--- title: "Against Piso · In L. Calpurnium Pisonem" author: "Cicero" translator: "Charles Duke Yonge" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Classical Latin" section: 2 of 4 url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/2/ cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, Against Piso · In L. Calpurnium Pisonem, section 2. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/2/" --- # 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. ## 2. Sections 24–49 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-pisonem/2/#p-N [¶0] 24. Who, then, are robbers, if you were consuls? Who can be called pirates, or enemies, or traitors, or tyrants? Great, O senators, is the name, great is the honour, great is the dignity, great is the majesty of a consul. Your narrow mind, O Piso, your paltry soul, your spiritless heart, is unable to comprehend that greatness. The weakness of your intellect cannot grasp it; your inexperience of prosperity cannot support so dignified, so solemn a character. Seplasia, in truth, as I heard said, the moment that it beheld you, refused to acknowledge you as the consul of Campania. It had heard of the Decii, of the Magii, it knew something also about Jubellius Taurea; and if those men did not display all the moderation which is usually found in our consuls, at all events there was a pomp about them, there was a magnificence, there was a gait and behaviour worthy of Seplasia and of Capua. > Latin: 24. latrones igitur, si quidem vos consules, qui praedones, qui hostes, qui proditores, qui tyranni nominabuntur? Magnum nomen est, magna species, magna dignitas, magna maiestas consulis; non capiunt angustiae pectoris tui, non recipit levitas ista, non egestas animi; non infirmitas ingeni sustinet, non insolentia rerum secundarum tantam personam, tam gravem, tam severam. Seplasia me hercule, ut dici audiebam, te ut primum aspexit, Campanum consulem repudiavit. Decios Magios et de illo Vibellio aliquid acceperat; in quibus si moderatio illa quae in nostris solet esse consulibus non fuit, at fuit pompa, fuit species, fuit incessus saltem Seplasia dignus et Capua. [¶1] 25. Indeed, if those perfumers had beheld your colleague Gabinius as their duumviri; they would sooner have acknowledged him. He at least had carefully-dressed hair, and perfumed fringes of curls, and anointed and carefully-rouged cheeks, worthy of Capua,—of Capua, I mean, such as it used to be. For the Capua that now is is full of most excellent characters, of most gallant men, of most virtuous citizens, and of men most friendly and devoted to me; not one of whom ever saw you at Capua clad in your praetexta without groaning out of regret for me, by whose counsels they recollected that the whole republic and that city in particular had been preserved. They had paid me the honour of a gilded statue; they had adopted me as their especial patron; they considered that it was owing to me that they were still enjoying their lives, their fortunes, and their children; they had defended me when I was present against your piratical attacks, by their decrees, and by their deputations; and when I was absent they recalled me, when that great man Cnaeus Pompeius submitted the motion to them, and tore the weapons of your wickedness out of the body or the republic. > Latin: 25. Gabinium denique si vidissent duumvirum vestri illi unguentarii, citius agnovissent. illi compti capilli et madentes cincinnorum fimbriae et fluentes purpurissataeque buccae, dignae Capua, sed illa vetere; nam haec quidem quae nunc est splendidissimorum hominum, fortissimorum virorum, optimorum civium mihique amicissimorum multitudine redundat. Capuae te praetextatum nemo aspexit qui non gemeret desiderio mei, cuius consilio cum universam rem publicam, tum illam ipsam urbem meminerant esse servatam. inaurata statua donarant, me patronum unum asciverant, a me se habere vitam, fortunas, liberos arbitrabantur, me et praesentem contra latrocinium tuum suis decretis legatisque defenderant et absentem principe Cn. Pompeio referente et de corpore rei publicae tuorum scelerum tela revellente revocarant. [¶2] 26. Were you consul when my house on the Palatine Hill was set on fire, not by any accident but by men applying fire brands to it at your inspiration? Was there ever before any conflagration of any great extent or importance in the city without the consul coming to bring assistance? But you at that very time were sitting in the house of your mother in law, close to my house; you had opened her house to receive the plunder of mine; you were sitting there not for the purpose of extinguishing, but as the originator of the fire and you—I may almost say—were yourself as consul supplying burning firebrands to the Furies of Clodius's party. And all the rest of the year did any one consider you as consul? Did any one obey you? Did any one ever rise up to show respect to you when you came into the senate house? Did any one ever think it worth his while to answer you when you asked his opinion? In short, is that year at all to be counted in the republic when the senate was mute, the courts of justice silent,—when all good men were mourning, when the violence of your troops of banditti was raging over the whole city, and when not one citizen only had departed from the city, but when the city itself had yielded to the wickedness and frenzy of you and Gabinius? > Latin: 26. tum eras consul cum in Palatio mea domus ardebat non casu aliquo sed ignibus iniectis instigante te? in hac urbe maius umquam incendium fuit cui non consul subvenerit? tu illo ipso tempore apud socrum tuam prope a meis aedibus, cuius domum ad meam domum exhauriendam patefeceras, sedebas non exstinctor sed auctor incendi et ardentis faces furiis Clodianis paene ipse consul ministrabas. vero reliquo tempore consulem te quisquam duxit, quisquam tibi paruit, quisquam in curiam venienti adsurrexit, quisquam consulenti respondendum putavit? est ille annus denique in re publica, cum