On the Agrarian Law, First Speech
De Lege Agraria I
Headnote
Cicero’s first speech as consul, delivered in the Senate on the Kalends of January 63 BC — the very first day of his year of office — against the agrarian bill of the tribune Publius Servilius Rullus. The bill proposed the establishment of a board of ten commissioners (decemviri agris dandis adsignandis iudicandis) with extraordinary imperium for five years: power to sell off vast tracts of public land in Italy and the provinces (including the lands of Mithridates in the territory still being conquered by Pompey, and the remains of the Carthaginian and Corinthian lands consecrated by Scipio Africanus and Mummius), to use the proceeds to buy private land in Italy — compulsorily, since the holders could not refuse to sell at the decemvirs’ price — and to plant colonies of Roman citizens upon it, particularly at Capua and on the rich Campanian lands long held in trust by the state. The decemvirs would have power to declare any tract public, to assess the rest, and to spend the receipts; their nominee was understood to be Crassus, with Caesar standing behind the legislation. The opening of the speech is lost; what survives are four short fragments preserved by other authors and the substantial closing portion (here §1 through §27).
Cicero’s argument is the consul’s argument. The bill puts up the entire patrimony of the Roman people for sale, sub praecone, under the auctioneer’s voice; it delivers to ten men the imperium of magistrates without their accountability; it threatens Pompey’s command and his army’s ground in the East; it proposes to colonise Capua again as a second Rome, with all the cities round it garrisoned by decemviral planters. The closing pivot — which sets the key for the consulship as a whole — is the consul’s announcement that he will not, when his year ends, take a province; that the magistracy will be conducted free of the appetites that make a magistrate vulnerable to a tribune; that the danger to Rome is no longer from any king or nation outside, but inclusum malum, intestinum ac domesticum — “the evil is enclosed, internal, domestic.” The line will turn out, by November, to have been more nearly literal than metaphorical.
The bill failed, after Cicero followed this senatorial speech with a far more sustained address to the people in the Forum (De Lege Agraria II) and a third speech, also to the people, on a particular provision (De Lege Agraria III). Rullus dropped the proposal.
... a beardless youth...
imberba iuventute
... they will seize Capua by planting colonists, fortify Atella with a garrison, hold Nuceria and Cumae with a multitude of their own, bind down all the other towns with garrisons.
Capuam colonis deductis occupabunt, Atellam praesidio communient, Nuceriam, Cumas multitudine suorum obtinebunt, cetera oppida praesidiis devincient.
... The whole Propontis and Hellespont will therefore go up under the auctioneer’s voice; the entire coast of the Lycians and the Cilicians will be assigned; Mysia and Phrygia will obey the same terms and the same statute.
Venibit igitur sub praecone tota Propontis atque Hellespontus, addicetur omnis ora Lyciorum atque Cilicum, Mysia et Phrygia eidem condicioni legique parebunt.
... The booty, the spoils, the lots of plunder, even the camp of Gnaeus Pompey while he sits there as commander, the ten commissioners (decemviri) will sell.
praedam, manubias, sectionem, castra denique Cn. Pompei sedente imperatore x viri vendent.
... [text breaks off]. What was sought openly, that is now attacked from below by mining tunnels. For the decemvirs will say — as is being said by many and has often been said — that after that same consulship, by the will of King Alexander, his kingdom became the property of the Roman people. Will you, then, give Alexandria, by these men’s covert solicitation, to the very men whose open onslaught you resisted? Are these, by the immortal gods, the counsels of sober men, in your judgment, or the dreams of drunkards? — the deliberations of the wise, or the wishes of the deranged?
* * * quae res aperte petebatur, ea nunc occulte cuniculis oppugnatur. dicent enim x viri, id quod et dicitur a multis et saepe dictum est, post eosdem consules regis Alexandri testamento regnum illud populi Romani esse factum. dabitis igitur Alexandream clam petentibus eis quibus apertissime pugnantibus restitistis? haec, per deos immortalis! utrum esse vobis consilia siccorum an vinolentorum somnia, et utrum cogitata sapientium an optata furiosorum videntur?
