61. And since we are not to address this speech either to an ignorant multitude, or to any assembly of rustics, I will speak a little boldly about the pursuits of educated men, which are both well known and agreeable to you, O judges, and to me. Learn then, O judges, that all these good qualities, divine and splendid as they are, which we behold in Marcus Cato, are his own peculiar attributes. The qualities which we sometimes wish for in him, are not all those which are implanted in a man by nature, but some of them are such as are derived from education. For there was once a man of the greatest genius, whose name was Zeno, the imitators of whose example are called Stoics. His opinions and precepts are of this sort: that a wise man is never influenced by interest; never pardons any man's fault; that no one is merciful except a fool and a trifler; that it is not the part of a man to be moved or pacified by entreaties; that wise men, let them be ever so deformed, are the only beautiful men; if they be ever such beggars, they are the only rich men; if they be in slavery, they are kings. And as for all of us who are not wise men, they call away slaves, exiles, enemies, lunatics. They say that all offenses are equal; that every sin is an unpardonable crime; and that he does not commit a less crime who kills a cock if there was no need to do so, than the man who strangles his father. They say that a wise man never feels uncertain on any point never repents of anything, is never deceived in anything, and never alters his opinion.
61. quoniam non est nobis haec oratio habenda aut in imperita multitudine aut in aliquo conventu agrestium, audacius paulo de studiis humanitatis quae et mihi et vobis nota et iucunda sunt disputabo. M.Marco Catone, iudices, haec bona quae videmus divina et egregia ipsius scitote esse propria; quae non numquam requirimus, ea sunt omnia non a natura verum a magistro. enim quidam summo ingenio vir, Zeno, cuius inventorum aemuli Stoici nominantur. sententiae sunt et praecepta eius modi. gratia numquam moveri, numquam cuiusquam delicto ignoscere; neminem misericordem esse nisi stultum et levem; viri non esse neque exorari neque placari; solos sapientes esse, si distortissimi sint, formosos, si mendicissimi, divites, si servitutem serviant, reges; nos autem qui sapientes non sumus fugitivos, exsules, hostis, insanos denique esse dicunt; omnia peccata esse paria; omne delictum scelus esse nefarium, nec minus delinquere eum qui gallum gallinaceum, cum opus non fuerit, quam eum qui patrem suffocaverit; sapientem nihil opinari, nullius rei paenitere, nulla in re falli, sententiam mutare numquam.
62. All these opinions that most acute man, Marcus Cato, having been induced by learned advocates of them has embraced; and that, not for the sake of arguing about them as is the case with most men, but of living by them. Do the Publicans ask for anything? “Take care that their influence has no weight.” Do any suppliants, miserable and unhappy men, come to us? “You will be a wicked and infamous man if you do anything from being influenced by mercy.” Does any one confess that he has done wrong, and beg pardon for his wrong doing? “To pardon is a crime of the deepest dye.”—“But it is a trifling offence.” “All offences are equal.” You say something. “That is a fixed and unalterable principle.” “You are influenced not by the facts, but by your opinion.” “A wise man never forms mere opinions.” “You have made a mistake in some point.” He thinks that you are abusing him.—And in accordance with these principles of his are the following assertions: “I said in the senate, that I would prosecute one of the candidates for the consulship.” “You said that when you were angry.” “A wise man never is angry.” “But you said it for some temporary purpose.” “It is the act,” says he, “of a worthless man to deceive by a lie; it is a disgraceful act to alter one's opinion; to be moved by entreaties is wickedness; to pity any one is an enormity.”
62. homo ingeniosissimus, M.Marcus Cato, auctoribus eruditissimis inductus adripuit, neque disputandi causa, ut magna pars, sed ita vivendi. aliquid publicani; cave ⟨ne⟩ quicquam habeat momenti gratia. aliqui veniunt miseri et calamitosi; sceleratus et nefarius fueris, si quicquam misericordia adductus feceris. aliquis se peccasse et sui delicti veniam petit; “nefarium est facinus ignoscere.” leve delictum est. “peccata sunt paria.” quippiam: “fixum et statutum est.” re ductus es sed opinione; “sapiens nihil opinatur.” aliqua in re; male dici putat. ex disciplina nobis illa sunt: “in senatu me nomen consularis candidati delaturum.” dixisti. “” inquit “sapiens irascitur.” temporis causa. “” inquit “hominis ⟨est⟩ mendacio fallere; mutare sententiam turpe est, exorari scelus, misereri flagitium.”
63. But our philosophers, (for I confess, O Cato, that I too, in my youth, distrusting my own abilities, sought assistance from learning,) our philosophers, I say, men of the school of Plato and Aristotle, men of soberness and moderation, say that private interest does sometimes have weight even with a wise man. They say that it does become a virtuous man to feel pity; that there are different gradations of offences, and different degrees of punishment appropriate to each; that a man with every proper regard for firmness may pardon offences; that even the wise man himself has sometimes nothing more than opinion to go upon, without absolute certainty, that he is sometimes angry, that he is sometimes influenced and pacified by entreaty that he sometimes does change an opinion which he may have expressed when it is better to do so, that he sometimes abandons his previous opinions altogether, and that all his virtues are tempered by a certain moderation
63. autem illi — fatebor enim, Cato, me quoque in adulescentia diffisum ingenio meo quaesisse adiumenta doctrinae — nostri, inquam, illi a Platone et Aristotele, moderati homines et temperati, aiunt apud sapientem valere aliquando gratiam; viri boni esse misereri; distincta genera esse delictorum et disparis poenas; esse apud hominem constantem ignoscendi locum; ipsum sapientem saepe aliquid opinari quod nesciat, irasci non numquam, exorari eundem et placari, quod dixerit interdum, si ita rectius sit, mutare, de sententia decedere aliquando; omnis virtutes mediocritate quadam esse moderatas.
64. If any chance, O Cato, had conducted endowed with your existing natural disposition to those tutors, you would not indeed have been a better man than you are, not a braver one, nor more temperate, nor more just than you are, (for that is not possible,) but you would have been a little more inclined to lenity; you would not when you were not induced by any enmity, or provoked by any personal injury, accuse a most virtuous man, a man of the highest rank and the greatest integrity; you would consider that as fortune had entrusted the guardianship of the same year to you and to Murena, that you were connected with him by some certain political union; and the severe things which you have said in the senate you would either not have said, or you would have guarded against their being applied to him, or you would have interpreted them in the mildest sense.
