On the Consular Provinces
De Provinciis Consularibus
Headnote
On the Consular Provinces, delivered in the Senate at Rome in June 56 BC. Under the lex Sempronia of C. Gracchus the Senate fixed, before the consular elections, the two provinces that the consuls of the next year would draw by lot. Two were already in front of the house: the Gauls, which Caesar held under the lex Vatinia of 59 BC and the senatorial decree adding Transalpine Gaul; and Syria and Macedonia, held by Gabinius and Piso, the two consuls of 58 BC who had stood by while Clodius drove Cicero into exile. The chance of the year was that any combination of these four provinces could be voted: take Gaul from Caesar, or take Syria and Macedonia from Gabinius and Piso, or some splitting motion. Cicero’s vote, here delivered after P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus had spoken before him, is for Syria and Macedonia.
The argument falls in three movements. §1–17 is the indictment of Gabinius and Piso: the harassed Thessalonians, the lost army of Piso in Macedonia, the auctioned Achaean tribute, the Byzantine maidens leaping into wells to escape his lust, the plundered statues of Greece; in Syria Gabinius the “Semiramis,” bought by Ariobarzanes for murder, harrying Roman publicans into slavery to Jews and Syrians, the consular thanksgiving which the Senate refused him for letters of victory it declined to credit. Both are fit to be torn out — the praetorian-province alternative will not do, since it can be vetoed; only the lex Sempronia route is left.
The pivot at §18 is the famous about-face. The same speaker who had stood, two years earlier, against Caesar’s whole programme, now argues that Caesar must be left in Gaul. The case is the strategic state of the war (§31–35: Pompey has pacified the eastern world; Caesar’s exploits in Gaul go beyond Marius’s defence at Aquae Sextiae and Pomptinus’s containment of the Allobroges; the Alps no longer the fortress they once were, the work nearly but not quite finished, withdrawal would invite renewal); a long sequence of historical exempla (§18–22) on laying aside personal hostility for the commonwealth’s good — Tiberius Gracchus the elder for Scipio Africanus’s brother, the Metelli for Marius in Gaul, M. Lepidus the censor and M. Fulvius reconciled in the Campus, Q. Metellus Nepos with Cicero himself — and a personal narrative (§40–44) of the long acquaintance between Cicero and Caesar from their youth, Caesar’s repeated offers of partnership refused (the board of five, the three consulars, a legateship of any honour), and the critical fact established (§43) that Pompey stands witness for Caesar that he wished Cicero recovered from exile. The closing argument at §45–46 is the legal point that the same men who treat the Julian laws as un-passed (no observation of the heavens) also treat the lex Clodia against Cicero as lawfully passed: a self-contradiction, since it was the same curiate-law proceeding that made Clodius plebeian as had been used.
The speech is the first public sign that the optimate front of Pro Sestio (March 56) had not held. The conference of Luca, in mid-April 56, had reset the terms of the triumvirate: Caesar’s command in Gaul to be extended for five more years, Pompey and Crassus the consuls of 55 BC. Cicero’s vote here for Caesar’s continuation, the second pillar of the post-Luca realignment together with the abandoned attack on the Campanian land settlement, is delivered in the language of the senatorial-Caesarian common cause; but the rage of the opening pages on Gabinius and Piso (whom Cicero would in fact see prosecuted: Gabinius unsuccessfully two years later, Piso never) is unmistakably authentic, and the speech sustains both registers without breaking voice — the great trick of Cicero’s middle period, when private grievance and public reasoning are bound together by the same rhetorical architecture. The thanksgiving for Caesar’s Gallic victories, fifteen days, twice the length that had ever been voted before, was Cicero’s own motion §26–27.
