On the Responses of the Haruspices
De Haruspicum Responsis
Headnote
On the Responses of the Haruspices, delivered in the Senate at Rome late in May or early summer of 56 BC. The occasion is a haruspical response on a strange noise “with a rumbling” (strepitus cum fremitu) heard in the agro Latiniensi, the open country south of Rome — which the Etruscan diviners had explained as a warning that “games had been less diligently performed and polluted” (referring to the Megalesia of April 56, recently put on by Clodius as curule aedile, when he loosed slaves into the Senate’s seats), that “sacred and religious places are being held profane” (which Clodius read as a reference to Cicero’s recovered Palatine house, which he claimed was still consecrated ground), and various other faults; and that the remedy was concord among the optimates, lest discord “bring slaughter and danger to the chief men, and the state pass to one rule.” Clodius had spoken in the contio that morning, twisting the response into a prosecution of Cicero’s house. Cicero answers in the Senate the same day, picking apart Clodius’s reading phrase by phrase and showing every clause to be a prosecution not of him but of Clodius.
The structure is the most architecturally controlled of Cicero’s mature speeches. §1–17 is the apology for the previous day, when Cicero had cut off Clodius mid-question with a threat of trial and chased him out of the Curia (the famous tableau §2: Clodius collapses on the Curia threshold on seeing Cn. Lentulus Marcellinus the consul, “out of recollection of his Gabinius and longing for his Piso”). §18–19 is the great patriotic argument from religion: the forefathers as masters of religion, the sense in which the Romans surpass the Spaniards in number, the Gauls in strength, the Phoenicians in cleverness, the Greeks in arts, the Italians and Latins in inborn sense — by piety alone. §20–29 takes the haruspical response head by head: polluted games are the Megalesia (the Magna Mater rumble in the agro Latiniensi read against the Phrygian rite at Pessinus that Clodius sold to the Galatian Brogitarus, against Deiotarus’s recovery of the priesthood, and the long-standing dignity of the rite). §30–33 returns to the house: mine has been freed by every judgement; yours — where you killed Q. Seius and where the chapel still stands — is the polluted one. §34–39 (envoys killed, faith and oath neglected, ancient and secret rites) returns again and again to Clodius: the Alexandrians, Plator of Orestis bled by the physician at Thessalonica, the bribed jurors of the Bona Dea trial, and the great prosecution of the Bona Dea outrage itself — closing on the famous answer to the question what punishment the gods inflict: not pain or wound of body but frenzy and madness.
§40–55 turns to the second half of the response, “the discord of the optimates,” and uses it as the frame for the great catalogue of popularis turncoats: Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, Saturninus, Sulpicius — each had a grave (if not just) cause; only Clodius was made popularis “out of the saffron-coloured robe, the headband, the women’s slippers, the breast-band, the lyre.” Sections 47–52 expose the men who let Clodius continue as a tribune-attack-dog on Pompey: the threat to loose Caesar’s army on the Senate, the dagger in the temple of Castor at the Pompey siege, the late turn (when Clodius now praises Pompey, having sold himself in turn to every camp). The closing §53–55 makes the haruspical word principes explicit: the gods foretell danger to the chief men — Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, the senatorial principes — not to Clodius, who is no princeps.
The peroration §56–63 covers the remaining heads of the response: the inferior and the rejected, the warning against change in the standing of the state, and (§60) the famous catalogue of the symptoms of the late Republic at this very year: the empty treasury, the publicans not enjoying their contracts, the authority of the chief men fallen, the consensus of the orders broken, the courts perished, the votes held by a few. The closing prescription is concord: not human counsels but divine. The thirty days between this speech and the conference of Luca, when Caesar reset the terms of the triumvirate behind Cicero’s back, give the speech its tragic edge — it is the last of the post-exile speeches in the optimate-Pompeian-Senate register, and the last in which Cicero can speak as if principes are a stable category in Roman public life.
Yesterday, senators, when both your dignity and the great press of Roman knights present (to whom the Senate was being granted access) had stirred me deeply, I judged that I had to put down P. Clodius’s shameless impudence: when he was hindering the cause of the publicans by the most foolish questionings, doing service for P. Tullio the Syrian, and selling himself — though he had been bought up entirely — even before your eyes. So I held in check that frenzied and exulting man as soon as I threatened him with the danger of a trial: with two opening words I crushed all the gladiator’s onset and ferocity.
hesterno die, patres conscripti, cum me et vestra dignitas et frequentia equitum Romanorum praesentium, quibus senatus dabatur, magno opere commosset, putavi mihi reprimendam esse P. Clodi impudicam impudentiam, cum is publicanorum causam stultissimis interrogationibus impediret, P. Tullioni Syro navaret operam atque ei se, cui totus venierat, etiam vobis inspectantibus venditaret. itaque hominem furentem exsultantemque continui simul ac periculum iudici intendi: duobus inceptis verbis omnem impetum gladiatoris ferociamque compressi.
And yet, ignorant who the consuls were, ashen and hot-flushed, he flung himself out of the Curia all at once, with certain broken and now empty threats, and with those terrors of the Pisonian and Gabinian period: whom, when he had gone out, I began to follow, and I had the greatest reward both from the rising-up of every one of you and from the company of the publicans. But suddenly out of his wits, without his own face, without colour, without voice, he stood still; then he looked back, and as soon as he caught sight of Cn. Lentulus the consul, he collapsed almost at the threshold of the Curia — by recollection, I suppose, of his Gabinius, and by longing for Piso. Of his unbridled, headlong frenzy what shall I say? Or can he be more grievously wounded by my words than he was, in the very act, dispatched and butchered by that gravest of men, P. Servilius? Whose force and signal, almost divine gravity, even if I could now match, still I do not doubt that the weapons hurled by an enemy will seem lighter and duller than those his father’s colleague let fly.
ac tamen ignarus ille qui consules essent, exsanguis atque aestuans se ex curia repente proripuit, cum quibusdam fractis iam atque inanibus minis et cum illius Pisoniani temporis Gabinianique terroribus: quem cum egredientem insequi coepissem, cepi equidem fructum maximum et ex consurrectione omnium vestrum et ex comitatu publicanorum. sed vaecors repente sine suo vultu, sine colore, sine voce constitit; deinde respexit et, simul atque Cn. Lentulum consulem aspexit, concidit in curiae paene limine; recordatione, credo, Gabini sui desiderioque Pisonis. cuius ego de ecfrenato et praecipiti furore quid dicam? an potest gravioribus a me verbis vulnerari quam est statim in facto ipso a gravissimo viro, P. Servilio, confectus ac trucidatus? cuius si iam vim et gravitatem illam singularem ac paene divinam adsequi possem, tamen non dubito quin ea tela quae coniecerit inimicus quam ea quae conlega patris emisit leviora atque hebetiora esse videantur.
Yet I wish to set out the reasoning of my act to those who, yesterday, supposed me to have been carried by pain and to have gone almost further in anger than the considered reason of a wise man would have demanded. I did nothing in anger, nothing with an unmastered mind, nothing that was not long thought through and meditated long before. For I, senators, have always declared that I am a foe to two men: who, when they ought to have defended me and the commonwealth, when they could have saved us, when they were called to the consular duty by the very ensigns of that command, and to my safety not only by your authority but by your prayers, first deserted us, then betrayed us, lastly attacked us; and by the rewards of an unspeakable bargain wished me, together with the commonwealth, to be utterly crushed and snuffed out. Those punishments which they could not, under their own bloody and fatal command, either keep from the walls of allies or carry into the cities of enemies — the cutting-down, the burning, the overturning, the depopulation, the wasteland — these, with their plunder, they brought into all my houses and fields.
sed tamen mei facti rationem exponere illis volo qui hesterno die dolore me elatum et iracundia longius prope progressum arbitrabantur quam sapientis hominis cogitata ratio postulasset. nihil feci iratus, nihil impotenti animo, nihil non diu consideratum ac multo ante meditatum. ego enim me, patres conscripti, inimicum semper esse professus sum duobus, qui me, qui rem publicam cum defendere deberent, servare possent, cumque ad consulare officium ipsis insignibus illius imperi, ad meam salutem non solum auctoritate sed etiam precibus vestris vocarentur, primo reliquerunt, deinde prodiderunt, postremo oppugnarunt, praemiisque nefariae pactionis funditus una cum re publica oppressum exstinctumque voluerunt; qui quae suo ductu et imperio cruento illo atque funesto supplicia neque a sociorum moenibus prohibere neque hostium urbibus inferre potuerunt, excisionem, inflammationem, eversionem, depopulationem, vastitatem, ea sua cum praeda meis omnibus tectis atque agris intulerunt.
On these Furies and firebrands, on these, I say, ruinous prodigies and almost pestilences of this empire, I declare that I have undertaken an inexpiable war: not as great as my own pain and that of mine demanded, but as great as your pain and the pain of all good men demanded. Toward Clodius, indeed, my hatred is no greater today than it was on the day when I learned that he had been singed by the most religious fires, sent away in woman’s dress out of an unholy seduction and out of the house of the pontifex maximus. Then, I say, then I saw, and long before I had foreseen, what storm was being raised, what tempest was hanging over the commonwealth. I saw that wickedness, so monstrous, the audacity so savage of a youth raving and noble and wounded, could not be confined within the bounds of peace: that evil would burst out at some time, if it had gone unpunished, to the destruction of the city. Not much, in fact, was added afterwards to my hatred.
cum his furiis et facibus, cum his, inquam, exitiosis prodigiis ac paene huius imperi pestibus bellum mihi inexpiabile dico esse susceptum, neque id tamen ipsum tantum quantum meus ac meorum, sed tantum quantum vester atque omnium bonorum dolor postulavit. in Clodium vero non est hodie meum maius odium quam illo die fuit cum illum ambustum religiosissimis ignibus cognovi muliebri ornatu ex incesto stupro atque ex domo pontificis maximi emissum. tum, inquam, tum vidi ac multo ante prospexi quanta tempestas excitaretur, quanta impenderet procella rei publicae. videbam illud scelus tam importunum, audaciam tam immanem adulescentis furentis, nobilis, vulnerati non posse arceri oti finibus: erupturum illud malum aliquando, si impunitum fuisset, ad perniciem civitatis. non multum mihi sane post ad odium accessit.
For he did nothing against me out of hatred of me, but out of hatred of severity, hatred of standing, hatred of the commonwealth: he no more violated me than he violated the Senate, the Roman knights, all good men, all Italy. Nor was he in the end more wickedly disposed against me than against the immortal gods themselves. For he violated them by a wickedness no man before him had committed; toward me he was of the same temper which his bosom-friend Catiline, had he won, would have shown. So I never thought he should be prosecuted by me — no more than that block of wood, of which we should not know what kind of man it was, did he not himself say he was a Ligurian. Why should I pursue this animal and beast, fattened on the fodder and acorns of my enemies? Who, if he sensed by what wickedness he has bound himself, I do not doubt is the most miserable of men; but if he does not see it, there is danger that he will defend himself by the excuse of stupor.
nihil enim contra me fecit odio mei, sed odio severitatis, odio dignitatis, odio rei publicae: non me magis violavit quam senatum, quam equites Romanos, quam omnis bonos, quam Italiam cunctam: non denique in me sceleratior fuit quam in ipsos deos immortalis. etenim illos eo scelere violavit quo nemo antea: in me fuit eodem animo quo etiam eius familiaris Catilina, si vicisset, fuisset. itaque eum numquam a me esse accusandum putavi, non plus quam stipitem illum qui quorum hominum esset nesciremus, nisi se Ligurem ipse esse diceret. quid enim hunc persequar, pecudem ac beluam, pabulo inimicorum meorum et glande corruptum? qui si sensit quo se scelere devinxerit, non dubito quin sit miserrimus; sin autem id non videt, periculum est ne se stuporis excusatione defendat.
It is added too that, by the expectation of all, this victim seems to have been vowed and assigned to that bravest and most distinguished man, T. Annius. To snatch from him a glory already pledged and destined — when I myself by his work have recovered both my standing and my safety — would be very unjust. For just as that famous P. Scipio seems to me to have been born for the destruction and ruin of Carthage, who alone overturned by a kind of fated coming that city which had been by many commanders besieged, attacked, shaken, almost taken, so T. Annius seems to have been born for the suppressing, snuffing out, and razing to the ground of this pestilence, and granted as it were by a divine gift to the commonwealth. He alone has understood by what method an armed citizen — one who with stones, with iron, drives some men to flight, holds others shut up at home; who terrifies the whole city, the Curia, the Forum, all the temples, with slaughter and burnings — ought not only to be conquered but bound.
accedit etiam quod exspectatione omnium fortissimo et clarissimo viro, T. Annio, devota et constituta ista hostia esse videtur; cui me praeripere desponsam iam et destinatam laudem, cum ipse eius opera et dignitatem et salutem reciperarim, valde est iniquum. etenim ut P. ille Scipio natus mihi videtur ad interitum exitiumque Carthaginis, qui illam a multis imperatoribus obsessam, oppugnatam, labefactam, paene captam aliquando quasi fatali adventu solus evertit, sic T. Annius ad illam pestem comprimendam, exstinguendam, funditus delendam natus esse videtur et quasi divino munere donatus rei publicae. solus ille cognovit quem ad modum armatum civem, qui lapidibus, qui ferro alios fugaret, alios domi contineret, qui urbem totam, qui curiam, qui forum, qui templa omnia caede incendiisque terreret, non modo vinci verum etiam vinciri oporteret.
