30. But I neither think that I was deserted at that time, but rather surrendered; nor do I think it needful for me to explain what at the time of that unhappiness to the republic was done against me nor how, nor by whose instrumentality it was done. If it was beneficial to the republic that that alone, as the victim offered for the general safety, should quaff that most unworthy cup of calamity, it may be useful also for me to conceal and be silent respecting the men by whose wickedness it was brought about. But yet it is the part of an ungrateful man to be silent. Therefore I will most willingly proclaim that Cnaeus Pompeius laboured with all his zeal and influence as much as any one of you, and with all his means, and labour, and by entreaty, and even at his own personal risk, to promote my safety. This man, O Publius Lentulus, was present at all your counsels, while you were thinking of nothing day and night except my safety. He cooperated with you as a most influential adviser in planning the conduct to be pursued, as a most faithful ally in preparing for it, and as a most fearless assistant in executing it. It was he who visited all the municipalities and colonies; it was he who implored the assistance of all Italy, which was eager to afford it; it was he who in the senate was the first person to deliver his opinion, and when he had delivered it there, he then also entreated the Roman people to preserve me.
30. vero neque me tum desertum puto sed paene deditum, nec quae sint in illa rei publicae flamma gesta contra me, neque quo modo, neque per quos, patefaciundum mihi esse arbitror. utile rei publicae fuit haurire me unum pro omnibus illam indignissimam calamitatem, etiam hoc utile est, quorum id scelere conflatum sit, me occultare et tacere. vero est hominis ingrati tacere, itaque libentissime praedicabo Cn. Pompeium studio et auctoritate aeque ⟨atque⟩ unum quemque vestrum, opibus, contentione, precibus, periculis denique praecipue pro salute mea laborasse. tuis, P. Lentule, cum tu nihil aliud dies et noctes nisi de salute mea cogitares, consiliis omnibus interfuit; hic tibi gravissimus auctor ad instituendam, fidelissimus socius ad comparandam, fortissimus adiutor ad rem perficiendam fuit; hic municipia coloniasque adiit; hic Italiae totius auxilium cupientis imploravit, hic in senatu princeps sententiae fuit; idemque cum ⟨sententiam⟩ dixisset, tum etiam pro salute mea populum Romanum obsecravit.
31. Wherefore, you may desist from that language which you have been using, namely, that the dispositions of the priests were changed after my delivering the opinion which I did about the corn. As if they had any different opinion from what I myself had about Cnaeus Pompeius, or as if they were ignorant what I ought to do either with regard to the expectation of the Roman people, or to the services which I have received from Cnaeus Pompeius, or to my own circumstances and condition; or as if even, if my sentiments had perchance been offensive to any one of the priests, though I know for a certainty that the contrary was the case, any priest was on that account going to decide about religion, or any citizen about the republic, in any other manner than the laws respecting religious ceremonies compelled the one, or the interests and safety of the republic compelled the other.
31. re istam orationem qua es usus omittas licet, post illam sententiam quam dixeram de annona pontificum animos esse mutatos; proinde quasi isti aut de Cn. Pompeio aliter atque ego existimo sentiant, aut quid mihi pro exspectatione populi Romani, pro Cn. Pompei meritis erga me, pro ratione mei temporis faciendum fuerit ignorent, aut etiam, si cuius forte pontificis animum, quod certo scio aliter esse, mea sententia offendit, alio modo sit constituturus aut de religione pontifex aut de re publica civis quam eum aut caerimoniarum ius aut civitatis salus coegerit.
32. I am aware, O priests, that I have said more things which are foreign to this cause, than either your opinion is likely to approve of, or than my own inclination prompted. But I was anxious to be acquitted in your eyes; and, further, your kindness in listening to me with attention carried me on to say more than I had intended. But I will make amends for this by the brevity of that part of the speech which relates to the actual matter now brought under your examination; and as the affair is divided into two heads,—one relating to the laws of religion, and the other to the laws of the state, —I will pass over the question of religion, which would take a longer time to discuss, and speak to the point of what is the law of the state.
32. , pontifices, me plura extra causam dixisse quam aut opinio tulerit aut voluntas mea; sed cum me purgatum vobis esse cuperem, tum etiam vestra in me attente audiendo benignitas provexit orationem meam. hoc compensabo brevitate eius orationis quae pertinet ad ipsam causam cognitionemque vestram; quae cum sit in ius religionis et in ius rei publicae distributa, religionis partem, quae multo est verbosior, praetermittam, de iure rei publicae dicam.
33. For what can be so arrogant as for a layman to endeavour to lecture the college of priests about religion, about divine affairs, and ceremonies, and sacrifices; or so foolish as for a man, if he has found anything of consequence in your books, to take up time in detailing it to you; or so superfluous, as to seek to acquire learning on those points concerning which our ancestors have laid down the principle that you alone have knowledge, and that you alone ought to be consulted? I say that it was not possible, according to our common rights, and according to those laws which are in force in this city, for any citizen to be exposed to such disaster as mine without a formal trial. I say that this was the law in this state even at the time when the kings existed; I say that this was the principle handed down to us from our ancestors; I say, moreover, that this is the inalienable characteristic of a free state,—that no infringement on the liberties or property of a citizen can take place without the formal decision of the senate, or of the people, or of those persons who have been appointed as judges in each separate matter.
33. est enim aut tam adrogans quam de religione, de rebus divinis, caerimoniis, sacris pontificum conlegium docere conari, aut tam stultum quam, si quis quid in vestris libris invenerit, id narrare vobis, aut tam curiosum quam ea scire velle de quibus maiores nostri vos solos et consuli et scire voluerunt? potuisse iure publico, legibus iis quibus haec civitas utitur, quemquam civem ulla eius modi calamitate adfici sine iudicio: hoc iuris in hac civitate etiam tum cum reges essent dico fuisse, hoc nobis esse a maioribus traditum, hoc esse denique proprium liberae civitatis, ut nihil de capite civis aut de bonis sine iudicio senatus aut populi aut eorum qui de quaque re constituti iudices sint detrahi possit.
