impious hand 
 to the slaughter of citizens ? 
 
 You will go at last whither 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 trained 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 de- 
 sires, but even to accomplish crimes ; your vigi- 
 lance, not only when plotting against the sleep 
 of husbands, but also against the goods of your 
 murdered victims, have all been preparations for 
 this. Now you have an opportunity of display- 
 ing your splendid endurance of hunger, of cold, 
 of want of every thing ; by which in a short time 
 you will find yourself worn out. All this I ef- 
 fected when 1 procured your rejection from the 
 consulship, that you should be reduced to make
 
 Against Catiline 191 
 
 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 1 may remove and avert, O Conscript 
 Fathers, any in the least reasonable complaint from 
 myself, listen, I beseech you, carefully to what 
 1 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 
 conspiracy, the instigator of the slaves and aban- 
 doned 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 exe- 
 cution, 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
 
 192 Cicero 
 
 have never had the rights of citizens. Do you 
 fear odium with posterity ? You are showing fine 
 gratitude to the Roman people 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 dan- 
 ger 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 arising from that of inactivity and inde- 
 cision, more 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 consumed 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, 1 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 parricidal murderer of the 
 citizens any unpopularity should accrue to me
 
 Against Catiline 193 
 
 with posterity. And if it did threaten me to ever 
 so great a degree, yet I have always been of the 
 disposition to think unpopularity earned by virtue 
 and glory not real 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 Cati- 
 line by mild sentiments, and have strengthened the 
 rising conspiracy by not believing it ; influenced by 
 whose authority many, and they not wicked, but 
 only ignorant, if I punished him would say that I 
 had acted cruelly and tyrannically. But I know 
 that if he arrives at the camp of Manlius to which 
 he is going, there will be no one so stupid as not 
 to see that there has been a conspiracy, no one so 
 hardened as not to confess it. But if this man 
 alone were put to death, 1 know that this disease 
 of the Republic would be only checked for a while, 
 not eradicated forever. But if he banishes himself, 
 and takes with him all his friends, and collects at 
 one point all the ruined men from every quarter, 
 then not only will be extinguished and eradicated 
 this full-grown plague of the Republic, 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 machina- 
 tions of conspiracy ; but somehow or other, the ripe- 
 ness of all wickedness, and of this long-standing 
 madness and audacity, has come to a head at the 
 
 VOL. II. — 13.
 
 194 Cicero 
 
 time of my consulship. But if this man alone is re- 
 moved from this piratical crew, we may appear, per- 
 haps, for a short time relieved from fear and anx- 
 iety, but the danger will settle down and lie hid in 
 the veins and bowels of the Republic. As it often 
 happens that men afflicted with a severe disease, 
 when they are tortured 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 
 punishment of this man, will only get worse and 
 worse, as the rest will be still alive. 
 
 Wherefore, O Conscript Fathers, let the worth- 
 less 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 
 pr^tor — 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 pro- 
 mise 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 every thing made plain and manifest 
 by the departure of Catiline — every thing checked 
 and punished.
 
 Against Catiline 195 
 
 With these omens, Catiline, begone to your 
 impious and nefarious war, to the great safety of 
 the Republic, to your own 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, re- 
 pel 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 citizens ; 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 alli- 
 ance of crimes, dead and alive, with eternal punish- 
 ments.
 
 THE SECOND PHILIPPIC 
 
 Cicero. 
 
 Cesar's death gave Antonius the opportunity to make himself the virtual dicta- 
 tor of Rome. He seized the property left by Cassar, he amassed by fraud and 
 violence great riches. Through his ill-gotten vk'ealth and his force and ability he 
 seemed to have established a permanent hold upon the State. Yet opposition 
 was active, and the Republican party, led by Cicero, only waited the opportu- 
 nity to regain the power that it had held for one brief moment after the death of 
 Caesar. Antonius might have controlled and eventually conquered this oppo- 
 sition to his tyranny, but a more formidable antagonist arose. Caius Octavius, 
 the nephew and heir of Cassar, though but eighteen years of age, was destined to 
 grasp the power at which Antonius aimed. Octavius returned to Rome from the 
 camp at Apollonia, where he had become the idol of the soldiers, and claimed the 
 inheritance of Caesar. He instantly obtained a following. Caesar's veterans 
 flocked to his support, Cassar's friends were ready with substantial aid. He as- 
 sumed the name of Caius Julius Caesar Octavius, and demanded his inheritance from 
 Antonius. Antonius refused to disgorge the sums stolen from Caesar. Octavius 
 addressed the Senate. He won the people by his mild and conciliatory conduct. 
 He made especial and successful efforts to win Cicero. He visited him, and, for 
 the time at least, convinced the old statesman that he was again to save the State 
 by combating the designs of Antonius, by whom the welfare of Rome was 
 placed in jeopardy. The following months were crowded with political intrigue 
 and indecisive conflict. 
 
 On August 30th, Cicero came to Rome, and was received with acclamations. 
 Antonius convened the Senate upon September ist. He invited Cicero to be pres- 
 ent. Cicero did not attend. Antonius, enraged at this act of defiance, attacked 
 the absent statesman with bitter invective, and threatened his ruin. The next 
 day, Cicero, roused by the attacks of Antonius, delivered the first of those fourteen 
 celebrated speeches that have received the name of Philippics. Antonius was be- 
 side himself with rage. He called another meeting of the Senate on September 
 19th, and notified Cicero to be present. The friends of Cicero persuaded him 
 not to put himself in the power of his enemy, and again Antonius poured forth 
 vituperation on his absent opponent. 
 
 Cicero did not immediately publish his reply. For weeks he labored upon it 
 
 196
 
 The Second Philippic 197 
 
 in the interval of his political activities, which v^'ere many and arduous. At last 
 the completed occasion came, and the Second Oration against Antonius, called 
 the Second Philippic, was issued. This is considered by the great majority of 
 critics to be the masterpiece of the greatest orator of Rome. It is a lasting 
 monument to his fame. 
 
 TO what destiny of mine, O Conscript Fathers, 
 shall I say that it is owing, that no one 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 
 instances in proof of my statement. They have all 
 hitherto suffered 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 1 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 for you a recommendation 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 mod- 
 erate abilities with which I am endowed, which
 
 198 Cicero 
 
 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 
 illustrious citizens that they ably governed the Re- 
 public, but in favor of me alone, of all men, that 1 
 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 subject for me, than to have to speak in de- 
 fence of myself, ar.d against Antonius ? This, in 
 fact, is the truth. He thought 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 1 consider a 
 most serious charge. 
 
 He has complained that I pleaded once against 
 his interest. Was 1 not to plead against one with 
 whom 1 was quite unconnected, in behalf of an in- 
 timate 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 pro- 
 cured 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
 
 The Second Philippic 199 
 
 imagine that this was mentioned by you, in order 
 that you might recommend yourself to the citizens, 
 if they all recollected that you were the son-in-law 
 of a freedman, and that your children were the 
 grandsons of Quintus Fadius, a freedman. 
 
 But you had entirely devoted yourself to my 
 principles (for this is what you said); you had 
 been in the habit of coming 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 suf- 
 fered you to do so. You have said that you 
 retired in my favor from the contest for the augur- 
 ship. Oh the incredible audacity ! oh the mon- 
 strous impudence of such an assertion ! For, at 
 the time when Cn^us Pompeius and Quintus 
 Hortensius named me as augur, after 1 had been 
 desired 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 possi- 
 ble to secure your safety 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 
 obtained the votes of one single tribe without the 
 aid of Curio ? you, whose intimate friends even
 
 200 Cicero 
 
 were convicted of violence for having been too 
 zealous in your favor. 
 
 But 1 availed myself of your friendly assistance. 
 Of what assistance ? although the instance which 
 you cite 1 have myself at all times openly ad- 
 mitted. 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 kill- 
 ing me at Brundusium ? Would you then have 
 slain the man whom the conqueror 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 the ban- 
 ditti, 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 of men, would never have ac- 
 quired 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
 
 The Second Philippic 201 
 
 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 ? Must I not complain of the 
 ruin of the Republic, lest 1 should appear ungrate- 
 ful toward you ? But in that complaint, 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 in- 
 stance of moderation was it not 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 Repub- 
 lic ; when every thing was on sale at your house 
 by the most infamous traffic ; when you confessed 
 that those laws which had never been promul- 
 gated, had been passed with reference to you, 
 and by you ; when you, as augur, had abolished 
 the auspices, as consul, had taken away the power 
 of interposing the veto ; when you were es- 
 corted in the most shameful manner by armed 
 guards ; when, worn out with drunkenness and 
 debauchery, you were every day performing all 
 sorts of obscenities in that chaste house of yours. 
 But I, as if I had to contend against Marcus 
 Crassus, with whom 1 have had many severe 
 struggles, and not with a most worthless gladiator,
 
 202 Cicero 
 
 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 understand 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, 
 even one but slightly acquainted with the habits of 
 polite men, ever produced in an assembly and 
 openly read letters which had been sent to him by 
 a friend, just because some quarrel had arisen be- 
 tween them ? Is not this destroying all companion- 
 ship in life, destroying the means by which absent 
 friends converse together? How many jests are 
 frequently put in letters, which, if they were pro- 
 duced 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 in- 
 credible folly. What have you to oppose to me, 
 O eloquent man, as you at least seem to Mustela 
 Tamisius, and to Tiro Numisius ? And while these 
 men are standing at this very time in the sight of 
 the Senate with drawn swords, 1 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 1 were to deny that 1 ever sent those letters
 
 The Second Philippic 203 
 
 to you ? By what evidence could you convict me ? 
 by my handwriting ? Of [forging] handwriting in- 
 deed you have a lucrative knowledge. How can 
 you prove it in that manner ? for the letters are 
 written by an amanuensis. By this time 1 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 can not advance one step 
 further ? But I do not deny it ; and in this very 
 point 1 convict you not only of inhumanity but 
 also of 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, as to a virtuous man, not as 
 to a wicked man and a robber. But your letters 1 
 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 consent 
 to procure the recall of some one 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
 
 204 Cicero 
 
 opinion of the Roman people, nor any laws are 
 able to restrain you ? However, what was your 
 object in addressing these entreaties to me, if the 
 man for whom you were entreating was already 
 restored by a law of Cassar's ? 1 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, O Conscript Fathers, since I have many 
 things which 1 must say both in my own defense 
 and against Marcus Antonius, one thing I ask you, 
 that you will listen to me with kindness while I am 
 speaking for myself; the other I will insure 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 moderation and modesty throughout my 
 whole life, and especially as a speaker, you will not, 
 when to-day 1 answer this man in the spirit in which 
 he has attacked me, think that 1 have forgotten my 
 usual character. I will not treat him as a consul, 
 for he did not treat me as a man of consular rank ; 
 and although he in no respect deserves to be con- 
 sidered a consul, whether we regard his way of life, 
 or his principle of governing the Republic, or the 
 manner in which he was elected, I am beyond all 
 dispute a man of consular rank. 
 
 That you might understand, therefore, what
 
 The Second Philippic 205 
 
 sort of a consul he himself professed to be, he re- 
 proached me with my consulship — a consulship 
 which, O Conscript Fathers, was in name, indeed, 
 mine, but in reality yours. For what did I deter- 
 mine, what did I contrive, what did 1 do, that was 
 not determined, contrived, or done, by the counsel 
 and authority and in accordance with the senti- 
 ments 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 betore, except Publius Clodius, 
 to find fault with my consulship ? And his fate in- 
 deed awaits you, as it also awaited Caius Curio ; 
 since that which was fatal to each of them is now 
 in your house. 
 
 Marcus Antonius disapproves my consulship ; 
 but it was approved by Publius Servilius — to name 
 first that man of those of consular rank who has 
 died most recently. It was approved by Quintus 
 Catulus, whose authority will always carry weight 
 in this Republic ; it was approved by the two Lu- 
 culli, 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 by those men 
 of consular rank, was approved by Marcus Cato,
 
 2o6 Cicero 
 
 who escaped many evils by departing from this 
 life, and especially the evil of seeing you consul. 
 But, above all, my consulship was approved by 
 Cn^us Pompeius, who, when he first saw me, as 
 he was leaving Syria, embracing me and congratu- 
 lating me, said that it was owing to my services 
 that he was about to see his country again. But 
 why should I mention individuals ? It was ap- 
 proved by the Senate, in a very full house, so com- 
 pletely, that there was no one who did not thank 
 me as if I had been his parent, who did not attrib- 
 ute to me the preservation 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 illus- 
 trious 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 in the most 
 complimentary language a supplication in my 
 honor for those very actions with which you find 
 fault, and those very men of consular rank whom I 
 have named, and the whole Senate, adopted his 
 proposal ; an honor which has never been paid to 
 any one else in the garb of peace from the founda- 
 tion of the city to my time. With what eloquence, 
 with what firm wisdom, with what a weight of 
 authority did Lucius C^sar, your uncle, pronounce 
 his opinion against the husband of his own sister,
 
 The Second Philippic 207 
 
 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, pre- 
 ferred being like your step-father to resembling 
 your uncle. I, who had no connection 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 con- 
 sult ? O ye immortal gods, they are men whose 
 birthdays we have still to learn. To-day Antonius 
 is not coming down. Why ? He is celebrating 
 the birthday 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. Oh, the 
 abominable profligacy of the man ! oh, how intol- 
 erable is his impudence, his debauchery, 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 Republic, 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 the temple in 
 which I was consulting that Senate which formerly, 
 in the full enjoyment of its honors, presided over
 
 2o8 Cicero 
 
 the world ? And did you not place around it aban- 
 doned men armed with swords ? But you have 
 dared besides (what is there which you would not 
 dare ?) to say that the Capitoline Hill, when 1 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, I ask whether those 
 things are unknown to you (for you know nothing 
 that is good), or whether they are known, when 
 you dare to speak so shamelessly before such men. 
 For what Roman knight was there, what youth of 
 noble birth except you, what man of any rank or 
 class who remembered 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 ? Indeed, there 
 could not be provided checks enough, nor were the 
 books able to contain their names. 
 
