--- title: "Against Vatinius · In P. Vatinium" author: "Cicero" translator: "Charles Duke Yonge" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Classical Latin" section: 1 of 2 url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-vatinium/1/ cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, Against Vatinius · In P. Vatinium, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-vatinium/1/" --- # Against Vatinius · In P. Vatinium *Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge* A cross-examination of Caesar’s ally Vatinius. > Latin: ed. William Peterson, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0474.phi023, CC BY-SA 4.0). > English: Charles Duke Yonge, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0474.phi023.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 1–22 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-vatinium/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-in-vatinium/1/#p-N [¶0] 1. If, O Vatinius, I had chosen to regard merely what the unworthiness of your character deserved, I should have treated you in a way that would have been very pleasing to these men, and, as your evidence could not, on account of the infamy of your life and the scandal of your private conduct, be possibly considered of the slightest consequence, I should have dismissed you without saying a single word to you. For not one of these men considered it worth my while either to refute you, as if you were an adversary of any importance, or to question you, as if you were a scrupulous witness. But I was, perhaps, a little more intemperate just now than I should have been. For from detestation of you, in which, although, on account of your wicked conduct to me, I ought to go beyond all men, yet I am in fact surpassed by everybody, I was carried away so far, that though I did not despise you at all less than I detest you, still I chose to dismiss you in embarrassment and distress, rather than in contempt. > Latin: 1. tantum modo, Vatini, quid indignitas postularet spectare voluissem, fecissem id quod his vehementer placebat, ut te, cuius testimonium propter turpitudinem vitae sordisque domesticas nullius momenti putaretur, tacitus dimitterem; nemo enim horum aut ita te refutandum ut gravem adversarium aut ita rogandum ut religiosum testem arbitrabatur. fui paulo ante intemperantior fortasse quam debui; odio enim tui, in quo etsi omnis propter tuum in me scelus superare debeo, tamen ab omnibus paene vincor, sic sum incitatus ut, cum te non minus contemnerem quam odissem, tamen vexatum potius quam despectum vellem dimittere. [¶1] 2. Wherefore, that you may not wonder at my having paid you this compliment of putting questions to you, whom no one thinks worthy of being spoken to or visited, whom no one thinks deserving of a vote, or of the rights of a citizen, or even of the light of life; know that no motive would have induced me to do so, except that of repressing that ferocity of yours, and crushing your audacity, and checking your loquacity by entangling it in the few questions I should put to you. In truth, you ought, O Vatinius, even if you had become suspected by Publius Sestius undeservedly, still to pardon me, if, on the occasion of such great danger to a man who has done me such great services, I had yielded to the consideration of what his necessities required, and what his inclination deserved of me. > Latin: 2. re ne tibi hunc honorem a me haberi forte mirere, quod interrogem quem nemo congressu, nemo aditu, nemo suffragio, nemo civitate, nemo luce dignum putet, nulla me causa impulisset nisi ut ferocitatem istam tuam comprimerem et audaciam frangerem et loquacitatem paucis meis interrogationibus inretitam retardarem. debuisti, Vatini, etiam si falso venisses in suspicionem P. Sestio, tamen mihi ignoscere, si in tanto hominis de me optime meriti periculo et tempori eius et voluntati parere voluissem. [¶2] 3. But you unintentionally showed a few moments ago that you spoke falsely in the evidence which you gave yesterday, when you asserted that you had never had the least conversation with Albinovanus, not only about the prosecution of Sestius, but about anything whatever; and yet you said just now that Titus Claudius had been in communication with you, and had asked your advice with respect to the conduct of the prosecution against Sestius, and that Albinovanus, who you had said before was hardly known to you, had come to your house, and had held a long conversation with you. And lastly, you said that you had given to Albinovanus the written harangues of Publius Sestius, which he had never had any knowledge of, and did not know where to find, and that they had been read at this trial. And by one of these statements you confessed that the accusers had been instructed and suborned by you; and by the other you confessed your own inconsistency, liable to the double