34. Do you not see that I am destroying all your proceedings by the roots? that I am arguing, what is manifest, that you did nothing whatever according to law,—that you were not a tribune of the people at all? I say this, that you are a patrician. I say so before the priests; the augurs are present. I take my stand on the common public law. What, O priests is the law concerning adoption? Why that he may adopt children who is no longer able to have children himself, and who failed in having them when he was of an age to expect it. What reason, then, any one has for adopting children, what considerations of family or dignity are involved what principles of religion are concerned, are questions which are accustomed to be put to the college of priests. What if all these circumstances are found to exist in that adoption? The person who adopts him is twenty years old; a minor adopts a senator. Does he do so for the sake of having children? He is of an age to have them of his own. He has a wife; he has actually got children of his own. The father, then, will be disinheriting his own son.
34. me non radicitus evellere omnis actiones tuas neque illud agere, quod apertum est, te omnino nihil gessisse iure, non fuisse tribunum plebis, hodie esse patricium? apud pontifices, augures adsunt: versor in medio iure publico. est, pontifices, ius adoptionis? ut is adoptet qui neque procreare iam liberos possit, et cum potuerit sit expertus. deinde causa cuique sit adoptionis, quae ratio generum ac dignitatis, quae sacrorum, quaeri a pontificum conlegio solet. est horum in ista adoptione quaesitum? annos viginti natus, etiam minor, senatorem. causa? procreare potest; habet uxorem, suscipiet ex ea liberos; exheredabit igitur pater filium.
35. What? why should all the sacred rites of the Clodian family perish, as far as it depends on you? And that must have been the idea of all the priests when you were adopted. Unless, perchance, the question was put to you in this way,—whether you were intending to disturb the republic by seditions, and whether you wished to be adopted with that object, not in order to become that man's son, but only in order to be made a tribune of the people, and by that means utterly to overthrow the state? You answered, I presume, that your object was only to be made a tribune. That appeared to the priests to be a sufficient reason. They approved of it. No questions were asked about the age of the man who was adopting you; as was done in the case of Cnaeus Aufidius and Marcus Pupius, each of whom, within our recollection, when extremely old, adopted as sons, the one Orestes, and the other Piso. And these adoptions, like others, more than I can count, were followed by the inheritance of the name and property and sacred rites of the family. You are not Fonteius, as you ought to be, nor the heir of your new father; nor, though you have lost your right to the sacred ceremonies of your own family, have you availed yourself of those which belong to you by adoption. And so, having thrown the ceremonies of religion into confusion,—having polluted both families, both the one which you have abandoned and the one which you have entered,—having violated the legitimate practices of the Romans with respect to guardianships and inheritances, you have been made, contrary to all the requirements of religion, the son of that man of whom you were old enough to be the father.
35. ? sacra Clodiae gentis cur intereunt, quod in te est? quae omnis notio pontificum, cum adoptarere, esse debuit: nisi forte ex te ita quaesitum est, num perturbare rem publicam seditionibus velles et ob eam causam adoptari, non ut eius filius esses, sed ut tribunus plebis fieres et funditus everteres civitatem., credo, te ita velle. Pontificibus bona causa visa est: adprobaverunt. aetas eius qui adoptabat est quaesita, ut in Cn. Aufidio, M. Pupio, quorum uterque nostra memoria summa senectute alter Oresten, alter Pisonem adoptavit, quas adoptiones sicut alias innumerabilis hereditates nominis pecuniae sacrorum secutae sunt. neque Fonteius es, qui esse debebas, neque patris heres, neque amissis sacris paternis in haec adoptiva venisti. perturbatis sacris, contaminatis gentibus, et quam deseruisti et quam polluisti, iure Quiritium legitimo tutelarum et hereditatium relicto, factus es eius filius contra fas cuius per aetatem pater esse potuisti.
36. I am speaking before the priests; I say that that adoption did not take place according to the sacerdotal law. In the first place, because your respective ages are such that the man who has adopted you as your father might, as far as his age went, have been your son; in the second place, because a question is usually put as to the reason for the adoption, in order that the adopter may be a person who is seeking by regular and sacerdotal law that which by the ordinary process of nature he is no longer able to obtain; and that he may adopt a son in such a manner, as to in nowise impair the dignity of the families or the reverence belonging to their sacred ceremonies; and, above all things, that no false pretence, or fraud, or trickery, may creep in; so that this fictitious adoption of a son may appear to imitate as far as possible the real case of children being born to a man.
36. apud pontifices: nego istam adoptionem pontificio iure esse factam: primum quod eae vestrae sunt aetates ut is qui te adoptavit vel fili tibi loco per aetatem esse potuerit, vel eo quo fuit: deinde quod causa quaeri solet adoptandi, ut et is adoptet qui quod natura iam adsequi non potest legitimo et pontificio iure quaerat, et ita adoptet ut ne quid aut de dignitate generum aut de sacrorum religione minuatur: illud in primis, ne qua calumnia, ne qua fraus, ne qui dolus adhibeatur: ut haec simulata adoptio fili quam maxime veritatem illam suscipiendorum liberorum imitata esse videatur.
