22. What games, then, are they which the soothsayers say have not been performed with due diligence, and have been polluted? Those of which the immortal gods themselves and the blessed mother Cybele chose you—you, O Cnaeus Lentulus, by the hands of whose ancestor she was originally received—to be a spectator. And unless you had chosen to be a spectator of the Megalesia on that day, I do not know whether we should have been allowed to be give and to complain of these things. For an enormous multitude of slaves in a state of great excitement, collected out of all the streets by this religious aedile, burst in on a sudden upon the stage from all the arch-ways and doors at a given signal. Your virtue,—yours, I say, O Cnaeus Lentulus,—was at that crisis shown to be equal to that formerly displayed by your ancestor as a private individual. The senate standing up, and the Roman knights and all virtuous men, followed you, and your name and your command, and your voice, aspect, and authority, when he had handed over the senate and people of Rome, hampered by the dense body in which they were sitting, chained as it were to the spectacle, and hindered by the crowd and narrow space, to a multitude of slaves and buffoons.
22. igitur haruspices ludos minus diligenter factos pollutosque esse dicunt? Eos quorum ipsi di immortales atque illa mater Idaea te,—te, Cn. Lentule, cuius abavi manibus esset accepta,—spectatorem esse voluit. ni tu Megalesia illo die spectare voluisses, haud scio an vivere nobis atque his de rebus iam queri ⟨non⟩ liceret. enim innumerabilis incitata ex omnibus vicis conlecta servorum ab hoc aedile religioso repente ⟨e⟩ fornicibus ostiisque omnibus in scaenam signo dato inmissa inrupit. tum, tua, Cn. Lentule, eadem virtus fuit quae in privato quondam tuo proavo; te, nomen, imperium, vocem, aspectum, impetum tuum stans senatus equitesque Romani et omnes boni sequebantur, cum ille servorum eludentium multitudini senatum populumque Romanum vinctum ipso consessu et constrictum spectaculis atque impeditum turba et angustiis tradidisset.
23. Shall we say that, if a sacred dancer stops, or a flute-player has on a sudden ceased to play, or if a boy with both father and mother alive has ceased to touch the ground, or has lost his hold of the sacred car, or of the reins, or if an aedile has used a wrong word or made the slightest mistake, then the games have not been duly celebrated, and those mistakes are forced to be expiated and the minds of the immortal gods are appeased by their repetition; and yet if the games are suddenly changed from a scene of joy to one of terror,—if they have been, not interrupted, but broken up and put an end to,—if those days of festival turned out nearly fatal to the through the wickedness of that man who wished to turn the games into a time of grief,—shall we doubt what games that noise warns us have been polluted?
23. si ludius constitit, aut tibicen repente conticuit, aut puer ille patrimus et matrimus si tensam non tenuit, si lorum omisit, aut si aedilis verbo aut simpuvio aberravit, ludi sunt non rite facti, eaque errata expiantur, et mentes deorum immortalium ludorum instauratione placantur: si ludi ab laetitia ad metum traducti, si non intermissi sed perempti atque sublati sunt, si civitati universae, scelere eius qui ludos ad luctum conferre voluit, exstiterunt dies illi pro festis paene funesti, dubitabimus quos ille fremitus nuntiet ludos esse pollutos?
24. And if we wish to recollect those things which have been handed down to us traditionally about each of the gods, we have heard that this mighty Mother; whose games were thus violated and polluted, and turned almost to a massacre and to the destruction of the city, does roam over the fields and through the groves with a certain degree of noise and roaring. She, then, she it is, who has displayed to the Roman people these tokens of wickedness, and revealed to them these indications of danger. For why should I speak of those games which our ancestors ordered to be performed and celebrated on the Palatine Hill, in front of the temple, in the very sight of the mighty Mother, on the day of the Megalesia? which are in their institution and in the manner in which they are celebrated, above all other games chaste, solemn, and holy; in which games that great man Publius Africanus the elder, in his second consulship, gave for the first time the senate a place in front of the seats belonging to the people. Why need I tell how that foul pestilence polluted these games when if any freeman came near them either as a spectator or from some motive of religion, he was driven back by force and no matron approached them because of the number and violence of the slaves? And so these games—the reverence paid to which is so great that the goddess did not come to this city without having been sent for from the most distant countries,—which are the only games which have not even a Latin name, so that by their very name the religion is declared to have been a foreign one and imported hither and to have been undertaken in the name of the mighty Mother,—these games, I say, were celebrated by slaves, and had slaves alone for the spectators, and in every part, in this man's aedileship, were the Megalesia of slaves.
