54. And you say that at the preceding comitia the tribe of the Anio was given up by Plotius to Pedius, and the Terentian tribe by Plancius to you; but now, that they are taken away from both Pedius and you, lest they should run the contest too fine. What a probable story it is, that before the inclination of the people was ascertained, those men, who you say had already joined their forces, should have thrown away their own tribes in order to assist you, and that the same men should afterwards have been close and stingy, when they had tried and found out how strong they were. They were afraid, I suppose, of a close contest. As if the matter could come to a close point, or as if there could be any danger. But nevertheless, do you bring the same charge against Aulus Plotius, a most accomplished man? or do you admit that you have only attacked the man who never requested you to spare him? For as for your having complained that you had more witnesses concerning the case of the Voltinian tribe, than you had received votes in that tribe, you show by that, either that you are bringing forward those men as witnesses who passed you over because they had taken a bribe, or else that you could not get their votes though they were paid nothing for them.
54. ais prioribus comitiis Aniensem a Plotio Pedio, Teretinam ⟨a⟩ Plancio tibi esse concessam; nunc ab utroque eas avolsas, ne in angustum venirent. convenit nondum cognita populi voluntate hos quos iam tum coniunctos fuisse dicis iacturam suarum tribuum, quo vos adiuvaremini, fecisse; eosdem, cum iam essent experti quid valerent, restrictos et tenacis fuisse? verebantur, credo, angustias. res in contentionem aut in discrimen aliquod posset venire. tamen tu A. Plotium, virum ornatissimum, in idem crimen vocando indicas eum te adripuisse a quo non sis interrogatus. quod questus es pluris te testis habere de Voltinia quam quot in ea tribu puncta tuleris, indicas aut eos testis te producere qui, quia nummos acceperint, te praeterierint, aut te ne gratuita quidem eorum suffragia tulisse.
55. But as for that charge about the money which you say was seized in the Flaminian Circus, it made a great noise while the matter was recent, but now it has got quite cold. For you have never explained what money that was, nor what were the tribes which were to receive it, nor who was to distribute it to them. And he, indeed, who was then impeached on this account, being brought before the consuls complained that he had been shamefully treated by your partisans. For if he acted as the distributor of the money particularly for that man whom you were prosecuting, why was he also not prosecuted by you? Why did you get some appearance of a decision having been already come to in this cause by his conviction? But the fact is that you have no proofs to advance, nor do you place the slightest reliance on any. It is quite another motive and another consideration which has induced you to cherish the hope of crushing this man. You have great resources; very extensive influence many friends; many eager partisans; many favourers of your credit: many are envious of my client, to many too his father a most excellent man, appears to be too great a stickler for the freedom and privileges of the equestrian order. Many too are the common enemies of every defendant, men who always give their evidence on trials for bribery and corruption in such a way as if they could influence the minds of the judges by their evidence, or as if it were pleasing to the Roman people, and as if, on that account, they would the more easily attain that dignity which they are desirous of.
55. vero crimen de nummis quos in circo Flaminio deprehensos esse dixisti caluit re recenti, nunc in causa refrixit. enim qui illi nummi fuerint nec quae tribus nec qui divisor ostendis. is quidem eductus ad consules qui tum in crimen vocabatur se inique a tuis iactatum graviter querebatur. si erat divisor, praesertim eius quem tu habebas reum, cur abs te reus non est factus? cur non eius damnatione aliquid ad hoc iudicium praeiudici comparasti? neque tu haec exhibes neque eis confidis; alia te ratio, alia cogitatio ad spem huius opprimendi excitavit. sunt in te opes, late patet gratia; multi amici, multi cupidi tui, multi fautores laudis tuae. huic invident, multis etiam pater, optimus vir, nimium retinens equestris iuris et libertatis videtur; multi etiam communes inimici reorum omnium, qui ita semper testimonium de ambitu dicunt quasi aut moveant animos iudicum suis testimoniis, aut gratum populo Romano sit, aut ab eo facilius ob eam causam dignitatem quam volunt consequantur.
56. But you shall not see me, O judges, contending with those men in my former fashion; not because it is right for me to shirk anything which the safety of Plancius requires, but because it is neither necessary, that I should follow up that argument with my voice, which you already see with your mind; and because those very men whom I see already as witnesses, have deserved so well of me, that you ought to take upon your own prudence the task of reproving them, and to excuse my modesty from that task. This one thing I beg and entreat of you, O judges, both for the sake of this man whom I am defending, and out of regard to the common danger; not to think that the fortunes of innocent men are to be placed at the mercy of reports which people falsely pretend that they have heard, or of vague and uncertain conversation.
56. me, iudices, pugnantem more meo pristino non videbitis; non quo mihi fas sit quicquam defugere quod salus Planci postulet, sed quia neque necesse est me id persequi voce quod vos mente videatis, et quod ita de me meriti sunt illi ipsi quos ego testis video paratos ut eorum reprehensionem vos vestrae prudentiae adsumere, meae modestiae remittere debeatis. unum vos magno opere oro atque obsecro, iudices, cum huius quem defendo, tum communis periculi causa, ne fictis auditionibus, ne disseminato dispersoque sermoni fortunas innocentium subiciendas putetis.