37. But what greater false pretence can there be than for a beardless young man, a vigorous man and a husband, to come forward, and to say that he wishes to adopt as his own son a senator of the Roman people, and for all men to know and see that this senator is adopted, not in order to become really the son of the plebeian, but merely in order that he may quit the patrician body, and be made a tribune of the people? And all that without any disguise. For in this case the adopted son was immediately emancipated, lest he should really have become the son of him who adopted him. Why then is he adopted at all? Only approve of this sort of adoption, and in a moment the sacred ceremonies of every family, of which you ought to be the guardians, will be abolished, and not one patrician will be left. For why should any one be willing to be incapable of being made a tribune of the people? to have his power of standing for the consulship narrowed? and, while he might arrive at the priesthood, not to arrive at it because there is not a vacancy at the moment for a patrician? Whenever anything happens to any one to make it more convenient for him to be a plebeian, he will be adopted in the same manner as Clodius.
37. maior calumnia est quam venire imberbum adulescentulum, bene valentem ac maritum, dicere filium senatorem populi Romani sibi velle adoptare; id autem scire et videre omnis, non ut ille filius instituatur, sed ut e patriciis exeat ⟨et⟩ tribunus plebis fieri possit, idcirco adoptari? neque id obscure; nam adoptatum emancipari statim, ne sit eius filius qui adoptarit. ergo adoptabat? genus adoptionis: iam omnium sacra interierint, quorum custodes vos esse debetis, iam patricius nemo relinquetur. enim quisquam vellet tribunum plebis se fieri non licere, angustiorem sibi esse petitionem consulatus, in sacerdotium cum possit venire, quia patricio non sit is locus, non venire? Vt cuique aliquid acciderit qua re commodius sit esse plebeium, simili ratione adoptabitur.
38. And so in a short time the Roman people will neither have a king of the sacrifices, nor flamines, nor Salii, nor one half of the rest of the priests, nor any one who has a right to open the comitia centuriata, or curiata; and the auspices of the Roman people must come to an end if no patrician magistrates are created, as there will be no interrex, for he must be a patrician, and must be nominated by a patrician. I said before the priests, that that adoption had not been approved by any decree of this college; that it had been executed contrary to every provision of the sacerdotal law; that it ought to be considered as no adoption at all; and if there is an end to that, you see at once that there is an end likewise of the whole of your tribuneship.
38. populus Romanus brevi tempore neque regem sacrorum neque flamines nec Salios habebit, nec ex parte dimidia reliquos sacerdotes neque auctores centuriatorum et curiatorum comitiorum, auspiciaque populi Romani, si magistratus patricii creati non sint, intereant necesse est, cum interrex nullus sit, quod et ipsum patricium esse et a patriciis prodi necesse est. apud pontifices istam adoptionem nullo decreto huius conlegi probatam, contra omne pontificum ius factam, pro nihilo esse habendam; qua sublata intellegis totum tribunatum tuum concidisse.
39. I come now to the augurs and if they have any secret books I do not inquire into them; I am not very curious about inquiring into the principles of the augurs. I know, what I have learnt in common with all the people, what answers they have frequently given in the public assemblies. They say that it is contrary to divine law for any public business to be brought before the people when any proper officers observing the heavens. Will you venture to deny that, on the day when the Lex curiata concerning you is said to have been passed, the magistrates were observing the heavens? A man is here present in court, of the most eminent wisdom, and dignity, and authority, Marcus Bibulus. I assert that on that very day he, as consul, was observing the heavens. “What then,” you will say, “are then the acts of Caius Caesar, that most admirable citizen, invalid in your opinion?” By no means; for there is not one of them which concerns me in the least, nor anything else except these weapons which by that man's proceedings are hurled at me.
39. ad augures, quorum ego libros, si qui sunt reconditi, non scrutor; non sum in exquirendo iure augurum curiosus; haec quae una cum populo didici, quae saepe in contionibus responsa sunt, novi. fas esse agi cum populo cum de caelo servatum sit. die de te lex curiata lata esse dicatur, audes negare de caelo esse servatum? praesens vir singulari virtute, constantia, gravitate praeditus, M. Bibulus: hunc consulem illo ipso die contendo servasse de caelo. “igitur tu acta C. Caesaris, viri fortissimi?”; neque enim mea iam quicquam interest, exceptis iis telis quae ex illius actionibus in meum corpus inmissa sunt.
40. But the matter of the auspices, which I am now touching on with extreme brevity, has been handled in this manner by you. You, when your tribuneship was in danger and was falling to pieces as it were, all of a sudden came forward as a patron of the auspices; you brought forward Marcus Bibulus and the augurs into the assembly; you questioned the augurs, and they replied that when any magistrates was observing the heavens, no business could be transacted in the assembly of the people. You questioned Marcus Bibulus, and he told you in reply that he had been observing the heavens; and he also said in the public assembly, when he was brought forward there by your brother Appius, that you were no tribune of the people at all, because you had been adopted contrary to the auspices. In the succeeding months your language constantly was, that everything which Caius Caesar had done ought to be rescinded by the senate, because they had been done in disregard of the auspices; and if they were rescinded, you said that you would bring me back on your own shoulders into the city as the guardian of the city. See now, O priests, the insanity of the man when by means of his tribuneship he was connected to such an extent with the acts of Caesar.
40. haec de auspiciis, quae ego nunc perbreviter attingo, acta sunt a te. tuo praecipitante iam et debilitato tribunatu auspiciorum patronus subito exstitisti; tu M. Bibulum in contionem, tu augures produxisti; tibi interroganti augures responderunt, cum de caelo servatum sit, cum populo agi non posse; tibi M. Bibulus quaerenti se de caelo servasse respondit, idemque in contione dixit, ab Appio tuo fratre productus, te omnino, quod contra auspicia adoptatus esses, tribunum non fuisse. denique omnis actio posterioribus mensibus fuit, omnia quae C. Caesar egisset, quod contra auspicia essent acta, per senatum rescindi oportere; quod si fieret, dicebas te tuis umeris me custodem urbis in urbem relaturum. hominis amentiam … per suum tribunatum Caesaris actis inligatus teneretur.
