1. If any one of you, O conscript fathers, is waiting to see what provinces I shall propose to decree to the consuls, let him consider in his own mind what men I must think it most desirable to recall from the provinces; and then he will not have any doubt what ought to be my sentiments, when he has once seriously thought what it is absolutely inevitable that they should be. And if I were the first to deliver the opinion which I am about to state, you would in truth praise it; if I were to stand alone in it, at all events you would pardon me. Even if my opinion were to appear to you on the whole somewhat ineligible, still you would make some allowance for my just indignation. But, as the case stands at present, O conscript fathers, I feel no ordinary delight because it is so entirely for the advantage of the republic that Syria and Macedonia should be the provinces decreed to the consuls, that my own private feelings are in no respect at variance with the general good; and because also I can cite the authority of Publius Servilius, who has delivered his opinion before me, a most illustrious man, and of singular good faith and attachment both to the republic in general, and to my safety in particular.
1. quis vestrum, patres conscripti, exspectat quas sim provincias decreturus, consideret ipse secum qui mihi homines ex provinciis potissimum detrahendi sint: non dubitabit quid sentire me conveniat, cum quid mihi sentire necesse sit cogitarit. si princeps eam sententiam dicerem, laudaretis profecto; si solus, certe ignosceretis; etiam si paulo minus utilis vobis sententia videretur, veniam tamen aliquam dolori meo tribueretis. vero, patres conscripti, non parva adficior voluptate, vel quod hoc maxime rei publicae conducit, Syriam Macedoniamque decerni, ut dolor meus nihil a communi utilitate dissentiat, vel quod habeo auctorem P. Servilium, qui ante me sententiam dixit, virum clarissimum et cum in universam rem publicam tum etiam erga meam salutem fide ac benivolentia singulari.
2. And if he, both just now, and whenever he has had any opportunity or possibility of speaking on the subject, has thought it his duty to brand not only with his adverse opinion but with the greatest severity of language, Gabinius and Piso, as the two monsters who have been almost the destruction of the republic, both on other accounts, and also most especially because of their extraordinary wickedness and unseemly inhumanity towards me, with what feelings ought I myself to be actuated towards those men,—I whose safety they devoted and ruined for the gratification of their own evil passions? But in declaring my sentiments at this time, I will not be guided by my indignation, nor will I make my speech subservient to my enmity. The same feelings which every individual among you ought to entertain towards those men, shall influence me also. My own predominant and peculiar feeling of private indignation, which, however, you have always considered as belonging to yourselves in common with me, I will put aside while delivering my opinion, and reserve for a more fitting opportunity of revenge.
2. si ille, et paulo ante et quotienscumque ei locus dicendi ac potestas fuit, Gabinium et Pisonem, duo rei publicae portenta ac paene funera, cum propter alias causas tum maxime propter illud insigne scelus eorum et importunam in me crudelitatem, non solum sententia sua sed etiam verborum gravitate esse notandos putavit, quonam me animo in eos esse oportet, cuius illi salutem pro pignore tradiderunt ad explendas suas cupiditates? ego in hac sententia dicenda non parebo dolori meo, non iracundiae serviam. animo unus quisque vestrum debet esse in illos, hoc ero: praecipuum illum et proprium sensum doloris mei, quem tamen vos communem semper vobis mecum esse duxistis, a sententia dicenda amovebo, ad ulciscendi tempora reservabo.
3. There are four provinces, O conscript fathers, concerning which I understand that opinions have as yet been delivered: the two Gauls, which at present we see united under one command; and Syria; and Macedonia; which, against your will, and when you were suffering under oppression and constraint, those pernicious consuls seized on as their reward for having overturned the republic. According to the provisions of the Sempronian law, we have now to decree two to the consuls. How is it possible for us to doubt about Syria and Macedonia being these two? I say nothing of the fact that those men are holding them at present who procured them in such a way that they did not get them till they condemned this order of ours till they had destroyed your authority and put an end to it in the state till they had destroyed all public credit and good faith endangered the lasting safety of the Roman people, and harassed me and my friends and relations in the most shameful and barbarous manner.
3. sunt provinciae, patres conscripti, de quibus adhuc intellego sententias esse dictas, Galliae duae, quas hoc tempore uno imperio videmus esse coniunctas, et Syria et Macedonia, quas vobis invitis et oppressis pestiferi illi consules pro perversae rei publicae praemiis occupaverunt. nobis sunt lege Sempronia duae. est quod possimus de Syria Macedoniaque dubitare? Mitto quod eas ita partas habent ii qui nunc obtinent ut non ante attigerint quam hunc ordinem condemnarint, quam auctoritatem vestram e civitate exterminarint, quam fidem publicam, quam perpetuam populi Romani salutem, quam me ac meos omnis foedissime crudelissimeque vexarint.
