---
title: "To the Senate, after His Return · Post reditum in senatu"
author: "Cicero"
translator: "Charles Duke Yonge"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/
cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, To the Senate, after His Return · Post reditum in senatu. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/"
---

# To the Senate, after His Return · Post reditum in senatu

*Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge*

Cicero thanks the senate for his recall.

> Latin: ed. William Peterson, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0474.phi019, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Charles Duke Yonge, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0474.phi019.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

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

## Contents

1. [Sections 7–19](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/1.md)
2. [Sections 20–39](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/2.md)

## 1. Sections 7–19

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

[¶0] Cicero by his conduct in the conspiracy of Catiline had made many enemies, as there were many citizens of high rank and great influence more or less implicated in that treason. And besides those men, he had mortally offended a profligate senator, named Clodius, against whom he had appeared as a witness on a trial for impiety. Clodius, (by the assistance of Julius Caesar, who was offended with Cicero for refusing to support the measures of the triumvirate,) got adopted as a plebeian, in order to be made tribune of the people, so as to have the greater power to annoy Cicero. He was elected tribune A. U. C. 696. And the consuls, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus and Aulus Gabinius, were also enemies to Cicero. After some preliminary laws, mostly aimed, in Cicero's opinion, at him, Clodius proposed a special law, “that whoever had taken away the life of a citizen uncondemned and without a trial, should be prohibited from fire and water.” This alluded especially to Cicero's having executed the accomplices of Catiline; and he accordingly changed his dress, as it was usual for people to do in the case of a public impeachment, and appeared in the streets in a mourning robe, and the whole body of the knights and the young nobility, to the number of twenty thousand, as he says himself in his speech to the people after his return, also changed their dress, and accompanied him about the city to protect him from the insults of Clodius's partisans, and to implore the assistance of the people. And all this body went to the consuls to implore their favour for Cicero; but Piso refused to see them, and Gabinius treated them with the greatest insolence, which caused such indignation in the assembly that Ninnius the tribune made a motion (which was carried unanimously) that the senate also should put on mourning robes. The consuls issued an edict forbidding them to do so. On one occasion Clodius with his slaves fell on Cicero's partisans and attacked them so violently that Hortensius was nearly killed and Vibienus, a senator, died of the wounds he received. Caesar openly espoused the cause of Clodius, declaring that he had always thought the proceedings against Lentulus and the rest irregular and illegal. And Pompey, who had at first espoused Cicero's cause began to be alarmed, and to avoid giving him any effectual assistance. And the disturbances in Rome rose to such a height, that Cicero, by the advice of his friends, and especially of Cato, Hortensius, and Atticus, went into voluntary exile. As soon as he had departed, Clodius filled the forum with his own partisans and his slaves, and proposed a law in the following terms: “Whereas Marcus Tullius Cicero has put Roman citizens to death unheard and uncondemned; and for that end forged the authority and decree of the senate; may it please you to ordain that he be interdicted from fire and water; that nobody presume to harbour or receive him, on pain of death; and that whoever shall move, speak, vote, or take any step towards recalling him, shall be treated as a public enemy, unless those should first be recalled to life whom Cicero unlawfully put to death.” The name of Sedulius, one of the meanest of the people, was affixed to the law as if he had been its proposer, who afterwards declared that he was not in Rome at the time, and that he had known nothing about it. Cicero went to Thessalonica. He had not been gone more than two months when Ninnius made a motion in the senate to recall him and to repeal the law which Clodius had enacted against him, and it would have been carried had not Aelius Ligur, one of the tribunes, interposed his veto. The senate, however, passed a resolution that no business should be proceeded with till the consuls had prepared a new law respecting Cicero's affairs. Pompey, too, began to feel the want of Cicero's assistance, and consulted Caesar as to the expediency of promoting his recall. The new consuls were Publius Cornelius Lentulus, a warm friend of Cicero, and Quintus Metellus Nepos, who had been his enemy but who now, out of complaisance to the triumvirate, promised to assist in his restoration. One of the tribunes elect, whose name was Sextus, was also very eager in his cause; but Clodius bribed two of those who were coming into office, Servius Atilius Serranus and Numerius Quinctius Gracchus, to oppose all measures for his restoration. On the first of January the moment that the new consuls entered on their office, Lentulus made a motion in the senate for Cicero's recall; Metellus also spoke in favour of it, and Cotta, whose opinion was first asked declared that as Cicero had not been banished legally but had only retired from the city of his own accord for the sake of peace, there was no law requisite for his recall; but that a vote of the senate would be sufficient. The motion would have passed at once had not Serranus interposed his veto. Great disturbances ensued in Rome; Fabricius, one of the tribunes favourable to Cicero, was attacked with a party of his friends by Clodius at the head of a band of gladiators, whom he had purchased; and great numbers of citizens were slain, so that Cicero says, (,) that there had never been such bloodshed in Rome except in the time of Cinna. The senate passed a resolution that no business should be done till the vote for Cicero's recall was carried, and ordered the consuls to summon all the people of Italy who wished well to the state to come to the assistance and defence of Cicero. Pompey was at this time at Capua acting as chief magistrate of his new colony, where he presided in person at their making a decree in Cicero's honour, and took the trouble likewise of visiting all the other colonies and chief towns in those parts, to appoint them a day of general rendezvous at Rome to assist at the promulgation of the desired law. At last a decree to recall Cicero was carried, to the great joy of all the people; but for some time Clodius was enabled to prevent any regular law being passed to that effect, till at last all his partisans were afraid to stand by him any longer, and it was not until the fourth of August that the law was finally carried. Cicero, in anticipation of it, had already embarked for Italy, and on the fifth of August he landed at Brundusium. He was received with the greatest honours by every town through which he passed on his way to Rome, and multitudes came from all quarters to see him and to escort him; and on his arrival in the city he was received with universal acclamations. He arrived in the city on the fourth of September, and the next day the consuls summoned the senate to give him an opportunity of addressing that body, when he made the following speech. If, O conscript fathers, I return you thanks in a very inadequate manner for your kindness to me, and to my brother, and to my children, (which shall never be forgotten by us,) I beg and entreat you not to attribute it so much to any coldness of my disposition, as to the magnitude of the service which you have done me. For what fertility of genius, what copiousness of eloquence can be so great, what language can be found of such divine and extraordinary power, as to enable any one, I will not say to do due honour to the universal kindness of you all towards us, but even to count up and enumerate all the separate acts of kindness which we have received from you? You have restored to me my brother; whom I have wished for above all things; you have restored me to my most affectionate brother; you have restored us parents to our children, and our children to us; you have restored to us our dignity, our rank, our fortunes, the republic, which we reverence above all things, and our country, than which nothing can be dearer to us; you have restored us, in short, to ourselves. And if we ought to consider our parents most dear to us, because by them our life, our property, our freedom, and our rights as citizens have been given to us; if we love the immortal gods, by whose kindness we have preserved all those things, and have also had other benefits added to them; if we are most deeply attached to the Roman people owing to the honours paid to us by whom we have been placed in this most noble council, and in the very highest rank and dignity and in this citadel of the whole earth, if we are devoted to this order of the senate by which we have been frequently distinguished by most honourable decrees in our favour, surely it is a boundless and infinite obligation which we are under to you, who, by your singular zeal and unanimity an my behalf, have combined at one time the benefits done us by our parents, the bounty of the immortal gods, the honours conferred on us by the Roman people, and your own frequent decisions in my case; in such a manner that, owing, as we do, much to you, and great gratitude to the Roman people, and innumerable thanks to our parents, and everything to the immortal gods, the honours and enjoyments which we had separately before by their instrumentality, we have now recovered all together by your kindness. Therefore, O conscript fathers, we seem by your agency to have obtained a species of immortality, a thing too great to be even wished for by men. For what time will there ever be in which the memory and fame of your kindnesses to me will perish? The memory of your kindness, who, at the very time that you were besieged by violence and arms and terror and threats, not long after my departure all agreed in recalling me, at the motion of Lucius Ninnius, a most fearless and virtuous man, the most faithful and (if it had come to a battle) the least timid defender of my safety that that fatal year could produce. After the honour of making a formal decree to that effect was refused to you by the means of that tribune of the people, who as he was unable of himself to injure the republic, destroyed it as far as he could by the wickedness of another, you never kept silence concerning me, you never ceased to demand my safety from those consuls who had sold it. Therefore, at last it was owing to your authority and your zeal that that very year which I had preferred to have fatal to myself rather than to my country, elected these men as tribunes, who proposed a law concerning my safety, and constantly brought it under your notice. For the consuls being modest men, and having a regard for the laws, were hindered by a law, not by the one which had been passed concerning me, but by one respecting themselves, when my enemy had carried a clause, that when those men had come to life again who nearly destroyed the state, then I might return to the city. By which action he confessed two things—both that he longed for them to be living, and also that the republic would be in great peril, if either the enemies and murderers of the republic came to life again, or if I did not return. Therefore, in that very year when I had departed, and when the chief man of the state was forced to defend his own life, not by the protection of the laws, but by that of his own walls,—when the republic was without consuls, and bereft, like an orphan, not only of its regular parents, but even of its annual guardians,—when you were forbidden to deliver your opinions,—when the chief clause of my proscription was repeatedly read,—still you never hesitated to consider my safety as united with the general welfare. But when, by the singular and admirable virtue of Publius Lentulus the consul, you began on the first of January to see light arising in the republic out of the clouds and darkness of the preceding year,—when the great reputation of Quintus Metellus, that most noble and excellent man, and the virtue and loyalty of the praetors, and of nearly all the tribunes of the people, had likewise come to the aid of the republic,—when Cnaeus Pompeius, the greatest man for virtue, and glory, and achievements that any nation or any age has ever produced, the most illustrious man that memory can suggest thought that he could again come with safety into the senate,—then your unanimity with respect to my safety was so great that my body only was absent, my dignity had already returned to this country. And that month you were able to form an opinion as to what was the difference between me and my enemies. I abandoned my own safety, in order to save the republic from being (for my sake) stained with the blood of the citizens; they thought fit to hinder my return, not by the votes of the Roman people, but by a river of blood. Therefore, after those events, you gave no answers to the citizens, or the allies, or to kings; the judges gave no decisions; the people came to no vote on any matter; this body issued no declarations by its authority; you saw the forum silent the senate-house mute, the city dumb and dispirited.