41. If the priests deciding according to the law relating to sacrifices, and the augurs according to the religious observance due to the auspices, upset your whole tribuneship, what more do you ask? do you want some still more evident argument drawn from the rights of the people and the laws? It was perhaps about the sixth hour when I complained in the court of justice (when I was defending Caius Antonius, my colleague,) of some things in the republic which appeared to me to relate to the cause of that unhappy man. What I said was reported by some wicked men to some very eminent citizens in language very different from that which I had employed. At the ninth hour on that very same day you were adopted. If, while in all other laws there ought to be an interval of three days, it is sufficient in a law respecting an adoption that there should be one of three hours, I have nothing to object to. But if the same forms are to be observed,—if the senate decreed that the people was not bound by the laws of Marcus Drusus, which had been passed contrary to the provisions of the Caecilian and Didian laws you must see that by every description of right which prevails with regard to sacred things, to the auspices, or to the laws, you were not elected tribune of the people.
41. et sacrorum iure pontifices et auspiciorum religione augures totum evertunt tribunatum tuum, quid quaeris amplius? an etiam apertius aliquod ius populi atque legum? Hora fortasse sexta diei questus sum in iudicio, cum C. Antonium, conlegam meum, defenderem, quaedam de re publica, quae mihi visa sunt ad illius miseri causam pertinere. homines improbi ad quosdam viros fortis longe aliter atque a me dicta erant detulerunt. Hora nona illo ipso die tu es adoptatus. quod in ceteris legibus trinum nundinum esse oportet, id in adoptione satis est trium esse horarum, nihil reprehendo; sin eadem observanda sunt, iudicavit senatus M. Drusi legibus, quae contra legem Caeciliam et Didiam latae essent, populum non teneri.
42. And it is not without reason that I say no more on this point, for I see that some most eminent men, the chief men of the city, have given their decision on different occasions, that you could legally proceed with matters which came before the common people; who said too, with reference to my own case, though they said that the republic was murdered and buried by your motion, still that that burial, miserable and bitter as it was, was all according to law: they said that in carrying such a motion as you had carried concerning me a citizen, and one who had deserved well of the republic, you had inflicted a deadly wound on the republic; but, inasmuch as you had carried it with all due reverence for the auspices, they said that you had acted legally. Wherefore we, I imagine, may be allowed to abstain from attacking those actions by which they were induced to approve of the establishment of your tribuneship.
42. intellegis omni genere iuris, quod in sacris, quod in auspiciis, quod in legibus sit, te tribunum plebis non fuisse. ego hoc totum non sine causa relinquo. enim quosdam clarissimos viros, principes civitatis, aliquot locis iudicasse te cum plebe iure agere potuisse; qui etiam de me ipso, cum tua rogatione funere elatam rem publicam esse dicerent, tamen id funus, etsi miserum atque acerbum fuisset, iure indictum esse dicebant; quod de me civi ita de re publica merito tulisses, funus te indixisse rei publicae, quod salvis auspiciis tulisses, iure egisse dicebant. re licebit, ut opinor, nobis eas actiones non infirmare, quibus illi actionibus constitutum tribunatum tuum comprobaverunt.
43. Suppose, however, that you were as rightly and legally tribune as Rullus himself, who is here present, a man most illustrious and honourable on every account; still, by what law, or in accordance with what precedent or what custom, did you pass a law affecting, by name, the civil rights of a citizen who had not been condemned? The sacred laws,—the laws of the Twelve Tables, forbid bills to be brought in affecting individuals only; for such a bill is a privilegium. No one has ever carried such a bill. There is nothing more cruel, nothing more mischievous, nothing which this city can less tolerate. What was it in that miserable proscription, and all the other miseries of Sulla's time, which was the most remarkable thing which will prevent the cruelties then practised from being ever forgotten? I imagine it was the fact that punishments were at that time proclaimed on Roman citizens by name without any trial.
43. sane tribunus plebis tam iure legeque, quam fuit hic ipse ⟨P. Ser⟩vilius, vir omnibus rebus clarissimus atque amplissimus: quo iure, quo more, quo exemplo legem nominatim de capite civis indemnati tulisti? leges sacratae, vetant xii tabulae leges privatis hominibus inrogari; id est enim privilegium. umquam tulit; nihil est crudelius, nihil perniciosius, nihil quod minus haec civitas ferre possit. miserrimum nomen illud et omnis acerbitas Sullani temporis quid habet quod maxime sit insigne ad memoriam crudelitatis? opinor, poenam in civis Romanos nominatim sine iudicio constitutam.
44. Will you, then, O priests, by this decision, and by your authority, give a tribune of the people power to proscribe whomsoever he chooses? For I ask what else proscribing is, excepting proposing such a law as this, “That you will decide and order that Marcus Tullius shall no longer be in the city, and that his property may become mine?” For this is the effect of what he carried, though the language is somewhat different. Is this a resolution of the people? Is this a law? Is this a motion? Can you endure this? Can the city endure that a single citizen should be removed out of the city by a single line? I, indeed, have now endured my share. I have no more violence to fear. I am in dread of no further attacks. I have satisfied the hostility of those who envied me; I have appeased the hatred of wicked men; I have satiated even the treachery and wickedness of traitors; and, what is more, by this time every city, all ranks of men, all gods and men have expressed their opinion on my case, which appeared to those profligate men to be exposed above all others as a mark for unpopularity.