64. ad magistros si qua te fortuna, Cato, cum ista natura detulisset, non tu quidem vir melior esses nec fortior nec temperantior nec iustior — neque enim esse potes — sed paulo ad lenitatem propensior. accusares nullis adductus inimicitiis, nulla lacessitus iniuria, pudentissimum hominem summa dignitate atque honestate praeditum; putares, cum in eiusdem anni custodia te atque L.Lucium Murenam fortuna posuisset, aliquo te cum hoc rei publicae vinculo esse coniunctum; quod atrociter in senatu dixisti, aut non dixisses aut, si potuisses, mitiorem in partem interpretarere. te ipsum, quantum ego opinione auguror, nunc et animi quodam impetu concitatum et vi naturae atque ingeni elatum et recentibus praeceptorum studiis flagrantem iam usus flectet, dies leniet, aetas mitigabit.
65. And even you yourself, (at least that is my opinion and expectation,) excited as you are at present by the impetuosity of your disposition and elated as you are both by the vigour of our natural character and by your confidence in your own ability, and inflamed as you are by your recent study of all these precepts, will find practice modify them and time and increasing years soften and humanise you. In truth, those tutors and teachers of virtue, whom you think so much of appear to me themselves to have carried their definitions of duties somewhat further than is agreeable to nature, and it would be better if, when we had in theory pushed our principles to extremities, yet in practice we stopped at what was expedient. “Forgive nothing.” Say rather, forgive some things, but not everything. “Do nothing for the sake of private influence.” Certainly resist private influence when virtue and good faith require you to do so. “Do not be moved by pity.” Certainly if it is to extinguish all impartiality; nevertheless, there is some credit due to humanity. “Abide by your own opinion.”
65. isti ipsi mihi videntur vestri praeceptores et virtutis magistri finis officiorum paulo longius quam natura vellet protulisse ut, cum ad ultimum animo contendissemus, ibi tamen ubi oporteret consisteremus. “ignoveris.” aliquid, non omnia. “gratiae causa feceris.” resistito gratiae, cum officium et fides postulabit. “commotus ne sis.”, in dissolvenda severitate; sed tamen est laus aliqua humanitatis. “sententia permaneto.”, nisi sententiam sententia alia vicerit melior.
66. Very true, unless some other sounder opinion convinces you. That great Scipio was a man of this sort, who had no objection to do the same thing that you do; to keep a most learned man, a man of almost divine wisdom, in his house; by whose conversation and precepts, although they were the very same that you are so fond of; he was nevertheless not made more severe, but (as I have heard said by old men) he was rendered most merciful. And who was more mild in his manners than Caius Lucius? who was more agreeable than he? (devoted to the same studies as you;) who was more virtuous or more wise than he? I might say the same of Lucius Philus, and of Caius Gallus; but I will conduct you now into your own house. Do you think that there was any man more courteous, more agreeable; any one whose conduct was more completely regulated by every principle of virtue and politeness, than Cato, your great-grandfather? And when you were speaking with truth and dignity of his virtue, you said that you had a domestic example to imitate. That indeed is an example set up for your imitation in your own family; and the similarity of nature ought rather to influence you who are descended from him than any one of us; but still that example is as much an object for my imitation as for yours. But if you were to add his courtesy and affability to your own wisdom and impartiality, I will not say that those qualities which are now most excellent will be made intrinsically better, but they will certainly be more agreeably seasoned.
66. modi Scipio ille fuit quem non paenitebat facere idem quod tu, habere eruditissimum hominem Panaetium domi; cuius oratione et praeceptis, quamquam erant eadem ista quae te delectant, tamen asperior non est factus sed, ut accepi a senibus, lenissimus. vero C.Gaio Laelio comior ⟨fuit⟩, quis iucundior eodem ex studio isto, quis illo gravior, sapientior? de L.Lucio Philo, de C.Gaio Gallo dicere haec eadem, sed te domum iam deducam tuam. existimas Catone, proavo tuo, commodiorem, communiorem, moderatiorem fuisse ad omnem rationem humanitatis? cuius praestanti virtute cum vere graviterque diceres, domesticum te habere dixisti exemplum ad imitandum. illud quidem exemplum tibi propositum domi, sed tamen naturae similitudo illius ad te magis qui ab illo ortus es quam ad unum quemque nostrum pervenire potuit, ad imitandum vero tam mihi propositum exemplar illud est quam tibi. si illius comitatem et facilitatem tuae gravitati severitatique asperseris, non ista quidem erunt meliora, quae nunc sunt optima, sed certe condita iucundius.
67. Wherefore, to return to the subject which I began to speak of; take away the name of Cato out of the cause; remove and leave out of the question all mention of authority, which in courts of justice ought either to have no influence at all, or only influence to contribute to someone's safety; and discuss with me the charges themselves. What do you accuse him of, Cato? What action of his is it that you bring before the court? What is your charge? Do you accuse him of bribery? I do not defend bribery. You blame me because you say I am defending the very conduct which I brought in a law to punish. I punished bribery, not innocence. And any real ease of bribery I will join you in prosecuting if you please. You have said that a resolution of the senate was passed, on my motion, “that if any men who had been bribed had gone to meet the candidates, if any hired men followed them, if places were given men to see the shows of gladiators according to their tribes, and also, if dinners were given to the common people, that appeared to be a violation of the Calpurnian law.” Therefore the senate decides that these things were done in violation of the Calpurnian law if they were done at all it decides what there is not the least occasion for out of complaisance for the candidates. For there is a great question whether such things have been done or not. That if they have been done, they were done in violation of the law, no one can doubt.
67. re, ut ad id quod institui revertar, tolle mihi e causa nomen Catonis, remove vim, praetermitte auctoritatem quae in iudiciis aut nihil valere aut ad salutem debet valere, congredere mecum criminibus ipsis. accusas, Cato, quid adfers ad iudicium, quid arguis? accusas; non defendo. reprehendis, quod idem defendam quod lege punierim. ambitum, non innocentiam; ambitum vero ipsum vel tecum accusabo, si voles. senatus consultum me referente esse factum, si mercede obviam candidatis issent, si conducti sectarentur, si gladiatoribus volgo locus tributim et item prandia si volgo essent data, contra legem Calpurniam factum videri. ita senatus iudicat, contra legem facta haec videri, si facta sint; decernit quod nihil opus est, dum candidatis morem gerit. factum sit necne vehementer quaeritur; sin factum sit, quin contra legem sit dubitare nemo potest.