obmutuisset senatus, iudicia conticuissent, maererent boni, vis latrocini vestri tota urbe volitaret neque civis unus ex civitate sed ipsa civitas tuo et Gabini sceleri furorique cessisset? [¶3] 27. But even then, O you impious Caesoninus, you did not emerge from the miserable vileness of your nature, when after a time the reawakened virtue of a most illustrious man quickly demanded the restoration of one who was his own true friend, and a citizen who had deserved well of the state, and of the ancient customs and principles of the republic. Nor would that great man permit the pestilence of your wickedness to remain any longer in that republic, which he himself had embellished and whose power he had extended. But when that Gabinius, such as he is, a man who is surpassed in infamy by you alone, recollected himself,—with difficulty, indeed, but still he did recollect himself,—he contended against his dear friend Clodius, at first only feignedly, then very unwillingly, but at last with genuine ardour and vehemence, in support of Cnaeus Pompeius. And in that spectacle the impartiality of the Roman people was very admirable. It looked on like a master of gladiators, and whichever of them perished, it thought would he an equal advantage to itself; but if both fell, that indeed would be a most heavenly blessing. > Latin: 27. ne tum quidem emersisti, lutulente Caesonine, ex miserrimis naturae tuae sordibus, cum experrecta tandem virtus clarissimi viri celeriter et verum amicum et optime meritum civem et suum pristinum morem requisivit; neque est ille vir passus in ea re publica quam ipse decorarat atque auxerat diutius vestrorum scelerum pestem morari, cum tamen ille, qualiscumque est, qui est ab uno te improbitate victus, Gabinius, conlegit ipse se vix, sed conlegit tamen, et contra suum Clodium primum simulate, deinde non libenter, ad extremum tamen pro Cn. Pompeio vere vehementerque pugnavit. quidem in spectaculo mira populi Romani aequitas erat. Vter eorum perisset, tamquam lanista in eius modi pari lucrum fieri putabat, immortalem vero quaestum, si uterque cecidisset. [¶4] 28. But still your colleague did do something. He upheld the austerity of a most admirable man. He was himself a wicked man; he was a mere ruffian and gladiator himself; but still he was fighting against one who was as wicked and as much a gladiator and ruffian as himself. You, forsooth, religious and conscientious man that you were, were reluctant to violate the treaty which you had ratified in my blood concerning the bargain made about the provinces. For that fellow, the adulterer with his own sister, had made this bargain for himself, that if he gave you a province, if he gave you an army, if he gave you money torn from the very life-blood of the republic, you were to give yourself up to him as his partner and assistant in all his crimes. Therefore, in that tumult the fasces were broken; you yourself were wounded; every day there were weapons, stonings, and banishments. At last a man was arrested close to the senate, armed with a sword, who it was notorious had been placed there for the purpose of assassinating Pompeius. > Latin: 28. ille tamen agebat aliquid; tuebatur auctoritatem summi viri. ipse sceleratus, erat gladiator, cum scelerato tamen et cum pari gladiatore pugnabat. scilicet homo religiosus et sanctus foedus quod meo sanguine in pactione provinciarum iceras frangere noluisti. enim sibi ille sororius adulter ut, si tibi provinciam, si exercitum, si pecuniam ereptam ex rei publicae visceribus dedisset, omnium suorum scelerum socium te adiutoremque praeberes. in illo tumultu fracti fasces, ictus ipse, cotidie tela, lapides, fugae, deprehensus denique cum ferro ad senatum is quem ad Cn. Pompeium interimendum conlocatum fuisse constabat. [¶5] 29. Did any one all that time hear, not only of any act of yours, or of any report of yours to the senate of all these transactions, but of even any word at all uttered by you on the subject or of any complaint of yours? Do you think that you were consul at that time, you, during whose period of authority the man who, by means of the authority of the senate, had saved the republic, and who in Italy had united all parties of all nations by the celebration of three triumphs, made up his mind that he could not appear in public with safety? Were you and your colleague consuls at that time when, if you ever ventured to say one word on any subject or to submit any motion whatever to the senate, the whole body raised an outcry against you, and declared that you should do nothing whatever till you had first made a motion concerning me and my affairs? and when you both, though in fact you were fettered by your treaty with that man, still said that you were anxious to do so, but that were hindered by the law? > Latin: 29. audivit non modo actionem aliquam aut relationem sed vocem omnino aut querelam tuam? tu te fuisse putas, cuius in imperio, qui rem publicam senatus auctoritate servarat, qui omnis omnium gentium partis tribus triumphis devinxerat, is se in publico, is denique in Italia tuto statuit esse non posse? tum eratis consules cum, quacumque de re verbum facere coeperatis aut referre ad senatum, cunctus ordo reclamabat ostendebatque nihil esse vos acturos, nisi prius de me rettulissetis? cum vos, quamquam foedere obstricti tenebamini, tamen cupere vos diceretis, sed lege impediri. [¶6] 30. A law which even to private individuals seemed to be no law at all, having been framed by slaves, posted up by violence, carried by piratical fury when the senate was driven away when all virtuous men had been frightened from the forum when the republic had been taken by storm in violation of all laws whatever, and which was drawn up in violation of every precedent; were men who said that they were afraid of that law, consuls? could, I will not say the minds of men, but could any records or annals even style them such? For even if you did not consider that a law, which was contrary to all law, being