 In truth, when wicked men, being compelled 
 by the revelations of the accomplices, by their own 
 handwriting, and by what I may almost call the 
 voices of their letters, were confessing that they 
 had planned the parricidal destruction of their coun- 
 try, 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 common safety ? espe- 
 cially at that time when the Senate and people of
 
 The Second Philippic 209 
 
 Rome had a leader ; and if they now had one such 
 as he then was, the same fate would befall you 
 which overtook 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 his enemy, I grieve now 
 to see surpassed by you in every sort of vice. But 
 how could it occur to you to recall to our recollec- 
 tion 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 strengthened 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 not only 
 had no coherence with each other, but which were 
 most inconsistent with and contradictory to one an- 
 other ; so that there was not so much opposition be- 
 tween 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 in- 
 flicted on him. And by doing so you praised that 
 which was peculiarly my achievement, and blamed 
 that which was wholly the act of the Senate. For 
 the detection and arrest of the guilty parties was 
 
 VOL II. — 14.
 
 2IO Cicero 
 
 my work, their punishment was 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 this is what he 
 does not desire) what an act of folly, in which he 
 surpasses all men, is it to make mention of the 
 Capitoline Hill, at a time when armed men are 
 actually between our benches — when men, armed 
 with swords, are now stationed in this same Tem- 
 ple of Concord, O ye immortal gods, in which, 
 while 1 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 soldiers. It 
 is not so much a proof of audacity so impudently 
 to advance these statements, 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,
 
 I 
 
 The Second Philippic 211 
 
 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 freedom of the Ro- 
 man 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. I have never at any time been unmind- 
 ful of the claims that either the Republic or my 
 friends had upon me ; but nevertheless, 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 advantage to our 
 youth, and some credit to the Roman name. But, 
 however, all this has nothing to do with the pres- 
 ent occasion. Let us consider more important 
 matters. 
 
 You have said that Publius Clodius was slain 
 by my contrivance. 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 slain him if he had not thrown himself
 
 2 1 2 Cicero 
 
 up the stairs of a bookseller's shop, and, shutting 
 them against you, checked your attack by that 
 means. And 1 confess that at that time I favored 
 you, but even you yourself do not say that 1 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 any one could sus- 
 pect that he was going to do it. Oh, but 1 advised 
 it. I suppose Milo was a man of such a disposition 
 that he was not able to do a service to the Repub- 
 lic if he had not some one to advise him to do it. 
 But 1 rejoiced at it. Well, suppose I did ; was I to 
 be the only sorrowful person in the city, when 
 every one else was in such delight ? it may be 
 that 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 in- 
 quire into the conduct of the man who had slain 
 him, when there was a form of inquiry already es- 
 tablished 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 
 ventured to say against me ? But as to the asser- 
 tion 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
 
 The Second Philippic 213 
 
 much in the main facts, as (and that is of the great- 
 est importance) in the times. 
 
 When Marcus Bibulus, a most illustrious citizen, 
 was consul, 1 omitted nothing which 1 could possi- 
 bly do or attempt to draw off Pompeius from his 
 union with C^sar. In which, however, C^sar 
 was more fortunate than I, for he himself drew off 
 Pompeius from his intimacy with me. But after- 
 ward, when Pompeius joined Caesar with all his 
 heart, what could have been my object in attempt- 
 ing to separate them then ? It would have been 
 the part of a fool to hope to do so, and of an impu- 
 dent man to advise it. However, two occasions 
 did arise on which 1 gave Pompeius advice against 
 C^sar. You are at liberty to find fault with my 
 conduct on those occasions if you can. One was 
 when I advised him not to continue Cesar's gov- 
 ernment for five years more. The other, when 
 I advised him not to permit him to be considered 
 as a candidate for the consulship when he was 
 absent. And if 1 had been able to prevail on him 
 in either of these particulars, we should never have 
 fallen into our present miseries. 
 
 Moreover, when Pompeius had now devoted 
 to the service of Cassar 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 1 saw 
 that a nefarious war was about to be waged
 
 214 Cicero 
 
 against our country, I never ceased to be the 
 adviser of peace, and concord, and some arrange- 
 ment. And this language of mine was well known 
 to many people, — "\ wish, O Cnieus Pompeius, 
 that you had either never joined in a confederacy 
 with Caius Ccesar, 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 concerning the Republic. And if it had pre- 
 vailed, the Republic would still be standing, and 
 you would have perished through your own 
 crimes, indigence, and infamy. 
 
 But these are all old stories now. This charge, 
 however, that Caesar was slain by my contrivance, 
 is quite modern. 1 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 dis- 
 tinguish 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 1 say ? Whose name was there which was not 
 at once made public? 1 should sooner say that 
 some men had boasted in order to appear to have
 
 The Second Philippic 215 
 
 been concerned in that conspiracy, though they 
 had in reality known nothing of it, than that any 
 one who had been an accomplice in it could have 
 wished to be concealed. Moreover, 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 country, what 
 need was there of my inciting 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 individual, — he, I sup- 
 pose, was in need of me to incite him ? a man 
 who, even without the assistance of these other 
 most illustrious men, would have accomplished 
 this same deed in Cilicia, at the mouth of the river 
 Cydnus, if C^sar had brought his ships to that 
 bank of the river which he had intended, and not 
 to the opposite one. Was Cnasus 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 authority ?
 
 2i6 Cicero 
 
 Did I persuade Caius Trebonius ? a man whom 
 I should not have ventured even to advise. And 
 on this 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, because he preferred overthrowing ar- 
 bitrary power to sharing it. Was I the inciter 
 whom Lucius Tillius Cimber followed ? a man 
 whom 1 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 kindness which he had 
 received, but mindful of his country. What shall 
 I say of the two Servilii ? Shall I call them Cas- 
 cas, or Ahalas ? and do you think that those men 
 were incited 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 numer- 
 ous ; and a most honorable thing also for them- 
 selves. 
 
 But recollect, I pray you, how that clever man 
 convicted me of being an accomplice in the busi- 
 ness. When C^sar was slain, he says, 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 be- 
 forehand ? Consider rather whether this was not
 
 The Second Philippic 217 
 
 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 C^sar 
 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 ap- 
 proved it ? or what does it signify whether 1 wished 
 it to be done or rejoice that it has been done ? Is 
 there any one 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 it after it was done ? All men, there- 
 fore, 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 the courage for 
 it, some had no opportunity, — every one had the 
 inclination. 
 
 However, mark the stupidity of this fellow, — 
 I should rather say, of this brute beast. For thus 
 he spoke : ''Marcus Brutus, whom 1 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
 
 2i8 Cicero 
 
 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 Cnieus 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 awaken 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 
 asserters of freedom ? 
 
 For just consider a little ; and for a moment think 
 of the business like a sober man. 1 who, as I 
 myself confess, am an intimate friend of those men, 
 and, as you accuse me, an accomplice 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 saviors of the 
 Republic, are worse than assassins, worse than 
 homicides, worse even than parricides : since it is 
 a more atrocious thing to murder the father of one's 
 country than one's own father. You wise and 
 considerate man, what do you say to this ? If 
 they are parricides, why are they always named by 
 you, both in this assembly and before the Roman
 
 The Second Philippic 219 
 
 people, with a view to do them honor ? Why has 
 Marcus Brutus been, on your motion, excused from 
 obedience to the laws, and allowed [against the 
 law] to be absent from the city more than ten days ? 
 Why were the games of Apollo celebrated with 
 almost 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 owing 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 
 1 embarrassing you ? For perhaps you do not 
 quite understand propositions which are stated 
 disjunctively. Still this is the sum total of my 
 conclusions : that since they are acquitted by you 
 of wickedness, they are at the same time pro- 
 nounced most worthy of the very most honorable 
 rewards. 
 
 Therefore I will now proceed again with my 
 oration. 1 will write to them, if any one 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
 
 2 20 Cicero 
 
 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 de- 
 servedly recommended to the everlasting recollec- 
 tion 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 an one, that I can 
 not 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 posterity will ever be so for- 
 getful, what literature will ever be found so un- 
 grateful, as not to cherish their glory with undying 
 recollection ? Enrol 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 driven out of the Republic not only the
 
 The Second Philippic 221 
 
 king, but also the kingly power ; and if 1 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 Ciesar might be 
 put to death, beware, 1 pray you, O Antonius, of 
 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 partici- 
 pation in that design that, when C^sar was being 
 killed, we saw you called aside by Trebonius. But 
 I (see how far 1 am from any horrible inclination 
 toward you) praise you for having once in your 
 life had a righteous intention ; 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 any one should institute a prosecution 
 against you, and employ that test of old Cassius, 
 " who reaped any advantage from it ? " take care, I 
 advise you, lest you suit that description. Although, 
 in truth, that action was, as you used to say, an 
 advantage to every one who was not willing to be 
 a slave, still it was so to you above all men, who 
 are not 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 deal- 
 ings with the account-books, squandered there a 
 countless sum of money; who have had such vast
 
 222 Cicero 
 
 treasures brought to you from Caesar's house ; at 
 whose own house there is set up a most lucrative 
 manufoctory 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 de- 
 serve 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 Pom- 
 peius and all my conduct at that time. At which 
 time, indeed, if my counsels and my authority had 
 prevailed, as 1 have said before, you would this day 
 be in indigence, we should be free, and the Re- 
 public would not have lost so many generals and 
 so many armies. For I confess that when 1 saw 
 that these things certainly would happen which 
 now have happened, 1 was as greatly grieved as all 
 other virtuous citizens would have been if they had 
 foreseen the same things. I did grieve, I did grieve,
 
 The Second Philippic 223 
 
 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 1 so inex- 
 perienced 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 1 was desirous that 
 those most illustrious men, the lights of the Re- 
 public, 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 conditions of 
 peace (for any sort of peace with our fellow-cit- 
 izens appeared to me more desirable than civil 
 war), we should be this day still enjoying the Re- 
 public. 
 
 If my opinion had prevailed, and if those men, 
 the preservation of whose lives was my main ob- 
 ject, 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 any one to whom he was more attached ? 
 any one with whom he conversed or shared his 
 counsels more frequently ? It was, indeed, a great
 
 2 24 Cicero 
 
 thing that we, differing as we did respecting the 
 general interests of the Republic, should continue 
 in uninterrupted friendship. But 1 saw clearly what 
 his opinions 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 afterward. He thought 
 more of consulting their existing dignity. But be- 
 cause each of us had a definite object to pursue, 
 our disagreement was the more endurable. But 
 what that extraordinary 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 regard for me ; while he con- 
 fessed that I had had the more foresight, but that 
 he had had more sanguine hopes. And do you 
 dare taunt me with the name of that man whose 
 friend you admit that I was, and whose assassin 
 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 some- 
 times relax their minds. But the fact that the same 
 man finds fault with my melancholy, and also with
 
 The Second Philippic 225 
 
 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 con- 
 nections alive. But how could such a charge ever 
 come into your head ? For I have received more 
 than twenty millions of sesterces in inheritances. 
 Yet in this particular I must admit that you have 
 been more fortunate than I. No one has ever made 
 me his heir unless he was a friend of mine, in order 
 that my grief of mind for his loss might be accom- 
 panied also with some gain, if it might be considered 
 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 de- 
 clared 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, of what sort of countenance was Lucius Tur- 
 selius ; of what sort of height ; from what municipal 
 town he came ; and of what tribe he was a mem- 
 ber. "I know nothing," you will say, "about 
 him, except what farms he had." And yet he, 
 
 VOL. II. — 15.
 
 2 26 Cicero 
 
 disinheriting his brother, made you his heir. And 
 besides these instances, this man has seized on 
 much other property belonging to men wholly 
 unconnected with him, to the exclusion of the 
 legitimate heirs, as if he himself were the heir. 
 The thing, however, that struck me with most 
 astonishment of all was, that you should ven- 
 ture to mention inheritances, when you yourself 
 had not received the inheritance of your own 
 father. 
 
 Was it in order to collect all these arguments, O 
 most senseless of men, that you spent so many 
 days in practising declamation in another man's 
 villa ? Although, indeed (as your most intimate 
 friends usually say), you are in the habit of de- 
 claiming, not for the purpose of whetting your gen- 
 ius, 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 rhetorician, 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 you and your grand- 
 father. He used with great deliberation to bring 
 forth arguments advantageous to the cause he was 
 advocating ; you pour forth in a hurry the senti- 
 ments which you have been taught by another.
 
 The Second Philippic 227 
 
 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 jugera 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 peo- 
 ple to such a vast expense that you might learn to 
 be a fool. Was this gift, too, O most audacious of 
 men, found among Cesar's papers ? But I will 
 take another opportunity to speak about the Leon- 
 tine and the Campanian district, where he has 
 stolen lands from the Republic to pollute them with 
 most infamous owners. For now, since I have 
 sufficiently replied to all his charges, 1 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. 
 
 But let us say no more of your profligacy and 
 debauchery. There are things which it is not pos- 
 sible 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 can not bring himself to mention. 
 
 However, let us return to the subject of Caesar's 
 written papers. How were they verified by you ? 
 For the acts of Cassar were for the sake of peace
 
 2 28 Cicero 
 
 confirmed by the Senate ; that is to say, the acts 
 which Cresar had really done, not those which 
 Antonius said that C^sar 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 taken enjoined you, after the 
 first of June, to make an examination of Cesar's 
 acts with the assistance of a council. What coun- 
 cil 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 
 travelled all through the colonies where the vet- 
 erans were settled, returned escorted by a band of 
 armed men ? 
 
 Oh, what a splendid progress was that of yours 
 in the months of April and May, when you even 
 attempted 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 
 was that of yours ! Why need I mention your 
 preparations for banquets, your frantically hard 
 drinking ? Those things are only an injury to your- 
 self ; 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
 
 The Second Philippic 229 
 
 of taxes, in order to be given to the soldiery ; but 
 you have divided it among your partners in drunken- 
 ness and gambling. I tell you,0 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 
 district of Leontini ? And yet these lands of 
 Campania and Leontini were formerly 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 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 
 Cassar 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 colony, 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
 
 230 Cicero 
 
 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 plow. And 
 by that plow you almost grazed the gate of Capua, 
 so as to diminish the territory of that flourishing 
 colony. After this violation of all religious ob- 
 servances, you hasten off to the estate of Marcus 
 Varro, a most conscientious 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 Tur- 
 selius, or on other innumerable possessions. If 
 you got the right from any auction, let the auction 
 have all the force to which it is entitled ; let writ- 
 ings be of force, provided they are the writings of 
 C^sar, 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 Al- 
 exandria to buy it of Cassar. It was too long to 
 wait for C^sar 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 !
 