From a man so great, and one who has so deserved of me and of his country, I will never voluntarily snatch this defendant in particular — whose enmities he has not only undertaken on my behalf but has even sought out. But if even now, ensnared as he is in the dangers of every law, entangled in the hatred of all good men, caught in the now not distant expectation of punishment, he is yet borne forward fumbling and tries, blocked though he is, to make some onset against me, I will resist; and either with Milo’s consent or with his help I will repel his attempt: just as yesterday, when standing he silently threatened me, I touched only with my voice the beginning of the law and the trial. He sat down: I fell silent. Had he named the day, as he had hinted, I would have brought it about that the third day from the praetor was named for him at once. And let him so govern himself, and consider this: if he is content with the wickednesses he has committed, he is now consecrated to Milo; if he aims any weapon at me, I shall at once snatch up the arms of trials and laws.
huic ego et tali et ita de me ac de patria merito viro numquam mea voluntate praeripiam eum praesertim reum cuius ille inimicitias non solum suscepit propter salutem meam, verum etiam adpetivit. sed si etiam nunc inlaqueatus iam omnium legum periculis, inretitus odio bonorum omnium, exspectatione supplici iam non diuturna implicatus, feretur tamen haesitans et in me impetum impeditus facere conabitur, resistam et aut concedente aut etiam adiuvante Milone eius conatum refutabo: velut hesterno die cum mihi stanti tacens minaretur, voce tantum attigi legum initium et iudici. consedit ille: conticui. diem dixisset, ut iecerat: fecissem ut ei statim tertius a praetore dies diceretur. atque hoc sic moderetur et cogitet, si contentus sit iis sceleribus quae commisit, esse se iam consecratum Miloni: si quod in me telum intenderit, statim me esse arrepturum arma iudiciorum atque legum.
A little while ago, senators, he held a contio which has been reported to me in full. The whole substance and drift of that contio, hear first; then, when you have laughed at the man’s shamelessness, you shall hear from me about the whole. Of religion and the rites and ceremonies Clodius spoke in the contio, senators: Publius, I say, Publius Clodius complained that the rites and religious observances were being neglected, violated, polluted! No wonder it seems ridiculous to you: even his own contio laughed at the man, who, as he himself is wont to boast, has been transfixed by two hundred decrees of the Senate, all passed against him on behalf of religion — and that man, who has brought defilement onto the cushions of the Good Goddess, who has violated those rites which it is forbidden for the eyes of a man to look on even unaware, not only with a man’s gaze but with debauchery and seduction, complains in the contio that religion has been neglected.
atque paulo ante, patres conscripti, contionem habuit quae est ad me tota delata; cuius contionis primum universum argumentum sententiamque audite; cum riseritis impudentiam hominis, tum a me de tota contione audietis. de religionibus sacris et caerimoniis est contionatus, patres conscripti, Clodius: Publius, inquam, Clodius sacra et religiones neglegi violari pollui questus est! non mirum si hoc vobis ridiculum videtur: etiam sua contio risit hominem, quo modo ipse gloriari solet, ducentis confixum senati consultis, quae sunt omnia contra illum pro religionibus facta, hominemque eum qui pulvinaribus bonae deae stuprum intulerit, eaque sacra quae viri oculis ne imprudentis quidem aspici fas est non solum aspectu virili sed flagitio stuproque violarit, in contione de religionibus neglectis conqueri.
And so now his next contio is awaited on chastity. For what difference does it make whether, having been driven from the most religious altars, he should complain of religion — or whether, just emerged from his sister’s bedroom, he should defend modesty and chastity? He read out in the contio this fresh response of the haruspices about the rumbling, in which, among many other things, this also is written, as you have heard, that “sacred and religious places are being held profane.” And he said in this matter that my house had been consecrated by that most religious priest, P. Clodius.
itaque nunc proxima contio eius exspectatur de pudicitia. quid enim interest utrum ab altaribus religiosissimis fugatus de sacris et religionibus conqueratur, an ex sororum cubiculo egressus pudorem pudicitiamque defendat? responsum haruspicum hoc recens de fremitu in contione recitavit, in quo cum aliis multis scriptum etiam illud est, id quod audistis, loca sacra et religiosa profana haberi: in ea causa esse dixit domum meam a religiosissimo sacerdote, P. Clodio, consecratam.
I am glad that out of this whole portent, which perhaps has been the most grave to be reported to this order in many years, a cause has been given to me of speaking, not only just but even necessary; for you will find that out of this whole prodigy and response we are forewarned of his wickedness and frenzy and of the impending greatest dangers almost by the very voice of Jupiter Best and Greatest.
gaudeo mihi de toto hoc ostento, quod haud scio an gravissimum multis his annis huic ordini nuntiatum sit, datam non modo iustam sed etiam necessariam causam esse dicendi; reperietis enim ex hoc toto prodigio atque responso nos de istius scelere ac furore ac de impendentibus periculis maximis prope iam voce Iovis optimi maximi praemoneri.
But first I will expiate the religion of my house, if I shall be able to do so truly and without doubt on anyone’s part; if even the slightest scruple shall seem to remain to anyone, not only with patience but with a willing mind I will obey the portents of the immortal gods and religion. But what house in this city is so empty of and so pure from any such suspicion of religion? Although your houses, senators, and those of the rest of the citizens are for the most part by far free from religion, yet my one house has been freed by all judgements: the only one in this city. For I appeal to you, Lentulus, and to you, Philippus. From this haruspical response the Senate decreed that you should refer to this order on sacred and religious places. Can you bring up my house, which, as I have said, alone in this whole city has been freed by every religion and by every judgement? Whose first enemy himself, in that storm and night of the commonwealth, when he had inscribed the rest of his crimes by that filthy stylus dipped in the mouth of Sex. Clodius, did not touch a single letter of religion; then the same house the Roman people, whose is the highest power in all matters, by the centuriate assembly, by the votes of every age and order, ordered to be of the same right as it had been; afterwards you, senators — not because the matter was doubtful but so that to this Fury, if he should remain longer in the city he so longed to destroy, the very voice of speech might be denied — decreed that the religion of my house be referred to the college of the pontiffs.
sed primum expiabo religionem aedium mearum, si id facere vere ac sine cuiusquam dubitatione potero; sin scrupulus tenuissimus residere alicui videbitur, non modo patienti sed etiam libenti animo portentis deorum immortalium religionique parebo. sed quae tandem est in hac urbe tanta domus ab ista suspicione religionis tam vacua atque pura? quamquam vestrae domus, patres conscripti, ceterorumque civium multo maxima ex parte sunt liberae religione, tamen una mea domus iudiciis omnibus liberata in hac urbe sola est. te enim appello, Lentule, et te, Philippe. ex hoc haruspicum responso decrevit senatus ut de locis sacris religiosis ad hunc ordinem referretis. potestisne referre de mea domo, quae, ut dixi, sola in hac urbe omni religione omnibus iudiciis liberata est? quam primum inimicus ipse in illa tempestate ac nocte rei publicae, cum cetera scelera stilo illo impuro Sex. Clodi ore tincto conscripsisset, ne una quidem attigit littera religionis; deinde eandem domum populus Romanus, cuius est summa potestas omnium rerum, comitiis centuriatis omnium aetatum ordinumque suffragiis eodem iure esse iussit quo fuisset; postea vos, patres conscripti, non quo dubia res esset, sed ut huic furiae, si diutius in hac urbe quam delere cuperet maneret, vox interdiceretur, decrevistis ut de mearum aedium religione ad pontificum conlegium referretur.
What religion is so great that we are not freed from it, in our doubts and in the gravest scruples, by the response and word of a single P. Servilius or M. Lucullus? Concerning public sacrifices, the greatest games, the rites of the household gods and Mother Vesta, that very sacrifice which is performed for the safety of the Roman people, which since the founding of Rome was first violated by the wickedness of this single chaste guardian of religion — whatever three pontiffs had decided has always seemed to the Roman people, to the Senate, to the immortal gods themselves, holy enough, august enough, religious enough. But on my house, P. Lentulus, consul and pontiff; P. Servilius, M. Lucullus, Q. Metellus, M’. Glabrio, M. Messalla, L. Lentulus, flamen Martialis; P. Galba, Q. Metellus Scipio, C. Fannius, M. Lepidus, L. Claudius rex sacrorum, M. Scaurus, M. Crassus, C. Curio, Sex. Caesar flamen Quirinalis, Q. Cornelius, P. Albinovanus, Q. Terentius, the lesser pontiffs — having heard the cause, with it pleaded twice, with the greatest assembly of the most distinguished and wisest citizens standing by — with one mind all freed it from every religious obligation.
quae tanta religio est qua non in nostris dubitationibus atque in maximis superstitionibus unius P. Servili aut M. Luculli responso ac verbo liberemur? de sacris publicis, de ludis maximis, de deorum penatium Vestaeque matris caerimoniis, de illo ipso sacrificio quod fit pro salute populi Romani, quod post Romam conditam huius unius casti tutoris religionum scelere violatum est, quod tres pontifices statuissent, id semper populo Romano, semper senatui, semper ipsis dis immortalibus satis sanctum, satis augustum, satis religiosum esse visum est. at vero meam domum P. Lentulus, consul et pontifex, P. Servilius, M. Lucullus, Q. Metellus, M’. Glabrio, M. Messalla, L. Lentulus, flamen Martialis, P. Galba, Q. Metellus Scipio, C. Fannius, M. Lepidus, L. Claudius rex sacrorum, M. Scaurus, M. Crassus, C. Curio, Sex. Caesar flamen Quirinalis, Q. Cornelius, P. Albinovanus, Q. Terentius, pontifices minores, causa cognita, duobus locis dicta, maxima frequentia amplissimorum ac sapientissimorum civium adstante, omni religione una mente omnes liberaverunt.
I deny that, since the establishment of the rites — whose antiquity is the same as the city’s — in any matter whatever, not even concerning the chastity of the Vestal virgins, has so full a college given judgement. Although for the discussion of a crime it matters that as many as possible be present (for that is the rule of pontifical interpretation, since the same men hold the power of judges), the explanation of religion can be rightly done even by one experienced pontiff (a thing which in a capital trial is harsh and unjust); yet you will find this: that more pontiffs have judged on my house than ever judged on the rites of the virgins. The day after, the Senate, in fullest attendance, with you, Lentulus, the consul-elect, leader of the opinion, on the motion of P. Lentulus and Q. Metellus the consuls, when all the pontiffs of this order were present and when others who excelled in honours of the Roman people had spoken many words about the college’s verdict, and when all of the same were present at the drawing-up, decreed that my house was seen to be freed from religion by the judgement of the pontiffs.
nego umquam post sacra constituta, quorum eadem est antiquitas quae ipsius urbis, ulla de re, ne de capite quidem virginum Vestalium, tam frequens conlegium iudicasse. quamquam ad facinoris disquisitionem interest adesse quam plurimos (ita est enim interpretatio illa pontificum, ut eidem potestatem habeant iudicum), religionis explanatio vel ab uno pontifice perito recte fieri potest (quod idem in iudicio capitis durum atque iniquum est ), tamen sic reperietis, frequentiores pontifices de mea domo quam umquam de caerimoniis virginum iudicasse. postero die frequentissimus senatus te consule designato, Lentule, sententiae principe, P. Lentulo et Q. Metello consulibus referentibus statuit, cum omnes pontifices qui erant huius ordinis adessent, cumque alii qui honoribus populi Romani antecedebant multa de conlegi iudicio verba fecissent, omnesque idem scribendo adessent, domum meam iudicio pontificum religione liberatam videri.