the proscription by the mere power of a tribune of a citizen who had never been condemned, and the deprivation of his rights and the confiscation of his property, but nevertheless were held fast by the agreement which you had made; who would consider you to have been then, not only consuls, but even free men at all, when your minds were hampered by a bribe, your tongues padlocked by wages? But if, on the other hand, you, being the only people in the state who did so, did consider that a law; can any one think that you were consuls then, or that you are men of consular rank now, you who are ignorant of the laws, and principles, and usages, and rights of that state in which you wish to be accounted some of the chief citizens? > Latin: 30. lex privatis hominibus esse lex non videbatur, inusta per servos, incisa per vim, imposita per latrocinium, sublato senatu, pulsis e foro bonis omnibus, capta re publica, contra omnis leges nullo scripta more, hanc qui se metuere dicerent, consules non dicam animi hominum, sed fasti ulli ferre possunt? si illam legem non putabatis, quae erat contra omnis leges indemnati civis atque integri capitis bonorumque tribunicia proscriptio, ac tamen obstricti pactione tenebamini, quis vos non modo consules sed liberos fuisse putet, quorum mens fuerit oppressa praemio, lingua astricta mercede? illam vos soli legem putabatis, quisquam vos consules tunc fuisse aut nunc esse consularis putet, qui eius civitatis in qua in principum numero voltis esse non leges, non instituta, non mores, non iura noritis? [¶7] 31. When you were going in your robes as generals into those—provinces which you had (shall I say bought or stolen?) did any one consider you consuls? Therefore, I imagine, even if men did abstain from escorting you on your departure from the city with a numerous attendance to pay you a compliment and do honour to you, at all events they followed you with their good wishes as consuls, but with curses as enemies or traitors. Did you, O you most horrible and foul monster! dare also to speak of that departure of mine,—that evidence or your wickedness and cruelty,—as if it were a subject for your abuse and insult? And when you did so, then, O conscript fathers, I received an immortal reward of your attachment to, and favourable opinion of me,—when you crushed the frenzy and insolence of that abject and frightened man, not only with a murmur, but with a loud and indignant outcry. > Latin: 31. , cum proficiscebamini paludati in provincias vel emptas vel ereptas, consules vos quisquam putavit?, credo, si minus frequentia sua vestrum egressum ornando atque celebrando, at ominibus saltem bonis ut consules, non tristissimis ut hostes aut proditores prosequebantur. etiam, immanissimum ac foedissimum monstrum, ausus es meum discessum illum testem sceleris et crudelitatis tuae ⟨in⟩ maledicti et contumeliae loco ponere? quidem tempore cepi, patres conscripti, fructum immortalem vestri in me et amoris et iudici; qui non admurmuratione sed voce et clamore abiecti hominis ac semivivi furorem petulantiamque fregistis. [¶8] 32. Will you speak of the mourning of the senate,—the regret of the equestrian order,—the universal sadness of Italy,—the silence of the senate-house, which lasted the whole year,—the uninterrupted vacation of the courts of justice and the forum,—and all the other circumstances of that time, as grounds for abuse of me? They were the wounds which my departure inflicted on the republic. And if my departure had been ever so full of calamity, still it would have been deserving of pity rather than of insult; and it would have been considered as connected with my glory rather than with any reproach; and it would have been accounted my misfortune only, but your crime and wickedness. But when,—(perhaps this thing which I am about to say may appear a strange thing to you to hear, but still I will certainly say what I feel to be true,)—when I, O conscript fathers, have had such kindnesses and such honours conferred on me by you, I not only do not consider that a calamity, but, if I could have any feeling whatever unconnected with the interests of the republic, (which is hardly possible,) I should consider it, as far as my private interests were concerned, a fortune greatly to be wished for and desired by me. > Latin: 32. luctum senatus, tu desiderium equestris ordinis, tu squalorem Italiae, tu curiae taciturnitatem annuam, tu silentium perpetuum iudiciorum ac fori, tu cetera illa in maledicti loco pones quae meus discessus rei publicae volnera inflixit? si calamitosissimus fuisset, tamen misericordia dignior quam contumelia et cum gloria potius esse coniunctus quam cum probro putaretur, atque ille dolor meus dumtaxat, vestrum quidem scelus ac dedecus haberetur. Cum vero—forsitan hoc quod dicturus sum mirabile auditu esse videatur, sed certe id dicam quod sentio—cum tantis a vobis, patres conscripti, beneficiis adfectus sim tantisque honoribus, non modo illam calamitatem esse non duco sed, si quid mihi potest a re publica esse seiunctum, quod vix potest, privatim ad meum nomen augendum, optandam duco mihi fuisse illam expetendamque fortunam. [¶9] 33. And, if I may compare that day which was most joyful to you with that one which was most sorrowful to me, which do you think most desirable to a virtuous and wise man,—to depart from his country in such a manner that all his fellow-citizens pray for his safety, for his preservation, and for his return, which happened to me; or, (which happened to you when you left the city,) to depart in such a way that every one should curse him, should pray for harm to him, and should wish that that road might be his only one? I call the gods to witness, that if I were so hated by all mortals,—especially if I were so justly and deservedly hated,—I should think any banishment whatever preferable to any province that could be given to me. But to proceed. If that most disturbed period, when I was forced to depart from the city, is superior to the