44. vos igitur, pontifices, iudicio atque auctoritate vestra tribuno plebis potestatem dabitis, ut proscribere possit quos velit? enim quid sit aliud ⟨nisi⟩ proscribere ivbeatis vt M. Tvllivs in civitate ne sit bonaqve eivs vt mea sint: ita enim re, etsi aliis verbis, tulit. plebei scitum est? haec lex, haec rogatio est? hoc vos pati potestis, hoc ferre civitas, ut singuli cives singulis versiculis e civitate tollantur? iam perfunctus sum; nullam vim, nullum impetum metuo; explevi animos invidorum, placavi odia improborum, saturavi etiam perfidiam et scelus proditorum; denique de mea causa, quae videbatur perditis civibus ad invidiam esse proposita, iam omnes urbes, omnes ordines, omnes di atque homines iudicaverunt.
45. You now, O priests, are bound; as becomes your authority and your wisdom, to have regard in your decision to your own interests, and to those of your children, and to the welfare of the rest of the citizens. For as the forms of proceeding before the people have been appointed by our ancestors to be so moderate,—so that in the first place no punishment affecting a man's status as a citizen can be joined to any pecuniary fine in the next place, that no one can be accused except on a day previously appointed; again, that the prosecutor must accuse him before the magistrate three times, a day being allowed to intervene between each hearing, before the magistrate can inflict any fine or give any decision; and when there is a fourth hearing for the accusation appointed after seventeen days, on a day appointed on which the judge shall give his decision; and when many other concessions have been granted to the defendants to give them an opportunity of appeasing the prosecutor, or of exciting pity; and besides this the people is a people inclined to listen to entreaties, and very apt to give their votes for a defendant's safety; and, beyond all this, if anything prevents the cause from being proceeded with on that day, either because of the auspices, or on any other plea or excuse, then there is an end to the whole cause and to the whole business.
45. ipsis, pontifices, et vestris liberis ceterisque civibus pro vestra auctoritate et sapientia consulere debetis. cum tam moderata iudicia populi sint a maioribus constituta, primum ut ne poena capitis cum pecunia coniungatur, deinde ne improdicta die quis accusetur, ut ter ante magistratus accuset intermissa die quam multam inroget aut iudicet, quarta sit accusatio trinum nundinum prodicta die, quo die iudicium sit futurum, tum multa etiam ad placandum atque ad misericordiam reis concessa sunt, deinde exorabilis populus, facilis suffragatio pro salute, denique etiam, si qua res illum diem aut auspiciis aut excusatione sustulit, tota causa iudiciumque sublatum est: haec cum ita sint in iure, ubi crimen est, ubi accusator, ubi testes, quid indignius quam, qui neque adesse sit iussus neque citatus neque accusatus, de eius capite, liberis, fortunis omnibus conductos et sicarios et egentis et perditos suffragium ferre et eam legem putari?
46. As these things then are so where is the accusation, where is the prosecutor? where are the witnesses? What is more scandalous, than when a man has neither been ordered to appear, nor summoned, nor accused, for hired men, assassins, needy and profligate citizens, to give a vote touching his status as a citizen, his children and all his fortune, and then to think that vote a law? But, if he was able to do this in my case, I being a man protected by the honours which I had attained, by the justice of my cause, and by the republic; and being not so rich as to make my money an object to my enemies, and he had nothing which could be injurious to me, except the great chances which were taking place in the affairs of the state, and the critical condition of the times; what is likely to happen to those men whose way of life is removed from popular honours and from all that renown which gives influence, and whose riches are so great that too many men, needy, extravagant, and even of noble birth, covet them?
46. si hoc de me potuit, quem honos, quem dignitas, quem causa, quem res publica tuebatur, cuius denique pecunia non expetebatur, cui nihil oberat praeter conversionem status et inclinationem communium temporum, quid tandem futurum est iis quorum vita remota ab honore populari et ab hac inlustri gratia est, pecuniae autem tantae sunt ut eas nimium multi egentes sumptuosi nobiles concupiscant?
47. Grant this licence to a tribune of the people, and then for a moment contemplate in your minds the youth of the city, and especially those men who seem now to be anxiously coveting the tribunitian power. There will be found, by Jove! whole colleges of tribunes of the people, if this law is once established, and they will all conspire against the property of all the richest men, when a booty so especially popular and the hope of great acquisitions is thus held out to them. But what vote is it that this skillful and experienced law-giver has carried? “May you be willing and may you command that Marcus Tullius be interdicted from water and fire.” A cruel vote, a nefarious vote, one not to be endured even in the case of the very wickedest citizen, without a trial. He did not propose a vote, “That he be interdicted.” What then? “That he has been interdicted.” O horrible, O prodigious, O what wickedness! Did Clodius frame this law, more infamous than even his own tongue?—that it has been interdicted to a person to whom it has not been interdicted? My good friend Sextus, by your leave, tell me now, since you are a logician and are devoted to this science, is it possible for a proposition to be made to the people, or to be established by any form of words, or to be confirmed by any votes, making that to have been done which has not been done?
47. hanc tribuno plebis licentiam, et intuemini paulisper animis iuventutem et eos maxime qui inminere iam cupiditate videntur in tribuniciam potestatem: conlegia medius fidius tribunorum plebis tota reperientur, hoc iure firmato, quae coeant de hominum locupletissimorum bonis, praeda praesertim populari et spe largitionis oblata. quid tulit legum scriptor peritus et callidus? ivbeatis vt M. Tvllio aqva et igni interdicatvr?, nefarium, ne in sceleratissimo quidem civi sine iudicio ferundum! tulit vt interdicatvr. ergo? vt interdictvm sit. O caenum, o portentum, o scelus! hanc tibi legem Clodius scripsit spurciorem lingua sua, ut interdictum sit cui non sit interdictum? Sexte noster, bona venia, quoniam iam dialecticus ⟨es⟩ et haec quoque liguris, quod factum non est, ut sit factum, ferri ad populum aut verbis ullis sanciri aut suffragiis confirmari potest?
