23. Answer me at the same time, you who call us tyrants who are agreed together as to our views for the general safety, were not you a tribune of the people, but in reality an intolerable tyrant raised of some obscure mud and darkness? and did not you attempt in the first instance to overturn the republic, which was originally founded in obedience to auspices, by the destruction of those same auspices arm after that have not you been the only man to trample under foot and disregard those most holy laws, I mean the Aelian and Fufian laws,—which subsisted through the furious times of the Gracchi, and through all the audacity of Saturninus,—which survived unhurt the rabble of Drusus, and the contests of Sulpicius, and the massacres of Cinna, and even the battles and bloodshed of Sulla? Did you not threaten the consul with death, and blockade him when he had shut himself up in his house, and attempt even to drag him out of his house? And you, who by means of that magistracy emerged out of actual beggary, and who now even alarm us by your riches, were you not so inhuman as to endeavour, by means of your proposed law, to get rid of and destroy the chosen men and chief leaders of the state?
23. mihi respondeto tu, qui nos qui de communi salute consentimus tyrannos vocas, fuerisne non tribunus plebis, sed intolerandus ex caeno nescio qui atque ex tenebris tyrannus, qui primum eam rem publicam quae auspiciis inventis constituta est isdem auspiciis sublatis conarere pervertere, deinde sanctissimas leges, Aeliam et Fufiam dico, quae in Gracchorum ferocitate et in audacia Saturnini et in conluvione Drusi et in contentione Sulpici et in cruore Cinnano, etiam inter Sullana arma vixerunt, solus conculcaris ac pro nihilo putaris, qui consulem morti obieceris, inclusum obsederis, extrahere ex suis tectis conatus sis, qui in eo magistratu non ⟨modo⟩ emerseris ex mendicitate, sed etiam divitiis nos iam tuis terreas?
24. When you had produced in the assembly Lucius Vettius, who had confessed in the senate that he had been armed with the intention of putting Cnaeus Pompeius, that great and illustrious citizen, to death with his own hands; when you had produced him as a witness in the rostra, and placed him in that temple and place consecrated by the auspices; (in that place in which other tribunes of the people have been in the habit of bringing forward the chief men of the state, in order to sanction their authority by their presence, there you wished Vettius the informer to employ his tongue and voice in support of your wickedness and ambitious designs:)—did not Lucius Vettius say, in that assembly which you had convened, when questioned by you, that he had had those men for the originators and encouragers of, and accomplices in that wicked conduct, whom if the city had been deprived of, (and that was your real object at that time,) it could not have continued to stand? You had endeavoured to murder Marcus Bibulus, as you were not contented with shutting him up in his house; you had stripped him of his consulship, you were anxious to deprive him of his country. You wished also to murder Lucius Lucullus, whose exploits you envied above measure, because, I suppose, you from your boyhood had had an eye yourself to the glory of a general; and Caius Curio, the unceasing enemy of all wicked men, the leader of the public council, a man of the greatest freedom in maintaining the common liberties of the citizens, with his son, the chief of the youth of Rome, and who had already shown more devotion to the cause of the republic than could have been expected from his age;
24. fuerisne tanta crudelitate ut delectos viros et principes civitatis tollere et delere tua rogatione conareris, cum L. Vettium, qui in senatu confessus esset se cum telo fuisse, mortem Cn. Pompeio, summo et clarissimo civi, suis manibus offerre voluisse, in contionem produxeris, indicem in rostris, in illo, inquam, augurato templo ac loco conlocaris, quo auctoritatis exquirendae causa ceteri tribuni plebis principes civitatis producere consuerunt? ibi tu indicem Vettium linguam et vocem suam sceleri et dementiae tuae praebere voluisti. L. Vettius in contione tua rogatus a te sese auctores et impulsores et socios habuisse sceleris illius eos viros, quibus e civitate sublatis, quod tu eo tempore moliebare, civitas stare non posset? M. Bibulum, cuius inclusione contentus non eras, interficere volueras, spoliaras consulatu, patria privare cupiebas; L. Lucullum, cuius tu rebus gestis, quod ipse ad imperatorias laudes a puero videlicet spectaras, vehementius invidebas, C. Curionem, perpetuum hostem improborum omnium, auctorem publici consili in libertate communi tuenda maxime liberum, cum filio principe iuventutis cum re publica coniunctiore etiam quam ab illa aetate postulandum fuit, delere voluisti;
25. and Lucius Domitius, whose dignity and respectability of character, I suppose, blinded the eyes of Vatinius, and whom you hated at the moment on account of your common hatred of all virtuous men and whom you had long feared with reference to the future on account of the hopes which all men had conceived, and indeed do still entertain of him; and Lucius Lentulus, this man who is one of our judges now—the priest of Mars because he was at that time a competitor of your dear friend Gabinius—all these you wished to crush by means of the information of this same Vettius. But if Lentulus had then defeated that disgrace and pest of the republic, which he was prevented from doing by your wickedness, the republic would not have been defeated; moreover, you wished by means of the same information and the same accusation to involve his son in his father's ruin. You comprehended in the same information of Vettius and in the same body of criminals, Lucius Paullus, who was at the time quaestor in Macedonia. How good a citizen! how great a man! who had already banished by his laws two impious traitors to their country, domestic enemies; a man born for the salvation of the republic.