time of your greatest triumph, why need I compare our other circumstances, which in your case were all full of disgrace, and in mine of dignity? > Latin: 33. ut tuum laetissimum diem cum tristissimo meo conferam, utrum tandem bono viro et sapienti optabilius putas sic exire e patria ut omnes sui cives salutem, incolumitatem, reditum precentur, quod mihi accidit, an, quod tibi proficiscenti evenit, ut omnes exsecrarentur, male precarentur, unam tibi illam viam et perpetuam esse vellent? me dius fidius in tanto omnium mortalium odio, iusto praesertim et debito, quaevis fuga quam ulla provincia esset optatior. perge porro. si illud meum turbulentissimum tempus tuo tranquillissimo praestat, quid conferam reliqua quae in te dedecoris plena fuerunt, in me dignitatis? [¶10] 34. On the first day of January,—that first day of hope which dawned on the republic after my setting and eclipse,—the senate, in a very full house, amid a crowd gathered together from all Italy, on the motion of a most illustrious man, Publius Lentulus, with one voice and one consent pronounced my recall. The same senate recommended me to all foreign nations, and to all our own magistrates and lieutenants, by its authority and by letters under the hand of the consuls, not (as you, you Insubrian, have dared to say) an exile from my country, but (as the senate itself styled me at the very time) a citizen who had been the saviour of the republic. The senate thought it right to implore, by the voice and letters of the consul, the assistance of all the citizens in all Italy, who were desirous of securing the safety of the republic to assist also in promoting the safety of me, a single individual. For the sake of the preservation of my life and rights, the whole of Italy assembled at Rome at one time, as if in obedience to a signal which had been given. > Latin: 34. Kalendis Ianuariis, qui dies post obitum occasumque nostrum rei publicae primus inluxit, frequentissimus senatus, concursu Italiae, referente clarissimo ac fortissimo viro, P. Lentulo, consentiente atque una voce revocavit. idem senatus exteris nationibus, me legatis magistratibusque nostris auctoritate sua consularibusque litteris non, ut tu Insuber dicere ausus es, orbatum patria sed, ut senatus illo ipso tempore appellavit, civem servatoremque rei publicae commendavit. meam unius hominis salutem senatus auxilium omnium civium cuncta ex Italia qui rem publicam salvam esse vellent consulis voce et litteris implorandum putavit. capitis conservandi causa Romam uno tempore quasi signo dato Italia tota convenit. mea salute P. Lentuli, praestantissimi viri atque optimi consulis, Cn. Pompei, clarissimi atque invictissimi civis, ceterorumque principum civitatis celeberrimae et gratissimae contiones fuerunt. [¶11] 35. Concerning my safety most magnificent and admirable speeches were made by Publius Lentulus a most excellent man and a most admirable consul by Cnaeus Pompeius, that most illustrious and invincible citizen, and by the other leading men of the city, and concerning me the senate passed a resolution, at the instigation and on the especial motion of Cnaeus Pompeius, that if any one hindered my return in any manner, he should be considered as an enemy of the state, and the authoritative opinion of the senate concerning me was declared in such language that no triumph was ever decreed to any one in a more complimentary or more honourable manner than that in which my safety and restoration to my country was provided for. When all the magistrates had concurred in the law respecting me, with the exception of one praetor from whom it was not reasonable to ask it as he was the brother of my great enemy, and with the exception also of two tribunes of the people, who had been bought like slaves, then Publius Lentulus the consul passed a law concerning me in the comitia centuriata, acting with the consent of his colleague, Quintus Metellus, whom the same republic, which had alienated us from one another in his tribuneship, reconciled to me again in his consulship, in consequence of the virtue of one most excellent and most sensible man. > Latin: 35. me senatus ita decrevit Cn. Pompeio auctore et eius sententiae principe ut, si quis impedisset reditum meum, in hostium numero putaretur, eisque verbis ea de me senatus auctoritas declarata est ut nemini sit triumphus honorificentius quam mihi salus restitutioque perscripta. me cum omnes magistratus promulgassent praeter unum praetorem, a quo non fuit postulandum, fratrem inimici mei, praeterque duos de lapide emptos tribunos, legem comitiis centuriatis tulit P. Lentulus consul de conlegae Q. Metelli sententia, quem mecum eadem res publica quae in tribunatu eius diiunxerat in consulatu virtute optimi ac iustissimi viri sapientiaque coniunxit. [¶12] 36. And why need I tell you how that law was received? I hear from you yourselves that no pretext was admitted in the case of any one whatever as sufficiently reasonable to excuse him from being present; that at no comitia that ever were held was there either a more numerous or a more respectable number of men assembled; and this I can certainly see for myself,—what the public records prove,—that you were the movers of the vote, that you were the distributors and keepers of the voting tablets,—and that you did of your own accord for the sake of ensuring my safety, though no one requested you to do so, what, when the honours of your own relations are at stake, you avoid doing under the plea either of your age, or of your rank. > Latin: 36. lex quem ad modum accepta sit quid me attinet dicere? vobis audio nemini civi ullam quo minus adesset satis iustam excusationem esse visam; nullis comitiis umquam neque multitudinem hominum tantam neque splendidiorem fuisse; hoc certe video, quod indicant tabulae publicae, vos rogatores, vos diribitores, vos custodes fuisse tabellarum, et, quod in honoribus vestrorum propinquorum non facitis vel aetatis excusatione vel honoris, id in salute mea nullo rogante