See now in the next clause how this filthy gourmand throws the commonwealth into chaos, scatters and dissipates the possessions left to us by our ancestors, plays the spendthrift heir on the patrimony of the Roman people no less than on his own. He sets out in his law revenues that the decemvirs are to put up for sale — that is, he posts an auction notice for public goods. He wants land bought up to be distributed; he is hunting for money. No doubt he will think up something and bring it forward. For in the previous clauses the dignity of the Roman people was being violated, the very name of our empire summoned to the common hatred of the world, peaceful cities, the lands of allies, the standings of kings handed over to the decemvirs as a gift; now ready cash, sure, counted out, is what is being hunted.
videte nunc proximo capite ut impurus helluo turbet rem publicam, ut a maioribus nostris possessiones relictas disperdat ac dissipet, ut sit non minus in populi Romani patrimonio nepos quam in suo. perscribit in sua lege vectigalia quae x viri vendant, hoc est, proscribit auctionem publicorum bonorum. agros emi volt qui dividantur; quaerit pecuniam. videlicet excogitabit aliquid atque adferet. nam superioribus capitibus dignitas populi Romani violabatur, nomen imperi in commune odium orbis terrae vocabatur, urbes pacatae, agri sociorum, regum status x viris donabantur; nunc praesens pecunia, certa, numerata quaeritur.
I wait to see what the watchful and acute tribune of the plebs will think up. “Let it go for sale,” he says, “the Scantian Forest.” Did you find this forest, then, among possessions left to the people, or among the censors’ pasturelands? If you have rooted out something, found it, dug it from darkness — though it is unfair, still by all means consume what is convenient, since you have brought it in. But are you to sell off the Scantian Forest while we are consuls and this Senate sits? Are you to lay a hand on any revenue at all, are you to wrench from the Roman people its provisions for war and its ornaments of peace? Then I shall judge myself a more useless consul than those bravest men who flourished among our ancestors, if the revenues that were procured for the Roman people in their consulships are judged not even capable of being kept in mine.
exspecto quid tribunus plebis vigilans et acutus excogitet. ’Veneat,’ inquit, ’silva Scantia.’ Vtrum tandem hanc silvam in relictis possessionibus, an in censorum pascuis invenisti? si quid est quod indagaris, inveneris, ex tenebris erueris, quamquam iniquum est, tamen consume sane, quod commodum est, quoniam quidem tu attulisti; silvam vero tu Scantiam vendas nobis consulibus atque hoc senatu? tu ullum vectigal attingas, tu populo Romano subsidia belli, tu ornamenta pacis eripias? tum vero hoc me inertiorem consulem iudicabo quam illos fortissimos viros qui apud maiores nostros fuerunt, quod, quae vectigalia illis consulibus populo Romano parta sunt, ea me consule ne retineri quidem potuisse iudicabuntur.
He puts up for sale the possessions of Italy in good order, every one. He is, to be sure, careful in this — he leaves nothing out. He goes through all Sicily in the censors’ tablets; he leaves no building, no fields. You have heard the auction of the Roman people advertised by a tribune of the plebs, fixed for January; and, I suppose, you have no doubt that the men who acquired these things by arms and courage refrained from selling them off for the treasury’s sake precisely so that there would be something left for us to sell off as a bounty.
vendit Italiae possessiones ex ordine omnis. sane est in eo diligens; nullam enim praetermittit. persequitur in tabulis censoriis totam Siciliam; nullum aedificium, nullos agros relinquit. Audistis auctionem populi Romani proscriptam a tribuno plebis, constitutam in mensem Ianuarium, et, credo, non dubitatis quin idcirco haec aerari causa non vendiderint ei qui armis et virtute pepererunt, ut esset quod nos largitionis causa venderemus.
Look now at where they are aiming, more openly than before. For in the earlier part of the law it was made clear by me how they were attacking Pompey; now they will give themselves away. They order the lands of the Attalenses and the Olympeni to be sold, lands which the victory of Publius Servilius, that bravest of men, joined to the Roman people; then the royal lands in Macedonia, which were partly won by the courage of Titus Flamininus, partly by Lucius Paullus, who conquered Perseus; then the most excellent and fruitful Corinthian land, which by the command and good fortune of Lucius Mummius was annexed to the revenues of the Roman people; afterwards lands in Spain near New Carthage, possessed by the surpassing courage of the two Scipios; then they sell off old Carthage itself — which Publius Africanus stripped of roof and walls and consecrated to the eternal memory of mankind, whether to mark the calamity of the Carthaginians, or to bear witness to our victory, or under some religious binding put upon him.