24. si volumus ea quae de quoque deo nobis tradita sunt recordari, hanc, cuius ludi violati, polluti, paene ad caedem et ad funus civitatis conversi sunt, hanc, inquam, accepimus agros et nemora cum quodam strepitu fremituque peragrare. igitur vobis, haec populo Romano et scelerum indicia ostendit et periculorum signa patefecit. quid ego de illis ludis loquar quos in Palatio nostri maiores ante templum in ipso Matris conspectu Megalesibus fieri celebrarique voluerunt? qui sunt more institutisque maxime casti, sollemnes, religiosi; quibus ludis primum ante populi consessum senatui locum P. Africanus iterum consul ille maior dedit, ut eos ludos haec lues impura pollueret! quo si qui liber aut spectandi aut etiam religionis causa accesserat, manus adferebantur, quo matrona nulla adiit propter vim consessumque servorum. ludos eos, quorum religio tanta est ut ex ultimis terris arcessita in hac urbe consederit, qui uni ludi ne verbo quidem appellantur Latino, ut vocabulo ipso et appetita religio externa et Matris nomine suscepta declaretur—hos ludos servi fecerunt, servi spectaverunt, tota denique hoc aedile servorum Megalesia fuerunt.
25. O ye immortal gods! How could you speak more plainly to us if you were living among and associating with us? You show us and plainly tell us that those games were profaned. What can be mentioned more deformed, polluted, altered and perverted, than for the whole body of slaves, as if they had been liberated by the permission of the magistrates, to be turned loose into one theatre, and set as guards over another, so that one body of spectators might be exposed to the power of slaves, and that the other might consist entirely of slaves? If during the games a swarm of bees had come on the stage, we should think it necessary to send for the soothsayers out of Etruria; and shall we all see on a sudden such vast swarms of slaves let loose upon the Roman people, blocked up and shut in, and not be moved by that? And perhaps, in the case of a swarm of bees, the soothsayers would warn us from the written books of the Etruscans to guard against the slaves.
25. di immortales! qui magis nobiscum loqui possetis, si essetis versareminique nobiscum? esse pollutos significastis ac plane dicitis. magis inquinatum, deformatum, perversum, conturbatum dici potest quam omne servitium, permissu magistratus liberatum, in alteram scaenam inmissum, alteri praepositum, ut alter consessus potestati servorum obiceretur, alter servorum totus esset? examen apium ludis in scaenam caveam⟨ve⟩ venisset, haruspices acciendos ex Etruria putaremus: videmus universi repente examina tanta servorum inmissa in populum Romanum saeptum atque inclusum, et non commovemur? in apium fortasse examine nos ex Etruscorum scriptis haruspices ut a servitio caveremus monerent.
26. That then which we should guard against, if indicated by some disjointed prodigy admitting of divers interpretations, shall we not be afraid of when it is its own prodigy, and when the danger is in that very thing from which danger is dreaded? Were such the Megalesia which your father celebrated? Did your uncle celebrate them in such a manner as this? And then he makes mention to me of his family, when he would rather celebrate the games after the fashion of Athenio or Spartacus, than like Caius or Appius Claudius. When these great men were celebrating games, they ordered all the slaves to depart from the theatre. But you turned slaves into one, and turned free men out of the other. Therefore they, who formerly used to be separated from free men by the voice of the herald, now, at your games, separated free men from themselves not by their voice, but by force. Did not even this occur to you, being a priest so well acquainted with the Sibylline oracles, that our ancestors derived these games from the Sibylline books? if those books are yours, which you consult with imperious intentions, and read with profane eyes, and handle with polluted hands.
26. igitur ex aliquo diiuncto diversoque monstro significatum caveremus, id cum ipsum sibi monstrum est, et cum in eo ipso periculum est ex quo periculum portenditur, non pertimescemus? modi Megalesia fecit pater tuus, istius modi patruus? mihi etiam generis sui mentionem facit, cum Athenionis aut Spartaci exemplo ludos facere maluerit quam C. aut Appi Claudiorum? cum ludos facerent, servos de cavea exire iubebant: tu in alteram servos inmisisti, ex altera liberos eiecisti. qui antea voce praeconis a liberis semovebantur, tuis ludis non voce sed manu liberos a se segregabant. hoc quidem tibi in mentem veniebat, Sibyllino sacerdoti, haec sacra maiores nostros ex vestris libris expetisse? si illi sunt vestri quos tu impia mente conquiris, violatis oculis legis, contaminatis manibus attrectas.