If any of you, senators, is waiting to hear which provinces I will move that we assign, let him consider with himself which men in particular ought to be pulled out of the provinces by me: he will not be in doubt as to what is fitting for me to feel, when he has thought what I am of necessity bound to feel. And if I were the first to deliver this opinion, you would surely praise it; if I were the only one, you would certainly forgive it; even if the opinion seemed to you a little less useful, you would yet grant some indulgence to my pain. As it is, senators, I am affected by no slight pleasure, both because what most of all serves the interest of the commonwealth — that Syria and Macedonia be assigned — means that my pain is not at variance with the common good, and because I have as my model P. Servilius, who delivered his opinion before me, a most distinguished man, of singular loyalty and goodwill both toward the commonwealth as a whole and toward my own restoration.
si quis vestrum, patres conscripti, exspectat quas sim provincias decreturus, consideret ipse secum qui mihi homines ex provinciis potissimum detrahendi sint: non dubitabit quid sentire me conveniat, cum quid mihi sentire necesse sit cogitarit. ac si princeps eam sententiam dicerem, laudaretis profecto; si solus, certe ignosceretis; etiam si paulo minus utilis vobis sententia videretur, veniam tamen aliquam dolori meo tribueretis. nunc vero, patres conscripti, non parva adficior voluptate, vel quod hoc maxime rei publicae conducit, Syriam Macedoniamque decerni, ut dolor meus nihil a communi utilitate dissentiat, vel quod habeo auctorem P. Servilium, qui ante me sententiam dixit, virum clarissimum et cum in universam rem publicam tum etiam erga meam salutem fide ac benivolentia singulari.
If he, both a little while ago and as often as occasion and opportunity for speaking has fallen to him, judged that Gabinius and Piso — two prodigies of the commonwealth, all but two corpses of it — ought to be branded, both for their other crimes and most of all for that signal wickedness and unprovoked cruelty against me, not only by his vote but by the gravity of his words, with what feeling toward those men ought I to be, whose safety they handed over as a pledge to fill out the measure of their own appetites? Yet in delivering this opinion I shall not obey my pain; I shall not be the slave of my anger. I will hold toward them the feeling each one of you ought to hold: that special and proper sense of pain which is mine — though you have always counted it as shared with me — I will set aside in giving my opinion, and will keep for the season of vengeance.
quod si ille, et paulo ante et quotienscumque ei locus dicendi ac potestas fuit, Gabinium et Pisonem, duo rei publicae portenta ac paene funera, cum propter alias causas tum maxime propter illud insigne scelus eorum et importunam in me crudelitatem, non solum sententia sua sed etiam verborum gravitate esse notandos putavit, quonam me animo in eos esse oportet, cuius illi salutem pro pignore tradiderunt ad explendas suas cupiditates? sed ego in hac sententia dicenda non parebo dolori meo, non iracundiae serviam. quo animo unus quisque vestrum debet esse in illos, hoc ero: praecipuum illum et proprium sensum doloris mei, quem tamen vos communem semper vobis mecum esse duxistis, a sententia dicenda amovebo, ad ulciscendi tempora reservabo.
There are four provinces, senators, on which I understand that opinions have so far been delivered: the two Gauls, which we now see joined under one command; and Syria and Macedonia, which those two pestilent consuls, against your will and over your suppressed protest, seized as the rewards of an upended commonwealth. Two are to be assigned by us under the lex Sempronia. What ground for hesitation can there be about Syria and Macedonia? I pass over that those who now hold them gained them on these terms: they had not so much as touched them before they had condemned this order, banished your authority from the state, and most foully and most cruelly outraged the public faith, the perpetual safety of the Roman people, and me and all who belong to me.
quattuor sunt provinciae, patres conscripti, de quibus adhuc intellego sententias esse dictas, Galliae duae, quas hoc tempore uno imperio videmus esse coniunctas, et Syria et Macedonia, quas vobis invitis et oppressis pestiferi illi consules pro perversae rei publicae praemiis occupaverunt. decernendae nobis sunt lege Sempronia duae. quid est quod possimus de Syria Macedoniaque dubitare? Mitto quod eas ita partas habent ii qui nunc obtinent ut non ante attigerint quam hunc ordinem condemnarint, quam auctoritatem vestram e civitate exterminarint, quam fidem publicam, quam perpetuam populi Romani salutem, quam me ac meos omnis foedissime crudelissimeque vexarint.