68. It is, therefore ridiculous to leave that uncertain which was doubtful but to give a positive decision on that point which can be doubtful to no one. And that decree is passed at the request of all the candidates; in order that it might be quite impossible to make out from the resolution of the senate whose interests were consulted, or against whose interests it was passed. Prove, then, that these actions have been done by Lucius Murena and then I will grant to you that they have been done in violation of the law. “Many men went to meet him as he was departing from his province, when he was a candidate for the consulship.” That is a very usual thing to do. Who is there whom people do not go out to meet on his return home? “What a number of people they were.” In the first place, if I am not able to give you any exact account of it what wonder is it if many men did go out to meet such a man on his arrival, being a candidate for the consulship? If they had not done so, it would have appeared much more strange.
68. igitur ridiculum, quod est dubium, id relinquere incertum, quod nemini dubium potest esse, id iudicare. id decernitur omnibus postulantibus candidatis, ut ex senatus consulto neque cuius intersit, neque contra quem sit intellegi possit. re doce ab L.Lucio Murena illa esse commissa; tum egomet tibi contra legem commissa esse concedam. “obviam prodierunt de provincia decedenti.” petenti solet fieri; eccui autem non proditur revertenti? “fuit ista multitudo?”, si tibi istam rationem non possim reddere, quid habet admirationis tali viro advenienti, candidato consulari, obviam prodisse multos? quod nisi esset factum, magis mirandum videretur.
69. What then? Suppose I were even to add, what there would be nothing unusual in, that many had been asked to go? Would that be matter of accusation, or at all strange, that in a city in which we, when we are asked, often come to escort the sons of even the lowest rank, almost before the night is over, from the furthest part of the city, men should not mind going at the third hour into the Campus Martius, especially when they have been invited in the name of such a man as Murena? What then? What if all the societies had come to meet him, of which bodies many are sitting here as judges? What if many men of our own most honourable order had come? What then? What if the whole of that most officious body of candidates, which will not suffer any man to enter the city except in an honourable manner, had come, or even our prosecutor himself—if Postumius had come to meet him with a numerous crowd of his dependents? What is there strange in such a multitude? I say nothing of his clients, his neighbours, his tribesmen, or the whole army of Lucullus, which, just at that time, had come to Rome to his triumph; I say this, that that crowd, paying that gratuitous mark or respect was never backward in paying respect not only to the merit of any one, but even to his wishes.
69. ? si etiam illud addam quod a consuetudine non abhorret, rogatos esse multos, num aut criminosum sit aut mirandum, qua in civitate rogati infimorum hominum filios prope de nocte ex ultima saepe urbe deductum venire soleamus, in ea non esse gravatos homines prodire hora tertia in campum Martium, praesertim talis viri nomine rogatos?? si omnes societates venerunt quarum ex numero multi sedent iudices; quid? si multi homines nostri ordinis honestissimi; quid? si illa officiosissima quae neminem patitur non honeste in urbem introire tota natio candidatorum, si denique ipse accusator noster Postumus obviam cum bene magna caterva sua venit, quid habet ista multitudo admirationis? clientis, vicinos, tribulis, exercitum totum Luculli qui ad triumphum per eos dies venerat; hoc dico, frequentiam in isto officio gratuitam non modo dignitati nullius umquam sed ne voluntati quidem defuisse. sectabantur multi. mercede; concedam esse crimen.
70. “But a great many people followed him.” Prove that it was for hire, and I will admit that that was a crime: but if the fact of hire be absent, what is there that you object to? “What need is there,” says he, “of an escort?” Are you asking me what is the need of that which we have always availed ourselves of? Men of the lower orders have only one opportunity of deserving kindness at the hands of our order, or of requiting services,—namely, this one attention of escorting us when we are candidates for offices. For it is neither possible, nor ought we or the Roman knights to require them to escort the candidates to whom they are attached for whole days together; but if our house is frequented by them, if we are sometimes escorted to the forum, if we are honoured by their attendance for the distance of one piazza, we then appear to be treated with all due observance and respect; and those are the attentions of our poorer friends who are not hindered by business, of whom numbers are not wont to desert virtuous and beneficent men.
70. quidem remoto quid reprendis? “opus est” inquit “sectatoribus?” A me tu id quaeris, quid opus sit eo quo semper usi sumus? tenues unum habent in nostrum ordinem aut promerendi aut referendi benefici locum, hanc in nostris petitionibus operam atque adsectationem. enim fieri potest neque postulandum est a nobis aut ab equitibus Romanis ut suos necessarios candidatos adsectentur totos dies; a quibus si domus nostra celebratur, si interdum ad forum deducimur, si uno basilicae spatio honestamur, diligenter observari videmur et coli; tenuiorum amicorum et non occupatorum est ista adsiduitas, quorum copia bonis viris et beneficis deesse non solet.
71. Do not then, O Cato, deprive the lower class of men of this power of showing their dutiful feelings; allow these men, who hope for everything from us, to have something also themselves, which they may be able to give us. If they have nothing beyond their own vote, that is but little; since they have no interest which they can exert in the votes of others. They themselves, as they are accustomed to say, cannot plead for us, cannot go bail for us, cannot invite us to their houses; but they ask all these things of us, and do not think that they can requite the services which they receive from us by anything but by their attentions of this sort. Therefore they resisted the Fabian law, which regulated the number of an escort and the resolution of the senate, which was passed in the consulship of Lucius Caesar. For there is no punishment which can prevent the regard shown by the poorer classes for this description of attention.
71. igitur eripere hunc inferiori generi hominum fructum offici, Cato; sine eos qui omnia a nobis sperant habere ipsos quoque aliquid quod nobis tribuere possint. nihil erit praeter ipsorum suffragium, tenues, etsi suffragantur, nil valent gratia. denique, ut solent loqui, non dicere pro nobis, non spondere, non vocare domum suam possunt. haec a nobis petunt omnia neque ulla re alia quae a nobis consequuntur nisi opera sua compensari putant posse. et legi Fabiae quae est de numero sectatorum, et senatus consulto quod est L.Lucio Caesare consule factum restiterunt. est enim poena quae possit observantiam tenuiorum ab hoc vetere instituto officiorum excludere.