27. Formerly, then, by the advice of this prophetess, when Italy was wearied by the Punic war and harassed by Hannibal, our ancestors imported that sacred image and those sacred rites from Phrygia, and established them at Rome, where they were received by that man who was adjudged to be the most virtuous of all the Roman people, Publius Scipio Nasica, and by the woman who was considered the chastest of the matrons, Quinta Claudia; the old-fashioned strictness of whose sacrifice on that occasion your sister is considered to have imitated in a wonderful manner. Did, then, neither your ancestors, connected as they were with these religious ceremonies, nor the priesthood itself, by which all these religious observances were established, nor the curule aedileship, which above all things is accustomed to uphold this worship, influence you to abstain from polluting those most holy games with every sort of crime, and polluting them with infamy, and involving them in guilt?
27. igitur vate suadente quondam, defessa Italia Punico bello atque ⟨ab⟩ Hannibale vexata, sacra ista nostri maiores adscita ex Phrygia Romae conlocarunt; quae vir is accepit qui est optimus populi Romani iudicatus, P. Scipio, femina autem quae matronarum castissima putabatur, Q. Claudia, cuius priscam illam severitatem [sacrifici ] mirifice tua soror existimatur imitata. te igitur neque maiores tui coniuncti cum his religionibus, neque sacerdotium ipsum, quo est haec tota religio constituta, neque curulis aedilitas, quae maxime hanc tueri religionem solet, permovit quo minus castissimos ludos omni flagitio pollueres, dedecore maculares, scelere obligares?
28. But why do I wonder? when, having taken a bribe, you ravaged Pessinus itself, the habitation and home of the mother of the gods, and sold to Brogitarus—a fellow half Gaul, half Greek, a profligate and impious man, whose agents, while you were tribune, used to pay you the money for your share of the work in the temple of Castor—the whole of that place and the temple; when you dragged the priest from the very altar and cushion of the goddess; when you perverted those omens which all antiquity, which Persians, and Syrians, and all kings who have ever reigned in Europe and Asia have always venerated with the greatest piety; which, last of all; our own ancestors considered so sacred, that though we had the city and all Italy crowded with temples, still our generals in our most important and most perilous wars used to offer their vows to this goddess, and to pay them in Pessinus itself, at that identical principal altar and on that spot and in that temple.
28. quid ego id admiror? qui accepta pecunia Pessinuntem ipsum, sedem domiciliumque Matris deorum, vastaris, et Brogitaro Gallograeco, impuro homini ac nefario, cuius legati te tribuno dividere in aede Castoris tuis operis nummos solebant, totum illum locum fanumque vendideris, sacerdotem ab ipsis aris pulvinaribusque detraxeris, omnia illa quae vetustas, quae Persae, quae Syri, quae reges omnes qui Europam Asiamque tenuerunt semper summa religione coluerunt, perverteris; quae denique nostri maiores tam sancta duxerunt ut, cum refertam urbem atque Italiam fanorum haberemus, tamen nostri imperatores maximis et periculosissimis bellis huic deae vota facerent, eaque in ipso Pessinunte ad illam ipsam principem aram et in illo loco fanoque persolverent.
29. And when Deiotarus was protecting this temple in the most holy manner with the deepest feelings of religion—Deiotarus, of all allies the most faithful to this empire and the most devoted to our name—you gave it to Brogitarus as I have said before, having sold it to him for a sum of money. And yet you order this Deiotarus who has been repeatedly declared by the senate worthy of the name of king and adorned with the testimony of many most illustrious generals in his favour, to be styled king together with Brogitarus. But one of them has been called king by the decision of the senate through my instrumentality. Brogitarus has been called king by you for money. And I will think him a king, indeed, if he has any means of paying you what you have trusted him with on his note of hand. For there are many royal qualities in Deiotarus; this was the most royal of all, that he gave you no money; that he did not repudiate that portion of your law which agreed with the decision of the senate, namely that he was a king; that he recovered Pessinus, which had been impiously violated by you and stripped of its priest and its sacrifices, in order to maintain it in its accustomed religion; that he does not suffer the ceremonies which have been received as handed down from the most remote antiquity, to be polluted by Brogitarus; and that he prefers to let his son-in-law be deprived of your liberality, rather than to allow that temple to lose the ancient reverence due to its religious character. But to return to these answers of the soothsayers, the first of which is that respecting these games; who is there who does not confess that the whole of that answer and prophecy was delivered with reference to that fellow's games?
