72. I ask now, suppose there is no one who is willing to sell, what is to become of the money? The law says it is not to be brought into the treasury. It forbids its being refunded. The decemvirs, then, will keep all that money. Land will not be bought for you. After having alienated your revenues, harassed your allies, drained the confederate kings and all nations of their whole property, they will have the money, and you will not have the lands. Oh, says he, they will easily be induced by the magnitude of the sums offered to sell the lands. Then the effect of the law is to be thus: that we are to sell our property at whatever price we can get for it; and that we are to buy other men's property at whatever price they choose to put upon it.
72. , si qui velint vendere non fuerint, quid pecuniae fiet? in aerarium lex vetat, exigi prohibet. pecuniam omnem xviri tenebunt, vobis ager non emetur; vectigalibus abalienatis, sociis vexatis, regibus atque omnibus gentibus exinanitis illi pecunias habebunt, vos agros non habebitis. “,” inquit, “adducentur pecuniae magnitudine ut velint vendere.” ea lex est qua nostra vendamus quanti possimus, aliena emamus quanti possessores velint.
73. And does the law order men to be conducted as settlers by those decemvirs, into those lands which have been bought in accordance with the provisions of this law? What? Is not the whole plan of such a nature that it does not make any difference to the republic whether a colony is led into that place or not? Is it a place which requires a colony? [a place which refuses one?] … And in this class of places, as in the other parts of the republic, it is worthwhile to recollect the diligence exhibited by our ancestors; who established colonies in such suitable places to guard against all suspicion of danger, that they appeared to be not so much towns of Italy as bulwarks of the empire. These men are going to lead colonies into those lands which they have bought. Will they do so, even if it be not for the interests of the republic to do so?
73. in hos agros qui hac lege empti sint colonias ab his xviris deduci iubet.? omnisne locus eius modi est ut nihil intersit rei publicae, colonia deducatur in eum locum necne, an est locus qui coloniam postulet, est ⟨qui⟩ plane recuset? in genere sicut in ceteris rei publicae partibus est operae pretium diligentiam maiorum recordari, qui colonias sic idoneis in locis contra suspicionem periculi conlocarunt ut esse non oppida Italiae, sed propugnacula imperi viderentur. deducent colonias in eos agros quos emerint; etiamne si rei publicae non expediat?
74. “And into whatever places besides they shall think fit.” What is the reason, therefore, that they may not be able to settle a colony on the Janiculan Hill; and to place a garrison of their own for their own protection on your heads and necks? Will you not define how many colonies you choose to have led forth, into what districts they are to be led, and of what number of colonists they are to consist? Will you occupy a place which you consider suitable for the violence which perhaps you are meditating? Will you complete the number of the colony, and will you strengthen it by whatever garrison you may think advisable? Will you employ the revenues and all the resources of the Roman people to coerce and oppress the Roman people itself, and to bring it under the dominion and power of those intolerable decemvirs?
74. in qvae loca praeterea videbitvr. igitur est causae quin coloniam in Ianiculum possint deducere et suum praesidium in capite atque cervicibus nostris conlocare? non definias quot colonias, in quae loca, quo numero colonorum deduci velis, tu occupes locum quem idoneum ad vim tuam iudicaris, compleas numero, confirmes praesidio quo velis, populi Romani vectigalibus atque omnibus copiis ipsum populum Romanum coerceas, opprimas, redigas in istam xviralem dicionem ac potestatem?
75. But I beg you now, O Romans, to take notice how he is planning to besiege and occupy all Italy with his garrison. He permits the decemvirs to lead colonists, whomsoever he may choose to select, into every municipality and into every colony in all Italy; and he orders lands to be assigned to those colonists. Is there any obscurity here in the way in which greater powers and greater defences than your liberty can tolerate are sought after? Is there any obscurity here in the manner in which kingly power is established? Is there any disguise about your liberty being wholly destroyed? For when it is one and the same body of men who with their resources lay siege, as it were, to all the riches and all the population,—that is to say, to all Italy,—and who propose to hold all your liberties in blockade by their garrisons and colonies,—what hope, yes, what possibility even is left to you of ever recovering your liberty?
75. Vt vero totam Italiam suis praesidiis obsidere atque occupare cogitet, quaeso, Quirites, cognoscite. xviris ut in omnia municipia, in omnis colonias totius Italiae colonos deducant quos velint, eisque colonis agros dari iubet. obscure maiores opes quam libertas vestra pati potest, et maiora praesidia quaeruntur, num obscure regnum constituitur, num obscure libertas vestra tollitur? cum idem omnem pecuniam, maximam multitudinem ⟨obtinebunt⟩, idem totam Italiam suis opibus obsidebunt, idem vestram libertatem suis praesidiis et coloniis interclusam tenebunt, quae spes tandem, quae facultas recuperandae vestrae libertatis relinquetur?
76. But the Campanian district, the most fertile section of the whole world, is to be divided in accordance with the provisions of this law; and a colony is to be led to Capua, a most honourable and beautiful city. But what can we say to this? I will speak first of your advantage, O Romans. Then I will recur to the question of honour and dignity; so that, if any one takes particular pleasure in the excellence of any town or any district, he may not expect anything; and if any one is influenced by the idea of the dignity of the business, he may resist this fictitious liberality. And first of all I will speak of the town, in case there is any one whose fancy is more taken with Capua than with Rome. He orders five thousand colonists to be enrolled for the purpose of being settled at Capua; and to make up this number, each of the decemvirs is to choose five hundred men.
76. enim ager Campanus hac lege dividetur orbi terrae pulcherrimus et Capuam colonia deducetur, urbem amplissimam atque ornatissimam. ad haec possumus dicere? commodo prius vestro dicam, Quirites; deinde ad amplitudinem et dignitatem revertar, ut, si quis agri aut oppidi bonitate delectatur, ne quid exspectet, si quem rei indignitas commovet, ut huic simulatae largitioni resistat. primum de oppido dicam, si quis est forte quem Capua magis quam Roma delectet. V milia colonorum Capuam scribi iubet; ad hunc numerum quingenos sibi singuli sumunt.