57. Many friends of the prosecutor, some men, too, who are personal enemies of ours, many general and universal calumniators, and men who envy everybody, have invented heaps of things. But there is nothing which travels so fast as slander; nothing is more easily sent abroad, nothing is received more rapidly, nothing is spread more extensively. Nor will I, if you can ever trace the origin of a calumny, ever require you to disregard it or conceal it. But if anything gets abroad without a head, or if there be any report of such a nature that no author of it can be found; if he who has heard it appears to you either so careless as to have forgotten where he heard it; or if he knows his authority to be so insignificant that he is ashamed to confess that he recollects who he is,—then I do beg of you not to let that common expression, “I heard that …,” injure an innocent man upon his trial.
57. amici accusatoris, non nulli etiam nostri iniqui, multi communes obtrectatores atque omnium invidi multa finxerunt. est autem tam volucre quam maledictum, nihil facilius emittitur, nihil citius excipitur, latius dissipatur. ego, si fontem maledicti reperietis, ut neglegatis aut dissimuletis umquam postulabo. si quid sine capite manabit, aut si quid erit eius modi ut non exstet auctor, qui audierit ⟨autem⟩ aut ita neglegens vobis esse videbitur ut unde audierit oblitus sit, aut ita levem habebit auctorem ut memoria dignum non putarit, huius illa vox volgaris “audivi ” ne quid innocenti reo noceat oramus.
58. But I come now to Lucius Cassius, my own intimate friend, and I have not as yet made any complaint about that Juventius whom that young man, accomplished in every virtue and in every branch of polite learning, mentions in his speech, and says that he was the first man of the common people who was ever made a curule aedile. And with reference to that case, if, O Cassius, I were to reply to you that the Roman people knew nothing of that fact and that there is no one who can tell us anything about him, especially now that Longinus is dead, you would not wonder, I imagine, when I myself, who am not at all inclined to neglect the study of antiquity, confess that I first heard of this fact in this place, from your mouth. And since your oration was very elegant and very ingenious; worthy both of the learning and modesty of a Roman knight, and since you were listened to by these men with such attention as did great honour both to your abilities and to your character as a gentleman and a scholar, I will reply now to what you said, of which the greater part concerned me myself, and in which the very stings, if you did put out any in your reproof of me, were still not disagreeable to me.
58. venio iam ad L. Cassium, familiarem meum, cuius ex oratione ne illum quidem Iuventium tecum expostulavi, quem ille omni et humanitate et virtute ornatus adulescens primum de plebe aedilem curulem factum esse dixit. quo, Cassi, si ita tibi respondeam, nescisse id populum Romanum, neque fuisse qui id nobis narraret, praesertim mortuo Congo, non, ut opinor, admirere, cum ego ipse non abhorrens a studio antiquitatis me hic id ex te primum audisse confitear. quoniam tua fuit perelegans et persubtilis oratio, digna equitis Romani vel studio vel pudore, quoniamque sic ab his es auditus ut magnus honos et ingenio et humanitati tuae tribueretur, respondebo ad ea quae dixisti, quae pleraque de ipso me fuerunt; in quibus ipsi aculei, si quos habuisti in me reprehendendo, tamen mihi non ingrati acciderunt.
59. You asked me whether I thought that the road to the attainment of honours had been easier to me the son of a Roman knight, than it would be to my son, who was now of a consular family. But although I would rather that all good fortune fell to his lot than to my own, still I have never wished for him that the road to honour might be more easy to him than I have found it myself. Moreover, lest he should by chance think that I have procured him honours myself rather than pointed out to him the path by which he might arrive at them, I am accustomed to read him this lesson (although his age is not exactly the age to attend to instruction,) which the great son of Jupiter is represented teaching his children,—“Men must always be vigilant; there are many snares in the path of virtuous men.”You know the rest do you not?“That which many men envy … ”Which that wise and ingenious poet wrote not in order to excite those boys who were no longer in existence to toil and the desire of glory but to encourage us and our children in such pursuits.
59. utrum mihi putarem, equitis Romani filio, faciliorem fuisse ad adipiscendos honores viam an futuram esse filio meo, quia esset familia consulari. vero quamquam illi omnia malo quam mihi, tamen honorum aditus numquam illi faciliores optavi quam mihi fuerunt. etiam, ne forte ille sibi me potius peperisse iam honores quam iter demonstrasse adipiscendorum putet, haec illi soleo praecipere—quamquam ad praecepta aetas non est gravis —quae rex ille a Iove ortus suis praecepit filiis:est semper; multae insidiae sunt bonis.quod multi invideant —cetera., quae scripsit gravis et ingeniosus poeta, scripsit non ut illos regios pueros qui iam nusquam erant, sed ut nos et nostros liberos ad laborem et ad laudem excitaret?
