---
title: "Against Piso · In L. Calpurnium Pisonem"
author: "Cicero"
translator: "Charles Duke Yonge"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 1 of 4
url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/1/
cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, Against Piso · In L. Calpurnium Pisonem, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/1/"
---

# Against Piso · In L. Calpurnium Pisonem

*Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge*

Cicero’s savage invective against the consul who let him be exiled.

> Latin: ed. Albert Curtis Clark, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0474.phi027, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Charles Duke Yonge, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0474.phi027.perseus-eng1). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 1. Sections 2–23

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/1/#p-N

[¶0] fr1. O ye immortal gods, what a day is this which has dawned … … What specimen, even the slightest, have you ever given of ability? Of ability, do I say? Rather should I say, what proof have you ever given of being an honourable or a free man? You, who by your complexion seem to throw a doubt on your country, by your speech on your family, by your morals on your name … … This has nothing to do with leading us to think slightly of Placentia, of which place he boasts that he is a native: for my nature does not incline me to his; nor does the dignity of a municipal town, especially of one which has deserved exceedingly well at my hands, allow me to entertain such feelings.

> Latin: fr1. di inmortales! qui hic inluxit dies mihi quidem, patres conscripti, peroptatus, ut hoc portentum huius loci, monstrum urbis, prodigium civitatis viderem! nihil malui; vos fortasse consumptum istum cruciatu aut demersum fluctibus audire malletis. istum mentis et quaedam scelerum offusa caligo et ardentes Furiarum faces excitaverunt. enim iste in scopulum non incidit, quod in telum non inruit? est negare ausus aut potius quid non confessus? enim illo inertius, quid sordidius, quid nequius, quid enervatius, quid stultius, quid abstrusius?, seditiosi, factiosi, perniciosi. minimum specimen in te ingeni? autem? immo ingenui hominis ac liberi: qui colore ipso patriam aspernaris, oratione genus, moribus nomen.

[¶1] fr9. … … There was a certain Insubrian who was both a merchant and a crier; he, when he had come to Rome with his daughter, ventured to call a young man of high birth, named Caesoninus, the son of a most thorough rogue: he gave his daughter in marriage to … him.

> Latin: fr9. non ad contemnendam Placentiam pertinet unde se is ortum gloriari solet; neque enim hoc mea natura fert nec municipi, praesertim de me optime meriti, dignitas patitur. cum a domo ⟨profectus⟩ Placentiae forte consedisset, pauci⟨s post annis⟩ in eam civitatem—nam tum erat … —ascendit. enim Gallus, dein Gallica⟨nus⟩, extremo Placentinus haberi ⟨coeptus⟩ est.

[¶2] fr11. And she became the mother of you, a beast rather than a man. [Concerning Piso's maternal grandfather] … When he had settled on the banks of the Po at Placentia, a few years afterwards he obtained the freedom of that city; for it was a city at that time. For before that he was considered a Gaul; then a man of Gallic extraction; and at last he began to be considered a sort of half-Placentian. … … That Insubrian grandfather of his adopted the elder …

> Latin: fr11. Insuber quidam fuit, idem mercator et praeco: is cum Romam cum filia venisset, adulescentem nobilem, Caesonini hominis furacissimi filium, ausus est appellare ⟨eique⟩ filiam conlocavit. aiunt eum appellatum. homini levi et subito filiam conlocavit. sibi Insuber ille avus adoptavit.

[¶3] fr13. … Your father wanted a more luxurious son-in-law than Caius Piso did at that time of his distress … I did not give my daughter in marriage to that man whom, when I had the power of choosing from all the world, I should have selected in preference to any one. … … When the whole of your relations arrive in a wagon … … You put out your head, butting at him … … I was sitting next to Pompeius … … Do you not see now, do you not feel, O you beast, what complaints men make of your impudence? No one complains that a Syrian, that a man whom nobody knows, that some one of that body of lately emancipated slaves, was made consul. For that complexion, like that of slaves, and those hairy cheeks and discoloured teeth, did not deceive us: your eyes, your eyebrows, your brow, in short your whole countenance, which is, as it were, a sort of silent language of the mind, led men into error, this it was which led those to whom this man was unknown into mistake and error, and blunders. There were but few of us who were acquainted with those foul vices of yours; few of us who knew the deficiency of your abilities, your stolid manner, and your embarrassed way of speaking. Your voice had never been heard in the forum; no one had had any experience of your wisdom in counsel: you had not only never performed any, I will not say illustrious exploit, but any action at all that was known of either in war or at home. You crept into honours through men's blunders, by the recommendation of some old smoke-dried images, though there is nothing in you at all resembling them except your colour.