vos vestra sponte fecistis. [¶13] 37. Compare, now, my fine Epicurus, brought forward out of his sty, not out of his school,—compare, if you dare, your absence with mine. You obtained a consular province with no other limitations than those which the law of your covetousness, not the law of your son-in-law, had agreed upon. For by that most just and admirable law of Caesar free nations were really and truly free; but by that law which no one except you and your colleague considered a law at all, all Achaia, and Thessaly, and Athens,—in short the whole of Greece, was made over to you. You had an army, not of that strength which the senate or people of Rome had assigned to you, but such as your own lust had prompted you to enlist. You had entirely drained the treasury. > Latin: 37. nunc, Epicure noster ex hara producte non ex schola, confer, si audes, absentiam tuam cum mea. provinciam consularem finibus eis quos lex cupiditatis tuae, non quos lex generi tui pepigerat. lege Caesaris iustissima atque optima populi liberi plane et vere erant liberi, lege autem ea quam nemo legem praeter te et conlegam tuum putavit omnis erat tibi Achaia, Thessalia, Athenae, cuncta Graecia addicta; habebas exercitum tantum quantum tibi non senatus aut populus Romanus dederat, sed quantum tua libido conscripserat; aerarium exhauseras. [¶14] 38. Well, what exploits did you perform in this command, with this army, and in this consular province? I ask, O conscript fathers, what exploits he performed. A man who, the moment he arrived—(I am not yet speaking of his acts of rapine, I am not yet speaking of the sums of money which he extorted, or seized, or levied, nor of his slaughter of our allies, nor of his murders of his own friends, nor of his perfidy, nor of his inhumanity, nor of his wicked actions: presently, if you choose to hear me, I will argue with him as with a thief, as with a robber of temples, as with an assassin; but for the present I am only going to compare my own fortune when stripped of everything, with that of that great commander when at the height of prosperity.) Who ever had any province with a fine army without sending some letters recounting his achievements, to the senate? But who ever had so important a province as that, with so splendid an army? who ever had Macedonia of all provinces—a land which has on its borders so many tribes of barbarians that the commanders in Macedonia have always had only just those boundaries of their province which were also the boundaries of their swords and javelins,—without sending such letters? Letters! why, not only several men who have had only praetorian authority have triumphed, but there is not one single instance of any man who had exercised consular authority in that province returning in health and vigour, without celebrating a triumph for his achievements performed in that command. It is quite a new thing; this which I am going to mention is newer still. This vulture of that province—(hear it, O ye gods) has been styled Imperator! > Latin: 38. res gessisti imperio, exercitu, provincia consulari? res gesserit, quaero! ut venit, statim—nondum commemoro rapinas, non exactas pecunias, non captas, non imperatas, non neces sociorum, non caedis hospitum, non perfidiam, non immanitatem, non scelera praedico; mox, si videbitur, ut cum fure, ut cum sacrilego, ut cum sicario disputabo; nunc meam spoliatam fortunam conferam cum florente fortuna imperatoris. umquam provinciam cum exercitu obtinuit qui nullas ad senatum litteras miserit? tantam vero provinciam cum tanto exercitu, Macedoniam praesertim, quam tantae barbarorum gentes attingunt ut semper Macedonicis imperatoribus idem fines provinciae fuerint qui gladiorum atque pilorum; ex qua aliquot praetorio imperio, consulari quidem nemo rediit, qui incolumis fuerit, quin triumpharit! hoc novum; multo illud magis. est hic volturius illius provinciae, si dis placet, imperator. [¶15] 39. And did you not even then, my great Paullus, dare to send expresses to Rome crowned with laurel? Yes, says he, I sent them. Did you? Who ever read them? who ever demanded to have them read? For it makes no difference, as far as my argument is concerned, whether you, being overwhelmed by the consciousness of your wicked actions, never dared to write any letters to that body which you had treated with contempt, which you had ill-treated, which you had sought to destroy, or whether your friends concealed your letters, and by their silence expressed their condemnation of your rashness and audacity. And I do not know whether I should not prefer that you should appear so utterly destitute of all shame as to have sent the letters, and that your friends should appear to have had more modesty and more sense than yourself, rather than that you should seem to have had some little modesty, and that your conduct should not have been condemned by the judgment of your friends. > Latin: 39. tum quidem, Paule noster, tabellas Romam cum laurea mittere audebas? “,” inquit. umquam recitavit, quis ut recitarentur postulavit? enim mea iam refert, utrum tu conscientia oppressus scelerum tuorum nihil umquam ausus sis scribere ad eum ordinem quem despexeras, quem adflixeras, quem deleveras, an amici tui tabellas abdiderint idemque silentio suo temeritatem atque audaciam tuam condemnarint; atque haud scio an malim te videri nullo pudore fuisse in litteris mittendis, at amicos tuos plus habuisse et pudoris et consili, quam aut te videri pudentiorem fuisse quam soles, aut tuum factum non esse condemnatum iudicio amicorum. [¶16] 40. But even if you had not shut the senate-house against yourself for ever by your nefarious insults to this order, still, what exploit was ever performed or achieved by you in that province, concerning which it would have been becoming for you to have written to the senate in the war of congratulation? Was it the way in which Macedonia was harassed? or the shameful loss of the towns? or the manner in which the allies were plundered? or