 The Second Philippic 231 
 
 what shall we say if Caesar even wrote that you 
 were to give it up ? What can be said strong 
 enough for such enormous impudence ? Remove 
 for a while those swords which we see around us. 
 You shall now see that the cause of Cassar's auc- 
 tions 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 scandalous manner in that villa ! From the 
 third hour there was one scene of drinking, gam- 
 bling, and vomiting. Alas for the unhappy house 
 itself! to the share of how different a master from 
 its former one has it fallen ! Although, how is he 
 the master at all ? but still by how different a per- 
 son has it been occupied ! For Marcus Varro used 
 it as a place of retirement for his studies, not as a 
 theatre for his lusts. What noble discussions used 
 to take place in that villa ! what ideas were origin- 
 ated there ! what writings were composed there ! 
 The laws of the Roman people, the memorials of our 
 ancestors, the consideration 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
 
 232 Cicero 
 
 were dripping ; nobly born boys were mixing with 
 the basest hirelings ; prostitutes with mothers of 
 families. Men came from Casinum, from Aquinum, 
 from Interamna to salute him. No one was ad- 
 mitted. That, indeed, was proper. For the ordi- 
 nary marks of respect were unsuited to the most 
 profligate of men. When, going from thence to 
 Rome he approached Aquinum, a numerous com- 
 pany (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 peo- 
 ple of Anagnia do ? who, although they were out 
 of his line of road, came down to meet him, in or- 
 der to pay him their respects, as if he were consul. 
 It is an incredible thing to say, but still it was only 
 too notorious at the time, that he returned nobody's 
 salutation ; especially as he had two men of Anag- 
 nia 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 Caius Cassius 
 and the Bruti as their patrons ? a choice dictated, 
 in truth, by great wisdom, and by great zeal, be- 
 nevolence and affection for them ; not by violence
 
 The Second Philippic 233 
 
 and force of arms, by which men have been com- 
 pelled 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 ven- 
 eration ! And when that action was announced 
 to you, you — as is reported by all who were with 
 you at the time — fainted away. What happened 
 afterward 1 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 that Cinna had been 
 too powerful ; after him we had seen Sulla with 
 absolute authority, and we had lately beheld C^sar 
 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
 
 234 Cicero 
 
 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, as having no need of a 
 Senate, did not miss any of us, but rather rejoiced 
 at our departure, and immediately proceeded to 
 those marvellous exploits of his. He who had 
 defended the memoranda of CiEsar for the sake 
 of his own profit, overturned the laws of Ciesar — 
 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 prov- 
 inces ; moreover, though he was bound to be 
 the defender of the acts of C^sar, he rescinded 
 them with reference to both public and private 
 transactions. 
 
 In public transactions nothing is more author- 
 itative than law ; in private affairs the most valid 
 of all deeds is a will. Of the laws, some he abol- 
 ished without giving the least notice ; 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 citi- 
 zens. 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
 
 The Second Philippic 235 
 
 Caesar's memory ? Do you love him even now 
 that he is dead? What greater honor had he 
 obtained tlian that of having a holy cushion, an 
 image, a temple, and a priest ? Even as Jupiter, 
 and Mars, and Quirinus have priests, so Marcus 
 Antonius is the priest of the god Julius. Why 
 then do you delay ? why are you not inaugu- 
 rated ? Choose a day ; select some one to inau- 
 gurate you ; we are colleagues ; no one will refuse. 
 O detestable man, are you the priest of a tyrant 
 or of a dead man ? 1 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 sub- 
 mitted 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 prastexta ? Why 
 are we allowing to be disregarded the honor which 
 by your law was appointed for C^sar ? Had you 
 no objection to the pollution of so holy a day 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 defend- 
 ing the acts of Cassar, what reason can you give
 
 236 Cicero 
 
 for defending some and disregarding others ? un- 
 less, indeed, you choose to admit that you measure 
 every thing by your own gain, and not by his dig- 
 nity. What will you now reply to these arguments 
 (for 1 am waiting to witness your eloquence ; I 
 knew your grandfather, who was a most eloquent 
 man, but 1 know you to be a more undisguised 
 speaker than he was ; he never harangued the peo- 
 ple 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 answer ? However, 
 we will say no more of what is past. 
 
 But this single day, this very day that now is, 
 this very moment while 1 am speaking, defend your 
 conduct during this very moment, if you can. Why 
 has the Senate been surrounded 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 nations the most barbarous, Ity- 
 reans, armed with arrows, into the Forum ? He 
 says that he does so as a guard. Is it not then 
 a thousand times better to perish 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
 
 The Second Philippic 237 
 
 and good-will of his fellow-citizens, not by arms. 
 The Roman people will take them from you, will 
 wrest them from your hands ; 1 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 covetousness, and whom 1 mention without 
 intending any slight to her, has been too long 
 owing 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 Republic, or rather, there is the Re- 
 public 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 back- 
 ground 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 tran- 
 quillity ; 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 conduct. They 
 have done what no one else had done. Brutus 
 pursued Tarquinius with war, although he was
 
 238 Cicero 
 
 a king when it was lawful for a king to exist in 
 Rome. Spurius Cassius, Spurius Mselius, and 
 Marcus Manlius were all slain because they were 
 suspected of aiming at regal power. These are 
 the first men who 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 al- 
 though in the very consciousness of a glorious 
 action there is a certain reward, still 1 do not con- 
 sider the immortality 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 ; then will you under- 
 stand 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 perception of delicate flavors of food, so 
 men who are lustful, avaricious, and criminal, have 
 no taste for true glory. But if praise can not allure 
 you to act uprightly, 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
 
 The Second Philippic 239 
 
 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 illus- 
 trious 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 it is, 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, literature, prudence, deliberation, and in- 
 dustry. He had performed exploits in war which, 
 though calamitous for the Republic, were never- 
 theless mighty deeds. Having for many years 
 aimed at being a king, he had with great labor and 
 much personal danger accomplished what he in- 
 tended. 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 rewards, his adversaries by the appearances 
 cf 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.
 
 240 Cicero 
 
 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 compared with him. But from the 
 many evils which by him have been, as it were, 
 burned into the Republic, there is still this good, 
 that the Roman people has now learned how much 
 to believe every one, 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 Re- 
 public. However, do you decide on your own con- 
 duct. As to mine, 1 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. 1 scorned 
 the sword of Catiline ; 1 will not quail before yours. 
 No, 1 will rather cheerfully expose my own person, 
 if the liberty of the city can be restored by my 
 death.
 
 The Second Philippic 241 
 
 May the indignation of the Roman people at last 
 bring forth that with which it has been so long in 
 labor. In truth, if twenty years ago in this very 
 temple I asserted that death could not come prema- 
 turely 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 1 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. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume. 
 
 VOL. II.— 16.
 
 M. FABIUS QUINTILIANUS 
 
 M. Fabius Quintilianus was born in 35 a.d., at Calagarris 
 (Calahorra), in Spain. His youth was spent in the study 
 of oratory, his middle life in practising and teaching it, and 
 his old age in preparing the most celebrated treatise upon 
 oratory that has ever been written. 
 
 The style of Quintilian closely resembles that of Cicero. 
 
 Two works attributed to Quintilian are extant. The first, 
 his great work entitled The Instiiittes of Oratory, is undoubt- 
 edly authentic. The second. The Declamations, may with 
 only doubtful propriety be attributed to him. 
 
 The best text of his complete works is that of Burmann 
 (1720), while the tenth book of the Institutio Oratoria has 
 been edited, as a separate work, by Bonnell, Krueger, and 
 others. Various translations have been made. 
 
 243
 
 ORATOR, PHYSICIAN, PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Quintilian. 
 
 An orator, physician, and philosopher contested for the property of their 
 father, who, by will, had left as heir that one who should prove himself the 
 most beneficial to mankind. This declamation, attributed to Quintilian, and 
 forming part of the collection of one hundred and sixty-seven declamations 
 attributed to that author, is given as an illustration of the models by which 
 the students of oratory were instructed. These skeleton declamations were 
 studied and possibly memorized. Students used them as a basis for elaboration. 
 This was practised under the direction of a teacher. A few critics have as- 
 sumed that this, and some of the other declamations in the collection named, 
 were complete, and in form for delivery as exhibition or show speeches. 
 
 THE law and formula, as well as every rule 
 of the controversy, depend upon the will 
 of the father ; the import of which is not which of 
 our professions is the most brilliant, though even 
 in this respect I should conquer, but which is the 
 most useful to the State. 
 
 The question to be decided is, who of us bene- 
 fits all men. Grant that philosophy is a very 
 important thing ; it relates to few. Grant that 
 eloquence is a very admirable thing ; it does not 
 benefit more men than it harms. Medicine is 
 the only thing of which all men have need. It 
 
 is clear that our father had a definite intention of 
 
 245
 
 246 Ouintilian 
 
 giving to one of us that portion which he seems 
 to have left in dispute. Now medicine alone 
 relates to all men, and there is nothing so neces- 
 sary to the whole human race as is medicine. 
 
 Let us compare it with the other professions. 
 First 1 must argue with my brother, the phi- 
 losopher, at whose propositions in this day's 
 contention I cannot sufficiently wonder. For phi- 
 losophy, as it seems to me, has no more excellent 
 characteristic than that it is satisfied with moder- 
 ate possessions and does not crave boundless 
 resources ; for if it had the same desires as other 
 professions, I do not see wherein its teachings 
 would be beneficial. Nor does it escape me, O 
 judges, how many things are wont to be said 
 against those who practise this profession, by 
 those whose reputation permits freedom of speech, 
 these saying that the philosophers are foolish and 
 idle, and are slaves to that very ambition which 
 they especially denounce. But my contest is 
 against my brother ; therefore I will content my- 
 self with saying this lesser thing : that philosophy 
 is not a necessity to men. 
 
 I believe that character and merit are innate. 
 Other things may perchance be learned ; certain 
 things are to be gained by experience ; but good 
 character depends upon the spirit. This can be 
 shown by a variety of examples ; for it is evident 
 that there have been many noble men who were
 
 Orator, Physician, Philosopher 247 
 
 not taught philosophy, and that many men de- 
 voted to the pursuit of wisdom have reached the 
 last phases of crime and worthlessness. 1 do not 
 think that the Fabricii and the Curii learned mod- 
 eration and self-control in the schools of the 
 philosophers, or that the Decii there learned to 
 despise death. The Roman State produced the 
 liberators, the Bruti and the Camilli, before that 
 art had crept in at all. 
 
 Now let us look at the other side : who does 
 not know that even from the school of Socrates, 
 the fountain from which every kind of philosophy 
 is believed to have flowed, sprang tyrants and 
 enemies to their native land ? Therefore, philoso- 
 phy is not necessary. 
 
 Moreover, it is by no means certain by what 
 road, however zealously we pursue it, we can 
 attain to wisdom : for if we call all philosophers 
 together, they by no means are agreed as to what 
 form of philosophy we should learn, what teach- 
 ings we should follow. They contend and differ 
 among themselves ; and this contest they have 
 prolonged throughout the ages. To some, the 
 highest good lies in pleasure ; some have found it 
 in the pursuit of simple virtue ; some have at- 
 tempted to mingle and join these theories ; some 
 have believed that a happy life can be assured by 
 the possession of those things which cater to the 
 body and mind, the things which are external; some
 
 248 Quintilian 
 
 delight in moderation in everything. See also how 
 great has been their dissension as to the gods. 
 Some believe that nothing happens without the act 
 of Providence ; some hold that the gods care only 
 for the things which lie above the stars ; some 
 have altogether banished the gods ; some, while 
 they do not go so far, have said that at least the 
 gods do not care for men. These philosophers 
 encourage men to engage in public affairs ; those 
 believe that there is nothing more perilous than to 
 engage in public life. Some you may see pos- 
 sessed by a hatred of money, destitute and naked, 
 seeming to invite misfortunes ; others consider that 
 pleasures, not only of the mind, but also of the 
 body, are among the things chiefly to be desired. 
 Whom am I to believe ? to whom am I to attach 
 myself? Whatever I may approve, there are others 
 to deny ; moreover, those principles which are laid 
 down cannot be established. Therefore I claim 
 that philosophy is unnecessary to men, because it 
 is difficult to choose the right one. 
 
 It is also plain that most of the philosophers are 
 not appreciated even by one another. I know 
 that there are some who, although they complai- 
 santly and greedily, so to speak, claim for them- 
 selves the name of wise men, yet confess that as 
 yet no one has been found in the records of the 
 State who has justly earned that title. Now to 
 say some general things : what advantage has
 
 Orator, Physician, Philosopher 249 
 
 ever been gained from these men, whether in war 
 or in civil duties ? What can we find in them be- 
 yond a deceptive frown and perpetual idleness and 
 an authority born of arrogance ? But grant that 
 these men are great, as is claimed. I call them to 
 trial by the formula and terms of my father's will. 
 Of what advantage are they to the State ? They 
 lop off vices ? Why, no one here is extravagant, 
 no one covetous of money. 
 
 I have now said enough about the philosopher ; 
 let me pass to the orator, who, as I saw, came to 
 this trial with confidence in his eloquence. These 
 orators think that this is very powerful in judicial 
 cases ; sometimes they win bad cases ; and indeed, 
 if it is expedient that justice prevail, what good is 
 found in eloquence ? What benefit, indeed, does 
 it confer upon the State ? All things come finally 
 to this same question : In what have you benefited 
 the State ? True, one man is defended by your 
 advocacy, but he who is on the opposite side is 
 injured ; you rescue the accused from peril, but 
 how do I know if you rescued an innocent man ? 
 Innocence, it is true, is of itself powerful. But 
 innocent men have been condemned through your 
 advocacy ; how do I know whether it was not the 
 fault of your eloquence ? 
 