On this place, then, sacred above all, do the haruspices seem to be speaking, on the place which alone of all private places has this peculiar right, that by the very men who preside over the rites it has been judged not sacred? But bring up the matter, as you must do under the senatorial decree. Either the inquiry will be granted to you, who first delivered an opinion on this house and freed it from every religious obligation; or the Senate itself will judge, which, with that one priest of the rites alone dissenting, in fullest attendance previously judged; or, what surely will happen, it will be referred to the pontiffs, to whose authority, faith, and prudence our forefathers entrusted both private and public rites and religious matters. What then can they judge other than they have judged? Many are the houses in this city, senators, and I dare say almost all by the best of right, but yet by private right, by hereditary right, by right of authority, by right of mancipium, by right of bond: I deny that any other house exists fortified by the same private right as the one of best title, and at the same time by every public, human, and divine right outstanding;
de hoc igitur loco sacro potissimum videntur haruspices dicere, qui locus solus ex privatis locis omnibus hoc praecipue iuris habet, ut ab ipsis qui sacris praesunt sacer non esse iudicatus sit? verum referte, quod ex senatus consulto facere debetis. aut vobis cognitio dabitur, qui primi de hac domo sententiam dixistis et eam religione omni liberastis, aut senatus ipse iudicabit, qui uno illo solo antistite sacrorum dissentiente frequentissimus antea iudicavit, aut,—id quod certe fiet,—ad pontifices reicietur, quorum auctoritati fidei prudentiae maiores nostri sacra religionesque et privatas et publicas commendarunt. quid ergo ii possunt aliud iudicare ac iudicaverunt? multae sunt domus in hac urbe, patres conscripti, atque haud scio an paene cunctae iure optimo, sed tamen iure privato, iure hereditario, iure auctoritatis, iure mancipi, iure nexi: nego esse ullam domum aliam privato eodem quo quae optima lege, publico vero omni praecipuo et humano et divino iure munitam;
since first it is built on the authority of the Senate at public expense, and then it has been fortified and hedged around by so many decrees of the Senate against the wicked violence of this gladiator. The first commission was given last year to those magistrates — to whom in the gravest dangers the whole commonwealth is wont to be entrusted — to see that I might be allowed to build without violence; then, when he had brought ruin to my dwelling with stones and fire and steel, the Senate decreed that those who had done it should be held under the law on violence, which is against those who attack the whole commonwealth. And on your motion — O bravest and best consuls within memory! — the same Senate, in fullest attendance, decreed that whoever should have violated my house would be acting against the commonwealth.
quae primum aedificatur ex auctoritate senatus pecunia publica, deinde contra vim nefariam huius gladiatoris tot senati consultis munita atque saepta est. primum negotium isdem magistratibus est datum anno superiore, ut curarent ut sine vi aedificare mihi liceret, quibus in maximis periculis universa res publica commendari solet; deinde, cum ille saxis et ignibus et ferro vastitatem meis sedibus intulisset, decrevit senatus eos qui id fecissent lege de vi, quae est in eos qui universam rem publicam oppugnassent, teneri. vobis vero referentibus, o post hominum memoriam fortissimi atque optimi consules! decrevit idem senatus frequentissimus qui meam domum violasset contra rem publicam esse facturum.
I deny that there exist on any public work, on any monument, on any temple, as many decrees of the Senate as on my house, which the Senate has held to be the only one since the city’s founding to be built from the treasury, to be freed by the pontiffs, to be defended by the magistrates, to be punished by the courts. To P. Valerius for his great services to the commonwealth a public house was given on the Velia; to me, on the Palatine, restored. To him, the place; to me, even the walls and the roof. To him, what he himself should defend by private right; to me, what every magistrate should defend publicly. Which things, indeed, if I held either of myself or by others, I would not proclaim before you, lest I should seem to glory too much; but since they are given me by you, since they are being attempted by the tongue of him by whose hand they were before overthrown, you who restored me and my children with your own hands — I am not speaking of my own deeds but of yours; nor do I fear that this proclamation of mine, of your kindnesses, may seem ungrateful rather than arrogant.
nego ullo de opere publico, de monumento, de templo tot senatus exstare consulta quot de mea domo, quam senatus unam post hanc urbem constitutam ex aerario aedificandam, a pontificibus liberandam, a magistratibus defendendam, a iudicibus puniendam putarit. P. Valerio pro maximis in rem publicam beneficiis data domus est in Velia publice, at mihi in Palatio restituta; illi locus, at mihi etiam parietes atque tectum; illi quam ipse privato iure tueretur, mihi quam publice magistratus omnes defenderent. quae quidem ego si aut per me aut ab aliis haberem, non praedicarem apud vos, ne nimis gloriari viderer; sed cum sint mihi data a vobis, cum ea attemptentur eius lingua cuius ante manu eversa vos mihi et liberis meis manibus vestris reddidistis, non ego de meis sed de vestris factis loquor, nec vereor ne haec mea vestrorum beneficiorum praedicatio non grata potius quam adrogans videatur.
And yet if, after I have undergone such labours for the common safety, in refuting the slanders of wicked men a certain pang of spirit should at any time carry me away to glory, who would not pardon me? For yesterday I saw a certain man muttering, who, they said, was saying that I could not be borne, because, when I was asked by this same most foul parricide what city I was a citizen of, I answered, with you and the Roman knights approving, that I was the citizen of that city which had not been able to do without me. He, I think, groaned. What then was I to answer? — I ask of him himself who cannot bear me. That I am a Roman citizen? It would have been a literal answer. Or to be silent? It would have been to abandon the matter. Can any man, engaged in great affairs amid envy, answer the insults of an enemy gravely enough without his own praise? But he himself not only answers whatever he can when challenged, but actually rejoices that he is reminded by his friends what he should answer.
quamquam si me tantis laboribus pro communi salute perfunctum ecferret aliquando ad gloriam in refutandis maledictis hominum improborum animi quidam dolor, quis non ignosceret? vidi enim hesterno die quendam murmurantem, quem aiebant negare ferri me posse, quia, cum ab hoc eodem impurissimo parricida rogarer cuius essem civitatis, respondi me, probantibus et vobis et equitibus Romanis, eius esse quae carere me non potuisset. ille, ut opinor, ingemuit. quid igitur responderem? quaero ex eo ipso qui ferre me non potest. me civem esse Romanum? litterate respondissem. an tacuissem? desertum negotium. potest quisquam vir in rebus magnis cum invidia versatus satis graviter inimici contumeliis sine sua laude respondere? at ipse non modo respondet quidquid potest, cum est lacessitus, sed etiam gaudet se ab amicis quid respondeat admoneri.
But since my own case is dispatched, let us see now what the haruspices say. For I confess that I have been deeply stirred both by the magnitude of the portent and by the gravity of the response and by the one and consistent voice of the haruspices; nor am I one who, if perhaps I seem to be more than the rest who are equally busy with me engaged in the study of letters, take pleasure in or use at all those letters which would deter our minds and call them away from religion. I have, indeed, our forefathers as authors and masters of the cultivating of religion, whose wisdom seems to me to have been so great that those are wise enough and beyond who can not, I will not say match their wisdom, but at least see how great it was: who held that fixed and solemn rites are contained in the pontificate, the auspices for things well done in augury, the old prophecies of fate in the books of the Apolline seers, and the expiations of portents in the discipline of the Etruscans. Which is so great that within our memory it foretold to us, not obscurely but a little while before, first the dire beginnings of the Italic war; afterwards the almost-extreme crisis of the Sullan and Cinnan period; and then this recent conspiracy to set the city on fire and to destroy the empire.
sed quoniam mea causa expedita est, videamus nunc quid haruspices dicant. ego enim fateor me et magnitudine ostenti et gravitate responsi et una atque constanti haruspicum voce vehementer esse commotum; neque is sum qui, si cui forte videor plus quam ceteri qui aeque atque ego sunt occupati versari in studio litterarum, his delecter aut utar omnino litteris quae nostros animos deterrent atque avocant a religione. ego vero primum habeo auctores ac magistros religionum colendarum maiores nostros, quorum mihi tanta fuisse sapientia videtur ut satis superque prudentes sint qui illorum prudentiam non dicam adsequi, sed quanta fuerit perspicere possint; qui statas sollemnisque caerimonias pontificatu, rerum bene gerundarum auctoritates augurio, fatorum veteres praedictiones Apollinis vatum libris, portentorum expiationes Etruscorum disciplina contineri putaverunt; quae quidem tanta est ut nostra memoria primum Italici belli funesta illa principia, post Sullani Cinnanique temporis extremum paene discrimen, tum hanc recentem urbis inflammandae delendique imperi coniurationem non obscure nobis paulo ante praedixerint.
Then, if I had any leisure, I have learned besides that many learned and wise men have both said and left in writing many things on the godhead of the immortal gods; which, although I see they are written down divinely, are yet of such a kind that our forefathers seem to have taught these men, not to have learned from them. For who is so out of his wits that, when he has looked up to the sky, does not feel that there are gods, and that those things are formed by such a great mind that scarcely anyone by any art could trace through the order and the necessary connection of things — thinks all this happens by chance? Or, when he has understood that there are gods, does not understand that this great empire was born and increased and held by their godhead? However much we may, senators, love ourselves, yet not in number do we surpass the Spaniards, nor in strength the Gauls, nor in cleverness the Phoenicians, nor in arts the Greeks, nor finally in that very domestic and inborn sense of this nation and this land the Italians and Latins themselves — but by piety and religion and by this one wisdom, that we have seen all things to be ruled and steered by the godhead of the gods, we have surpassed all peoples and nations.
deinde, si quid habui oti, etiam cognovi multa homines doctos sapientisque et dixisse et scripta de deorum immortalium numine reliquisse; quae quamquam divinitus perscripta video, tamen eius modi sunt ut ea maiores nostri docuisse illos, non ab illis didicisse videantur. etenim quis est tam vaecors qui aut, cum suspexit in caelum, deos esse non sentiat, et ea quae tanta mente fiunt ut vix quisquam arte ulla ordinem rerum ac necessitudinem persequi possit casu fieri putet, aut, cum deos esse intellexerit, non intellegat eorum numine hoc tantum imperium esse natum et auctum et retentum? quam volumus licet, patres conscripti, ipsi nos amemus, tamen nec numero Hispanos nec robore Gallos nec calliditate Poenos nec artibus Graecos nec denique hoc ipso huius gentis ac terrae domestico nativoque sensu Italos ipsos ac Latinos, sed pietate ac religione atque hac una sapientia, quod deorum numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnis gentis nationesque superavimus.
So, that I may not say more on a matter least doubtful, lend your attention, and bring not only your ears but your minds to the haruspices’ voice: “Because in the Latinian field a noise was heard with a rumbling.” I leave aside the haruspices, I leave aside that ancient discipline, handed down to Etruria, as men say, by the immortal gods themselves: cannot we ourselves be haruspices? In the field nearby and suburban there was heard a hidden noise and horrible rumbling of arms. Who is there of those Giants, whom the poets tell us made war on the immortal gods, so impious that he would not confess that by such a new and great motion the gods are foretelling and proclaiming something great to the Roman people? Of the matter it is written: “There are postilia owing to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Tellus, the heavenly gods.”
qua re, ne plura de re minime loquar dubia, adhibete animos, et mentis vestras, non solum auris, ad haruspicum vocem admovete: qvod in agro Latiniensi avditvs est strepitvs cvm fremitv. Mitto haruspices, mitto illam veterem ab ipsis dis immortalibus, ut hominum fama est, Etruriae traditam disciplinam: nos nonne haruspices esse possumus? exauditus in agro propinquo et suburbano est strepitus quidam reconditus et horribilis fremitus armorum. quis est ex gigantibus illis, quos poetae ferunt bellum dis immortalibus intulisse, tam impius qui hoc tam novo tantoque motu non magnum aliquid deos populo Romano praemonstrare et praecinere fateatur? de ea re scriptum est: postiliones esse Iovi, Satvrno, Neptvno, Tellvri, dis caelestibvs.
I hear by which gods being violated expiation is owed; but for what offences of men I ask. “Games less diligently performed and polluted.” What games? I appeal to you, Lentulus — yours is the priesthood, the chariot-cars, the choric prelude, the games, the libations and the banquets of the games — and to you, pontiffs, to whom the epulones of Jupiter Best and Greatest, if anything has been omitted or committed wrongly, refer the matter; on whose word the same games, renewed and instituted afresh, are celebrated. What games have been performed less diligently? When and by what wickedness have they been polluted? You will answer, both for yourself and for your colleagues, and even for the college of pontiffs, that nothing has been despised by anyone’s negligence or polluted by wickedness: that all the solemn and lawful elements of the games, with everything observed, have been kept with the greatest scruple.
audio quibus dis violatis expiatio debeatur, sed hominum quae ob delicta quaero. lvdos minvs diligenter factos pollvtosqve. quos ludos? te appello, Lentule,—tui sacerdoti sunt tensae, curricula, praecentio, ludi, libationes epulaeque ludorum,—vosque, pontifices, ad quos epulones Iovis optimi maximi, si quid est praetermissum aut commissum, adferunt, quorum de sententia illa eadem renovata atque instaurata celebrantur. qui sunt ludi minus diligenter facti, quando aut quo scelere polluti? respondebis et pro te et pro conlegis tuis, etiam pro pontificum conlegio, nihil cuiusquam aut neglegentia contemptum aut scelere esse pollutum: omnia sollemnia ac iusta ludorum omnibus rebus observatis summa cum caerimonia esse servata.
What games, then, do the haruspices declare were performed less diligently and polluted? Those at which the immortal gods themselves, and that Idaean Mother, wished you — you, Cn. Lentulus, by whose great-great-grandfather’s hands she was received — to be a spectator. And had you not on that day wished to look on the Megalesia, I do not know that we could now be alive and complaining of these matters. For an unnumbered force, stirred up, gathered out of every alley, of slaves, was on a sudden by this religious aedile loosed from arches and doorways and, on the signal given, hurled into the scena, and broke in. Yours then, yours, Cn. Lentulus, was the same courage that was once in your great-grandfather as a private man; you, your name, your imperium, your voice, your gaze, your assault — the rising Senate and the Roman knights and all good men followed you, when he, that aedile, had handed over the Senate and the Roman people, bound in their seats and constrained at the show, hindered by crowd and narrowness, to the multitude of mocking slaves.
quos igitur haruspices ludos minus diligenter factos pollutosque esse dicunt? Eos quorum ipsi di immortales atque illa mater Idaea te,—te, Cn. Lentule, cuius abavi manibus esset accepta,—spectatorem esse voluit. quod ni tu Megalesia illo die spectare voluisses, haud scio an vivere nobis atque his de rebus iam queri non liceret. vis enim innumerabilis incitata ex omnibus vicis conlecta servorum ab hoc aedile religioso repente e fornicibus ostiisque omnibus in scaenam signo dato inmissa inrupit. tua tum, tua, Cn. Lentule, eadem virtus fuit quae in privato quondam tuo proavo; te, nomen, imperium, vocem, aspectum, impetum tuum stans senatus equitesque Romani et omnes boni sequebantur, cum ille servorum eludentium multitudini senatum populumque Romanum vinctum ipso consessu et constrictum spectaculis atque impeditum turba et angustiis tradidisset.