> Latin: , patres conscripti, pro vestris immortalibus in me fratremque meum liberosque nostros meritis parum vobis cumulate gratias egero, quaeso obtestorque ne meae naturae potius quam magnitudini vestrorum beneficiorum id tribuendum putetis. tanta enim potest exsistere ubertas ingeni, quae tanta dicendi copia, quod tam divinum atque incredibile genus orationis, quo quisquam possit vestra in nos universa promerita non dicam complecti orando, sed percensere numerando? qui mihi fratrem optatissimum, me fratri amantissimo, liberis nostris parentes, nobis liberos, qui dignitatem, qui ordinem, qui fortunas, qui amplissimam rem publicam, qui patriam, qua nihil potest esse iucundius, qui denique nosmet ipsos nobis reddidistis. si parentes carissimos habere debemus, quod ab iis nobis vita, patrimonium, libertas, civitas tradita est, si deos immortalis, quorum beneficio et haec tenuimus et ceteris rebus aucti sumus, si populum Romanum, cuius honoribus in amplissimo consilio et in altissimo gradu dignitatis atque in hac omnium terrarum arce conlocati sumus, si hunc ipsum ordinem, a quo saepe magnificentissimis decretis sumus honestati, immensum quiddam et infinitum est quod vobis debeamus, qui vestro singulari studio atque consensu parentum beneficia, deorum immortalium munera, populi Romani honores, vestra de me multa iudicia nobis uno tempore omnia reddidistis, ut, cum multa vobis, magna populo Romano, innumerabilia parentibus, omnia dis immortalibus debeamus, haec antea singula per illos habuerimus, nunc universa per vos reciperarimus. , patres conscripti, quod ne optandum quidem est homini, immortalitatem quandam per vos esse adepti videmur. enim tempus erit umquam cum vestrorum in nos beneficiorum memoria ac fama moriatur? illo ipso tempore cum vi ferro metu minis obsessi teneremini, non multo post discessum meum me universi revocavistis referente L. Ninnio, fortissimo atque optimo viro, quem habuit ille pestifer annus et maxime fidelem et minime timidum, si dimicare placuisset, defensorem salutis meae: postea quam vobis decernendi potestas non est permissa per eum tribunum plebis qui, cum per se rem publicam lacerare non posset, sub alieno scelere delituit, numquam de me siluistis, numquam meam salutem non ab iis consulibus qui vendiderant flagitavistis. vestro studio atque auctoritate perfectum est ut ipse ille annus, quem ego mihi quam patriae malueram esse fatalem, octo tribunos haberet qui et promulgarent de salute mea et ad vos saepe numero referrent. consules modesti legumque metuentes impediebantur lege, non ea quae de me, sed ea quae de ipsis lata erat, quam meus inimicus promulgavit ut, si revixissent ii qui haec paene delerunt, tum ego redirem; quo facto utrumque confessus est, et se illorum vitam desiderare, et magno in periculo rem publicam futuram si, cum hostes atque interfectores rei publicae revixissent, ego non revertissem. illo ipso tamen anno, cum ego cessissem, princeps autem civitatis non legum praesidio sed parietum vitam suam tueretur, res publica sine consulibus esset, neque solum parentibus perpetuis verum etiam tutoribus annuis esset orbata, sententias dicere prohiberemini, caput meae proscriptionis recitaretur, numquam dubitastis meam salutem cum communi salute coniungere. vero quam singulari et praestantissima virtute P. Lentuli consulis ex superioris anni caligine et tenebris lucem in re publica Kalendis Ianuariis dispicere coepistis, cum Q. Metelli, nobilissimi hominis atque optimi viri, summa dignitas, cum praetorum tribunorum plebis paene omnium virtus et fides rei publicae subvenisset, cum virtute gloria rebus gestis Cn. Pompeius omnium gentium, omnium saeculorum, omnis memoriae facile princeps tuto se venire in senatum arbitraretur, tantus vester consensus de salute mea fuit ut corpus abesset meum, dignitas iam in patriam revertisset. quidem mense quid inter me et meos inimicos interesset existimare potuistis. meam salutem deserui, ne propter me civium vulneribus res publica cruentaretur: illi meum reditum non populi Romani suffragiis sed flumine sanguinis intercludendum putaverunt. postea nihil vos civibus, nihil sociis, nihil regibus respondistis; nihil iudices sententiis, nihil populus suffragiis, nihil hic ordo auctoritate declaravit; mutum forum, elinguem curiam, tacitam et fractam civitatem videbatis.

[¶1] 7. And then, too, when he had gone away, who, being authorized by you, had resisted murder and conflagration, you saw men rushing all over the city with sword and firebrand; you saw the houses of the magistrates attacked, the temples of the gods burnt, the faces of a most admirable man and illustrious consul burnt, the holy person of a most fearless and virtuous officer, a tribune of the people, not only laid hands on and insulted, but wounded with the sword and killed. And by that murder some magistrates were so alarmed, that partly out of fear of death, partly out of despair for the republic, they in some degree forsook my cause; but others remained behind, whom neither terror, nor violence, nor hope, nor fear, nor promises, nor threats, nor arms, nor firebrands, could influence so as to make them cease to stand by your authority, and the dignity of the Roman people, and my safety.

> Latin: 7. quidem tempore, cum is excessisset qui caedi et flammae vobis auctoribus restiterat, cum ferro et facibus homines tota urbe volitantis, magistratuum tecta impugnata, deorum templa inflammata, summi viri et clarissimi consulis fascis fractos, fortissimi atque optimi tribuni plebis sanctissimum corpus non tactum ac violatum manu sed vulneratum ferro confectumque vidistis. strage non nulli permoti magistratus partim metu mortis, partim desperatione rei publicae paululum a mea causa recesserunt: reliqui fuerunt quos neque terror nec vis, nec spes nec metus, nec promissa nec minae, nec tela nec faces a vestra auctoritate, a populi Romani dignitate, a mea salute depellerent.

[¶2] 8. The chief of those men was Publius Lentulus, the parent and god of my life, and fortune, and memory, and name. He thought that the best proof that he could give of his virtue, the best indication that he could afford of his disposition, the greatest ornament with which he could embellish his consulship would be the restoration of me to myself, to my friends, to you, and to the republic. And as soon as ever he was appointed consul elect he never hesitated to express an opinion concerning my safety worthy both of himself and of the republic. When the veto was interposed by the tribune of the people,—when that admirable clause was read: “That no one should make any motion before you that no one should propose any decree to you that no one should raise any discussion, or make any speech or take any vote or frame any law;” he thought all that as I have said before, a proscription and not a law, by which a citizen who had deserved well of the republic was by name and without any trial, taken from the senate and the republic at the same time. But as soon as he entered on his office, I will not say what did he do before, but what else did he do at all, except labour by my preservation to establish your authority and dignity on a firm basis for the future?