4. All these private matters, all these transactions which took place in the city, I say nothing about; though they are of such a nature that Hannibal himself never wished so much evil to this city, as those men have done. I come to the case of the provinces themselves, of which Macedonia, which was formerly fortified not by the towers built, but by the trophies erected by numbers of our generals, which had long ago been reduced to a state of tranquillity by many victories and triumphs, is now so harassed by the barbarians who are not allowed to rest in peace in consequence of the avarice of the late consul, that the people of Thessalonica, placed in the lap as it were of our empire are compelled to abandon their town and to fortify their citadel, that that military road of ours which reaches all through Macedonia as far as the Hellespont is not only infested by the incursions of the barbarians but is even studded with and divided among Thracian encampments. And so those nations which had given large sums of money to our illustrious commanders to purchase the blessings of peace, in order to be able to replenish their houses which had been thus drained, instead of the peace which they had purchased, have waged against us what is little short of a regular war. And now that very army of ours, collected by a most splendid enlistment, and by a very rigid levy, has almost entirely perished. I say this with the most real grief.
4. domestica atque urbana mitto, quae tanta sunt ut numquam Hannibal huic urbi tantum mali optarit quantum illi effecerint. ipsas venio provincias; quarum Macedonia, quae erat antea munita plurimorum imperatorum non turribus sed tropaeis, quae multis victoriis erat iam diu triumphisque pacata, sic a barbaris, quibus est propter avaritiam pax erepta, vexatur ut Thessalonicenses positi in gremio imperi nostri relinquere oppidum et arcem munire cogantur, ut via illa nostra quae per Macedoniam est usque ad Hellespontum militaris non solum excursionibus barbarorum sit infesta, sed etiam castris Thraeciis distincta ac notata. gentes eae quae, ut pace uterentur, vim argenti dederant praeclaro nostro imperatori, ut exhaustas domos replere possent, pro empta pace bellum nobis prope iustum intulerunt.
5. The soldiers of the Roman people have been taken prisoners, put to death, abandoned, and dispersed in a most miserable manner. They have been wasted away by neglect, by famine, by disease, by every sort of disaster; so that (and it is a most scandalous thing) the wickedness of the general appears … to have been chastised by the punishment of the fatherland and the army. And this Macedonia, as all the neighbouring nations had been subdued, and all the barbarians checked, we used to be able to preserve by its own resources, in a peaceable state, and in perfect tranquillity, with a very slight garrison, and a small army, even without a commander-in-chief, by means of lieutenants, and by the bare name of the Roman people. And yet now, when there is a man there with consular command and a consular army, it is so harassed that it is scarcely able to recruit its strength by a peace of any duration. And in the meantime who is there of you who has not heard and who does not know that the Achaeans are every year paying a vast sum to Lucius Piso? that all the revenues and harbour duties of the Dyrrachians have been converted to a source of profit for this one man? that the city of the Byzantines, a city most loyal to you and to this empire, is harassed as if it belonged to an enemy? to which city he, after he could no longer squeeze anything out of them, because of the poverty to which he had reduced them, and could not by any acts of violence extort anything more from them, miserable as they were, sent his cohorts into winter quarters, and gave them commanders whom he thought likely to be his most complying and diligent agents in wickedness, and ministers to his desires.
5. vero exercitus noster ille superbissimo dilectu et durissima conquisitione conlectus omnis interiit. Magno hoc dico cum dolore: miserandum in modum milites populi Romani capti necati deserti dissipati sunt, incuria fame morbo vastitate consumpti, ut, quod est indignissimum, scelus imperatoris in p⟨atri⟩am exercitum⟨que⟩ exp⟨ia⟩tum esse videatur. hanc Macedoniam, domitis iam gentibus finitimis barbariaque compressa, pacatam ipsam per se et quietam, tenui praesidio atque exigua manu etiam sine imperio per legatos nomine ipso populi Romani tuebamur; quae nunc consulari imperio atque exercitu ita vexata est vix ut se possit diuturna pace recreare; cum interea quis vestrum hoc non audivit, quis ignorat, Achaeos ingentem pecuniam pendere L. Pisoni quotannis, vectigal ac portorium Dyrrachinorum totum in huius unius quaestum esse conversum, urbem Byzantiorum vobis atque huic imperio fidelissimam hostilem in modum esse vexatam? quo ille, postea quam nihil exprimere ab egentibus, nihil ulla vi a miseris extorquere potuit, cohortis in hiberna misit; iis praeposuit quos putavit fore diligentissimos satellites scelerum, ministros cupiditatum suarum.