charge of folly and of perjury; when you stated that the man who you had previously said was an entire stranger to you, had come to your house, and that you had given the documents which he asked for to aid him in his accusation to a man whom you had from the beginning considered a trickster and a prevaricator. > Latin: 3. ⟨te⟩ hesterno ⟨die⟩ pro testimonio esse mentitum, cum adfirmares nullum tibi omnino cum Albinovano sermonem non modo de Sestio accusando, sed nulla umquam de re fuisse, paulo ante imprudens indicasti, qui et T. Claudium tecum communicasse et a te consilium P. Sesti accusandi petisse, et Albinovanum, quem antea vix tibi notum esse dixisses, domum tuam venisse, multa tecum locutum dixeris, denique contiones P. Sesti scriptas, quas neque nosset neque reperire posset, te Albinovano dedisse easque in hoc iudicio esse recitatas. quo alterum es confessus, a te accusatores esse instructos et subornatos, in altero inconstantiam tuam cum levitate tum etiam periurio implicatam refellisti, cum, quem a te alienissimum esse dixisses, eum domi tuae fuisse, quem praevaricatorem esse ab initio iudicasses, ei te quos rogasset ad accusandum libros dixeris dedisse. [¶3] 4. You are too impetuous and fierce by nature. You do not think it allowable for a word to escape from any man's mouth which may not fall pleasantly and complimentary on your ears. You came forward in a rage with everybody which I perceived and comprehended the moment I saw you, before you began to speak, while Gellius, the dry nurse of all seditious men, was giving his evidence before you. For on a sudden you sprang forward like a serpent out of his hole, with eyes starting out of your head and your neck inflated and your throat swelling so that … I defended my old friend, who was, nevertheless an acquaintance of yours, though in this city an attack on another, such as you are now making, is sometimes found fault with, but the defence of a man never is. > Latin: 4. es vehemens feroxque natura: non putas fas esse verbum ex ore exire cuiusquam quod non iucundum et honorificum ad auris tuas accidat. iratus omnibus; quod ego, simul ac te aspexi, prius quam loqui coepisti, cum ante Gellius, nutricula seditiosorum omnium, testimonium diceret, sensi atque providi. enim te tamquam serpens e latibulis oculis eminentibus, inflato collo, tumidis cervicibus intulisti, ut mihi renovatus ille tuus in to … … veterem meum amicum, sed tamen tuum familiarem, defenderim, cum in hac civitate oppugnatio soleat qua tu nunc uteris non numquam, defensio numquam vituperari. [¶4] 5. But I ask you why I should not defend Caius Cornelius? I ask whether Cornelius has ever passed any law in defiance of the auspices? whether he has despised the Aelian or the Fufian law? when he has offered violence to the consul? whether he has occupied any temple with armed men? whether he has driven away by violence any magistrate who was exercising his veto? whether he has profaned any religious ceremonies? whether he has drained the treasury? whether he has pillaged the republic? These, all these, are actions of yours. No imputation of this sort is cast upon Cornelius. He was said to have read a document. It was urged in his defence, his colleagues giving evidence in support of his cause, that he read it not for the sake of reading it but for the sake of examining it more particularly. However, it was quite certain that Cornelius dismissed the council that day, and submitted to the interposition of the veto. But you who are offended at my defending Cornelius, what cause do you bring to your advocates to uphold, or what countenance have you to show? when you already point out to them in an imperious manner, what a disgrace it will be to them if they defend you by thinking the defence of Cornelius a matter for accusation and abuse of me. > Latin: 5. quaero a te cur C. Cornelium non defenderem: num legem aliquam Cornelius contra auspicia tulerit, num Aeliam, num Fufiam legem neglexerit, num consuli vim attulerit, num armatis hominibus templum tenuerit, num intercessorem vi deiecerit, num religiones polluerit, aerarium exhauserit, rem publicam compilarit? sunt, tua sunt haec omnia: Cornelio eius modi nihil obiectum est. legisse dicebatur: defendebat testibus conlegis suis non se recitandi causa legisse, sed recognoscendi. tamen Cornelium concilium illo die dimisisse, intercessioni paruisse. vero, cui Corneli defensio displicet, quam causam ad patronos tuos aut quod os adferes? quibus iam praescribis quanto illis probro futurum sit si te defenderint, cum tu mihi Corneli defensionem in maledictis obiciendam putaris. [¶5] 6. However, Vatinius, remember this—that a little after the time when I defended him in a way which you say gave great offence to all good men, I was appointed consul in the most honourable manner in which any one has been elected since the memory of man, not only by