videte nunc quo adfectent iter apertius quam antea. nam superiore parte legis quem ad modum Pompeium oppugnarent, a me indicati sunt; nunc iam se ipsi indicabunt. iubent venire agros Attalensium atque Olympenorum quos populo Romano P. Servili, fortissimi viri, victoria adiunxit, deinde agros in Macedonia regios qui partim T. Flaminini, partim L. Pauli qui Persen vicit virtute parti sunt, deinde agrum optimum et fructuosissimum Corinthium qui L. Mummi imperio ac felicitate ad vectigalia populi Romani adiunctus est, post autem agros in Hispania apud Carthaginem novam duorum Scipionum eximia virtute possessos; tum vero ipsam veterem Carthaginem vendunt quam P. Africanus nudatam tectis ac moenibus sive ad notandam Carthaginiensium calamitatem, sive ad testificandam nostram victoriam, sive oblata aliqua religione ad aeternam hominum memoriam consecravit.
With these badges and fillets of empire put up for sale, with which our ancestors handed down to us the commonwealth adorned, they order the lands to be sold which King Mithridates possessed in Paphlagonia, in Pontus and Cappadocia. Are they not openly seen to be hunting Pompey’s army with the auctioneer’s spear close at hand, when they order the very lands to be sold in which he is even now waging war and operating?
his insignibus atque infulis imperi venditis quibus ornatam nobis maiores nostri rem publicam tradiderunt, iubent eos agros venire quos rex Mithridates in Paphlagonia, Ponto Cappadociaque possederit. num obscure videntur prope hasta praeconis insectari Cn. Pompei exercitum qui venire iubeant eos ipsos agros in quibus ille etiam nunc bellum gerat atque versetur?
And what about this — that they fix no place for themselves for the auction they propose? For the decemvirs are permitted by the law to sell in whatever places seem good to them. Censors are not allowed to let out the revenues anywhere except in the sight of the Roman people; will these men be allowed to sell even in the farthest lands? Yet even the most worthless of men, when they have squandered their patrimonies, do this much: they hold their auctions in the auction halls rather than in cross-streets and back-lanes. This man by his law permits the decemvirs to sell the goods of the Roman people in whatever darkness suits them, in whatever solitude they wish.
hoc vero cuius modi est, quod eius auctionis quam constituunt locum sibi nullum definiunt? nam x viris quibus in locis ipsis videatur vendendi potestas lege permittitur. censoribus vectigalia locare nisi in conspectu populi Romani non licet; his vendere vel in ultimis terris licebit? at hoc etiam nequissimi homines consumptis patrimoniis faciunt ut in atriis auctionariis potius quam in triviis aut in compitis auctionentur; hic permittit sua lege x viris ut in quibus commodum sit tenebris, ut in qua velint solitudine, bona populi Romani possint divendere.
Now, in all the provinces, kingdoms, and free peoples, how bitter, how terrifying, how profitable the criss-crossing of the decemvirs is going to be — do you not see it? Even those to whom you have given commissions for the recovery of inheritances, who as private men, on private business, have gone abroad equipped with no great wealth and no supreme authority — you hear well enough, I think, how heavy their arrivals tend to be on our allies.
iam illa omnibus in provinciis, regnis, liberis populis quam acerba, quam formidolosa, quam quaestuosa concursatio x viralis futura sit, non videtis? hereditatum obeundarum causa quibus vos legationes dedistis, qui et privati et privatum ad negotium exierunt non maximis opibus neque summa auctoritate praediti, tamen auditis profecto quam graves eorum adventus sociis nostris esse soleant.
For which reason, what amount of terror and evil do you suppose hangs by this law over all the nations, when ten commissioners are to be let loose upon the world with supreme imperium, supreme greed, and an infinite lust for everything? Heavy as their arrivals will be, terrifying as their fasces, their power of judgment is what will be unbearable: for it will be allowed to them to declare public whatever seems so to them, and to sell whatever they have so declared. Even what scrupulous men will not do — to receive money for not selling — even this very thing will be allowed them by law. From this, what plunderings, what compacts, what, in short, traffic in justice and in fortunes do you think there will be in every place?
quam ob rem quid putatis impendere hac lege omnibus gentibus terroris et mali, cum immittantur in orbem terrarum x viri summo cum imperio, summa cum avaritia infinitaque omnium rerum cupiditate? quorum cum adventus graves, cum fasces formidolosi, tum vero iudicium ac potestas erit non ferenda; licebit enim quod videbitur publicum iudicare, quod iudicarint vendere. etiam illud quod homines sancti non facient, ut pecuniam accipiant ne vendant, tamen id eis ipsum per legem licebit. hinc vos quas spoliationes, quas pactiones, quam denique in omnibus locis nundinationem iuris ac fortunarum fore putatis?