48. And have you ruined the public, with the man who drew this law for your adviser, and counselor, and minister, a fellow more impure, not only than any biped, but even than any quadruped? And you were not so foolish or so mad as to be ignorant that this man who violated the laws was Clodius; but that there were other men who were accustomed to frame laws: but you had not the least power over any one of them, or over any one else who had any character to lose; nor could you employ the same framers of laws, or the same architect for your works, as the others; nor could you obtain the aid of any priest you chose. Lastly, you were not able to discover, not even when you were dividing your plunder, any purchaser, or any one to share your plunder with you, out of your own band of gladiators, nor any one to support that proscription of yours with his vote except some thief or assassin.
48. tu scriptore, hoc consiliario, hoc ministro omnium non bipedum solum sed etiam quadrupedum impurissimo, rem publicam perdidisti; neque tu eras tam excors tamque demens ut nescires Clodium esse qui contra leges faceret, alios qui leges scribere solerent; sed neque eorum neque ceterorum, in quibus esset aliquid modestiae, cuiusquam tibi potestas fuit; neque tu legum scriptoribus isdem potuisti uti quibus ceteri, neque operum architectis, neque pontificem adhibere quem velles, postremo ne in praedae quidem societate mancipem aut praedem extra tuorum gladiatorum numerum aut denique suffragi latorem in ista tua proscriptione quemquam nisi furem ac sicarium reperire potuisti.
49. Therefore, when you, flourishing and powerful, were triumphing in the middle of your mob, those friends of yours, safe and happy in having you for their only friend, who had entrusted their fate to the people, were repelled in such a way that they lost the support of even that Palatine tribe of yours. They who came before a court of justice, whether as prosecutors or as defendants, were condemned, though you endeavoured to beg them off. Lastly, even that new recruit, Ligur, your venal backer and seconder, when he had been disgraced by being passed over in the will of Marcus Papirius his brother, who expressed his opinion of him by that action, said that he desired to have a legal investigation into the circumstances of his death, and accused Sextus Propertius as accessory to it. He did not venture to accuse his partners of a crime in which they had no concern, and to endeavour to procure their condemnation, lest he himself should have been convicted of bringing false accusations.
49. cum tu florens ac potens per medium forum scortum populare volitares, amici illi tui te uno amico tecti et beati, qui se populo commiserant, ita repellebantur ut etiam Palatinam tuam perderent; qui in iudicium venerant, sive accusatores erant sive rei, te deprecante damnabantur. etiam ille novicius Ligus, venalis adscriptor et subscriptor tuus, cum M. Papiri, sui fratris, esset testamento et iudicio improbatus, mortem eius se velle persequi dixit: nomen Sex. Properti detulit: accusare alienae dominationis scelerisque socius propter calumniae metum non est ausus.
50. We are speaking, then, of this law which appears to have been legally brought forward, while yet every one that has had anything to do with any part of it, either by hand, voice, vote, or by sharing in the plunder, wherever he has been, has come off rejected and convicted. What shall we say if the proscription is framed in such terms that it repels itself? For it is, “Because Marcus Tullius has forged a decree of the senate.” If, then, he did forge a decree of the senate, the law was proposed; but if he did not forge one, no proposition has been made at all. Does it or does it not appear sufficiently decided by the senate that I did not falsely allege the authority of that order, but that I, of all the men that have ever lived since the foundation of the city, have been the most diligent in my obedience to the senate? In how many ways do I not prove that that which you call a law is no law at all? What shall we say if you brought many different matters before the people at one and the same time? Do you still think that what Marcus Drusus, that admirable man, could not obtain in most of his laws,—that what Marcus Scaurus and Lucius Crassus, men of consular rank, could not obtain, you can obtain through the agency of the Decurii and Clodii, the ministers of all your debaucheries and crimes?
50. hac igitur lege dicimus, quasi iure rogata videatur, cuius quam quisque partem tetigit digito voce praeda suffragio, quocumque venit, repudiatus convictusque discessit? si iis verbis scripta est ista proscriptio ut se ipsa dissolvat? est enim: M. Tvllivs falsvm senatvs consvltvm rettvlerit. igitur rettulit falsum senatus consultum, tum est rogatio: si non rettulit, nulla est. tibi videtur a senatu iudicatum me non modo non ementitum esse auctoritatem eius ordinis, sed etiam unum post urbem conditam diligentissime senatui paruisse? modis doceo legem istam, quam vocas, non esse legem?? si etiam pluribus de rebus uno sortitore tulisti, tamenne arbitraris id quod M. Drusus in legibus suis plerisque, perbonus ille vir, M. Scauro et L. Crasso consiliariis non obtinuerit, id te posse, omnium facinorum et stuprorum hominem, et Clodiis auctoribus obtinere?
51. You carried a proposition respecting me, that I should not be received anywhere,—not that I should depart, when you yourself were not able to say that it was unlawful for me to remain in Rome. For what could you say? That I had been condemned?, Certainly not. That I had been expelled. How could you say that? And yet even that was not stated in your bill that I was to depart; there is a penalty for any one who received me, which every one disregarded; but there is no mention anywhere of driving me out. However, suppose there were,—what are we to say about the collecting of all the common artisans to pull down my house? what shall we say about your having your name cut on it? does that seem to you to be anything except a plundering of all my property? except that you could not by the Licinian law undertake the commission yourself. What are we to say about this very matter which you are now arguing before the priests; namely, that you consecrated my house, that you erected a memorial, that you dedicated a statue in my house, and that you did all these things by one little bit of a bill? Do all these things appear to be only one and the same business with the bill which you carried against me expressly by name?