6. I say nothing of the way in which he exercised his jurisdiction in a free city contrary to the laws and to the resolutions of the senate. I pass over his murders, I omit all mention of his acts of lust; of which there is a most bitter token, for the lasting recollection of his infamy, and almost bringing even our sovereignty into just odium, in the fact that it is notorious that some virgins of the noblest birth threw themselves into wells, and by a voluntary death escaped from otherwise inevitable disgrace. Nor do I omit them now because they are not most enormous atrocities, but because I am speaking without the support of any witnesses. But who is there who is ignorant that the city of the Byzantines was entirely filled and superbly decorated with statues? which the citizens, even when exhausted by the great expenses of important wars, while sustaining the attacks of Mithridates, and the whole force of Pontus, boiling over and pouring itself over all Asia which they repulsed with difficulty at their own great risk,—even then, I say, and afterwards, the Byzantines preserved those statues and all the other ornaments of their city and guarded them most religiously.
6. iuris dictionem in libera civitate contra leges senatusque consulta, caedis relinquo, libidines praetereo, quarum acerbissimum exstat indicium et ad insignem memoriam turpitudinis et paene ad iustum odium imperi nostri, quod constat nobilissimas virgines se in puteos abiecisse et morte voluntaria necessariam turpitudinem depulisse; nec haec idcirco omitto quod non gravissima sint, sed quia nunc sine teste dico. vero urbem Byzantiorum fuisse refertissimam atque ornatissimam signis quis ignorat? quae illi exhausti sumptibus bellisque maximis, cum omnis Mithridaticos impetus totumque Pontum armatum, effervescentem in Asiam atque erumpentem ore, repulsum et cervicibus interclusum suis sustinerent, tum, inquam, Byzantii et postea signa illa et reliqua urbis ornamenta sanctissime custodita tenuerunt:
7. But when you, O most unhappy and most infamous of men, became the commander there, O Caesoninus Calventius then a free city, and one which had been made so by the senate and people of Rome, on account of its recent services, was so plundered and stripped of everything, that, if Caius Virgilius the lieutenant, a very brave and incorruptible man, had not interfered, the Byzantines would not have retained one single statue out of all their great number. What temple in all Achaia? what spot or what grove in the whole of Greece, was there of such sanctity that a single statue or a single ornament has been left in it? You purchased from a most infamous tribune of the people, at the time of that general shipwreck of the city, which you, the very man who were bound to govern it rightly, had been the main agent in overturning; you purchased, I say, at that time, for an immense sum of money, the power of pronouncing judgment on the people of the free cities, with respect to the moneys which had been advanced, contrary to the resolutions of the senate, and the law of your own son-in-law. What you had bought, you sold in such a manner that you either never gave any decision at all, or else you deprived Roman citizens of their property.
7. te imperatore infelicissimo et taeterrimo, Caesonine, civitas libera, et pro eximiis suis beneficiis a senatu et a populo Romano liberata, sic spoliata atque nudata est ut, nisi C. Vergilius legatus, vir fortis et innocens, intervenisset, unum signum Byzantii ex maximo numero nullum haberent. fanum in Achaia, qui locus aut lucus in Graecia tota tam sanctus fuit in quo ullum simulacrum, ullum ornamentum reliquum sit? a foedissimo tribuno plebis tum in illo naufragio huius urbis, quam tu idem qui gubernare debueras everteras, tum, inquam, emisti grandi pecunia ut tibi de pecuniis creditis ius in liberos populos contra senatus consulta et contra legem generi tui dicere liceret: id emptum ita vendidisti ut aut ius non diceres aut bonis civis Romanos everteres.
8. But I am not bringing forward these facts at this moment, O conscript fathers, as charges against this man, I am merely arguing with respect to the province. Therefore I pass over all those things which you have often heard of and which you are well aware of, even when you do not hear of them. I say nothing of his audacious conduct in the city, which he has fixed deep in the recollection of your eyes and minds; I say nothing of his arrogance, of his insolence, of his cruelty. Let those dark acts of lust of his lie hid, acts which he tried to conceal by his stern countenance and supercilious look, not by modesty and temperance. I am arguing about the province, the welfare of which is at stake in this matter. Will you not send a successor to such a man as this? Will you allow him to remain any longer? a man whose fortune, from the very moment that he first reached the province, has so vied with his wickedness, that no one could decide whether he was more undeserving or more unfortunate.
8. ego nihil dico, patres conscripti, nunc in hominem ipsum: de provincia disputo. omnia illa quae et saepe audistis et tenetis animis, etiam si non audiatis, praetermitto. de hac eius urbana, quam ille praesens in mentibus vestris oculisque defixit, audacia loquor; nihil de superbia, nihil de contumacia, nihil de crudelitate disputo; lateant libidines eius illae tenebricosae, quas fronte et supercilio, non pudore et temperantia contegebat: de provincia quod agitur, id disputo. vos non submittetis? hunc diutius manere patiemini? cuius, ut provinciam tetigit, sic fortuna cum improbitate certavit ut nemo posset utrum protervior an infelicior esset iudicare.