For what was bounded in the earlier part of the law by the formula “in the consulship of Sulla and Pompey” they have now made open and unbounded again. For he orders the same decemvirs to lay a heavy assessment on every public tract, so that they may both free those tracts which it suits them to free, and declare public those which they please. In which trial it cannot be made out whether their severity is going to be the bitterer thing, or their generosity the more profitable. There are, however, two exceptions in the whole law, not so much unjust as suspicious. He excepts in the assessment the Recentoric land in Sicily, and in the lands to be sold those tracts about which protection is given by treaty. These last are in Africa, and are held by Hiempsal.
etenim, quod superiore parte legis praefinitum fuit, ’ Svlla et Pompeio consvlibvs,’ id rursus liberum infinitumque fecerunt. iubet enim eosdem x viros omnibus agris publicis pergrande vectigal imponere, ut idem possint et liberare agros quos commodum sit et quos ipsis libeat publicare. quo in iudicio perspici non potest utrum severitas acerbior an benignitas quaestuosior sit futura. sunt tamen in tota lege exceptiones duae non tam iniquae quam suspiciosae. excipit enim in vectigali imponendo agrum Recentoricum Siciliensem, in vendendis agris eos agros de quibus cautum sit foedere. hi sunt in Africa, qui ab Hiempsale possidentur.
Here I ask: if Hiempsal is sufficiently protected by treaty, and the Recentoric land is private property, what need was there to except them? but if both that treaty has some doubt about it, and the Recentoric land is sometimes said to be public, who is likely to suppose that just two cases were found in the world that they would spare gratis? Is there indeed any coin so well hidden anywhere that the architects of this law have not sniffed it out? Provinces, free cities, allies, friends, and finally kings they drain dry; they lay their hands on the revenues of the Roman people.
hic quaero, si Hiempsali satis est cautum foedere et Recentoricus ager privatus est, quid attinuerit excipi; sin et foedus illud habet aliquam dubitationem et ager Recentoricus dicitur non numquam esse publicus, quem putet existimaturum duas causas in orbe terrarum repertas quibus gratis parceret. num quisnam tam abstrusus usquam nummus videtur quem non architecti huiusce legis olfecerint? provincias, civitates liberas, socios, amicos, reges denique exhauriunt, admovent manus vectigalibus populi Romani.
It is not enough. Listen, listen, you who have held armies and waged wars by the most ample judgment of the people and the Senate: whatever has come to anyone from booty, from spoils, from gold for the victor’s crown, which has not been spent on a monument or paid into the treasury — this he orders to be reported to the decemvirs! By this clause they have many hopes; they set up an inquiry, by their own decision, against all generals and their heirs; but they reckon to take the largest sum of money from Faustus. The case sworn jurors refused to take up, these decemvirs of yours have taken up: perhaps they think it was passed over by the jurors precisely because it was being kept for them.
non est satis. audite, audite vos qui amplissimo populi senatusque iudicio exercitus habuistis et bella gessistis: quod ad quemque pervenerit ex praeda, ex manubiis, ex auro coronario, quod neque consumptum in monumento neque in aerarium relatum sit, id ad x viros referri iubet! hoc capite multa sperant; in omnis imperatores heredesque eorum quaestionem suo iudicio comparant, sed maximam pecuniam se a Fausto ablaturos arbitrantur. quam causam suscipere iurati iudices noluerunt, hanc isti x viri susceperunt: idcirco a iudicibus fortasse praetermissam esse arbitrantur quod sit ipsis reservata.
Then for the future also he provides most carefully that whatever money any general has, he must hand over directly to the decemvirs. Here, however, he excepts Pompey, in just the same fashion, it seems to me, as in that law by which foreigners are expelled from Rome Glaucippus is excepted: for by such an exception one man is not given a benefit, but one man is spared an injury. Yet the man whose share of the spoils he releases, on his revenues he encroaches. For he orders any money received after our consulship from new revenues to be at the decemvirs’ disposal — as though we did not understand that they are planning to sell off the very revenues which Gnaeus Pompey has annexed.
deinde etiam in reliquum tempus diligentissime sancit ut, quod quisque imperator habeat pecuniae, protinus ad x viros deferat. hic tamen excipit Pompeium simillime, ut mihi videtur, atque ut illa lege qua peregrini Roma eiciuntur Glaucippus excipitur. non enim hac exceptione unus adficitur beneficio, sed unus privatur iniuria. sed cui manubias remittit, in huius vectigalia invadit. iubet enim pecunia, si qua post nos consules ex novis vectigalibus recipiatur, hac uti x viros. quasi vero non intellegamus haec eos vectigalia quae Cn. Pompeius adiunxerit vendere cogitare.