> Latin: 8. P. Lentulus, parens ac deus nostrae vitae fortunae memoriae nominis, hoc specimen virtutis, hoc indicium animi, hoc lumen consulatus sui fore putavit, si me mihi, si meis, si vobis, si rei publicae reddidisset. ut est designatus, numquam dubitavit sententiam de salute mea se et re publica dignam dicere: cum a tribuno plebis vetaretur, cum praeclarum caput recitaretur ne quis ad vos referret, ne quis decerneret, ne disputaret, ne loqueretur, ne pedibus iret, ne scribendo adesset, totam illam, ut ante dixi, proscriptionem non legem putavit, qua civis optime de re publica meritus nominatim sine iudicio una cum senatu rei publicae esset ereptus. Vt vero iniit magistratum, non dicam quid egit prius, sed quid omnino egit aliud nisi ut me conservato vestram in posterum dignitatem auctoritatemque sanciret?

[¶3] 9. O ye immortal gods! what great kindness do you appear to have shown me, in making Publius Lentulus consul this year. How much greater still would your bounty bare been, had he been so the preceding year; for I should not have been in want of such medicine as a consul could give, unless I had fallen by a wound inflicted by a consul. I had been often told by one of the wisest of men and one of the most virtuous of citizens, Quintus Catulus, that it was not often that there was one wicked consul, but that there had never been two at the same time since the foundation of Rome, except in that terrible time of Cinna. Wherefore, he used to say that my interest would always be firmly secured, as long as there was even one virtuous consul in the republic. And he would have spoken the truth, if that state of things with respect to consuls could have remained lasting and perpetual, that, as there never had been two bad ones in the republic, so there never should be. But if Quintus Metellus had been at that time consul, who was then my enemy, do you doubt what would have been his feelings with regard to my preservation, when you see that he was a mover and seconder of the measure proposed for my restoration?

> Latin: 9. immortales, quantum mihi beneficium dedisse videmini, quod hoc anno P. Lentulus consul ⟨populi Romani⟩ fuit! quanto maius dedissetis si superiore anno fuisset! enim eguissem medicina consulari, nisi consulari vulnere concidissem. ex sapientissimo homine atque optimo civi et viro, Q. Catulo, non saepe unum consulem improbum, duo vero numquam excepto illo Cinnano tempore fuisse; qua re meam causam semper fore firmissimam dicere solebat, dum vel unus in re publica consul esset; quod vere dixerat si illud de duobus consulibus, quod ante in re publica non fuerat, perenne ac proprium manere potuisset. si Q. Metellus illo tempore consul fuisset [inimicus ], dubitatis quo animo fuerit in me conservando futurus, cum in restituendo auctorem fuisse adscriptoremque videatis?

[¶4] 10. But at that time there were two consuls, whose minds, narrow, contemptible, mean, groveling, dark, and dirty, were unable to look properly at, or to uphold, or to support the mere name of the consulship, much less the splendour of that honour, and the importance of that authority. They were not consuls, but dealers in provinces, and sellers of your dignity. One of whom demanded back from me, in the hearing of many, Catiline, his lover; the other reclaimed Cethegus, his cousin;—the two most wicked men in the memory of man, who (I will not call them consuls, but robbers) not only deserted, in a cause in which, above all others, the welfare of the republic and the dignity of the consulship was concerned, but betrayed me, and opposed me, and wished to see me stripped of all aid, not only from themselves, but also from you and from the other orders of the state. One of them, however, deceived neither me nor any one else.

> Latin: 10. fuerunt ii consules quorum mentes angustae humiles pravae, oppletae tenebris ac sordibus, nomen ipsum consulatus, splendorem illius honoris, magnitudinem tanti imperi nec intueri nec sustinere nec capere potuerunt,—non consules, sed mercatores provinciarum ac venditores vestrae dignitatis; quorum alter a me Catilinam, amatorem suum, multis audientibus, alter Cethegum consobrinum reposcebat; qui me duo sceleratissimi post hominum memoriam non consules sed latrones non modo deseruerunt, in causa praesertim publica et consulari, sed prodiderunt, oppugnarunt, omni auxilio non solum suo sed etiam vestro ceterorumque ordinum spoliatum esse voluerunt. alter tamen neque me neque quemquam fefellit.

[¶5] 11. For who ever could have any hope of any good existing in that man, the earliest period of whose life was made openly subservient to everyone's lusts; who had not the heart to repel the obscene impurity of men from the holiest portion of his person? who, after he had ruined his own estate with no less activity than he afterwards displayed in his endeavours to ruin the republic, supported his indigence and his luxury by every sort of pandering and infamy; who, if he had not taken refuge at the altar of the tribuneship, would not have been able to escape from the authority of the praetor, nor the multitude of his creditors, nor the seizure of his goods. And if he had not while in discharge of that office, passed that law about the piratical war, he, in truth, would have yielded to his own poverty and wickedness, and had recourse to piracy himself; and who would have done so with less injury to the republic than he did by remaining within our walls as an impious enemy and robber. It was he who was inspecting victims, and sitting in the discharge of that duty, when a tribune of the people procured a law to be passed that no regard should be had to the auspices,—that no one should on that account be allowed to interrupt the assembly or the comitia, or to put his veto on the passing of a law; and that the Aelian and Fufian laws should have no validity, which our ancestors had enacted, intending them to be the firmest protection of the republic against the insanity of the tribunes.

> Latin: 11. enim ullam ullius boni spem haberet in eo cuius primum tempus aetatis palam fuisset ad omnis libidines divulgatum? qui ne a sanctissima quidem parte corporis potuisset hominum impuram intemperantiam propulsare? qui cum suam rem non minus strenue quam postea publicam confecisset, egestatem et luxuriem domestico lenocinio sustentavit? qui nisi in aram tribunatus confugisset, neque vim praetoris nec multitudinem creditorum nec bonorum proscriptionem effugere potuisset? qui in magistratu nisi rogationem de piratico bello tulisset, profecto egestate et improbitate coactus piraticam ipse fecisset, ac minore quidem cum rei publicae detrimento quam quod intra moenia nefarius hostis praedoque versatus est? quo inspectante ac sedente legem tribunus plebis tulit ne auspiciis obtemperaretur, ne obnuntiare concilio aut comitiis, ne legi intercedere liceret, ut lex Aelia et Fufia ne valeret, quae nostri maiores certissima subsidia rei publicae contra tribunicios furores esse voluerunt?

[¶6] 12. And he also afterwards, when a countless multitude of virtuous men had come to him from the Capitol as suppliants, and in morning garments, and when all the most noble young men of Rome, and all the Roman knights, had thrown themselves at the feet of that most profligate pander, with what an expression of countenance did that curled and perfumed debauchee reject, not only the tears of the citizens, but even the prayers of his country! Nor was he content with that but he even went up to the assembly, and there said what even if his man Catiline had come to life again he would not have dared to say,—that he would make the Roman knights pay for the nones of December of my consulship, and for the Capitoline Hill; and he not only said this, but he even summoned those before him that suited him. And this imperious consul actually banished from the city Lucius Lamia, a Roman knight, a man of the highest character, and a very eager advocate of my safety, because of his intimacy with me, and very much attached to the state, as it was likely that a man of his fortune would be. And when you had passed a resolution to change your garments, and had changed them, and though, indeed, all virtuous men had already done the same thing, he, reeking with perfumes, clad in his toga praetexta, which all the praetors and aediles had at that time laid aside, derided your mourning garb, and the grief of a most grateful city, and did what no tyrant ever did,—he issued an edict that you should lament your disasters in secret and not presume openly to bewail the miseries of your country.

> Latin: 12. postea, cum innumerabilis multitudo bonorum de Capitolio supplex ad eum sordidata venisset, cumque adulescentes nobilissimi cunctique equites Romani se ad lenonis impudicissimi pedes abiecissent, quo vultu cincinnatus ganeo non solum civium lacrimas verum etiam patriae preces repudiavit! eo contentus fuit, sed etiam in contionem escendit eaque dixit quae, si eius vir Catilina revixisset, dicere non esset ausus, se Nonarum Decembrium quae me consule fuissent clivique Capitolini poenas ab equitibus Romanis esse repetiturum. solum id dixit, sed quos ei commodum fuit compellavit, Lucium vero Lamiam, equitem Romanum, praestanti dignitate hominem et saluti meae pro familiaritate, rei publicae pro fortunis suis amicissimum, consul imperiosus exire ex urbe iussit. cum vos vestem mutandam censuissetis cunctique mutassetis atque idem omnes boni iam ante fecissent, ille unguentis oblitus cum toga praetexta, quam omnes praetores aedilesque tum abiecerant, inrisit squalorem vestrum et luctum gratissimae civitatis, fecitque, quod nemo umquam tyrannus, ut quo minus occulte vestrum malum gemeretis nihil diceret, ne aperte incommoda patriae lugeretis ediceret.