the exceeding zeal in my behalf of the entire Roman people, but also by the special and extraordinary exertions in my cause of every virtuous man; and that I gained all these honours by living in a modest manner, which you have over and over again said that you hoped to obtain by dealing in the most impudent prophecies. For as regards your having blamed me for my departure, and your having attempted to renew the grief and lamentation of those men to whom that day was most miserable, which, however, was to you most joyful, I will make you this reply,—that when you and the other pests of the republic were seeking a pretext to take up arms, and using my name as a cloak for your proceedings to pillage the property of the rich citizens, and to drink the blood of the chief men of the state, and satiate your barbarity and the long-standing hatred which you had cherished against all good men till it had become inveterate, I preferred to break the force of your frenzy and wickedness by yielding to it, rather than by resisting it. > Latin: 6. tamen hoc, Vatini, memento, paulo post istam defensionem meam, quam tu bonis viris displicuisse dicis, me cum universi populi Romani summa voluntate tum optimi cuiusque singulari studio magnificentissime post hominum memoriam consulem factum, omniaque ea me pudenter vivendo consecutum esse quae tu impudenter vaticinando sperare te saepe dixisti. quod mihi discessum obiecisti meum, et quod horum, quibus ille dies acerbissimus fuit qui idem tibi laetissimus, luctum et gemitum renovare voluisti, tantum tibi respondeo me, cum tu ceteraeque rei publicae pestes armorum causam quaereretis, et cum per meum nomen fortunas locupletium diripere, sanguinem principum civitatis exsorbere, crudelitatem vestram odiumque diuturnum quod in bonos iam inveteratum habebatis saturare cuperetis, scelus et furorem vestrum cedendo maluisse frangere quam resistendo. [¶6] 7. Wherefore, I entreat you, O Vatinius, to pardon me for sparing the country which I had saved; and I beg you, if I bear with you who would willingly be a harasser and destroyer of the republic, to bear also with me who have been its preserver and its guardian. Do you find fault with that man for having departed from the city, who, as you see, was recalled by the regret of all the citizens, and by the grief of the republic herself? Oh, but you say that men were anxious for my return, not for my sake, but for the sake of the republic. As if any man who had mixed himself up in the affairs of the state in a proper spirit could think anything more desirable for him than to be beloved by his fellow-citizens for the sake of the republic. > Latin: 7. re peto a te ut mihi ignoscas, Vatini, ei cum patriae pepercerim quam servaram, et, si ego te perditorem et vexatorem rei publicae fero, tu me conservatorem et custodem feras. eius viri discessum increpas quem vides omnium civium desiderio, ipsius denique rei publicae luctu esse revocatum. enim dixisti non mea sed rei publicae causa homines de meo reditu laborasse: quasi vero quisquam vir excellenti animo in rem publicam ingressus optabilius quicquam arbitretur quam se a suis civibus rei publicae causa diligi! [¶7] 8. Forsooth, my nature, I suppose, is a harsh one, I am difficult of access, my countenance is forbidding, my answers to men are arrogant, my way of life insolent. No one ever sought the aid of my humanity,—no one was ever anxious for my intimacy, for my advice, or my aid; for mine, out of regret for whom (to say the least of it) the forum was sad, the senate-house silent, and all studies of virtuous and liberal sciences voiceless and lifeless. However, I will allow that nothing was done for my sake. Let us admit that all those resolutions of the senate and commands of the people, and decrees of all Italy, and of all companies, and of all colleges and guilds concerning me were passed for the sake of the republic. What then, O man most ignorant of the character of solid glory and real dignity, could possibly happen better for me? What could be more desirable as regards the immortality of my glory and the everlasting recollection of my name, than for all my fellow citizens to be of this opinion,—that the safety of the state was indissolubly bound up with my individual safety? > Latin: 8. aspera mea natura, difficilis aditus, gravis vultus, superba responsa, insolens vita; nemo consuetudinem meam, nemo humanitatem, nemo consilium, nemo auxilium requirebat; cuius desiderio, ut haec minima dicam, forum maestum, muta curia, omnia denique bonarum artium studia siluerunt. nihil sit factum mea causa: omnia illa senatus consulta, populi iussa, Italiae totius, cunctarum societatum, conlegiorum omnium decreta de me rei publicae causa esse facta fateamur. ergo, homo imperitissime solidae laudis ac verae dignitatis, praestantius mihi potuit accidere? quid optabilius ad immortalitatem gloriae atque