You see now, senators, how by every means and method the decemviral money has been built up and heaped together. The odium of this fund will be diminished: for it will be spent on land purchases. Excellent. Who, then, will buy this land? The same decemvirs. You, Rullus — I leave the rest aside — will buy what you want, sell what you want, do both at the price you want. For the worthy gentleman provides that he shall not buy from an unwilling seller. As though we did not see that to buy from an unwilling seller is a crime, and from a willing one a profit. How much land, to leave others aside, will your father-in-law sell you, and — if I rightly know his fairness of mind — sell you not unwillingly? Others will gladly do the same: to exchange the odium of holding for the cash, to take what they want, to give up what they can scarcely keep.
videtis iam, patres conscripti, omnibus rebus et modis constructam et coacervatam pecuniam x viralem. minuetur huius pecuniae invidia; consumetur enim in agrorum emptionibus. optime. quis ergo emet agros istos? idem x viri; tu, Rulle,—missos enim facio ceteros—emes quod voles, vendes quod voles; utrumque horum facies quanti voles. cavet enim vir optimus ne emat ab invito. quasi vero non intellegamus ab invito emere iniuriosum esse, ab non invito quaestuosum. quantum tibi agri vendet, ut alios omittam, socer tuus, et, si ego eius aequitatem animi probe novi, vendet non invitus? facient idem ceteri libenter, ut possessionis invidiam pecunia commutent, accipiant quod cupiunt, dent quod retinere vix possunt.
Now consider the boundless and intolerable licence of every kind of operation. Money has been gathered to buy lands; further, lands will not be bought from the unwilling. Suppose the holders agree among themselves not to sell — what will happen? Will the money be paid back? It is not allowed. Will it be exacted? He forbids it. Yet very well: there is nothing that cannot be bought, if you give as much as the seller wishes. Let us strip the world bare, sell off the revenues, empty out the treasury — so that, with the holders enriched whether to envy or to plague, the lands may yet be bought.
nunc perspicite omnium rerum infinitam atque intolerandam licentiam. pecunia coacta est ad agros emendos; ei porro ab invitis non ementur. si consenserint possessores non vendere, quid futurum est? referetur pecunia? non licet. exigetur? vetat. verum esto; nihil est quod non emi possit, si tantum des quantum velit venditor. spoliemus orbem terrarum, vendamus vectigalia, effundamus aerarium, ut locupletatis aut invidiae aut pestilentiae possessoribus agri tamen emantur.
What then? What will be the planting of colonies on these lands, what the whole rationale and layout of the business? “Colonies,” he says, “will be planted.” How many? of what men? in what places? for who does not see that all these things have to be considered in colonies? Did you suppose, Rullus, that we and these confederates of yours, the contrivers of all this, were going to hand over to you the whole of Italy unarmed, that you might secure it with garrisons, occupy it with colonies, hold it bound and tied down by every kind of chain? For where is provision made that you shall not plant a colony on the Janiculum, that you shall not be able to crowd and crush this city with another city? “We shall not do it,” he says. First, I do not know that; second, I am afraid; finally, I shall not allow our salvation to be at your kindness rather than at our own foresight.
quid tum? quae erit in istos agros deductio, quae totius rei ratio atque descriptio? ’ deducentur,’ inquit, ’coloniae.’ quot? quorum hominum? in quae loca? quis enim non videt in coloniis esse haec omnia consideranda? tibi nos, Rulle, et istis tuis harum omnium rerum machinatoribus totam Italiam inermem tradituros existimasti, quam praesidiis confirmaretis, coloniis occuparetis, omnibus vinclis devinctam et constrictam teneretis? Vbi enim cavetur ne in Ianiculo coloniam constituatis, ne urbem hanc urbe alia premere atque urgere possitis? ’ non faciemus,’ inquit. primum nescio, deinde timeo, postremo non committam ut vestro beneficio potius quam nostro consilio salvi esse possimus.