25. L. Domitium, cuius dignitas et splendor praestringebat, credo, oculos Vatini,—quem tu propter commune odium in bonos oderas, in posterum autem, propter omnium spem quae de illo est atque erat, ante aliquanto timebas, L. Lentulum, hunc iudicem nostrum, flaminem Martialem, quod erat eo tempore Gabini tui competitor, eiusdem Vetti indicio opprimere voluisti: qui si tum illam labem pestemque vicisset, quod ei tuo scelere non licuit, res publica victa non esset. etiam filium eodem indicio et crimine ad patris interitum adgregare voluisti: L. Paulum, qui tum quaestor Macedoniam obtinebat, quem civem, quem virum! qui duo nefarios patriae proditores, domesticos hostis, legibus exterminarat, hominem ad conservandam rem publicam natum, in idem Vetti indicium atque in eundem hunc numerum congregasti.
26. Why should I complain of your conduct to myself? When I ought rather to return you thanks, for having thought me deserving of not being separated from the number of gallant and virtuous citizens. But how was it that you were so insane as when Vettius had now summed up his oration just as you pleased, and had uttered his calumnies against all the lights of the city, and had descended from the rostra—to call him back on a sudden, and converse with him in the sight of the Roman people? and then to ask him whether he could not give the name of any one else? Were you not pressing upon him to name Caius Piso, my son-in-law; who, at a time when there was a great abundance of virtuous young men, still has left no one behind him of equal temperance, and virtue, and piety to himself? and also Marcus Laterensis, a man who devotes all his days and nights to thinking of glory and of the republic? Did not you, O you most profligate and abandoned enemy, propose an investigation into the conduct of so many honourable and excellent men, and at the same time most honourable rewards for your informer Vettius? and afterwards, when this conduct of yours was condemned, not merely by the secret feelings of every one, but by their open reproaches, did you not strangle that very man Vettius in prison, in order that there might be no evidence of your having procured his information by bribery, and that no investigation of that guilt might be instituted so as to affect you yourself?
26. ergo de me querar? qui etiam gratias tibi agere debeo quod me ex fortissimorum civium numero seiungendum non putasti. qui fuit tuus ille tantus furor ut, cum iam Vettius ad arbitrium tuum perorasset et civitatis lumina notasset descendissetque de rostris, eum repente revocares, conloquerere populo Romano vidente, deinde interrogares ecquosnam alios posset nominare? ut C. Pisonem, generum meum, nominaret, qui in summa copia optimorum adulescentium pari continentia, virtute, pietate reliquit neminem, itemque M. Laterensem, hominem dies atque noctes de laude et de re publica cogitantem? promulgarisne, impurissime hostis, quaestionem de tot amplissimis et talibus viris, indicium Vettio, praemia amplissima? quibus rebus omnium mortalium non voluntate sed convicio repudiatis, fregerisne in carcere cervices ipsi illi Vettio, ne quod indicium corrupti indici exstaret eiusque sceleris in te ipsum quaestio flagitaretur?