29. cum Deiotarus religione sua castissime tueretur, quem unum habemus in orbe terrarum fidelissimum huic imperio atque amantissimum nostri nominis, Brogitaro, ut ante dixi, addictum pecunia tradidisti. hunc tamen Deiotarum saepe a senatu regali nomine dignum existimatum, clarissimorum imperatorum testimoniis ornatum, tu etiam regem appellari cum Brogitaro iubes. alter est rex iudicio senatus per nos, pecunia Brogitarus per te appellatus … alterum putabo regem, si habuerit unde tibi solvat quod ei per syngrapham credidisti. cum multa regia sunt in Deiotaro tum illa maxime, quod tibi nummum nullum dedit, quod eam partem legis tuae quae congruebat cum iudicio senatus, ut ipse rex esset, non repudiavit, quod Pessinuntem per scelus a te violatum et sacerdote sacrisque spoliatum reciperavit, ut in pristina religione servaret, quod caerimonias ab omni vetustate acceptas a Brogitaro pollui non sinit, mavultque generum suum munere tuo quam illud fanum antiquitate religionis carere. ut ad haec haruspicum responsa redeam, ex quibus est primum de ludis, quis est qui id non totum in istius ludos praedictum et responsum esse fateatur?
30. The answer about sacred and holy places comes next. Oh, the marvellous impudence of the man! do you dare to make mention of my house? Entrust your own to the consuls, or the senate, or the college of pontiffs; and mine, as I have said before, has been declared by all these three decisions to be free from all religions liability. But in that house which you keep possession of after having slain Quintus Seius, a Roman knight and most excellent man, in the most open manner, I say that there was a shrine and altars. I will prove and establish this fact by the registers of the censors, and by the recollection of many individuals. Only let this question be discussed, (and it must be referred to you by virtue of that resolution of the senate which has lately been passed,) and I have plenty to say on the subject of religious places.
30. de locis sacris, religiosis. O impudentiam miram! de mea domo dicere audes? vel consulibus vel senatui vel conlegio pontificum tuam. mea quidem his tribus omnibus iudiciis, ut dixi antea, liberata est; at in iis aedibus quas tu, Q. Seio, equite Romano, viro optimo, per te apertissime interfecto, tenes, sacellum dico fuisse ⟨et⟩ aras. hoc censoriis, memoria multorum firmabo ac docebo: agatur modo haec res, quod ex eo senatus consulto quod nuper est factum referri ad vos necesse est, habeo quae de locis religiosis velim dicere.
31. When I have spoken of your house,—in which, however, a chapel has been put up in such a way that another built it, and you have only got to pull it down,—then I will see whether it is necessary for me to speak also of other places. For some people think that it belongs to me to open the armoury of the temple of Tellus. They say that it is not long ago that it was open, and I recollect it myself. Now they say that the most holy part of it, and the place entitled to the greatest reverence, is occupied by a private vestibule. There are many considerations which influence me,—namely, this, that the temple of Tellus is put particularly under my care; and that he who took away that armoury said that my house, which was declared free by the decision of the pontiffs, had been adjudged to his brother. I am influenced also at this time of dearness of provisions, of barrenness of the lands, and of scarcity of the crops, by the reverence due to Tellus; and all the more, because, on account of this same prodigy, an atonement is said to be due to Tellus.
31. de domo tua dixero, in qua tamen ita est inaedificatum sacellum ut alius fecerit, tibi tantum modo sit demoliendum, tum videbo num mihi necesse sit de aliis etiam aliquid dicere. enim ad me non nulli pertinere magmentarium aperire. id patuisse dicunt, et ego recordor. sanctissimam partem ac sedem maximae religionis privato dicunt vestibulo contineri. me movent: quod aedes est curationis meae, quod is qui illud magmentarium sustulit mea domo pontificum iudicio liberata secundum fratrem suum iudicatum esse dicebat; movet me etiam in hac caritate annonae, sterilitate agrorum, inopia frugum religio, et eo magis quod eodem ostento postilio deberi dicitur.
32. Perhaps we are speaking of old stones; although, if this is not laid down in the civil law, still by the law of nature and the common rights of nations the principle has been established, that mortals cannot acquire a prescriptive right to anything as against the immortal gods. But we will pass over all things of old date. Shall we also pass over those things which are done at the present time; which we see ourselves? Who knows not that Lucius Piso at this very time has been removing a great and most holy chapel of Diana on the Coeliculan hill? Men who live close to that spot are in court. There are many even belonging to this body who once a year have regularly performed the sacrifices of their family in that very chapel in their appointed place. And do we ask what places the immortal gods are regretting, what it is they are meaning, of what it is that they are speaking? Are we ignorant that some most holy chapels were undermined, blocked up, knocked down, and defiled in the most unseemly possible manner?
32. fortasse loquimur; quamquam hoc si minus civili iure perscriptum est, lege tamen naturae, communi iure gentium sanctum est ut nihil mortales a dis immortalibus usu capere possint. tamen antiqua neglegimus: etiamne ea neglegemus quae fiunt cum maxime, quae videmus? L. Pisonem quis nescit his temporibus ipsis maximum et sanctissimum Dianae sacellum in Caeliculo sustulisse? vicini eius loci; multi sunt etiam in hoc ordine qui sacrificia gentilicia illo ipso in sacello stato loco anniversaria factitarint. quaerimus di immortales quae loca desiderent, quid significent, de quo loquantur? A Sex. Serrano sanctissima sacella suffossa, inaedificata, oppressa, summa denique turpitudine foedata esse nescimus?