As for your wishing to fill all Italy with your colonies — did you suppose none of us would understand what that meant? It is written: “Into whatever municipalities and into whatever colonies the decemvirs wish, they may plant colonists whom they wish, and assign lands to them in whatever places they wish.” So that, when they have occupied all Italy with their soldiers, no hope is left to us not only of keeping our dignity but even of recovering our liberty. And these things I am charging on suspicion and conjecture.
quod vero totam Italiam vestris coloniis complere voluistis, id cuius modi esset neminemne nostrum intellecturum existimavistis? scriptum est enim: ’ Qvae in mvnicipia qvasqve in colonias xviri velint, dedvcant colonos qvos velint et eis agros adsignent qvibvs in locis velint,’ ut, cum totam Italiam militibus suis occuparint, nobis non modo dignitatis retinendae, verum ne libertatis quidem recuperandae spes relinquatur. atque haec a me suspicionibus et coniectura coarguuntur.
Now every man’s every doubt will be cleared away: now they will openly show that the very name of this commonwealth, the seat of the city and of empire, finally this temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, and this citadel of all nations, displeases them. They want colonists planted at Capua: that city against this city again, to set up; thither to carry their resources, to transfer the name of empire, is what they have in mind. The place which on account of the richness of its lands and the abundance of all things is said to have begotten arrogance and cruelty — in that place these new colonists of ours, picked out by the decemvirs for every crime, will be settled. And, I suppose, in a city where men born in long-standing dignity and fortune could not bear an abundance of things with moderation, in that city these satellites of yours will modestly contain their insolence!
iam omnis omnium tolletur error, iam aperte ostendent sibi nomen huius rei publicae, sedem urbis atque imperi, denique hoc templum Iovis optimi maximi atque hanc arcem omnium gentium displicere. Capuam deduci colonos volunt, illam urbem huic urbi rursus opponere, illuc opes suas deferre et imperi nomen transferre cogitant. qui locus propter ubertatem agrorum abundantiamque rerum omnium superbiam et crudelitatem genuisse dicitur, ibi nostri coloni delecti ad omne facinus a x viris conlocabuntur, et, credo, qua in urbe homines in vetere dignitate fortunaque nati copiam rerum moderate ferre non potuerunt, in ea isti vestri satellites modeste insolentiam suam continebunt.
Our ancestors took away from Capua the magistracies, the senate, the common council, all, in short, the marks of a commonwealth, and left in the city nothing but the empty name “Capua” — not from cruelty (for what could be milder than they, who often gave back their own to even foreign enemies once defeated?), but from policy: because they saw that, if any vestige of a commonwealth were kept within those walls, the city itself could provide a seat for empire. As for you, did you not see how ruinous these things were? — unless, I suppose, you were eager to overthrow the commonwealth and to procure for yourselves a new dominion.
maiores nostri Capua magistratus, senatum, consilium commune, omnia denique insignia rei publicae sustulerunt, neque aliud quicquam in urbe nisi inane nomen Capuae reliquerunt, non crudelitate—quid enim illis fuit clementius qui etiam externis hostibus victis sua saepissime reddiderunt?—sed consilio, quod videbant, si quod rei publicae vestigium illis moenibus contineretur, urbem ipsam imperio domicilium praebere posse; vos haec, nisi evertere rem publicam cuperetis ac vobis novam dominationem comparare, credo, quam perniciosa essent non videretis.
For what is to be guarded against in the planting of colonies? If luxury, Capua corrupted Hannibal himself; if arrogance, this seems to have been born there of the Campanian disdain; if a stronghold, that colony is not set in front of this city, but set against it. And how, immortal gods, it is armed! For in the Punic war whatever Capua could do, she did by her own self; now all the cities round about Capua will be occupied by colonists through the same decemvirs — for to that end the law itself permits the decemvirs to plant colonists, whom they will, into all the towns they will. And they order the Campanian land and the Stellate plain to be divided for these colonists.
quid enim cavendum est in coloniis deducendis? si luxuries, Hannibalem ipsum Capua corrupit, si superbia, nata inibi esse haec ex Campanorum fastidio videtur, si praesidium, non praeponitur huic urbi ista colonia, sed opponitur. at quem ad modum armatur, di immortales! nam bello Punico quicquid potuit Capua, potuit ipsa per sese; nunc omnes urbes quae circum Capuam sunt a colonis per eosdem x viros occupabuntur; hanc enim ob causam permittit ipsa lex, in omnia quae velint oppida colonos ut x viri deducant quos velint. atque his colonis agrum Campanum et Stellatem campum dividi iubet.