27. And since you are constantly repeating that you proposed a law to allow each party to reject judges alternately, in order that every one may see that you could not contrive even to do right without committing some crime or other, I ask you whether, after a just law had been proposed at the beginning of your magistracy, and after you had also proposed several others, you were waiting till Caius Antonius was prosecuted before Cnaeus Lentulus Clodianus? And after a prosecution was instituted against him, did you not immediately pass a law against him, “Whoever was prosecuted after the proposal of your law,” in order that a man of consular rank—unhappy man!—might be deprived by just that moment of time, of the benefit and equitable provisions of your law?
27. quoniam crebro usurpas legem te de alternis consiliis reiciendis tulisse, ut omnes intellegant te ne recte quidem facere sine scelere potuisse, quaero, cum lex esset aequa promulgata initio magistratus, multas iam alias tulisses, exspectarisne dum C. Antonius reus fieret apud Cn. Lentulum Clodianum, et, postea quam ille est reus factus, statim tuleris in eum “qui tuam post legem reus factus esset,” ut homo consularis exclusus miser puncto temporis spoliaretur beneficio et aequitate legis tuae?
28. You will say that there was great intimacy between you and Quintus Maximus. An admirable defence of your guilt! No doubt it is the greatest praise of Maximus, that after he had adopted the quarrel against Caius Antonius, and undertaken the prosecution, and after a president of the court and a bench of judges had been selected, he was unwilling to allow his adversary a power of striking off judges which would have been too favourable for him. … Quintus Maximus did nothing inconsistent either with his own virtue, or with the precedents of those most illustrious men, the Paulli, the Maximi, and Africani; whose renown we not only hope will be renewed by this man's virtue, but we actually see that it is so. It is your dishonesty, your guilt, your wickedness, that when you had proposed a law under a pretence of mercy, you put it off till a time when it might serve a purpose of cruelty. And now, indeed, Caius Antonius consoles himself under his misery with this one fact that he had rather be at a distance to hear that the images of his father and his brother, and that his brother's daughter, are placed, not in the house of their family, but in prison, than be at hand to see it.
28. familiaritatem tibi fuisse cum Q. Maximo. defensio facinoris tui! quidem summa laus est sumptis inimicitiis, suscepta causa, quaesitore consilioque delecto, commodiorem inimico suo condicionem reiectionis dare noluisse. fecit alienum aut sua virtute aut illis viris clarissimis, Paulis,, Africanis, quorum gloriam huius virtute renovatam non modo speramus, verum etiam iam videmus; tua fraus, tuum maleficium, tuum scelus illud est, te id quod promulgasses misericordiae nomine ad crudelitatis tempus distulisse. nunc quidem C. Antonius hac una re miseriam suam consolatur, quod imagines patris et fratris sui fratrisque filiam non in familia sed in carcere conlocatam audire maluit quam videre.
29. And since you so despise the property of others, and boast in a most intolerable manner of your own riches, I desire you to answer me, whether you, while tribune of the people, made any treaties with foreign states, or kings, or tetrarchs? whether you got any money out of the treasury by your laws? whether you did not at that time deprive people of the most valuable part of their privileges? whether it was Caesar or the farmers of the revenue that you were robbing? And as this is the case, I ask you whether, having been a most miserably poor man, you did not become an exceedingly rich one that very year in which a most stringent law was passed about extortion and peculation? So that all men may see that you trampled not only on the acts of us whom you call tyrants, but even on the laws of your own most intimate friend; before whom you are in the habit of employing hard words against us, who are very friendly to him, while you abuse him in the most insulting manner every time that you say that he is in the least degree connected with you.
29. quoniam pecunias aliorum despicis, de tuis divitiis intolerantissime gloriaris, volo uti mihi respondeas, fecerisne foedera tribunus plebis cum civitatibus, cum regibus, cum tetrarchis; erogarisne pecunias ex aerario tuis legibus; eripuerisne partis illo tempore carissimas partim a Caesare, partim a publicanis? cum ita sint, quaero ex te sisne ex pauperrimo dives factus illo ipso anno quo lex lata est de pecuniis repetundis acerrima, ut omnes intellegere possent a te non modo nostra acta, quos tyrannos vocas, sed etiam amicissimi tui legem esse contemptam; apud quem tu etiam nos criminari soles, qui illi sumus amicissimi, cum tu ei contumeliosissime totiens male dicas quotiens te illi adfinem esse dicis.