> Latin: fr13. … pater tuus socerum quam C. Piso … in illo luctu meo. enim filiam meam conlocavi quem ego, ⟨si mihi⟩ potestas tum omnium fuisset, unum potissimum delegissem. tua illa nescio quibus a terris apportata mater pecudem ex alvo, non hominem effuderit. quae te beluam ex utero, non hominem fudit. Cum tibi tota cognatio serraco advehatur. ista, ficta, fucata sunt omnia. austerum hominem, putavi tristem, putavi gravem, sed video adulterum, video ganeonem, video parietum praesidio, video amicorum sordibus, video tenebris occultantem libidines suas. putavi gravem, video adulterum, video ganeonem. [adsidere Gabinium aut adloqui in curia quisquam audebat.] [quod miser, cum loqui non posset, tacere non poterat?] vides, belua, iamne sentis quae sit hominum querela frontis tuae? queritur Syrum nescio quem de grege noviciorum factum esse consulem. enim nos color iste servilis, non pilosae genae, non dentes putridi deceperunt; oculi, supercilia, frons, voltus denique totus, qui sermo quidam tacitus mentis est, hic in fraudem homines impulit, hic eos quibus erat ignotus decepit, fefellit, induxit. ista tua lutulenta vitia noramus, pauci tarditatem ingeni, stuporem debilitatemque linguae. erat audita vox in foro, numquam periculum factum consili, nullum non modo inlustre sed ne notum quidem factum aut militiae aut domi. ad honores errore hominum, commendatione fumosarum imaginum, quarum simile habes nihil praeter colorem.

[¶4] 2. Will he also boast to me that he obtained even magistracy without one repulse? I am able to make that boast concerning myself with true exultation; for the Roman people did confer all its honours on me in that way-on me, a new man. But when you were made quaestor, even men who had never seen you gave that honour to your name. You were made aedile. A Piso was elected by the Roman people; but not the Piso that you are. The praetorship also was conferred in reality on your ancestors. They, though dead, were well known; but no one had as yet known anything of you, though you were alive. When the Roman people made me quaestor among the first of the candidates, and first aedile, and first praetor, as they did by a unanimous vote, they were paying that compliment to me on my own account and not to my family,—to my habits of life, not to my ancestors,—to my proved virtue, and not to any nobleness of birth of which they had heard.

> Latin: 2. mihi etiam gloriabatur se omnis magistratus sine repulsa adsecutum? ista licet de me vera cum gloria praedicare; omnis enim honores populus Romanus mihi ipsi homini detulit. tu cum quaestor es factus, etiam qui te numquam viderant, tamen illum honorem nomini mandabant tuo. es factus; Piso est a populo Romano factus, non iste Piso. item maioribus delata est tuis. erant illi mortui, te vivum nondum noverat quisquam. cum quaestorem in primis, aedilem priorem, praetorem primum cunctis suffragiis populus Romanus faciebat, homini ille honorem non generi, moribus non maioribus meis, virtuti perspectae non auditae nobilitati deferebat.

[¶5] 3. For why should I speak of my consulship? whether as to the manner in which it was obtained, or in which it was conducted? Wretched man that I am! am I comparing myself to this disgrace and plague of the republic? But I will say nothing with the view of drawing any comparison; but I will bring together those circumstances which are very widely separated. You were declared consul (I will say nothing more severe than what all men admit to be true) at a time when the affairs of the republic were in a state of great embarrassment, when the consuls Caesar and Bibulus were at variance, when you had no objection to those men by whom you were declared consul thinking you undeserving of the light of day if you did not prove more worthless than Gabinius. All Italy, all ranks of men, the entire city declared me the first consul with acclamation even before they gave in their voting tablets. But I say nothing of the circumstances under which each of us was elected. I will allow that chance may have been the mistress of the Campus Martius. It is more to the purpose to say how we conducted ourselves in our respective consulships, than how we obtained them.

> Latin: 3. quid ego de consulatu loquar, parto vis anne gesto? me! cum hac me nunc peste atque labe confero! nihil comparandi causa loquar ac tamen ea quae sunt longissime disiuncta comprendam. consul es renuntiatus—nihil dicam gravius, quam quod omnes fatentur—impeditis rei publicae temporibus, dissidentibus consulibus, cum hoc non recusares eis a quibus dicebare consul, quin te luce dignum non putarent, nisi nequior quam Gabinius exstitisses. cuncta Italia, me omnes ordines, me universa civitas non prius tabella quam voce priorem consulem declaravit. omitto ut sit factus uterque nostrum; sit sane domina campi. Magnificentius est dicere quem ad modum gesserimus consulatum quam quem ad modum ceperimus.

[¶6] 4. I, on the first of January, delivered the senate and all virtuous citizens from the fear of an agrarian law and of extravagant largesses. I preserved the Campanian district, if it was not expedient that it should be divided; if it was expedient, I reserved it for more respectable authors of the division. I, in the case of Caius Rabirius, a man on his trial for high treason, supported and defended against envy the authority of the senate which had been interposed forty years before the time of my consulship. I, at the cost of incurring great enmity myself, but without any enmity falling on the senate, deprived some young men—virtuous and brave men indeed but still men in such a peculiar condition that if they had obtained magistracies they would have convulsed the constitution of the republic of the opportunity of canvassing the comitia.

> Latin: 4. Kalendis Ianuariis senatum et bonos omnis legis agrariae maximarumque largitionum metu liberavi. agrum Campanum, si dividi non oportuit, conservavi, si oportuit, melioribus auctoribus reservavi. in C. Rabirio perduellionis reo xl annis ante me consulem interpositam senatus auctoritatem sustinui contra invidiam atque defendi. adulescentis bonos et fortis, sed usos ea condicione fortunae ut, si essent magistratus adepti, rei publicae statum convolsuri viderentur, meis inimicitiis, nulla senatus mala gratia comitiorum ratione privavi.