in memoriam mei nominis sempiternam, quam omnis hoc civis meos iudicare, civitatis salutem cum unius mea salute esse coniunctam? [¶8] 9. But I will send you back the arrow which you aimed at me. For as you said that I was dear to the senate and people of Rome not so much for my own sake as for that of the republic, so I say that you, although you are a man of scandalous character, disgraced by every sort of foulness and infamy, still are detested by the city, not so much on your own account as for the sake of the republic. And, that I may at length come to speak of you, this shall be the last thing which I will say of myself. What any one of us may say of himself, that is not the question. Let good men judge; that is the consideration of the greatest importance and weight. > Latin: 9. quidem ego tibi reddo tuum; nam ut tu me carum esse dixisti senatui populoque Romano non tam mea causa quam rei publicae, sic ego te, quamquam es omni diritate atque immanitate taeterrimus, tamen dico esse odio civitati non tam tuo quam rei publicae nomine. ut aliquando ad te veniam, de me hoc sit extremum. quisque nostrum de se ipse loquatur, non est sane requirendum: boni viri ⟨quid dicant⟩, id est maximi momenti et ponderis. [¶9] 10. There are two times at which the decisions of our fellow-citizens about us are looked for with anxiety,—one when our honours, and the other when our safety is at stake. Honours have been given to few men with such good-will on the part of the Roman people as I have experienced. No one has ever been restored to safety with such extraordinary zeal on the part of all the citizens as I have. But what men think of you we have already had experience when you were a candidate for honour; and now that your safety is at stake, we are in expectation of what we shall see. However, not to compare myself with these the leading men of the state, who are here to give their countenance to Publius Sestius by their presence, but merely to compare myself to one, the most impudent and vilest of men, I will just ask you, O Vatinius,—you the most arrogant of all men, and also the most hostile to me,—whether you think it was better and more desirable for this state, for this republic, for this city, for these temples, and for the treasury, and for the senate-house, and for these men whom you see around us, and their property, fortunes, and children,—whether you think it was better and more desirable for all the rest of the citizens, and for the temples of the gods, and for the auspices, and for the religious rites and observances of the city, that I should have been born as a citizen in this city, or that you should? When you have answered me this question, either so impudently that men will hardly he able to keep their hands off you, or in so melancholy a manner as to burst that inflated neck and throat of yours; after that, reply to me from memory to these questions which I am going to put to you. > Latin: 10. sunt tempora quibus nostrorum civium spectentur iudicia de nobis, unum honoris, alterum salutis. tali populi Romani voluntate paucis est delatus ac mihi, salus tanto studio civitatis nemini reddita. te autem homines quid sentiant in honore experti sumus, in salute exspectamus. tamen ne me cum his principibus civitatis qui adsunt P. Sestio, sed ut tecum, cum homine uno non solum impudentissimo ⟨sed etiam sordidissimo⟩ atque infimo, conferam, de te ipso, homine et adrogantissimo et mihi inimicissimo, quaero, Vatini, utrum tandem putes huic civitati, huic rei publicae, huic urbi, his templis, aerario, curiae, viris his quos vides, horum bonis fortunis liberis, civibus ceteris, denique deorum immortalium delubris auspiciis religionibus melius fuisse et praestabilius me civem in hac civitate nasci an te? Cum mihi hoc responderis, aut ita impudenter ut manus a te homines vix abstinere possint, aut ita dolenter ut aliquando ista quae sunt inflata rumpantur, tum memoriter respondeto ad ea quae te de te ipso rogaro. [¶10] 11. And I will allow that dark period of your early youth to remain in obscurity. You may with impunity, as far as I am concerned, have broken through walls in your youth, and plundered your neighbours, and beaten your mother. Your infamous character has this advantage, that the baseness of your youth is concealed by your obscurity and vileness. You stood for the quaestorship with Publius Sestius; while he was talking of nothing but the object which he had in view at the moment and you were constantly saying that you were thinking of obtaining a second consulship. I ask you this. Do you recollect when Publius Sestius was unanimously elected quaestor, that you then were named as the last quaestor, against the will of every one; not owing to the kindness which the people felt for you, but only to that of the consul? > Latin: 11. illud tenebricosissimum tempus ineuntis aetatis tuae patiar