9. But as for Syria, is that Semiramis any longer to be retained there? a man whose march into the province bore the appearance of king Ariobarzanes having hired your consul to come and commit murder, as if he were some Thracian. His very first arrival in Syria was signalized by the destruction of the cavalry; after that, all his best cohorts were cut to pieces. Therefore, in Syria, since he has been the commander-in-chief, nothing has been done beyond making money-bargains with tyrants, and selling decisions, and committing robbery and piracy and massacre; while the general of the Roman people, with his army in battle array, stretching forth his right hand, did not exhort his soldiers to the pursuit of glory, but only kept crying out that everything had been bought by him and was to be bought still.
9. vero in Syria diutius est Semiramis illa retinenda? cuius iter in provinciam fuit eius modi ut rex Ariobarzanes consulem vestrum ad caedem faciendam tamquam aliquem Thraecem conduceret; deinde adventus in Syriam primus equitatus habuit interitum, post concisae sunt optimae cohortes. in Syria imperatore illo nihil aliud ⟨umquam⟩ actum est nisi pactiones pecuniarum cum tyrannis, decisiones, direptiones, latrocinia, caedes, cum palam populi Romani imperator, instructo exercitu, dexteram tendens, non ad laudem milites hortaretur, sed omnia sibi et empta et emenda esse clamaret.
10. And as for the miserable farmers of the revenue, (miserable man that I also am, when I see the miseries and sufferings of those men who have deserved so well at my hands,) he handed them over as slaves to the Jews and Syrian nations, themselves born for slavery. He laid down as a rule from the very beginning, and he persevered in it, never to decide an action in favour of a farmer of the revenue; he rescinded covenants that had been made without any injustice, he took away all the garrisons established for their protection; he released many people who were subject to pay tributes and taxes from such payments; whatever town he was living in or whatever town he arrived at, there he forbade any farmer of the revenue or any servant of such farmer to remain. Why need I enlarge on this? He would be considered a cruel man if he had shown such a disposition towards our enemies, as he did show towards Roman citizens, especially towards those of that order which has hitherto always been maintained by its own dignity and by the goodwill of the magistrates.
10. vero publicanos miseros—me etiam miserum illorum ita de me meritorum miseriis ac dolore!—tradidit in servitutem Iudaeis et Syris, nationibus natis servituti. ab initio, et in eo perseveravit, ius publicano non dicere; pactiones sine ulla iniuria factas rescidit; custodias sustulit; vectigalis multos ac stipendiarios liberavit; quo in oppido ipse esset aut quo veniret, ibi publicanum aut publicani servum esse vetuit. multa? crudelis haberetur si in hostis animo fuisset eo quo fuit in civis Romanos, eius ordinis praesertim qui est semper ⟨pro⟩ dignitate sua benignitate magistratuum sustentatus.
11. Therefore, O conscript fathers, you see that the farmers of the revenue were ground down and nearly ruined, not by any rashness with which they had entered into their contracts, nor by any ignorance of the proper methods of transacting business, but by the avarice, the pride, and the cruelty of Gabinius. And to their assistance indeed, in the present difficulties of the treasury, it is actually indispensable that you should come. Although there are many of them whom you cannot now relieve, men who by the means of that enemy of the senate of that most bitter foe of the equestrian order and of all virtuous men, wretched that they are, have lost not only their property but their honourable position; men whom neither parsimony nor temperance nor virtue nor labour nor respectability of character, have been able to protect against the audacity of that glutton and robber.
11. , patres conscripti, videtis non temeritate redemptionis aut negoti gerendi inscitia, sed avaritia, superbia, crudelitate Gabini paene adflictos iam atque eversos publicanos: quibus quidem vos in his angustiis aerari tamen subveniatis necesse est, etsi iam multis non potestis, qui propter illum hostem senatus, inimicissimum ordinis equestris bonorumque omnium, non solum bona sed etiam honestatem miseri deperdiderunt, quos non parsimonia, non continentia, non virtus, non labor, non splendor tueri potuit contra illius helluonis et praedonis audaciam.
12. What are we to do? shall we suffer those men to perish who are even now supporting themselves on the resources of their patrimony or on the liberality of their friends? Or, suppose any man has been prevented by the enemies means from enjoying his public rights is that man protected by the law of the censors? but in the case of a man who is prevented by one who is an enemy, though he may not be actually called one, is that a man whom we ought not to assist? Retain then in the province a little longer that man who makes covenants with the enemy respecting the allies and with the allies respecting the citizens,—who thinks himself a more important man than his colleague on this account that he has deceived you by his morose appearance and by his countenance, while he himself has never once pretended to be less worthless than he really is. But Piso boasts in another sort of fashion that he in a very short time has brought it to pass that Gabinius is not thought the most infamous of all men.
12. ? qui se etiam nunc subsidiis patrimoni aut amicorum liberalitate sustentant, hos perire patiemur? si qui frui publico non potuit per hostem, hic tegitur ipsa lege censoria: quem is frui non sinit qui est, etiam si non appellatur, hostis, huic ferri auxilium non oportet? igitur in provincia diutius eum qui de sociis cum hostibus, de civibus cum sociis faciat pactiones, qui hoc etiam se pluris esse quam conlegam putet, quod ille vos tristitia vultuque deceperit, ipse numquam se minus quam erat nequam esse simularit. Piso autem alio quodam modo gloriatur se brevi tempore perfecisse ne C. Gabinius unus omnium nequissimus existimaretur.