33. Were you able to render my house the property of the gods? With what feelings? You have lost all feeling. With what hand? With that with which you pulled it down. With what voice? With that with which you ordered it to be set on fire. By what law? By one which you did not venture to propose even at the time when you were doing everything with impunity. With what cushion? That which you polluted with your adulteries. With what image? That which you took off from a harlot's tomb and placed on the monument of a general. What has my house which is connected with anything religious except that it touches the wall of an impious and sacrilegious man? Therefore that none of my people may be able unintentionally to look into your house I will raise the roof higher not in order that I may look down upon you, but that you may not be able to see that city which you were desirous to destroy.
33. meam domum religiosam facere potuisti? mente? quam amiseras. manu? qua disturbaras. voce? qua incendi iusseras. lege? quam ne in illa quidem impunitate tua scripseras. pulvinari? quod stupraras. simulacro? quod ereptum ex meretricis sepulcro ⟨in⟩ imperatoris monumento conlocaras. habet mea domus religiosi nisi quod impuri et sacrilegi parietem tangit? ne quis meorum imprudens introspicere tuam domum possit ac te sacra illa tua facientem videre, tollam altius tectum, non ut ego te despiciam, sed tu ne aspicias urbem eam quam delere voluisti.
34. But let us now examine the rest of the clauses of the answers of the soothsayers.—“That ambassadors have been slain contrary to all divine and human law.” What is this? I see here a mention of the deputies from Alexandria; and I cannot refute it. For my feelings are, that the privileges of ambassadors are not only fenced round by human protection, but are also guarded by divine laws. But I ask of that man, who, as tribune, filled the forum with judges whom he took out of the prisons,—by whose will every dagger is now guided and every cup of poison dispensed,—who has made a regular bargain with Hermarchus of Chios,—whether he is at all aware that one most active adversary of Hermarchus, of the name of Theodosius, having been sent as ambassador to the senate from a free city, was assassinated with a dagger? and I know to a certainty that that cannot have appeared less scandalous to the immortal gods than the case of the Alexandrians.
34. iam haruspicum reliqua responsa videamus. contra ivs fasqve interfectos. est hoc? Alexandrinis esse video sermonem; quem ego non refuto. enim sentio, ius legatorum, cum hominum praesidio munitum sit, tum etiam divino iure esse vallatum. quaero ab illo qui omnis indices tribunus e carcere in forum effudit, cuius arbitrio sicae nunc omnes atque omnia venena tractantur, qui cum Hermarcho Chio syngraphas fecit, ecquid sciat unum acerrimum adversarium Hermarchi, Theodosium, legatum ad senatum a civitate libera missum sica percussum? quod non minus quam de Alexandrinis indignum dis immortalibus esse visum certo scio.
35. Nor am I now attributing every action of this sort to you alone. There would be greater hope of safety if there were no other wicked man but you; but there are more, and on this account you feel more confidence, and we almost distrust the protection of the law. Who is there who is not aware that Plato, a man of high character and high rank in his own country, came from Orestis, which is a free part of Macedonia, to Thessalonica, as an ambassador to our general, as he called himself? and this great general of ours, being angry at not being able to extort money from him, threw him into prison, and sent his own physician to him, who in a most infamous and barbarous manner cut the veins of an ambassador, an ally, a friend, and a freeman. He did not wish his own forces to be made bloody by crime; but he polluted the name of the Roman people with such guilt that it cannot be expiated by any means but his own punishment. What sort of executioner must we think that this man has in his train, when he uses even his physicians not to procure health but to inflict death?
35. confero nunc in te unum omnia. maior esset salutis, si praeter te nemo esset impurus; plures sunt; hoc et tu tibi confidis magis et nos prope iure diffidimus. Platorem ex Orestide, quae pars Macedoniae libera est, hominem in illis locis clarum ac nobilem, legatum Thessalonicam ad nostrum, ut se ipse appellavit, “imperatorem” venisse nescit? quem ille propter pecuniam, quam ab eo extorquere non poterat, in vincla coniecit, et medicum intromisit suum qui legato socio amico libero foedissime et crudelissime venas incideret. suas cruentari scelere noluit: nomen quidem populi Romani tanto scelere contaminavit ut id nulla re possit nisi ipsius supplicio expiari. hunc carnifices putamus habere, qui etiam medicis suis non ad salutem sed ad necem utatur?