72. “But spectacles were exhibited to the people by their tribes, and crowds of the common people were invited to dinner.” Although this, O judges, was not done by Murena at all, but done in accordance with all usage and precedent by his friends, still, being reminded of the fact, I recollect how many votes these investigations held in the senate have lost us, O Servius. For what time was there ever, either within our own recollection or that of our fathers, in which this, whether you call it ambition or liberality, did not exist to the extent of giving a place in the circus and in the forum to one's friends, and to the men of one's own tribe? The men of the poorer classes first, who had not yet obtained from those of their own tribe … [A considerable break in the text.]
72. spectacula sunt tributim data et ad prandium volgo vocati. hoc factum a Murena omnino, iudices, non est, ab eius amicis autem more et modo factum est, tamen admonitus re ipsa recordor quantum hae conquestiones in senatu habitae punctorum nobis, Servi, detraxerint. enim tempus fuit aut nostra aut patrum nostrorum memoria quo haec sive ambitio est sive liberalitas non fuerit ut locus et in circo et in foro daretur amicis et tribulibus? homines tenuiores praemia commodaque a suis tribulibus vetere instituto adsequebantur … fabrum semel locum tribulibus suis dedisse, quid statuent in viros primarios qui in circo totas tabernas tribulium causa compararunt?
73. … that the prefect of the carpenters once gave a place to the men of his own tribe. What will they decide with respect to the eminent men who have erected regular stalls in the circus for the sake of their own tribesmen? All these charges of escort of spectacles of dinners, are brought forward by the multitude, O Servius, as proofs of your over-scrupulous diligence but still as to those counts of the indictment Murena is defended by the authority of the senate. And why not? Does the senate think it a crime to go to meet a man? No but it does, if it be done for a bribe. Prove that it was so. Does the senate think it a crime for many men to follow him? No, but it does, if they were hired. Prove it. Or to give a man a place to see the spectacles? or to ask a man to dinner? Not by any means; but to give every one a seat to ask everyone one meets to dinner. “What is every one?” Why, the whole body of citizens. It then, Lucius Natta, a young man of the highest rank, as to whom we see already of what sort of disposition he is, and what sort of man he is likely to turn out wished to be popular among the centuries of the knights, both because of his natural connection with them, and because of his intentions as to the future, that will not be a crime in, or matter of accusation against his stepfather; nor, if a vestal virgin, my client's near relation, gave up her place to see the spectacle in his favour, was that any other than a pious action nor is he liable to any charge on that ground. All these are the kind offices of intimate friends the services done to the poorer classes, the regular privileges of candidates.
73. omnia sectatorum, spectaculorum, prandiorum item crimina a multitudine in tuam nimiam diligentiam, Servi, coniecta sunt, in quibus tamen Murena ab senatus auctoritate defenditur. enim? senatus num obviam prodire crimen putat?, sed mercede.. sectari multos?, sed conductos.. locum ad spectandum dare aut ⟨ad⟩ prandium invitare?, sed volgo, passim. est volgo? Vniversos. igitur, si L.Lucius Natta, summo loco adulescens, qui et quo animo iam sit et qualis vir futurus sit videmus, in equitum centuriis voluit esse et ad hoc officium necessitudinis et ad reliquum tempus gratiosus, id erit eius vitrico fraudi aut crimini, nec, si virgo Vestalis, huius propinqua et necessaria, locum suum gladiatorium concessit huic, non et illa pie fecit et hic a culpa est remotus. haec sunt officia necessariorum, commoda tenuiorum, munia candidatorum.
74. But I must change my tone for Cato argues with me on rigid and stoic principles. He says that it is not true that good-will is conciliated by food. He says that men's judgments, in the important business of electing to magistracies, ought not to be corrupted by pleasures. Therefore, if any one, to promote his canvass, invites another to supper, he must be condemned. “Shall you,” says he, “seek to obtain supreme power, supreme authority, and the helm of the republic, by encouraging men's sensual appetites, by soothing their minds, by tendering luxuries to them? Are you asking employment as a pimp from a band of luxurious youths, or the sovereignty of the world from the Roman people?” An extraordinary sort of speech! but our usages, our way of living, our manners, and the constitution itself rejects it. For the Lacedaemonians, the original authors of that way of living and of that sort of language, men who lie at their daily meals on hard oak benches, and the Cretans, of whom no one ever lies down to eat at all, have neither of them preserved their political constitutions or their power better than the Romans, who set apart times for pleasure as well as times for labour; for one of those nations was destroyed by a single invasion of our army, the other only preserves its discipline and its laws by means of the protection afforded to it by our supremacy.
74. enim agit mecum austere et Stoice Cato, negat verum esse adlici benivolentiam cibo, negat iudicium hominum in magistratibus mandandis corrumpi voluptatibus oportere., ad cenam petitionis causa si quis vocat, condemnetur? “” inquit “tu mihi summum imperium, tu summam auctoritatem, tu gubernacula rei publicae petas fovendis hominum sensibus et deleniendis animis et adhibendis voluptatibus? Vtrum lenocinium” inquit “a grege delicatae iuventutis, an orbis terrarum imperium a populo Romano petebas?” oratio; sed eam usus, vita, mores, civitas ipsa respuit. tamen Lacedaemonii, auctores istius vitae atque orationis, qui cotidianis epulis in robore accumbunt, neque vero Cretes quorum nemo gustavit umquam cubans, melius quam Romani homines qui tempora voluptatis laborisque dispertiunt res publicas suas retinuerunt; quorum alteri uno adventu nostri exercitus deleti sunt, alteri nostri imperi praesidio disciplinam suam legesque conservant.
75. Do not, then, O Cato, blame with too great severity of language the principles of our ancestors, which facts, and the length of time that our power has flourished under them, justify. There was, in the time of our ancestors, a learned man of the same sect an honourable citizen, and one of high rank, Quintus Tubero. He, when Quintus Maximus was giving a feast to the Roman people, in the name of his uncle Africanus, was asked by Maximus to prepare a couch for the banquet as Tubero was a son of the sister of the same Africanus. And he, a most learned man and a Stoic, covered for that occasion some couches made in the Carthaginian fashion, with skins of kids, and exhibited some Samian vessels, as if Diogenes the Cynic had been dead, and not as if he were paying respect to the obsequies of that godlike Africanus; a man with respect to whom Maximus, when he was pronouncing his funeral panegyric on the day of his death, expressed his gratitude to the immortal gods for having caused that man to be born in this republic above all others, for that it was quite inevitable that the sovereignty of the world must belong to that state of which be was a citizen. At the celebration of the obsequies of such a man the Roman people was very indignant at the perverse wisdom of Tubero, and therefore he, a most upright man, a most virtuous citizen, though he was the grandson of Lucius Paullus, the sister's son, as I have said before, of Publius Africanus, lost the praetorship by his kid skins.