77. I entreat you, do not deceive yourselves about this matter. Consider it in its true light, and with due care. Do you think that in this number there will be room for you yourselves, or for any men like you—quiet, easy men? If there be room for all of you, or even for the greater part of you—although my regard for your honour compels me to keep awake day and night, and to watch with eager eyes every part of the republic—still I will close my eyes for a time, if your advantage will be at all promoted by my doing so. But, if a place and a city is being looked out for five thousand men, picked out as fit instruments for violence, and atrocity, and slaughter, from which they may be able to make war, and which may be able to equip them properly for war,—will you still suffer a power to be raised and garrisons to be armed in your own name against yourselves? Will you allow cities and lands and forces to be arrayed against your interest?
77. , nolite vosmet ipsos consolari; vere et diligenter considerate. vobis aut vestri similibus integris, quietis, otiosis hominibus in hoc numero locum fore putatis? est omnibus vobis maiori⟨ve⟩ vestrum parti, quamquam me vester honos vigilare dies atque noctes et intentis oculis omnis rei publicae partis intueri iubet, tamen paulisper, si ita commodum vestrum fert, conivebo. si v hominum milibus ad vim, facinus caedemque delectis locus atque urbs quae bellum facere atque instruere possit quaeritur, tamenne patiemini vestro nomine contra vos firmari opes, armari praesidia, urbis, agros, copias comparari?
78. For they themselves have desired the Campanian district which they hold out a hope of to you. They will lead thither their own friends, in whose name they themselves may occupy it and enjoy it. Besides all this, they will make purchases; they will add the other ten acres to their present estate. For if they say that that is not lawful by the law; by the Cornelian law it certainly is not. But we see (to say nothing about lands at a distance) that the district of Praeneste is occupied by a few people. And I do not see that anything is wanting to their fortunes, except farms of such a description that they may be able by the supplies which they derive from them to support their very large households, and the expense of their farms near Cumae and Puteoli. But if he be thinking of what is for your advantage, then let him come, and let him discuss with me, face to face, the decision of the Campanian district.
78. agrum quidem Campanum quem vobis ostentant ipsi concupiverunt; deducent suos, quorum nomine ipsi teneant et fruantur; coement praeterea; ista dena iugera continuabunt. si dicent per legem id non licere, ne per Corneliam quidem licet; at videmus, ut longinqua mittamus, agrum Praenestinum a paucis possideri. istorum pecuniis quicquam aliud deesse video nisi eius modi fundos quorum subsidio familiarum magnitudines et Cumanorum ac Puteolanorum praediorum sumptus sustentare possint. si vestrum commodum spectat, veniat et coram mecum de agri Campani divisione disputet.
79. I asked him on the first of January, to what men he was going to distribute that land, and on what principles. He answered that he should begin with the Romilian tribe. In the first place now, what is the object of such pride and arrogance as to cut off one portion of the people, and to neglect the order of the tribes? to contrive to give land to the country people who have it already, before any is given to the city people, to whom the hope of land and the pleasure they are to derive from it is held out as an inducement? Or if he says that this is not what he said, and if he has some plan in his head to satisfy all of you, let him produce it; let him allot it in divisions of ten acres; let him put forth your names in a regular arrangement from the district of the Subura to that of the Arnus. If you perceive not only that ten acres are not given to you, but that it is actually impossible for such a body of men to be collected together in the district of Campania, will you nevertheless allow the republic to be harassed, the majesty of the Roman people to be despised, and you yourselves to be deluded any longer by the tribune of the people?
79. ex eo Kalendis Ianuariis quibus hominibus et quem ad modum illum agrum esset distributurus. a Romilia tribu se initium esse facturum. quae est ista superbia et contumelia ut populi pars amputetur, ordo tribuum neglegatur, ante rusticis detur ager, qui habent, quam urbanis, quibus ista agri spes et iucunditas ostenditur?, si hoc ab se dictum negat et satis facere omnibus vobis cogitat, proferat; in iugera dena discribat, a Suburana usque ad Arniensem nomina vestra proponat. non modo dena iugera dari vobis sed ne constipari quidem tantum numerum hominum posse in agrum Campanum intellegetis, tamenne vexari rem publicam, contemni maiestatem populi Romani, deludi vosmet ipsos diutius a tribuno plebis patiemini?
80. But if that land could possibly come to you, would you not rather that it remained as part of your patrimony? Will you allow the most beautiful estate belonging to the Roman people—the main source of your riches, your chief ornament in time of peace, your chief source of supply in time of war, the foundation of your revenues, the granary from which your legions are fed, your consolation in time of scarcity—to be ruined? Have you forgotten what great armies you supported by means of the produce of Campania, in the Italian war, when you had lost all your ordinary sources of revenue? Are you ignorant that all those magnificent revenues of the Roman people are often dependent on a very slight impulse of fortune-on a critical moment? What will all the harbours of Asia, what will the plains of Syria, what will all our transmarine revenues avail us, if the very slightest alarm of pirates or enemies be once given?
80. si posset ager iste ad vos pervenire, nonne eum tamen in patrimonio vestro remanere malletis? Vnumne fundum pulcherrimum populi Romani, caput vestrae pecuniae, pacis ornamentum, subsidium belli, fundamentum vectigalium, horreum legionum, solacium annonae disperire patiemini? obliti estis Italico bello amissis ceteris vectigalibus quantos agri Campani fructibus exercitus alueritis? an ignoratis cetera illa magnifica populi Romani vectigalia perlevi saepe momento fortunae inclinatione temporis pendere? nos Asiae portus, quid Syriae ora, quid omnia transmarina vectigalia iuvabunt tenuissima suspicione praedonum aut hostium iniecta?
81. But as our revenues derived from the territory of Campania are of such a nature that they are always at home, and that they are protected by the bulwark of all our Italian towns, so they are neither hostile to us in time of war, nor variable in their productiveness, nor unfortunate from any accidents of climate or soil. Our ancestors were so far from diminishing what they had taken from the Campanians, that they even bought additional lands to be added to it, from those from whom they could not reasonably take it without purchase. For which reason, neither the two Gracchi, who thought a great deal of what was advantageous for the Roman people, nor Lucius Sulla, who gave away everything without the slightest scruple to any one he pleased, ever ventured to touch the Campanian territory. Rullus was the first man to venture to remove the republic from that property, of which neither the liberality of the Gracchi nor the uncontrolled power of Sulla had deprived it. That land which now, as you pass by it, you say is yours, and which foreigners whose road lies through it hear is yours, when it is divided will neither be nor be said to be yours.