13. Do not you think that you ought to recall these men from their provinces even if you had no one to send thither in their places? Would you, could you retain there these two pests of the allies, these men who are the destruction of the soldiers, the ruin of the farmers of the revenue, the desolators of the provinces, the disgracers of the empire? But you, yourselves, in the preceding year did recall these very men when they had only just arrived in the provinces. And if at that time your judgment had been unfettered and if the matter had not been so frequently adjourned and at the last taken wholly out of your hands you would have restored your authority, as you were most anxious to do recalling those men by whom it had been lost and compelling them to render up the rewards which they had received and whom had been conferred on them in return for their wickedness and for the overthrow of their country. And if they at that time escaped from that punishment, through no merit of their own, but through the influence of others, greatly against your consent, still they have undergone a much greater and severer punishment.
13. vos de provinciis, si non aliquando deducendi essent, deripiendos non putaretis? et has duplicis pestis sociorum, militum cladis, publicanorum ruinas, provinciarum vastitates, imperi maculas teneretis? idem vos anno superiore hos eosdem revocabatis, cum in provincias pervenissent: quo tempore si liberum vestrum iudicium fuisset nec totiens dilata res nec ad extremum e manibus erepta, restituissetis, id quod cupiebatis, vestram auctoritatem, iis per quos erat amissa revocatis, et iis ipsis praemiis extortis quae erant pro scelere atque eversione patriae consecuti.
14. For what severer punishment could befall any one, in whom there exists, if not any respect for his reputation, at all events some fear of punishment, than to have those letters of theirs utterly disbelieved which announced that the republic had been very successful in war? The senate decided this, when in a very full house it refused Gabinius a supplication; they decided, in the first place, that no belief at all could be given to a man polluted with every sort of guilt and wickedness; and, secondly, that the affairs of the republic could not possibly be managed successfully by a traitor, especially by that man who was known to be at the time an enemy of the republic; and, lastly, that even the immortal gods themselves did not choose their temples to be thrown open, and supplications to be addressed to them in the name of a most profligate and wicked man. Therefore, that other man is either himself a learned man, and one well instructed by his Greek slaves, with whom he now sups behind the scenes, as he used to do before the curtain, or else he has wiser friends than Gabinius, from whom no letters are produced.
14. e poena si tum aliorum opibus, non suis, invitissimis vobis evolarunt, at aliam multo maiorem gravioremque subierunt. enim homini in quo aliqui, si non famae pudor, at supplici timor est gravior poena accidere potuit quam non credi litteris iis quae rem publicam bene gestam in bello nuntiarent? statuit senatus, cum frequens supplicationem Gabinio denegavit: primum homini sceleribus flagitiis contaminatissimo nihil esse credendum, deinde a proditore, atque eo quem praesentem hostem rei publicae cognosset, bene rem publicam geri non potuisse, postremo ne deos quidem immortalis velle aperiri sua templa et sibi supplicari hominis impurissimi et sceleratissimi nomine. ille alter aut ipse est homo doctus et a suis Graecis subtilius eruditus, quibuscum iam in exostra helluatur, antea post siparium solebat, aut amicos habet prudentiores quam Gabinius, cuius nullae litterae proferuntur.
15. Shall we then have these men for our generals? the one of whom does not venture to inform us whether … he is styled Imperator; and the other must in a few days repent of having ventured to mention such a thing to us, if his clerks do not tire of writing. And if that man has any friends, or indeed, if it be possible that any one should be a friend to so savage and foul a brute, they comfort themselves with this consolation, that this senatorial order once refused an application to Titus Albucius. But first of all, the cases are very unlike. The proprietor had had a battle with one auxiliary cohort against a lot of banditti clad in sheepskins in Sardinia. And a war against the mightiest nations and tyrants of Syria was brought to a termination by means of a consular army, and a magistrate invested with the supreme military command. In the next place, Albucius had had already decreed to himself in Syria the same thing which he was soliciting from the senate. For it was notorious that he like a Greek, and like a light-headed inconsiderate man as he was had celebrated something like a triumph in the province itself. And therefore the senate marked their displeasure at this precipitate conduct of his by the refusing of a supplication.
15. igitur imperatores habebimus? quorum alter non audet nos certiores facere ⟨qua re⟩ imperator appelletur, alterum, si tabellarii non cessarint, necesse est paucis diebus paeniteat audere: cuius amici si qui sunt, aut si beluae tam immani tamque taetrae possunt ulli esse amici, hac consolatione utuntur, etiam T. Albucio supplicationem hunc ordinem denegasse. est primum dissimile, res in Sardinia cum mastrucatis latrunculis a propraetore una cohorte auxiliaria gesta, et bellum cum maximis Syriae gentibus ⟨et⟩ tyrannis consulari exercitu imperioque confectum. Albucius, quod a senatu petebat, ipse sibi in Sardinia ante decreverat; constabat enim Graecum hominem ac levem in ipsa provincia quasi triumphasse, itaque hanc eius temeritatem senatus supplicatione denegata notavit.