36. But let us read what follows. “That good faith and oaths have been disregarded.” What this means by itself, I cannot easily explain; but from that which follows, I suspect that it refers to the manifest perjury of your judges, from whom, some time ago, the money which they had received would have been taken away, if they had not entreated the protection of the senate. And this is the reason why I imagine that they are the persons alluded to, because I lay it down as a fact that that is the most remarkable and notorious perjury ever committed in this city and yet that you yourself are not threatened with the punishment of perjury by those men with whom you conspired.
36. recitemus quid sequatur. ivsqve ivrandvm neglectvm. quid sit per se ipsum non facile interpretor, sed ex eo quod sequitur suspicor de tuorum iudicum manifesto periurio dici, quibus olim erepti essent nummi nisi a senatu praesidium postulassent. re autem de iis dici suspicer haec causa est, quod sic statuo, et illud in hac civitate esse maxime inlustre atque insigne periurium, et te ipsum tamen in periuri crimen ab iis quibuscum coniurasti non vocari.
37. And I see that in the answers of the soothsayers this is added: “But the ancient and secret sacrifices have been performed with less than due diligence and have been polluted.” Are they the soothsayers who say this or the gods of our country and our household gods? I suppose there are many persons to whom a suspicion of this guilt attaches;—who but this one man? Is it mentioned obscurely what sacrifices have been polluted? What can be expressed in a plainer, more dignified or more solemn manner? “Ancient and secret.” I say that Lentulus, a dignified and eloquent orator, did not when he was accusing you, make use of any expressions more frequently than these which now are extracted from the Etruscan books and turned against and applied to you. In truth what sacrifice is there so ancient as this, which we have received from the kings and which is contemporary with the city itself? But what is so secret as that which excludes not only all curious eyes but even all accidental ones? Which not only no wickedness, but which even no unintentional chance can penetrate? That sacrifice no one, ever since the world began, has ever profaned, no one has ever approached no one has ever disregarded no man has ever thought of beholding without horror before Publius Clodius. It is performed by the vestal virgins; it is performed on behalf of the Roman people; it is performed in the house of a supreme magistrate; it is performed with incredible solemnity; it is performed to that goddess whose very name it is not lawful for men to know, and whom that fellow calls Good, because she has pardoned him such enormous wickedness She has not pardoned you, believe me. No; unless, perchance, you think yourself pardoned because the judges dismissed you after they had squeezed and drained everything out of you, acquitted by their decision, condemned by all the rest of the citizens; or because you have not been deprived of your eyes, as is, according to the common belief the consequence of such impiety.
37. video in haruspicum responsum haec esse subiuncta: vetvsta occvltaqve minvs diligenter facta pollvtaqve. haec loquuntur an patrii penatesque di? enim sunt, credo, in quos huius malefici suspicio cadat. praeter hunc unum? dicitur quae sacra polluta sint? planius, quid religiosius, quid gravius dici potest? vetvsta occvltaqve. ulla verba Lentulum, gravem oratorem ac disertum, saepius, cum te accusaret, usurpasse quam haec quae nunc ex Etruscis libris in te conversa atque interpretata dicuntur. quod sacrificium tam vetustum est quam hoc quod a regibus aequale huius urbis accepimus? quod autem tam occultum quam id quod non solum curiosos oculos excludit sed etiam errantis, quo non modo improbitas sed ne imprudentia quidem possit intrare? quod quidem sacrificium nemo ante P. Clodium omni memoria violavit, nemo umquam adiit, nemo neglexit, nemo vir aspicere non horruit, quod fit per virgines Vestalis, fit pro populo Romano, fit in ea domo quae est in imperio, fit incredibili caerimonia, fit ei deae cuius ne nomen quidem viros scire fas est, quam iste idcirco dicit quod in tanto sibi scelere ignoverit. ignovit, mihi crede, non: nisi forte tibi esse ignotum putas, quod te iudices emiserunt excussum et exhaustum, suo iudicio absolutum, omnium condemnatum, aut quod oculos, ut opinio illius religionis est, non perdidisti.
38. For what man ever intentionally beheld those sacred rites before you, so as to enable any one to know what punishment followed that guilt? Could the blindness of your eyes be a greater injury to you than that blindness of your lust? Do not even you feel that those winking eyes of your ancestor were more desirable for you than these glowing eyes of your sister? But, if you observe carefully, you will see that though you have as yet escaped the punishment of men, you have not escaped that of the gods. Men have defended you in a most shameful affair; men have praised you though most infamous and most guilty; men, for a bribe, have acquitted you by their decision, though you all but confessed your guilt; men have felt no indignation at the injuries inflicted on themselves by your lust; men have supplied you with arms, some wishing them to be used against me, and others afterwards intending them to he employed against that invincible citizen. I will quite admit all the kindnesses which men have shown you, and that you need not wish for greater.