81. vero hoc agri Campani vectigal, Quirites, eius modi est ut cum domi sit et omnibus praesidiis oppidorum tegatur, tum neque bellis infestum nec fructibus varium nec caelo ac loco calamitosum esse soleat. nostri non solum id quod ⟨de⟩ Campanis ceperant non imminuerunt verum etiam quod ei tenebant quibus adimi iure non poterat coemerunt. de causa nec duo Gracchi qui de plebis Romanae commodis plurimum cogitaverunt, nec L. Sulla qui omnia sine ulla religione quibus voluit est dilargitus, agrum Campanum attingere ausus est; Rullus exstitit qui ex ea possessione rem publicam demoveret ex qua nec Gracchorum benignitas eam nec Sullae dominatio deiecisset. agrum nunc praetereuntes vestrum esse dicitis et quem per iter qui faciunt, externi homines, vestrum esse audiunt, is, cum erit divisus, ⟨neque erit vester⟩ neque vester esse dicetur. qui homines possidebunt?
82. And who are the men who will possess it? In the first place they are active men, prepared for deeds of violence, willing for sedition, who, the very moment the decemvirs clap their hands, may be armed against the citizens and ready for slaughter. In the next place, you will see the whole district of Campania distributed among a few men already rich in wealth and power. Meanwhile you, who have received from your ancestors those most beautiful homes, if I may so say, of your revenues, which they won by their arms, will not have left to you one single clod of earth of all your paternal hereditary possessions. And there will be this difference between your diligence and that or private individuals, that when Publius Lentulus, while he was chief of the senate, had been sent into those parts by our ancestors, in order to purchase at the public expense those lands, being private property, which projected into the public domain in Campania, he is said to have reported that he had not been able to purchase a certain man's estate for money; and that he who had refused to sell it, had given this reason why he could not possibly be induced to sell it, that, though he had many farms, this was the only farm from which he never had had any bad news.
82. quidem acres, ad vim prompti, ad seditionem parati qui, simul ac xviri concrepuerint, armati in civis et expediti ad caedem esse possint; deinde ad paucos opibus et copiis adfluentis totum agrum Campanum perferri videbitis. interea, qui illas a maioribus pulcherrimas vectigalium sedis armis captas accepistis, gleba nulla de paternis atque avitis possessionibus relinquetur. quantum intererit inter vestram et privatorum diligentiam!? Cum a maioribus nostris P. Lentulus, qui princeps senatus ⟨fuit⟩, in ea loca missus esset ut privatos agros qui in publicum Campanum incurrebant pecunia publica coemeret, dicitur renuntiasse nulla se pecunia fundum cuiusdam emere potuisse, eumque qui nollet vendere ideo negasse se adduci posse uti venderet quod, cum pluris fundos haberet, ex illo solo fundo numquam malum nuntium audisset.
83. Is it so? Did this reason weigh with a private individual and shall it not weigh with the Roman people to prevent their giving up the district of Campania to private individuals for nothing, at the request of Rullus? And the Roman people may say the very same thing about this revenue, that he is said to have said about his farm. Asia for many years during the Mithridatic war produced you no revenue. There was no revenue from the Spains in the time of Sertorius. Manius Aquilius even lent corn to the Sicilian cities at the time of the Servile war. But from this tributary land no bad news was ever heard. Other of our revenues are at times weighed down by the distresses of war; but the sinews of war are even supplied to us by this tributary land.
83. vero? privatum haec causa commovit; populum Romanum ne agrum Campanum privatis gratis Rullo rogante tradat non commovebit? idem populus Romanus de hoc vectigali potest dicere quod ille de suo fundo dixisse dicitur. Asia multos annos vobis fructum Mithridatico bello non tulit, Hispaniarum vectigal temporibus Sertorianis nullum fuit, Siciliae civitatibus bello fugitivorum M’. Aquilius etiam mutuum frumentum dedit; at ex hoc vectigali numquam malus nuntius auditus est. vectigalia belli difficultatibus adfliguntur; hoc vectigali etiam belli difficultates sustentantur.
84. Besides, in this allotment of lands which is to take place, even that, which is said in other cases, cannot be said here, namely, that lands ought not to be left deserted by the people, and without the cultivation of free men. For this is what I say,—if the Campanian land be divided, the common people is driven out of and banished from the lands, not settled and established in them. For the whole of the Campanian district is cultivated and occupied by the common people, and by a most virtuous and moderate common people. And that race of men of most virtuous habits, that race of excellent farmers and excellent soldiers, is wholly driven out by this tribune who is so devoted to the people. And these miserable men, born and brought up on those lands, practised in tilling the ground, will have no place to which, when so suddenly driven out, they can betake themselves. The entire possession of the Campanian district will be given over to these robust, vigorous, and audacious satellites of the decemvirs. And, as you now say of your ancestors, “Our ancestors left us these lands,” so your posterity will say of you, “Our ancestors received these lands from their ancestors, but lost them.”
84. in hac adsignatione agrorum ne illud quidem dici potest quod in ceteris, agros desertos a plebe atque a cultura hominum liberorum esse non oportere. enim dico, si Campanus ager dividatur, exturbari et expelli plebem ex agris, non constitui et conlocari. enim ager Campanus colitur et possidetur a plebe, et a plebe optima et modestissima; quod genus hominum optime moratum, optimorum et aratorum et militum, ab hoc plebicola tribuno plebis funditus eicitur. illi miseri nati in illis agris et educati, glebis subigendis exercitati, quo se subito conferant non habebunt; his robustis et valentibus et audacibus xvirum satellitibus agri Campani possessio tota tradetur, et, ut vos nunc de vestris maioribus praedicatis: “hunc agrum nobis maiores nostri reliquerunt,” sic vestri posteri de vobis praedicabunt: “hunc agrum patres nostri acceptum a patribus suis perdiderunt.”