the devastation of the lands? or the fortifying of Thessalonica? or the occupation of our military road? or the destruction of our army by sword and famine, and cold and pestilence? But you who did not write any account of anything to the senate, as in the city you were discovered to be more worthless than Gabinius, so in your province you turned out somewhat more inactive than even he. > Latin: 40. si non tuis nefariis in hunc ordinem contumeliis in perpetuum tibi curiam praeclusisses, quid tandem erat actum aut gestum in tua provincia de quo ad senatum cum gratulatione aliqua scribi abs te oporteret? vexatio Macedoniae, an oppidorum turpis amissio, an sociorum direptio, an agrorum depopulatio, an munitio Thessalonicae, an obsessio militaris viae, an exercitus nostri interitus ferro, fame, frigore, pestilentia? vero qui ad senatum nihil scripseris, ut in urbe nequior inventus es quam Gabinius, sic in provincia paulo tamen quam ille demissior. [¶17] 41. For that gulf of all things—that glutton, born for his own belly, not for glory or renown,—when he had deprived the Roman knights in his province; when be had deprived the farmers of the revenue, men united to us by mutual goodwill and in dignity;—when he had deprived, I say, all of them of their fortunes, many of them of their franchises and of their lives; when with that mighty army he had done nothing except plunder the cities, lay waste the lands, and drain the private houses of his province, dared (for what will he not dare?) to send letters at last to the senate to demand a supplication! O ye immortal gods! Do you, do you,—you two whirlpools and rocks which endanger the republic—do you seek to disparage my fortune? to extol your own? when concerning me in my absence such resolutions of the senate were passed, such speeches were delivered, such agitation pervaded all the municipal towns and colonies, such votes were passed by all the farmers of the revenue, by all the different guilds, by all ranks and classes of the citizens, as I should not only never have dared to hope for, but as I could not possibly hare dreamt of; and while you, on the other hand, have met with the everlasting brand of the deepest infamy. > Latin: 41. ille gurges atque helluo natus abdomini suo non laudi et gloriae, cum equites Romanos in provincia, cum publicanos nobiscum et voluntate et dignitate coniunctos omnis fortunis, multos fama vitaque privasset, cum egisset aliud nihil illo exercitu nisi ut urbis depopularetur, agros vastaret, exhauriret domos, ausus est—quid enim ille non audeat?—a senatu supplicationem per litteras postulare. O di immortales! tune etiam atque adeo vos, geminae voragines scopulique rei publicae, vos meam fortunam deprimitis, vestram extollitis, cum de me ea senatus consulta absente facta sint, eae contiones habitae, is motus fuerit municipiorum et coloniarum omnium, ea decreta publicanorum, ea conlegiorum, ea denique generum ordinumque omnium quae non modo ego optare numquam auderem sed cogitare non possem, vos autem sempiternas foedissimae turpitudinis notas subieritis? [¶18] 42. Should I, if I were to see you and Gabinius both nailed to a cross, feel greater rejoicing at the laceration of your bodies, than I do at the tearing to pieces of your reputations? Surely not: for there is no punishment imaginable, which, owing to some accident or other, even virtuous and brave men may not have inflicted on them. And this is what even your Greek followers of pleasure say; men whom I wish you would listen to in the spirit in which they deserve to be listened to; you would never have immersed yourself in such a vortex of wickedness. But you listen to them in brothels, in scenes of adultery, in reveling and drunkenness. But they themselves those very men who define evil by pain, and good by pleasure say that the wise man even if he were shut up in Phalaris's bull and roasted by fire being placed under him would still say that it was pleasant and would not allow himself to be moved the least from his assertion. They insist upon it that the power of virtue is so great that it is absolutely impossible for a virtuous man ever to be otherwise than happy. > Latin: 42. ego, si te et Gabinium cruci suffixos viderem, maiore adficerer laetitia ex corporis vestri laceratione quam adficior ex famae? est supplicium putandum quo adfici casu aliquo etiam boni viri fortesque possunt. hoc quidem etiam isti tui dicunt voluptarii Graeci: quos utinam ita audires ut erant audiendi; numquam te in tot flagitia ingurgitasses. audis in praesepibus, audis in stupris, audis in cibo et vino. dicunt isti ipsi qui mala dolore, bona voluptate definiunt, sapientem, etiam si in Phalaridis tauro inclusus succensis ignibus torreatur, dicturum tamen suave illud esse seque ne tantulum quidem commoveri. virtutis vim esse voluerunt ut non posset esse umquam vir bonus non beatus. [¶19] 43. What then is punishment? what is chastisement? A thing which in my opinion, can happen to no one unless he is guilty; it is dishonesty undertaken; it is a mind hampered and overwhelmed by conscience; it is the hatred of all virtuous men; it is the deserved brand of the senate; it is the loss of dignity. Nor does that illustrious man Marcus Regulus whom the Carthaginians, having cut off his eyelids and bound him in a machine, killed by keeping him awake, appear to have had punishment inflicted on him. Nor does Caius Marius whom Italy, which he had saved, saw sunk in the marshes of Minturnae, and whom Africa, which he had subdued, beheld banished and shipwrecked. For those were the wounds of fortune, not of guilt, but punishment is the penalty of crime. Nor should I, if I were now to pray for evils to fall upon you as I often have done (and indeed the immortal gods have heard those prayers of mine,) pray for disease, or death, or tortures to befall you. That is an execution worthy of Thyestes, the work of a poet who wishes to affect the minds of the common people, not of philosophers, that you, Wrecked