16. But let him in truth enjoy this as some comfort, and let him think this very eminent mark of disgrace all the less considerable because it has been inflicted on himself alone, provided only that he is content to expect the same end as that man by whose precedent he consoles himself. Especially as Albucius was not liable to the reproach of either Piso's lust or Gabinius's audacity and yet fell by this one blow, the infamy with which he was branded by the senate.
16. fruatur sane hoc solacio atque hanc insignem ignominiam (quoniam uni praeter se inusta est ), putet esse leviorem, dum modo, cuius exemplo se consolatur, eius exitum exspectet, praesertim cum in Albucio nec Pisonis libidines nec audacia Gabini fuerit ac tamen hac una plaga conciderit, ignominia senatus.
17. But the man who proposes to decree the two Gauls to the two consuls would return both these men in their provinces. But he who proposes to decree them one of the Gauls and either Syria or Macedonia still would retain one of these men; and while they are both equal in wickedness, he proposes to make their future condition unequal. No, I will make them, says he, praetorian provinces in order that Piso and Gabinius may have successors appointed immediately. Yes; if you are allowed to do so. For then the tribune will be able to intercede with his veto; but at present he cannot do so. Therefore I myself who now propose to decree to the consuls who are to be elected Syria and Macedonia, am prepared also to make them praetorian provinces, in order that the praetors may have their provinces for a year, and that we may see those men among us as soon as possible whom we cannot see at all with any equanimity. But believe me, those men will never have successors appointed to them, except when a motion shall be made in accordance with the provisions of that law by which it is unlawful for any one to interpose his veto while the debate is pending about the provinces; therefore, as this opportunity is lost, you must now wait an entire year; during which interval the calamities of the citizens, the miseries of the allies, and the impunity of the most wicked men may be extended.
17. duas Gallias qui decernit consulibus duobus, hos retinet ambo; qui autem alteram Galliam et aut Syriam aut Macedoniam, tamen alterum retinet ⟨et⟩ in utriusque pari scelere disparem condicionem facit. “,” inquit, “illas praetorias, ut Pisoni et Gabinio succedatur statim.” hic sinat! tum enim tribunus intercedere poterit, nunc non potest. ego idem, qui nunc consulibus iis qui designati erunt Syriam Macedoniamque decerno, decernam easdem praetorias, ut et praetores annuas provincias habeant et eos quam primum videamus quos animo aequo videre non possumus., mihi credite, numquam succedetur illis, nisi cum ea lege referetur qua intercedi de provinciis non licebit. hoc tempore amisso annus est integer vobis exspectandus; quo interiecto civium calamitas, sociorum aerumna, sceleratissimorum hominum impunitas propagatur.
18. But even if they were the most excellent of men, still, in my opinion, it could never be advisable to appoint a successor to Caius Caesar. Now, concerning this matter, O conscript fathers. I shall declare my real sentiments, and I shall not be disconcerted by that interruption of my most intimate friend, who did a little while ago interrupt my speech, as you heard. That excellent man says that I ought not to be more hostile to Gabinius than to Caesar; for that all that storm, to which I yielded, was raised by the instigation and assistance of Caesar. And if I were in the first instance to reply that I was having regard to the common advantage, and not to my own private sufferings, could I not establish that, when I say that I am doing what I well may do according to the example of other most valiant and most illustrious citizens? Did Tiberius Gracchus (I am speaking of the father, and would that his son had never degenerated from that father's virtue!) gain such great glory because he, while tribune of the people, was the only one of the whole college who was any assistance to Lucius Scipio, though he was the bitterest possible enemy, both to him and to his brother Africanus; and did he not swear in the public assembly that he had by no means become reconciled to him, but that it seemed to him quite inconsistent with the dignity of the empire that, after the generals of the enemy had been led to prison while Scipio was celebrating his triumph, the very man also who had triumphed should be led to the same place?
18. si essent illi optimi viri, tamen ego mea sententia C. Caesari succedendum nondum putarem. de re dicam, patres conscripti, quae sentio, atque illam interpellationem mei familiarissimi, qua paulo ante interrupta est oratio mea, non pertimescam. me vir optimus inimiciorem Gabinio debere esse quam Caesari: omnem illam tempestatem cui cesserim Caesare impulsore atque adiutore esse excitatam. si primum sic respondeam, me communis utilitatis habere rationem, non doloris mei, possimne probare, cum id me facere dicam quod exemplo fortissimorum et clarissimorum civium facere possim?. Gracchus—patrem dico, cuius utinam filii ne degenerassent a gravitate patria!—tantam laudem est adeptus, quos tribunus plebis solus ex toto illo conlegio L. Scipioni auxilio fuit, inimicissimus et ipsius et fratris eius Africani, iuravitque in contione se in gratiam non redisse, sed alienum sibi videri dignitate imperi quo duces essent hostium Scipione triumphante ducti, eodem ipsum duci qui triumphasset?