85. I think, indeed, that if the Campus Martius were to be divided, and if every one of you had two feet of standing ground allotted to him in it, still you would prefer to enjoy the whole of it together, than for each individual to have a small portion for his own private property. Wherefore, even if some portion of these lands were to come to every individual among you.—which is now indeed held out to you as a lure, but is in reality destined for others,—still they would be a more honourable possession to you when possessed by the whole body, than if distributed in bits to each citizen. But now when you are not to have any share in them, but when they are being prepared for others and taken from you, will you not most vigorously resist this law as you would an armed enemy, fighting in defence of your lands. He adds the Stellate plain to the Campanian district, and in the two together he allots twelve acres to each settler. As if the difference was slight between the Stellate and Campanian districts!
85. existimo: si iam campus Martius dividatur et uni cuique vestrum ubi consistat bini pedes adsignentur, tamen promiscue toto quam proprie parva frui parte malitis. re etiam si ad vos esset singulos aliquid ex hoc agro perventurum qui vobis ostenditur, aliis comparatur, tamen honestius eum vos universi quam singuli possideretis. vero cum ad vos nihil pertineat, sed paretur aliis, eripiatur vobis, nonne acerrime, tamquam armato hosti, sic huic legi pro vestris agris resistetis? Stellatem campum agro Campano et in eo duodena discribit in singulos homines iugera. vero paulum differat ager Campanus a;
86. And now a multitude is sought out, by which those towns are to be peopled. For I have said before that leave is given by the law for them to occupy with their settlers whatever municipalities and whatever old colonies they choose. They will fill the municipality of Cales; they will overwhelm Teanum; they will extend a chain of garrisons through Atella, and Cumae, and Naples, and Pompeii, and Nuceria; and the whole of Puteoli, which is at present a free city, in the full enjoyment of its ancient rights and liberties, they will occupy with a new people, and with a foreign body of men. Then that standard of a Campanian colony, greatly to be dreaded by this empire, will be erected at Capua by the decemvirs. Then that other Rome, which has been heard of before, will be sought in opposition to this Rome, the common country of all of us.
86. sed multitudo, Quirites, quaeritur qua illa omnia oppida compleantur. dixi antea lege permitti ut quae velint municipia, quas velint veteres colonias colonis suis occupent. Calenum municipium complebunt, Teanum oppriment, Atellam, Cumas, Neapolim, Pompeios, Nuceriam suis praesidiis devincient, Puteolos vero qui nunc in sua potestate sunt, suo iure libertateque utuntur, totos novo populo atque adventiciis copiis occupabunt. illud vexillum Campanae coloniae vehementer huic imperio timendum Capuam a xviris inferetur, tunc contra hanc Romam, communem patriam omnium nostrum, illa altera Roma quaeretur.
87. Impious men are endeavouring to transfer our republic to that town in which our ancestors decided that there should be no republic at all, when they resolved that there were but three cities in the whole earth, Carthage, Corinth, and Capua, which could aspire to the power and name of the imperial city. Carthage has been destroyed, because, both from its vast population, and from the natural advantages of its situation, being surrounded with harbours, and fortified with walls, it appeared to project out of Africa, and to threaten the most productive islands of the Roman people. Of Corinth there is scarcely a vestige left. For it was situated on the straits and in the very jaws of Greece, in such a way that by land it held the keys of many countries, and that it almost connected two seas, equally desirable for purposes of navigation, which were separated by the smallest possible distance. These towns, though they were out of the sight of the empire, our ancestors not only crushed, but, as I have said before, utterly destroyed, that they might never be able to recover and rise again and flourish.
87. id oppidum homines nefarie rem publicam vestram transferre conantur, quo in oppido maiores nostri nullam omnino rem publicam esse voluerunt, qui tris solum urbis in terris omnibus, Carthaginem, Corinthum, Capuam, statuerunt posse imperi gravitatem ac nomen sustinere. Carthago est, quod cum hominum copiis, tum ipsa natura ac loco, succincta portibus, armata muris, excurrere ex Africa, imminere duabus fructuosissimis insulis populi Romani videbatur. Corinthi vestigium vix relictum est. enim posita in angustiis atque in faucibus Graeciae sic ut terra claustra locorum teneret et duo maria maxime navigationi diversa paene coniungeret, cum pertenui discrimine separentur. quae procul erant a conspectu imperi non solum adflixerunt sed etiam, ne quando recreata exsurgere atque erigere se possent, funditus, ut dixi, sustulerunt.
88. Concerning Capua they deliberated much and long. Public documents are extant, O Romans; many resolutions of the senate are extant. Those wise men decided that, if they took away from the Campanians their lands, their magistrates, their senate, and the public council of that city, they would leave no image whatever of the republic; there would be no reason whatever for their fearing Capua. Therefore you will find this written in ancient records, that there should be a city which might be able to supply the means for the cultivation of the Campanian district, that there should be a place for collecting the crops in, and storing them, in order that the farmers, when wearied with the cultivation of the lands, might avail themselves of the homes afforded them by the city; and that on that account the buildings of the city were not destroyed.
88. Capua multum est et diu consultatum; exstant litterae, Quirites, publicae, sunt senatus consulta complura. homines sapientes, si agrum Campanis ademissent, magistratus, senatum, publicum ex illa urbe consilium sustulissent, imaginem rei publicae nullam reliquissent, nihil fore quod Capuam timeremus. hoc perscriptum in monumentis veteribus reperietis, ut esset urbs quae res eas quibus ager Campanus coleretur suppeditare posset, ut esset locus comportandis condendisque fructibus, ut aratores cultu agrorum defessi urbis domiciliis uterentur, idcirco illa aedificia non esse deleta.
89. See, now, how wide is the distance between the counsels of our ancestors and the insane projects of these men. They chose Capua to be a refuge for our farmers,—a market for the country people,—a barn and granary for the Campanian district. These men, having expelled the farmers, have wasted and squandered your revenues, are raising this same Capua into the seat of a new republic, are preparing a vast mass to be an enemy to the old republic. But if our ancestors had thought that any one in such an illustrious empire, in such an admirable constitution as that of the Roman people, would have been like Marcus Brutus or Publius Rullus, (for these are the only two men whom we have hitherto seen, who have wished to transfer all this republic to Capua,) they would not, in truth, have left even the name of that city in existence.