[¶7] 5. By my patience and complaisant conduct I propitiated Antonius my colleague eager for a province, and cherishing many designs injurious to the republic. I in the public assembly renounced the province of Gaul, fully equipped and well appointed with an army and with funds by the authority of the senate, which I had taken in exchange from Antonius, because I thought it advantageous to the republic at that time that I should do so in spite of the outcry raised by the Roman people against my doing so. I ordered Lucius Catiline planning not obscurely, but openly, the slaughter of the senate and the destruction of the city, to depart from the city in order that you might be protected by our walls from his designs from which our laws were insufficient to defend us. I wrested from the nefarious hands of the conspirators the weapons which in the last month of my consulship were aimed at the throats of the citizens. I seized, and brought to light and extinguished the firebrands which were already kindled for the conflagration of the city.

> Latin: 5. Antonium conlegam cupidum provinciae, multa in re publica molientem patientia atque obsequio meo mitigavi. provinciam Galliam senatus auctoritate exercitu et pecunia instructam et ornatam, quam cum Antonio commutavi, quod ita existimabam tempora rei publicae ferre, in contione deposui reclamante populo Romano. L. Catilinam caedem senatus, interitum urbis non obscure sed palam molientem egredi ex urbe iussi ut, a quo legibus non poteramus, moenibus tuti esse possemus. tela extremo mense consulatus mei intenta iugulis civitatis de coniuratorum nefariis manibus extorsi. faces iam accensas ad huius urbis incendium comprehendi, protuli, exstinxi.

[¶8] 6. Quintus Catulus the chief of this body the great leader of the public council, in the fullest possible house, called me the father of my country. This most illustrious man, who is at this moment sitting close to you, Lucius Gellius, in the hearing of all these people, said that a civic crown was owed to me by the republic. Though I was only clad in the garb of peace, the senate, by an unprecedented sort of supplication, opened the temples of the gods in my honour; not because I had successfully governed the republic, that being a compliment which had been paid to many, but because I had saved it, that being an honour which has never been conferred on any one. When in the assembly of the people, on giving up my office, I was prevented saying what I had intended by the tribune of the people, and when he would only allow me to take the oath, I swore without any hesitation that the republic and this city had been saved by my single exertions.

> Latin: 6. Q. Catulus, princeps huius ordinis et auctor publici consili, frequentissimo senatu parentem patriae nominavit. hic vir clarissimus qui propter te sedet, L. Gellius, his audientibus civicam coronam deberi a re publica dixit. togato senatus non ut multis bene gesta, sed ut nemini conservata re publica, singulari genere supplicationis deorum immortalium templa patefecit. cum in contione abiens magistratu dicere a tribuno pl. prohiberer quae constitueram, cumque is mihi tantum modo ut iurarem permitteret, sine ulla dubitatione iuravi rem publicam atque hanc urbem mea unius opera esse salvam.

[¶9] 7. On that day, the entire Roman people gave me in that assembly, not a congratulation to be remembered for the rest of the day, but they gave me immortality and eternal glory, when they themselves swearing also, with one voice and consent approved of my oath couched in such proud and triumphant words. And on that occasion, my return home from the forum was of such a nature that there did not appear to be a single citizen who was not in my train. And my consulship was conducted throughout in such a manner, that I did nothing without the advice of the senate,—nothing without the approbation of the Roman people; that in the rostra I constantly defended the senate,—in the senate-house I was the unwearied advocate of the people; that in that manner, I united the multitude with the chief men, and the equestrian order with the senate. I have now briefly described my consulship.

> Latin: 7. populus Romanus universus illa in contione non unius diei gratulationem sed aeternitatem immortalitatemque donavit, cum meum ius iurandum tale atque tantum iuratus ipse una voce et consensu approbavit. quidem tempore is meus domum fuit e foro reditus ut nemo, nisi qui mecum esset, civium esse in numero videretur. ita est a me consulatus peractus ut nihil sine consilio senatus, nihil non approbante populo Romano egerim, ut semper in rostris curiam, in senatu populum defenderim, ut multitudinem cum principibus, equestrem ordinem cum senatu coniunxerim. breviter consulatum meum.

[¶10] 8. Dare now, O you Fury to describe yours; the beginning of which was the Compitalitian games, then first celebrated since the time that Lucius Metellus and Quintus Marcius were consuls, contrary to the inclination of this order: games which Quintus Metellus (I am doing injury to a gallant man who is dead when I compare him, to whom this city has produced few equals, to this ill-omened beast)—but he, being consul elect when a certain tribune of the people, relying on his own power, had ordered the master of the games to celebrate them in contempt of a resolution passed by the senate, though still a private individual, forbade it to be done, and he carried that point by the weight of his character, which he had not as yet any power to enforce. You, when the day of the Compitalitia had fallen on the first of January, permitted Sextus Clodius, who had never before filled any office which entitled him to wear the pratetexta, to celebrate the games, and to strut about in a praetexta like a profligate man, as he was, a man thoroughly worthy of your countenance and regard.