51. de me ne reciperer, non ut exirem, quem tu ipse non poteras dicere non licere esse Romae. enim diceres?? certe non.? qui licuit? tamen ne id quidem est scriptum, ut exirem; poena est, qui receperit, quam omnes neglexerunt; eiectio nusquam est. sit: quid? operum publicorum exactio, quid? nominis inscriptio tibi num aliud videtur esse ac meorum bonorum direptio? praeterquam quod ne id quidem per legem Liciniam, ut ipse tibi curationem ferres, facere potuisti.? hoc ipsum quod nunc apud pontifices agis, te meam domum consecrasse, te monumentum fecisse in meis aedibus, te signum dedicasse, eaque te ex una rogatiuncula fecisse, unum et idem videtur esse atque id quod de me ipso nominatim tulisti?
52. It is just the same thing that you did when you also carried these different enactments in one law,—one, that the king of Cyprus, whose ancestors had always been allies and friends to this nation, should have all his goods sold by the public crier, and the other, that the exiles should be brought back to Byzantium. “Oh,” says he, “I employed the same person on both those matters.” What? Suppose you had given the same man a commission to get you an Asiatic coin in Asia, and from thence to proceed into Spain; and given him leave, after he had departed from Rome, to stand for the consulship, and, after he was made consul, to obtain Syria for his province; would that be all one measure, because you were mentioning only one man?
52. hercule est unum quam quod idem tu lege una tulisti, ut Cyprius rex, cuius maiores huic populo socii atque amici semper fuerunt, cum bonis omnibus sub praeconem subiceretur et exsules Byzantium reducerentur. “,” inquit, “utraque de re negotium dedi.”? si eidem negotium dedisset ut in Asia cistophorum flagitaret, inde iret in Hispaniam, cum Romam decessisset, consulatum ei petere liceret, cum factus esset, provinciam Syriam obtineret,—quoniam de uno homine scriberet, una res esset?
53. And if now the Roman people had been consulted about that business, and if you had not done everything by the instrumentality of slaves and robbers, was it impossible for the Roman people to approve of the part of the measure relating to the king of Cyprus, and to approve of that part which affected Byzantine exiles? What other force, what other meaning, I should like to know, has the Caecilian and Didian law, except this; that the people are not to be forced in consequence of many different things being joined in one complicated bill, either to accept what it disapproves of; or reject what it approves? What shall we say if you carried the bill by violence? is it, nevertheless, a law? Or can anything appear to have been done rightfully which was notoriously done by violence? And if, at the very time of your getting this law passed, when the city was stormed, stones were not thrown, and men did not actually come to blows hand to hand, is that any proof that you were able to contrive that disgrace and ruin to the city without extreme violence?
53. si iam populus Romanus de ista re consultus esset et non omnia per servos latronesque gessisses, nonne fieri poterat ut populo de Cyprio rege placeret, de exsulibus Byzantiis displiceret? est, quaeso, alia vis, quae sententia Caeciliae legis et Didiae nisi haec, ne populo necesse sit in coniunctis rebus compluribus aut id quod nolit accipere aut id quod velit repudiare?? si per vim tulisti, tamenne lex est? aut quicquam iure gestum videri potest quod per vim gestum esse constet?, si in ipsa latione tua capta iam urbe lapides iacti, si manus conlata non est, idcirco tu ad illam labem atque eluviem civitatis sine summa vi pervenire potuisti?
54. When in the Aurelian tribunal you were openly enrolling not only freemen but slaves also, got together out of all the streets in the city, were you not at that time preparing for violence? When by your edicts, you ordered all the shops to be shut, were you aiming not at the violence of the mob, but at a modest and prudent gathering of honourable men? When you were having arms collected and carried to the temple of Castor, had you no other object beyond preventing others from being able to effect anything by violence? But when you tore up and removed the steps of the temple of Castor, did you then, in order to be able to act in a moderate manner, repel audacious men from the approaches and ascents leading to the temple? When you ordered those persons who, in an assembly of virtuous men, had spoken in defence of, my safety, to come forward, and had driven away their companions and seconders by blows and arms and stones; then, no doubt, you showed that violence was excessively disagreeable to you.
54. in tribunali Aurelio conscribebas palam non modo liberos sed etiam servos, ex omnibus vicis concitatos, vim tum videlicet non parabas; cum edictis tuis tabernas claudi iubebas, non vim imperitae multitudinis, sed hominum honestorum modestiam prudentiamque quaerebas; cum arma in aedem Castoris comportabas, nihil aliud nisi uti ne quid per vim agi posset machinabare; cum vero gradus Castoris convellisti ac removisti, tum, ut modeste tibi agere liceret, homines audacis ab eius templi aditu atque ascensu reppulisti; cum eos qui ⟨in⟩ conventu virorum bonorum verba de salute mea fecerant adesse iussisti, eorumque advocationem manibus ferro lapidibus discussisti, tum profecto ostendisti vim tibi maxime displicere.
55. Oh, but this frantic violence of a demented tribune of the people could easily be crushed and put down by the virtue and superior numbers of the good citizens. What? when Syria was given to Gabinius, Macedonia to Piso, boundless authority and vast sums of money to both of them, to induce them to place everything in your power, to assist you, to supply you which followers, and troops, and their own prepared centurions, and money, and bands of slaves; to all you with their infamous assemblies, to deride the authority of the senate, to threaten the Roman knights with death and proscription, to terrify me with threats, to threaten me with contests and murder, to fill my house with their friends, which had heretofore been full of virtuous men; through fear of proscription; to deprive me of the crowds of good men who used to associate with me, to strip me of their protection; to forbid the senate, that most illustrious body, not only to fight for me, but even to implore men, and to entreat them in my behalf, and, changing their garments, to lament my danger,—was not even this violence?