89. quantum intervallum sit interiectum inter maiorum nostrorum consilia et inter istorum hominum dementiam. Capuam receptaculum aratorum, nundinas rusticorum, cellam atque horreum Campani agri esse voluerunt, hi expulsis aratoribus, effusis ac dissipatis fructibus vestris eandem Capuam sedem novae rei publicae constituunt, molem contra veterem rem publicam comparant. si maiores nostri existimassent quemquam in tam inlustri imperio et tam praeclara populi Romani disciplina ⟨M.⟩ Bruti aut P. Rulli similem futurum —hos enim nos duos adhuc vidimus qui hanc rem publicam Capuam totam transferre vellent—profecto nomen illius urbis non reliquissent.
90. But they thought, that in the case of Corinth and Carthage, even if they had taken away their senates and their magistrates, and deprived the citizens of the lands, still men would not be wanting who would restore those cities, and change the existing state of things in them before we could hear of it. But here, under the very eyes of the senate and Roman people, they thought that nothing could take place which might not be put down and extinguished before it had got to any head, or had assumed any definite shape. Nor did that matter deceive those men, endued as they were with divine wisdom and prudence. For after the consulship of Quintus Fulvius and Quintus Fabius, by whom, when they were consuls, Capua was defeated and taken, I will not say there has been nothing done, but nothing has been even imagined in that city against this republic. Many wars have been waged since that time with kings,—with Philip, and Antiochus, and Perses, and Pseudophilippus, and Aristonicus, and Mithridates, and others. Many terrible wars have existed beside-—the Carthaginian, the Corinthian, and the Numantian wars. There have been also many domestic seditions, which I pass over. There have been wars with our allies,—the Fregellan war, the Marsic war; in all which domestic and foreign wars Capua has not only not been any hindrance to us, but has afforded us most seasonable assistance, in providing the means of war, in equipping our armies, and receiving them in their houses and homes.
90. arbitrabantur Corinthi et Carthagini, etiam si senatum et magistratus sustulissent agrumque civibus ademissent, tamen non defore qui illa restituerent atque qui ante omnia commutarent quam nos audire possemus; hic vero in oculis senatus populique Romani nihil posse exsistere quod non ante exstingui atque opprimi posset quam plane exortum ⟨esset⟩ ac natum. vero ea res fefellit homines divina mente et consilio praeditos. post Q. Fulvium Q. Fabium consules, quibus consulibus Capua devicta atque capta est, nihil est in illa urbe contra hanc rem publicam non dico factum, sed nihil omnino est cogitatum. postea bella gesta cum regibus, Philippo, Antiocho, Persa, Pseudophilippo, Aristonico, Mithridate et ceteris; multa praeterea bella gravia, Carthaginiense iii, Corinthium, Numantinum; multae in hac re publica seditiones domesticae quas praetermitto; bella cum sociis, Fregellanum, Marsicum; quibus omnibus domesticis externisque bellis Capua non modo non obfuit sed opportunissimam se nobis praebuit et ad bellum instruendum et ad exercitus ornandos et tectis ac sedibus suis recipiendos.
91. There were no men in the city, who, by evil-disposed assemblies, by turbulent resolutions of the senate, or by unjust exertions of authority, threw the republic into confusion, and sought pretexts for revolution. For no one had any power of summoning an assembly, or of convening any public council. Men were not carried away by any desire for renown, because where there are no honours publicly conferred, there there can be no covetous desire of reputation. They were not quarreling with one another out of rivalry or out of ambition; for they had nothing left to quarrel about,—they had nothing which they could seek for in opposition to one another,—they had no room for dissensions. Therefore, it was in accordance with a deliberate system, and with real wisdom, that our ancestors changed the natural arrogance and intolerable ferocity of the Campanians into a thoroughly inactive and lazy tranquillity. And by this means they avoided the reproach of cruelty, because they did not destroy from off the face of Italy a most beautiful city; and they provided well for the future, in that, having cut out all the sinews of the city, they left the city itself enfeebled and disabled.
91. non inerant in urbe qui malis contionibus,turbulentis senatus consultis, iniquis imperiis rem publicam miscerent et rerum novarum causam aliquam quaererent. enim contionandi potestas erat cuiquam nec consili capiendi publici; non gloriae cupiditate efferebantur, propterea quod, ubi honos publice non est, ibi gloriae cupiditas esse non potest; non contentione, non ambitione discordes. enim supererat de quo certarent, nihil quod contra peterent, nihil ubi dissiderent. illam Campanam adrogantiam atque intolerandam ferociam ratione et consilio maiores nostri ad inertissimum ac desidiosissimum otium perduxerunt. et crudelitatis infamiam effugerunt quod urbem ex Italia pulcherrimam non sustulerunt, et multum in posterum providerunt quod nervis urbis omnibus exsectis urbem ipsam solutam ac debilitatam reliquerunt.
92. These designs of our ancestors seemed, as I have said before, blamable in the eyes of Marcus Brutus and Publius Rullus. Nor, O Publius Rullus, do those omens and auspices encountered by Marcus Brutus deter you from similar madness. For both he who led a colony to Capua … and they who took upon themselves the magistracy there, and who had any share in the conducting a colony to that spot, and in the honours to be had there, or in the offices to be enjoyed there, have all suffered the most terrible punishments allotted to the wicked. And since I have made mention of Brutus and that time, I will also relate what I saw myself when I had arrived at Capua,—when the colony had been just established there by Lucius Considius and Sextus Saltius the praetors, (as they called themselves,) that you may understand how much pride the situation itself inspires its inhabitants with; so great that it was very intelligible and visible when the colony had only been settled there a few days.
92. consilia maiorum M. Bruto, ut antea dixi, reprehendenda et P. Rullo visa sunt; neque te, P. Rulle, omina illa M. Bruti atque auspicia a simili furore deterrent. et ipse qui deduxit, et qui magistratum Capuae illo creante ceperunt, et qui aliquam partem illius deductionis, honoris, muneris attigerunt, omnis acerbissimas impiorum poenas pertulerunt. quoniam ⟨M.⟩ Bruti atque illius temporis feci mentionem, commemorabo id quod egomet vidi, cum venissem Capuam colonia iam deducta L. Considio et Sex. Saltio, quem ad modum ipsi loquebantur, “praetoribus,” ut intellegatis quantam locus ipse adferat superbiam, quae paucis diebus quibus illo colonia deducta est perspici atque intellegi potuit.