19. Who had a greater number of enemies than Caius Marius? There were Lucius Crassus, Marcus Scaurus, (were there no more?) and all the Metelli. But those men not only forbore to recall that enemy of theirs from Gaul by their votes, but also, out of consideration for the Gallic war, they even voted him the province out of the regular order. A most important war has been waged in Gaul; very mighty nations have been subdued by Caesar; but they are not yet established with laws, or with any fixed system of rights, or by a peace which can be very thoroughly depended on. We see that the war has been carried on, and, to say the truth, nearly brought to a conclusion; but we shall only see it all actually terminated in a successful manner, if the man who commenced it remains to follow it up to the last. If a successor is appointed to him, there is great danger that we may hear that the embers of this momentous war are again fanned into a flame and rekindled. Therefore I, a senator, an enemy, if you please, of the man himself, feel it my duty to be, as I always have been, a friend to the republic.
19. plenior inimicorum fuit C. Mario? L. Crassus, M. Scaurus alieni, inimici omnes Metelli: at ii non modo illum inimicum ex Gallia sententiis suis non detrahebant, sed ei propter rationem Gallici belli provinciam extra ordinem decernebant. in Gallia maximum gestum est; domitae sunt a Caesare maximae nationes, sed nondum legibus, nondum iure certo, nondum satis firma pace devinctae. adfectum videmus et, vere ut dicam, paene confectum, sed ita ut, si idem extrema persequitur qui inchoavit, iam omnia perfecta videamus, si succeditur, periculum sit ne instauratas maximi belli reliquias ac renovatas audiamus. ego senator—inimicus, si ita vultis, homini—amicus esse, sicut semper fui, rei publicae debeo.
20. What if I lay aside my enmity itself for the sake of the republic, who, I should like to know, would have a right to blame me? especially as I have at all times thought that I ought to seek for the models for all my intentions and for all my actions in the conduct of the most illustrious men. Was not, I should like to know, was not that great man Marcus Lepidus, who was twice consul, and also Pontifex Maximus, praised not only by the evidence of men's recollection, but also in the records of our annals, and by the voice of an immortal poet, because on the day that he was made censor, he immediately in the Campus Martius reconciled himself to Marcus Fulvius his colleague a man who was his bitterest enemy in order that they might perform their common duty devolving on them in the censorship with one common feeling and union of good will?
20. ? si ipsas inimicitias depono rei publicae causa, quis me tandem iure reprehendet? praesertim cum ego omnium meorum consiliorum atque factorum exempla semper ex summorum hominum factis mihi censuerim petenda. vero M. ille Lepidus, qui bis consul et pontifex maximus fuit, non solum memoriae testimonio, sed etiam annalium litteris et summi poetae voce laudatus est quod cum M. Fulvio conlega, quo die censor est factus, homine inimicissimo, in campo statim rediit in gratiam, ut commune officium censurae communi animo ac voluntate defenderent?
21. And to pass over ancient instances, of which there is no end, did not your own father, O Philippus, did not he become reconciled at one and the same time with all his greatest enemies? to all of whom the same attachment to the republic now reconciled him which had previously separated him from them.
21. ut vetera, quae sunt innumerabilia, mittam, tuus pater, Philippe, nonne uno tempore cum suis inimicissimis in gratiam rediit? quibus eum omnibus eadem res publica reconciliavit quae alienarat.
22. I pass over many instances because I see before me these lights and ornaments of the republic Publius Servilius and Marcus Lucullus; would that that great man, Lucius Lucullus, were still alive! What enmities were ever more bitter in this city that those which subsisted between the Luculli and the Servilii? But in those most gallant men the welfare of the republic, and their own dignity, not only put an end to that ill-feeling, but even changed it into friendship and intimacy. What? did not Quintus Metellus Nepos while consul in the temple of the all good and all powerful Jupiter, influenced by your authority and also by the incredible dignity of eloquence of that same Publius Servilius, become reconciled to me though I was far away, and do me the greatest possible service? Is it possible for me to be an enemy to this man, by whose letters, by whose glory, and by whose messengers my ears are every day saluted with previously unknown names of tribes, and nations, and places?