30. And I wish also to know this from you, with what design or with what intention you attended at the banquet given by Quintus Arrius, an intimate friend of mine, in a black robe? who you ever saw do such a thing before? who you ever heard of having done such a thing? What precedent had you for such conduct, or what custom can you plead for it? You will say that you did not approve of those supplications. Very well. Suppose that those supplications were inexcusable. Do you not see that I am not questioning you at all with respect to the occurrence of that year, nor of those circumstances in which you may appear to be concerned in common with any eminent men; but only about your own peculiar acts of wickedness? Grant that the supplication was informal. Still, tell me, who ever went to a banquet in a mourning garment? For by such conduct the banquet itself is turned into a funeral feast; though the proper intention of a banquet is to be a scene of enjoyment and compliment.
30. etiam illud scire ex te cupio, quo consilio aut qua mente feceris ut in epulo Q. Arri, familiaris mei, cum toga pulla accumberes? quem umquam videris, quem audieris? quo exemplo, quo more feceris? supplicationes te illas non probasse.: nullae fuerint supplicationes. me nihil de anni illius causa, nihil de eo quod tibi commune cum summis viris esse videatur, sed de tuis propriis sceleribus ex te quaerere? supplicatio fuerit. quis umquam cenarit atratus? enim illud epulum est funebre ut munus sit funeris, epulae quidem ipsae dignitatis.
31. But I pass over the fact of its having been a banquet of the Roman people, the day of festival, adorned with the exhibition of silver plate, and robes, and all sorts of furniture and ornaments; I ask who ever in a time of domestic mourning, who ever at a funeral of one of his own family, sat down to supper in a black robe? who ever, except you, as he was leaving a bath, had a black gown given to him? When so many thousand men were sitting at the feast, when the master of the feast himself, Quintus Arrius, was in a white robe, you introduced yourself into the temple of Castor, with Caius Fidulus and the rest of your Furies, in black garments, like the assistants at a funeral. Who was there who did not then receive you with groans? who was there who did not lament over the fate of the republic? what other topic of conversation was there at that banquet except this, that this city, so great and so wise, was now exposed not only to your frenzy, but also to your derision?
31. omitto epulum populi Romani, festum diem argento, veste, omni apparatu ornatuque visendo: quis umquam in luctu domestico, quis in funere familiari cenavit cum toga pulla? cui de balineis exeunti praeter te toga pulla umquam data est? Cum tot hominum milia accumberent, cum ipse epuli dominus, Q. Arrius, albatus esset, tu in templum Castoris te cum C. Fibulo atrato ceterisque tuis furiis funestum intulisti. tum non ingemuit, quis non doluit rei publicae casum? qui sermo alius in illo epulo fuit nisi hanc tantam et tam gravem civitatem subiectam esse non modo furori, verum etiam inrisioni tuae?
32. Were you ignorant of the usual practice on such occasions? had you never seen a feast of the sort? had you never, when a boy or young man, been among the cooks? had you not a short time before satisfied your ancient voracity at that most magnificent banquet of Faustus, a noble young man? And when did you ever see the master of a feast and his friends in mourning, and in black robes, while sitting at a feast? What insanity took possession of you, that you should think, that, unless you did what it was impious to do, unless you insulted the temple of Castor, and the name of a feast, and the eyes of a citizen, and ancient custom, and the authority of the man who had invited you, you had not given sufficient proof that you did not think that a properly decreed and formal supplication?
32. tu morem ignorabas? numquam epulum videras? numquam puer aut adulescens inter cocos fueras? Fausti, adulescentis nobilissimi, paulo ante ex epulo magnificentissimo famem illam veterem tuam non expleras? accumbere atratum videras? dominum cum toga pulla et eius amicos ante convivium? tanta ⟨te⟩ tenuit amentia ut, nisi id fecisses quod fas non fuit, nisi violasses templum Castoris, nomen epuli, oculos civium, morem veterem, eius qui te invitarat auctoritatem, parum putares testificatum esse supplicationes te illas non putare?