Or if a stage-dancer halted, or a flute-player suddenly fell silent, or that boy with both parents living failed to hold the chariot-rope, if he let go the strap, or if the aedile blundered in word or libation-cup — the games are not duly performed, those errors are expiated, and the minds of the immortal gods are appeased by repeating the games. If the games have been turned from joy to fear, if they have not been interrupted but ended and removed, if those days, by the wickedness of him who wished to turn games to mourning, became for the whole state almost funeral days instead of festal — shall we doubt what games that rumbling proclaims to have been polluted?
an si ludius constitit, aut tibicen repente conticuit, aut puer ille patrimus et matrimus si tensam non tenuit, si lorum omisit, aut si aedilis verbo aut simpuvio aberravit, ludi sunt non rite facti, eaque errata expiantur, et mentes deorum immortalium ludorum instauratione placantur: si ludi ab laetitia ad metum traducti, si non intermissi sed perempti atque sublati sunt, si civitati universae, scelere eius qui ludos ad luctum conferre voluit, exstiterunt dies illi pro festis paene funesti, dubitabimus quos ille fremitus nuntiet ludos esse pollutos?
And if we wish to recall those things which have been handed down to us about each god: this Great Mother, whose games were violated, polluted, almost turned to slaughter and to the funeral of the city — this one, I say, we have received as walking through fields and groves with a certain noise and rumbling. She therefore has shown to you, has shown to the Roman people, both the proofs of his crimes and the signs of dangers. For what shall I say of those games which our forefathers wished to be performed and celebrated on the Palatine, before the temple, in the very sight of the Great Mother, at the Megalensia? Which by use and institution are most chaste, solemn, religious; at which games for the first time the great elder P. Africanus, in his second consulship, gave a place to the Senate before the seats of the people — that this filthy plague should pollute those games! At which, if any free man came either for the sake of viewing or even for religion, hands were laid on him; at which no matron came for the violence and the press of slaves. So those games — whose religion is so great that, fetched from the farthest lands, it has settled in this city; the only games which are not even named by a Latin word, that by the very vocabulary the foreign religion sought out and undertaken in the name of the Great Mother is declared — these games slaves performed, slaves looked on, the whole Megalesia, finally, under this aedile, was a slaves’ festival.
ac si volumus ea quae de quoque deo nobis tradita sunt recordari, hanc matrem magnam, cuius ludi violati, polluti, paene ad caedem et ad funus civitatis conversi sunt, hanc, inquam, accepimus agros et nemora cum quodam strepitu fremituque peragrare. haec igitur vobis, haec populo Romano et scelerum indicia ostendit et periculorum signa patefecit. nam quid ego de illis ludis loquar quos in Palatio nostri maiores ante templum in ipso Matris magnae conspectu Megalesibus fieri celebrarique voluerunt? qui sunt more institutisque maxime casti, sollemnes, religiosi; quibus ludis primum ante populi consessum senatui locum P. Africanus iterum consul ille maior dedit, ut eos ludos haec lues impura pollueret! quo si qui liber aut spectandi aut etiam religionis causa accesserat, manus adferebantur, quo matrona nulla adiit propter vim consessumque servorum. ita ludos eos, quorum religio tanta est ut ex ultimis terris arcessita in hac urbe consederit, qui uni ludi ne verbo quidem appellantur Latino, ut vocabulo ipso et appetita religio externa et Matris magnae nomine suscepta declaretur—hos ludos servi fecerunt, servi spectaverunt, tota denique hoc aedile servorum Megalesia fuerunt.
O immortal gods! how could you have spoken to us more clearly, if you were present and dwelt with us? You have signified that the games have been polluted, you say it plainly. What more befouled, more disfigured, more perverse, more thrown into confusion can be said than that all slavery, freed by the magistrate’s leave, was sent into one set of seats, set over against another, so that the one set of seats was thrown to the power of slaves, and the other was wholly of slaves? If a swarm of bees had at the games come into the scena or the seats, we should think haruspices ought to be sent for from Etruria; we see suddenly such great swarms of slaves let loose into the Roman people, hemmed in and shut up, and we are not stirred? And in the matter of the bee swarm perhaps the haruspices, from the writings of the Etruscans, would warn us to beware of slavery.
pro di immortales! qui magis nobiscum loqui possetis, si essetis versareminique nobiscum? ludos esse pollutos significastis ac plane dicitis. quid magis inquinatum, deformatum, perversum, conturbatum dici potest quam omne servitium, permissu magistratus liberatum, in alteram scaenam inmissum, alteri praepositum, ut alter consessus potestati servorum obiceretur, alter servorum totus esset? si examen apium ludis in scaenam caveam ve venisset, haruspices acciendos ex Etruria putaremus: videmus universi repente examina tanta servorum inmissa in populum Romanum saeptum atque inclusum, et non commovemur? atque in apium fortasse examine nos ex Etruscorum scriptis haruspices ut a servitio caveremus monerent.
What we should beware of when signified by some separate and distinct portent, when the thing itself is a portent to itself, and when the danger is in that very thing from which the danger is foretold — shall we not fear it? Did your father give such Megalesia? Did your uncle? He even makes mention of his lineage, when he has chosen to put on games after the example of Athenion or Spartacus rather than of a C. or Appius Claudius? Those, when they put on games, ordered slaves to leave the seats; you let slaves into one set, threw free men out of the other. And so those who before were separated from the free by the herald’s voice, at your games separated free men from themselves not by voice but by hand. Did this not even occur to your mind, the priest of the Sibylline books, that our forefathers sought these rites from your books? — if those are yours which you with impious mind hunt out, with violated eyes read, with polluted hands handle.
quod igitur ex aliquo diiuncto diversoque monstro significatum caveremus, id cum ipsum sibi monstrum est, et cum in eo ipso periculum est ex quo periculum portenditur, non pertimescemus? istius modi Megalesia fecit pater tuus, istius modi patruus? is mihi etiam generis sui mentionem facit, cum Athenionis aut Spartaci exemplo ludos facere maluerit quam C. aut Appi Claudiorum? illi cum ludos facerent, servos de cavea exire iubebant: tu in alteram servos inmisisti, ex altera liberos eiecisti. itaque qui antea voce praeconis a liberis semovebantur, tuis ludis non voce sed manu liberos a se segregabant. ne hoc quidem tibi in mentem veniebat, Sibyllino sacerdoti, haec sacra maiores nostros ex vestris libris expetisse? si illi sunt vestri quos tu impia mente conquiris, violatis oculis legis, contaminatis manibus attrectas.
On the bidding of that prophetess, when Italy long since wearied by the Punic war and harried by Hannibal, our forefathers brought those rites adopted from Phrygia and set them up at Rome; which the man received who was judged the best of the Roman people, P. Scipio, and the woman who was thought the chastest of matrons, Q. Claudia (whose ancient severity in sacrifice your sister is wonderfully thought to imitate). Neither, then, did your forefathers connected with these religions, nor the priesthood itself by which this whole religion is constituted, nor the curule aedileship which is most accustomed to guard this religion, move you not to defile with every shame the most chaste games, to stain them with disgrace, to bind them in wickedness?
hac igitur vate suadente quondam, defessa Italia Punico bello atque ab Hannibale vexata, sacra ista nostri maiores adscita ex Phrygia Romae conlocarunt; quae vir is accepit qui est optimus populi Romani iudicatus, P. Scipio, femina autem quae matronarum castissima putabatur, Q. Claudia, cuius priscam illam severitatem sacrifici mirifice tua soror existimatur imitata. nihil te igitur neque maiores tui coniuncti cum his religionibus, neque sacerdotium ipsum, quo est haec tota religio constituta, neque curulis aedilitas, quae maxime hanc tueri religionem solet, permovit quo minus castissimos ludos omni flagitio pollueres, dedecore maculares, scelere obligares?
But why do I marvel at this? You who, after taking money, have laid waste Pessinus itself, the seat and dwelling of the Mother of the gods; and to Brogitarus the Galatian, an unclean and accursed man, whose envoys, when you were tribune, used to portion out money in the temple of Castor to your gangs — to him you sold that whole place and shrine, you tore the priest from those very altars and cushions, you overturned all those things which antiquity, which the Persians, which the Syrians, which all the kings who have held Europe and Asia, have always cultivated with the highest religion; which our forefathers thought so holy that, although we had a city and an Italy crowded with shrines, yet our commanders in the greatest and most dangerous wars made vows to this goddess, and discharged them at Pessinus itself, before that very chief altar, and in that place and shrine.
sed quid ego id admiror? qui accepta pecunia Pessinuntem ipsum, sedem domiciliumque Matris deorum, vastaris, et Brogitaro Gallograeco, impuro homini ac nefario, cuius legati te tribuno dividere in aede Castoris tuis operis nummos solebant, totum illum locum fanumque vendideris, sacerdotem ab ipsis aris pulvinaribusque detraxeris, omnia illa quae vetustas, quae Persae, quae Syri, quae reges omnes qui Europam Asiamque tenuerunt semper summa religione coluerunt, perverteris; quae denique nostri maiores tam sancta duxerunt ut, cum refertam urbem atque Italiam fanorum haberemus, tamen nostri imperatores maximis et periculosissimis bellis huic deae vota facerent, eaque in ipso Pessinunte ad illam ipsam principem aram et in illo loco fanoque persolverent.
And whereas Deiotarus most chastely guarded that shrine in his religious devotion — he whom we have alone in the whole world most faithful to this empire and most loving of our name — you handed him over, by his addiction to money for Brogitarus, as I said before. And yet this Deiotarus, often by the Senate judged worthy of the royal name, adorned by the testimonies of the most distinguished commanders — you bid even to be called king together with Brogitarus. But the one is king by the Senate’s verdict, through us; the other is named so by the money of Brogitarus, through you. I will judge the second a king, if he shall have where to pay you what you have lent him by bond. For while many things are royal in Deiotarus, that most of all: that he gave you no penny, that the part of your law which agreed with the Senate’s verdict (that he himself be king) he did not refuse, that Pessinus, violated by your wickedness and stripped of priest and rites, he recovered in order to keep it in its ancient religion, that he does not suffer rites received from all antiquity to be polluted by Brogitarus, and that he prefers his own son-in-law to lack the gift you gave rather than that shrine to lack the antiquity of its religion. But to come back to the responses of the haruspices, of which the first is on the games — who would not confess that the whole has been foretold and answered about that man’s games?
quod cum Deiotarus religione sua castissime tueretur, quem unum habemus in orbe terrarum fidelissimum huic imperio atque amantissimum nostri nominis, Brogitaro, ut ante dixi, addictum pecunia tradidisti. atque hunc tamen Deiotarum saepe a senatu regali nomine dignum existimatum, clarissimorum imperatorum testimoniis ornatum, tu etiam regem appellari cum Brogitaro iubes. sed alter est rex iudicio senatus per nos, pecunia Brogitarus per te appellatus alterum putabo regem, si habuerit unde tibi solvat quod ei per syngrapham credidisti. nam cum multa regia sunt in Deiotaro tum illa maxime, quod tibi nummum nullum dedit, quod eam partem legis tuae quae congruebat cum iudicio senatus, ut ipse rex esset, non repudiavit, quod Pessinuntem per scelus a te violatum et sacerdote sacrisque spoliatum reciperavit, ut in pristina religione servaret, quod caerimonias ab omni vetustate acceptas a Brogitaro pollui non sinit, mavultque generum suum munere tuo quam illud fanum antiquitate religionis carere. sed ut ad haec haruspicum responsa redeam, ex quibus est primum de ludis, quis est qui id non totum in istius ludos praedictum et responsum esse fateatur?
Next, on sacred and religious places. O wonderful impudence! Do you dare speak about my house? Hand over yours either to the consuls or to the Senate or to the college of pontiffs. Mine indeed has been freed by all those three judgements, as I said before; but in those quarters which you, by manifestly killing Q. Seius, that excellent Roman knight, hold, I say there was a chapel and altars. By censorial registers, by the memory of many men, I will establish and demonstrate this: only let the matter be raised — as it must be raised under the senatorial decree which has lately been passed — I have what I should wish to say on religious places.
sequitur de locis sacris, religiosis. O impudentiam miram! de mea domo dicere audes? committe vel consulibus vel senatui vel conlegio pontificum tuam. ac mea quidem his tribus omnibus iudiciis, ut dixi antea, liberata est; at in iis aedibus quas tu, Q. Seio, equite Romano, viro optimo, per te apertissime interfecto, tenes, sacellum dico fuisse et aras. tabulis hoc censoriis, memoria multorum firmabo ac docebo: agatur modo haec res, quod ex eo senatus consulto quod nuper est factum referri ad vos necesse est, habeo quae de locis religiosis velim dicere.