93. For in the first place, as I said, though similar officers in the other colonies are called duumvirs, these men chose to call themselves praetors. But if their first year of office inspired them with such desires as that, do not you suppose that in a few years they would be likely to take a fancy to the name of consuls? In the next place, they were preceded by lictors, not with staves, but with two faces, just as lictors go before the praetors here. The greater victims were placed in the forum, which, after they had been approved by the college of priests, were sacrificed at the voice of the crier, and the music of a flute-player, by the praetors from their tribunal, as they are at Rome by us who are consuls. After that, the conscript fathers were summoned. But after this, it was almost more than one could endure, to see the countenance of Considius. The man whom we had seen at Rome shriveled and wasted away, in a contemptible and abject condition, when we saw him at Capua with Campanian haughtiness and royal pride, we seemed to be looking at the Magii, and Blossii and Jubelii.
93. primum, id quod dixi, cum ceteris in coloniis iiviri appellentur, hi se praetores appellari volebant. primus annus hanc cupiditatem attulisset, nonne arbitramini paucis annis fuisse consulum nomen appetituros? anteibant lictores non cum bacillis, sed, ut hic praetoribus urbanis anteeunt, cum fascibus bini. hostiae maiores in foro constitutae, quae ab his praetoribus de tribunali, sicut a nobis consulibus, de consili sententia probatae ad praeconem et ad tibicinem immolabantur. patres conscripti vocabantur. vero voltum Considi videre ferendum vix erat. hominem “vegrandi macie torridum” Romae contemptum, abiectum videbamus, hunc Capuae Campano fastidio ac regio spiritu cum videremus, Blossios mihi videbar illos videre ac Vibellios.
94. And now, in what alarm all the common people were! In the Alban and Seplasian road, what crowds assembled, of men inquiring what edict the praetor had issued? where he was supping? what he had said? And we who had come to Capua from Rome, were not called guests, but foreigners and strangers.
94. vero qui metus erat tunicatorum illorum! et in Albana et Seplasia quae concursatio percontantium quid praetor edixisset, ubi cenaret, quo denuntiasset! autem, hinc Roma qui veneramus, iam non hospites, sed peregrini atque advenae nominabamur.
95. Ought we not to think that those men who foresaw all these things, O Romans, ought to be venerated and worshipped by us, and classed almost in the number of the immortal gods? For what was it which they saw? They saw this, which I entreat you now to remark and take notice of. Manners are not implanted in men so much by the blood and family, as by those things which are supplied by the nature of the plan towards forming habits of life, by which we are nourished, and by which we live. The Carthaginians, a fraudulent and lying nation, were tempted to a fondness for deceiving by a desire of gain, not by their blood, but by the character of their situation because, owing to the number of their harbours, they had frequent intercourse with merchants and foreigners. The Ligurians, being mountaineers, are a hardy and rustic tribe. The land itself taught them to be so by producing nothing which was not extracted from it by skillful cultivation, and by great labour. The Campanians were always proud from the excellence of their soil, and the magnitude of their crops, and the healthiness, and position, and beauty of their city. From that abundance, and from this affluence in all things, in the first place, originated those qualities; arrogance, which demanded of our ancestors that one of the consuls should be chosen from Capua: and in the second place, that luxury which conquered Hannibal himself by pleasure, who up to that time had proved invincible in arms.
95. qui prospexerint, maiores nostros dico, Quirites, non eos in deorum immortalium numero venerandos a nobis et colendos putatis? enim viderunt? quod nunc vos, quaeso, perspicite atque cognoscite. ingenerantur hominibus mores tam a stirpe generis ac seminis quam ex eis rebus quae ab ipsa natura nobis ad vitae consuetudinem suppeditantur, quibus alimur et vivimus. Carthaginienses fraudulenti et mendaces non genere, sed natura loci, quod propter portus suos multis et variis mercatorum et advenarum sermonibus ad studium fallendi studio quaestus vocabantur. Ligures duri atque agrestes; docuit ager ipse nihil ferendo nisi multa cultura et magno labore quaesitum. Campani semper superbi bonitate agrorum et fructuum magnitudine, urbis salubritate, descriptione, pulchritudine. hac copia atque omnium rerum adfluentia primum illa nata est adrogantia qua a maioribus nostris alterum Capua consulem postularunt, deinde ea luxuries quae ipsum Hannibalem armis etiam tum invictum voluptate vicit.
96. When those decemvirs shall, in accordance with the law of Rullus, have led six hundred colonists to that place; when they shall have established there a hundred decurions, ten augurs, and six priests, what do you suppose their courage, and violence, and ferocity will be then? They will laugh at and despise Rome, situated among mountains and valleys, stuck up, as it were, and raised aloft, amid garrets, with not very good roads, and with very narrow streets, in comparison with their own Capua, stretched out along a most open plain, and in comparison of their own beautiful thoroughfares. And as for the lands, they will not think the Vatican or Pupinian district fit to be compared at all to their fertile and luxuriant plains. And all the abundance of neigbouring towns which surround us they will compare in laughter and scorn with their neighbours. They will compare Labici, Fidenae, Collatia,—even Lanuvium itself, and Aricia, and Tusculum, with Cales, and Teanum, and Naples, and Puteoli, and Cumae, and Pompeii, and Nuceria.
96. isti xviri cum iↄↄ colonorum ex lege Rulli deduxerint, c decuriones, x augures, vi pontifices constituerint, quos illorum animos, quos impetus, quam ferociam fore putatis? Romam in montibus positam et convallibus, cenaculis sublatam atque suspensam, non optimis viis, angustissimis semitis, prae sua Capua planissimo in loco explicata ac praeclarissime sita inridebunt atque contemnent; agros vero Vaticanum et Pupiniam cum suis opimis atque uberibus campis conferendos scilicet non putabunt. autem finitimorum illam copiam cum hac per risum ac iocum contendent; Veios, Fidenas, Collatiam, ipsum hercle Lanuvium, Ariciam, Tusculum cum Calibus, Teano, Neapoli, Puteolis, Cumis, Pompeiis, Nuceria comparabunt.