33. I will also ask you about this thing which you did as a private individual; a matter in which you, at all events, will not be able to say that your cause is at all connected with that of any other illustrious man. I ask you, whether you were not prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the Licinian and Junian laws? whether Caius Memmius, the praetor, did not in accordance with that law, order you by his edict to appear on the thirtieth day? When that day arrived, did you not do what was not only never done before in this republic, but what was never even heard of, at any time since the beginning of the world? Did you not appeal to the tribunes of the people to save you from the necessity of pleading your cause? I have put the case too lightly; although that of itself would be an unprecedented and an intolerable thing to have done; but did you not appeal by name to that pest of the year, to that Fury of his country, to that storm which was desolating the republic, to Clodius? and when he could not by any right which he possessed, or by virtue of any precedent or by any power given him by his office, offer any obstacle to proceedings in a court of justice, he had recourse to his usual violence and frenzy, and put himself at the head of your soldiers as their leader. And, in respect to this transaction, that you may not consider anything as a direct statement of mine, rather than as elicited by questions put to you, I will not impose on myself the burden of producing any evidence in support of what I say; and what I see that I shall have to state in the same place in a short time, I will reserve at present and I will not accuse you; but as I have done with respect to other matters, I will only put questions to you.
33. etiam illud ex te, quod privatus admisisti, in quo certe iam tibi dicere non licebit cum clarissimis viris causam tuam esse coniunctam, postulatusne sis lege Licinia et Iunia? edixeritne C. Memmius praetor ex ea lege ut adesses die tricensimo? cum is dies venisset, fecerisne quod in hac re publica non modo factum antea numquam est, sed in omni memoria est omnino inauditum? appellarisne tribunos plebis ne causam diceres—levius dixi; quamquam id ipsum esset et novum et non ferendum—sed appellarisne nominatim pestem illius anni, furiam patriae, tempestatem rei publicae, Clodium. tamen cum iure, cum more, cum potestate iudicium impedire non posset, rediit ad illam vim et furorem suum, ducemque se militibus tuis praebuit. quo ne quid a me dictum in te potius putes quam abs te esse quaesitum, nullum onus imponam mihi testimoni: quae mihi brevi tempore ex eodem isto loco video esse dicenda servabo, teque non arguam, sed, ut in ceteris rebus feci, rogabo.
34. I ask you then, O Vatinius, whether any one in the state since the first foundation of the city, has ever appealed to the tribunes of the people to interpose and save him from having to plead his case? Has any criminal ever mounted up to the tribunal of the president of the court which tried him and driven him down from thence by violence? and upset all the benches? and overturned all the balloting urns? and in short, in disturbing the court of justice committed all those crimes on account of which courts of justice were instituted? Are you aware that Memmius fled at that time? that your accusers were with difficulty saved from your hands and those of your friends? that the judges were even driven away out of the tribunals which were near? that in the forum, in broad daylight in the sight of the Roman people, the investigation was put an end to, and the magistrates, and the usages of our ancestors, and the laws, and the judges, and the defendant and the penalty, were all alike disregarded and trampled on? Do you know that all these circumstances were, by the diligence of Caius Memmius, entered and proved in the public records? And moreover, I ask you this, when, after you had had an accusation preferred against you, you returned from your lieutenancy, in order that no one might think that you wished to avoid a trial; and when you used to say that, though you might have done whichever you pleased, still you preferred pleading your cause, as you had been accused; I ask, I say, how it was consistent with that conduct of yours, in being unwilling to avail yourself of the door of escape which your lieutenancy opened to you, for you to have recourse to an impious source of assistance by means of a most dishonest appeal?
34. ex te, Vatini, num quis in hac civitate post urbem conditam tribunos plebis appellarit ne causam diceret? num quis reus in tribunal sui quaesitoris escenderit eumque vi deturbarit, subsellia dissiparit, urnas deiecerit, eas denique omnis res in iudicio disturbando commiserit, quarum rerum causa iudicia sunt constituta? sciasne tum fugisse Memmium, accusatores esse tuos de tuis tuorumque manibus ereptos, iudices quaestionum de proximis tribunalibus esse depulsos, in foro, luce, inspectante populo Romano quaestionem, magistratus, morem maiorum, leges, iudices, reum, poenam esse sublatam? haec omnia sciasne diligentia C. Memmi publicis tabulis esse notata atque testata? illud etiam quaero, cum, postea quam es postulatus, ex legatione redieris,—ne quis te iudicia defugere arbitretur,— teque, cum tibi utrum velles liceret, dictitaris causam dicere maluisse, qui consentaneum fuerit, cum legationis perfugio uti noluisses, appellatione improbissima te ad auxilium nefarium confugisse?