[¶7] 13. And when in the Circus Flaminius (I will not say the consul had been conducted into the assembly by a tribune of the people, but) the archpirate had been brought in by another robber, he came first a man of what exceeding dignity, full of wine, sleep, and debauchery! with hair dripping with ointments, with carefully arranged locks, with heavy eyes, moist cheeks, a husky and drunken voice; and he, a grave authority, said that he was greatly displeased at citizens having been executed without having been formally condemned. Where is it that this great authority has lain hid so long out of our sight? Why has the extraordinary virtue of this ringletted dunce been wasted so long in scenes of debauchery and gluttony? For that other man, Caesoninus Calventius, from his youth up has been habituated to the forum, though, except his assumed and crafty melancholy, there was no single thing to recommend him,—no knowledge of the law, no skill in speaking, no knowledge of military affairs or of men, no liberality. And if, while passing him, you noticed how ungentlemanlike, and rough, and sulky he looked, though you might think him a barbarian and a boor, still you would not suppose him to be lascivious and profligate.

> Latin: 13. Cum vero in circo Flaminio non a tribuno plebis consul in contionem, sed a latrone archipirata productus esset, primum processit, qua auctoritate vir! vini somni stupri plenus, madenti coma, composito capillo, gravibus oculis, fluentibus buccis: pressa voce et temulenta, quod in civis indemnatos esset animadversum, id sibi dixit gravis auctor vehementissime displicere. Vbi nobis haec auctoritas tam diu tanta latuit? cur in lustris et helluationibus huius calamistrati saltatoris tam eximia virtus tam diu cessavit? ille alter Caesoninus ab adulescentia versatus est in foro, cum eum praeter simulatam versutamque tristitiam nulla res commendaret, non consilium, non dicendi copia, non rei militaris, non cognoscendorum hominum studium, non liberalitas. praeteriens cum incultum horridum maestumque vidisses, etiam si agrestem et inhumanum existimares, tamen libidinosum et perditum non putares.

[¶8] 14. You would think it made no difference whether you were standing in the forum with this man, or with a barbarian from Aethiopia; there he was, in that sense, without flavour, a mute, slow, uncivilized piece of goods. You would be apt to suppose him a Cappadocian just escaped out of a lot of slaves for sale. Then, again, how lustful was he at home,—how impure, how intemperate. He was not like a front-door, open for the reception of legitimate pleasures, but when he began to devote himself to literature, and, beastly rather a postern for all sorts of secret gratification. And glutton that he was, to learn philosophy with the Greeks, then he became an Epicurean, not because he was really much devoted to that sect such as it is, but because he was caught by that one expression about pleasure. And he has masters, none of those foolish fellows who go on for whole days discussing duty and virtue,—who exhort men to labour, to industry, to encounter dangers for the sake of their country, but men who argue that no hour ought to be unoccupied by pleasure; that in every part of the body there ought always to be some joy and delight to be perceived.

> Latin: 14. Cum hoc homine an cum stipite in foro constitisses, nihil crederes interesse: sine sensu, sine sapore, elinguem, tardum, inhumanum negotium, Cappadocem modo abreptum de grege venalium diceres. domi quam libidinosus, quam impurus, quam intemperans, non ianua receptis sed pseudothyro intromissis voluptatibus! Cum vero etiam litteris studere incipit et belua immanis cum Graeculis philosophari, tum est Epicureus non penitus illi disciplinae, quaecumque est, deditus, sed captus uno verbo voluptatis. autem magistros non ex istis ineptis qui dies totos de officio ac de virtute disserunt, qui ad laborem, ad industriam, ad pericula pro patria subeunda adhortantur, sed eos qui disputent horam nullam vacuam voluptate esse debere, in omni parte corporis semper oportere aliquod gaudium delectationemque versari.

[¶9] 15. He uses his masters as a sort of superintendents of his lusts; they seek out and scent out all sorts of pleasures; they are the seasoners and furnishers of his banquets they appraise and value the different pleasures, they give a formal decision and judgment as to how much indulgence ought to be allowed to each separate pleasure. He, becoming accomplished in all these arts, despised this most prudent city to such a degree that he thought that all his lusts and all his atrocities could be concealed, if he only thrust his ill-omened face into the forum. He deceived me, though I will not so much say me (for I know, from my connection with the Pisos how much the Transalpine blood on his mother's side had removed him from the qualities of that family) but he deceived you and the Roman people, not by his wisdom or his eloquence, as is often the case with many men, but by his wrinkled brow and solemn look.

> Latin: 15. utitur quasi praefectis libidinum suarum, hi voluptates omnis vestigant atque odorantur, hi sunt conditores instructoresque convivi, idem expendunt atque aestimant voluptates sententiamque dicunt et iudicant quantum cuique libidini tribuendum esse videatur. Horum ille artibus eruditus ita contempsit hanc prudentissimam civitatem ut omnis suas libidines, omnia flagitia latere posse arbitraretur, si modo vultum importunum in forum detulisset. nequaquam me quidem —cognoram enim propter Pisonum adfinitatem quam longe hunc ab hoc genere cognatio materna Transalpini sanguinis abstulisset— sed vos populumque Romanum non consilio neque eloquentia, quod in multis saepe accidit, sed rugis supercilioque decepit.

[¶10] 16. Lucius Piso, did you dare at that time with that eye (I will not say with that mind ) with that forehead (I will not say with what character,) and with that arrogance (for I cannot say, after such achievements,) to unite with Aulus Gabinius in forming plans for my ruin? Did not the odour of that man's perfumes, or his breath reeking with wine, or his forehead marked with the traces of the curling-iron, lead you to think that as you were like him in reality, you were no longer able to use the impenetrability of your countenance to conceal such enormous atrocities? Did you dare to continue with that man to abandon the consular dignity,—the existing condition of the republic,—the authority of the senate,—the fortunes of a citizen who had above all others deserved well of the republic, to the provinces? While you were consul, according to your edicts and commands, it was not allowed to the Roman senate or people to come to the assistance of the republic, I will not say by their votes and their authority, but even by their grief and their mourning garb.

> Latin: 16. Luci Piso, tune ausus es isto oculo, non dicam isto animo, ista fronte, non vita, tanto supercilio, non enim possum dicere tantis rebus gestis, cum A. Gabinio consociare consilia pestis meae? te illius unguentorum odor, non vini anhelitus, non frons calamistri notata vestigiis in eam cogitationem adducebat, ut cum illius re similis fuisses, frontis tibi integimento ad occultanda tanta flagitia diutius uti non liceret? Cum hoc coire ausus es ut consularem dignitatem, ut rei publicae statum, ut senatus auctoritatem, ut civis optime meriti fortunas provinciarum foedere addiceres? consule, tuis edictis et imperiis senatui populi Romani non est licitum non modo sententiis atque auctoritate sua, sed ne luctu quidem ac vestitu rei publicae subvenire?

[¶11] 17. Did you think that you were consul at Capua, a city where there was once the abode of arrogance, or at Rome, where all the consuls that ever existed before you were obedient to the senate? Did you dare, when you were brought forward in the Flaminian Circus, with your colleague, to say that you had always been merciful? by which expression you declared that the senate and all virtuous men were cruel at the time that I warded off ruin from the republic. You were a merciful man when you handed me over,—me, your own relation,—me, whom at your comitia you had appointed as chief guardian of the prerogative tribe, whose opinions on the calends of January you had asked then, bound and helpless to the enemies of the republic! You repelled my son-in-law, your own kinsman; you repelled your own near relation, my daughter, with most haughty and inhuman language, from your knees; and you, also, O man of singular mercy and clemency, when I, together with the republic, had fallen, not by a blow aimed by a tribune, but by a wound inflicted by a consul, behaved with such wickedness and such intemperance, that you did not allow one single hour to elapse between the time of my disaster and your plunder; you did not allow even time for the lamentations and groans of the city to die away.

> Latin: 17. Capuaene te putabas, in qua urbe domicilium quondam superbiae fuit, consulem esse, sicut eras eo tempore, an Romae, in qua civitate omnes ante vos consules senatui paruerunt? es ausus in circo Flaminio productus cum tuo illo pari dicere te semper misericordem fuisse? quo verbo senatum atque omnis bonos, tum cum a patria pestem depellerent, crudelis demonstrabas fuisse. misericors me, adfinem tuum, quem comitiis praerogativae primum custodem praefeceras, quem Kalendis Ianuariis tertio loco sententiam rogaras, constrictum inimicis rei publicae tradidisti; tu meum generum, propinquum tuum, tu adfinem tuam, filiam meam, superbissimis et crudelissimis verbis a genibus tuis reppulisti; idemque tu clementia ac misericordia singulari, cum ego una cum re publica non tribunicio sed consulari ictu concidissem, tanto scelere tantaque intemperantia fuisti ut ne unam quidem horam interesse paterere inter meam pestem et tuam praedam, saltem dum conticisceret illa lamentatio et gemitus urbis!