 But why do I speak only of private persons ? 
 We know that the conditions of States are often 
 changed by the power of oratory. Consider, if
 
 250 Quintilian 
 
 it please you, the renowned State of Athens, once 
 proudly ruling far and wide ; her powers were 
 diminished through the fault of her orators. Or, if 
 it please you, consider the condition of the Roman 
 people. Did not their most eloquent orators stir 
 up the most serious seditions and turbulent assem- 
 blages ? Did not the famous Gracchi undertake 
 to subvert the State, girt only with the weapons 
 of eloquence ? What good shall 1 say that elo- 
 quence has ever done the State ? It has certainly 
 done it much harm. 
 
 Let us look at some of the greatest orators. Do 
 we not know that the famous Demosthenes was 
 slain by poison sucked from his own pen ? Do we 
 not know that Cicero was punished by exposure 
 on that very rostrum from which he had so often 
 delighted his followers ? 
 
 I have said enough ; for if those with whom I 
 am contending do not benefit the State, it is evi- 
 dent that 1 only am left. Nevertheless, I will say 
 something concerning medicine : not indeed for the 
 sake of vaunting myself, but of commending my 
 profession, of which we have always believed the 
 gods to be upholders — either, as I think, that men 
 might have some aid and comfort in their weak- 
 ness, or because our ancestors attributed so much 
 power to this art that they believed that it could 
 hardly be discovered by human genius only, or 
 because medicine is in itself sacred. If sudden
 
 Orator, Physician, Philosopher 251 
 
 sickness seizes any one — may it be far from all 
 here ! — does he consult an orator ? Why should 1 
 enumerate the number of misfortunes against which 
 the aid of medicine is invoked ? There is that kind 
 of illness by which the spirit is broken, and that 
 kind from which the sight grows dim ; that state 
 of body which requires the art of healing wounds, 
 and that in which weakness must be turned to 
 strength. Will you, O philosopher, offer consola- 
 tion in place of medicine ? What class of men, 
 what age, what sex, does not seek the aid of its 
 relief ? 
 
 Translated by the Editors of this volume.
 
 C. CORNELIUS TACITUS 
 
 C. Cornelius Tacitus was born at Rome about 54 or 57 a.d. 
 His parents were noble and wealthy. His youth was spent 
 in study, under the most distinguished teachers of the cen- 
 tury. Among them were Aper Secundus and Quintilian. 
 Tacitus passed through the various political offices and 
 reached the consular rank in 97 a.d. He died about 118 a.d. 
 
 Tacitus was gifted by nature with the attributes of a suc- 
 cessful orator. By constant study and practice he gained 
 the highest oratorical rank, which he shared with Pliny 
 the Younger. He was so celebrated for his judicial oratory 
 that he was chosen by the Senate to conduct the prosecution 
 of Marius. He was also distinguished for the effectiveness 
 of his deliberative eloquence. In the panegyrical style, his 
 oration on Virginius Rufas was as celebrated as that of Pliny 
 on Trajan. 
 
 The principal characteristic of the oratorical style of Tacitus 
 was its peculiar solemnity. This quality gave to his utter- 
 ances a convincing power that was unique. His words were 
 well chosen, his diction pleasing. 
 
 Of all the orations of Tacitus, not one remains. In the 
 hope that some idea of this orator's style may be gained 
 from a quotation from his works, short selections from the 
 Agricola are given. 
 
 253
 
 CALGACUS TO THE BRITONS 
 
 Tacitus. 
 
 WHEN I reflect on the causes of the war and 
 the circumstances of our situation, I feel a 
 strong persuasion that our united efforts on the 
 present day will prove the beginning of universal 
 liberty to Britain. For we are all undebased by 
 slavery ; and there is no land behind us, nor does 
 even the sea afford a refuge, while the Roman 
 fleet hovers around. Thus the use of arms, 
 which is at all times honorable to the brave, now 
 offers the only safety even to cowards. In all the 
 battles which yet have been fought, with varying 
 success, against the Romans, our countrymen 
 may be deemed to have reposed their final hopes 
 and resources in us ; for we, the noblest sons 
 of Britain, and therefore stationed in its last re- 
 cesses, far from the view of servile shores, have 
 preserved even our eyes unpolluted by the con- 
 tact of subjection. We, at the furthest limits 
 both of land and liberty, have been defended to 
 
 this day by the remoteness of our situation and 
 
 255
 
 256 Calo^acus 
 
 of our fame. The extremity of Britain is now 
 disclosed ; and whatever is unknown becomes 
 an object of magnitude. But there is no nation 
 beyond us ; nothing but waves and rocks and 
 the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance 
 we cannot escape by obsequiousness and sub- 
 mission. These plunderers of the world, after 
 exhausting the land by their devastations, are 
 rifling the ocean : stimulated by avarice, if their 
 enemy be rich, by ambition, if he be poor ; un- 
 satiated by the East and by the West ; the only 
 people who look upon v/ealth and poverty with 
 equal avidity. To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp 
 under false titles, this they call empire ; and where 
 they make a desert, they call it peace. 
 
 By the appointment of nature our children and 
 relatives are to us the dearest of all things. These 
 are torn away by levies to serve in foreign lands. 
 Our wives and sisters, though they should escape 
 the violation of hostile force, are polluted under 
 the names of friendship and hospitality. Our 
 estates and possessions are consumed in tributes, 
 our grain in contributions. Even our bodies are 
 worn away, amidst stripes and insults, in clearing 
 woods and draining marshes. Wretches who are 
 born to slavery are first bought and afterward 
 maintained by their masters ; Britain every day 
 buys, every day feeds, her own servitude. And 
 as among domestic slaves every newcomer serves
 
 To the Britons 257 
 
 for the scorn and derision of his fellows, so in 
 this ancient household of the world we, as the 
 newest and vilest, are sought out to be destroyed. 
 For we have neither cultivated lands, nor mines, 
 nor harbors, which can induce them to preserve 
 us for the sake of our labor. The valor, too, and 
 the unsubmitting spirit of subjects only render 
 them more obnoxious to their masters ; while 
 remoteness and secrecy of situation itself, in pro- 
 portion as it conduces to security, tends to inspire 
 suspicion. Since, then, all hopes of mercy are 
 vain, at last take courage, both you to whom 
 safety, and you to whom glory is dear. The 
 Trinobantes, even under a female leader, had 
 strength enough to burn a colony, to storm 
 camps, and, if success had not damped their 
 vigor, would have been able to entirely throw 
 off the yoke ; and shall not we, unsmitten, un- 
 subdued, and struggling not for the acquisition 
 but for the preservation of liberty, show in the 
 first onset what men Caledonia has reserved for 
 her defence ? 
 
 Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave 
 in war as they are licentious in peace ? Acquiring 
 renown through our discords and dissensions, they 
 convert the errors of their enemies to the glory 
 of their own army : an army compounded of the 
 most widely differing nations, which only success 
 has held together and which misfortunes will 
 
 VOL. II. — 17.
 
 25S Calgacus 
 
 certainly dissipate. Unless, indeed, you can sup- 
 pose that Gauls and Germans, and — 1 blush to 
 say it ! — even Britons, who, though they now 
 expend their blood to establish a foreign do- 
 minion, have been longer its foes than its subjects, 
 will be retained by loyalty and affection ! Terror 
 and dread alone are the feeble bonds of their 
 attachment ; when these are once broken, they 
 who cease to fear will begin to hate. Every in- 
 citement to victory is on our side. The Romans 
 have no wives to animate them, no parents to 
 upbraid their flight. Most of them have either no 
 home, or only a distant one. Few in numbers, 
 ignorant of the country, looking around in silent 
 horror upon woods, seas, and a heaven itself un- 
 known to them, they are delivered by the gods, 
 as it were imprisoned and bound, into our hands. 
 Be not terrified by an idle show, or by the glitter 
 of silver and gold, which can neither protect nor 
 wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we shall 
 find our own bands. The Britons will acknowl- 
 edge their own cause. The Gauls will recollect 
 their former liberty. The rest of the Germans 
 will desert our foes, as the Usipii have lately 
 done. Nor is there anything formidable behind 
 them : ungarrisoned forts, colonies of old men, 
 municipal towns distempered and distracted be- 
 tween unjust rulers and disobedient subjects. 
 Here is a general ; here, an army. There, are
 
 To the Britons 
 
 259 
 
 tributes, mines, and all the train of punishments 
 inflicted on slaves ; which whether you are eter- 
 nally to bear or instantly to revenge, this field will 
 determine. March then to battle, and think of 
 your ancestors and your posterity. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 AGRICOLA TO HIS SOLDIERS 
 
 Tacitus. 
 
 IT is now the eighth year, my fellow-soldiers, 
 in which, under the high auspices of the Ro- 
 man Empire, you have been conquering Britain 
 through your valor and perseverance. In so 
 many expeditions, in so many battles, whether 
 you have been required to exert your courage 
 against the enemy or your patient labors against 
 the nature of the country itself, neither have I 
 been dissatisfied with my soldiers nor you with 
 your general. In this mutual confidence we have 
 proceeded beyond the limits of former command- 
 ers and former armies, and are now become ac- 
 quainted with the extremity of the island, not by 
 uncertain rumor, but by actual possession with 
 our arms and encampments. Britain is explored 
 and subdued. How often during a march, when 
 embarrassed by mountains, bogs, and rivers, have 
 I heard the bravest among you exclaim : ''When 
 shall we find the enemy ? when shall we be led 
 
 to the field of battle ? " At length they are un- 
 
 260
 
 Agricola to his Soldiers 261 
 
 earthed from their retreats ; your desires and your 
 valor have now free scope ; and every circum- 
 stance is at once propitious to the victor and 
 ruinous to the vanquished. For the greater our 
 glory in having marched over vast tracts of land, 
 penetrated forests, and crossed arms of the sea, 
 while advancing toward the foe, the greater will 
 be our danger and difficulty if we should attempt 
 a retreat. We are inferior to our enemies in 
 knowledge of the country, and less able to com- 
 mand supplies of provisions ; but we have arms 
 in our hands, and in these we have everything. 
 For myself, it has long been a principle that a 
 retreating general or army is never safe. Not 
 only, then, are we to reflect that death with honor 
 is preferable to life with ignominy, but to remem- 
 ber that security and glory are seated in the same 
 place. Even to fall in this extremest verge of 
 earth and nature cannot be considered an inglori- 
 ous fate. 
 
 If unknown nations or unproved troops were 
 drawn up against you, I would exhort you by the 
 examples of other armies. As it is, remember 
 your own honors, question your own eyes. These 
 are they who, last year, attacking by surprise a 
 single legion amid the obscurity of night, were put 
 to flight by a shout ; the greatest runaways of all 
 the Britons, and therefore the longest survivors. 
 As, when penetrating woods and thickets, the
 
 262 Agricola to his Soldiers 
 
 fiercest animals boldly rush upon the hunters, while 
 the weak and timorous flee at their mere shouts, 
 so the bravest of the Britons have long since fallen ; 
 the remaining number consists solely of the 
 cowardly and spiritless, whom you at length see 
 within your reach, not because they have stood 
 their ground, but because they have been over- 
 taken. Torpid with fear, their bodies are fixed 
 and chained down in yonder field, which will 
 speedily be to you the scene of a glorious and 
 memorable victory. Here bring your toils and 
 services to a conclusion ; close with one great 
 day a struggle of fifty years ; and convince your 
 countrymen that to the army ought not to be im- 
 puted either the protraction of the war or the 
 causes of the rebellion. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors oj this volume.
 
 ON THE DEATH OF AGRICOLA 
 
 Tacitus. 
 
 HAPPY art thou, O Agricola ! not only in the 
 splendor of your life, but in the seasonable- 
 ness of your death. With resignation and cheer- 
 fulness, according to the testimony of those who 
 were present in your last moments, did you meet 
 your fate, as if striving to the utmost of your power 
 to make the Emperor appear guiltless. But to me 
 and your daughter, beside the anguish of losing a 
 parent, there is an increasing affliction, that it was 
 not our lot to watch over your sick-bed, to support 
 you when languishing, and to satiate ourselves 
 with beholding and embracing you. With what 
 attention should we have received your last in- 
 structions, and engraven them on our hearts! 
 This is our sorrow ; this is our wound ; to us you 
 were lost four years before by a tedious absence. 
 Everything, doubtless, O best of parents! was 
 administered for your comfort and honor while a 
 most affectionate wife sat beside you ; yet fewer 
 
 tears were shed upon your bier, and in the last 
 
 263
 
 264 Tacitus 
 
 light which your eyes beheld, something was still 
 wanting. 
 
 If there be any habitation for the shades of the 
 virtuous ; if, as philosophers suppose, exalted souls 
 do not perish with the body ; may you repose in 
 peace, and call us, your household, from vain re- 
 gret and womanish lamentations to the contempla- 
 tion of your virtues, which allow no place for 
 mourning or complaining ! Let us rather adorn 
 your memory by our admiration, by our short-lived 
 praises, and, as far as our natures will permit, by 
 an imitation of your example. This is truly to 
 honor the dead ; this is the piety of every near re- 
 lation. I would also bid the wife and daughter of 
 this great man show their veneration of a husband's 
 and a father's memory by cherishing his actions 
 and words in their breasts, and endeavoring to re- 
 tain an idea of the form and features of his mind, 
 rather than of his person. Not that I would reject 
 those resemblances of the human figure which are 
 engraven in brass or marble ; but as their originals 
 are frail and perishable, so likewise are they : the 
 form of the mind is eternal, and thou mayest 
 not retain it or express it in any foreign matter, 
 or by any art, but only by thy manners and char- 
 acter. Whatever in Agricola was the object of 
 our love, of our admiration, remains, and will re- 
 main in the minds of men, transmitted in the 
 records of fame, through an eternity of years. For,
 
 On the Death of Agricola 
 
 265 
 
 while many great personages of antiquity will be 
 involved in a common oblivion with the mean and 
 inglorious, Agricola shall survive, represented and 
 consigned to future ages. 
 
 Revised translation by the Editors of this volume.
 