> Latin: 8. nunc, o furia, de tuo dicere! cuius fuit initium ludi compitalicii tum primum facti post L. Iulium et C. Marcium consules contra auctoritatem huius ordinis; quos Q. Metellus—facio iniuriam fortissimo viro mortuo, qui illum cuius paucos paris haec civitas tulit cum hac importuna belua conferam—sed ille designatus consul, cum quidam tribunus pl. suo auxilio magistros ludos contra senatus consultum facere iussisset, privatus fieri vetuit atque id quod nondum potestate poterat obtinuit auctoritate., cum in Kalendas Ianuarias compitaliorum dies incidisset, Sex. Clodium, qui numquam antea praetextatus fuisset, ludos facere et praetextatum volitare passus es, hominem impurum ac non modo facie sed etiam oculo tuo dignissimum.

[¶11] 9. Therefore, when you had laid this foundation of your consulship, three days after, while you were looking on in silence, the Aelian and Fufian law, that bulwark and wall of tranquillity and peace, was overturned by Publius Clodius, that fatal prodigy and monster of the republic. Not only the guilds which the senate had abolished were restored but countless new ones were established of all the dregs of the city and even of slaves. The same man, immersed in unheard of and impious debaucheries, abolished that old preceptress of modesty and charity, the severity of the censor, while you in the mean time, you sepulchre of the republic, you who say that you were at that time consul at Rome, never by one single word intimated any opinion of your own amid such a terrible shipwreck of the state.

> Latin: 9. his fundamentis positis consulatus tui triduo post inspectante et tacente te a fatali portento prodigioque rei publicae lex Aelia et Fufia eversa est, propugnacula murique tranquillitatis atque oti; conlegia non ea solum quae senatus sustulerat restituta, sed innumerabilia quaedam nova ex omni faece urbis ac servitio concitata. eodem homine in stupris inauditis nefariisque versato vetus illa magistra pudoris et modestiae censura sublata est, cum tu interim, bustum rei publicae, qui te consulem tum Romae dicis fuisse, verbo numquam significaris sententiam tuam tantis in naufragiis civitatis.

[¶12] 10. I have not yet said what you did yourself, but only what you allowed to be done. Nor does it make much difference, especially in a consul whether he himself harnesses the republic with pernicious laws mid infamous harangues, or allows others to harass it. Can there be any excuse for a consul, I will not say being disaffected to the state, but sitting with his hands before him dawdling and sleeping amid the greatest commotions of the republic? For nearly a hundred years had we possessed the Aelian and Fufian law; for four hundred years had we enjoyed the censor's power of deciding on, and animadverting on, the conduct of citizens; laws which I will not say no wicked man has ever dared to uproot, but which no one has ever been able to uproot, a power which no one, not if he were ever so profligate has ever attempted to diminish so as to prevent a formal judgment from being passed every fifth year on our morals.

> Latin: 10. quae feceris, sed quae fieri passus sis, dico. vero multum interest, praesertim in consule, utrum ipse perniciosis legibus, improbis contionibus rem publicam vexet, an alios vexare patiatur. potest ulla esse excusatio non dicam male sentienti, sed sedenti, cunctanti, dormienti in maximo rei publicae motu consuli? c prope annos legem Aeliam et Fufiam tenueramus, cccc iudicium notionemque censoriam. leges ausus est non nemo improbus, potuit quidem nemo convellere, quam potestatem minuere, quo minus de moribus nostris quinto quoque anno iudicaretur, nemo tam effuse petulans conatus est, haec sunt, o carnifex! in prooemio sepulta consulatus tui.

[¶13] 11. These things now, O worst of men, are entombed in the bosom of your consulship. Proceed on to the days which followed their funeral obsequies. In front of the tribunal of Aurelius, while you were not only shutting your eyes to the measure, which of itself would have been wicked enough, but while you were looking on with a more delighted countenance than usual, a levy of slaves was had by that man who never considered anything too infamous for him either to say or to do. Arms (O you betrayer of all temples) were placed in the temples of Castor by that robber, while you were looking on, to whom that temple, while you were consul, was a citadel for profligate citizens,—a receptacle for the veteran soldiers of Catiline,—a castle for forensic robbery, and the sepulchre of all law and of all religion. Not only my house, but the whole Palatine Hill, was crowded by the senate, by Roman knights, by the entire city, by the whole of Italy, while you not only never once came near that Cicero (for I omit all mention of domestic circumstances, which perhaps you would deny, and speak only of those facts which were done openly and are notorious)—you never, I say, came near that Cicero to whom all the comitia in which you were elected consul had given the first tablet of the prerogative tribe, but who in the senate was the third person whose opinion you asked; but more, you were present, yes, and you presided in the most cruel manner, over all the counsels which were entertained for the purpose of crushing me.