When I shall have spoken of your house — in which the chapel has been built in such a way that another did the building, only you have to do the demolishing — then I will see whether it is necessary for me to say anything about other places. For some think that to me belongs the opening up of the magmentarium of Tellus. They say it lay open recently, and I remember it. Now they say a most holy part and seat of a great religion is shut up in a private vestibule. Many things move me: that the temple of Tellus is in my charge; that the man who removed that magmentarium said in regard to my house, freed by the pontiffs’ judgement, that he had been judged in his brother’s favour. The religion of Tellus moves me too, in this dearness of grain, this sterility of fields, this scarcity of crops; and the more so because under the same portent a postilio is said to be owed to Tellus.
cum de domo tua dixero, in qua tamen ita est inaedificatum sacellum ut alius fecerit, tibi tantum modo sit demoliendum, tum videbo num mihi necesse sit de aliis etiam aliquid dicere. putant enim ad me non nulli pertinere magmentarium telluris aperire. nuper id patuisse dicunt, et ego recordor. nunc sanctissimam partem ac sedem maximae religionis privato dicunt vestibulo contineri. multa me movent: quod aedes telluris est curationis meae, quod is qui illud magmentarium sustulit mea domo pontificum iudicio liberata secundum fratrem suum iudicatum esse dicebat; movet me etiam in hac caritate annonae, sterilitate agrorum, inopia frugum religio telluris, et eo magis quod eodem ostento telluri postilio deberi dicitur.
Perhaps we are speaking of old matters; though even if this is less written down in civil law, by the law of nature, by the common right of nations, it is sanctioned that mortals can acquire by use nothing from the immortal gods. Yet though we may neglect ancient things — shall we neglect those that are happening at this very moment, that we see? Who does not know that L. Piso has at this very time pulled down the great and most holy chapel of Diana on the Caeliculus? Neighbours of the place are at hand; many even in this order are present who often performed family sacrifices in that very chapel at the appointed yearly day. And we ask which places the immortal gods miss, what they signify, of what they speak? That by Sex. Serranus the most holy chapels have been undermined, built over, crushed, defiled at last with the utmost shame — do we not know it?
vetera fortasse loquimur; quamquam hoc si minus civili iure perscriptum est, lege tamen naturae, communi iure gentium sanctum est ut nihil mortales a dis immortalibus usu capere possint. verum tamen antiqua neglegimus: etiamne ea neglegemus quae fiunt cum maxime, quae videmus? L. Pisonem quis nescit his temporibus ipsis maximum et sanctissimum Dianae sacellum in Caeliculo sustulisse? adsunt vicini eius loci; multi sunt etiam in hoc ordine qui sacrificia gentilicia illo ipso in sacello stato loco anniversaria factitarint. et quaerimus di immortales quae loca desiderent, quid significent, de quo loquantur? A Sex. Serrano sanctissima sacella suffossa, inaedificata, oppressa, summa denique turpitudine foedata esse nescimus?
You could make my house religious? With what mind? — the mind you had lost. With what hand? — the hand with which you had ruined it. With what voice? — the voice with which you had ordered it set on fire. By what law? — the law you had not even framed under that impunity of yours. On what cushion? — the cushion you had defiled. By what statue? — the statue you had snatched from a courtesan’s tomb and set up on a commander’s monument. What does my house have of religion, except that it touches the wall of an unclean and sacrilegious man? And so, that no one of mine may unawares look into your house and see you performing those rites of yours, I shall raise the roof higher — not so that I may look down on you, but so that you may not look on this city which you wished to destroy.
tu meam domum religiosam facere potuisti? qua mente? quam amiseras. qua manu? qua disturbaras. qua voce? qua incendi iusseras. qua lege? quam ne in illa quidem impunitate tua scripseras. quo pulvinari? quod stupraras. quo simulacro? quod ereptum ex meretricis sepulcro in imperatoris monumento conlocaras. quid habet mea domus religiosi nisi quod impuri et sacrilegi parietem tangit? itaque ne quis meorum imprudens introspicere tuam domum possit ac te sacra illa tua facientem videre, tollam altius tectum, non ut ego te despiciam, sed tu ne aspicias urbem eam quam delere voluisti.
But let us see now the rest of the haruspices’ responses. “Envoys killed against right and divine law.” What is this? I see the talk is of the Alexandrians; which I do not refute. For I judge that the right of envoys, as it is fenced about with the protection of men, is also walled in by divine law. But I ask of him who as tribune poured out from the prison into the Forum all the witnesses, by whose judgement now all daggers and all poisons are handled, who has made bond with Hermarchus of Chios — whether he knows that one most bitter adversary of Hermarchus, Theodosius, sent on embassy from a free city to the Senate, was struck by a dagger? Which I am sure has seemed to the immortal gods no less unworthy than the Alexandrians.
sed iam haruspicum reliqua responsa videamus. oratores contra ivs fasqve interfectos. quid est hoc? de Alexandrinis esse video sermonem; quem ego non refuto. sic enim sentio, ius legatorum, cum hominum praesidio munitum sit, tum etiam divino iure esse vallatum. sed quaero ab illo qui omnis indices tribunus e carcere in forum effudit, cuius arbitrio sicae nunc omnes atque omnia venena tractantur, qui cum Hermarcho Chio syngraphas fecit, ecquid sciat unum acerrimum adversarium Hermarchi, Theodosium, legatum ad senatum a civitate libera missum sica percussum? quod non minus quam de Alexandrinis indignum dis immortalibus esse visum certo scio.
Nor do I now bring everything down on you alone. The hope of safety would be greater if besides you no one were unclean: there are more; both you have more confidence in yourself for this, and we almost in justice have less. Who does not know that Plator from Orestis, that part of Macedonia which is free, a man distinguished and noble in those parts, came as envoy to Thessalonica, to our (as he himself called himself) imperator? Whom he, on account of money which he could not extort from him, threw into chains, and sent in his own physician, who in the foulest and most cruel way cut the veins of an envoy, ally, friend, free man. He would not have his lictors’ axes bloodied by the wickedness: but he stained the name of the Roman people with such a wickedness as can be expiated by no thing but his own punishment. What sort of executioners must we suppose this man to have, who uses even his own physicians not for safety but for slaughter?
nec confero nunc in te unum omnia. spes maior esset salutis, si praeter te nemo esset impurus; plures sunt; hoc et tu tibi confidis magis et nos prope iure diffidimus. quis Platorem ex Orestide, quae pars Macedoniae libera est, hominem in illis locis clarum ac nobilem, legatum Thessalonicam ad nostrum, ut se ipse appellavit, imperatorem venisse nescit? quem ille propter pecuniam, quam ab eo extorquere non poterat, in vincla coniecit, et medicum intromisit suum qui legato socio amico libero foedissime et crudelissime venas incideret. securis suas cruentari scelere noluit: nomen quidem populi Romani tanto scelere contaminavit ut id nulla re possit nisi ipsius supplicio expiari. qualis hunc carnifices putamus habere, qui etiam medicis suis non ad salutem sed ad necem utatur?
But let us read out what comes next. “Faith and oath neglected.” What this is in itself I do not easily interpret, but from what follows I suspect it is said about the manifest perjury of your jurors, from whom the money would once have been snatched away if they had not asked for protection from the Senate. The reason why I should suspect it is said about them is this: that I judge both that perjury to be most signal and notable in this state, and you yourself nevertheless are not called into the charge of perjury by those with whom you swore the conspiracy.
sed recitemus quid sequatur. fidem ivsqve ivrandvm neglectvm. hoc quid sit per se ipsum non facile interpretor, sed ex eo quod sequitur suspicor de tuorum iudicum manifesto periurio dici, quibus olim erepti essent nummi nisi a senatu praesidium postulassent. qua re autem de iis dici suspicer haec causa est, quod sic statuo, et illud in hac civitate esse maxime inlustre atque insigne periurium, et te ipsum tamen in periuri crimen ab iis quibuscum coniurasti non vocari.
And I see in the haruspices’ response this added: “Ancient and secret sacrifices less diligently performed and polluted.” Are these the haruspices speaking, or our fathers’ household gods? Many, I dare say, are the men on whom the suspicion of this misdeed could fall. Who besides this one man? Is it obscurely said which rites have been polluted? What can be said more plainly, what more religiously, what more gravely? “Ancient and secret.” I deny that any words Lentulus, that grave and eloquent orator, used more often, when he was prosecuting you, than these now uttered out of the Etruscan books, turned and interpreted against you. For what sacrifice is so ancient as this which we have received from kings, of the same age as this city? What so secret as that which not only excludes curious eyes but even wandering ones, into which not only impropriety but not even ignorance can enter? Which sacrifice no one before P. Clodius in all memory has violated; no one ever attended; no one neglected; no man without horror beheld — which is performed by the Vestal Virgins, performed for the Roman people, performed in that house which is in command, performed with incredible ceremony, performed for that goddess whose very name it is unlawful for men to know; whom he calls the Good Goddess on this account, that she has forgiven him such a crime. She has not forgiven you, believe me, no: unless perhaps you think it is forgiveness when the jurors let you out shaken and emptied, by their judgement absolved, by all condemned — or that you have not, as the opinion of that religion has it, lost your eyes.
et video in haruspicum responsum haec esse subiuncta: sacrificia vetvsta occvltaqve minvs diligenter facta pollvtaqve. haruspices haec loquuntur an patrii penatesque di? multi enim sunt, credo, in quos huius malefici suspicio cadat. quis praeter hunc unum? obscure dicitur quae sacra polluta sint? quid planius, quid religiosius, quid gravius dici potest? vetvsta occvltaqve. nego ulla verba Lentulum, gravem oratorem ac disertum, saepius, cum te accusaret, usurpasse quam haec quae nunc ex Etruscis libris in te conversa atque interpretata dicuntur. etenim quod sacrificium tam vetustum est quam hoc quod a regibus aequale huius urbis accepimus? quod autem tam occultum quam id quod non solum curiosos oculos excludit sed etiam errantis, quo non modo improbitas sed ne imprudentia quidem possit intrare? quod quidem sacrificium nemo ante P. Clodium omni memoria violavit, nemo umquam adiit, nemo neglexit, nemo vir aspicere non horruit, quod fit per virgines Vestalis, fit pro populo Romano, fit in ea domo quae est in imperio, fit incredibili caerimonia, fit ei deae cuius ne nomen quidem viros scire fas est, quam iste idcirco bonam dicit quod in tanto sibi scelere ignoverit. non ignovit, mihi crede, non: nisi forte tibi esse ignotum putas, quod te iudices emiserunt excussum et exhaustum, suo iudicio absolutum, omnium condemnatum, aut quod oculos, ut opinio illius religionis est, non perdidisti.
Who indeed before you saw those rites as a man knowingly, that anyone could know what penalty would follow that wickedness? Or would the blindness of your eyes hurt you more than that of your lust? Do you not feel even this — that those eyelids of your great-great-grandfather, closed in his blindness, were rather to be wished than these of your sister blazing? But if you give close attention, you will understand that till now the punishments of men, not of the gods, are wanting. Men have defended you in a most foul affair; men have praised you, the most shameful and most guilty; men have freed you, almost confessing, by their judgement; for men the wrong of your defilement, brought on themselves, has not been pain; men have given you arms — some against me, others later against that unconquered citizen; the kindnesses of men I now grant you should look for no greater:
quis enim ante te sacra illa vir sciens viderat, ut quisquam poenam quae sequeretur id scelus scire posset? an tibi luminis obesset caecitas plus quam libidinis? ne id quidem sentis, coniventis illos oculos abavi tui magis optandos fuisse quam hos flagrantis sororis? tibi vero, si diligenter attendes, intelleges hominum poenas deesse adhuc, non deorum. homines te in re foedissima defenderunt, homines turpissimum nocentissimumque laudarunt, homines prope confitentem iudicio liberaverunt, hominibus iniuria tui stupri inlata in ipsos dolori non fuit, homines tibi arma alii in me, alii post in illum invictum civem dederunt, hominum beneficia prorsus concedo tibi iam maiora non esse quaerenda:
but from the immortal gods what punishment can be greater for a man than frenzy and madness? Unless perhaps you think those whom you see in tragedies tortured and consumed by wound and pain of body undergo graver wraths of the immortal gods than those who are brought on stage out of their wits. Not so wretched are those wails and groans of Philoctetes, although they are bitter, as that exultation of Athamas, and the old age of the matricides. You, when you let out wild voices in the contiones, when you overturn the houses of citizens, when you drive the best of men from the Forum with stones, when you fling burning torches onto the roofs of neighbours, when you set sacred buildings on fire, when you stir up slaves, when you throw rites and games into confusion, when you do not distinguish wife and sister, when you do not feel whose bed you are entering — then you rave like a Bacchant, then you go mad, then you pay those penalties which alone have been appointed by the immortal gods for the wickedness of men. For the weakness of our body undergoes many chances of itself; the body itself is often killed off by the slightest cause: the gods’ weapons are fixed in the minds of the impious. So you are the more miserable when you are dragged into every fraud with eyes open than if you had no eyes at all.
a dis quidem immortalibus quae potest homini maior esse poena furore atque dementia? nisi forte in tragoediis quos vulnere ac dolore corporis cruciari et consumi vides, graviores deorum immortalium iras subire quam illos qui furentes inducuntur putas. non sunt illi eiulatus et gemitus Philoctetae tam miseri, quamquam sunt acerbi, quam illa exsultatio Athamantis et quam senium matricidarum. tu cum furialis in contionibus voces mittis, cum domos civium evertis, cum lapidibus optimos viros foro pellis, cum ardentis faces in vicinorum tecta iactas, cum aedis sacras inflammas, cum servos concitas, cum sacra ludosque conturbas, cum uxorem sororemque non discernis, cum quod ineas cubile non sentis, tum baccharis, tum furis, tum das eas poenas quae solae sunt hominum sceleri a dis immortalibus constitutae. nam corporis quidem nostri infirmitas multos subit casus per se, denique ipsum corpus tenuissima de causa saepe conficitur: deorum tela in impiorum mentibus figuntur. qua re miserior es cum in omnem fraudem raperis oculis quam si omnino oculos non haberes.