60. You ask what more Plancius could have got if he had been the son of Cnaeus Scipio. He could not have been made an aedile more than he is; but he would have gained this, that he would not be so much envied. In truth the degrees of honour are equal in the case of the highest and the lowest citizens, but the glory of arriving at them is unequal. Who of us would call himself equal to Manius Curius, or to Caius Fabricius or to Caius Duilius? Who reckons himself a match for Atilius Calatinius or for Cnaeus and Publius Scipio or for Africanus, Marcellus or Maximus? And yet we have arrived at the same degree of rank that they did. In truth, in virtue there are many steps; so that he is the most eminent in renown, who is the superior in virtue. The summit of the honours conferred by the people is the consulship. And by this time nearly eight hundred men have obtained that. And of this eight hundred, if you examine carefully, you will find hardly one tenth of the number worthy of such a preeminence. But yet no one ever went on as you do. “Why is that man made consul? What could he have got more if he had been Lucius Brutus, who delivered the city from the tyranny of the kings?” He could have got no higher rank certainly, but he would have much more glory. And in the same manner, therefore, Plancius has been made quaestor, and tribune of the people, and aedile, just as much as if he had been a man of the highest rank by birth; but a countless number of other men, born in the same rank as he, have also attained these honours.
60. quid potuerit amplius adsequi Plancius, si Cn. Scipionis fuisset filius. aedilis fieri non potuisset, sed hoc praestaret, quod ei minus invideretur. honorum gradus summis hominibus et infimis sunt pares, gloriae dispares. nostrum se dicit M’. Curio, quis C. Fabricio, quis C. Duellio parem, quis ⟨A.⟩ Atilio Calatino, quis Cn. et P. Scipionibus, quis Africano, Marcello,? eosdem sumus honorum gradus quos illi adsecuti. in virtute multi sunt adscensus, ut is maxime gloria excellat qui virtute plurimum praestet; honorum populi finis est consulatus; quem magistratum iam octingenti fere consecuti sunt. Horum, si diligenter quaeres, vix decimam partem reperies gloria dignam. nemo umquam sic egit ut tu: “cur iste fit consul? quid potuit amplius, si L. Brutus esset, qui civitatem dominatu regio liberavit?” nihil amplius, laude multum. igitur Plancius nihilo minus quaestor est factus et tribunus pl. et aedilis quam si esset summo loco natus, sed haec pari loco orti sunt innumerabiles alii consecuti.
61. You speak of the triumphs of Titus Didius, and Caius Marius; and ask what there is like these exploits in Plancius. As if those men whom you are speaking of obtained their magistracies because they had triumphed, and did not on the contrary triumph after having performed great achievements, because those magistracies were entrusted to them. You ask what campaigns he has served; when he was a soldier in Crete, while Metellus, who is here in court, was commander-in-chief, and military tribune in Macedonia; and when he was quaestor he only abstracted just so much time from his attention to his military duties as he thought it better to devote to protecting me.
61. triumphos T. Didi et C. Mari et quaeris quid simile in Plancio. vero isti quos commemoras propterea magistratus ceperint quod triumpharant, et non, quia commissi sunt eis magistratus in quibus re bene gesta triumpharent, ⟨propterea triumpharint⟩. quae castra viderit; qui et miles in Creta hoc imperatore et tribunus in Macedonia militum fuerit, et quaestor tantum ex re militari detraxerit temporis quantum in me custodiendum transferre maluerit. num disertus sit.
62. You ask whether he is an eloquent man. At all events, what is the next best thing to being so, he does not think himself one. “Is he a lawyer?” As if there were any one who complains that he has given him a false answer in a point of law. For all such acts as that are open to criticism in the case of men who, after they have professed an acquaintance with them, are unable to satisfy people's expectations; not in the case of men who confess that they have never paid any attention to those pursuits. What is usually required in a candidate is virtue, and honesty, and integrity, not volubility of tongue, or an acquaintance with any particular art or science. As we, when we are procuring slaves, are annoyed if we have bought a man as a smith or a plasterer, and find, however good a man he may be, that he knows nothing of those trades which we had in view in buying him; but if we have bought a man to give him charge of our property as steward, or to employ him to look after our stock, then we do not care for any other qualities in him except frugality, industry, and vigilance; so the Roman people elects magistrates to be as it were stewards of the republic, and if they are masters of some accomplishment besides, the people have no objection, but if not, they are content with their virtue and innocence. For how few men are eloquent; how few are skillful lawyers, even if you include all those in your calculation who wish to be so! But if no one else is worthy of honour, what on earth is to become of so many most virtuous and most accomplished citizens?
62. , id quod secundum est, ne sibi quidem videtur. iuris consultus. quisquam sit qui sibi hunc falsum de iure respondisse dicat. enim istius modi artes in eis reprehenduntur qui, cum professi sunt, satis facere non possunt, non in eis qui se afuisse ab istis studiis confitentur., probitas, integritas in candidato, non linguae volubilitas, non ars, non scientia requiri solet. nos in mancipiis parandis quamvis frugi hominem si pro fabro aut pro tectore emimus, ferre moleste solemus, si eas artis quas in emendo secuti sumus forte nesciunt, sin autem emimus quem vilicum imponeremus, quem pecori praeficeremus, nihil in eo nisi frugalitatem, laborem, vigilantiam esse curamus, sic populus Romanus deligit magistratus quasi rei publicae vilicos; in quibus si qua praeterea est ars, facile patitur, sin minus, virtute eorum et innocentia contentus est. enim quisque disertus, quotus quisque iuris peritus est, ut eos numeres qui volunt esse? si praeterea nemo est honore dignus, quidnam tot optimis et ornatissimis civibus est futurum?
