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| Publius Cornelius Tacitus A dialogue on oratory IntraText CT - Text |
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| 41 And so now the forum, which
is all that our speakers have left them of antiquity, is an evidence of a state
not thoroughly reformed or as orderly as we could wish. Who but the guilty or
unfortunate apply to us? What town puts itself under our protection but one harassed
by its neighbours or by strife at home? When we plead for a province is it not
one that has been plundered and ill-treated? Surely it would be better not to
complain than to have to seek redress. Could a community be found in which no
one did wrong, an orator would be as superfluous among its innocent people as a
physician among the healthy. As the healing art is of very little use and makes
very little progress in nations which enjoy particularly robust constitutions
and vigorous frames, so the orator gets an inferior and less splendid renown
where a sound morality and willing obedience to authority prevail. What need
there of long speeches in the senate, when the best men are soon of one mind,
or of endless harangues to the people, when political questions are decided not
by an ignorant multitude, but by one man of pre-eminent wisdom? What need of
voluntary prosecutions, when crimes are so rare and slight, or of defences full
of spiteful insinuation and exceeding proper bounds, when the clemency of the
judge offers itself to the accused in his peril? Be assured, my most excellent, and, as far as the age requires, most eloquent friends, that had you been born in the past, and the men we admire in our own day, had some god in fact suddenly changed your lives and your age, the highest fame and glory of eloquence would have been yours, and they too would not have lacked moderation and self-control. As it is, seeing that no one can at the same time enjoy great renown and great tranquillity, let everybody make the best of the blessings of his own age without disparaging other periods. |
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