> Latin: 11. continentis his funeribus dies. Aurelio tribunali ne conivente quidem te, quod ipsum esset scelus, sed etiam hilarioribus oculis quam solitus eras intuente, dilectus servorum habebatur ab eo qui nihil sibi umquam nec facere nec pati turpe esse duxit. in templo Castoris, o proditor templorum omnium! vidente te constituebantur ab eo latrone cui templum illud fuit te consule arx civium perditorum, receptaculum veterum Catilinae militum, castellum forensis latrocini, bustum legum omnium ac religionum. non solum domus mea sed totum Palatium senatu, equitibus Romanis, civitate omni, Italia cuncta refertum, cum tu non modo ad eum—mitto enim domestica, quae negari possunt; haec commemoro quae sunt palam—non modo, inquam, ad eum cui primam comitiis tuis dederas tabulam praerogativae, quem in senatu sententiam rogabas tertium, numquam aspirasti, sed omnibus consiliis quae ad me opprimendum parabantur non interfuisti solum verum etiam crudelissime praefuisti.

[¶14] 12. But what was it that you dared to say to me myself, in the presence of my son-in-law, your own relation? “That Gabinius was a beggar, without either house or property; that he could not exist if he did not obtain a province; that you had hopes from a tribune of the people, if you united your plans to his; that you had no hope at all from the senate; that you were complying with his covetousness as I had done in the case of my colleague; that there was no reason why I should implore the protection of the consuls; that every one ought to take care of his own interests.” And these things I scarcely venture to say. I am afraid that there may be some one who does not clearly see his enormous wickedness, concealed as it is under his impenetrable countenance; still I will say it: he himself, at all events, will recognise the truth, and will feel some pain in recollecting his crimes.

> Latin: 12. vero ipsi coram genero meo, propinquo tuo quae dicere ausus es? sordidissime Gabinium, sine provincia stare non posse, spem habere a tribuno pl., si sua consilia cum illo coniunxisset, a senatu quidem desperasse; huius te cupiditati obsequi, sicuti ego fecissem in conlega meo; nihil esse quod praesidium consulum implorarem; sibi quemque consulere oportere. haec dicere vix audeo; vereor ne qui sit qui istius insignem nequitiam frontis involutam integumentis nondum cernat; dicam tamen. certe agnoscet et cum aliquo dolore flagitiorum suorum recordabitur.

[¶15] 13. Do you recollect you infamous fellow, when about the fifth hour of the day I came to you with Caius Piso, that you came out of some hovel or other with your head wrapped up, and in slippers? and when you, with that fetid breath of yours, had filled us with the odour of that vile cookshop, that you made the excuse of your health, because you said that you were compelled to have recourse to some vinous remedies? and when we had admitted the pretence, (for what could we do?) we stood a little while amid the fumes and smell of your gluttony, till you drove us away by filthy language and still more filthy behaviour?

> Latin: 13. , caenum, cum ad te quinta fere hora cum C. Pisone venissem, nescio quo e gurgustio te prodire involuto capite soleatum, et, cum isto ore foetido taeterrimam nobis popinam inhalasses, excusatione te uti valetudinis, quod diceres vinulentis te quibusdam medicaminibus solere curari? nos causam cum accepissemus—quid enim facere poteramus?—paulisper stetimus in illo ganearum tuarum nidore atque fumo; unde tu nos cum improbissime respondendo, tum turpissime ructando eiecisti.

[¶16] 14. About two days afterwards you were brought forward in the assembly of the people by that man with whom you had shared your consulship in that manner; and when you were asked what were your sentiments respecting my consulship, you, a very grave authority, some Calatinus, I suppose, or Africanus, or Maximus, surely not a Caesoninus half-Placentian Calventius, make answer, lifting one eyebrow up to your forehead, and depressing the other down to your chin, “that you did not approve of its entirety.” On this, that noble man, so exceedingly worthy of being admitted into your counsels, praised you. Do you, then, you scoundrel, do you as consul condemn the senate for cruelty before an assembly of the people? For you are not condemning one who only obeyed the senate;—for that salutary and diligent report of the conspiracy was the work of the consul; the sentence and the punishment were the act of the senate. And when you find fault with them, you show what sort of consul you would have been at that time, if by chance it had so happened. You, I make no doubt would have considered that Catiline deserved to be aided with pay and provisions. For, what was the difference between Catiline and that man to whom you sold the authority of the senate, the safety of the state, and the whole republic, for the reward of a province?

> Latin: 14. illo fere biduo productus in contionem ab eo cui sicam quandam praebebas consulatum tuum, cum esses interrogatus quid sentires de consulatu meo, gravis auctor, Calatinus credo aliquis aut Africanus aut et non Caesoninus Semiplacentinus, respondes altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio crudelitatem tibi non placere. te ille homo dignissimus tuis laudibus conlaudavit. tu, furcifer, senatum consul in contione condemnas? non enim me qui senatui parui; nam relatio illa salutaris et diligens fuerat consulis, animadversio quidem et iudicium senatus. cum reprehendis, ostendis qualis tu, si ita forte accidisset, fueris illo tempore consul futurus. me hercule et frumento Catilinam esse putasses iuvandum. enim interfuit inter Catilinam et eum cui tu senatus auctoritatem, salutem civitatis, totam rem publicam provinciae praemio vendidisti?