97. By all these things they will be elated and puffed up, perhaps not at once, but certainly when they have got a little more age and vigour they will not be able to restrain themselves; they will go on further and further. A single individual, unless he be a man of great wisdom, can scarcely, when placed in situations of great wealth or power, contain himself within the limits of propriety; much less will those colonists, sought out and selected by Rullus, and others like Rullus, when established at Capua, in that abode of pride, and in the very home of luxury, refrain from immediately contracting some wickedness and iniquity. Yes, and it will be much more the case with them, than with the old genuine Campanians, because they were born and trained up in a fortune which was theirs of old, but were depraved by a too great abundance of everything; but these men, being transferred from the most extreme indigence to a corresponding affluence, will be affected, not only by the extent of their riches, but also by the strangeness of them.
97. illi rebus elati et inflati fortasse non continuo, sed certe, si paulum adsumpserint vetustatis ac roboris, non continebuntur; progredientur, cuncta secum ferent. homo privatus, nisi magna sapientia praeditus, vix cancellis et regionibus offici magnis in fortunis et copiis continetur, nedum isti ab Rullo et Rulli similibus conquisiti atque electi coloni Capuae in domicilio superbiae atque in sedibus luxuriosis conlocati non statim conquisituri sint aliquid sceleris et flagiti, immo vero etiam hoc magis quam illi veteres germanique Campani, quod in vetere fortuna illos natos et educatos nimiae tamen rerum omnium copiae depravabant, hi ex summa egestate in eandem rerum abundantiam traducti non solum copia verum etiam insolentia commovebuntur.
98. You, O Publius Rullus, have chosen to follow in the footsteps of Marcus Brutus's wickedness, rather than to be guided by the monuments of the wisdom of our ancestors. You have flavoured all this with these advices of yours—to sell the old revenues, and to waste the new ones,—to oppose Capua to this city in a rivalry of dignity—to subject all cities, nations and provinces, all free peoples, and kings, and the whole world in short, to your laws, and jurisdiction, and power, in order that, when you have drained all the money out of the treasury, and exacted all that may be due from the taxes, and extorted all that you can from kings, and nations, and even from our own generals, all men may still be forced to pay money to you at your nod; that you, also, or your friends, may buy up from those who have become possessed of them, as members of Sulla's party, their lands—some of which produce too much unpopularity to their owners to be worth keeping; some of which are unhealthy, and deserted on that account and charge them to the Roman people at whatever price you please; that you may occupy all the municipalities and colonies of Italy with new settlers; that you may establish colonies in whatever places you think fit, and in as many places as seems desirable to you,
98. tu, P. Rulle, M. Bruti sceleris vestigia quam monumenta maiorum sapientiae sequi maluisti, haec tu cum istis tuis auctoribus excogitasti, ut vetera vectigalia nostra ⟨expilaretis,⟩ exploraretis nova, ⟨urbem novam huic⟩ urbi ad certamen dignitatis opponeretis; ut sub vestrum ius, iuris dictionem, potestatem urbis, nationes, provincias, liberos populos, reges, terrarum denique orbem subiungeretis; ut, cum omnem pecuniam ex aerario exhausissetis, ex vectigalibus redegissetis, ab omnibus regibus, gentibus, ab imperatoribus nostris coegissetis, tamen omnes vobis pecunias ad nutum vestrum penderent; ut idem partim invidiosos agros a Sullanis possessoribus, partim desertos ac pestilentis a vestris necessariis et a vobismet ipsis emptos quanti velletis populo Romano induceretis; ut omnia municipia coloniasque Italiae novis colonis occuparetis; ut quibuscumque in locis vobis videretur ac quam multis videretur colonias conlocaretis;
99. that you may surround, and hold in subjection, the whole republic with your soldiers, and your cities and your garrisons, that you may be able to proscribe and to deprive of the sight of these men Cnaeus Pompeius himself by whose protection and assistance the Roman people has repeatedly been triumphant over its most active enemies and its most worthless citizens that there may be nothing, which is either capable of being tampered with by means of gold and silver, or carried by numbers and votes, or accomplished by force and violence, which you do not hold in your own power, and under your dominion; that meanwhile you may go at full speed through every nation and every kingdom with the most absolute power,—with unrestricted authority as judges, and with immense sums of money; that you may come into the camp of Cnaeus Pompeius, and sell his very camp itself, if it be desirable for you to do so; that in the meantime, you, being freed from every restraint of law, and from all fear of the courts of justice, and from all danger, may be able to stand for all the other magistracies; so that no one may be able to bring you before the Roman people, or summon you before any court,—so that the senate may not be able to compel you, nor the consul to restrain you, nor the tribune of the people to offer any impediment to you.
99. ut omnem rem publicam vestris militibus, vestris urbibus, vestris praesidiis cingeretis atque oppressam teneretis; ut ipsum Cn. Pompeium, cuius praesidio saepissime res publica contra acerrimos hostis et contra improbissimos civis ⟨munita est, exercitu⟩ victore atque horum conspectu privare possetis; ut nihil auro et argento violari, nihil numero et servitiis declarari, nihil vi et manu perfringi posset quod non vos oppressum atque ereptum teneretis; ut volitaretis interea per gentis, per regna omnia cum imperio summo, cum iudicio infinito, cum omni pecunia; ut veniretis in castra Cn. Pompei atque ipsa castra, si commodum vobis esset, venderetis; ut interea magistratus reliquos legibus omnibus soluti sine metu iudiciorum, sine periculo petere possetis; ut nemo ad populum Romanum vos adducere, nemo producere, nemo in senatum cogere, non consul coercere, non tribunus plebis retinere posset.
100. I do not wonder that you, men of such folly and intemperance as you are, should have desired these things—I do marvel that you should have hoped that you could obtain them while I am consul. For as all consuls ought to exercise the greatest care and diligence in the protection of the republic, so, above all others, ought they to do so who have not been made consuls in their cradles, but in the Campus. No ancestors of mine went bail to the Roman people for me; you gave credit to me; it is from me that you must claim what I am bound to pay; all your demands must be made on me. As, when I stood for the consulship, no authors of my family recommended me to you; so, if. I commit any fault, there are no images of my ancestors which can beg me off from you. Wherefore, if only life be granted me, as far as I can I will defend the state from the wickedness and insidious designs of those men. I promise you this, O Romans, with good faith; you have entrusted the republic to a vigilant man, not to a timid one; to a diligent man, not to an idle one.