35. And since mention has been made of your lieutenancy, I wish also to hear from you, by what resolution of the senate you were appointed lieutenant? I understand, from your gestures, what answer you are going to give. By your own law, you say. Are not you, then, a most manifest parricide of your country? Had not you had regard to the idea that the conscript fathers might be wholly destroyed from out of the republic?—did you not even leave this to the senate, which no one ever took from it—the privilege, namely, of having all lieutenants appointed by authority of that order? Did the great public council appear to you so contemptible? did the senate appear so depressed? did the republic appear so miserable and prostrate, that the senate was no longer able to appoint, in conformity with the uniform precedent of our ancestors, the messengers of peace and war, and managers, and interpreters, and authors of warlike determinations, and ministers of the different sorts of provincial duty?
35. quoniam legationis tuae facta mentio est, volo audire de te quo tandem senatus consulto legatus sis. gestu intellego quid respondeas: tua lege, dicis. igitur patriae certissimus parricida? spectarasne id, ut patres conscripti ex re publica funditus tollerentur? ne hoc quidem senatui relinquebas, quod nemo umquam ademit, ut legati ex eius ordinis auctoritate legarentur? tibi sordidum consilium publicum visum est, adeo adflictus senatus, adeo misera et prostrata res publica ut non nuntios pacis ac belli, non oratores, non interpretes, non bellici consili auctores, non ministros muneris provincialis senatus more maiorum deligere posset?
36. You had taken from the senate the power of decreeing provinces to the different magistrates, and the decision as to what general was to be appointed to a command, and the management of the treasury; things which the Roman people never coveted for itself, as it never endeavoured to deprive the republic of the direction of the supreme council. Come, some of these things have been also done by others; it has seldom happened, but still it has happened, that the people has selected a general. Who ever heard that lieutenants have been appointed without a resolution of the senate to authorize it? No one before you. Immediately after you, Clodius did the same thing, in the case of those two pestilences of the republic; and, on this account, you deserve to be punished with still greater misfortunes; because you have injured the republic, not only by your deed, but also by your example; and because you are not only infamous yourself, but you have also wished to teach others to be so too. Do you not know that, on all these accounts, you have been branded with the unfavourable judgment of those most strict men, the Sabines, of those brave tribes, the Marsi and the Peligni, people of the same tribe as yourself, and that there is no other instance, since the foundation of Rome, of any man of the Sergian tribe having lost the votes of that tribe?
36. senatui provinciae decernendae potestatem, imperatoris deligendi iudicium, aerari dispensationem: quae numquam sibi populus Romanus appetivit, qui numquam senatui summi consili gubernationem auferre conatus est., factum est horum aliquid in aliis: raro, sed tamen factum est ut populus deligeret imperatorem: quis legatos umquam audivit sine senatus consulto? te nemo, post continuo fecit idem in duobus prodigiis rei publicae Clodius; quo etiam maiore es malo mactandus, quod non solum facto tuo sed etiam exemplo rem publicam vulnerasti, neque tantum ipse es improbus sed etiam alios docere voluisti. hasce omnis res sciasne te severissimorum hominum Sabinorum, fortissimorum virorum Marsorum et Paelignorum, tribulium tuorum, iudicio notatum, nec post Romam conditam praeter te tribulem quemquam tribum Sergiam perdidisse?
37. And I wish to hear this also from you, why it is, since I carried the law with respect to bribery and corruption in accordance with the terms of a resolution of the senate and carried it without violence, and with every proper regard to the auspices and to the Aelian and Fufian laws that you do not consider that a law? especially as I obey your laws whatever the means are by which they were carried; while my law expressly forbids any one to exhibit shows of gladiators within two years of his standing, or being about to stand for an office, unless he does so in compliance with a will on a day appointed in the will. How can you be so insane as to dare to exhibit shows of gladiators actually at the very time when you are a candidate? Do you think that any tribune of the people can be found like that undeniable gladiator of yours, who will interpose to save you from being prosecuted according to the provisions of my law?