I pass over all that happened at home and in the city — so vast that Hannibal himself never wished this city as much harm as those men inflicted on it. I come to the provinces themselves. Of which Macedonia, formerly fortified by the works not so much of towers as of the trophies of many commanders, long since pacified by many victories and triumphs, is now so harried by barbarians — to whom, because of his greed, peace has been snatched away — that the Thessalonians, set in the very lap of our empire, are forced to abandon their town and fortify their citadel; that our great military road, which runs through Macedonia all the way to the Hellespont, is not only beset by raids of the barbarians but actually marked off, like a frontier, by Thracian camps. Thus those peoples who, to keep the peace, had paid in silver to our distinguished commander — so that he could refill his emptied house — have, for the peace they bought, brought a war upon us almost like a just war.
omnia domestica atque urbana mitto, quae tanta sunt ut numquam Hannibal huic urbi tantum mali optarit quantum illi effecerint. ad ipsas venio provincias; quarum Macedonia, quae erat antea munita plurimorum imperatorum non turribus sed tropaeis, quae multis victoriis erat iam diu triumphisque pacata, sic a barbaris, quibus est propter avaritiam pax erepta, vexatur ut Thessalonicenses positi in gremio imperi nostri relinquere oppidum et arcem munire cogantur, ut via illa nostra quae per Macedoniam est usque ad Hellespontum militaris non solum excursionibus barbarorum sit infesta, sed etiam castris Thraeciis distincta ac notata. ita gentes eae quae, ut pace uterentur, vim argenti dederant praeclaro nostro imperatori, ut exhaustas domos replere possent, pro empta pace bellum nobis prope iustum intulerunt.
As for our army, that army gathered by an arrogant levy and the harshest conscription, it has perished to a man. I say this with great pain: the soldiers of the Roman people have been pitiably captured, killed, abandoned, scattered, consumed by neglect, hunger, disease, and devastation, so that — and this is most outrageous — the commander’s wickedness seems to have been expiated upon his country and upon his army. And this Macedonia, with the neighbouring peoples now subdued and the barbarian frontier held down, was peaceful in itself and quiet, and we used to guard it with a slight garrison and a small force — without even an imperium, by legates, by the mere name of the Roman people. Now, ravaged by a consular army and a consular command, it can scarcely recover itself by long peace. And meanwhile which of you has not heard, who is unaware, that the Achaeans pay a vast yearly tribute to L. Piso; that the entire customs and harbour-dues of the Dyrrachians have been turned to this one man’s profit; that the city of the Byzantines, most loyal to you and to this empire, has been ravaged as if it were an enemy? After he could squeeze nothing out of beggars, could wring nothing by any violence from the wretched, he sent his cohorts into winter-quarters; over them he set those whom he judged would be the most diligent attendants of his crimes, the ministers of his appetites.
iam vero exercitus noster ille superbissimo dilectu et durissima conquisitione conlectus omnis interiit. Magno hoc dico cum dolore: miserandum in modum milites populi Romani capti necati deserti dissipati sunt, incuria fame morbo vastitate consumpti, ut, quod est indignissimum, scelus imperatoris in p atri am exercitum que exp ia tum esse videatur. atque hanc Macedoniam, domitis iam gentibus finitimis barbariaque compressa, pacatam ipsam per se et quietam, tenui praesidio atque exigua manu etiam sine imperio per legatos nomine ipso populi Romani tuebamur; quae nunc consulari imperio atque exercitu ita vexata est vix ut se possit diuturna pace recreare; cum interea quis vestrum hoc non audivit, quis ignorat, Achaeos ingentem pecuniam pendere L. Pisoni quotannis, vectigal ac portorium Dyrrachinorum totum in huius unius quaestum esse conversum, urbem Byzantiorum vobis atque huic imperio fidelissimam hostilem in modum esse vexatam? quo ille, postea quam nihil exprimere ab egentibus, nihil ulla vi a miseris extorquere potuit, cohortis in hiberna misit; iis praeposuit quos putavit fore diligentissimos satellites scelerum, ministros cupiditatum suarum.