[¶12] 18. It was not yet openly known that the republic had fallen, when you thought fit to arrange its interment. At one and the same moment my house was plundered and set on fire, my property from my house on the Palatine Hill was taken to the house of the consul who was my neighbour, the goods from my Tusculan villa were also taken to the house of my neighbour there, the other consul; when, while the same mob of artisans were giving their votes, the same gladiator proposing and passing laws, the forum being unoccupied, not only by virtuous men, but even by free citizens, and being entirely empty, the Roman people being utterly ignorant what was going on, the senate being beaten down and crushed, there being two wicked and impious consuls, the treasury, the prisoners, the legions, allies and military commands, were given away as they pleased. But the ruin wrought by these consuls you, O consuls, have prevented from spreading further by your virtue, being assisted as you have been by the admirable loyalty and diligence of the tribunes of the people and the praetors.

> Latin: 18. palam factum erat occidisse rem publicam, cum tibi arbitria funeris solvebantur: uno eodemque tempore domus mea diripiebatur, ardebat, bona ad vicinum consulem de Palatio, de Tusculano ad item vicinum alterum consulem deferebantur cum, isdem operis suffragium ferentibus, eodem gladiatore latore, vacuo non modo a bonis sed etiam a liberis atque inani foro, ignaro populo Romano quid ageretur, senatu vero oppresso et adflicto, duobus impiis nefariisque consulibus aerarium provinciae legiones imperia donabantur. Horum consulum ruinas vos consules vestra virtute fulsistis, summa tribunorum plebis praetorumque fide et diligentia sublevati.

[¶13] 19. What shall I say of that most illustrious man, Titus Annius? or, who can ever speak of such a citizen in an adequate or worthy manner? For when he saw that a wicked citizen, or, it would be more correct to say, a domestic enemy, required (if it were only possible to employ the laws) to be crushed by judicial proceedings, or that if violence hindered and put an end to the courts of justice, in that case audacity must be put down by virtue, madness by courage, rashness by wisdom, hand by hand, violence by violence, he first of all prosecuted him for violence; when he saw that the very man whom he was prosecuting had destroyed the courts of justice, he took care that he should not be able to carry everything by violence. He taught us that neither private houses, nor temples, nor the forum, nor the senate-house could be defended from the bands of domestic robbers without the greatest gallantry, and large resources and numerous forces. He was the first man after my departure who relieved the virtuous from fear, and deprived the audacious of hope; who delivered this august body from alarm, and the city from slavery.

> Latin: 19. ego de praestantissimo viro, T. Annio, dicam, aut quis de tali cive satis digne umquam loquetur? cum videret sceleratum civem aut domesticum potius hostem, si legibus uti liceret, iudicio esse frangendum, sin ipsa iudicia vis impediret ac tolleret, audaciam virtute, furorem fortitudine, temeritatem consilio, manum copiis, vim vi esse superandam, primo de vi postulavit; postea quam ab eodem iudicia sublata esse vidit, ne ille omnia vi posset efficere curavit; qui docuit neque tecta neque templa neque forum nec curiam sine summa virtute ac maximis opibus et copiis ab intestino latrocinio posse defendi; qui primus post meum discessum metum bonis, spem audacibus, timorem huic ordini, servitutem depulit civitati.

## 2. Sections 20–39

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-post-reditum-in-senatu/2/#p-N

[¶0] 20. And Publius Sextius following the same line of conduct with equal virtue, courage, and loyalty, thought that there were no enmities, no efforts of violence, no attacks, no dangers even to his life, which it became him to shun, in defence of my safety, of your authority, and of the constitution of the state. He, by his diligence, so recommended the cause of the senate, thrown into disorder as it was by the harangues of wicked men, to the multitude, that your name soon became the most popular of all names, your authority the object of the greatest affection to all men. He defended me by every means that a tribune of the people could employ; and supported me by every sort of kind attention, just as if he had been my own brother; by his clients, and freedmen, and household, and resources, and letters, I was so much supported, that he seemed to be not only my assistant under, but my partner in calamity.

> Latin: 20. rationem pari virtute animo fide P. Sestius secutus pro mea salute, pro vestra auctoritate, pro statu civitatis nullas sibi inimicitias, nullam vim, nullos impetus, nullum vitae discrimen vitandum umquam putavit; qui causam senatus, exagitatam contionibus improborum, sic sua diligentia multitudini commendavit ut nihil tam populare quam vestrum nomen, nihil tam omnibus carum aliquando quam vestra auctoritas videretur; qui me cum omnibus rebus quibus tribunus plebis potuit defendit, tum reliquis officiis, iuxta ac si meus frater esset, sustentavit; cuius ego clientibus, libertis, familia, copiis, litteris ita sum sustentatus ut meae calamitatis non adiutor solum, verum etiam socius videretur.

[¶1] 21. Now you have seen the kindness and zeal of the others; how devoted to me was Caius Cestilius, how attached to you, how uniformly faithful to our cause. What did Marcus Cispius do? I know how much I owe to him and to his father and brother; and they, though they had some personal grudge against me on their own private account, still disregarded their private dislike out of recollection of my services to the state. Also, Titus Fadius, who was my quaestor, and Marcus Curtius, to whose father I was quaestor, cherished the memory of our connection with all zeal, and affection, and courage. Caius Messius made many speeches in my behalf, for the sake both of our friendship and of the republic. And he at the beginning proposed a special law respecting my safety.

> Latin: 21. ceterorum officia ⟨ac⟩ studia vidistis, quam cupidus mei C. Cestilius, quam studiosus vestri, quam non varius fuerit in causa. M. Cispius? cui ego ipsi parenti fratrique eius sentio quantum debeam; qui, cum a me voluntas eorum in privato iudicio esset offensa, publici mei benefici memoria privatam offensionem oblitteraverunt. T. Fadius, qui mihi quaestor fuit, M. Curtius, cuius ego patri quaestor fui, studio amore animo huic necessitudini non defuerunt. de me C. Messius et amicitiae et rei publicae causa dixit: legem separatim initio de salute mea promulgavit.

[¶2] 22. If Quintus Fabricius could only have effected, in spite of violence and arms, what he endeavoured to do in my behalf, we should have recovered our position in the month of January. His own inclination prompted him to labour for my safety, violence checked him, your authority recalled him. Of what disposition towards me the praetors were, you were able to form an opinion when Lucius Caecilius, in his private character, laboured to support me from his own resources, and in his public capacity proposed a law respecting my safety, in concert with all his colleagues, and refused the plunderers of my property permission to support their actions by legal proceedings. But Marcus Calidius, the moment he was elected, showed by his vote how dear my safety was to him.

> Latin: 22. Q. Fabricius si, quae de me agere conatus est, ea contra vim et ferrum perficere potuisset, mense Ianuario nostrum statum reciperassemus; quem ad salutem meam voluntas impulit, vis retardavit, auctoritas vestra revocavit. vero praetores quo animo in me fuerint vos existimare potuistis, cum L. Caecilius privatim me suis omnibus copiis studuerit sustentare, publice promulgarit de mea salute cum conlegis paene omnibus, direptoribus autem bonorum meorum in ius adeundi potestatem non fecerit. M. autem Calidius statim designatus sententia sua quam esset cara sibi mea salus declaravit.

[¶3] 23. Caius Septimius, Quintus Valerius, Publius Crassus, Sextus Quintilius, and Caius Cornutus, all devoted all their energies to the promotion of my interests and those of the republic. And while I gladly make mention of these things, I am not unwilling to pass over the wicked actions done by some people with a view to injure me. It is not suited to my fortunes at present to remember injuries, which, even if I were able to revenge them, I still would rather forget. All my life is to be devoted to a different object: to that of showing my gratitude to those who have deserved well of me; to preserving those friendships which have been tried in the fire; to waging war against my open enemies; to pardoning my timid friends; to avoiding the showing those who deserted me any indignation at having been forced to leave the city; to console those who promoted my return by a proper display of my dignity.

> Latin: 23. officia C. Septimi, Q. Valeri, P. Crassi, Sex. Quinctili, C. Cornuti summa et in me et in rem publicam constiterunt. cum libenter commemoro, tum non invitus non nullorum in me nefarie commissa praetereo. est mei temporis iniurias meminisse, quas ego etiam si ulcisci possem, tamen oblivisci mallem: alio transferenda mea tota vita est, ut bene de me meritis referam gratiam, amicitias igni perspectas tuear, cum apertis hostibus bellum geram, timidis amicis ignoscam, proditores indicem, dolorem profectionis meae reditus dignitate consoler.