on some vast inhospitable shore Clinging to rugged rocks, with bleeding limbs Might trembling hang, and all the rocks defile With gore and black pollution. > Latin: 43. est igitur poena, quod supplicium? mea sententia quod accidere nemini potest nisi nocenti, suscepta fraus, impedita et oppressa mens, bonorum odium, nota inusta senatus, amissio dignitatis. mihi ille M. Regulus quem Carthaginienses resectis palpebris inligatum in machina vigilando necaverunt supplicio videtur adfectus, nec C. Marius quem Italia servata ab illo demersum in Minturnensium paludibus, Africa devicta ab eodem expulsum et naufragum vidit. Fortunae enim ista tela sunt non culpae; supplicium autem est poena peccati. vero ego, si umquam vobis mala precarer, quod saepe feci, in quo di immortales meas preces audiverunt, morbum aut mortem aut cruciatum precarer. Thyestea est ista exsecratio poetae volgi animos non sapientium moventis, ut tu “naufragio expulsus uspiam saxis fixus asperis, evisceratus latere penderes,” ut ait ille, saxa spargens tabo, sanie et sanguine atro. [¶20] 44. I do not mean to say that I should be much vexed if such a thing were to happen but still it would be an accident such as all men are liable to. Marcus Marcellus, who was three times consul, a man of the most excessive virtue and piety and military glory was lost at sea; through his virtue he still lives in glory and renown. A death such as that is to be attributed to fortune, not to be considered a punishment. What then is punishment? What is chastisement? What is stoning? What is the cross? It is punishment that there should be two generals in the provinces of the Roman people, that they should have armies, that they should be styled “Imperator,” that one of them should be so completely cowed by the consciousness of his crimes and of his atrocities, as not to dare to send any letter of any sort to the senate from that province which was of all others the richest in triumphs. From that province that man, so distinguished for every sort of worth and dignity, Lucius Torquatus, was returning, when on account of his mighty deeds he was, on my motion, styled “Imperator” by the senate. In that province it was that those well-deserved triumphs of Cnaeus Dolabella, and Caius Curio, and Marcus Lucullus were earned within the last few years; and from that while you were the commander, no messenger whatever was ever sent to the senate. From the other consul certainly letters have been brought and read, and motions respecting him have been submitted to the senate. > Latin: 44. ferrem omnino moleste, si ita accidisset; sed id tamen esset humanum. M. Marcellus, qui ter consul fuit, summa virtute, pietate, gloria militari, periit in mari; qui tamen ob virtutem in gloria et laude vivit. fortuna quadam est illa mors non in poena putanda. est igitur poena, quod supplicium, quae saxa, quae cruces? duos duces in provinciis populi Romani, habere exercitus, appellari imperatores; horum alterum sic fuisse infrenatum conscientia scelerum et fraudum suarum ut ex ea provincia quae fuerit ex omnibus una maxime triumphalis nullam sit ad senatum litteram mittere ausus. qua provincia modo vir omni dignitate ornatissimus, L. Torquatus, magnis rebus gestis me referente ab senatu imperator est appellatus, unde his paucis annis Cn. Dolabellae, C. Curionis, M. Luculli iustissimos triumphos vidimus, ex ea te imperatore nuntius ad senatum adlatus est nullus; ab altero adlatae litterae, recitatae, relatum ad senatum. [¶21] 45. O ye immortal gods, could I have desired that my chief enemy should be branded with such ignominy as no one ever was before? that that senate, which has now got into such a regular habit and practice of kindness as to confer on those who have managed the affairs of the republic successfully, honours hitherto unexampled, both in the number of days which they last and in the language in which they are decreed, should refuse belief to the letters of this man alone, when reporting his success, and should refuse him what he demanded in them? I feed on these facts, I am delighted, I am in ecstasies at them. I am delighted that this order thinks of you both as it does of its bitterest enemies; that the Roman knights, the other orders and the whole state detests you both; that there is no good man, no, and no citizen who remembers that he is a citizen, who does not shun you both with his eyes, reject you with his ears, scorn you in his mind, and shudder at the bare recollection of your consulship. > Latin: 45. immortales! idne ego optarem ut inimicus meus ea qua nemo umquam ignominia notaretur, ut senatus is qui in eam iam benignitatis consuetudinem venit ut eos qui bene rem publicam gesserint novis honoribus adficiat et numero dierum et genere verborum, huius unius litteris nuntiantibus non crederet, postulantibus denegaret? ego rebus pascor, his delector, his perfruor, quod de vobis hic ordo opinatur non secus ac de acerrimis hostibus, quod vos equites Romani, quod ceteri ordines, quod cuncta civitas odit, quod nemo bonus, nemo denique civis est, qui modo se civem esse meminerit, qui vos non oculis fugiat, auribus respuat, animo aspernetur, recordatione denique ipsa consulatus vestri perhorrescat. [¶22] 46. This is what I have always wished respecting you, this is what I have desired, this is what I have prayed for. Even more has happened than I could have desired. For, in truth, I never formed a wish that you should lose your armies. That has happened quite beyond my wish, though I cannot say that it has grieved me; but it never could have occurred to me to wish you the insanity and frenzy into which you have both fallen. Still it might well have been wished. But I had forgotten that that was the most invariable of all the punishments which were appointed by the immortal gods for wicked and impious men. For think not, O conscript fathers, that, as you see on the stage, wicked men are, by the instigation of the gods, terrified by the blazing torches of the