37. illud etiam audire ⟨de⟩ te cupio, qua re, cum ego legem de ambitu tulerim ex senatus consulto, tulerim sine vi, tulerim salvis auspiciis, tulerim salva lege Aelia et Fufia, tu eam esse legem non putes, praesertim cum ego legibus tuis, quoquo modo latae sunt, paream; cum mea lex dilucide vetet qvo qvis petat petitvrvsve sit gladiatores dare nisi ex testamento praestitvta die, quae tanta in te sit amentia ut in ipsa petitione gladiatores audeas dare? num quem putes illius tui certissimi gladiatoris similem tribunum plebis posse reperiri qui se interponat quo minus reus mea lege fias?
38. And if you disregard and despise all these considerations, because you have persuaded yourself, as you are in the habit of boasting openly, that though gods and men may be both unwilling, still you shall be able to gain everything which you desire in consequence of the incredible regard which Caius Caesar has for you; have you ever heard, has any one told you, that lately at Aquileia, Caius Caesar, when some accidental mention was made of some circumstances, said that he was exceedingly indignant that Caius Alfius had been passed over, because he knew the admirable loyalty and honesty of the man; and that he was also greatly annoyed at any one having been made praetor, who was wholly opposed to his opinions and interests? That, on that, some one asked him how he liked Vatinius being repulsed? and that he replied, that Vatinius had done nothing in his tribuneship without a sufficient recompense; and that, as he cared about nothing but money, he could afford to fail in attaining honour with great equanimity.
38. si haec omnia contemnis ac despicis, quod ita tibi persuaseris, ut palam dictitas, te dis hominibusque invitis amore in te incredibili quodam C. Caesaris omnia quae velis consecuturum, ecquid audieris, ecquisnam tibi dixerit C. Caesarem nuper Aquileiae, cum de quibusdam esset mentio facta, dixisse C. Alfium praeteritum permoleste tulisse, quod in homine summam fidem probitatemque cognosset, graviterque etiam se ferre praetorem aliquem esse factum qui a suis rationibus dissensisset; tum quaesisse quendam, de Vatinio quem ad modum ferret; illum respondisse Vatinium in tribunatu gratis nihil fecisse; qui omnia in pecunia posuisset honore animo aequo carere debere.
39. And if that man, who for the sake of increasing his own dignity has willingly allowed you to go on in your headlong course at your own risk, with no fault of his own, judges you himself to be totally unworthy of all honour; if your neighbours, and your connections, and the men of your own tribe hate you so, as to think your repulse their triumph; if no one beholds you without groaning, if no one mentions your name without cursing you, if men shun you, avoid you, and cannot bear to hear your name; if, when they see you, they shudder at you as an evil omen; if your relations disown you, and the men of your own tribe execrate you, and your neighbours dread you, and your connections are ashamed of you; lastly, if all your evil humours have left your odious face and settled in other places; if you are the object of general hatred to the people and the senate, and to all the tribes of the country; what reason can you have for wishing for the praetorship rather than for death? especially as you try to make yourself out a friend of the people, and as you cannot possibly do anything which would be more agreeable to the people than you would if you were to kill yourself!
39. si ipse, qui te suae dignitatis augendae causa, periculo tuo, nullo suo delicto, ferri praecipitem est facile passus, tamen te omni honore indignissimum iudicat, si te vicini, si adfines, si tribules ita oderunt ut repulsam tuam triumphum suum duxerint, si nemo aspicit quin ingemescat, nemo mentionem facit quin exsecretur, si vitant, fugiunt, audire de te nolunt, cum viderunt, tamquam auspicium malum detestantur, si cognati respuunt, tribules exsecrantur, vicini metuunt, adfines erubescunt, strumae denique ab ore improbo demigrarunt et aliis iam se locis conlocarunt, si es odium publicum populi, senatus, universorum hominum rusticanorum,—quid est quam ob rem praeturam potius exoptes quam mortem, praesertim cum popularem te velis esse neque ulla re populo gratius facere possis?
40. But that we may hear at length how fully you reply to my interrogations, I will now conclude my examination of you, and at the end I will ask you a few questions relating to the cause itself. I ask you what is the meaning of all this inconsistency and levity of yours, that in this trial you extolled Titus Annius in the very same words in which good men and good citizens have been in the habit of extolling him, when lately, when you were produced before the people by that foul Fury, Clodius, you gave false evidence against him with the greatest eagerness? Is this to be a matter left to your option and in your power, so that when you see Clodius's band of artisans, and that troop of furious and abandoned men, you then say, as you said in the assembly, that Milo has besieged the republic with gladiators and men who combat with beasts; but when you come before such men as these, then you do not venture to say anything against a citizen of extraordinary virtue, and integrity, and wisdom, and firmness?