 C. PLINIUS C/ECILIUS SECUNDUS 
 
 C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, usually called Pliny the 
 Younger, was born at Novum Comum (Como) in 6i a.d. 
 His father, C. Csecilius, died when Pliny was eight years 
 of age. Two years later the boy was adopted by his uncle, 
 C. Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, the cele- 
 brated author of the Historia Naturalis. The youth showed 
 remarkable talent at an early age. His uncle sent him to 
 Rome and placed him under the care of the most eminent 
 teachers, among whom were Quintilian and Nicetes of Smyrna. 
 
 Pliny was passionately fond of literature and oratory. At 
 thirteen years of age he composed a Greek tragedy. At 
 twenty he had become one of the leading advocates of the 
 Roman bar. 
 
 Cicero was to Pliny the greatest orator in the history of the 
 world, and when the innovations of the Empire drove into the 
 background the oratorical forms of the Republic, Pliny became 
 their exponent and champion, and as such he opposed Tacitus, 
 the leader of the new school. 
 
 Pliny was gifted with wealth, powerful friends, and great 
 personal merit, and because of these he occupied many im- 
 portant official positions, including that of augur, consul, and 
 proconsul. His closing years were the most successful of a 
 long and prosperous life. He died in 1 13 a.d. 
 
 " Popular among his equals, splendid in his political suc- 
 cesses, in his vast wealth, and his friendship with the Emperor, 
 Pliny is almost a perfect type of a refined pagan gentleman." 
 
 Pliny was an orator of great merit. He was a clear thinker, 
 though, at times, obscure in expression. His oratory was 
 graceful and polished, and through all his work runs a delight- 
 ful vein of optimism. His delivery was forcible and effective, 
 and despite his weak constitution, he was capable of sustained 
 effort. 
 
 267
 
 268 C Plinius Caecilius Secundus 
 
 Pliny is best known by his Epistola\ None of his many and 
 brilliant speeches remain, except the famous Panegyric or 
 Trajan. This is the greatest of the panegyrics of the Empire, 
 and has long served as a model of oratorical excellence. 
 
 One of the best texts of Pliny's works is that of Schafer, 
 Leipsic (1739-1770), 1805. The Panegyric has been trans- 
 lated several times into French and German. It has been 
 rendered into English by Henley ; London, 1686.
 
 THE PANEGYRIC ON TRAJAN 
 
 [Selection.] 
 
 Pliny the Younger. 
 
 This is the most famous of the Roman Panegyrics that have been preserved. It 
 was delivered by Pliny before the Emperor Trajan and the Senate at Rome, in the 
 first century a.d. The Panegyric is of such length as to render its insertion in 
 complete form unwise. The editors have, therefore, selected the following 
 passages as best illustrating the oratorical style of Pliny the Younger : 
 
 WELL and wisely, O Conscript Fathers, did 
 our ancestors ordain that an oration, as 
 well as other undertakings, should begin with an 
 invocation to the gods ; because nothing can be 
 duly or prudently begun without the aid, counsel, 
 and favor of the immortal gods. But in whom is 
 this custom more fitting than in a consul, and 
 when is it more proper to adopt and practise it 
 than when, by the command of the Senate and by 
 the authority of the State, we are moved to render 
 thanks to our most excellent Prince ? For what 
 gift of the gods is there that is more excellent or 
 more honorable than a Prince who is chaste, holy, 
 and very like the gods ? And if hitherto it had 
 been doubtful whether by chance or by some 
 
 divine power rulers were given to the world, it is 
 
 269
 
 270 Pliny the Younger 
 
 clear, nevertheless, that our Prince was divinely 
 appointed. For he was not selected by the secret 
 power of the Fates, but by Jupiter himself, openly 
 and before all. He was, in truth, chosen before 
 the very altars, and in that place in which that god 
 is as manifest and present as he is in his seat in 
 heaven among the stars. Wherefore, O Jupiter, 
 best and greatest, thou who wast in times past the 
 founder and to-day art the preserver of our Empire, 
 it is the more suitable and reverent that 1 should 
 pray thee that my discourse may be worthy of a 
 consul, worthy of the Senate, worthy of our 
 Prince ; that all I may say may be in accord with 
 liberty, fidelity, and truth : and that my expres- 
 sion of thankfulness may be as free from any ap- 
 pearance of flattery as it is free from compulsion. 
 
 Indeed, I think that it is the duty not only of the 
 consul but of all citizens to speak of the Prince in 
 such a way that it may not seem possible to say of 
 any other man that which they may say concern- 
 ing the Prince. Wherefore let those words which 
 a base fear might extort be far from us ; let 
 us say nothing as once we were obliged to say it, 
 for we suffer nothing as in times past we suffered ; 
 let us not say the same things concerning the Prince 
 which we once said, for we do not whisper in 
 private the same things as then. Let the difference 
 in the times be marked by our speech, and from the 
 difference in the manner in which we render thanks
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 271 
 
 let it be clearly seen when and to whom they are 
 given. Let us not laud him either as a god or as a 
 divine power, for it is not concerning a tyrant but 
 a citizen, not of a master but a parent, that we 
 speak. He regards himself as one of us, and in 
 this he so much the more surpasses and excels us, 
 and he remembers no less that he is a man than 
 that he is a commander of men. Let us, therefore, 
 appreciate the good things which have been be- 
 stowed upon us and show ourselves worthy of 
 enjoying them ; and from time to time let us con- 
 sider how shameful it would be to offer greater 
 obedience to princes who delight in the slavery of 
 their citizens than to those princes who delight in 
 their freedom. And, indeed, the Roman people 
 are accustomed to be satisfied with their rulers ; 
 with what great unanimity a short time ago they 
 proclaimed one beautiful ; another very brave ; with 
 what shouts they praised at one time the voice and 
 bearing of one, and the piety, temperance, and 
 clemency of another. And what of ourselves? 
 Are we not all accustomed to extol the excellence 
 of our Prince, to praise his generosity, his self- 
 control, or his graciousness as we may be moved 
 from time to time by love or joy ? Now what is 
 so worthy of a citizen or so becoming a senator as 
 the surname of Optimus, which we have given 
 him ? It is a name which the arrogance of princes 
 in times past has made the especial and appropriate
 
 272 Pliny the Younger 
 
 surname of our Prince. For it is as fitting as it is 
 just that we should call both him and ourselves 
 happy, and one after another make our petitions to 
 him that he may do this, or that he may hear that, 
 for we would not make these requests to him if he 
 would not accede to them. In response to these 
 petitions he is suffused with tears and overcome 
 with modesty, for he knows and feels that they are 
 made to him and not to the Prince. Therefore, let 
 us each carefully hold in the spontaneous warmth 
 of our filial love that studied moderation which 
 we have all maintained ; let us bear in mind that 
 there is no form of thanks more sincere and more 
 acceptable than that which rivals those acclama- 
 tions which by their spontaneity are free from all 
 deceit. So far as in me lies, I will endeavor to 
 adapt my address to the modesty and moderation 
 of my Prince. And 1 will at the same time pay 
 more attention to what his ears would willingly 
 endure, than to what his virtues merit. But I do 
 not so much fear that our Prince, to whose great 
 and unusual glory 1 am about to render thanks, 
 will think that 1 am too sparing in my praises, as 
 that 1 am excessive. This is the only care, this the 
 only difficulty confronting me ; for it is easy, O 
 Conscript Fathers, to thank one who merits thanks. 
 There is no danger, then, that when I speak of 
 clemency he will believe that 1 inveigh against his 
 haughtiness ; when of economy, that 1 attack his
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 273 
 
 prodigality ; when of mildness, his cruelty ; when 
 of generosity, his avarice ; when of good-will, his 
 malice ; when of self-control, his lust ; when of 
 diligence, his sloth ; when of bravery, his coward- 
 ice. 1 do not even fear that 1 may appear grateful 
 or ungrateful according as I shall say enough or 
 too little. For 1 am persuaded that even the gods 
 themselves are not so much pleased with the 
 elaborate prayers of their worshippers as with 
 innocence and purity ; and that he is held to be 
 the most grateful who brings to their shrines a 
 pure and chaste mind, rather than he who brings 
 a carefully composed prayer. 
 
 But we must obey the decree of the Senate, 
 which has ordained for the public good that by 
 the voice of the consul and under the form of a 
 solemn giving of thanks, good princes should be 
 shown what they have done, and bad princes 
 what they ought to have done. And this is now 
 the more obligatory and desirable because our 
 father [Trajan] restrains and prevents the offering 
 of thanks by private individuals. And, indeed, 
 if he were permitted to take such action, he 
 would be very apt to prevent the public thanks 
 which the Senate has decreed. Consider both, 
 O Caesar Augustus ; both what you do not per- 
 mit to be rendered to you elsewhere and what 
 you permit to be rendered to you here. For that 
 honor is not rendered to you by yourself, but by 
 
 VOL. n.— 18
 
 2 74 Pliny the Younger 
 
 others. You yield to our affections ; you do not 
 laud to us your kindly acts, but you must hear 
 them from us. 
 
 I have often, O Conscript Fathers, in silence and 
 alone considered what and how great a man he 
 ought to be by whose sway and power the seas 
 and the lands, peace and war, are controlled : but 
 while 1 fashioned in my mind such a prince as 
 he ought to be whose power is equal to that 
 of the immortal gods, 1 was never able to con- 
 ceive of one like to him whom we now see. One 
 has excelled in war, but become valueless in 
 peace ; another has been adorned with the toga, 
 but not with arms ; this one has sought to acquire 
 respect by inspiring terror, another has sought 
 love through humility ; one has lost at home the 
 glory he won abroad, and another has lost abroad 
 the glory he acquired at home. Finally, there has 
 hitherto existed no one whose virtues have not 
 been damaged by contact with vices. But to the 
 lot of our Prince what great concord, what great 
 harmony of all praises and all glory have fallen ! 
 Nothing is detracted from his severity by his good 
 humor ; nothing from his gravity by his simpli- 
 city ; nothing from his majesty by his clemency. 
 His firmness of bearing, his lofty stature, his 
 beauty and dignity of countenance, besides the 
 unbent ripeness of his years, though by the favor 
 of the gods adorned by the signs of advancing
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 275 
 
 age, his beautiful hair, tending to increase the 
 majesty of his person, all these far and wide pro- 
 claim the Prince. 
 
 It was necessary that he should be such as 
 neither civil wars nor the State overwhelmed with 
 arms would have given, but rather such an one as 
 peace and adoption and the divinities implored by 
 the whole world would have bestowed. Would 
 it have been right that there should have been no 
 difference between an emperor chosen by men 
 and an emperor chosen by the gods ? Their judg- 
 ment and favor for you was manifest when you 
 set out for the army, O C^sar Augustus, and they 
 made it known in an unusual way. In the case 
 of other princes, either a great flow of blood from 
 the sacrificial victims or the flight of birds have 
 made known their favor to those who were consult- 
 ing the omens. But in your case the shouts of the 
 citizens, who by no means intended it, saluted 
 you already as Prince when, according to custom, 
 you were ascending the Capitol. For the whole 
 crowd thronging the entrance of the Temple, 
 which had been opened for your entrance, sa- 
 luted, as they thought, the god as Imperator, but, 
 as the event proved, greeted you as Imperator. 
 Not otherwise was the omen accepted by all. 
 You alone were not willing to understand it in 
 this way, for you refused the sovereignty, but 
 your refusal was an indication of your fitness for
 
 276 Pliny the Younger 
 
 the regal rank, and therefore you were compelled 
 to rule. But it was not possible for anything to 
 compel you to do this except the peril of your 
 country and the threatening overthrow of the 
 State. For you persisted in your refusal to as- 
 sume the sovereignty unless it were necessary 
 to save the State. It was on this account, 1 think, 
 that the frenzy and insurrection of the guards took 
 place, because it was necessary that your modesty 
 be overcome by great violence and by great and 
 widespread terror. And just as the whirlwinds and 
 the storm set off to advantage the tranquillity of the 
 sea and sky, so I can believe that that mutiny took 
 place at the time of your accession in order to aug- 
 ment the favor of your peaceful reign. It is the lot 
 of mortals that adversity springs from prosperity 
 and prosperity from adversity, and the god con- 
 ceals the seeds of both, and very often it happens 
 that the causes of good and evil lie hidden each 
 under the opposite form. 
 
 That great dishonor was inflicted upon this age, 
 that great wound was given the State ; the Em- 
 peror and Father of the human race was besieged, 
 captured, confined ; the ability to save the men 
 was taken away from that mildest of old men. 
 That which is the most august characteristic of 
 princely power, that he can in no respect be com- 
 pelled to do anything, was taken away from the 
 prince. If indeed this were the only reason that
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 277 
 
 brought you to the helm of public safety, I would 
 have been inclined to exclaim that it was enough. 
 The discipline of the camp had been destroyed, 
 that you might appear as a corrector and reformer. 
 The worst example was set, that the best might 
 be opposed to it. Finally, the Emperor was com- 
 pelled to put to death those whom he was loath 
 to execute, that he might give us a prince who 
 could not be compelled to do what he was un- 
 willing to do. 
 
 For a long time you had deserved to be chosen, 
 but if you had been chosen before we should not 
 have known how much the imperial authority 
 owed to you. The time was to come when it 
 would be clear that you had not so much received 
 a favor as bestowed one. The territled State took 
 refuge in your bosom, and the sovereign power, 
 at the point of being overthrown, was conferred 
 upon you as emperor by the voice of an emperor. 
 You were implored and summoned by adoption, 
 as in times past mighty generals were often sum- 
 moned to come even from foreign and distant 
 wars to the assistance of their fatherland. In this 
 way son and parent at one and the same time 
 mutually conferred the greatest benefits ; he gave 
 to you the imperial authority and you restored 
 it to him who gave it. You alone therefore have 
 made a fit return for so great a gift, and have even 
 put the giver under lasting obligations to you ; for
 
 278 Pliny the Younger 
 
 by sharing the imperial authority you became the 
 more careful for its preservation and he more secure 
 in its possession. 
 