63. You request Plancius to mention any faults of Laterensis. He cannot mention any, unless he thinks him too ill-tempered towards himself. At the same time you extol Laterensis highly yourself. I have no particular objection to your spending a number of words on what has nothing to do with the trial, and to your occupying so much time, while conducting the prosecution, in saying what I, who am the counsel for the defence can admit without any danger. And I do not only admit that every sort of high quality is to be found in Laterensis, but I even find fault with you, for not enumerating his chief excellences, but descending to look for trifling and insignificant subjects for panegyric. You say “That he celebrated games at Praeneste.” Well; have not other quaestors done the same? “That at Cyrene he was liberal towards the farmers of the revenue, and just towards the allies.” Who denies it? but so many important transactions take place at Rome, that it is difficult for those things which are done in the provinces to get heard of.
63. Plancium de vitiis Laterensis dicere. potest nisi eum nimis in se iracundum putavisse. effers Laterensem laudibus. patior id te agere multis verbis quod ad iudicium non pertineat, et id te accusantem tam diu dicere quod ego defensor sine periculo possim confiteri. non modo confiteor summa in Laterense ornamenta esse sed te etiam reprehendo quod ea non enumeres, alia quaedam inania et levia conquiras. “Praeneste fecisse ludos.”? alii quaestores nonne fecerunt? “Cyrenis liberalem in publicanos, iustum in socios fuisse.” negat? sed ita multa Romae geruntur ut vix ea quae fiunt in provinciis audiantur.
64. I have no fear, O judges, of appearing to assume too much credit to myself, if I speak of my own quaestorship. For although I got great credit in it, still I consider that I have been employed since that in the highest offices of the state, so that I have no need to seek for much glory from the credit I gained in my quaestorship; but still I do not fear that any one will venture to say that anybody's quaestorship in Sicily has been either more acceptable to the people, or has gained a higher reputation for the quaestor. Indeed, I can say this with truth, I, too, at that time thought that men at Rome were talking of nothing else except my quaestorship. At a time of great dearness, I had sent an immense quantity of corn to Rome. I had been affable to the traders, just to the merchants, liberal to the citizens of the municipal towns, moderate as regards the allies, and in every respect I appeared to have been most diligent in the discharge of every part of my duty. Some perfectly unheard-of honours were contrived for me by the Sicilians.
64. vereor ne mihi aliquid, iudices, videar adrogare, si de quaestura mea dixero. enim illa floruerit, tamen eum me postea fuisse in maximis imperiis arbitror ut non ita multum mihi gloriae sit ex quaesturae laude repetendum. tamen non vereor ne quis audeat dicere ullius in Sicilia quaesturam aut clariorem aut gratiorem fuisse. me hercule hoc dicam: sic tum existimabam, nihil homines aliud Romae nisi de quaestura mea loqui. in summa caritate maximum numerum miseram; negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus iustus, mancipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus; excogitati quidam erant a Siculis honores in me inauditi.
65. Therefore I left my province with the hope that the Roman people would come forward of its own accord to pay me every sort of honour. But when one day by chance at that time, I, on my road from the province, had arrived in the course of my journey at Puteoli, at a time which great numbers of the wealthiest men are accustomed to spend in that district, I almost dropped with vexation when some one asked me what day I had left Rome, and whether there was any news there. And when I had replied that I was on my road from my province, “Oh yes,” said he, “from Africa, I suppose.” On this, I, angry and disgusted, said, “No; from Sicily.” And then, some one else, with the air of a man who knew everything, said, “What! do not you know that Cicero has been quaestor at Syracuse?” I need not make a long story of it; I gave over being angry, and was content to be considered one of those who had come to Puteoli for the waters.
65. hac spe decedebam ut mihi populum Romanum ultro omnia delaturum putarem. ego cum casu diebus eis itineris faciendi causa decedens e provincia Puteolos forte venissem, cum plurimi et lautissimi in eis locis solent esse, concidi paene, iudices, cum ex me quidam quaesisset quo die Roma exissem et num quidnam esset novi. cum respondissem me e provincia decedere: “etiam me hercule,” inquit, “ut opinor, ex Africa.” ego iam stomachans fastidiose: “immo ex Sicilia,” inquam. quidam, quasi qui omnia sciret: “quid? tu nescis,” inquit, “hunc quaestorem Syracusis fuisse?” multa? destiti stomachari et me unum ex eis feci qui ad aquas venissent.