75. re noli, Cato, maiorum instituta quae res ipsa, quae diuturnitas imperi comprobat nimium severa oratione reprehendere. eodem ex studio vir eruditus apud patres nostros et honestus homo et nobilis, Q.Quinto Tubero., cum epulum Q.Quintus Maximus P.Publii Africani, patrui sui, nomine populo Romano daret, rogatus est a ut triclinium sterneret, cum esset Tubero eiusdem Africani sororis filius. ille, homo eruditissimus ac Stoicus, stravit pelliculis haedinis lectulos Punicanos et exposuit vasa Samia, quasi vero esset Diogenes Cynicus mortuus et non divini hominis Africani mors honestaretur; quem cum supremo eius die laudaret, gratias egit dis immortalibus quod ille vir in hac re publica potissimum natus esset; necesse enim fuisse ibi esse terrarum imperium ubi ille esset. in morte celebranda graviter tulit populus Romanus hanc perversam sapientiam Tuberonis, itaque homo integerrimus, civis optimus, cum esset L.Lucii Pauli nepos, P.Publii Africani, ut dixi, sororis filius, his haedinis pelliculis praetura deiectus est.
76. The Roman people disapproves of private luxury, but admires public magnificence. It does not love profuse banquets, still less does it love sordid and uncivilized behaviour. It makes a proper distinction between different duties and different seasons; and allows of vicissitudes of labour and pleasure. For as to what you say, that it is not right for men's minds to be influenced, in appointing magistrates, by any other consideration than that of the worth of the candidates, this principle even you yourself—you, a man of the greatest worth—do not in every case adhere to. For why do you ark any one to take pains for you, to assist you? You ask me to make you governor over myself to entrust myself to you. What is the meaning of this? Ought I to be asked this by you, or should not you rather be asked by me to undertake labour and danger for the sake of my safety?
76. populus Romanus privatam luxuriam, publicam magnificentiam diligit; non amat profusas epulas, sordis et inhumanitatem multo minus; distinguit rationem officiorum ac temporum, vicissitudinem laboris ac voluptatis. quod ais nulla re adlici hominum mentis oportere ad magistratum mandandum nisi dignitate, hoc tu ipse in quo summa est dignitas non servas. enim quemquam ut studeat tibi, ut te adiuvet rogas? tu me ut mihi praesis, ut committam ego me tibi. tandem? istuc me rogari oportet abs te, an te potius a me ut pro mea salute laborem periculumque suscipias?
77. Nay more, why is it that you have a nomenclator with you? for in so doing, you are practicing a trick and a deceit. For if it be an honourable thing for your fellow-citizens to be addressed by name by you, it is a shameful thing for them to be better known to your servant than to yourself. If though you know them yourself it seems better to use a prompter, why do you sometimes address them before he has whispered their names in your ear? Why, again, when he has reminded you of them, do you salute them as if you knew them yourself? And why, after you are once elected, are you more careless about saluting them at all? If you regulate all these things by the usages of the city, it is all right; but if you choose to weigh them by the precepts of your sect they will be found to be entirely wrong. Those enjoyments, then, of games, and gladiators, and banquets, all which things our ancestors desired, are not to be taken away from the Roman people, nor ought candidates to be forbidden the exercise of that kindness which is liberality rather than bribery.
77. quod habes nomenclatorem? in eo quidem fallis et decipis., si nomine appellari abs te civis tuos honestum est, turpe est eos notiores esse servo tuo quam tibi. iam noris, tamen⟨ne⟩ per monitorem appellandi sunt cum petis, quasi incertus sis? quod, cum admoneris, tamen, quasi tute noris, ita salutas?, postea quam es designatus, multo salutas neglegentius? omnia ad rationem civitatis si derigas, recta sunt; sin perpendere ad disciplinae praecepta velis, reperiantur pravissima. re nec plebi Romanae eripiendi fructus isti sunt ludorum, gladiatorum, conviviorum, quae omnia maiores nostri comparaverunt, nec candidatis ista benignitas adimenda est quae liberalitatem magis significat quam largitionem.
78. Oh, but it is the interest of the republic that has induced you to become a prosecutor. I do believe, O Cato, that you have come forward under the influence of those feelings and of that opinion. But you err out of ignorance. That which I am doing, O judges, I am doing out of regard to my friendship for Lucius Murena and to his own worth, and I also do assert and call you all to witness that I am doing it for the sake of peace, of tranquillity, of concord, of liberty, of safety,—yes, even for the sake of the lives of us all. Listen, O judges, listen to the consul,—I will not speak with undue arrogance, I will only say, who devotes all his thoughts day and night to the republic. Lucius Catiline did not despise and scorn the republic to such a degree as to think that with the forces which he took away with him he could subdue this city. The contagion of that wickedness spreads more widely than any one believes: more men are implicated in it than people are aware of. It is within the city,—the Trojan horse, I say, is within the city; but you shall never be surprised sleeping by that while I am consul.
78. enim te ad accusandum res publica adduxit., Cato, te isto animo atque ea opinione venisse; sed tu imprudentia laberis. quod facio, iudices, cum amicitiae dignitatisque L.Lucio Murenae gratia facio, tum me pacis, oti, concordiae, libertatis, salutis, vitae denique omnium nostrum causa facere clamo atque testor., audite consulem, iudices, nihil dicam adrogantius, tantum dicam totos dies atque noctes de re publica cogitantem! usque eo L.Lucius Catilina rem publicam despexit atque contempsit ut ea copia quam secum eduxit se hanc civitatem oppressurum arbitraretur. Latius patet illius sceleris contagio quam quisquam putat, ad pluris pertinet., intus, inquam, est equus Troianus; a quo numquam me consule dormientes opprimemini.
79. You ask of me why I am afraid of Catiline? I am not; and I have taken care that no one should have any reason to be afraid of him; but I do say that those soldiers of his, whom I see present here, are objects of fear: nor is the army which Lucius Catiline now has with him as formidable as those men are who are said to have deserted that army; for they have not deserted it but they have been left by him as spies, as men placed in ambuscade, to threaten our lives and liberties. Those men are very anxious that an upright consul and an able general—a man connected both by nature and by fortune with the safety of the republic, should by your decision be removed from the office of protecting the city, from the guardianship of the state. Their swords and their audacity I have procured the rejection of in the campus, I have disarmed them in the forum, I have often checked them at my own house; but if you now give them up one of the consuls, they will have gained much more by your votes than by their own swords. That which I, in spite of the resistance of many, have managed and carried through, namely, that on the first of January there should be two consuls in the republic, is of great consequence, O judges.