[¶4] 24. And if I had no other duty before me for all the rest of my life, except to appear sufficiently grateful to the very originators and prime movers and authors of my safety, still I should think the period that remains to me of life too brief; I will not say for requiting, but even for enumerating the kindnesses which have been shown to me. For, when shall I, or when will all my relations, be able to show proper gratitude to this man and to his children? What memory, what force of genius, what amount of deference and respect will be a fit return for such numerous and immense services? He was the first man who held out to me the promise and faith of a consul when I was overwhelmed and miserable; he it was who recalled me from death to life, from despair to hope, from destruction to safety. His affection for me, his zeal for the republic, was so great, that he kept thinking how he might not only relieve my calamity, but how he might even make it honourable. For what could be more honourable, what could happen to me more creditable, than that which you decreed on his motion, that all people from all Italy, who desired the safety of the republic, should come forward for the sole purpose of supporting and defending me, a ruined and almost broken-hearted man? So that the senate summoned the citizens and the whole of Italy to come from all their lands and from every town to the defence of one man, with the very same force of expression which had never been used but three times before since the foundation of Rome, and at those times it was the consul who used it in behalf of the entire republic, addressing himself to those only who could hear his voice.

> Latin: 24. si mihi nullum aliud esset officium in omni vita reliquum nisi ut erga duces ipsos et principes atque auctores salutis meae satis gratus iudicarer, tamen exiguum reliquae vitae tempus non modo ad referendam verum etiam ad commemorandam gratiam mihi relictum putarem. enim ego huic homini ac liberis eius, quando omnes mei gratiam referent? memoria, quae vis ingeni, quae magnitudo observantiae tot tantisque beneficiis respondere poterit? qui mihi primus adflicto et iacenti consularem fidem dextramque porrexit, qui me a morte ad vitam, a desperatione ad spem, ab exitio ad salutem vocavit, qui tanto amore in me, studio in rem publicam fuit ut excogitaret quem ad modum calamitatem meam non modo levaret sed etiam honestaret. enim magnificentius, quid praeclarius mihi accidere potuit quam quod illo referente vos decrevistis, ut cuncti ex omni Italia, qui rem publicam salvam vellent, ad me unum, hominem fractum et prope dissipatum, restituendum et defendendum venirent? ut, qua voce ter omnino post Romam conditam consul usus esset pro universa re publica apud eos solum qui eius vocem exaudire possent, eadem voce senatus omnis ex omnibus agris atque oppidis civis totamque Italiam ad unius salutem defendendam excitaret.

[¶5] 25. What could I leave to my posterity more glorious than the fact, that the senate had declared its judgment that any citizen who did not defend me, did not desire the safety of the republic? Therefore your authority, and the preeminent dignity of the consul, had this great effect, that every one thought that he was committing a shameful crime if he did not come to that summons. And this same consul, when that incredible multitude, when Italy itself I might almost say, had come to Rome, summoned you repeatedly to the Capitol; and at that time you had an opportunity of seeing what great power excellence of natural disposition and true nobleness have. For Quintus Metellus, himself an enemy of mine, and a brother of an enemy of mine, as soon as he was assured of your inclinations, laid aside his own private dislike to me and allowed Publius Servilius, a most illustrious man, and also a most virtuous one, and a most intimate friend of my own, to recall him, by what I may call the divine influence of his authority and eloquence, to the exploits and virtues of his race and of their common family, so as to take to his counsels his brother, in the shades below, the companion of my fortunes, and all the Metelli, those most admirable citizens, summoning them as it were from Acheron; and among them the great conqueror of Numidia, whose departure from his country formerly seemed grievous to all the citizens, but scarcely even vexatious to himself.

> Latin: 25. ego gloriosius meis posteris potui relinquere quam hoc, senatum iudicasse, qui civis me non defendisset, eum rem publicam salvam noluisse? tantum vestra auctoritas, tantum eximia consulis dignitas valuit ut dedecus et flagitium se committere putaret, si qui non veniret. consul, cum illa incredibilis multitudo Romam et paene Italia ipsa venisset, vos frequentissimos in Capitolium convocavit. tempore quantam vim naturae bonitas haberet et vera nobilitas, intellegere potuistis. Q. Metellus, et inimicus et frater inimici, perspecta vestra voluntate omnia privata odia deposuit: quem P. Servilius, vir cum clarissimus tum vero optimus mihique amicissimus, et auctoritatis et orationis suae divina quadam gravitate ad sui generis communisque sanguinis facta virtutesque revocavit, ut haberet in consilio et fratrem ab inferis, socium rerum mearum, et omnis Metellos, praestantissimos civis, paene ex Acheronte excitatos, in quibus Numidicum illum [Metellum ], cuius quondam de patria discessus honestus omnibus, sed luctuosus tamen visus est.

[¶6] 26. He, therefore, turns out now, not only a defender of my safety, having been previously to this one kindness of his always my enemy, but even the seconder of my restoration to my dignity. And on that day when you met in the senate to the number of four hundred and seventeen, and when all these magistrates were present one alone dissented; he who thought that the conspirators could by his law be awakened from the shades below. And on that day when in most weighty and copious language you delivered your decision, that the republic had been preserved by my counsels, he as consul again took care that the same things should be said by the chief men of the state in the assembly the next day; and he then spoke on my behalf with the greatest eloquence, and brought the assembly into such a state, all Italy standing by and listening, that no one would listen to the hateful and detested voice of any of my hired or profligate enemies.

> Latin: 26. divinitus exstitit non modo salutis defensor, qui ante hoc unum beneficium fuerat inimicus, verum etiam adscriptor dignitatis meae. quidem die cum quadringenti decem septem essetis, magistratus autem omnes adessent, dissensit unus, is qui sua lege coniuratos etiam ab inferis excitandos putarat. illo die cum rem publicam meis consiliis conservatam gravissimis verbis et plurimis iudicassetis, idem consul curavit ut eadem a principibus civitatis in contione postero die dicerentur; cum quidem ipse egit ornatissime meam causam, perfecitque astante atque audiente Italia tota ut nemo cuiusquam conducti aut perditi vocem acerbam atque inimicam bonis posset audire.

[¶7] 27. To these acts of his, being not only aids to my safety, but even ornaments of my dignity, you yourselves added the rest that was wanting. You decreed that no one should by any means whatever hinder that matter from proceeding; that if any one did try to interpose any obstacle, you would be very angry and indignant; that he would be acting in a manner contrary to the interests of the republic, and the safety of good men, and the unanimous wish of the citizens; and that such a man was instantly to be reported to you. And you passed a vote that if they persisted in interposing obstacles, I was to return in spite of them. Why need I tell how thanks were given to all those who had come up from the municipal towns; or that they were entreated to be present with equal eagerness on that day when the whole affair was consummated? Lastly, why need I tell what you did on that day which Publius Lentulus has made as a birthday to me, and to my brother, and to our children, to be recollected not only by us, who are now alive, but by all our race for ever? On which day, in the comitia centuriata, which our ancestors rightly called and considered the real comitia, he summoned us back to our country, so that the same centuries which had made me consul should declare their approval of my consulship.

> Latin: 27. haec non modo adiumenta salutis sed etiam ornamenta dignitatis meae reliqua vos idem addidistis: decrevistis ne quis ulla ratione rem impediret; qui impedisset, graviter molesteque laturos—illum contra rem publicam salutemque bonorum concordiamque civium facturum, et ut ad vos de eo statim referretur; meque etiam, si diutius calumniarentur, redire iussistis.? ut agerentur gratiae, qui e municipiis venissent? quid? ut ad illam diem, res cum redissent, rogarentur ut pari studio convenirent? quid? denique illo die, quem P. Lentulus mihi fratrique meo liberisque nostris natalem constituit, non modo ad nostram verum etiam ad sempiterni memoriam temporis, quo die nos comitiis centuriatis, quae maxime maiores comitia iusta dici haberique voluerunt, arcessivit in patriam, ut eaedem centuriae quae me consulem fecerant consulatum meum comprobarent— eo die quis civis fuit qui fas esse putaret, quacumque aut aetate aut valetudine esset, non se de salute mea sententiam ferre?

[¶8] 28. On that day what citizen was there who thought it right, whatever his age or state of health might be, to deny himself the opportunity of giving his vote for my safety? When did you ever see such a multitude assembled in the Campus, such a splendid show of all Italy and of all orders of men? when did you ever see movers, and tellers, and keepers of the votes all of such high rank? Therefore, through the active, and admirable, and godlike kindness of Publius Lentulus, we were not allowed to return to our country, as some most eminent citizens have been, but we were brought back in triumph, borne by white horses in a gilded car.

> Latin: 28. tantam frequentiam in campo, tantum splendorem Italiae totius ordinumque omnium, quando illa dignitate rogatores diribitores custodesque vidistis? P. Lentuli beneficio excellenti atque divino non reducti sumus in patriam sicut non nulli clarissimi cives, sed equis insignibus et curru aurato reportati.