I leave aside the administration of justice, in a free state, against the laws and decrees of the Senate; I let go his butcheries; I pass over his lusts, of which the most bitter testimony stands as a signal monument of shame and almost as ground for a just hatred of our empire: it is established that maidens of the noblest birth flung themselves into wells, putting themselves to a voluntary death to escape an unavoidable disgrace. I pass over these things — not because they are not most grave, but because at the moment I speak without witness. As for the city of the Byzantines itself, who is unaware that it had been most full and most adorned with statues? Statues which the Byzantines, drained as they were by the costs of the greatest wars — when they were holding back, smashing, choking off at their very throats every onslaught of Mithridates, the whole armed force of Pontus boiling over and bursting toward Asia — which they then, I say, and afterwards too, kept under the most scrupulous guard, those statues and the rest of the city’s adornments;
omitto iuris dictionem in libera civitate contra leges senatusque consulta, caedis relinquo, libidines praetereo, quarum acerbissimum exstat indicium et ad insignem memoriam turpitudinis et paene ad iustum odium imperi nostri, quod constat nobilissimas virgines se in puteos abiecisse et morte voluntaria necessariam turpitudinem depulisse; nec haec idcirco omitto quod non gravissima sint, sed quia nunc sine teste dico. ipsam vero urbem Byzantiorum fuisse refertissimam atque ornatissimam signis quis ignorat? quae illi exhausti sumptibus bellisque maximis, cum omnis Mithridaticos impetus totumque Pontum armatum, effervescentem in Asiam atque erumpentem ore, repulsum et cervicibus interclusum suis sustinerent, tum, inquam, Byzantii et postea signa illa et reliqua urbis ornamenta sanctissime custodita tenuerunt:
but under your most ill-starred and most monstrous commander, Caesoninus Calventius, that free city, freed by the Senate and the Roman people for its outstanding services, has been so plundered and stripped that, had not C. Vergilius the legate, a brave and innocent man, intervened, the Byzantines would have had not one statue out of that vast number left them. What temple in Achaea, what place or grove in all Greece, was so holy that any image, any ornament has remained in it? You bought from a most foul tribune of the plebs — in that shipwreck of the city which you, who were bound to be a pilot, had yourself overturned — you bought, I say, at a great price, the right to give judgement on debts in free communities, against the decrees of the Senate and against the law of your son-in-law: and what you bought you sold on these terms: either you would not give judgement, or you would overturn the property of Roman citizens.
te imperatore infelicissimo et taeterrimo, Caesonine calventi, civitas libera, et pro eximiis suis beneficiis a senatu et a populo Romano liberata, sic spoliata atque nudata est ut, nisi C. Vergilius legatus, vir fortis et innocens, intervenisset, unum signum Byzantii ex maximo numero nullum haberent. quod fanum in Achaia, qui locus aut lucus in Graecia tota tam sanctus fuit in quo ullum simulacrum, ullum ornamentum reliquum sit? emisti a foedissimo tribuno plebis tum in illo naufragio huius urbis, quam tu idem qui gubernare debueras everteras, tum, inquam, emisti grandi pecunia ut tibi de pecuniis creditis ius in liberos populos contra senatus consulta et contra legem generi tui dicere liceret: id emptum ita vendidisti ut aut ius non diceres aut bonis civis Romanos everteres.