40. ut aliquando audiamus quam copiose mihi ad rogata respondeas, concludam iam interrogationem meam teque in extremo pauca de ipsa causa rogabo. quae tanta in te vanitas, tanta levitas fuerit ut in hoc iudicio T. Annium isdem verbis laudares quibus eum verbis laudare et boni viri et boni cives consuerunt, cum in eundem nuper ab eadem illa taeterrima furia productus ad populum cupidissime falsum testimonium dixeris? erit haec optio et potestas tua, ut, cum Clodianas operas et facinerosorum hominum et perditorum manum videris, Milonem dicas, id quod in contione dixisti, gladiatoribus et bestiariis obsedisse rem publicam: cum autem ad talis viros veneris, non audeas civem singulari virtute, fide, constantia vituperare?
41. But as you praise Titus Annius so excessively, and by your encomium cast some sort of slight stain on that most illustrious man, (for Titus Annius would prefer being one of those men who are loaded with reproaches by you,) still I ask, since in the administration of the affairs of the republic there has been an entire community of and agreement in every counsel between Titus Annius and Publius Sestius, (a fact which has been proved not only by the decision of the good, but also by that of the wicked; for each of them is now on his trial on the same account and for the same accusation,—the one having had a prosecution instituted against him by that man whom you are sometimes accustomed to confess is the only man who is more worthless than yourself, and the other being reduced to the same condition by your design indeed, not with his assistance,)—I ask, I say, how you can separate those men in your evidence, whom you connect together by your accusation? The last thing which I wish you to answer me is this:—As you said a great deal against Albinovanus with respect to his prevarication, I wish to know whether you said or did not say that you were not pleased at Sestius being prosecuted for violence, and that he ought not to have been so prosecuted; and that there was no law and no charge on which he was not more liable to impeachment? Did you also say that the cause of Milo, a most admirable man, was generally considered as closely connected with his cause? and that the things which were done by Sestius in my behalf were agreeable to good men? I am not now arguing against the inconsistency of your language and of your evidence; for you have given evidence at great length against those identical actions of this man which you say have been approved of by good men; and as for the man with whom you connect the cause and danger of my client, Sestius, you have extolled him with the highest praises. But I ask this;—whether you think that Publius Sestius ought to be condemned according to the provisions of a law under which you say that he never ought to have been accused at all? or, if you think that your opinion ought not be asked while you are giving your evidence, lest I should appear to be attributing to you any authority by so doing, I ask whether you gave evidence against a man on his trial for violence, who you say never ought to have been prosecuted for violence at all?
41. cum T. Annium tanto opere laudes et clarissimo viro non nullam laudatione tua labeculam adspergas—in illorum enim numero mavult T. Annius esse qui a te vituperantur: verum tamen quaero, cum in re publica administranda T. Annio cum P. Sestio consiliorum omnium societas fuerit —id quod non solum bonorum, verum etiam improborum iudicio declaratum est; est enim reus uterque ob eandem causam et eodem crimine, alter die dicta ab eo quem tu unum improbiorem esse quam te ⟨non⟩ numquam soles confiteri, alter tuis consiliis, illo tamen adiuvante—quaero qui possis eos quos crimine coniungis testimonio diiungere? illud est quod mihi abs te responderi velim, cum multa in Albinovanum de praevaricatione diceres, dixerisne nec tibi placuisse nec oportuisse Sestium de vi reum fieri? quavis lege, quovis crimine accusandum potius fuisse? etiam illud dixeris, causam Milonis, fortissimi viri, coniunctam cum hoc existimari? quae pro me a Sestio facta sint, bonis esse grata? coarguo inconstantiam orationis ac testimoni tui—quas enim huius actiones probatas bonis esse dicis, in eas plurimis verbis testimonium dixisti; quicum autem eius causam periculumque coniungis, eum summis laudibus extulisti: sed hoc quaero, num P. Sestium, qua lege accusandum omnino fuisse negas, ea lege condemnari putes oportere? aut, si te in testimonio consuli noles, ne quid tibi auctoritatis a me tributum esse videatur, dixerisne in eum testimonium de vi quem negaris reum omnino de vi fieri debuisse?