But since enough has been said about all the things which the haruspices say have been committed, let us see what those same haruspices say is being warned by the immortal gods. They warn “lest by the discord and dissension of the leading men, slaughter and dangers be created for the senators and the chief men, and they be deserted by the help of the divine power; whereby money and an army may pass to one rule, and a beating-back and diminution may follow.” These are all the haruspices’ words: I add nothing of my own. Who, then, is bringing about discord among the optimates? That same man — not by any force of wit or counsel of his own, but by a kind of error of ours; which indeed he, since it was not obscure, easily perceived. For the commonwealth is shaken the more shamefully on this account: that not even by him is it harassed in such a way that, like a brave man in the battle who has received wounds in front from a brave adversary, it can seem to fall honourably.
sed quoniam de iis omnibus quae haruspices commissa esse dicunt satis est dictum, videamus quid idem haruspices a dis iam immortalibus dicant moneri. monent ne per optimativm discordiam dissensionemqve patribvs principibvsqve caedes pericvlaqve creentvr avxilioqve divini nvminis deficiantvr, †qva re ad vnvm imperivm pecvniae redeant exercitvsqve apvlsvs deminvtioqve accedat. haruspicum verba sunt haec omnia: nihil addo de meo. quis igitur optimatium discordiam molitur? idem iste, nec ulla vi ingeni aut consili sui, sed quodam errore nostro; quem quidem ille, quod obscurus non erat, facile perspexit. hoc enim etiam turpius adflictatur res publica quod ne ab eo quidem vexatur, ut tamquam fortis in pugna vir acceptis a forti adversario vulneribus adversis honeste cadere videatur.
Tiberius Gracchus shook the standing of the state — yet what a man for gravity, what an eloquence, what a dignity! such that, except that he had defected from the Senate, he had in nothing strayed from his father’s and his grandfather Africanus’s outstanding and signal courage. C. Gracchus followed — with what wit, what eloquence, what force, what gravity in speaking! so that good men grieved that ornaments so great were not turned to a better mind and will. Saturninus himself was so unbridled and almost demented that he was an outstanding actor and finished for the rousing and inflaming of the minds of the inexperienced. As for Sulpicius, what shall I say? Whose gravity in speech, whose pleasantness, whose brevity was so great that he could so manage by speaking that the prudent should err, or the good think less rightly. To clash with these and to fight day by day for the safety of one’s country was, indeed, troublesome to those who then were governing the state; but that trouble had a certain dignity.
Ti. Gracchus convellit statum civitatis, qua gravitate vir, qua eloquentia, qua dignitate! nihil ut a patris avique Africani praestabili insignique virtute, praeterquam quod a senatu desciverat, deflexisset. secutus est C. Gracchus, quo ingenio, qua eloquentia, quanta vi, quanta gravitate dicendi! ut dolerent boni non illa tanta ornamenta ad meliorem mentem voluntatemque esse conversa. ipse Saturninus ita fuit effrenatus et paene demens ut actor esset egregius et ad animos imperitorum excitandos inflammandosque perfectus. nam quid ego de Sulpicio loquar? cuius tanta in dicendo gravitas, tanta iucunditas, tanta brevitas fuit, ut posset vel ut prudentes errarent, vel ut boni minus bene sentirent perficere dicendo. Cum his conflictari et pro salute patriae cotidie dimicare erat omnino illis qui tum rem publicam gubernabant molestum; sed habebat ea molestia quandam tamen dignitatem.
But this man of whom I am now saying so much — O immortal gods! what is he, what does he amount to, what does he bring forward, that, if so great a city were to fall (which let the gods avert!) yet she should seem to have been brought down by a man? Who, after his father’s death, gave that very early youth of his to the lusts of rich gallants, by whose intemperance, when it was filled out, he wallowed in the seductions of his own family; then, now grown stronger, gave himself to a province and to soldiering, and there, having endured the insults of pirates, satiated also the lusts of Cilicians and barbarians; afterwards, when L. Lucullus’s army had been incited by his unspeakable wickedness, fled thence, and at Rome, on his fresh arrival, settled with his kinsmen not to bring charges; took money from Catiline so that he might most shamefully play the prevaricator. Then with Murena he betook himself to Gaul, in which province he wrote up the wills of dead men, killed wards, struck up unspeakable bargains and partnerships in crime with many men. Coming back from there, that most fertile and rich Campus-Martius source of profit he so reduced wholly to himself that he, the popular man, most basely defrauded the people, and he, the merciful man, butchered at his own house with the cruellest death the bribery-distributors of all the tribes.
hic vero de quo ego ipse tam multa nunc dico, pro di immortales! quid est, quid valet, quid adfert, ut tanta civitas, si cadet,—quod di omen obruant!—a viro tamen confecta videatur? qui post patris mortem primam illam aetatulam suam ad scurrarum locupletium libidines detulit, quorum intemperantia expleta in domesticis est germanitatis stupris volutatus; deinde iam robustus provinciae se ac rei militari dedit, atque ibi piratarum contumelias perpessus etiam Cilicum libidines barbarorumque satiavit; post exercitu L. Luculli sollicitato per nefandum scelus fugit illim, Romaeque recenti adventu suo cum propinquis suis decidit ne reos faceret, a Catilina pecuniam accepit ut turpissime praevaricaretur. Inde cum Murena se in Galliam contulit, in qua provincia mortuorum testamenta conscripsit, pupillos necavit, nefarias cum multis scelerum pactiones societatesque conflavit; unde ut rediit, quaestum illum maxime fecundum uberemque campestrem totum ad se ita redegit ut homo popularis fraudaret improbissime populum, idemque vir clemens divisores omnium tribuum domi ipse suae crudelissima morte mactaret.
Then arose that fatal quaestorship for the commonwealth, for sacred matters and rites, for your authority, for the public courts: in which this very same man violated gods and men, modesty, chastity, the authority of the Senate, right, divine law, statutes, judgements. And this — O wretched times and our foolish discords! — was for P. Clodius the first step toward the commonwealth, and his approach and ascent to popular agitation. For Tiberius Gracchus, the odium of the Numantine treaty, in the striking of which (when he had been the quaestor of the consul C. Mancinus) he had taken part, and the severity of the Senate in disapproving that treaty, was a pain and a fear; and that thing forced that brave and famous man to defect from the gravity of the senatorial fathers. C. Gracchus, his brother’s death, his loyalty, his pain, the greatness of his soul, stirred to seek vengeance for kindred blood. Saturninus, because in the dearness of grain the Senate moved him as quaestor from his grain-procurement and put M. Scaurus over the matter, we know was made popular by pain. Sulpicius, who had set out from the best cause and was resisting C. Julius’s seeking the consulship contrary to the laws — the popular breeze carried him further than he wished.
exorta est illa rei publicae, sacris, religionibus, auctoritati vestrae, iudiciis publicis funesta quaestura, in qua idem iste deos hominesque, pudorem, pudicitiam, senatus auctoritatem, ius, fas, leges, iudicia violavit. atque hic ei gradus —o misera tempora stultasque nostras discordias!—P. Clodio gradus ad rem publicam hic primus fuit et aditus ad popularem iactationem atque adscensus. nam Ti. Graccho invidia Numantini foederis, cui feriendo, quaestor C. Mancini consulis cum esset, interfuerat, et in eo foedere improbando senatus severitas dolori et timori fuit, eaque res illum fortem et clarum virum a gravitate patrum desciscere coegit; C. autem Gracchum mors fraterna, pietas, dolor, magnitudo animi ad expetendas domestici sanguinis poenas excitavit; Saturninum, quod in annonae caritate quaestorem a sua frumentaria procuratione senatus amovit eique rei M. Scaurum praefecit, scimus dolore factum esse popularem; Sulpicium ab optima causa profectum Gaioque Iulio consulatum contra leges petenti resistentem longius quam voluit popularis aura provexit.
There was in all of these, although not a just cause (for there can be no just cause for any man’s deserving ill of the commonwealth), at least a grave one, joined with some manly pang of mind. P. Clodius from the saffron-coloured robe, from the headband, from the women’s slippers and purple ribbons, from the breast-band, from the lyre, from the abomination, from the seduction was suddenly made a popular man. Had not the women caught him so adorned, had he not from the place which he was forbidden to enter been let out by the kindness of maidservants, the Roman people would lack a popular man, the commonwealth would lack such a citizen. On account of this madness, in our discords — of which we are warned by these very recent prodigies of the immortal gods — one was snatched up out of the patricians, who could not lawfully be made tribune of the plebs.
fuit in his omnibus etsi non iusta,—nulla enim potest cuiquam male de re publica merendi iusta esse causa,—gravis tamen et cum aliquo animi virilis dolore coniuncta: P. Clodius a crocota, a mitra, a muliebribus soleis purpureisque fasceolis, a strophio, a psalterio, a flagitio, a stupro est factus repente popularis. Nisi eum mulieres exornatum ita deprendissent, nisi ex eo loco quo eum adire fas non fuerat ancillarum beneficio emissus esset, populari homine populus Romanus, res publica cive tali careret. hanc ob amentiam in discordiis nostris, de quibus ipsis his prodigiis recentibus a dis immortalibus admonemur, arreptus est unus ex patriciis cui tribuno plebis fieri non liceret.
Which, the year before, his brother Metellus and the Senate, then still at one — with Cn. Pompey, the leader of the Senate, delivering the opinion — had shut out, and had most fiercely with one voice and mind resisted: that, after the splitting of the optimates (of which we are now warned), was so disturbed and so changed that, what his brother as consul had stood against, what his kinsman and most distinguished comrade (who had not even praised him as defendant) had shut out, this the consul, in the discords of the leading men — a consul who alone ought to have been most his enemy — brought about, and said he had done it on the authority of one whose authority no one could regret. A foul and mournful brand was thrown into the commonwealth: your authority was sought, the gravity of the most august orders, the agreement of all good men, the whole standing of the state. For these things were certainly being aimed at, when the flame of those times was hurled at me, the witness of all these things. I caught it, and burned for my country alone — but in such a way that you, fenced about by the same fires, saw me struck first on your behalf and smoking.
quod anno ante frater Metellus et concors etiam tum senatus, senatus principe Cn. Pompeio sententiam dicente, excluserat acerrimeque una voce ac mente restiterat, id post discidium optimatium, de quo ipso nunc monemur, ita perturbatum itaque permutatum est ut, quod frater consul ne fieret obstiterat, quod adfinis et sodalis clarissimus vir, qui illum reum non laudarat, excluserat, id is consul efficeret in discordiis principum qui illi unus inimicissimus esse debuerat, eo fecisse auctore se diceret cuius auctoritatis neminem posset paenitere. iniecta fax est foeda ac luctuosa rei publicae; petita est auctoritas vestra, gravitas amplissimorum ordinum, consensio bonorum omnium, totus denique civitatis status. haec enim certe petebantur, cum in me cognitorem harum omnium rerum illa flamma illorum temporum coniciebatur. excepi et pro patria solus exarsi, sic tamen ut vos isdem ignibus circumsaepti me primum ictum pro vobis et fumantem videretis.