66. But I do not know, O judges, whether what happened then did not do me more good than if every one had congratulated me. For after I learnt from this that the people of Rome had deaf ears, but very sharp and active eyes, I gave up thinking what men would have said of me; but took care that they should every day see me in their presence: I lived in their sight; I stuck to the forum; neither my porter nor even sleep was allowed to prevent any one from having access to me. Need I say anything about my time which was devoted to business, when even my leisure time was never my own? For the very orations which you say, O Cassius, that you are in the habit of reading when you are at leisure, I wrote on days of festival and on holidays, so that I never was at leisure at all. In truth, I have always thought that saying of Marcus Cato, which he put at the head of his Origines, a splendid and admirable one: “That eminent and great men ought to lay down a regular plan for their leisure as well as for their business.” And, therefore, if I have any credit, I hardly know how much I have; it has all been acquired at Rome and earned in the forum. And public events have sanctioned my private counsels in such a way that even at home I have had to attend to the general interests of the republic, and to preserve the city while in the city. The same road, O Cassius, is open to Laterensis, the same path by virtue to glory.
66. ea res, iudices, haud scio an plus mihi profuerit quam si mihi tum essent omnes gratulati. postea quam sensi populi Romani auris hebetiores, oculos autem esse acris atque acutos, destiti quid de me audituri essent homines cogitare; feci ut postea cotidie praesentem me viderent, habitavi in oculis, pressi forum; neminem a congressu meo neque ianitor meus neque somnus absterruit. ego dicam de occupatis meis temporibus, cui fuerit ne otium quidem umquam otiosum? quas tu commemoras, Cassi, legere te solere orationes, cum otiosus sis, has ego scripsi ludis et feriis, ne omnino umquam essem otiosus. M. Catonis illud quod in principio scripsit Originum suarum semper magnificum et praeclarum putavi, “clarorum virorum atque magnorum non minus oti quam negoti rationem exstare oportere.” si quam habeo laudem, quae quanta sit nescio, parta Romae est, quaesita in foro; meaque privata consilia publici quoque casus comprobaverunt, ut etiam summa res publica mihi domi fuerit gerenda et urbs in urbe servanda.
67. And it will be the easier to him perhaps on this account that I have mounted up hither without having any family interest to push me on and relying solely on my self; but his admirable virtues will be assisted by the recommendation which the virtues of his ancestors supply him with. However, to return to Plancius, he has never been absent from the city unless any lot which he may have drawn or some law, or some necessity compelled him to be so. He did not excel in those things in which some men perhaps do but he did excel in diligence, he did excel in paying attention to his friends, he did excel in liberality. He kept himself before men's eyes; he stood for offices; he has followed at all times that course of life by which, while there is less danger that way of incurring unpopularity, the greatest number of new men have attained the same honours which he has.
67. igitur, Cassi, via munita Laterensi est, idem virtuti cursus ad gloriam, hoc facilior fortasse quod ego huc a me ortus et per me nixus ascendi, istius egregia virtus adiuvabitur commendatione maiorum. ut redeam ad Plancium, numquam ex urbe is afuit nisi sorte, lege, necessitate; non valuit rebus isdem quibus fortasse non nulli, at valuit adsiduitate, valuit observandis amicis, valuit liberalitate; fuit in oculis, petivit, ea est usus ratione vitae qua minima invidia novi homines plurimi sunt eosdem honores consecuti.
68. For as to what you say, O Cassius—that I am not under greater obligations to Plancius than I am to all good men, because my safety was equally dear to all of them,—I confess that I am under obligations to all good men. But even those men to whom I am under obligations, good men and virtuous citizens, said at the comitia for the election of the aediles, that they themselves were under some obligations to Plancius on my account. However grant that I am under obligations to many people and among others to Plancius, ought it therefore to make me bankrupt; ought I not rather, when each man's turn comes, to pay them all this debt which I acknowledge, whenever it is demanded? Although, being in debt for money and for kindness are two different things. For the man who pays money, the moment he does so, no longer has that which he has paid, and he who owes is in debt. But the man who shows his gratitude by requiting a kindness, still preserves the feeling; and he who feels it, requites the kindness by the mere fact of his feeling it. Nor shall I cease to be under obligations to Plancius even if I requite his service to me now;
68. quod ais, Cassi, non plus me Plancio debere quam bonis omnibus, quod eis aeque mea salus cara fuerit, ego me debere bonis omnibus fateor. etiam ei quibus ego debeo boni viri et cives comitiis aediliciis aliquid se meo nomine Plancio debere dicebant. fac me multis debere et in eis Plancio; utrum igitur me conturbare oportet, an ceteris, cum cuiusque dies venerit, hoc nomen quod urget nunc cum petitur dissolvere? dissimilis est pecuniae debitio et gratiae. qui pecuniam dissolvit, statim non habet id quod reddidit; qui autem debet, is retinet alienum; gratiam autem et qui refert habet, et qui habet in eo ipso quod habet refert. ego nunc Plancio desinam debere, si hoc solvero, nec minus ei redderem voluntate ipsa, si hoc molestiae non accidisset.