I do not complain of the diminution of the revenues, of the disgrace of this loss and damage; I pass over those things which there is no man who could not most gravely and most truly complain of — that we have not been able to keep the head of the public patrimony, the most beautiful possession of the Roman people, the support of the corn supply, the granary of war, a revenue placed under the seal and the bars of the commonwealth; that we have, in the end, conceded that very land to Publius Rullus, the very land which by itself had stood up both to Sulla’s despotism and to the bounties of the Gracchi; I do not say only this — that this is a revenue in the commonwealth which, when others fail, remains; that, when interrupted, never falls quiet; that shines in peace, does not grow shabby in war, sustains the soldier, fears not the enemy. I pass over this whole speech and reserve it for the assembly: I am speaking now of the danger to our safety and our liberty.
non queror deminutionem vectigalium, non flagitium huius iacturae atque damni, praetermitto illa quae nemo est quin gravissime et verissime conqueri possit, nos caput patrimoni publici, pulcherrimam populi Romani possessionem, subsidium annonae, horreum belli, sub signo claustrisque rei publicae positum vectigal servare non potuisse, eum denique nos agrum P. Rullo concessisse, qui ager ipse per sese et Sullanae dominationi et Gracchorum largitioni restitisset; non dico solum hoc in re publica vectigal esse quod amissis aliis remaneat, intermissis non conquiescat, in pace niteat, in bello non obsolescat, militem sustentet, hostem non pertimescat; praetermitto omnem hanc orationem et contioni reservo; de periculo salutis ac libertatis loquor.
For what part do you suppose will be left whole to you in the commonwealth, or in the keeping of your liberty and dignity, when Rullus and those whom you fear far more than Rullus shall have occupied Capua and the cities around Capua with every band of needy and wicked men, with every kind of resources, with all their silver and gold? These things, senators, I shall resist with vehemence and sharpness, and I will not allow these men in my consulship to bring out the schemes they have long meditated against the commonwealth.
quid enim existimatis integrum vobis in re publica fore aut in vestra libertate ac dignitate retinenda, cum Rullus atque ei quos multo magis quam Rullum timetis cum omni egentium atque improborum manu, cum omnibus copiis, cum omni argento et auro Capuam et urbis circa Capuam occuparint? his ego rebus, patres conscripti, resistam vehementer atque acriter neque patiar homines ea me consule expromere quae contra rem publicam iam diu cogitarunt.
You have erred, Rullus, gravely, you and not a few of your colleagues, who have hoped that you could be thought “friends of the people” in overthrowing the commonwealth, opposed by a consul who is a friend of the people in truth, not in show. I challenge you, I summon you to a public assembly, I want to use the Roman people as judge. For if we look around at all that is grateful and pleasant to the people, we shall find nothing so popular as peace, as concord, as quiet. You handed over to me a state troubled with suspicion, in suspense from fear, thrown into confusion by your laws and assemblies and colony-plantings. You have shown the wicked hope, struck the loyal with fear, taken faith from the Forum and dignity from the commonwealth.
Errastis, Rulle, vehementer et tu et non nulli conlegae tui qui sperastis vos contra consulem veritate, non ostentatione popularem posse in evertenda re publica populares existimari. lacesso vos, in contionem voco, populo Romano disceptatore uti volo. etenim, ut circumspiciamus omnia quae populo grata atque iucunda sunt, nihil tam populare quam pacem, quam concordiam, quam otium reperiemus. sollicitam mihi civitatem suspicione, suspensam metu, perturbatam vestris legibus et contionibus et deductionibus tradidistis; spem improbis ostendistis, timorem bonis iniecistis, fidem de foro, dignitatem de re publica sustulistis.
When in this commotion and disturbance of minds and affairs the consul’s voice and authority shall suddenly have shone forth on the Roman people in such darkness, when he shall have shown that there is nothing to fear, no army, no band, no colonies, no sale of revenues, no new command, no decemviral kingdom, no second Rome and no other seat of empire under our consulship, and the highest tranquillity of peace and quiet, — I shall have to fear, I suppose, that this splendid agrarian law of yours may seem the more popular!
hoc motu atque hac perturbatione animorum atque rerum cum populo Romano vox et auctoritas consulis repente in tantis tenebris inluxerit, cum ostenderit nihil esse metuendum, nullum exercitum, nullam manum, nullas colonias, nullam venditionem vectigalium, nullum imperium novum, nullum regnum x virale, nullam alteram Romam neque aliam sedem imperi nobis consulibus futuram summamque tranquillitatem pacis atque oti, verendum, credo, nobis erit ne vestra ista praeclara lex agraria magis popularis esse videatur.