[¶17] 15. For the consuls assisted Clodius while doing those very things which Catiline was only attempting when I as consul defeated his machinations. He, indeed, wished to massacre the senate; you two abolished it. He wished to destroy the laws by fire and sword; you two abrogated them. He wished the country to perish; you two aided him. What, during your consulship, was ever accomplished except by force of arms? That band of conspirators wished to fire the city; you two sought to burn the house of that man, to whom it was owing that the city was not burnt. And even these men, if they had a consul like you, would never have thought of burning the city: For they did not wish to deprive themselves of their homes; but as long as those consuls flourished, they thought that there would be no home for their wickedness. They desired the slaughter of the citizens; you desired to bring them to slavery; and in this were even more cruel than they; for, until your consulship, the spirit of liberty was so deeply implanted in this people, that they would have thought it preferable to die rather than to become slaves.

> Latin: 15. enim L. Catilinam conantem consul prohibui, ea P. Clodium facientem consules adiuverunt. ille senatum interficere, vos sustulistis; leges incendere, vos abrogastis; interimere patriam, vos adflixistis. est vobis consulibus gestum sine armis? illa coniuratorum manus voluit urbem, vos eius domum quem propter urbs incensa non est. ne illi quidem, si habuissent vestri similem consulem, de urbis incendio cogitassent; non enim se tectis privare voluerunt, sed his stantibus nullum domicilium sceleri suo fore putaverunt. illi civium, vos servitutem expetistis. vos etiam crudeliores; huic enim populo ita fuerat ante vos consules libertas insita ut ei mori potius quam servire praestaret.

[¶18] 16. But that pair of you, acting on the designs of Catiline and Lentulus, expelled me from my house, and confined Cnaeus Pompeius to his; for they did not think that as long as I stood firm, and remained in the city exerting all my vigilance for its defence, and as long as Cnaeus Pompeius, the conqueror of all the world, opposed them, they should ever be able utterly to destroy the republic. You sought even to inflict punishment on me, by which you might make atonement to the shades of the dead conspirators. You poured forth upon me all the hatred which had been long nursed in the wicked feelings of impious men. And if I had not yielded for a while to their frenzy, I should have been murdered in the tomb of Catiline, under your leadership. But what greater proof do you want that there is no real difference between you and Catiline, than is the fact, that you awakened again that same band from the half-dead relics of Catiline's army? that you collected all abandoned men from all quarters? that you let loose against me the dregs of the prisons? that you armed conspirators? that you sought to expose my person and the lives of all good men to their frenzy and to their swords?

> Latin: 16. vero geminum consiliis Catilinae et Lentuli, quod me domo mea expulistis, Cn. Pompeium domum suam compulistis. enim me stante et manente in urbis vigilia neque resistente Cn. Pompeio, omnium gentium victore, umquam se illi rem publicam delere posse duxerunt. A me quidem etiam poenas expetistis quibus coniuratorum manis mortuorum expiaretis; omne odium inclusum nefariis sensibus impiorum in me profudistis. ego furori nisi cessissem, in Catilinae busto vobis ducibus mactatus essem. autem maius indicium exspectatis nihil inter vos et Catilinam interfuisse quam quod eandem illam manum ex intermortuis Catilinae reliquiis concitastis, quod omnis undique perditos conlegistis, quod in me carcerem effudistis, quod coniuratos armastis, quod eorum ferro ac furori meum corpus atque omnium bonorum vitam obicere voluistis?

[¶19] 17. But I come back now to that splendid harangue of yours. You are the man who disapprove of cruelty, are you? you who, when the senate had decided on displaying its grief and indignation by a change of their garments, and when you saw that the whole republic was grieving in the mourning of its most honourable order, you, O merciful man, what do you do? Why, what no tyrant in any country of barbarians ever dreamt of. For, I say nothing of the fact of a consul issuing an edict, that the senate should not obey a resolution of the senate; an action than which none more shameful can either be done or imagined. I return to the merciful disposition of that man, who thinks that the senate were over cruel in preserving the country.

> Latin: 17. iam redeo ad praeclaram illam contionem tuam. es ille, cui crudelitas displicet? qui, cum senatus luctum ac dolorem suum vestis mutatione declarandum censuisset, cum videres maerere rem publicam amplissimi ordinis luctu, o noster misericors! quid facis? nulla in barbaria quisquam tyrannus. enim illud, consulem edicere ut senatus consulto ne obtemperetur, quo foedius nec fieri nec cogitari quicquam potest; ad misericordiam redeo eius cui nimis videtur senatus in conservanda patria fuisse crudelis.

[¶20] 18. He with his mate—whom however he was desirous to surpass in all vices—dared to issue an edict that the senate should return to its usual dress contrary to the resolution which that body itself had passed. What tyrant in any part of Scythia ever behaved in such a way as not to permit those men to mourn whom he was loading with misery? You leave them their grief, you take away the emblems of grief, you take away their tears not by comforting them but by threatening them. But even if the conscript fathers had changed their attire not in consequence of any public resolution, but out of private affection or pity still it would have been an intolerable stretch of power that your interdict should prohibit them from doing so; but when the senate in a full house had passed a resolution to that effect, and all the other orders in the state had already changed their attire, then you, a consul, dragged out of a dark dirty cookshop, with that shaved dancing girl of yours, forbade the senate of the Roman people to mourn for the setting and death of the republic. But a little time before, he even asked me what need I had of his assistance? why I had not resisted my enemies with my own resources? Just as if not only I who had often been of assistance to many others, but as if any one were ever in so wholly desperate a condition as to consider himself not only safer if he had that man for a protector but more ready for the struggle if he had him only for an advocate or seconder.