69. nor should I have been less grateful to him as far as my inclination went, if this trouble had not befallen him. You ask of me, O Cassius, what I could do more for my own brother, who is most dear to me,—what I could do more for my own children, than whom nothing can be more delightful to me, than I am doing for Plancius? And you do not see that the very affection which I feel for them, stimulates and excites me to defend the safety of Plancius, too. For they have nothing more at heart than the safety of the man by whom they know that my safety was ensured; and I myself never look on them without recollecting that it is by his means that I was preserved to them, and remembering his great services done to me. You relate that Opimius was condemned, though he himself had been the saviour of the republic. You add to him Calidius, by whose law Quintus Metellus was restored to the state; and you find fault with my prayers on behalf of Cnaeus Plancius, because Opimius was not released on account of his services, nor Calidius on account of those of Quintus Metellus. As for Calidius, I will only state this in answer to you, which I saw myself. That Quintus Metellus Pius, when consul, at the comitia for the election of praetors, for which office Quintus Calidius was standing, addressed supplications to the Roman people, and did not hesitate—though he was consul at the time, and a man of the very highest rank—to call him his patron and the patron of his most noble family.
69. a me, Cassi, quid pro fratre meo, qui mihi est carissimus, quid pro meis liberis, quibus nihil mihi potest esse iucundius, amplius quam quod pro Plancio facio facere possim, nec vides istorum ipsorum caritate ad huius salutem defendendam maxime stimulari me atque excitari. neque illis huius salute a quo meam sciunt esse defensam quicquam est optatius, et ego ipse numquam illos aspicio quin, cum per hunc me eis conservatum esse meminerim, huius meritum in me recorder. Opimium damnatum esse commemoras, servatorem ipsum rei publicae, Calidium adiungis, cuius lege Q. Metellus in civitatem sit restitutus; reprehendis meas pro Plancio preces, quod neque Opimius suo nomine liberatus sit neque Metelli Calidius. Calidio tibi tantum respondeo quod ipse vidi, Q. Metellum Pium consulem praetoriis comitiis petente Q. Calidio populo Romano supplicasse, cum quidem non dubitaret et consul et homo nobilissimus patronum esse illum suum et familiae nobilissimae dicere.
70. And now I ask of you whether you think that, if Calidius had been on his trial, Metellus Pius, if he had been able to be at Rome, or his father, if he had been alive, would have done for him what I am doing on the trial of Cnaeus Plancius? I wish, indeed, that the misfortune of Opimius could be eradicated from men's memories. But it is to be considered as a wound inflicted on the republic, as a disgrace to this empire, as the infamy of the Roman people, and not as a judicial verdict. For what more terrible blow could those judges—if indeed they deserve to be called judges, and not parricides of their country—inflict on the republic, than they did when they drove that man out of the state, who as praetor had delivered the republic from a war waged against it by its neighbours, and as consul, from one carried on against it by its own citizens?
70. loco quaero ex te num id in iudicio Calidi putes quod ego in Planci facio, aut Metellum Pium, si Romae esse potuisset, aut patrem eius, si vixisset, non fuisse facturum. Opimi quidem calamitas utinam ex hominum memoria posset evelli! illud rei publicae, dedecus huius imperi, turpitudo populi Romani, non iudicium putandum est. enim illi iudices, si iudices et non parricidae patriae nominandi sunt, graviorem potuerunt rei publicae infligere securim quam cum illum e civitate eiecerunt qui praetor finitimo, consul domestico bello rem publicam liberarat?
71. But you say that I make out the kindness done me by Plancius to have been greater than it really was, and as you say, I exaggerate it in speaking of it as if I were bound to regulate my gratitude by your estimate and not by my own. “What great service was it after all that he did you? Was it that he did not put you to death?” Say rather that he prevented me from being put to death. And, while speaking on this point, O Cassius, you even acquitted my enemies and said that no plots had been laid by them against my life. And Laterensis advanced the same assertion. Wherefore I will presently say a little more on that head. At present I only ask of you whether you think it was but a slight hatred which my enemies had conceived against me? Did any barbarians ever entertain such savage and cruel feelings against an open enemy? Or do you suppose that there was in those men any regard for fame or any fear of punishment when you saw them during the whole of that year brandishing their swords in the forum, menacing the temples with conflagration, and disturbing the whole city with their violence? Unless, perhaps, you think that they spared my life because they had no apprehension of my return. Do you think that there was any one so wholly destitute of sense as not to think that if these men were permitted to live, and if the city and the senate-house were allowed to remain standing, I also ought certainly to be restored if I too remained alive? Wherefore you, being such a man and such a citizen as you are, ought not to say that my enemies were too moderate to attack my life, when the fact is that it was preserved by the fidelity of my friends.
71. enim nimis ego magnum beneficium Planci facio et, ut ais, id verbis exaggero. vero me tuo arbitratu et non meo gratum esse oporteat. “istius tantum meritum?” inquit; “an quia te non iugulavit?” vero quia iugulari passus non est. quidem tu loco, Cassi, etiam purgasti inimicos meos meaeque vitae nullas ab illis insidias fuisse dixisti. hoc idem Laterensis. ob rem paulo post de isto plura dicam; de te tantum requiro, utrum putes odium in me mediocre inimicorum fuisse—quod fuit ullorum umquam barbarorum tam immane ac tam crudele in hostem?—an fuisse in eis aliquem aut famae metum aut poenae quorum vidisti toto illo anno ferrum in foro, flammam in delubris, vim in tota urbe versari. Nisi forte existimas eos idcirco vitae meae pepercisse quod de reditu meo nihil timerent. quemquam putas fuisse tam excordem qui vivis his, stante urbe et curia rediturum me, si viverem, non putaret? ob rem non debes is homo et is civis praedicare vitam meam, quae fidelitate amicorum conservata sit, inimicorum modestia non esse appetitam.