latere. impune per me parietes in adulescentia perfoderis, vicinos compilaris, matrem verberaris: habeat hoc praemi tua indignitas, ut adulescentiae turpitudo obscuritate et sordibus tuis obtegatur. petisti cum P. Sestio, cum hic nihil loqueretur nisi quod agebat, tu de altero consulatu gerendo te diceres cogitare. abs te teneasne memoria, cum P. Sestius quaestor sit cunctis suffragiis factus, tunc te vix, invitis omnibus, non populi beneficio sed consulis, extremum adhaesisse? [¶11] 12. In that magistracy, when the province of Ostia, down by the water's edge, had fallen to your lot, raising a great outcry at the time, were you not sent by me, as I was consul, to Puteoli, to prevent gold and silver being exported from thence? While occupied in the discharge of that duty, do you remember that, as you acted as if you supposed that you had been sent, not as a guardian to take care and keep the wealth at home, but as a carrier to distribute it, and as you in a most robber-like manner were examining into every one's house, and store, and ship, and harassing men occupied in business and in trade with most iniquitous law proceedings, frightening merchants as they disembarked from their ships, and delaying them as they were embarking,—do you recollect, I say, that violent hands were laid on you in Puteoli while you were present among the body of the Roman settlers? and that the complaints of the people of Puteoli were brought before me as consul? Do you recollect that after your quaestorship you went as lieutenant into the further Spain, Caius Cosconius being the proconsul? Do you recollect too, that though that journey into Spain is usually made by land, or if any one chooses to go by sea, there is a regular route by which they sail, you came into Sardinia, and from thence into Africa? Were you not in the kingdom of Hiempsal,—a proceeding on your part which was perfectly illegal without a decree of the senate to authorize it? Were you not in the kingdom of Mastanesosus? Did you not come to the strait by way of Mauritania? and did you ever hear of any lieutenant of any part of Spain before you who went to that province by that route? > Latin: 12. in eo magistratu cum tibi magno clamore aquaria provincia sorte obtigisset, missusne sis a me consule Puteolos, ut inde aurum exportari argentumque prohiberes? in eo negotio cum te non custodem ad continendas, sed portitorem ad partiendas mercis missum putares, cumque omnium domos, apothecas, navis furacissime scrutarere, hominesque negoti gerentis iudiciis iniquissimis inretires, mercatores e navi egredientis terreres, conscendentis morarere, teneasne memoria tibi in conventu Puteolis manus esse adlatas, ad me consulem querelas Puteolanorum esse delatas? post quaesturam exierisne legatus in ulteriorem Hispaniam C. Cosconio pro consule? cum illud iter Hispaniense pedibus fere confici soleat, aut, si qui navigare velit, certa sit ratio navigandi, venerisne in Sardiniam atque inde in Africam? fuerisne, quod sine senatus consulto tibi facere non licuit, in regno Hiempsalis, fuerisne in regno Mastanesosi, venerisne ad fretum per Mauretaniam? quem scias umquam legatum Hispaniensem istis itineribus in illam provinciam pervenisse? [¶12] 13. You were made tribune of the people, (for why need I put questions to you about the iniquities and most sordid robberies which you committed in Spain?) I ask of you first in a general manner what description of dishonesty and wickedness did you omit to practise in your discharge of that office? And I now give you this warning,—not to mix up your own infamy with the high character of most eminent men. I, in whatever questions I put to you, will question you yourself only, and I will drag you forth not from the dignity of a great man, which you affect, but from your own obscurity and darkness. And all my weapons shall be directed at you in such a manner, that no one else shall be wounded (to use an expression of your own) through your side; my arrows shall stick in your lungs and in your entrails. > Latin: 13. es tribunus plebis—quid enim te de Hispaniensibus flagitiis tuis sordidissimisque furtis interrogem? abs te primum universe quod genus improbitatis et sceleris in eo magistratu praetermiseris? tibi iam inde praescribo ne tuas sordis cum clarissimorum virorum splendore permisceas. te quaecumque rogabo de te ipso rogabo, neque te ex amplissimi viri dignitate, sed ex tuis tenebris extraham; omniaque mea tela sic in te conicientur ut nemo per tuum latus, quod soles dicere, saucietur; in tuis pulmonibus ac visceribus haerebunt. [¶13] 14. And since the beginnings of all great things are derived from the gods, I wish you to answer me,—you, who are accustomed to call yourself a Pythagorean, and to put forth the name of a most learned man as a screen to bide your own savage and barbarian habits,—what depravity of intellect possessed you, what excessive