 O novel and unheard-of entrance upon princely 
 power ! It was not your desire for the position 
 nor your fear that made you Prince, but the ad- 
 vantage of others and their fear. You seem indeed 
 to have attained the highest position among men, 
 but that position which you have left was the 
 more filled with happiness, for you ceased to be a 
 private citizen under a good prince. You have 
 been given a share of the toils and cares, and not 
 the advantages and joys of that station. But it 
 was its hardships and burdens that impelled you 
 to assume it. You have assumed the imperial 
 authority after another was wearied with bearing 
 it. You had no relationship to him who adopted 
 you. There was no kinship except that each was 
 most noble of men, and the one was worthy to 
 be chosen and the other was worthy to choose. 
 Therefore you were adopted, not as others before 
 you were adopted, merely to please a wife. For 
 not a step-father but a prince received you as a 
 son, and the divine Nerva became your father in 
 the same spirit as that in which he was the father 
 of all. And it is not becoming that a son should 
 be received otherwise, if he is to be received by a 
 prince. If you were about to transmit to another 
 the Senate, the Roman people, the armies, the
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 279 
 
 provinces, and the allies, would you receive your 
 successor only from the arms of your wife ? 
 Would you look only within your own house and 
 family for the heir of the greatest power ? Would 
 you not turn your eyes on every side throughout 
 the State ? Would you not consider him to be 
 the nearest of kin and most closely connected with 
 you whom you regarded as the best and whom 
 you found to be most like the gods ? One who is 
 to govern all must be selected from all. You were 
 not about to give, O Emperor, a master to your 
 slaves that he might be compared to an heir by 
 blood, but you were to give a prince to your citizens. 
 It would have been a haughty and arbitrary act if 
 you had not adopted him who was about to enjoy 
 the imperial authority even if he had not been 
 adopted. This Nerva did, thinking that it made 
 no difference whether you were his successor by 
 birth or choice, for the child might be equally well 
 chosen as well born ; except that men bear more 
 willingly with one whom the prince has happily, 
 than with one whom he has unfortunately, chosen. 
 Therefore he sought most carefully to avoid any 
 such misfortune, and took counsel not merely with 
 men, but with the gods as well. And for this 
 cause your adoption was accomplished not in the 
 privacy of the Emperor's apartments, but in the 
 Temple ; not before the nuptial couch, but before 
 the seat of Jupiter Optimus. By this act, not our
 
 2So Pliny the Younger 
 
 servitude, but our liberty, prosperity, and security 
 were placed upon a firm foundation. The gods 
 claimed that glory for themselves ; this was their 
 work, this their act of sovereignty. Nerva was 
 merely their servant, as all are, he who adopted as 
 much as he who conceived and you who were 
 adopted. A laurel wreath had been brought from 
 Pannonia, for the gods had determined that the 
 sign of victory should mark the beginning of the 
 reign of an invincible emperor. The Emperor 
 Nerva had placed this crown in the lap of Jupiter : 
 then, suddenly, greater and more august than 
 usual, having summoned an assembly of gods and 
 men, he took you to himself as his son, the sole 
 supporter of his exhausted affairs. Then, as if he 
 had quite laid aside the imperial power, in what 
 freedom from care, in what glory did he delight ! 
 For how little is the difference between laying 
 down and dividing the imperial power, except 
 that the latter is more difficult than the former. 
 Just as if he were leaning upon you and sustain- 
 ing himself and his country upon his shoulders, he 
 became strong by your youth fulness and strength. 
 At once all tumult ceased. That was not the work 
 of adoption, but of him who had been adopted. 
 How rashly Nerva would have acted if he had 
 chosen any other person ! Are we forgetful that 
 soon after your adoption insurrection did not cease, 
 but began ? That act of adoption would have been
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 281 
 
 an incentive and a firebrand of insurrection, unless 
 it had happened to you. Is there any doubt that 
 the Emperor could give the imperial authority, 
 although he had lost the respect which belonged 
 to him to w^hom that authority had been given ? 
 You became at once a son and a Caesar, presently 
 an emperor and a sharer in the power of the tribu- 
 nate. You were endowed equally and at the same 
 time with all the privileges and prerogatives which 
 but a short time before a real father [Vespasian] 
 conferred upon his second son [Titus]. 
 
 This is a great evidence of your moderation, that 
 you became not only heir to the throne, but an 
 associate and a companion as well. For one may 
 well be regarded as an heir even against his will, 
 but not a companion unless he is willing. Shall 
 posterity believe that a man who was the son of a 
 patrician, and a consul who had indeed enjoyed a 
 triumph, for he had commanded an army that was 
 brave, numerous, and devoted to him, was not 
 confirmed as Emperor by that army ? Can it be- 
 lieve that the name Germanicus was not bestowed 
 upon him when he was in command of the armies 
 in Germany ? that that army did nothing that he 
 should become Emperor ? that it had done nothing 
 except what he had deserved and merited ? For 
 you obeyed, O C^sar, and came to the throne 
 submissively, and nothing did you ever do with 
 more obedient mind than to begin to reign. You
 
 282 Pliny the Younger 
 
 became C^sar, then Emperor, then Germanicus, 
 although you were absent and knew nothing of it, 
 and were still a private citizen, even after the be- 
 stowal upon you of all your titles of distinction. 
 It would seem a wonderful thing if I should say 
 that you did not know that you were to be Em- 
 peror, but as a fact you were Emperor and you 
 were not aware that you were Emperor. So that 
 when the messenger brought you the news of 
 your advancement, you would rather have re- 
 mained what you were, but you were not at 
 liberty to do so. Were you not obliged as a citi- 
 zen to obey your Prince ; as a lieutenant, your 
 Emperor ; as a son, your father ? 
 
 If you had not obeyed, where would have been 
 discipline ? where the custom, handed down from 
 the fathers, of readily and cheerfully undertaking 
 whatever duty the Emperor imposed ? For how 
 if he had committed to you one province after 
 another, or one war after another ? He exercises 
 the same right when he calls you to the throne 
 that he does when he sends you to the army ; and 
 it makes no difference whether he orders you to 
 go as a lieutenant or to return as a prince, except 
 that there is greater glory in obeying in those 
 matters which are the most distasteful. By your 
 act the authority of the Emperor, which had been 
 strained to the utmost, was increased, because 
 you thought that it was all the more necessary
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 283 
 
 that he be obeyed by you when he was so rarely 
 and poorly obeyed by others. You listened, fur- 
 thermore, to the unanimous voice of the Senate 
 and the people. That act of adoption was not the 
 act of Nerva alone. It was an unanimous election. 
 For all men everywhere most earnestly desired 
 the same thing. Nerva was merely the first to 
 exercise his right, in that he was Prince ; and he 
 was the first to do what all were about to do. 
 By Hercules, this act would not have so greatly 
 pleased all, if it had not seemed good to them be- 
 fore it was accomplished. But with what modera- 
 tion, O good gods, did you direct your power and 
 fortune ! You were an Emperor in inscriptions 
 and busts and statues, but in modesty, toil, and 
 watchfulness a commander, a lieutenant, a soldier. 
 As you marched with stately tread before your 
 standards and your eagles, you claimed for your- 
 self nothing more from that adoption than the 
 right to love as a son and to obey as a son ; and 
 you invoked for that name of son long endurance 
 and long-continued glory. The providence of the 
 gods had brought you forward to the chief place, 
 but you still desired to remain in the second place 
 and to grow old in that place. You appeared to 
 yourself to be a private citizen so long as another 
 was Emperor. Your prayers were heard; but how 
 proper that that most excellent and holy old man, 
 whom the <j^ods were about to claim for heaven,
 
 284 Pliny the Younger 
 
 should after that divine and immortal act have 
 done no other mortal deed. Reverence is due to 
 this act, at once the greatest and the last ; and its 
 author is at once to be deified in order that future 
 generations may ask whether this were the work 
 of a god. And so he was the parent of the State 
 in the same way that he was yours. Great was 
 his glory, great his fame when he had completely 
 discovered how well the Empire rested upon your 
 shoulders, and he left the earth to you and you to 
 the earth. He was for this reason dear to all and 
 his absence to be the more regretted, because he 
 provided that he should not be missed. At first 
 you honored him with your tears as became a son, 
 and after that you erected temples to his memory, 
 but in this you did not imitate those who had 
 done the same thing with a very different motive. 
 Tiberius deified Augustus that he might add greater 
 reverence to the imperial majesty ; Nero deified 
 Claudius, but it was to throw ridicule upon him. 
 Titus deified Vespasian, and Domitian deified 
 Titus, the former that he might seem the son of a 
 god, the latter that he might seem the brother of 
 a god. You, however, placed your father among 
 the gods neither to inspire fear in the minds of the 
 citizens, nor to insult the gods, nor for your own 
 glory, but because you believed that he was a 
 god. Less glorious is this act, however, when it 
 is performed by those who think that they, too,
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 285 
 
 are gods. But although you worship him at the 
 altars and shrines and with a priesthood, yet you 
 do not make and prove him to be a god in any 
 other way more clearly than by yourself being a 
 god. For it is the one sure proof of divinity in a 
 prince that when he has yielded to fate he should 
 have left a divine successor. Did any arrogance, 
 then, come to you from the immortality of your 
 father ? Should you rival those men of later times 
 who are indolent and haughty because their fathers 
 were divinities rather than emulate those men of 
 ancient times who were more noble ? 
 
 [The Dacians and the Sarmatians] had become 
 very bold and had thrown off the yoke, and but a 
 short time ago they were fighting with us, not to 
 gain their liberty, but to bring about our servitude. 
 They were unwilling to enter into any truce, except 
 on the most favorable terms. They even prescribed 
 the conditions they would accept. But now all is 
 changed ; terror and fear and a desire to execute 
 our commands have taken possession of them. 
 For they see a Roman commander, one of the 
 ancient sort, to whom the plains covered with dead 
 and the seas stained with the blood of victory 
 brought the imperial name. We therefore receive 
 hostages, and do not buy them, and we do not 
 purchase peace with great losses and boundless 
 gifts that thereby we may seem to have conquered. 
 They ask, they entreat ; we bestow or we refuse,
 
 286 Pliny the Younger 
 
 and in each event exhibit the majesty of the Empire. 
 They who have obtained their requests render 
 thanks ; they who have been refused dare not 
 complain. Dared they complain even when they 
 knew that you were encamped against the fiercest 
 tribes who were at that time most friendly to them 
 and most dangerous to us ; when the Danube 
 joined together its banks by the cold, and when, 
 frozen solid, it bore on its surface vast armies ; when 
 the wild tribes were protected not more by their 
 weapons than by their skies and their climate ? 
 But when you approached the enemy, they hid 
 themselves just as if there had been a change in 
 the conditions that were so favorable to them, and 
 they kept themselves out of sight in their hiding- 
 places ; but our armies delighted to roam to and 
 fro on the banks of the river and, with your per- 
 mission, to use against the barbarians those very 
 advantages of climate that were most favorable to 
 them. 
 
 Such is the respect you enjoy among the enemy. 
 What then is it among your soldiers? What 
 admiration have you received from them ! for with 
 you they bear hunger and thirst, and in the exer- 
 cises of the field you share with the soldiers the 
 dust and sweat, differing in nothing from them in 
 the free exercise and contests except in strength 
 and nobility, as you at one moment hurl weapons 
 and at the next catch up those that have been
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 287 
 
 hurled, rejoicing in the valor of the soldiers and 
 exulting whenever an unusually heavy blow falls 
 upon your own helmet or shield. You even praised 
 them when they aimed their blows at you, and en- 
 couraged them to still greater efforts. As a spectator 
 and director of the men who were entering the 
 contests, you regulated their arms, you tested their 
 weapons, and if any piece seemed too heavy for 
 the man who had received it, you yourself hurled 
 it. What consolation did you bear to the weary, 
 what assistance to the sick ! It was not your habit 
 to enter your own tent until you had carefully 
 examined the tents of your fellow-soldiers, nor to 
 give your body repose until the others had gone to 
 rest. I have not passed over, O Conscript Fathers, 
 the consulship of our Prince, but I have transferred 
 to that topic whatever was to be said concerning 
 his obligation. For we ought not to divide, scat- 
 ter, and discuss at different times the same sort 
 of praise as if it were a profitless and uninteresting 
 subject. The first day of your consulship had 
 just begun to dawn when, having entered the 
 Senate House, you exhorted us individually as well 
 as collectively to take once more our liberty, to 
 undertake the cares of the Empire as if it were a 
 common duty to be watchful for the public good, 
 and to renew our courage. All the princes who 
 preceded you had said these things, but no one 
 before you was believed. There were before men's
 
 288 Pliny the Younger 
 
 eyes the shipwreck of many whom an unexpected 
 tornado had destroyed after they had been carried 
 along by a treacherous calm. For what sea was 
 ever more treacherous than the blandishments of 
 those princes whose frivolity and deceit were so 
 great that it was easier for them to be angered than 
 to be propitiated ? Without anxiety, with joy, we 
 follow you wherever you may call. You command 
 us to be free ; we will be. You command us to 
 express whatever we may think ; we do so. 
 Hitherto we had refrained from expressing our 
 sentiment, but not from any cowardice or natural 
 indifference ; but terror, and that wretched pru- 
 dence that is born of danger, warned us to turn our 
 eyes away from the State (for there was in reality 
 no State). But now, relying upon your friendship 
 and encouraged by your promises, we open our 
 mouths, so long closed in a lasting slavery, and we 
 loosen our tongues, so long bridled by many ills. 
 For you wish us to be as you have commanded, and 
 there is nothing in your exhortation that is dis- 
 sembled, nothing that is deceitful, in short nothing 
 that might deceive confiding men which would not 
 be dangerous to the deceiver as well. For a prince 
 is never deceived unless, by deceiving, he himself 
 has first set the example. 
 