79. a me ecquid ego Catilinam metuam., et curavi ne quis metueret, sed copias illius quas hic video dico esse metuendas; nec tam timendus est nunc exercitus L.Lucii Catilinae quam isti qui illum exercitum deseruisse dicuntur. enim deseruerunt sed ab illo in speculis atque insidiis relicti in capite atque in cervicibus nostris restiterunt. et integrum consulem et bonum imperatorem et natura et fortuna cum rei publicae salute coniunctum deici de urbis praesidio et de custodia civitatis vestris sententiis deturbari volunt. ego ferrum et audaciam reieci in campo, debilitavi in foro, compressi etiam domi meae saepe, iudices, his vos si alterum consulem tradideritis, plus multo erunt vestris sententiis quam suis gladiis consecuti. Magni interest, iudices, id quod ego multis repugnantibus egi atque perfeci, esse Kalendis Ianuariis in re publica duo consules.
80. Do not think that they should exploit ordinary counsels or the ordinary modes of proceeding … It is not some unjust law, some mischievous bribery, or some improprieties in the republic that have just been heard of; that are the real objects for your inquiry now. Plans have been formed in this state, O judges, for destroying the city, for massacring the citizens, for extinguishing the Roman name. They are citizens,—citizens, I say, (if indeed it is lawful to call them by this name,) who are forming and have formed these plans respecting their own country. Every day I am counteracting their designs, disarming their audacity, resisting their wickedness. But I warn you, O judges; my consulship is now just at an end. Do not refuse me a successor in my diligence; do not refuse me him, to whom I am anxious to deliver over the republic in a sound condition, that he may defend it from these great dangers.
80. arbitrari, mediocribus consiliis aut usitatis viis ⟨eos⟩ uti. lex improba, non perniciosa largitio, non auditum aliquando aliquod malum rei publicae quaeritur. sunt in hac civitate consilia, iudices, urbis delendae, civium trucidandorum, nominis Romani exstinguendi. haec cives, cives, inquam, si eos hoc nomine appellari fas est, de patria sua et cogitant et cogitaverunt. Horum ego cotidie consiliis occurro, audaciam debilito, sceleri resisto. moneo, iudices. exitu iam est meus consulatus; nolite mihi subtrahere vicarium meae diligentiae, nolite adimere eum cui rem publicam cupio tradere incolumem ab his tantis periculis defendendam.
81. And do you not see, O judges, what other evil there is added to these evils? I am addressing you,—you, O Cato. Do you not foresee a storm in your year of office? for in yesterday's assembly there thundered out the mischievous voice of a tribune elect one of your own colleagues; against whom your own mind took many precautions, and so too did all good men, when they invited you to stand for the tribuneship. Everything which has been plotted for the last three years, from the time when you know that the design of massacring the senate was first formed by Lucius Catiline and by Cnaeus Piso, is now breaking out on these days, in these months, at this time.
81. ad haec mala, iudices, quid accedat aliud non videtis?, te appello, Cato; nonne prospicis tempestatem anni tui? enim ⟨in⟩ hesterna contione intonuit vox perniciosa designati tribuni, conlegae tui; contra quem multum tua mens, multum omnes boni providerunt qui te ad tribunatus petitionem vocaverunt. quae per hoc triennium agitata sunt, iam ab eo tempore quo a L.Lucio Catilina et Cn.Gnaeo Pisone initum consilium senatus interficiendi scitis esse, in hos dies, in hos mensis, in hoc tempus erumpunt.
82. What place is there, O judges, what time, what day, what night is there, that I have not been delivered and escaped from their plots and attacks, not only by my own prudence, but much more by the providence of the gods? It was not that they wished to slay me as an individual, but that they wished to get rid of a vigilant consul, and to remove him from the guardianship of the republic; and they would be just as glad, O Cato, to remove you too, if they could by any means contrive to do so; and believe me, that is what they are wishing and planning to do. They see how much courage, how much ability, how much authority, how much protection for the republic there is in you; but they think that, when they have once seen the power of the tribunes stripped of the support which it derives from the authority and assistance of the consuls, they will then find it easier to crush you when you are deprived of your arms and vigour. For they have no fear of another consul being elected in the place of this one; they see that that will depend upon your colleagues; they hope that Silanus, any colleague; and that so will you without any consul; and that so will the republic without any protector.
82. locus est, iudices, quod tempus, qui dies, quae nox cum ego non ex istorum insidiis ac mucronibus non solum meo sed multo etiam magis divino consilio eripiar atque evolem? isti me meo nomine interfici sed vigilantem consulem de rei publicae praesidio demoveri volunt. minus vellent, Cato, te quoque aliqua ratione, si possent, tollere; id quod, mihi crede, et agunt et moliuntur. quantum in te sit animi, quantum ingeni, quantum auctoritatis, quantum rei publicae praesidi; sed, cum consulari auctoritate et auxilio spoliatam vim tribuniciam viderint, tum se facilius inermem et debilitatum te oppressuros arbitrantur. ne sufficiatur consul non timent. in tuorum potestate conlegarum fore; sperant sibi ⟨D.⟩ Silanum, clarum virum, sine conlega, te sine consule, rem publicam sine praesidio obici posse.
83. When such an illustrious man, will be exposed to their attacks without are our circumstances, and such our perils, it becomes you, O Marcus Cato, who have been born, not for my good, nor for your own good, but for that of your country, to perceive what are their real objects; to retain as your assistant and defender, and partner in the republic, a consul who has no private desires to gratify, a consul (as this season particularly requires) formed by fortune to court ease, but by knowledge to carry on war, and by courage and practice to discharge in a proper manner whatever business you can impose upon him. Although the whole power of providing for this rests with you, O judges,—you, in this cause, are the masters and directors of the whole republic,—if Lucius Catiline, with his council of infamous men whom he took out with him, could give his decision in this case, he would condemn Lucius Murena; if he could put him to death, he would. For his plans require the republic to be deprived of every sort of aid; they require the number of generals who may be opposed to his frenzy to be diminished; they require that greater power should be given to the tribunes of the people, when they have driven away their adversary, to raise sedition and discord. Will, then, thoroughly honourable and wise men, chosen out of the most dignified orders of the state, give the same decision that most profligate gladiator, the enemy of the republic, would give?