72. I will now reply to you, O Laterensis, perhaps less vigorously than I have been attacked by you and certainly in a manner not more destitute of consideration for, or of friendly feeling towards you than your manner was towards me. For in the first place that was rather a harsh thing for you to say, that in what I was saying about Plancius I was speaking falsely, and inventing statements to suit the emergency. I suppose, forsooth, I, like a wise man, planned how I might appear bound to another by the greatest bonds of kindness and gratitude when I was in reality a free man and under no obligation at all. Why need I have done so? Had I not plenty of reasons besides for defending Plancius? were not my own intimacy with him, my neighbourhood to him, and my friendship for his father, sufficiently cogent motives? And even if they had not existed, I had reason to fear, I suppose, lest I should be doing a discreditable thing in defending a man of his high respectability and worth. It must have been a very clever idea of mine to pretend that I owed everything to that man who was about to owe everything to me! But this is a thing which even common soldiers do against their will, and they are reluctant to give a civic crown to a citizen, and to confess that they have been saved by any one; not because it is discreditable to have been protected in battle, or to be saved out of the hands of the enemy, (for in truth that is a thing which can only happen to a brave man, and to one fighting hand to hand with the enemy,) but they dread the burden of the obligation, because it is an enormous thing to be under the same obligation to a stranger that one is to a parent.
72. tibi nunc, Laterensis, minus fortasse vehementer quam abs te sum provocatus, sed profecto nec considerate minus nec minus amice. primum fuit illud asperius me, quae de Plancio dicerem, ementiri et temporis causa fingere. homo sapiens excogitavi quam ob rem viderer maximis benefici vinculis obstrictus, cum liber essem et solutus. enim? mihi ad defendendum Plancium parum multae, parum iustae necessitudines erant familiaritatis, vicinitatis, patris amicitiae? quae si non essent, vererer, credo, ne turpiter facerem, si hoc splendore et hac dignitate hominem defenderem. mihi fuit videlicet causa peracuta ut ei quem mihi debere oporteret ego me omnia debere dicerem. id etiam gregarii milites faciunt inviti ut coronam dent civicam et se ab aliquo servatos esse fateantur, non quo turpe sit protectum in acie ex hostium manibus eripi—nam id accidere nisi forti viro et pugnanti comminus non potest—, sed onus benefici reformidant, quod permagnum est alieno debere idem quod parenti.
73. But because others deny kindnesses which they have received, even when they are of less importance, in order not to appear under any obligation, am I on that account speaking falsely, when I say that I am bound to a man by his previous services done to me, for which it is quite impossible for me to make any adequate return? Are you ignorant of this, O Laterensis?—you who being, as you were, a great friend of mine, and willing to share with me even the danger with which my life was at that time threatened,—when you had escorted me in that hope of my sad and bitter agony and departure from the city not only with your tears, but also with your courage and your person, and with all your resources,—when you had in my absence defended with all your means, and all your power of protection, my children and my wife, were always pressing this statement upon me, that you willingly allowed and granted that I should employ all my zeal in contributing to the honour of Cnaeus Plancius because you said that the services which he had done me were acceptable to you yourself also.
73. , cum ceteri vera beneficia etiam minora dissimulent, ne obligati esse videantur, eo me beneficio obstrictum esse ementior cui ne referri quidem gratia posse videatur? hoc tu, Laterensis, ignoras? qui cum mihi esses amicissimus, cum vel periculum vitae tuae mecum sociare voluisses, cum me in illo tristi et acerbo luctu atque discessu non lacrimis solum tuis sed animo, corpore, copiis prosecutus esses, cum meos liberos et uxorem me absente tuis opibus auxilioque defendisses, sic mecum semper egisti, te mihi remittere atque concedere ut omne studium meum in Cn. Planci honore consumerem, quod eius in me meritum tibi etiam ipsi gratum esse dicebas.
74. And is not even that oration, which is the first which I made in the senate after my return, a proof that I am saying nothing new now,—nothing just to meet the emergency? For as in that I returned thanks to very few by name, because it was quite impossible to enumerate all those who had served me, (and it would have been a crime to press over any one,) and because I had therefore laid down a rule for myself to name those men only who had been the leaders and standard-bearers as it were in our cause; still among them I returned thanks to Plancius by name. Let the oration be read—which, on account of the importance of the business was pronounced from a written paper, in which I, cunning fellow that I must have been, gave myself up to a man to whom I was under no very great obligation and bound myself to the slavery of this duty which I am now discharging by this undying testimony against myself. I do not wish to recite the other things which I committed to writing. I pass them over, that I may not seem to bring them up now on this emergency, or to avail myself of that description of learning which appears to be more suitable to my private studies than to the usages of courts of justice.