 1 seem, indeed, to have comprehended this feel- 
 ing of the Father of the State, not only from his 
 words, but also from his very accent. For what
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 289 
 
 dignity is in his sentiments ! What unaffected 
 sincerity is in his words ! What earnestness is 
 in his voice ! What assurance is in his counte- 
 nance, his eyes, his manner, his gestures, in short 
 his whole person ! Therefore he will always 
 hold firmly to his advice, and he will know 
 that we are always obedient to him when we 
 enjoy the freedom he has given us. Nor have 
 we any reason to fear that he will think us un- 
 mindful of our duty, when we use faithfully the 
 freedom of these times, when he remembers that 
 we lived otherwise under a bad ruler. We are 
 accustomed to offer prayers for the eternity of the 
 Empire and for the welfare of our princes ; or 
 rather, for the welfare of the princes, and on their 
 behalf for the eternity of the Empire. It is worth 
 while, indeed, to observe carefully in what words 
 those prayers for our Empire are expressed. Thus 
 we say : ''That you may direct the affairs of the 
 State wisely and for the best interests of all." 
 Such prayers are worthy of being offered, such 
 vows worthy of being paid. The State, O Cassar, 
 by your advice pleaded with the gods, that they 
 may afford you favor and protection if you pro- 
 tect others ; but if not, that they may turn their 
 eyes from watching over your person, and abandon 
 you to secret imprecations. Some have wished 
 to outlive the State, and grieve that they have 
 been unable to accomplish it, but to you your 
 
 VOL. II.— 19.
 
 290 Pliny the Younger 
 
 own welfare is hateful if it is not connected with 
 the safety of the State. You suffer no wish to 
 be entertained for you that is not for the advan- 
 tage of those who entertain it. In all your life 
 you take the gods into counsel concerning your 
 affairs; and you desire that they may change 
 their opinion of you if ever you cease to be what 
 you were when you were chosen Emperor. And 
 with what great conscientiousness have you en- 
 tered into a compact with the gods that they 
 may protect you if you deserve their protection, 
 since you know that none know better than the 
 gods whether you are deserving. Does it not 
 always seem to you, O Conscript Fathers, that 
 C^sar has this thought before his mind night and 
 day : '' I have armed against me, if the public good 
 demands it, the Prastorian Guards ; 1 do not pray 
 even to be delivered from the wrath of the gods 
 or from their neglect ; I even ask and beg that the 
 State may never against its will offer any prayers 
 in my behalf ; but if it should, that they may not 
 be answered." 
 
 Therefore, O C^sar, you receive from the ap- 
 proval of the gods the most glorious fruit of your 
 security. For since you make the condition that 
 they may preserve you only so long as you direct 
 the affairs of the State wisely, you are certain that 
 you do direct the affairs of the State well, for they 
 continue to protect you. Therefore free from care
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 291 
 
 and full of joy that day passed in which other 
 princes were distracted with cares, anxiety, and 
 fear ; for they waited in suspense and alarm and 
 heard, with little confidence in our submission, 
 the messengers who reported the submission of 
 the people on every side. If perchance any mes- 
 sengers were hindered by rivers, snows, or winds, 
 they at once believed that what they had de- 
 served had occurred. Nor was there any reason 
 in their fear, but a bad prince fears any one 
 worthier than himself, and if there is no one who 
 is not worthier he fears all. Neither the delay of 
 messengers nor the slowness of letters disturbed 
 your sense of security. You know that every- 
 where the oath of allegiance is being taken to you 
 because you have taken the oath to all. In this 
 respect one does not surpass the other. We in- 
 deed love you as you deserve, yet we do not love 
 you merely for your own sake but for our own as 
 well. No day dawns when we, prompted not 
 merely by our interest but also by our fidelity, do 
 not offer prayers on your behalf. Base is the 
 guardianship of a prince against whose fidelity 
 anything can be charged. We may justly com- 
 plain that princes do not inquire into our secrets 
 unless we hate them. For if good princes had the 
 same care as the bad, what admiration, what joy, 
 what delight would you not perceive everywhere ! 
 what words would be uttered by all to their wives
 
 292 Pliny the Younger 
 
 and children, even around the domestic hearths 
 and altars ! For you know that it is customary to 
 refrain from speaking of disagreeable things to such 
 as are most tender and delicate. And moreover, 
 since love and hatred are opposed one to the other, 
 in that very place where we express in the least 
 measured terms our love for good princes, we 
 manifest most freely our hatred of bad princes. 
 
 Why do I attempt to trace all these details and 
 to gather them together, as if, in truth, I could 
 either embrace in my discourse or hold in my 
 memory all the speeches that you, O Conscript 
 Fathers, have decreed should be placed in the 
 public records and graven in bronze that oblivion 
 may not destroy them ? In former times it was the 
 custom that only the orations of the princes should 
 be perpetuated by being committed to this sort of 
 record ; our acclamations were confined to the 
 walls of the Senate House. But there were some 
 orations of which neither the Senate nor the prince 
 could be proud. But as to these it was for the 
 benefit of the public and the dignity of the State 
 that they should be set before the people and 
 handed down to posterity ; first that the whole 
 world might know of our loyalty and bear witness 
 to it ; second that it might be known that we 
 dared to express our judgment of good and bad 
 rulers, and that too not merely after they were 
 dead ; and lastly that by this act it might be made
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 293 
 
 known that in former times we were thankful 
 although we were wretched and that we were 
 grateful to those to whom it was not permitted us 
 to show our gratitude. But with what eagerness, 
 with what exertion, with what clamor, have men 
 demanded that you should not suppress our affec- 
 tion and ignore your deserved praise ! Let princes 
 also learn to distinguish between true and false 
 praise and let them consider that they can not be de- 
 ceived in regard to their deserts ; that it is not for 
 them to construct a new road to glory, but rather 
 for them not to desert that already built ; that rever- 
 ence is not to be put aside, but rather to be rein- 
 stated in its proper place. It is certain also what 
 they ought to do, and also what they ought to 
 expect if they do it. What further shall 1 pray for 
 in behalf of the Senate, in addition to those things 
 for which, with the Senate, I have already prayed, 
 except that joy may remain in your heart, which 
 you have revealed to our eyes. May you love this 
 day ! May you deserve new acclamations of ap- 
 proval and ever hear them anew ! for shouts of 
 approval may not be uttered except for similar 
 deeds. . . . 
 
 Friendship, that ancient good of mortals, had 
 faded from the hearts of men ; in its place had 
 come flattery, blandishments, and a pretended love 
 worse than hatred. In the home of princes the 
 name of friendship remained merely as an empty
 
 294 Pliny the Younger 
 
 mockery. For how could friendship exist between 
 those of whom one appeared to be the master, and 
 the other the slave ? You restored that friendship 
 which had been expelled and banished to a distance. 
 You have friends because you are first a friend. 
 This was to be expected, for love is not to be im- 
 posed upon subjects as are other obligations, and 
 as there is no other sentiment which is so noble, 
 so free, and so impatient of any control, so there is 
 none which needs more to be mutual. A prince 
 may be unjust, he may be hateful to some, even 
 though he himself does not hate ; but he cannot 
 be loved unless he himself loves. You esteem, 
 because you are yourself esteemed as a friend, and 
 in this, which is most honorable to both, is your 
 whole glory ; for, although you are the superior, 
 yet you condescend to assume all the obligations 
 of friendship, and in the friend the Emperor is laid 
 aside, or rather you are the more the Emperor be- 
 cause you act as a friend. For, since the condition 
 of a prince requires that he have many friends, it is 
 the especial duty of a prince to acquire them. 
 May this sort of life be always pleasing to you, may 
 you most firmly retain not only all your other virtues 
 but this as well, and may you never be persuaded 
 that anything is more unworthy of a prince than 
 hatred. The most delightful thing in human affairs 
 is to be loved, and not less delightful is it to love. 
 May you enjoy both of these pleasures ; so that
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 295 
 
 the more warmly you love a friend, the more 
 ardently you may be loved in return ; not only be- 
 cause it is easier to love one than to love many, 
 but also because you have such power in binding 
 your friends to you that it is not possible for one 
 not to return you a yet greater love, except he be 
 an ingrate. . . . 
 
 Very many princes, when they have become the 
 masters of citizens, have become the slaves of freed- 
 men. They have been ruled by the counsel of 
 such and by their mere nod. Through such per- 
 sons they have been accustomed to hear, through 
 such to speak ; through such have pr^torships, 
 priesthoods, and consulships been bestowed ; they 
 have even been sought through such. You have 
 the greatest regard for your freedmen, but only as 
 freedmen. You think that it is quite enough for 
 them if they are esteemed upright and worthy, for 
 you know that powerful freedmen are by no means 
 a proof of a great prince. For you have no one in 
 your employ except such as were beloved by you 
 yourself, by your father, or by the best of princes, 
 and you train them every day to measure them- 
 selves not by your station in life, but by their own. 
 So much the more worthy are they, accordingly, 
 of every honor which may have been bestowed 
 upon them because they have not needed it. Has 
 not the Senate and the Roman people for just causes 
 bestowed upon you the surname of Optimus ? It
 
 296 Pliny the Younger 
 
 was evident to all that it was fitted to you, and it 
 was new. You, indeed, know that no one before 
 you deserved it, because it had never been thought 
 of even if any one had seemed to merit it. Would 
 it have been better to have called you Felix ? But 
 that title is given not so much for character as for 
 great success. Would it have been better to have 
 bestowed upon you the title of Magnus ? To this 
 title attaches more of envy than of honor. A 
 most excellent Emperor adopted you into his house, 
 but the Senate into the name of Optimus. This 
 was as appropriate to you as your own name which 
 you had from your father ; for he who named you 
 Trajan did not mark you out more distinctly by 
 that name than he who called you Optimus, just 
 as formerly the Pisones were distinguished for their 
 frugality, the L^lii for their wisdom, the Metelli 
 for their patriotism. But all these are comprised in 
 that one name Optimus. For no one can seem to 
 be the best unless he be superior to all others in 
 every kind of virtue. Therefore, after all other 
 appellations, this has been justly bestowed upon 
 you as the greatest. For it is not so much that 
 you are Emperor or Caesar or Augustus, as that you 
 are superior to all Emperors, Ciesars, and Augusti. 
 And so Jupiter, the parent of men and gods, is 
 first worshipped under the name of Optimus, and 
 after that under the name of Maximus. Your glory 
 is, therefore, all the more renowned, as it is certain
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 297 
 
 that you are no less Optimus than Maximus. You 
 have obtained a name that cannot pass to another 
 without appearing flattering to a good prince and 
 false in a bad. For although all may hereafter 
 assume it, yet it will always appear as peculiarly 
 yours. For just as we are reminded by the name 
 Augustus of him upon whom it was first bestowed, 
 so this surname of Optimus will never occur to the 
 minds of men without recalling you ; and as often 
 as our descendants shall be compelled to call any 
 one Optimus, so often will they call to mind him 
 who first deserved that name. 
 
 What must your joy be now, O divine Nerva, 
 when you perceive that he whom you chose as 
 the best not only is the best but is called the best ! 
 What joy that you are surpassed by your own son 
 when compared with him ! For in no other way 
 is the greatness of your heart and mind more clearly 
 shown than in that you are not afraid to select one 
 better than yourself But as for you, O Father 
 Trajan (for you also are seated, if not among the 
 stars, yet very near them), may you experience the 
 same unbounded delight when you look upon your 
 own son, that noble tribune, that brave soldier, 
 that great general, that distinguished Prince, and, 
 in friendly rivalry, you who adopted him dis- 
 pute with him whether it was more honorable to 
 have adopted or to have begotten such a son. 
 Hail to both, to both who have so well merited of
 
 298 Pliny the Younger 
 
 the State, upon which you have conferred so great 
 a benefit ! For one of you the bravery of your son 
 has gained a triumph, for the other the glory of 
 deification ; but yours is the same glory, though 
 these honors have come to you through your son, 
 as if they had been acquired by your own merits. 
 
 1 know, O Conscript Fathers, that not only the 
 private citizens but the consuls in particular ought 
 to be so minded that they should feel themselves 
 under greater obligations to the State than to indi- 
 viduals. For as it is more just and noble to hate 
 bad princes for the wrongs that they have done 
 the public rather than for the wrongs that they 
 have inflicted upon individuals, so it is more beau- 
 tiful to love good princes for those services which 
 they have rendered mankind rather than for those 
 they have rendered individuals. But because it 
 has become the custom that consuls in the public 
 rendering of thanks should acknowledge on their 
 own account how much they personally owe the 
 prince, permit me to perform that duty not more 
 for myself than for my colleague, the most noble 
 Cornutus Tertullus. For why should 1 not offer 
 thanks for him, for whom I am not the less indebt- 
 ed ? Especially when a most indulgent Emperor, 
 on account of our perfect harmony, has bestowed 
 upon us both those things which if he had conferred 
 them upon only one, would, nevertheless, have put 
 both under obligations. Upon us both that robber
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 299 
 
 and spoiler of all that was good [Domitian] had by 
 the slaughter of all our friends breathed with his 
 breath of flame till the last moment of his life. For 
 we rejoiced in the same friends and we mourned 
 the same friends taken away, and as now we have 
 the same hope and joy so then we shared the same 
 grief and fear. The divine Nerva had been so 
 honored in our dangers, that he wished to advance 
 us both as if we were good, although we were 
 less than that ; because it is significant of the 
 change in the times that they whose one wish had 
 been to fall completely out of the mind of the 
 Prince, now prosper. 
 
 We had not yet completed two years of service 
 in a most laborious and important office, when you, 
 O most excellent of princes, and bravest of emper- 
 ors, bestowed upon us the consulate as well, so 
 that even the highest honor might seem to be en- 
 hanced by the rapidity of the preferment. So great 
 is the difference between you and those princes 
 who strive to make their benefits hard to obtain 
 and who imagine that the honors they bestow are 
 more acceptable, if despair and disgust and a delay 
 that is almost denial have first made them appear 
 like dishonor and defeat. Modesty only prevents 
 us from recounting by what evidences of your 
 favor you have honored us both ; and in love of 
 rectitude and love of country you have made us 
 equal to the consuls of old. Whether justly or not,
 
 300 Pliny the Younger 
 
 we dare not decide, because it would be wrong to 
 dishonor your assertion by passing any judgment 
 upon it, and it would be an embarrassment to us 
 to confess the truth of what you have said about 
 us, especially since it has been so noble and glori- 
 ous. You are worthy of making consuls when you 
 make them of men about whom you can say such 
 things. You will pardon us if we say that among 
 the many acts of kindness which you have done 
 us, that which you did in again choosing us to be 
 your colleagues is the most pleasing to us. Our 
 mutual affection, the harmonious tenor of our lives, 
 our unity in theory and purpose, demand that it 
 should be so ; and indeed so great is the similarity 
 of our character that it lessens the glory, for it 
 would be as wonderful for either of us to disagree 
 with the other as it would be for one of us to dis- 
 agree with himself. Therefore it is not something 
 transitory and sudden, this fact that each of us 
 delights in the consulship of his colleague as in his 
 own. Those who are twice made consuls, though 
 at different times, are twice bound together ; but 
 we have twice been consuls together, we together 
 discharge the duties of that office. We are con- 
 suls, the one with the other, equally and for a sec- 
 ond time. 
 