83. tantis in rebus tantisque in periculis est tuum, M.Marce Cato, qui mihi non tibi, sed patriae natus esse ⟨videris⟩, videre quid agatur, retinere adiutorem, defensorem, socium in re publica, consulem non cupidum, consulem, quod maxime tempus hoc postulat, fortuna constitutum ad amplexandum otium, scientia ad bellum gerendum, animo et usu ad quod velis negotium ⟨sustinendum⟩. huiusce rei potestas omnis in vobis sita est, iudices; totam rem publicam vos in hac causa tenetis, vos gubernatis. L.Lucius Catilina cum suo consilio nefariorum hominum quos secum eduxit hac de re posset iudicare, condemnaret L.Lucium Murenam, si interficere posset, occideret. enim rationes illius ut orbetur auxilio res publica, ut minuatur contra suum furorem imperatorum copia, ut maior facultas tribunis plebis detur depulso adversario seditionis ac discordiae concitandae. igitur delecti ex amplissimis ordinibus honestissimi atque sapientissimi viri iudicabunt quod ille importunissimus gladiator, hostis rei publicae iudicaret?
84. Believe me, O judges, in this case you are deciding not only about the safety of Lucius Murena, but also on your own. We are in a situation of extreme danger; there is no means now of repairing the losses which we have already, sustained, or of recovering the ground which we have lost. We must take care not only not to diminish the resources which we still have, but to provide ourselves with additional ones if that be possible. For the enemy is not on the Anio, which in the time of the Punic war appeared a most terrible thing, but he is in the city, in the forum; (O ye immortal gods! this cannot be said without a groan;) there are even some enemies in this sacred temple of the republic, in the very senate-house itself. May the gods grant that my colleague, that most gallant man, may be able in arms to overtake and crush this impious piratical war of Catiline's. I, in the garb of peace, with you and all virtuous men for my assistants, will endeavour by my prudence to divide and destroy the dangers which the republic is pregnant with and about to bring forth.
84. credite, iudices, in hac causa non solum de L.Lucii Murenae verum etiam de vestra salute sententiam feretis. discrimen extremum venimus; nihil est iam unde nos reficiamus aut ubi lapsi resistamus. solum minuenda non sunt auxilia quae habemus sed etiam nova, si fieri possit, comparanda. Hostis est enim non apud Anienem, quod bello Punico gravissimum visum est, sed in urbe, in foro — di immortales! sine gemitu hoc dici non potest — non nemo etiam in illo sacrario rei publicae, in ipsa, inquam, curia non nemo hostis est. faxint ut meus conlega, vir fortissimus, hoc Catilinae nefarium latrocinium armatus opprimat! ego togatus vobis bonisque omnibus adiutoribus hoc quod conceptum res publica periculum parturit consilio discutiam et comprimam.
85. But still, what will be the consequences if these things slip through our hands and remain in vigour till the ensuing year? There will be but one consul; and he will have sufficient occupation, not in conducting a war, but in managing the election of a colleague. Those who will hinder him … That intolerable pest, … will break forth wherever it can find room; and even now it is threatening the Roman people; soon it will descend upon the suburban districts; frenzy will range at large among the camp, fear in the senate-house, conspiracy in the forum, an army in the Campus Martius, and devastation all over the country. In every habitation, and in every place, we shall live in fear of fire and sword. And yet all these evils, which have been so long making ready against us, if the republic is fortified by its natural means of protection, will be easily put down by the counsels of the magistrates and the diligence of private individuals.
85. quid tandem fiet, si haec elapsa de manibus nostris in eum annum qui consequitur redundarint? Vnus erit consul, et is non in administrando bello sed in sufficiendo conlega occupatus. iam qui impedituri sint … illa pestis immanis importuna Catilinae prorumpet, qua po … minatur; in agros suburbanos repente advolabit; versabitur ⟨in urbe⟩ furor, in curia timor, in foro coniuratio, in campo exercitus, in agris vastitas; omni autem in sede ac loco ferrum flammamque metuemus. iam diu comparantur, eadem ista omnia, si ornata suis praesidiis erit res publica, facile et magistratuum consiliis et privatorum diligentia comprimentur.
86. And as this is the case, O judges, in the first place for the sake of the republic, than which nothing ought to be of more importance in the eyes of every one, I do warn you, as I am entitled to do by my extreme diligence in the cause of the republic, which is well known to all of you,—I do exhort you, as my consular authority gives me a right to do,—I do entreat you, as the magnitude of the danger justifies me in dying, to provide for the tranquillity, for the peace, for the safety, for the lives of yourselves and of all the rest of your fellow-citizens. In the next place I do appeal to your good faith, O judges, (whether you may think that I do so in the spirit of an advocate or a friend signifies but little,) and beg of you, not to overwhelm the recent exaltation of Lucius Murena, an unfortunate man, of one oppressed both by bodily disease and by vexation of mind, by a fresh cause for morning. He has been lately distinguished by the greatest kindness of the Roman people, and has seemed fortunate in being the first man to bring the honours of the consulship into an old family, and a most ancient municipality. Now, in a mourning and unbecoming gait, debilitated by sickness, worn out with tears and grief, he is a suppliant to you, O judges, invoking your good faith, imploring your pity, fixing all his hopes on your power and your assistance.
86. cum ita sint, iudices, primum rei publicae causa, qua nulla res cuiquam potior debet esse, vos pro mea summa et vobis cognita in re publica diligentia moneo, pro auctoritate consulari hortor, pro magnitudine periculi obtestor, ut otio, ut paci, ut saluti, ut vitae vestrae et ceterorum civium consulatis; deinde ego idem et defensoris et amici officio adductus oro atque obsecro, iudices, ut ne hominis miseri et cum corporis morbo tum animi dolore confecti, L.Lucii Murenae, recentem gratulationem nova lamentatione obruatis. maximo beneficio populi Romani ornatus fortunatus videbatur, quod primus in familiam veterem, primus in municipium antiquissimum consulatum attulisset; nunc idem ⟨in⟩ squalore et sordibus, confectus morbo, lacrimis ac maerore perditus vester est supplex, iudices, vestram fidem obtestatur, ⟨vestram⟩ misericordiam implorat, vestram potestatem ac vestras opes intuetur.