74. autem me novi, nihil temporis causa dicere, nonne etiam est illa testis oratio quae est a me prima habita in senatu? qua cum perpaucis nominatim egissem gratias, quod omnes enumerari nullo modo possent, scelus autem esset quemquam praeteriri, statuissemque eos solum nominare qui causae nostrae duces et quasi signiferi fuissent, in his Plancio gratias egi. oratio, quae propter rei magnitudinem dicta de scripto est; in qua ego homo astutus ei me dedebam cui nihil magno opere deberem, et huius offici tanti servitutem astringebam testimonio sempiterno. cetera quae a me mandata sunt litteris recitare; praetermitto, ne aut proferre videar ad tempus aut eo genere uti litterarum quod meis studiis aptius quam consuetudini iudiciorum esse videatur.
75. And you keep crying out, O Laterensis, “How long are you going to keep on saying this? You did no good in the case of Cispius; people have got tired of your entreaties.” Will you object to me what I did in the case of Cispius, who had indeed deserved well of me, but whom I defended, having you for a witness in his favour, and at your especial request? And will you say “How long” to a man who you say was unable to obtain what he begged on behalf of Cispius? For to say “How long” to a man who exerted himself for one friend alone and who did not succeed in his object is rather like laughing at a person than reproving him, unless perhaps, I, above all other men, have behaved in such a manner in the courts of justice, have lived in such a manner with those men who are the judges and among them—unless I am such an advocate of defendants on their trial and unless I am, and always have been, such a citizen in the republic, as to deserve to he held up by you as the only person who never ought to obtain anything from the judges by my entreaties.
75. etiam clamitas, Laterensis: “quo usque ista dicis? nihil in Cispio profecisti; obsoletae iam sunt preces tuae.” Cispio mihi igitur obicies, quem ego de me bene meritum, quia te teste cognoram, te eodem auctore defendi? et ei dices “quo usque?” quem negas, quod pro Cispio contenderim, impetrare potuisse? istius verbi “quo usque” haec poterat esse invidia: “datus est tibi ille, condonatus est ille; non facis finem; ferre non possumus.” quidem qui pro uno laborarit ⟨et⟩ id ipsum non obtinuerit dici “quo usque?” inridentis magis est quam reprehendentis; nisi forte ego unus ita me gessi in iudiciis, ita et cum his et inter hos vixi, is in causis patronus, is in re publica civis et sum et semper fui, solus ut a te constituar qui nihil a iudicibus debeam umquam impetrare.
76. And then you object to me a tear which I shed at the trial of Cispius. For this is what you said “I saw your tear.” See now how I repent of having given you cause to say so. You might have seen not only a tear but many tears, and weeping and sobbing. Was I to abstain from showing my grief at the danger of a man who was so far moved by the tears of my family in my absence that he laid aside the enmity which he had conceived against me, and was not only no opposer of my safety, (as my enemies had expected that he would have been,) but was even a great defender of it?
76. mihi lacrimulam Cispiani iudici obiectas. enim dixisti: “vidi ego tuam lacrimulam.” quam me verbi tui paeniteat. modo lacrimulam sed multas lacrimas et fletum cum singultu videre potuisti. ego, qui meorum lacrimis me absente commotus simultates, quas mecum habebat, deposuisset meaeque salutis non modo non oppugnator, ut inimici mei putarant, sed etiam defensor fuisset, huius in periculo non significarem dolorem meum?
77. And you, O Laterensis, who then said that my tears were a grateful sight, now wish to found an accusation against me on them. You say that the tribuneship of Plancius did not bring any assistance to my dignity. And in this place, (as you can do with the greatest truth,) you enumerate the godlike services done to me by Lucius Racilius, a most gallant and sensible man. And I never have concealed, and I shall at all times openly assert, that I am under the very greatest obligations to him, as I am to Cnaeus Plancius; for he never thought any contest, or any enmity, or any danger even of his life too great for him to encounter for the sake of my welfare, or of that of the republic. And I wish that the Roman people were not prevented by the violence and injustice of wicked men from proving to him their gratitude by their acts, and measuring it by the extent of my own. But if Plancius did not make the same exertions in my favour when he was tribune, you ought to think, not that his inclination was wanting, but that I, being already under such vast obligations to Plancius, was now content with the services of Racilius.
77. autem, Laterensis, qui tum lacrimas meas gratas esse dicebas, nunc easdem vis invidiosas videri. tribunatum Planci quicquam attulisse adiumenti dignitati meae, atque hoc loco, quod verissime facere potes, L. Racili, fortissimi et constantissimi viri, divina in me merita commemoras. quidem ego, sicut Cn. Plancio, numquam dissimulavi me plurimum debere semperque prae me feram; nullas enim sibi ille neque contentiones neque inimicitias neque vitae dimicationes nec pro re publica nec pro me defugiendas putavit. utinam quam ego sum in illum gratus, tam licuisset per hominum vim et iniuriam populo Romano ei gratiam referre! si non eadem contendit in tribunatu Plancius, existimare debes non huic voluntatem defuisse sed me, cum tantum iam Plancio deberem, Racili beneficiis fuisse contentum.