frenzy seized on you, and made you, when you had begun your unheard-of and impious sacrifices, accustomed as you are to seek to evoke the spirits of the shades below, and to appease the Dî Manes with the entrails of murdered boys, despise the auspices under which this city was founded, by which the whole of this republic and empire is kept together, and, at the very beginning of your tribuneship, give notice to the senate that the responses of the augurs and the arrogance of that college should be no obstacle to your proceedings? > Latin: 14. quoniam omnium rerum magnarum ab dis immortalibus principia ducuntur, volo ut mihi respondeas tu, qui te Pythagoreum soles dicere et hominis doctissimi nomen tuis immanibus et barbaris moribus praetendere, quae te tanta pravitas mentis tenuerit, qui tantus furor ut, cum inaudita ac nefaria sacra susceperis, cum inferorum animas elicere, cum puerorum extis deos manis mactare soleas, auspicia quibus haec urbs condita est, quibus omnis res publica atque imperium tenetur, contempseris, initioque tribunatus tui senatui denuntiaris tuis actionibus augurum responsa atque eius conlegi adrogantiam impedimento non futura? [¶14] 15. Next to that I ask you whether you kept your promise in that particular? Did the fact of your knowing that on that day the heavens had been observed, delay, or not delay your summoning the council, and proposing your intended law? And since this is the one thing which you say belongs to you in common with Caesar, I will separate you from him, not only for the sake of the republic, but also for the sake of Caesar, lest any stain from your extraordinary infamy should seem to attach itself to his dignity. First of all, I ask you whether you trust your case to the senate, as Caesar does? Next, what sort of authority that man has who defends himself by the conduct of another and not by his own? Next (for my real sentiments will at times burst forth, and I cannot help saying without circumlocution what I feel,) even if Caesar had been rather violent in any particular, if the importance of the contest and anxiety for glory, and his eminent courage, and his admirable nobility of character had carried him away at all, which would have been endurable in that great man, and would have deserved to be obliterated from our minds by the mighty exploits which he has subsequently performed, will you, you wretch, assume the same privilege to yourself, and is the voice of Vatinius, the thief and sacrilegious man, to be heard, demanding that the same indulgence is to be allowed to him that is allowed to Caesar? For this is what I ask of you. > Latin: 15. ea quaero servarisne in eo fidem? num quando tibi moram attulerit quo minus concilium advocares legemque ferres, quod eo die scires de caelo esse servatum? quoniam hic locus est unus quem tibi cum Caesare communem esse dicas, seiungam te ab illo, non solum rei publicae causa verum etiam Caesaris, ne qua ex tua summa indignitate labes illius dignitati adspersa videatur. quaero num tu senatui causam tuam permittas, quod facit Caesar? deinde, quae sit auctoritas eius qui se alterius facto, non suo defendat? deinde,— erumpet enim aliquando ex me vera vox et dicam sine cunctatione quod sentio,—si iam violentior aliqua in re C. Caesar fuisset, si eum magnitudo contentionis, studium gloriae, praestans animus, excellens nobilitas aliquo impulisset, quod in illo viro et tum ferendum esset et maximis rebus quas postea gessit oblitterandum, id tu tibi, furcifer, sumes, et Vatini latronis ac sacrilegi vox audietur hoc postulantis, ut idem sibi concedatur quod Caesari? [¶15] 16. You were a tribune of the people. Separate yourself from the consul. You had nine gallant men for your colleagues. Of these there were three whom you knew to be every day observing the heavens, whom you used to laugh at, whom you used to call private individuals, of whom you see two now sitting here in their robes of office; (you know that you sold the official robe of an aedile which you had had made for yourself to no purpose;) and the third, you are aware, after that tribuneship, in which you oppressed and ill-treated him, gained the consular authority, though a very young man. There were six others; of whom some openly adopted your opinion, and some held a sort of middle course. All had laws which they wished to propose; and among them my own intimate friend Caius Cosconius, one of our judges, had several, some even drawn up by my advice; a man who makes you ready to burst with envy when you see him invested with the rank of aedile. > Latin: 16. enim ex te quaero. plebis fuisti,—seiunge te a consule: conlegas habuisti viros fortis novem. iis tres erant quos tu cotidie sciebas servare de caelo, quos inridebas, quos privatos esse dicebas; de quibus duos praetextatos sedentis vides,—te aediliciam praetextam togam, quam frustra confeceras, vendidisse!