38. enim ante te sacra illa vir sciens viderat, ut quisquam poenam quae sequeretur id scelus scire posset? tibi luminis obesset caecitas plus quam libidinis? id quidem sentis, coniventis illos oculos abavi tui magis optandos fuisse quam hos flagrantis sororis? vero, si diligenter attendes, intelleges hominum poenas deesse adhuc, non deorum. te in re foedissima defenderunt, homines turpissimum nocentissimumque laudarunt, homines prope confitentem iudicio liberaverunt, hominibus iniuria tui stupri inlata in ipsos dolori non fuit, homines tibi arma alii in me, alii post in illum invictum civem dederunt, hominum beneficia prorsus concedo tibi iam maiora non esse quaerenda:
39. But what greater punishment can be inflicted on man by the immortal gods than frenzy and madness? unless, perhaps, you think that those persons, whom in tragedies you see tortured and destroyed by wounds and agony of body, are enduring a more terrible form of the wrath of the immortal gods than those who are brought on the stage in a state of insanity. Those howlings and groans of Philoctetes are not so pitiable (sad though they be) as that exultation of Athamas, or that dream of those who have slain their mother. You, when you are uttering your frantic speeches to the assembly—when you are destroying the houses of the citizens—when you are driving virtuous men from the forum with stones—when you are hurling burning firebrands at your neighbours' houses—when you are setting fire to holy temples —when you are stirring up the slaves—when you are throwing the sacred rites and games into confusion—when you see no difference between your wife and your sister—when you do not perceive whose bed it is that you enter—when you go ranting and raging about—you are then suffering that punishment which is the only one appointed by the immortal gods for the wickedness of men. For the infirmity of our bodies is of itself liable to many accidents; moreover, the body itself is often destroyed by some very trivial cause; and the darts of the gods are fixed in the minds of impious men. Wherefore you are more miserable while you are hurried into every sort of wickedness by your eyes, than you would be if you had no eyes at all.
39. a dis quidem immortalibus quae potest homini maior esse poena furore atque dementia? nisi forte in tragoediis quos vulnere ac dolore corporis cruciari et consumi vides, graviores deorum immortalium iras subire quam illos qui furentes inducuntur putas. sunt illi eiulatus et gemitus Philoctetae tam miseri, quamquam sunt acerbi, quam illa exsultatio Athamantis et quam senium matricidarum. cum furialis in contionibus voces mittis, cum domos civium evertis, cum lapidibus optimos viros foro pellis, cum ardentis faces in vicinorum tecta iactas, cum aedis sacras inflammas, cum servos concitas, cum sacra ludosque conturbas, cum uxorem sororemque non discernis, cum quod ineas cubile non sentis, tum baccharis, tum furis, tum das eas poenas quae solae sunt hominum sceleri a dis immortalibus constitutae. corporis quidem nostri infirmitas multos subit casus per se, denique ipsum corpus tenuissima de causa saepe conficitur: deorum tela in impiorum mentibus figuntur. re miserior es cum in omnem fraudem raperis oculis quam si omnino oculos non haberes.
40. But since enough has been said of all these offences which the soothsayers say have been committed, let us see now what these same soothsayers say that we are being warned of at this time by the immortal gods. They warn us “to take care that bloodshed and danger be not brought upon the senators and chief men of the state, through the discord and dissension of the nobles; and that our senators do not become disheartened from being deprived of support by which the provinces may fall under the power of a single master, and our armies be defeated, and a great loss of power ensue.” All these are the words of the soothsayers, I am not adding any thing of my own. Who then of the nobles is it who is causing this discord? The same man and that not by any force of his own genius or wisdom but by some blundering of ours which he—for it was not very much concealed—easily perceived. For this consideration makes the present distress of the republic the more shameful, that even by him it is not afflicted in such a way that it may seem to fall like a brave man in battle, having received honourable wounds in front from a gallant foe.
40. quoniam de iis omnibus quae haruspices commissa esse dicunt satis est dictum, videamus quid idem haruspices a dis iam immortalibus dicant moneri. per optimativm discordiam dissensionemqve patribvs principibvsqve caedes pericvlaqve creentvr avxilioqve divini nvminis deficiantvr, †qva re ad vnvm imperivm pecvniae redeant exercitvsqve apvlsvs deminvtioqve accedat. verba sunt haec omnia: nihil addo de meo. igitur optimatium discordiam molitur? iste, nec ulla vi ingeni aut consili sui, sed quodam errore nostro; quem quidem ille, quod obscurus non erat, facile perspexit. enim etiam turpius adflictatur res publica quod ne ab eo quidem vexatur, ut tamquam fortis in pugna vir acceptis a forti adversario vulneribus adversis honeste cadere videatur.