[¶9] 29. Can I ever appear grateful enough to Cnaeus Pompeius, who said, not only among you who all were of the same opinion, but also before the whole Roman people, that the safety of the republic had been preserved by me, and was inseparably connected with mine? who recommended my cause to the wise, and taught the ignorant, and at the same time checked the wicked by his authority, and encouraged the good; who not only exhorted the Roman people to espouse my cause, but even entreated them to do so, as if he were speaking for a brother or a parent; who, at a time when he was forced to keep within his house from fear of contests and bloodshed, begged even of the preceding tribunes to propose and carry a law respecting my safety; who in a colony lately erected, where he himself was discharging the duties of a magistrate in it, where there was no bribed interrupter, declared that the privilegium passed against me was violent and cruel, confirming that declaration by the authority of most honourable men, and by public letters, and, being the chief man there, gave his opinion that it was becoming to implore the protection of all Italy for my safety; who, when he himself had always been a most firm friend to me, laboured also to make all his own friends also to me.

> Latin: 29. ego satis in Cn. Pompeium umquam gratus videri? qui non solum apud vos, qui omnes idem sentiebatis, sed etiam apud universum populum salutem populi Romani et conservatam per me et coniunctam esse cum mea dixerit; qui causam meam prudentibus commendarit, imperitos edocuerit, eodemque tempore improbos auctoritate sua compresserit, bonos excitarit; qui populum Romanum pro me tamquam pro fratre aut pro parente non solum hortatus sit, verum etiam obsecrarit; qui cum ipse propter metum dimicationis et sanguinis domo se teneret, iam a superioribus tribunis petierit ut de salute mea et promulgarent et referrent; qui in colonia nuper constituta cum ipse gereret magistratum, in qua nemo erat emptus intercessor, vim et crudelitatem privilegi auctoritate honestissimorum hominum et publicis litteris consignarit, princepsque Italiae totius praesidium ad meam salutem implorandum putarit; qui cum ipse mihi semper amicissimus fuisset, etiam ut suos necessarios mihi amicos redderet elaborarit.

[¶10] 30. And by what services can I requite the kindness of Titus Annius to me? all whose actions, the whole of whose conduct and thoughts, the whole of whose tribuneship, in short, was nothing else except a consistent, continual, gallant, unwearied advocacy of my safety. Why need I speak of Publius Sextius? who showed his good-will and faithful attachment to me, not only by his grief of mind, but even by the wounds which he received on his person. But to you, O conscript fathers, and to each individual of you, I have both declared, and I will continue to declare my gratitude. I declared it at the beginning to your whole body, as well as I could; to declare it with sufficient eloquence is what I am totally unable to do. And although I have received special favours from many persons, about which it is impossible for me to keep silence, still it is impossible at the present time, and with the apprehensions which I feel, to endeavour to enumerate the kindnesses which I have received from individuals. For it is difficult to avoid passing over some, and yet it would be impious to forget any one. I, O conscript fathers, ought to reverence every one of you as I do the immortal gods. But as, even in the case of the immortal gods themselves, we are wont not always to pay worship and to offer prayers to the same deities, but sometimes we pray to one and sometimes to another; so in the case of the men who have behaved to me with such godlike service, my whole life shall be devoted to celebrating their kindness towards me, and showing my reverent sense of it.

> Latin: 30. autem officiis T. Anni beneficia remunerabor? cuius omnis ratio, cogitatio, totus denique tribunatus nihil aliud fuit nisi constans perpetua fortis invicta defensio salutis meae. de P. Sestio loquar? qui suam erga me benivolentiam et fidem non solum animi dolore sed etiam corporis vulneribus ostendit. vero, patres conscripti, singulis et egi et agam gratias: universis egi initio, quantum potui, satis ornate agere nullo modo possum. quamquam sunt in me praecipua merita multorum, quae sileri nullo modo possunt, tamen huius temporis ac timoris mei non est conari commemorare beneficia in me singulorum; nam difficile est non aliquem, nefas quemquam praeterire. vos universos, patres conscripti, deorum numero colere debeo. ut in ipsis dis immortalibus non semper eosdem atque alias alios solemus et venerari et precari, sic in hominibus de me divinitus meritis: omnis erit aetas mihi ad eorum erga me merita praedicanda atque recolenda, hodierno autem die nominatim a me magistratibus statui gratias esse agendas, et de privatis uni, qui pro salute mea municipia coloniasque adisset, populum Romanum supplex obsecrasset, sententiam dixisset eam quam vos secuti mihi dignitatem meam reddidistis.

[¶11] 31. But on this day I have thought that it became me to return thanks especially to the different magistrates by name, and also to one private individual, who for the sake of my safety, had visited all the municipal towns and colonies, had as a suppliant addressed his entreaties to the Roman people, and had declared that opinion which you followed when you restored me to my dignities. You always distinguished me when I was prosperous; when I was in distress you defended me to the extent of your power, by the change of your garments, and your general mourning, There have been times within our own recollection when senators did not dare to change their robes even in their own personal dangers; but in my danger the whole senate changed its garments as far as it was allowed to do without interruption from the edicts of those men who wished to deprive me in my peril not only of all protection from them, but of even the benefit of your prayers in my behalf.

> Latin: 31. me florentem semper ornastis, laborantem mutatione vestis et prope luctu vestro, quoad licuit, defendistis. memoria senatores ne in suis quidem periculis mutare vestem solebant: in meo periculo senatus veste mutata fuit, quoad licuit per eorum edicta qui mea pericula non modo suo praesidio sed etiam vestra deprecatione nudarunt.

[¶12] 32. And when I was in such circumstances as these, when I saw that I as a private individual had to contend with the same array which as consul I had defeated, using not arms but your authority, I deliberated much with myself. The consul had said that he would make the Roman knights pay for the scenes on the Capitoline Hill. Some were summoned by name, others were prosecuted, some were banished. All access to the temples was prevented, not merely by their being garrisoned or occupied with a strong force, but by their being demolished. The other consul, not content with only abandoning me and the republic, unless he could also betray us to the enemies of the republic, had bound those enemies to him by promising them the rewards which they coveted. There was another man at the gates with a command given to him for many years, and with a large army. I do not say that he was an enemy of mine, but I do know that he did nothing when he was stated to be my enemy.

> Latin: 32. ego rebus obiectis, cum mihi privato confligendum viderem cum eodem exercitu quem consul non armis sed vestra auctoritate superaram, multa mecum ipse reputavi. in contione consul se clivi Capitolini poenas ab equitibus Romanis repetiturum; nominatim alii compellabantur, alii citabantur, alii relegabantur; aditus templorum erant non solum praesidiis et manu verum etiam demolitione sublati. consul, ut me et rem publicam non modo desereret sed etiam hostibus rei publicae proderet, pactionibus se suorum praemiorum obligarat. alius ad portas cum imperio in multos annos magnoque exercitu, quem ego inimicum mihi fuisse non dico, tacuisse, cum diceretur esse inimicus, scio.

[¶13] 33. As there were thought to be two parties in the republic, the one was supposed, out of its enmity to me, to demand that I should be given up to it; the other, to defend me, but timidly out of fear of bloodshed. But those who seemed to require me to be given up to them increased the fear of a contest by their conduct as they never diminished the suspicions and anxieties of men by denying what they were suspected of. Wherefore, when I saw the senate deprived of leaders, and myself attacked by some of the magistrates, betrayed by some, and abandoned by others; when I saw that slaves were being enlisted by name under some pretence of forming guilds; that all the troops of Catiline were recalled to their original hopes of massacre and conflagration under almost the same leaders as before; that the Roman knights were under the same fear of proscription as before; that the municipal towns were in dread of being pillaged, and every one in fear of his life; I might—I might, I say, O conscript fathers, still have been able to defend myself by force of arms, and many wise and brave men advised me to do so; nor was I wanting in the same courage which I had shown before, and which was not unknown to you. But I saw that if I defeated my present enemy, I had still too many others behind who must also be defeated; that if I were beaten myself; many virtuous men would fall for my sake, and with me, and even after me; and that the avengers of the blood of the tribunes were present, but that all satisfaction for my death must he exacted by the slow progress of the law, and reserved for posterity.

> Latin: 33. partes esse in re publica cum putarentur, altera me deposcere propter inimicitias, altera timide defendere propter suspicionem caedis putabatur. autem me deposcere videbantur, in hoc auxerunt dimicationis metum, quod numquam infitiando suspicionem hominum curamque minuerunt. re cum viderem senatum ducibus orbatum, me a magistratibus partim oppugnatum, partim proditum, partim derelictum, servos simulatione conlegiorum nominatim esse conscriptos, copias omnis Catilinae paene isdem ducibus ad spem caedis et incendiorum esse revocatas, equites Romanos proscriptionis, municipia vastitatis, omnis caedis metu esse permotos, potui, potui, patres conscripti, multis auctoribus fortissimis viris me vi armisque defendere, nec mihi ipsi ille animus idem meus vobis non incognitus defuit. videbam, si vicissem praesentem adversarium, nimium multos mihi alios esse vincendos; si victus essem, multis bonis et pro me et mecum etiam post me esse pereundum, tribuniciique sanguinis ultores esse praesentis, meae mortis poenas iudicio et posteritati reservari.