22. praetereo, quod intueor coram haec lumina atque ornamenta rei publicae, P. Servilium et M. Lucullum. Vtinam etiam L. Lucullus illic adsideret! fuerunt inimicitiae in civitate graviores quam Lucullorum atque Servili? quas in viris fortissimis non solum exstinxit rei publicae ⟨utilitas⟩ dignitasque ipsorum, sed etiam ad amicitiam consuetudinemque traduxit.? Q. Metellus Nepos nonne consul in templo Iovis, permotus cum auctoritate vestra tum illius P. Servili incredibili gravitate dicendi, absens mecum summo suo beneficio rediit in gratiam? ego possum huic esse inimicus cuius litteris fama nuntiis celebrantur aures cotidie meae novis nominibus gentium nationum locorum?
23. I burn, believe me, O conscript fathers, (as indeed you do believe of me, and as you feel yourselves,) with an incredible love for my country; which love compelled me formerly to encounter most terrible dangers which were hanging over it, at the risk of my own life; and again, when I saw every sort of weapon aimed from all quarters against my country, drove me to put myself in their way, and to expose myself singly to their blows on behalf of the whole body of citizens. And this, my ancient and perpetual disposition towards the republic, now reunites and reconciles me to and unites me in friendship with Caius Caesar. In short, let men think what they please; it is impossible for me to be other than a friend to one who deserves; well of his country.
23. , mihi credite, patres conscripti,—id quod vosmet de me existimatis et facitis ipsi,—incredibili quodam amore patriae, qui me amor et subvenire olim impendentibus periculis maximis cum dimicatione capitis et rursum, cum omnia tela undique esse intenta in patriam viderem, subire coegit atque excipere unum pro universis. me meus in rem publicam animus pristinus ac perennis cum C. Caesare reducit, reconciliat, restituit in gratiam.
24. In truth, if I have not only taken on myself the enmity of, but have declared and waged open war against those men who wished to destroy all these things with fire and sword; though some of them were my own personal acquaintances, and some had been saved on capital trials through my defence of them; why should not the same republic which was able to make me hostile to my friends, be able also to reconcile me to my enemies? What reason had I for hating Publius Clodius, except that I thought him likely to prove a mischievous citizen to my country, inasmuch as, inflamed by the most infamous lust, he trampled under foot by one crime two most holy considerations, religion and chastity? Is it, therefore, doubtful from these actions, which he has done and which he is doing every day, that I in opposing him was consulting the interests of the republic more than my own tranquillity; but that some others, who defended him, thought more of their own ease than they did of the peace of the community?
24. volent denique homines existiment: nemini ego possum esse bene merenti de re publica non amicus. si iis qui haec omnia flamma ac ferro delere voluerunt non inimicitias solum sed etiam bellum indixi atque intuli, cum partim mihi illorum familiares, partim etiam me defendente capitis iudiciis essent liberati, cur eadem res publica quae me in amicos inflammare potuit inimicis placare non possit? mihi odium cum P. Clodio fuit, nisi quod perniciosum patriae civem fore putabam qui turpissima libidine incensus duas res sanctissimas, religionem et pudicitiam, uno scelere violasset? est igitur dubium ex iis rebus quas is egit agitque cotidie quin ego in illo oppugnando rei publicae plus quam otio meo, non nulli in eodem defendendo suo plus otio quam communi prospexerint?
25. I admit that I was of a different opinion to Caesar with respect to the affairs of the republic, and that I agreed with all of you: but now I am agreeing also with you with whom I felt in common before. For you,—to whom Lucius Piso does not venture to send letters respecting his exploits,—you who have condemned the letters of Gabinius with a most remarkable stigma, and an unprecedented mark of disgrace have decreed supplications to Caius Caesar in such number, as were never decreed before to any one in one war, and with such attending circumstances of honour as were never voted to any one at all. Why, then, need I wait for any man to act as a mediator between us, in order to reconcile me to him? This most honourable order has mediated between us; that order which is the instigator and the leader both of the public counsels and of all my own designs. I am following you, O conscript fathers, I am obeying you, I am adopting your opinions;—yours, I say, who, as long as you had no very favourable opinion of the designs of Caius Caesar with respect to the republic saw that I too was very little connected with him; since you changed your opinions and inclinations on account of his great achievements you have seen me also not only the sharer of your sentiments but also the panegyrist and advocate of them.
25. me a C. Caesare in re publica dissensisse fateor et sensisse vobiscum; sed nunc isdem vobis adsentior cum quibus antea sentiebam. enim, ad quos litteras L. Piso de suis rebus non audet mittere, qui Gabini litteras insigni quadam nota atque ignominia nova condemnastis, C. Caesari supplicationes decrevistis numero ut nemini uno ex bello, honore ut omnino nemini. igitur exspectem hominem aliquem qui me cum illo in gratiam reducat? ordo amplissimus, et ordo is qui est et publici consili et meorum omnium consiliorum auctor et princeps. sequor, patres conscripti, vobis obtempero, vobis adsentior, qui, quam diu C. Caesaris consilia in re publica non maxime diligebatis, me quoque cum illo minus coniunctum videbatis: postea quam rebus gestis mentis vestras voluntatesque mutastis, me non solum comitem esse sententiae vestrae sed etiam laudatorem vidistis.