41. Tiberius Gracchus overturned the constitution of the state, a man of such great force of character, and eloquence, and dignity, that he fell short in no respect of the surpassing and eminent virtue of his father, and of his grandfather, Africanus, except in the fact of his revolting from the senate. Caius Gracchus followed in his steps. How great was his genius! how great his energy! how impetuous his eloquence! so that all men grieved that all those good qualities and accomplishments were not joined to a better disposition and to better intentions. Lucius Saturninus himself was so furious and almost insane a man, that he was an admirable leader,—perfect in exciting and inflaming the minds of the ignorant. For why should I speak of Publius Sulpicius? whose dignity, and sweetness, and emphatic conciseness in speaking was so great that he was able by his oratory to lead even wise men into error, and virtuous men into pernicious sentiments. To be battling with these men, and to be duly struggling with them for the safety of the country, was a very annoying thing to those men who were at that time the governors of the republic, but still that annoyance had a certain sort of dignity in it.
41. Ti. Gracchus convellit statum civitatis, qua gravitate vir, qua eloquentia, qua dignitate! nihil ut a patris avique Africani praestabili insignique virtute, praeterquam quod a senatu desciverat, deflexisset. est C. Gracchus, quo ingenio, qua eloquentia, quanta vi, quanta gravitate dicendi! ut dolerent boni non illa tanta ornamenta ad meliorem mentem voluntatemque esse conversa. Saturninus ita fuit effrenatus et paene demens ut actor esset egregius et ad animos imperitorum excitandos inflammandosque perfectus. quid ego de Sulpicio loquar? cuius tanta in dicendo gravitas, tanta iucunditas, tanta brevitas fuit, ut posset vel ut prudentes errarent, vel ut boni minus bene sentirent perficere dicendo. Cum his conflictari et pro salute patriae cotidie dimicare erat omnino illis qui tum rem publicam gubernabant molestum; sed habebat ea molestia quandam tamen dignitatem.
42. But as for this man, about whom I am now saying so much, O ye immortal gods! what is he? what is his influence? what is there about him to give so great a city, if it does fall, (may the gods avert the omen!) the comfort of at least seeming to have been overthrown by a man? a fellow who, from the moment of his father's death, made his tender age subservient to the lusts of wealthy buffoons; when he had satiated their licentiousness, then he turned to the domestic seduction of his own sister; then, when he had become a man, he devoted himself to the concerns of a province, and to military affairs, and suffered insults from the pirates; he satisfied the lusts even of Cilicians and barbarians: afterwards, having in a most wicked manner tampered with the army of Lucius Lucullus, he fled from thence, and at Rome, the moment of his arrival there, he began to compound with his own relations not to prosecute them, and received money from Catiline to prevaricate in the most shameless manner. From thence he went into Gaul with Murena; in which province he forged wills of dead people, murdered wards, and made bargains and partnerships or wickedness with many. When he returned from Gaul, he appropriated to himself all that most fruitful and abundant source of gain which is derived from the Campus Martius, in such a manner that he (a man wholly devoted to the people!) cheated the people in a most scandalous manner, and also (merciful man that he is!) put the canvassers of the different tribes to death at his own house in the most cruel manner. Then came his quaestorship, so fatal to the republic, to our sacrifices, to our religions observances, to your authority, and to the public courts of justice; in which he insulted gods and men, virtue, modesty, the authority of the senate, every right both human and divine, and the laws and the tribunals of the country.
42. vero de quo ego ipse tam multa nunc dico, pro di immortales! quid est, quid valet, quid adfert, ut tanta civitas, si cadet,—quod di omen obruant!—a viro tamen confecta videatur? qui post patris mortem primam illam aetatulam suam ad scurrarum locupletium libidines detulit, quorum intemperantia expleta in domesticis est germanitatis stupris volutatus; deinde iam robustus provinciae se ac rei militari dedit, atque ibi piratarum contumelias perpessus etiam Cilicum libidines barbarorumque satiavit; post exercitu L. Luculli sollicitato per nefandum scelus fugit illim, Romaeque recenti adventu suo cum propinquis suis decidit ne reos faceret, a Catilina pecuniam accepit ut turpissime praevaricaretur. Inde cum Murena se in Galliam contulit, in qua provincia mortuorum testamenta conscripsit, pupillos necavit, nefarias cum multis scelerum pactiones societatesque conflavit; unde ut rediit, quaestum illum maxime fecundum uberemque campestrem totum ad se ita redegit ut homo popularis fraudaret improbissime populum, idemque vir clemens divisores omnium tribuum domi ipse suae crudelissima morte mactaret.