The discords were not laid to rest — nay, even the hatred grew against those by whom we thought ourselves defended. Lo, on the same authors’ counsel, with Pompey at the head, who roused Italy that wished it, you that demanded it, the Roman people that longed for it, not by his authority alone but by his prayers, to my safety, we have been restored. Let there at last be an end of discords; let us rest from long dissensions! That same plague will not allow it: he holds those contiones, mixes and stirs them up, so that now he sells himself to these, now to those; not, however, in such a way that any man, if praised by him, thinks himself the more praised — but rather rejoices that those whom he does not love are being reproached by the same man. And I do not marvel at this man — what else should he do? — I marvel at those most wise and grave men: first, that they should easily allow some distinguished man, often most deserving of the commonwealth, to be insulted by the voice of so unclean a man; next, if they think that any man’s glory and standing can be violated, by the abuse of a ruined and lost man — a thing which is least to their advantage; and last, that they do not feel what they nevertheless now seem to me to suspect: that those frenzied and fluttering attacks of his can be turned against themselves.
non sedabantur discordiae, sed etiam crescebat in eos odium a quibus nos defendi putabamur. ecce isdem auctoribus, Pompeio principe, qui cupientem Italiam, flagitantis vos, populum Romanum desiderantem non auctoritate sua solum, sed etiam precibus ad meam salutem excitavit, restituti sumus. sit discordiarum finis aliquando, a diuturnis dissensionibus conquiescamus. non sinit eadem ista labes; eas habet contiones, ea miscet ac turbat ut modo se his, modo vendat illis, nec tamen ita ut se quisquam, si ab isto laudatus sit, laudatiorem putet, sed ut eos quos non amant ab eodem gaudeant vituperari. atque ego hunc non miror—quid enim faciat aliud?—: illos homines sapientissimos gravissimosque miror, primum quod quemquam clarum hominem atque optime de re publica saepe meritum impurissimi voce hominis violari facile patiuntur, deinde si existimant perditi hominis profligatique maledictis posse, id quod minime conducit ipsis, cuiusquam gloriam dignitatemque violari, postremo quod non sentiunt, id quod tamen mihi iam suspicari videntur, illius furentis ac volaticos impetus in se ipsos posse converti.
And out of this excessive estrangement of certain men from certain others, those weapons stick fast in the commonwealth which, while they stuck only in me, I bore — gravely indeed, but somewhat more lightly. Or could that man, unless he had first given himself to those whose minds he judged to be cut off from your authority, unless he should lift them with his praises to heaven — a glorious eulogist! — unless he were threatening that he would let loose C. Caesar’s army (in which he was lying, but no man refuted him) — unless, I say, he were threatening to let loose that army with hostile standards into the Senate; unless he were shouting that what he was doing he was doing with Cn. Pompey as helper, with M. Crassus as adviser; unless he were declaring that the consuls had joined his cause — in which one thing alone he was not lying — could he have been so cruel a tormentor of me, so wicked a tormentor of the commonwealth?
atque ex hac nimia non nullorum alienatione a quibusdam haerent ea tela in re publica quae, quam diu haerebant in uno me, graviter equidem sed aliquanto levius ferebam. an iste nisi primo se dedisset iis quorum animos a vestra auctoritate seiunctos esse arbitrabatur, nisi eos in caelum suis laudibus praeclarus auctor extolleret, nisi exercitum C. Caesaris —in quo fallebat, sed eum nemo redarguebat—nisi eum, inquam, exercitum signis infestis in curiam se inmissurum minitaretur, nisi se Cn. Pompeio adiutore, M. Crasso auctore, quae faciebat facere clamaret, nisi consules causam coniunxisse secum, in quo uno non mentiebatur, confirmaret, tam crudelis mei, tam sceleratus rei publicae vexator esse potuisset?
The same man, after he saw you breathe again from the fear of slaughter, your authority emerge from those waves of slavery, the memory and longing for me come to life — began on a sudden, in the most lying way, to sell himself to you. He began to say, both here and in the contiones, that the Julian laws had been passed contrary to the auspices — among which laws was that curiate law which contained his whole tribunate, a thing which, blind with madness, he did not see. He used to bring forward that bravest of men, M. Bibulus; he used to ask of him whether, when C. Caesar was passing the laws, he had always observed the heavens; the latter said he had always observed them. He would question the augurs whether laws so passed had been rightly passed; they would say they had been passed irregularly. Some good men, deserving most well of me but ignorant, as I judge, of his frenzy, were carrying him about in their eyes. He went further: he began to inveigh against Cn. Pompey himself, the author, as he was wont to declare, of his counsels; he was getting credit with some.
idem postea quam respirare vos a metu caedis, emergere auctoritatem vestram e fluctibus illis servitutis, reviviscere memoriam ac desiderium mei vidit, vobis se coepit subito fallacissime venditare; tum leges Iulias contra auspicia latas et hic et in contionibus dicere, in quibus legibus inerat curiata illa lex quae totum eius tribunatum continebat, quam caecus amentia non videbat. producebat fortissimum virum, M. Bibulum; quaerebat ex eo, C. Caesare leges ferente de caelo semperne servasset; semper se ille servasse dicebat. augures interrogabat, quae ita lata essent rectene lata essent; illi vitio lata esse dicebant. ferebant in oculis hominem quidam boni viri et de me optime meriti, sed illius, ut ego arbitror, furoris ignari. longius processit; in ipsum Cn. Pompeium, auctorem, ut praedicare est solitus, consiliorum suorum, invehi coepit; inibat gratiam a non nullis.
Then indeed he was carried away by hope that, since he had defiled by an unspeakable crime that civilian-clad extinguisher of the domestic war, he could even bring down that man, the conqueror of foreign wars and enemies. Then was caught that wicked dagger in the temple of Castor, almost the destroyer of this empire; then he, against whom no enemy city was ever closed for long, who had broken through every narrow pass, every height of opposing walls always with force and courage, was himself besieged at home, and by his own counsel and act freed me from the not-small reproach of timidity by some of the inexperienced. For if to Cn. Pompey, that one man bravest of all who have ever been born, it was wretched rather than shameful — so long as that man was tribune of the plebs — not to look upon the daylight, not to come out into public, to bear his threats (when he said in the contiones that he wanted to build another portico on the Carinae to answer to the Palatine) — surely for me to leave my house was, to my private pain, mournful, but to the commonwealth’s account glorious.
tum vero elatus est spe posse se, quoniam togatum domestici belli exstinctorem nefario scelere foedasset, illum etiam, illum externorum bellorum hostiumque victorem adfligere; tum est illa in templo Castoris scelerata et paene deletrix huius imperi sica deprensa; tum ille cui nulla hostium diutius urbs umquam fuit clausa, qui omnis angustias, omnis altitudines moenium obiectas semper vi ac virtute perfregit, obsessus ipse est domi meque non nulla imperitorum vituperatione timiditatis meae consilio et facto suo liberavit. nam si Cn. Pompeio, viro uni omnium fortissimo quicumque nati sunt, miserum magis fuit quam turpe, quam diu ille tribunus plebis fuit, lucem non aspicere, carere publico, minas eius perferre, cum in contionibus diceret velle se in Carinis aedificare alteram porticum, quae Palatio responderet, certe mihi exire domo mea ad privatum dolorem fuit luctuosum, ad rationem rei publicae gloriosum.
You see therefore that this man, by himself long since prostrate and lying, has been roused by the pernicious discords of the optimates — the beginnings of whose frenzy were sustained by the dissensions of those who were then thought to be at odds with you. The remnants of his now headlong tribunate, even after the tribunate, his enemies’ detractors and adversaries defended; they resisted that the plague of the commonwealth be removed from the commonwealth, even that he should plead his cause, even that he should be a private man. Could even certain of the best men hold in their bosom and as their delight that poisonous and pestilent viper? Bought, I ask, by what gift? “I want a man,” they say, “who in the contio will detract from Pompey.” Detract by his abuse? I would that this man, the highest of men and so deserving of my safety, take it as I say it: I will say what I think. To me, by Hercules, that man seemed at the time to detract from Pompey’s most august dignity even when he was lifting him with the highest praises.
videtis igitur hominem per se ipsum iam pridem adflictum ac iacentem perniciosis optimatium discordiis excitari, cuius initia furoris dissensionibus eorum qui tum a vobis seiuncti videbantur sustentata sunt. reliqua iam praecipitantis tribunatus etiam post tribunatum obtrectatores eorum atque adversarii defenderunt; ne a re publica rei publicae pestis removeretur restiterunt, etiam ne causam diceret, etiam ne privatus esset. etiamne in sinu atque in deliciis quidam optimi viri viperam illam venenatam ac pestiferam habere potuerunt? quo tandem decepti munere? volo, inquiunt, esse qui in contione detrahat de Pompeio. detrahat ille vituperando? velim sic hoc vir summus atque optime de mea salute meritus accipiat ut a me dicitur; dicam quidem certe quod sentio. mihi me dius fidius tum de illius amplissima dignitate detrahere cum illum maximis laudibus ecferebat videbatur.
Was C. Marius the more illustrious when C. Glaucia praised him, or when, being angry afterwards, he reproached him? Or was that demented man — now long since headlong toward punishment and ruin — fouler or filthier in accusing Cn. Pompey, or in reproaching the whole Senate? At which I marvel: that the one is grateful to the angry, the other not so bitter to such good citizens. But that those best men may not be too long delighted by it, let them read this contio of his of which I speak; in which he “adorns” Pompey — or rather disfigures? At any rate praises, and says that he alone in this state is worthy of the glory of this empire, and signifies that he is most friendly to him, and a reconciliation of favour has been made.
utrum tandem C. Marius splendidior cum eum C. Glaucia laudabat, an cum eundem iratus postea vituperabat? an ille demens et iam pridem ad poenam exitiumque praeceps foedior aut inquinatior in Cn. Pompeio accusando quam in universo senatu vituperando fuit? quod quidem miror, cum alterum gratum sit iratis, alterum esse tam bonis civibus non acerbum. sed ne id viros optimos diutius delectet, legant hanc eius contionem de qua loquor; in qua Pompeium ornat,—an potius deformat? certe laudat, et unum esse in hac civitate dignum huius imperi gloria dicit, et significat se illi esse amicissimum et reconciliationem esse gratiae factam.
What this is, although I do not know, yet I judge this: that this man, if he were friend to Pompey, would not have praised him. For what, if he were his bitterest enemy, could he do more for the lessening of Pompey’s praise? Let those see who used to rejoice that Clodius was Pompey’s enemy, and who for that reason connived at so many and such great wickednesses, and sometimes followed his unbridled and unbridled frenzies even with their applause — how quickly he has turned. For now indeed he praises that man: he inveighs against those to whom he was previously selling himself. What think you he is going to do, if a return to favour shall lie open to him — a man who so willingly creeps into the suspicion of favour?
quod ego quamquam quid sit nescio, tamen hoc statuo, hunc, si amicus esset Pompeio, laudaturum illum non fuisse. quid enim, si illi inimicissimus esset, amplius ad eius laudem minuendam facere potuisset? videant ii qui illum Pompeio inimicum esse gaudebant, ob eamque causam in tot tantisque sceleribus conivebant, et non numquam eius indomitos atque ecfrenatos furores plausu etiam suo prosequebantur, quam se cito inverterit. nunc enim iam laudat illum: in eos invehitur quibus se antea venditabat. quid existimatis eum, si reditus ei gratiae patuerit, esse facturum, qui tam libenter in opinionem gratiae inrepat?
What other discords of the optimates can I think the immortal gods are defining? For not by this word are P. Clodius nor any of his herd or his counsellors designated. The Etruscan books have certain names which can fall upon that kind of citizens: “inferior,” “rejected,” as you will hear shortly — so they call those whose minds and fortunes are lost and far separated from the common safety. Wherefore, when the immortal gods warn of the discord of the optimates, they foretell of the dissension of the most distinguished and best-deserving citizens; when they portend slaughter and danger to the chief men, they place Clodius in safety, who is as far from being a chief man as he is from being clean, as he is from being religious.
quas ego alias optimatium discordias a dis immortalibus definiri putem? nam hoc quidem verbo neque P. Clodius neque quisquam de gregalibus eius aut de consiliariis designatur. habent Etrusci libri certa nomina quae in id genus civium cadere possint: deteriores, repvlsos, quod iam audietis, hos appellant quorum et mentes et res sunt perditae longeque a communi salute diiunctae. qua re cum di immortales monent de optimatium discordia, de clarissimorum et optime meritorum civium dissensione praedicunt; cum principibus periculum caedemque portendunt, in tuto conlocant Clodium, qui tantum abest a principibus quantum a puris, quantum ab religiosis.
They see, O most beloved and best citizens, that you and your safety must be cared for and looked to. Slaughter of the chief men is shown; that which must follow the destruction of the optimates is added; we are warned that affairs not fall back into the rule of one. To which fear, even if we were not led by the gods’ admonitions, we should yet by our own sense and conjecture be borne; for there is no other end of discords between distinguished and powerful men but either universal destruction or the dominion and kingship of the victor. The most noble and bravest consul L. Sulla differed with Marius, the most distinguished citizen; both of these so fell, conquered, that the same was conqueror and reigned. Cinna differed from his colleague Octavius; on each of these prosperous fortune bestowed kingship, adverse death. Sulla again afterwards prevailed; then without doubt he had royal power, although he had recovered the commonwealth.
vobis, o carissimi atque optimi cives, et vestrae saluti consulendum et prospiciendum vident. caedes principum ostenditur; id quod interitum optimatium sequi necesse est adiungitur; ne in unius imperium res recidat admonemur. ad quem metum si deorum monitis non duceremur, tamen ipsi nostro sensu coniecturaque raperemur; neque enim ullus alius discordiarum solet esse exitus inter claros et potentis viros nisi aut universus interitus aut victoris dominatus ac regnum. dissensit cum Mario, clarissimo civi, consul nobilissimus et fortissimus, L. Sulla; horum uterque ita cecidit victus ut victor idem regnaverit. Cum Octavio conlega Cinna dissedit; utrique horum secunda fortuna regnum est largita, adversa mortem. idem iterum Sulla superavit; tum sine dubio habuit regalem potestatem, quamquam rem publicam reciperarat.