[¶14] 34. I did not choose, after I had as consul maintained the general safety of the state without having recourse to arms, to take arms as a private individual in my own cause; I preferred that virtuous men should grieve for my fortune rather than despair of their own; and if I were slain by myself; that I thought would be a shameful end for me; but if I were slain with many others, that I thought would be fatal to the republic. If I had supposed that eternal misery was before me, I would rather have endured death than everlasting agony. But I felt sure that I should not be absent from this city any longer than the constitution itself was, and, while that was banished, I thought it no longer desirable for myself that I should remain in it; and in accordance with my expectation, as soon as ever the constitution was restored, it brought me back in triumph as its companion. The laws were all banished as well as I, the courts of justice were banished as well as I; the prerogatives of the magistrates, the authority of the senate, the liberty of the citizens, even the fruitfulness of the land, all piety and all religion, whether it was with respect to men or gods, were all banished from the state when I was banished. And if they had been lost to you for ever, I should mourn over your fortunes rather than regret the loss of my home amongst you; but if they were ever restored, I was quite sure that I should be enabled to return with them.

> Latin: 34. , cum consul communem salutem sine ferro defendissem, meam privatus armis defendere, bonosque viros lugere malui meas fortunas quam suis desperare; ac, si solus essem interfectus, mihi turpe, si cum multis, rei publicae funestum fore videbatur. si mihi aeternam esse aerumnam propositam arbitrarer, morte me ipse potius quam sempiterno dolore multassem. cum viderem me non diutius quam ipsam rem publicam ex hac urbe afuturum, neque ego illa exterminata mihi remanendum putavi, et illa, simul atque revocata est, me secum pariter reportavit. leges, mecum quaestiones, mecum iura magistratuum, mecum senatus auctoritas, mecum libertas, mecum etiam frugum ubertas, mecum deorum et hominum sanctitates omnes et religiones afuerunt. si semper abessent, magis vestras fortunas lugerem quam desiderarem meas; sin aliquando revocarentur, intellegebam mihi cum illis una esse redeundum.

[¶15] 35. And of these feelings of mine, he who was the protector of my life is also my most indisputable witness, namely Cnaeus Plancius, who, disregarding all the distinctions and emoluments which might have been derived from a province, devoted his whole quaestorship to supporting and preserving me. If he had been my quaestor when I was commander-in-chief; he would have stood in the relation of a son to me; now he surely shall be looked upon by me as a parent, since he has been my quaestor, not while in authority, but in grief.

> Latin: 35. mei sensus certissimus testis est hic idem qui custos capitis fuit, Cn. Plancius, qui omnibus provincialibus ornamentis commodisque depositis totam suam quaesturam in me sustentando et conservando conlocavit. si mihi quaestor imperatori fuisset, in fili loco fuisset; nunc certe erit in parentis, cum fuerit ⟨consors⟩ non imperi sed doloris mei.

[¶16] 36. Wherefore, O conscript fathers, since I have been restored to the republic at the same time with the constitution of the republic, in whatever I do for the defence of it, I will not only not in the slightest degree abridge my former liberty, but I will even increase it. In truth, if I defended the republic at a time when it was under some obligations to me, what ought I to do now when I owe everything to it? For what is there that can crush or even weaken my spirit, when you see that calamity itself is in my case not a witness of any error; but of most extraordinary services rendered to the republic? For these disasters were brought on me by my defence of the state; they were undergone by me of my own free will, in order that the republic which had been defended by me should not be brought into the very extremity of peril.

> Latin: 36. , patres conscripti, quoniam in rem publicam sum pariter cum re publica restitutus, non modo in ea defendenda nihil minuam de libertate mea pristina, sed etiam adaugebo. si eam tum defendebam cum mihi aliquid illa debebat, quid nunc me facere oportet cum ego illi plurimum debeo? quid est quod animum meum frangere aut debilitare possit, cuius ipsam calamitatem non modo nullius delicti, sed etiam divinorum in rem publicam beneficiorum testem esse videatis? importata est quia defenderam civitatem, et mea voluntate suscepta est, ne a me defensa res publica per eundem me extremum in discrimen vocaretur.

[¶17] 37. It was not in my case, as in that of Publius Popillius, a most noble man, my young sons, or a multitude of my relations that entreated the Roman people in my behalf; it was not in my case, as in the case of Quintus Metellus, a most admirable and most illustrious man, a youthful son of proved virtue who strove for me; it was not Lucius and Caius Metellus, men of consular rank, nor their sons; nor Quintus Metellus Nepos, who was at that very moment a candidate for the consulship, nor the Luculli or Servilii, or Scipios, sons of the Metelli, who with tears and in mourning garments addressed their supplications to the Roman people; but one single brother, who behaved to me with the dutiful affection of a son, who fortified me like a parent with his counsels, and loved me like a brother (as indeed he was), by his mourning robe and his tears and daily prayers kept alive the regret of me which existed, and the recollection of my name and services; and while he had made up his mind, that unless by your votes he could recover me here, he would encounter the same fortune himself, and choose the same abode both in life and death, still he never was alarmed either at the greatness of the business, or at his own solitary and unassisted condition, nor at the violence and warlike measures of my adversaries.

> Latin: 37. me non ut pro P. Popilio, nobilissimo homine, adulescentes filii, non propinquorum multitudo populum Romanum est deprecata, non ut pro Q. Metello, summo et clarissimo viro, spectata iam adulescentia filius, non L. et C. Metelli, consulares, non eorum liberi, non Q. Metellus Nepos, qui tum consulatum petebat, non Luculli, Servilii, Scipiones, Metellarum filii flentes ac sordidati populo Romano supplicaverunt; sed unus frater, qui in me pietate filius, consiliis parens, amore, ut erat, frater inventus est, squalore et lacrimis et cotidianis precibus desiderium mei nominis renovari et rerum gestarum memoriam usurpari coegit. cum statuisset, nisi per vos me reciperasset, eandem subire fortunam atque idem sibi domicilium et vitae et mortis deposcere, tamen numquam nec magnitudinem negoti nec solitudinem suam nec vim inimicorum ac tela pertimuit.

[¶18] 38. There was another upholder and assiduous defender of my fortunes, Caius Piso, my son-in-law, a man of the greatest virtue and piety, who disregarded the threats of my enemies, the hostility of my connection, and his own near relation, the consul; who, as quaestor, passed over Pontus and Bithynia for the sake of ensuring my safety. The senate never decreed anything respecting Publius Popillius; no mention was ever made in this assembly of Quintus Metellus. They were restored by motions made by the tribunes, after their enemies had been slain, and, above all, they were not restored by the interposition of any authority on the part of the senate, though one of them had done what he did in obedience to the senate, the other had fled from violence and bloodshed. For Caius Marius, the only man of consular dignity in the memory of man who was ever driven from the city in times of civil discord before me, was not only not restored by the senate, but by his return almost destroyed the senate. There was no unanimity of magistrates in their cases,—no summoning of the Roman people to come to the defence of the republic,—no commotion throughout Italy,—no decrees of municipalities and colonies in their favour.

> Latin: 38. fuit propugnator mearum fortunarum et defensor adsiduus, summa virtute et pietate, C. Piso gener, qui minas inimicorum meorum, qui inimicitias adfinis mei, propinqui sui, consulis, qui Pontum et Bithyniam quaestor prae mea salute neglexit. umquam senatus de P. Popilio decrevit, numquam in hoc ordine de Q. Metello mentio facta est: tribuniciis sunt illi rogationibus interfectis inimicis denique restituti, cum alter eorum senatui paruisset, alter vim caedemque fugisset. C. quidem Marius, qui hac hominum memoria tertius ante me consularis tempestate civili expulsus est, non modo a senatu non est restitutus, sed reditu suo senatum cunctum paene delevit. de illis magistratuum consensio, nulla ad rem publicam defendendam populi Romani convocatio, nullus Italiae motus, nulla decreta municipiorum et coloniarum exstiterunt.

[¶19] 39. Wherefore, since your authority has summoned me,—since the Roman people his recalled me,—since the republic has begged me to return,—since almost all Italy has brought me back in triumph on its shoulders, I will take care, O conscript fathers, now that those things have been restored to me, the restoration of which did not depend on myself, not to appear wanting in those qualities with which I can provide myself; I will take care, now that I have recovered those things which I had lost, never to lose my virtue and loyal attachment to you.

> Latin: 39. re, cum me vestra auctoritas arcessierit, populus Romanus vocarit, res publica implorarit, Italia cuncta paene suis umeris reportarit, non committam, patres conscripti, ut, cum ea mihi sint restituta quae in potestate mea non fuerunt, ea non habeam quae ipse praestare possim, praesertim cum illa amissa reciperarim, virtutem et fidem numquam amiserim.