> Latin: 18. est ausus cum illo suo pari, quem tamen omnibus vitiis superare cupiebat, ut senatus contra quam ipse censuisset ad vestitum rediret. hoc fecit ulla in Scythia tyrannus ut eos quos luctu adficeret lugere non sineret? relinquis, maeroris aufers insignia; eripis lacrimas non consolando sed minando. si vestem non publico consilio patres conscripti, sed privato officio aut misericordia mutavissent, tamen id his non licere per interdicta potestatis tuae crudelitatis erat non ferendae; cum vero id senatus frequens censuisset et omnes ordines reliqui iam ante fecissent, tu ex tenebricosa popina consul extractus cum illa saltatrice tonsa senatum populi Romani occasum atque interitum rei publicae lugere vetuisti. quaerebat etiam paulo ante de me quid suo mihi opus fuisset auxilio; cur non meis inimicis meis copiis restitissem. vero non modo ego, qui multis saepe auxilio fuerim, sed quisquam tam inops fuerit umquam qui isto non modo propugnatore tutiorem se sed advocato aut adstipulatore paratiorem fore putaret.

[¶21] 19. Was I, forsooth, anxious to lean on the counsel or protection of that piece of senseless cattle, of that bit of rotten flesh? was I likely to seek for any support or ornament for myself from that contemptible carcass? I suppose I was looking for a consul, I say, but one (that I was not likely to find in that hog) who might uphold the cause of the republic with his dignity and wisdom, not one who like a stock or like a trunk of a tree, if he only stood upright, might maintain the title of consul. For as the whole of my cause was the cause of a consul and of the senate, I had need of the assistance of the consul and senate; one of which sources of aid was even turned by you when you were consuls to my injury; the other was entirely suspended, if not abolished in the republic. But if you ask what were my intentions; I would not have yielded, and the republic should still have retained me in its embrace, if I had only had to contend with contemptible gladiators, and with you, and with your colleague. For the cause of that most admirable man Quintus Metellus was a wholly different one; a citizen whom, in my opinion, I consider equal in glory to the immortal gods;

> Latin: 19. istius pecudis ac putidae carnis consilio scilicet aut praesidio niti volebam, ab hoc eiecto cadavere quicquam mihi aut opis aut ornamenti expetebam. ego tum quaerebam, consulem inquam, non illum quidem quem in hoc maiali invenire non possem, qui tantam rei publicae causam gravitate et consilio suo tueretur, sed qui tamquam truncus atque stipes, si stetisset modo, posset sustinere tamen titulum consulatus. Cum enim esset omnis causa illa mea consularis et senatoria, auxilio mihi opus fuerat et consulis et senatus; quorum alterum etiam ad perniciem meam erat a vobis consulibus conversum, alterum rei publicae penitus ereptum. tamen, si consilium exquiris meum, neque ego cessissem et me ipsa suo complexu patria tenuisset, si mihi cum illo bustuario gladiatore et tecum et cum conlega tuo decertandum fuisset.

[¶22] 20. who thought it best for him to leave the city in order to avoid a contest with Caius Marius—a most gallant man, a consul, yes, a man who had been consul six times—and with his invincible legions. For what contest like this lay before me? Should I have had to fight with Caius Marius or with any one like him, or rather with one consul who was a sort of barbarian Epicurus, and with the other, a mere hut-boy of Catiline's? I was not, in truth, afraid of your supercilious looks, or of the cymbals and castanets of your colleague; nor was I so nervous, after having guided the vessel of the state amid the most terrible storms and billows of the republic, and placed it safe in harbour, as to fear the little cloud which gathered on your brow, or the polluted breath of your colleague. They were other gales which I beheld threatening; they were other storms which my mind foresaw;

> Latin: 20. Alia enim causa praestantissimi viri, Q. Metelli, fuit, quem ego civem meo iudicio cum deorum immortalium laude coniungo; qui C. illi Mario, fortissimo viro et consuli et sextum consuli et eius invictis legionibus, ne armis confligeret, cedendum esse duxit. mihi igitur certamen esset huius modi? cum C. Mario scilicet aut cum aliquo pari, an cum altero barbato Epicuro, cum altero Catilinae lanternario consule? hercule ego supercilium tuum neque conlegae tui cymbala fugi neque tam fui timidus ut, qui in maximis turbinibus ac fluctibus rei publicae navem gubernassem salvamque in portu conlocassem, frontis tuae nubeculam aut conlegae tui contaminatum spiritum pertimescerem.

[¶23] 21. and I did not so much yield to those other storms which were impending, but rather exposed myself alone to them to secure the safety of all the rest of the citizens. Accordingly at that time, on my departure, all those wicked swords fell from the hands of those most cruel men; when you, O senseless and insane man,—while all good men shut themselves up and hid themselves out of grief, and lamented for the temples, and bewailed the very houses of the city,—you, I say, embraced that fatal monster, the progeny of nefarious licentiousness, and civil bloodshed, and the foulness or every sort of wickedness, and the impunity of every crime; and in the same temple, at that very same time and in the very same place, you forbade the senate to express its opinion not only on my destruction, but on that of their country.