—tertium scis ex illo obsesso atque adflicto tribunatu consularem auctoritatem hominem esse adulescentem consecutum. sex fuerunt, e quibus partim plane tecum sentiebant, partim medium quendam cursum tenebant: omnes habuerunt leges promulgatas, in iis multas meus necessarius, etiam de mea sententia, C. Cosconius, iudex noster, quem tu dirumperis cum aedilicium vides. [¶16] 17. I wish you to reply to me. Did any one of the whole college venture to bring forward any law, except you alone? And how did you become possessed of so much audacity, how did you dare to act with so much violence, as alone—you, a man raised out of the mud, beyond all comparison the lowest of all men in every respect—to think that a proper subject for your contempt and scorn, and derision, which all your nine colleagues thought deserving of their fear and awe? Have you ever known of any one tribune of the people, since the foundation of the city, having transacted business with the people when it was known that any magistrate was observing the heavens? > Latin: 17. uti mihi respondeas num quis ex toto conlegio legem sit ausus ferre praeter unum te? quae tanta in te fuerit audacia, quae tanta vis ut, quod novem tui conlegae sibi timendum esse duxerint, id unus tu emersus e caeno, omnium facile omnibus rebus infimus contemnendum, despiciendum, inridendum putares? num quem post urbem conditam scias tribunum plebis egisse cum plebe, cum constaret servatum esse de caelo. [¶17] 18. I wish you also to answer me, as, while you were tribune of the people, the Aelian and Fufian laws still existed in the republic; laws which have repeatedly checked and repressed the frenzy of the tribunes; in contravention of which no one has ever dared to act except you; (though those same laws the year after, when two men were sitting in the temple, whom I will not call consuls, but betrayers of this state, and pestilences, were destroyed at the same time with the auspices, and the power of intercession, and all public law:) Did you ever hesitate to transact business with the people, and to convene the assembly in defiance of these laws? Have you ever heard of any one out of all the tribunes of the people that ever existed, however seditious they may have been, being so audacious as to summon an assembly in defiance of the Aelian and Fufian laws? > Latin: 18. etiam illud volo uti respondeas, cum te tribuno plebis esset etiam tum in re publica lex Aelia et Fufia, quae leges saepe numero tribunicios furores debilitarunt et represserunt, quas contra praeter te nemo umquam est facere conatus,—quae quidem leges anno post, sedentibus in templo duobus non consulibus sed proditoribus huius civitatis ac pestibus, una cum auspiciis, cum intercessionibus, cum omni iure publico conflagraverunt: ecquando dubitaris contra eas leges cum plebe agere et concilium convocare? num quem ex omnibus tribunis plebis, quicumque seditiosi fuerunt, tam audacem audieris fuisse ut umquam contra legem Aeliam aut Fufiam concilium advocaret? [¶18] 19. I ask you this, also, whether you endeavoured, whether you wished, whether, in short, you intended, (for these all amount to the same thing, so that if it ever only occurred to your mind, there is no one who would not think you worthy of the greatest severity of punishment,)—I ask you, I say, whether you ever intended in the course of that intolerable (I will not say reign of yours, for that is a word which you would like me to use, but) piratical power, to be made augur in the room of Quintus Metellus? so that whoever beheld you might feel a twofold grief and misery, both from his regret for a most illustrious and most gallant citizen, and from the honour of a most worthless and infamous one. I ask you, did you think, I will not say, that the republic had been so undermined while you were tribune, or that the constitution had been so much battered and shaken, but that this city had been so entirely stormed and overthrown, that we could endure Vatinius for an augur? > Latin: 19. illud etiam ex te, conatusne sis, voluerisne, denique cogitaris,—est enim res eius modi ut, si tibi in mentem modo venit, nemo sit qui te ullo cruciatu esse indignum putet,—cogitarisne in illo tuo intolerabili non regno,—nam cupis id audire,—sed latrocinio augur fieri in Q. Metelli locum, ut, quicumque te aspexisset, duplicem dolorem gemitumque susciperet et ex desiderio clarissimi civis et ex honore turpissimi atque improbissimi? adeone non labefactatam rem publicam te tribuno neque conquassatam civitatem, sed captam hanc urbem atque perversam putaris ut augurem Vatinium ferre possemus? [¶19] 20. Here also I ask, if you had been made augur, as you were anxious to be, the bare idea of which on your part caused us, who hated you, a pain which we could hardly endure, while they who were your intimate friends could scarcely forbear laughing at it; still I ask, I say, if