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| Marcus Tullius Cicero Post reditum in senatu IntraText CT - Text |
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| XIII. The consul had said that he would
make the Roman knights pay for the scenes on the Capitoline Hill. Some were
summoned by name, others were prosecuted, some were
banished. All access to the temples was prevented, not merely by their being
garrisoned or occupied with a strong force, but by their being demolished. The
other consul, not content with only abandoning me and the republic, unless he
could also betray us to the enemies of the republic, had bound those enemies to
him by promising them the rewards which they coveted. There was another man at
the gates with a command6 given to him for
many years, and with a large army. I do not say that he was an enemy of mine,
but I do know that he did nothing when he was stated to be my enemy. 33 As there were thought to be two parties in the
republic, the one was supposed, out of its enmity to me, to demand that I
should be given up to it; the other, to defend me, but timidly out of fear of
bloodshed. But those who seemed to require me to be given up to them increased the fear of a contest by their conduct as
they never diminished the suspicions and anxieties of men by denying what they
were suspected of. Wherefore, when I saw the senate deprived of leaders, and
myself attacked by some of the magistrates, betrayed by some, and abandoned by
others; when I saw that slaves were being enlisted by name under some pretence
of forming guilds; 7 that all the troops of Catiline were recalled to
their original hopes of massacre and conflagration under almost the same
leaders as before; that the Roman knights were under the same fear of
proscription as before; that the municipal towns were in dread of being
pillaged, and every one in fear of his life; I might—I might, I say, O
conscript fathers, still have been able to defend myself by force of arms, and
many wise and brave men advised me to do so; nor was I wanting in the same
courage which I had shown before, and which was not unknown to you. But I saw
that if I defeated my present enemy, I had still too many others behind who
must also be defeated; that if I were beaten myself; many virtuous men would
fall for my sake, and with me, and even after me; and that the avengers of the
blood of the tribunes were present, but that all satisfaction for my death must
he exacted by the slow progress of the law, and reserved for posterity. |
6 He means Julius Caesar, who had the command in Gaul as proconsul for five years. 7 "Clodius not only restored the old collegia or guilds, but formed some new ones of the very dregs of the city, and of the slaves; and this is alluded to in several of the subsequent orations."—Manut. |
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