Furies. It is his own dishonesty, his own crime, his own wickedness, his own audacity that deprives each individual of sense and discernment. These are the Furies, these the flames, these the firebrands which distress the impious. > Latin: 46. ego semper de vobis expetivi, haec optavi, haec precatus sum; plura etiam acciderunt quam vellem; nam ut amitteretis exercitum, numquam me hercule optavi. etiam accidit praeter optatum meum, sed valde ex voluntate. enim numquam venerat in mentem furorem et insaniam optare vobis in quam incidistis. fuit optandum. tamen fugerat deorum immortalium has esse in impios et consceleratos poenas certissimas. enim ita putare, patres conscripti, ut in scaena videtis, homines consceleratos impulsu deorum terreri furialibus taedis ardentibus; sua quemque fraus, suum facinus, suum scelus, sua audacia de sanitate ac mente deturbat; hae sunt impiorum furiae, hae flammae, hae faces. [¶23] 47. Must I not think you senseless and frantic, and out of your mind,—must I not think you madder than that Orestes in the tragedy, or than Athamas, when you dared first of all to act so, (for this is the head and front of your offending,) and again, a short time afterwards, when Torquatus, a most influential and conscientious man, pressed you openly to confess that you left Macedonia, that province into which you had carried so vast an army, without one single soldier? I say nothing of your having lost the greater part of your army; that might be owing to your ill fortune. But what reason can you allege for having disbanded any part of your army? What power had you to do so? What law, what resolution of the senate authorized such a step? Where was your right to do so? What precedent was there for it? What is this but madness, but ignorance of men, ignorance of the laws, and of the senate, and of the constitution? To wound one's body is a trifle; to wound one's life, one's character, one's safety, like this, is a more serious business. > Latin: 47. te non vaecordem, non furiosum, non mente captum, non tragico illo aut Athamante dementiorem putem, qui sis ausus primum facere—nam id est caput—deinde paulo ante Torquato, sanctissimo et gravissimo viro, premente confiteri te provinciam Macedoniam, in quam tantum exercitum transportasses, sine ullo milite reliquisse? Mitto de amissa maxima parte exercitus; sit hoc infelicitatis tuae; dimittendi vero exercitus quam potes adferre causam? quam potestatem habuisti, quam legem, quod senatus consultum, quod ius, quod exemplum? est aliud furere? non cognoscere homines, non cognoscere leges, non senatum, non civitatem? corpus suum leve est; maior haec est vitae, famae, salutis suae volneratio. [¶24] 48. If you had discharged your household, a matter which would have concerned no one but yourself, your friends would have thought that you required to be put under restraint; could you have disbanded the protection of the republic, the garrison of the province, without the orders of the Roman senate or people, if you had been in your sound senses? Now for your colleague; he, having dissipated an enormous booty which he had acquired by draining the fortunes of the farmers of the revenue, and the lands and cities of the allies, after his insatiable lusts had swallowed some portion of that booty, his new and unexampled luxury had devoured part, when part had gone in purchases in those districts where he plundered everything, and part had been spent in effecting exchanges of property for the purpose of heaping hill upon hill in this Tusculan estate of his; after he had become needy, and after that intolerable mass that he was heaping up had been interrupted and had come to a standstill,—be, I say, then sold himself, and his fasces, and the army of the Roman people, and the oracular consent and prohibition of the immortal gods, and the answer of the priests, and the authority of the senate, and the commands of the people, and the name and dignity of the Roman empire, to the king of Egypt. > Latin: 48. familiam tuam dimisisses, quod ad neminem nisi ad ipsum te pertineret, amici te constringendum putarent; praesidium tu rei publicae, custodiam provinciae iniussu populi Romani senatusque dimisisses, si tuae mentis compos fuisses? tibi alter effusa iam maxima praeda quam ex fortunis publicanorum, quam ex agris urbibusque sociorum exhauserat, cum partim eius praedae profundae libidines devorassent, partim nova quaedam et inaudita luxuries, partim etiam in illis locis ubi omnia diripuit emptiones ad hunc Tusculani montem exstruendum; cum iam egeret, cum illa eius intermissa intolerabilis aedificatio constitisset, se ipsum, fascis suos, exercitum populi Romani, numen interdictumque deorum immortalium, responsa sacerdotum, auctoritatem senatus, iussa populi Romani, nomen ac dignitatem imperi regi Aegyptio vendidit. [¶25] 49. Though he had the boundaries of his province as extensive as he had desired, as he had wished, as he had procured them to be, by purchasing them at the price of my existence as a citizen, still he could not contain himself within them; he led his army out of Syria. How could he lead it out of his province? He let himself out as a hired comrade to the king of Alexandria. What can be more shameful than this? He came into Egypt. He engaged the men of Alexandria in battle. When was it that either this senatorial body or the Roman people undertook this war? He took Alexandria. What else are we to expect from his frenzy, but that he should send letters to the senate concerning such mighty exploits? > Latin: 49. Cum finis provinciae tantos haberet quantos voluerat, quantos optarat, quantos pretio mei capitis periculoque emerat, eis se tenere non potuit; exercitum eduxit ex Syria. licuit extra provinciam? se mercennarium comitem regi Alexandrino. hoc turpius? Aegyptum venit, signa contulit cum Alexandrinis. hoc bellum aut hic ordo aut populus susceperat? Alexandream. aliud exspectamus a furore eius nisi ut ad senatum tantis de rebus gestis litteras mittat?