in addition to the other wounds under which you believed the republic to be sinking, you had added the deadly and fatal blow of your augurship, would you have decreed that which every augur ever since the time of Romulus has invariably decreed, that when Jupiter was sending forth his lightning it was impious to transact business with the people; or, because you had constantly done so, would you as augur have put an end to the system of taking auspices altogether? > Latin: 20. loco quaero, si, id quod concupieras, augur factus esses,—in qua tua cogitatione nos qui te oderamus vix dolorem ferebamus, illi autem quibus eras in deliciis vix risum tenebant: sed quaero, si ad cetera vulnera, quibus rem publicam putasti deleri, hanc quoque mortiferam plagam inflixisses auguratus tui, utrum decreturus fueris, id quod augures omnes usque ab Romulo decreverunt, Iove fulgente cum populo agi nefas esse, an, quia tu semper sic egisses, auspicia fueris augur dissoluturus? [¶20] 21. And, not to waste any more words on your augurship, (and I speak of it all against my will, as I do not wish to recollect the ruin of the republic; for, indeed, you yourself never thought that you would be augur as long as not only the majesty of these men, but as long as that city itself remained standing,)—still, to pass over your dreams, I will come to your acts of wickedness. I wish you to answer me. When you were leading Marcus Bibulus, the consul,—I will not call him a man of the justest sentiments with respect to the republic, lest so powerful a man as you, who disagreed with him, should be offended with me; but I will call him a man who certainly never took any violent steps, who never performed any act of hostility towards you in the republic, but who only felt in his heart a great disapproval of your actions;—when, I say, you were leading him, the consul, to prison, and when your colleagues sitting at the Valerian table ordered him to be released did you or did you not make a bridge in front of the rostra, by joining the stages together along which bridge, a consul of the Roman people, a man of the greatest moderation and wisdom removed from all assistance cut off from all his friends, was to be led by the inflamed violence of profligate men, a most shameful and miserable spectacle, not only to prison but to execution and to death? > Latin: 21. ne diutius loquar de auguratu tuo,—quod invitus facio ut recorder ruinas rei publicae; neque enim tu umquam stante non modo maiestate horum, sed etiam urbe te augurem fore putasti: verum tamen ut somnia tua relinquam, ad scelera veniam, volo uti mihi respondeas, cum M. Bibulum consulem non dicam bene de re publica sentientem, ne tu mihi homo potens irascare, qui ab eo dissensisti, sed hominem certe nusquam progredientem, nihil in re publica molientem, tantum animo ab actionibus tuis dissentientem,—cum eum tu consulem in vincula duceres et ab tabula Valeria conlegae tui mitti iuberent, fecerisne ante rostra pontem continuatis tribunalibus, per quem consul populi Romani moderatissimus et constantissimus, sublato auxilio, exclusis amicis, vi perditorum hominum incitata, turpissimo miserrimoque spectaculo non in carcerem, sed ad supplicium et ad necem duceretur? [¶21] 22. I ask whether there was ever any one before your time so wicked as to do such a thing as that? So that we may know whether you are an imitator of old crimes or an inventor of new ones. And when you, by counsels and atrocities of this sort, carried on under the name of Caius Caesar a most merciful and excellent man, but in reality by your own wickedness and audacity, had driven Marcus Bibulus from the forum, and the senate-house, and the temples, and from all public places, and had compelled him to shut himself up in his own house; and when the life of the consul was only saved, not by the majesty of the empire, or by the sanctity of the laws, but only by the protection which his own doors and walls afforded him; did you not send a lictor to drag Marcus Bibulus from his house by force, in order that, though even in the case of private individuals the sanctity of their house is always observed, while you were tribune of the people even his own house should not be a safe refuge for the consul? > Latin: 22. num quis ante te tam fuerit nefarius qui id fecerit, ut sciamus utrum veterum facinorum sis imitator an inventor novorum; idemque tu cum his atque huius modi consiliis ac facinoribus nomine C. Caesaris, clementissimi atque optimi viri, scelere vero atque audacia tua, M. Bibulum foro, curia, templis, locis publicis omnibus expulisses, inclusum domi contineres, cumque non maiestate imperi, non iure legum, sed ianuae praesidio et parietum custodiis consulis vita tegeretur, miserisne viatorem qui M. Bibulum domo vi extraheret, ut, quod in privatis semper est servatum, id te tribuno plebis consuli domus exsilium esse non posset?