There is at this time hatred not obscure, deeply rooted and burnt into the minds of the most august men; the chief men differ; opportunity is being watched. Those who are not so strong in resources are yet awaiting some fortune and time; those who can do more without dispute, perhaps sometimes fear the counsels and opinions of their enemies. Let this discord be removed from the state: at once all those threatened terrors will be quenched, at once that serpent which now hides here, now emerges and is borne yonder, pressed and dashed will die. For the same gods warn “lest the commonwealth be harmed by hidden counsels.” What is more hidden than what was uttered by the man who in the contio dared to say that a iustitium ought to be edicted, jurisdiction broken off, the treasury closed, courts removed? Unless perhaps you think that this great confusion and overturning of the state could come into his mind suddenly while he was thinking on the rostra. He is indeed full of wine, lust, sleep, and most reckless and demented rashness; yet by night-watches, even by combination of men, that iustitium was concocted and meditated. Remember, senators, that our ears were tested by that wicked word, and that a pernicious way has been fortified by the habit of listening.
inest hoc tempore haud obscurum odium, atque id insitum penitus et inustum animis hominum amplissimorum; dissident principes; captatur occasio. qui non tantum opibus valent nescio quam fortunam tamen ac tempus exspectant: qui sine controversia plus possunt, ii fortasse non numquam consilia ac sententias inimicorum suorum extimescunt. tollatur haec e civitate discordia: iam omnes isti qui portenduntur metus exstinguentur, iam ista serpens, quae tum hic delitiscit, tum se emergit et fertur illuc, compressa atque inlisa morietur. monent enim eidem ne occvltis consiliis res pvblica laedatvr. quae sunt occultiora quam eius qui in contione ausus est dicere iustitium edici oportere, iuris dictionem intermitti, claudi aerarium, iudicia tolli? nisi forte existimatis hanc tantam conluvionem illi tantamque eversionem civitatis in mentem subito in rostris cogitanti venire potuisse. est quidem ille plenus vini stupri somni, plenusque inconsideratissimae ac dementissimae temeritatis; verum tamen nocturnis vigiliis, etiam coitione hominum, iustitium illud concoctum atque meditatum est. Mementote, patres conscripti, verbo illo nefario temptatas auris nostras et perniciosam viam audiendi consuetudine esse munitam.
There follows that “lest honour be increased to the inferior and the rejected.” Let us see the rejected, for the inferior — who they are, I will show afterwards. Yet that this word should fall most upon him who is, of all mortals without doubt, the worst, must be granted. Who, then, are the rejected? Not, I think, those who at some time, by the fault of the state, not their own, did not attain office — for that has often befallen many of the best citizens and of the most honourable men. Rejected are those whom, as they were advancing to all things, putting on gladiatorial games against the laws, distributing most openly not only of others’ but even of their own — their neighbours, their tribesmen, the city-folk and country-folk drove away. The gods warn that no honour be increased to these. We ought to be grateful for what they foretell; yet to this evil the Roman people of itself, without any haruspical admonition, foresaw.
sequitur illud, ne deterioribvs repvlsisqve honos avgeatvr. repulsos videamus, nam deteriores qui sint, post docebo. sed tamen in eum cadere hoc verbum maxime qui sit unus omnium mortalium sine ulla dubitatione deterrimus, concedendum est. qui sunt igitur repulsi? non, ut opinor, ii qui aliquando honorem vitio civitatis, non suo, non sunt adsecuti; nam id quidem multis saepe optimis civibus atque honestissimis viris accidit. repulsi sunt ii quos ad omnia progredientis, quos munera contra leges gladiatoria parantis, quos apertissime largientis non solum alieni sed etiam sui, vicini, tribules, urbani, rustici reppulerunt: hi ne honore augeantur monent. debet esse gratum quod praedicunt, sed tamen huic malo populus Romanus ipse nullo haruspicum admonitu sua sponte prospexit.
Beware of the inferior — of whom there is a great tribe, but yet of all of them this man is leader and chief. For if some poet of outstanding wit wished to introduce one most evil man, deformed by feigned and contrived vices, he could find no shame which would not be in this man, and he would pass over many things deeply fixed and clinging in him. To parents and to the immortal gods and to country, nature first joins us; for at the same time we are received into the light, and increased by this heavenly breath, and inscribed in a fixed seat of citizenship and freedom. He has buried the name, the rites, the memory, the family of his parents under the Fonteian name; the gods’ fires, thrones, tables, hidden and inmost hearths, secret rites unseen by men — nay, even unheard of — he has overturned with inexpiable wickedness; and that same man set on fire the temple of those goddesses by whose help help is brought even to other fires.
deteriores cavete; quorum quidem est magna natio, sed tamen eorum omnium hic dux est atque princeps; etenim si unum hominem deterrimum poeta praestanti aliquis ingenio fictis conquisitisque vitiis deformatum vellet inducere, nullum profecto dedecus reperire posset quod in hoc non inesset, multaque in eo penitus defixa atque haerentia praeteriret. parentibus et dis immortalibus et patriae nos primum natura conciliat; eodem enim tempore et suscipimur in lucem et hoc caelesti spiritu augemur et certam in sedem civitatis ac libertatis adscribimur. iste parentum nomen, sacra, memoriam, gentem Fonteiano nomine obruit; deorum ignis, solia, mensas, abditos ac penetralis focos, occulta et maribus non invisa solum, sed etiam inaudita sacra inexpiabili scelere pervertit, idemque earum templum inflammavit dearum quarum ope etiam aliis incendiis subvenitur.
What shall I say of his country? — Who first drove out, by violence, by iron, by perils, from the city, from all the safeguards of the country, that citizen whom you have so often judged the preserver of his country; then, after he had overthrown the companion of the Senate (as I have always said), or its leader (as he used to say), he overturned the Senate itself, the chief of public salvation and counsel, by violence, by slaughter, by burnings; abolished the two laws, the Aelian and the Fufian, most salutary to the commonwealth; extinguished the censorship; removed the right of interposition; abolished the auspices; armed the consuls, the partners of his wickedness, with the treasury, with provinces, with an army; sold those who were kings; named those who were not; drove Cn. Pompey home with iron; overturned the monuments of commanders; ravaged the houses of his enemies; inscribed his own name on your monuments. Endless are the wickednesses he has loosed against his country. What of those against single citizens whom he killed, allies whom he plundered, commanders whom he betrayed, armies which he tampered with?
quid de patria loquar? qui primum eum civem vi, ferro, periculis urbe, omnibus patriae praesidiis depulit quem vos patriae conservatorem esse saepissime iudicaritis, deinde everso senatus, ut ego semper dixi, comite, duce, ut ille dicebat, senatum ipsum, principem salutis mentisque publicae, vi, caede incendiisque pervertit; sustulit duas leges, Aeliam et Fufiam, maxime rei publicae salutaris, censuram exstinxit, intercessionem removit, auspicia delevit, consules sceleris sui socios aerario, provinciis, exercitu armavit, reges qui erant vendidit, qui non erant appellavit, Cn. Pompeium ferro domum compulit, imperatorum monumenta evertit, inimicorum domus disturbavit, vestris monumentis suum nomen inscripsit. infinita sunt scelera quae ab illo in patriam sunt edita. quid? quae in singulos civis quos necavit, socios quos diripuit, imperatores quos prodidit, exercitus quos temptavit?
What of those great wickednesses he has loosed against himself, against his own? Who ever spared the camps of an enemy less than he has spared every part of his own body? What ship was ever in a public river so common to all as this man’s youth? Who ever profligate was so freely engaged with whores as this man with his sisters? What Charybdis so vast can the poets express by feigning, who could swallow such whirlpools as this man has drained off the booty of the Byzantines and the Brogitarids? Or with such jutting dogs as Scylla, and such hungry, as those Gellii, Clodii, Titii whom you see chewing the very rostra?
quid vero? ea quanta sunt quae in ipsum se scelera, quae in suos edidit! quis minus umquam pepercit hostium castris quam ille omnibus corporis sui partibus? quae navis umquam in flumine publico tam vulgata omnibus quam istius aetas fuit? quis umquam nepos tam libere est cum scortis quam hic cum sororibus volutatus? quam denique tam immanem Charybdim poetae fingendo exprimere potuerunt, quae tantos exhauriret gurgites quantas iste Byzantiorum Brogitarorumque praedas exsorbuit? aut tam eminentibus canibus Scyllam tamque ieiunis quam quibus istum videtis, Gelliis, Clodiis, Titiis, rostra ipsa mandentem?
Therefore — which is the last thing in the haruspices’ response — “see to it that the standing of the commonwealth not be changed.” For scarcely will these things, if we prop them up everywhere now nodding — scarcely, I say, leaning on the shoulders of all of us, will hold together. Once this state was so firm and strong that it could bear the negligence of the Senate or even the wrongs of citizens. Now it cannot. The treasury is empty; the customs are not enjoyed by those who farmed them; the authority of the chief men has fallen; the consensus of the orders is broken up; the courts have perished; the votes are inscribed and held by a few; the goodwill of good men, ready at the nod of our order, will be no more; the citizen who shall set himself against unpopularity for the safety of his country — you shall hereafter look for him in vain.
qua re, id quod extremum est in haruspicum responso, providete ne rei pvblicae statvs commvtetvr; etenim vix haec, si undique fulciamus iam labefacta, vix, inquam, nixa in omnium nostrum umeris cohaerebunt. fuit quondam ita firma haec civitas et valens ut neglegentiam senatus vel etiam iniurias civium ferre posset. iam non potest. aerarium nullum est, vectigalibus non fruuntur qui redemerunt, auctoritas principum cecidit, consensus ordinum est divulsus, iudicia perierunt, suffragia descripta tenentur a paucis, bonorum animus ad nutum nostri ordinis expeditus iam non erit, civem qui se pro patriae salute opponat invidiae frustra posthac requiretis.
Therefore this present standing, of whatever sort, by no other means than concord can we keep; for that we may be in a better case is not even to be hoped for, that man unpunished; that we may be in a worse, only one step lower remains — destruction or slavery. Lest we be thrust into that, the immortal gods warn us, since long since human counsels have failed. And I, senators, would not have undertaken so sad and grave a speech, not because I do not owe and could not sustain this part and these duties, given the offices of the Roman people and the many ornaments you have bestowed on me; but yet I should easily, while the rest were silent, have kept silent. But this whole speech has been not of my authority but of public religion. The words have perhaps been more mine; the substance is wholly the haruspices’, to whom either the reported portents are not to be referred, or by whose responses, when reported, we must be moved.
qua re hunc statum qui nunc est, qualiscumque est, nulla alia re nisi concordia retinere possumus; nam ut meliore simus loco ne optandum quidem est illo impunito; deteriore autem statu ut simus, unus est inferior gradus aut interitus aut servitutis; quo ne trudamur di immortales nos admonent, quoniam iam pridem humana consilia ceciderunt. atque ego hanc orationem, patres conscripti, tam tristem, tam gravem non suscepissem, non quin hanc personam et has partis, honoribus populi Romani, vestris plurimis ornamentis mihi tributis, deberem et possem sustinere, sed tamen facile tacentibus ceteris reticuissem; sed haec oratio omnis fuit non auctoritatis meae, sed publicae religionis. mea fuerunt verba fortasse plura, sententiae quidem omnes haruspicum, ad quos aut referri nuntiata ostenta non convenit aut eorum responsis commoveri necesse est.
If other things, more common and lighter, have often moved us, will the very voice of the immortal gods not move the minds of all? Do not think that what you often see done in fables can come to pass, that some god, falling down from heaven, comes to the gatherings of men, walks on the earth, talks with men. Think on the kind of sound which the Latinians reported; recall also that which has not yet been reported: that at almost the same time in the field of Picenum at Potentia a horrible earthquake occurred, with certain other many and frightening things. These same things which we see hanging over us you will surely fear.
quod si cetera magis pervulgata nos saepe et leviora moverunt, vox ipsa deorum immortalium non mentis omnium permovebit? nolite enim id putare accidere posse quod in fabulis saepe videtis fieri, ut deus aliqui delapsus de caelo coetus hominum adeat, versetur in terris, cum hominibus conloquatur. cogitate genus sonitus eius quem Latinienses nuntiarunt, recordamini illud etiam quod nondum est relatum, quod eodem fere tempore factus in agro Piceno Potentiae nuntiatur terrae motus horribilis cum quibusdam † multis metuendisque rebus: haec eadem profecto quae prospicimus impendentia pertimescetis.
Indeed this is to be judged the voice, this almost the speech, of the immortal gods, when the very world, when the seas and lands tremble with a kind of new motion, and prophesy something incredible with an unaccustomed sound. In which we must indeed appoint expiations and supplications as we are warned. But prayers are easy to those who of their own accord show us the way of safety: it is for us, among ourselves, to placate our angers and discords.
etenim haec deorum immortalium vox, haec paene oratio iudicanda est, cum ipse mundus, cum maria atque terrae motu quodam novo contremiscunt et inusitato aliquid sono incredibilique praedicunt. in quo constituendae nobis quidem sunt procurationes et obsecratio, quem ad modum monemur. sed faciles sunt preces apud eos qui ultro nobis viam salutis ostendunt: nostrae nobis sunt inter nos irae discordiaeque placandae.