> Latin: 21. Alios ego vidi ventos, alias prospexi animo procellas, aliis impendentibus tempestatibus non cessi sed bis unum me pro omnium salute obtuli. discessu tum meo omnes illi nefarii gladii de manibus crudelissimis exciderunt, cum quidem tu, o vaecors et amens! cum omnes boni abditi inclusique maererent, templa gemerent, tecta ipsa urbis lugerent, complexus es funestum illud animal ex nefariis stupris, ex civili cruore, ex omni scelerum importunitate conceptum atque eodem in templo, eodem loci vestigio et temporis arbitria non mei solum sed patriae funeris abstulisti.

[¶24] 22. Why need I speak of the banquets of those days, why of your joy and self-congratulation, why of your most intemperate drinking-bouts with your crew of infamous companions? Who in those days ever saw you sober, who ever saw you doing any thing which was worthy of a freeman; who, in short, ever saw you in public at all? while the house of your colleague was resounding with song and cymbals, and while he himself was dancing naked at banquets; in which even then, when he was going round in the circle of the dance, he seemed to have no fear of any revolution of fortune. But this man, who is not quite so refined in gluttony nor so musical, lay stupefied amid the reeking orgies of his Greek crew. The banquets celebrated by that fellow at the time of all this misery of the republic, resembled what is reported of the feast of the Centaurs and Lapithae; and it is quite impossible to tell in what sort of debauchery he indulged to the most disgraceful excess. Will you dare to make mention of your consulship? will you dare to say that you ever were consul at Rome?

> Latin: 22. ego illorum dierum epulas, quid laetitiam et gratulationem tuam, quid cum tuis sordidissimis gregibus intemperantissimas perpotationes praedicem? te illis diebus sobrium, quis agentem aliquid quod esset libero dignum, quis denique in publico vidit? cum conlegae tui domus cantu et cymbalis personaret, cumque ipse nudus in convivio saltaret; in quo cum illum saltatorium versaret orbem, ne tum quidem fortunae rotam pertimescebat. autem non tam concinnus helluo nec tam musicus iacebat in suorum Graecorum foetore et caeno; quod quidem istius in illis rei publicae luctibus quasi aliquod Lapitharum aut Centaurorum convivium ferebatur; in quo nemo potest dicere utrum iste plus biberit an vomuerit an effuderit.

[¶25] 23. What? do you think that the consulship consists in being attended by lictors and in wearing the toga praetexta? ornaments which, while you were consul you wished to belong also to Sextus Clodius. And do you, O you dog of Clodius's, think that the consulship consists wholly in the possession of these insignia? A consul ought to be a consul in courage, in wisdom, in good faith, in dignity, in vigilance, in prudence, in performing all the labours and duties of the consulship, and above all things—as, indeed, the name of the magistracy itself points out—in consulting the interests of the republic. Am I to think that man a consul who thought that the senate had no existence in the republic? and am I to account him a consul, who takes no heed of that great council without which, even in the time of the kingly power, the kings could not have any existence at Rome? But I pass over all those points. When a levy of slaves was being held in the forum; when arms were in open daylight being carried to the temple of Castor; and when that temple, having its doors thrown down and its steps torn up, was occupied by the remnant of the conspirators, and by the man who had once been a pretended accuser of Catiline, but who now was seeking to be his avenger; when Roman knights were being banished; when virtuous men were being driven with stones out of the forum; when the senate were prevented not only from assisting the republic, but even from mourning over it; when that citizen, whom this venerable body, with the assent of Italy and all the nations of the earth, had styled the saviour of his country, was being driven away without a trial, in a manner contrary to all law, contrary to all precedent, by slaves and an armed mob;—I will not say, with your assistance (though I might say that with truth), but certainly without your lifting up your voice against it;—will any one believe that there were any consuls at all at to me at that time?

> Latin: 23. etiam mentionem facies consulatus aut te fuisse Romae consulem dicere audebis?? tu in lictoribus et in toga praetexta esse consulatum putas? quae ornamenta etiam in Sex. Clodio te consule esse voluisti, his tu, Clodiane canis, insignibus consulatum declarari putas? consulem esse oportet, consilio, fide, gravitate, vigilantia, cura, toto denique munere consulatus omni officio tuendo, maximeque, id quod vis nominis ipsa praescribit, rei publicae consulendo. ego consulem esse putem qui senatum esse in re publica non putavit, et sine eo consilio consulem numerem, sine quo Romae ne reges quidem esse potuerunt? illa iam omitto. Cum servorum dilectus haberetur in foro, arma in templum Castoris luce et palam comportarentur, id autem templum sublato aditu revolsis gradibus a coniuratorum reliquiis atque a Catilinae praevaricatore quondam, tum ultore, armis teneretur, cum equites Romani relegarentur, viri boni lapidibus e foro pellerentur, senatui non solum iuvare rem publicam sed ne lugere quidem liceret, cum civis is quem hic ordo adsentiente Italia cunctisque gentibus conservatorem patriae iudicarat nullo iudicio, nulla lege, nullo more servitio atque armis pelleretur, non dicam auxilio vestro, quod vere licet dicere, sed certe silentio: tum Romae fuisse consules quisquam existimabit?