But when I have laid bare the wickedness of your designs, the deceit of the law, and the snares laid against the Roman people itself by tribunes of the plebs who pretend to be its friends — shall I, I suppose, be afraid that I shall not be allowed to take my stand against you in the assembly? — particularly when I have determined and resolved to conduct my consulship in the only way it can be conducted with weight and freedom: not to seek a province, nor honour, nor any embellishment or perquisite, nor anything at all that can be hindered by a tribune of the plebs.
Cum vero scelera consiliorum vestrorum fraudemque legis et insidias quae ipsi populo Romano a popularibus tribunis plebis fiant ostendero, pertimescam, credo, ne mihi non liceat contra vos in contione consistere, praesertim cum mihi deliberatum et constitutum sit ita gerere consulatum quo uno modo geri graviter et libere potest, ut neque provinciam neque honorem neque ornamentum aliquod aut commodum neque rem ullam quae a tribuno plebis impediri possit appetiturus sim.
The consul declares before a most crowded Senate on the Kalends of January that, if the present condition of the commonwealth holds and no business arises which he cannot honourably escape, he will not go to a province. So I shall conduct myself in this magistracy, senators, that I may be able to coerce a tribune of the plebs angry with the commonwealth, and to despise one angry with me. For which reason, by the immortal gods, gather yourselves together, tribunes of the plebs; desert those by whom, if you do not look out, you will in a short time be deserted; conspire with us, agree with the loyal, defend the common commonwealth with common zeal and love. The commonwealth has many hidden wounds, many ruinous designs of wicked citizens; there is no danger from outside, no king, no people, no nation to be feared; the evil is enclosed, internal, domestic. Each one of us in his place must work to heal it; we all must wish to make it whole.
dicit frequentissimo senatu consul Kalendis Ianuariis sese, si status hic rei publicae maneat neque aliquod negotium exstiterit quod honeste subterfugere non possit, in provinciam non iturum. sic me in hoc magistratu geram, patres conscripti, ut possim tribunum plebis rei publicae iratum coercere, mihi iratum contemnere. quam ob rem, per deos immortalis! conligite vos, tribuni plebis, deserite eos a quibus, nisi prospicitis, brevi tempore deseremini, conspirate nobiscum, consentite cum bonis, communem rem publicam communi studio atque amore defendite. multa sunt occulta rei publicae volnera, multa nefariorum civium perniciosa consilia; nullum externum periculum est, non rex, non gens ulla, non natio pertimescenda est; inclusum malum, intestinum ac domesticum est. huic pro se quisque nostrum mederi atque hoc omnes sanare velle debemus.
You err, if you suppose that the Senate approves what is said by me, but the people are of another mind. All who would have themselves safe will follow the authority of a consul released from cupidities, free from offences, careful in dangers, not timid in struggles. But if any of you is led by the hope that he can fill his sails with honour by tumultuous methods, first let him cease to hope it in my consulship; second, let him take me myself for a lesson, whom he sees, born from the equestrian order, made consul — which path of life leads good men most easily to honour and dignity. And if you, senators, declare to me your zeal for defending the common dignity, I shall surely accomplish what the commonwealth most wants: that the authority of this order, which it had with our ancestors, may now after a long interval be seen restored to the commonwealth.
erratis, si senatum probare ea quae dicuntur a me putatis, populum autem esse in alia voluntate. omnes qui se incolumis volent sequentur auctoritatem consulis soluti a cupiditatibus, liberi a delictis, cauti in periculis, non timidi in contentionibus. quod si qui vestrum spe ducitur se posse turbulenta ratione honori velificari suo, primum me consule id sperare desistat, deinde habeat me ipsum sibi documento, quem equestri ortum loco consulem videt, quae vitae via facillime viros bonos ad honorem dignitatemque perducat. quod si vos vestrum mihi studium, patres conscripti, ad communem dignitatem defendendam profitemini, perficiam profecto, id quod maxime res publica desiderat, ut huius ordinis auctoritas, quae apud maiores nostros fuit, eadem nunc longo intervallo rei publicae restituta esse videatur.