55. haec furiosa vis vaesani tribuni plebis facile superari frangique potuit virorum bonorum vel virtute vel multitudine.? cum Gabinio Syria dabatur, Macedonia Pisoni, utrique infinitum imperium, ingens pecunia, ut tibi omnia permitterent, te adiuvarent, tibi manum, copias, tibi suos spectatos centuriones, tibi pecuniam, tibi familias compararent, te suis sceleratis contionibus sublevarent, senatus auctoritatem inriderent, equitibus Romanis mortem proscriptionemque minitarentur, me terrerent minis, mihi caedem et dimicationem denuntiarent, meam domum refertam viris bonis per amicos suos complerent proscriptionis metu, me frequentia nudarent virorum bonorum, me praesidio spoliarent senatus, pro me non modo pugnare amplissimum ordinem, sed etiam plorare et supplicare mutata veste prohiberent, ne tum quidem vis erat?
56. Why then did I depart, or what fear was there? I will not say in me. Allow that I am timid by nature; what are we to say of so many thousands of the bravest men? what did our Roman knights think? what did the senate? what, in short, did all good men think? If there was no violence, why did they escort me out of the city with tears, instead of reproving and detaining me, or being indignant with me and leaving me? Or was I afraid that I could not, while present, resist their accusations if they proceeded against me according to the usages and principles of our ancestors?
56. igitur ego cessi, aut qui timor fuit? non dicam in me: fac me timidum esse natura: quid? illa tot virorum fortissimorum milia, quid? nostri equites Romani, quid? senatus, quid? denique omnes boni, si nulla erat vis, cur me flentes potius prosecuti sunt quam aut increpantes retinuerunt aut irati reliquerunt? hoc timebam, si mecum ageretur more institutoque maiorum, ut possem praesens sustinere?
57. If a day had been appointed for my trial, must I have dreaded the investigation? or must I have feared a private bill being introduced against me without any trial? A trial in so shameful a cause I suppose I am a man who, if the cause were not understood, could not speak so as to explain it at all, or could I not make people approve of my cause, when its excellence is such that of its own merits it made people approve not only of itself while it was before them, but of me also though I was absent? Was the senate, were all ranks of the people, were those men who flew hither from all Italy to cooperate in my recall, likely to be more indifferent, while I was present, about retaining and preserving me, in that cause which even that parricide says was such, that he complains that I was sought out and recalled to my previous honours by the whole people?
57. , si dies dicta esset, iudicium mihi fuit pertimescendum an sine iudicio privilegium?? tam turpis scilicet, homo qui eam, si iam esset ignota, dicendo non possem explicare. quia causam probare non poteram? cuius tanta bonitas est ut ea ipsa non modo se, sed etiam me absentem per se probarit. senatus, an ordines ⟨omnes⟩, an ii qui cuncta ex Italia ad me revocandum convolaverunt, segniores me praesente ad me retinendum et conservandum fuissent, in ea causa quam ipse iam parricida talem dicat fuisse ut me ab omnibus ad meam pristinam dignitatem exspectatum atque revocatum queratur?
58. Was there then no danger to me whatever in a court of justice; but was I to fear a private bill, and that if a penalty were sought to be recovered from me while I was present, no one would interpose a veto? Was I so destitute of friends, or was the republic so entirely without magistrates? What? supposing the tribes had been convoked, would they have approved of a proscription, I will not say against me who had deserved so well of them by my efforts for their safety, but would they have approved of it in the case of any citizen whatever? Or, if I had been present, would those veteran troops of conspirators, and those profligate and needy soldiers of yours, and that new force of two most impious consuls, have spared my person, when, after that I had, by departing, succumbed to their inhumanity and wickedness, I could not though absent satisfy their hostility to me by my misfortunes?
58. vero in iudicio periculi nihil fuit: privilegium pertimui, ne, mihi praesenti si multa inrogaretur, nemo intercederet? inops autem ego eram ab amicis aut tam nuda res publica a magistratibus?? si vocatae tribus essent, proscriptionem non dicam in me, ita de sua salute merito, sed omnino in ullo civi comprobavissent?, si ego praesens fuissem, veteres illae copiae coniuratorum tuique perditi milites atque egentes et nova manus sceleratissimorum consulum corpori meo pepercissent? qui cum eorum omnium crudelitati scelerique cessissem, ne absens quidem luctu meo mentis eorum satiare potui.
59. For what injury had my unhappy wife done to you? whom you harassed and plundered and ill-treated with every description of cruelty. What harm had my daughter done to you? whose incessant weeping and mourning and misery were so agreeable to you, though they moved the eyes and feelings of every one else. What had my little son done? whom no one ever saw all the time that I was away, that he was not weeping and lamenting; what, I say, had he done that you should so often try to murder him by stratagem? What had my brother done? who, when, some time after my departure, he arrived from his province and thought that it was not worth his while to live unless I were restored to him, when his chief and excessive and unprecedented mourning seemed to render him an object of pity to every one, was constantly attacked by you with arms and violence, he escaped with difficulty out of your hands.
59. enim vos uxor mea misera violarat, quam vexavistis, raptavistis, omni crudelitate lacerastis? quid mea filia, cuius fletus adsiduus sordesque lugubres vobis erant iucundae, ceterorum omnium mentis oculosque flectebant? quid parvus filius, quem, quam diu afui, nemo nisi lacrimantem confectumque vidit: quid fecerat quod eum totiens per insidias interficere voluistis? quid frater meus? qui cum aliquanto post meum discessum ex provincia venisset neque sibi vivendum nisi me restituto putaret, cum eius maeror, squalor incredibilis et inauditus omnibus mortalibus miserabilis videbatur, quotiens est ex vestro ferro ac manibus elapsus!