 What a distinguished mark of your favor it was 
 that while we were prefects of the treasury you 
 bestowed upon us the consulship, even before you
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 301 
 
 had appointed our successors ! Dignity was 
 heaped upon dignity ; the honor was not merely 
 continued but was doubled, and one overtook the 
 other, as if that were not sufficient. So great was 
 your confidence in our integrity that you doubted 
 whether you would act without abandoning your 
 customary care for the State if you allowed us to 
 be private citizens, after vacating offices of the high- 
 est importance. What can I say of the fact that 
 you bestowed upon us the consulship for the same 
 year in which you yourself held that office ? No 
 other page, then, will receive you as consul than 
 that which will receive us, and our name shall be 
 added to the records in which your name will be 
 inscribed. You thought it worthy of you to pre- 
 side over our assemblies, and to repeat to us that 
 most sacred oath of consecration. By your judg- 
 ment we were made consuls, by your voice we 
 were proclaimed such, so that you appeared in the 
 Senate House as the supporter of our honors and 
 in the Campus Martins as the one who announced 
 them. What a joy for us that you associated us 
 with yourself above all in that month adorned by 
 your natal day ! To us it will fall by an edict and 
 by a public show to celebrate with a triple joy that 
 day which removed the worst of princes [Do- 
 mitian], gave to the world the best [Nerva], and 
 gave birth to a better than the best [Trajan]. A 
 chariot more splendid than usual will receive us
 
 302 Pliny the Younger 
 
 under the observation of your eyes ; amid favora- 
 ble omens, and contending vows w^hich shall be 
 offered you, we shall be borne along, exulting and 
 uncertain from which side the greater shouts of 
 approval strike our ears. 
 
 Above all else, however, we must acknowledge 
 that you allow us whom you have made consuls 
 to be consuls in fact, since no danger or fear of the 
 Prince weakens and destroys our integrity as con- 
 suls ; we need hear nothing against our will, nor 
 need we give any judgment under compulsion. 
 The respect that is due that office remains and will 
 continue to remain, and we shall not lose our free- 
 dom by any act of authority. So, if by chance the 
 consular dignity shall in any respect be diminished, 
 it will be our fault, and not the iault of the times. 
 For so far as the Prince is concerned, we might be 
 such consuls as were the princes before now. Can 
 we render any thanks to you equal to your kind- 
 ness otherwise than by always remembering that 
 we were consuls and your consuls, than by having 
 emotions and thoughts that are worthy of consuls ? 
 by so bearing ourselves in the State as to believe 
 that there is really a State ? by in no respect neg- 
 lecting our consulship and our work, and not think- 
 ing that we are separated and, as it were, put 
 asunder by the consulship, but joined together by 
 it, by holding the same place of toil and care as 
 we hold of respect and honor ?
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan 303 
 
 In concluding my discourse, O gods, the guardi- 
 ans and protectors of the Empire, and thee before 
 all others, O Capitoline Jove, I, the consul, pray 
 in behalf of human affairs that you may favor them 
 with your blessings and grant long continuance to 
 your splendid gifts. You have heard what we 
 have invoked for an evil Prince ; hear what we 
 desire for one most unlike him. We would not 
 distract you with our prayers. We do not pray 
 for peace, concord, security, wealth, or honors ; 
 for all our wishes and vows are embraced in the 
 one petition, for the protection of our Prince. And 
 in this we do not ask of you anything that is new. 
 For you received him into your care when you 
 rescued us from the jaws of that most greedy rob- 
 ber [Domitian]. For not without your aid, when 
 the highest were trembling, did he who was placed 
 loftier than all others remain unshaken. He was 
 passed over by the worst of Princes, he who could 
 not be passed over by the best. You sent to 
 him an unmistakable sign of your favorable judg- 
 ment when, as he was departing for the army, you 
 yielded to him your name and honor. You uttered 
 your thoughts by the voice of the Emperor ; you 
 selected for him a son, for us a parent, and for 
 yourself a Pontifex Maximus. Therefore with the 
 more confidence and with the same vows that he 
 himself orders to be offered for him, I pray and be- 
 seech you that if he rules well the State, if he rules
 
 304 
 
 Pliny the Younger 
 
 for the best interest of all, you will preserve him 
 for our grandsons and great-grandsons and that 
 you may give him for a successor one whom he 
 has begotten and whom he has moulded and made 
 like to himself who was adopted, or if this be de- 
 nied by fate, that you may be in his counsel when 
 he chooses, and point out for him one who is 
 worthy to be adopted on the Capitol. 
 
 Translated for this volume by Joseph Cullen Ayer, B.D., Ph.D.
 
 p. ANNIUS FLORUS 
 
 p. Annius Florus was born in the reign of Domitian. He 
 studied rhetoric and oratory under the leading teachers of 
 Rome. He early developed and exhibited much talent as an 
 orator. He became embittered by the partiality shown to his 
 opponents in a Capitoline rhetorical contest, left Rome, and 
 settled in Tarraco. Here for a number of years he taught 
 rhetoric. In the reign of Hadrian, Florus returned to Rome. 
 
 Of his style it may be said that it is even, artificial, and in- 
 flated, yet here and there a gleam of poetry and very often a 
 touch of spirit render his writings interesting. 
 
 The works of this author which have survived are his 
 epitome of Livy's History of Rome, some lines De Rosis and 
 De Qiialitate Vitx, and the introduction to a dialogue entitled 
 Vergilius Orator an Poeta. This last fragment can not, in 
 any sense, be styled an oratorical masterpiece. It is, however, 
 of great importance as an illustration of the declamations of 
 the second century, and an example of what was regarded in 
 that age as eloquence. The work of Florus was appreciated 
 by his contemporaries, and his Epitome retained its popularity 
 for centuries. The style of Florus was much admired in the 
 Middle Ages, and his works were constantly declaimed. 
 
 The best edition of the fragment given is that of Rossbach 
 in the Teubner Series. 
 
 VOL. II.— 20.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE, "WAS 
 VIRGIL AN ORATOR OR A POET?" 
 
 [Fragment.] Florus. 
 
 The following selection from Florus is an excellent example of his general 
 style. His simple and yet poetic diction is displayed at its best, and the pecu- 
 liarly pastoral character of the excerpt makes it a fitting introduction to the subject 
 of Virgil's writings, a discussion upon which succeeds the fragment given, 
 
 AS I was refreshing my brain, weary with much 
 wakefulness, in the pleasant shade of many 
 trees, in the cool shadow of the aqueducts, in the 
 freedom of the air, suddenly there met me certain 
 men, whom, as they were returning from the 
 sights of Rome to B^tica, an adverse wind from 
 Africa had driven to our shore. 
 
 One of them who, as afterward appeared, was a 
 man of learning, suddenly came up to me and said : 
 " How do you do, my friend ? If it is not tres- 
 passing on your good nature, will you please tell 
 me your name ? for somehow my eyes bring you 
 to my mind, and I indistinctly recall you." 
 
 " In me," I said, ''you see Florus, and perhaps 
 
 also you have heard him, if it happened that you 
 
 307
 
 ^o8 Florus 
 
 o 
 
 were present at our contest in that famous assem- 
 bly of the world in the time of the Emperor 
 Domitian." 
 
 '' Are you the man from Africa, whom we unani- 
 mously applauded ? " returned the B^tican. '' In- 
 deed, it was against the desire of Cresar that he 
 opposed you, not because he envied you, a boy, 
 but in order that Africa might not carry away the 
 crown of great Jupiter." 
 
 When he found that I modestly assented, he 
 ardently embraced me and said : '' Then love one 
 who applauded you." '' How should I not love 
 him ? " I cried. And thereupon eagerly embracing 
 each other, we pledged our growing friendship, 
 when he, after a brief interval, said : 
 
 '' Why do you remain so long in this province ? 
 You neither come to our Bietica nor revisit that 
 famous city where your verses are continually 
 sung and where that famous triumph over Dacia 
 resounds in every forum. With your distinguished 
 ability and great genius, how can you endure the 
 obscurity of the province ? Does love for the city 
 and that famous people, conquerors of the world, 
 and the Senate, have no effect upon you ? In fine, 
 are you not influenced by the light and brilliancy 
 of the imperial power, which seizes upon and turns 
 the gaze of gods and men upon itself? " 
 
 Then was I greatly disturbed, and asked : 
 "What would you have me answer? Indeed,
 
 Was Virp^il an Author or a Poet ? 309 
 
 this is to me also a wonderful thing, that 1 do not 
 abide in Rome ; but nothing is more difficult than 
 to account for my actions or to reply to your 
 charge. Therefore cease to reopen the wounds 
 of my sorrows by bringing the past to my memory. 
 May the State of Rome be prosperous, and may 
 those enjoy her to whom fortune permits it. As 
 far as I am concerned, since that day which you 
 witnessed, when 1 saw the crown of victory 
 wrested from my hands and brow, my whole 
 mind, my whole soul, recoiled and shrank from 
 that State, and I was so smitten and astounded by 
 grief that, forgetful of my native land and of my 
 beloved parents, I wander like a madman hither 
 and thither through different lands." 
 
 " What places and what lands have you 
 roamed ? " he then asked. 
 
 " If you have leisure 1 will briefly relate, and not 
 unwillingly will recall the near past. First I vis- 
 ited noble Sicily, the home of Ceres. Then I 
 greeted fertile Crete, the native land of the Thun- 
 derer, and the neighboring Cyclades. Then I be- 
 took myself to Rhodes, and thence to the Egyptian 
 sea, that I might behold the shores of the Nile 
 and the people always idling in the temples, play- 
 ing on the musical instruments which are dedicated 
 to a strange goddess. Thence I returned to Italy, 
 and when, disgusted with the sea, I sought the in- 
 terior, as I journeyed on I crossed the Gallic Alps,
 
 o 
 
 lo Florus 
 
 pale with the North Wind ; then the setting sun 
 attracted me, and I turned hither my course, and 
 the Pyrenees mountains, white with the Alpine 
 snow, welcomed me. You see, stranger, what re- 
 gions of sea and land 1 have traversed. Allow me 
 then, wearied, here at length to rest. If I were a 
 wandering Scythian, I would now set free my 
 steeds ; if a wandering navigator, the prow dedi- 
 cated to the goddess of the sea would be moored 
 to the shore. To what end should we continue to 
 roam ? The wild beasts return to their lairs, and 
 the birds grow old in their nests. If fate denies 
 me Rome as my abode, at least may it be my lot 
 to remain here. Habit is a potent power. 
 
 " You see here a people, O stranger and friend, 
 quietly devoted to a frugal life, siuggish indeed, 
 but hospitable in heart. A peculiarly temperate 
 climate mingles its seasons, and the whole year 
 wears the aspect of spring. The land is fertile in 
 its plains, and on its hills it does not redden with 
 the dryness of autumn, for it rivals the vineyards 
 of Italy. If it is pertinent to the subject, I will add 
 that the State itself was founded with the most 
 favorable omens, for besides the standards of 
 Caesar there is also a foreign nobility which brings 
 triumph, whence it receives its name. Look upon 
 the ancient temples ; there is worshipped that 
 horned pirate who, while he was roving the whole 
 ocean with a Tyrian maiden, lost her at this place,
 
 Was Virgil an Author or a Poet ? 311 
 
 and therefore stopped here ; then, forgetful of her 
 whom he was carrying off, suddenly fell in love 
 with our shores." 
 
 When I had ceased to speak, the Ba^tican imme- 
 diately exlaimed : ''O happy State, which when 
 you were weary chanced to receive you ! Still, 
 how are you supported, and what business do you 
 engage in here ? Whence comes your income ? 
 Or does your father send you money from Africa ? " 
 
 ''Not so, since 1 offended him by my wander- 
 ings. I support myself by teaching literature." 
 
 '' Oh, most unworthy employment ! With what 
 patience can you bear to sit in the schools and 
 teach boys ? " 
 
 In reply to these questions from the man, I an- 
 swered in this fashion : '' 1 do not wonder that you 
 are now of this opinion, with which I also at one 
 time struggled. For in the last four years I had 
 become so wearied of this occupation that 1 did 
 not think that a more wretched man lived. But 
 afterward, reviewing and comparing my lot with 
 the fortunes and labors of others, the beauty of the 
 work which I had undertaken at length dawned 
 on me. Therefore you must know that no kingly 
 power, no pr^torship, no honor, can be compared 
 with this profession of ours. If the mightiest of 
 emperors were to bestow upon me a centurionship 
 — that is, to command a hundred men — it would 
 indeed not seem a small honor ; if he should grant
 
 312 Florus 
 
 o 
 
 me a perfectship or tribunate, doubtless it would 
 seem the same honor, except that the salary would 
 be more ample ; but if, then, not C^sar, but For- 
 tune, grant me this gift, to preside over honorable 
 and generous boys, ought I not to seem to you to 
 have attained a beautiful and glorious office ? For 
 1 ask you closely to consider this question, whether 
 it is nobler to command men wearing the military 
 coat or boys clad in the toga pr^texta ? barbarous 
 and wild hearts, or civilized and harmless ones ? 
 O good Jupiter, how regal, how imperial it is to sit 
 upon a raised platform moulding good characters 
 and directing the pursuit of sacred literature ! now 
 reading the sacred poems by which characters and 
 hearts are moulded, now exciting the feelings by 
 the expression of various thoughts, or by illustra- 
 tions." . . . 
 
 Translated by the Editors of This volume. 
 END OF VOLUME II

 
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