87. Do not, in the name of the immortal gods, O judges, deprive him not only of that office which he thought conferred additional honour on him, and at the same time of all the honours which he had gained before, and of all his dignity and fortune. And, O judges, what Lucius Murena is begging and entreating of you is no more than this; that if he has done no injury unjustly to any one, if he has offended no man's ears or inclination, if he has never (to say the least) given any one reason to hate him either at home or when engaged in war, he may in that case find among you moderation in judging, and a refuge for men in dejection, and assistance for modest merit. The deprivation of the consulship is a measure calculated to excite great feelings of pity, O judges. For with the consulship everything else is taken away too. And at such times as these the consulship itself is hardly a thing to envy a man. For it is exposed to the harangues of seditious men, to the plots of conspirators, to the attacks of Catiline. It is opposed single-handed to every danger, and to every sort of unpopularity.
87. , per deos immortalis! iudices, hac eum cum re qua se honestiorem fore putavit etiam ceteris ante partis honestatibus atque omni dignitate fortunaque privare. ita vos L.Lucius Murena, iudices, orat atque obsecrat, si iniuste neminem laesit, si nullius auris voluntatemve violavit, si nemini, ut levissime dicam, odio nec domi nec militiae fuit, sit apud vos modestiae locus, sit demissis hominibus perfugium, sit auxilium pudori. spoliatio consulatus magnam habere debet, iudices; una enim eripiuntur cum consulatu omnia; invidiam vero his temporibus habere consulatus ipse nullam potest; obicitur enim contionibus seditiosorum, insidiis coniuratorum, telis Catilinae, ad omne denique periculum atque ad omnem iniuriam solus opponitur.
88. So that, O judges, I do not see what there is in this beautiful consulship which need be grudged to Murena, or to any other man among us. But those things in it which are calculated to make a man an object of pity, are visible to my eyes, and you too can clearly see and comprehend them. If (may Jupiter avert the omen) you condemn this man by your decision, where is the unhappy man to turn? Home? What that he may see that image of that most illustrious man his father, which a few days ago he beheld crowned with laurel when men were congratulating him on his election, now in mourning and lamentation at his disgrace?
88. re quid invidendum Murenae aut cuiquam nostrum sit in hoc praeclaro consulatu non video, iudices; quae vero miseranda sunt, ea et mihi ante oculos versantur et vos videre et perspicere potestis., quod Iuppiter omen avertat! hunc vestris sententiis adflixeritis, quo se miser vertet? domumne? ut eam imaginem clarissimi viri, parentis sui, quam paucis ante diebus laureatam in sua gratulatione conspexit, eandem deformatam ignominia lugentemque videat? ad matrem quae misera modo consulem osculata filium suum nunc cruciatur et sollicita est ne eundem paulo post spoliatum omni dignitate conspiciat?
89. Or to his mother, who, wretched woman, having lately embraced her son as consul, is now in all the torments or anxiety, lest she should but a short time afterwards behold that same son stripped of all his dignity? But why do I speak of his home or of his mother, when the new punishment of the law deprives him of home, and parent, and of the intercourse with and sight of all his relations? Shall the wretched man then go into banishment? Whither shall he go? Shall he go to the east, where he was for many years lieutenant, where he commanded armies, and performed many great exploits? But it is a most painful thing to return to a place in disgrace, from which you have departed in honour. Shall he hide himself in the opposite regions of the earth, so as to let Transalpine Gaul see the same man grieving and mourning, whom it lately saw with the greatest joy, exercising the highest authority? In that same province, moreover, with what feelings will he behold Caius Murena, his own brother? What will be the grief of the one what will be the agony of the other? What will be the lamentations of both? How great will the vicissitudes of fortune appear and what a change will there be in every one's conversation when in the very places in which a few days before messengers and letters had repeated, with every indication of joy that Murena had been made consul in the very places from which his own friends and his hereditary connections flocked to Rome for the purpose of congratulating him he himself arrives on a sudden as the messenger of his own misfortune.
89. quid eius matrem aut domum appello quem nova poena legis et domo et parente et omnium suorum consuetudine conspectuque privat? igitur in exsilium miser?? ad Orientisne partis in quibus annos multos legatus fuit, exercitus duxit, res maximas gessit? habet magnum dolorem, unde cum honore decesseris, eodem cum ignominia reverti. se in contrariam partem terrarum abdet, ut Gallia Transalpina, quem nuper summo cum imperio libentissime viderit, eundem lugentem, maerentem, exsulem videat? ea porro provincia quo animo C.Gaium Murenam fratrem suum aspiciet? huius dolor, qui illius maeror erit, quae utriusque lamentatio, quanta autem perturbatio fortunae atque sermonis, cum, quibus in locis paucis ante diebus factum esse consulem Murenam nuntii litteraeque celebrassent et unde hospites atque amici gratulatum Romam concurrerent, repente exstiterit ipse nuntius suae calamitatis!
90. And if these things seem bitter and miserable and grievous if they are most foreign to your general clemency and merciful disposition, O judges, then maintain the kindness done to him by the Roman people restore the consul to the republic grant this to his own modesty, grant it to his dead father, grant it to his race and family, grant it also to Lanuvium, that most honourable municipality, the whole population of which you have seen watching this cause with tears and mourning. Do not tear from his ancestral sacrifices to Juno Sospita, to whom all consuls are hound to offer sacrifice, a consul who is so peculiarly her own. Him, if my recommendation has any weight if my solemn assertion has any authority, I now recommend to you, O judges—I the consul recommend him to you as consul, promising and undertaking that he will prove most desirous of tranquillity, most anxious to consult the interests of virtuous men, very active against sedition, very brave in war, and an irreconcilable enemy to this conspiracy, which is at this moment seeking to undermine the republic.
90. si acerba, si misera, si luctuosa sunt, si alienissima ⟨a⟩ mansuetudine et misericordia vestra, iudices, conservate populi Romani beneficium, reddite rei publicae consulem, date hoc ipsius pudori, date patri mortuo, date generi et familiae, date etiam Lanuvio, municipio honestissimo, quod in hac tota ⟨causa⟩ frequens maestumque vidistis. a sacris patriis Iunonis Sospitae, cui omnis consules facere necesse est, domesticum et suum consulem potissimum avellere. ego vobis, si quid habet aut momenti commendatio aut auctoritatis confirmatio mea, consul consulem, iudices, ita commendo ⟨ut⟩ cupidissimum oti, studiosissimum bonorum, acerrimum contra seditionem, fortissimum in bello, inimicissimum huic coniurationi quae nunc rem publicam labefactat futurum esse promittam et spondeam.