100. ego vos concupisse pro vestra stultitia atque intemperantia non miror, sperasse me consule adsequi posse demiror. cum omnium consulum gravis in re ⟨publica⟩ custodienda cura ac diligentia debet esse, tum eorum maxime qui non in cunabulis, sed in campo sunt consules facti. populo Romano pro me maiores mei spoponderunt; mihi creditum est; a me petere quod debeo, me ipsum appellare debetis. ad modum, cum petebam, nulli me vobis auctores generis mei commendarunt, sic, si quid deliquero, nullae sunt imagines quae me a vobis deprecentur. re, modo mihi vita suppetat, quam ego ⟨conabor⟩ ab istorum scelere insidiisque defendere, polliceor hoc vobis, Quirites, bona fide: rem publicam vigilanti homini, non timido, diligenti, ⟨non ignavo,⟩ commisistis.
101. I am consul; how should I fear an assembly of the people? How should I be afraid of the tribunes of the people? How should I be frequently or causelessly agitated? How should I fear lest I may have to dwell in a prison, if a tribune of the people orders me to be led thither? for I, armed with your arms, adorned with your most honourable ensigns, and with command and authority conferred by you, have not been afraid to advance into this place, and, with you for my backers, to resist the wickedness of man; nor do I fear lest the republic, being fortified with such strong protection, may be conquered or overwhelmed by those men. If I had been afraid before, still now, with this assembly, and this people, I should not fear. For who ever had an assembly so well inclined to hear him while advocating an agrarian law, as I have had while arguing against one? if, indeed, I can be said to be arguing against one, and not rather upsetting and destroying one.
101. ⟨sum⟩ is consul qui contionem metuam, qui tribunum plebis perhorrescam, qui saepe et sine causa tumultuer, qui timeam ne mihi in carcere habitandum sit, si tribunus plebis duci iusserit? cum vestris armis armatus ⟨sim⟩, imperio, auctoritate insignibusque amplissimis exornatus, non horreo in hunc locum progredi, possum vobis, Quirites, auctoribus improbitati hominis resistere, nec vereor ne res publica tantis munita praesidiis ab istis vinci aut opprimi possit. antea timuissem, tamen hac contione, hoc populo certe non vererer. enim umquam tam secunda contione legem agrariam suasit quam ego dissuasi? si hoc dissuadere est ac non disturbare atque pervertere.
102. From which, O Romans, it may be easily understood that there is nothing so popular, as that which I, the consul of the people, am this year bringing to you; namely, peace, tranquillity and ease. All the things which when we were elected you were afraid might happen, have been guarded against by my prudence and caution. You not only will enjoy ease,—you who have always wished for it; but I will even make those men quiet, to whom our quiet has been a source of annoyance. In truth, however, power, riches, are accustomed to be acquired by them out of the tumults and dissensions of the citizens. You, whose interest consists in the votes of the people, whose liberty is based on the laws, whose honours depend on the courts of justice and on the equity of the magistrates, and whose enjoyment of your properties depends on peace, ought to preserve tranquillity by every means.
102. quo intellegi, Quirites, potest nihil esse tam populare quam id quod ego vobis in hunc annum consul popularis adfero, pacem, tranquillitatem, otium. nobis designatis timebatis, ea ne accidere possent consilio meo ac ratione provisa sunt. modo vos eritis in otio qui semper esse volueratis, verum etiam istos quibus odio est otium quietissimos atque otiosissimos reddam. illis honores, potestates, divitiae ex tumultu atque ex dissensionibus civium comparari solent; vos, quorum gratia in suffragiis consistit, libertas in legibus, ius in iudiciis et aequitate magistratuum, res familiaris in pace, omni ratione otium retinere debetis.
103. For if those men who, on account of indolence, are living in tranquillity, still take pleasure in their own base indolence; you, if in the calm quiet with which you govern fortune, you think such a condition as you enjoy better, should maintain it diligently; not as one that has been acquired by laziness, but as one that has been earned by virtue. And I, by the unanimity which I have established between myself and my colleague, have provided against those men whom I knew to be hostile to my consulship both in their dispositions and actions. I have provided against everything; and I have sought to recall those men to their loyalty. I have also given notice to the tribunes of the people, to try no disorderly conduct while I am consul. My greatest and firmest support in our common fortunes, O Romans, will be, if you for the future behave, for the sake of it, to the republic in the same manner as you have this day behaved to me in this most numerous assembly, for the sake of your own safety. I promise you most certainly, and pledge myself to manage matters so that they who have envied the honours which I have gained, shall at last confess, that in selecting a consul you all showed the greatest possible foresight. The tribunes had declined debating the subject of the Agrarian law with Cicero before the people, but attacked him with calumnies behind his back; saying that his opposition to the law proceeded from his affection to Sulla's party, and from a desire to secure to the members of it the properties which Sulla had granted to them, and that he was only making this opposition to this law out of a desire to pay court to those whom they called the seven tyrants, the two Luculli, Crassus, Catulus, Hortensius, Metellus, and Philippus, who were known to be the greatest favourers of Sulla's cause, and to have been the chief gainers by it. And as these insinuations were making a great impression on the city, he thought it necessary to make this third speech to defend himself against them. And after this speech the tribunes let the whole matter drop.
103. si ei qui propter desidiam in otio vivunt, tamen in sua turpi inertia capiunt voluptatem ex ipso otio, quam vos fortunati eritis, si ⟨in⟩ hoc statu quem habetis vestra non ignavia quaesitum, sed virtute partum, otium tenueritis, Quirites! ex concordia quam mihi constitui cum conlega, invitissimis eis hominibus qui nos in consulatu inimicos esse et fore aiebant, providi omnibus, prospexi annonae, revocavi fidem, tribunis plebis denuntiavi ⟨ne⟩ quid turbulenti me consule conflarent. et firmissimum est illud communibus fortunis praesidium, Quirites, ut, qualis vos hodierno die maxima contione mihi pro salute vestra praebuistis, talis reliquis temporibus rei publicae praebeatis., recipio, polliceor hoc vobis atque confirmo, me esse perfecturum ut iam tandem illi qui honori inviderunt meo tamen vos universos in consule deligendo plurimum vidisse fateantur.