Of all this, senators, I say nothing now against the man himself: I am speaking about the province. So I pass over all those things you have often heard and hold fast in your minds, even if you should not be hearing them now. Nothing do I say about that effrontery of his within the city, which by his very presence he has fixed in your minds and before your eyes; nothing do I argue about his insolence, nothing about his contumacy, nothing about his cruelty; let those dark lusts of his lie hidden, which he covered up by brow and forehead, not by modesty and self-control: I argue only what is at issue — the province. Will you not put him down? Will you suffer him to remain longer? Whose fortunes, the moment he set foot in the province, contended so with his depravity that no one could decide whether he was the more wanton or the more luckless.
quorum ego nihil dico, patres conscripti, nunc in hominem ipsum: de provincia disputo. itaque omnia illa quae et saepe audistis et tenetis animis, etiam si non audiatis, praetermitto. nihil de hac eius urbana, quam ille praesens in mentibus vestris oculisque defixit, audacia loquor; nihil de superbia, nihil de contumacia, nihil de crudelitate disputo; lateant libidines eius illae tenebricosae, quas fronte et supercilio, non pudore et temperantia contegebat: de provincia quod agitur, id disputo. huic vos non submittetis? hunc diutius manere patiemini? cuius, ut provinciam tetigit, sic fortuna cum improbitate certavit ut nemo posset utrum protervior an infelicior esset iudicare.
Or is that Semiramis to be kept any longer in Syria? Whose journey into the province was such that king Ariobarzanes hired your consul to commit murder, as one might hire some Thracian; and on entering Syria his cavalry first underwent destruction, and then his best cohorts were cut to pieces. Accordingly, under that commander nothing else has ever been done in Syria but compacts of money with petty despots, settlements, plunderings, brigandage, slaughter — the commander of the Roman people standing openly before his army drawn up, stretching out his right hand, not exhorting his soldiers to glory but shouting that everything was bought and must be bought by him.
an vero in Syria diutius est Semiramis illa retinenda? cuius iter in provinciam fuit eius modi ut rex Ariobarzanes consulem vestrum ad caedem faciendam tamquam aliquem Thraecem conduceret; deinde adventus in Syriam primus equitatus habuit interitum, post concisae sunt optimae cohortes. igitur in Syria imperatore illo nihil aliud umquam actum est nisi pactiones pecuniarum cum tyrannis, decisiones, direptiones, latrocinia, caedes, cum palam populi Romani imperator, instructo exercitu, dexteram tendens, non ad laudem milites hortaretur, sed omnia sibi et empta et emenda esse clamaret.
As for the unhappy publicans — and I am unhappy too, I say, in the unhappiness and pain of men who deserved so well of me — he has handed them over into slavery to Jews and Syrians, peoples born to slavery. He decided from the start, and he has held to it, that he would deliver no judgement to a publican; he rescinded compacts made without any wrong; he abolished the watches; he freed many tributaries and stipendiaries; he forbade any publican or publican’s slave to be in whatever town he was in or wherever he came. What more is there? He would be thought cruel, had he held toward the enemy the temper that he held toward Roman citizens — and especially toward that order which has always been kept up, in keeping with its dignity, by the kindness of the magistrates.
iam vero publicanos miseros—me etiam miserum illorum ita de me meritorum miseriis ac dolore!—tradidit in servitutem Iudaeis et Syris, nationibus natis servituti. statuit ab initio, et in eo perseveravit, ius publicano non dicere; pactiones sine ulla iniuria factas rescidit; custodias sustulit; vectigalis multos ac stipendiarios liberavit; quo in oppido ipse esset aut quo veniret, ibi publicanum aut publicani servum esse vetuit. quid multa? crudelis haberetur si in hostis animo fuisset eo quo fuit in civis Romanos, eius ordinis praesertim qui est semper pro dignitate sua benignitate magistratuum sustentatus.
And so, senators, you see that not by any rashness in their contracting nor by ignorance in carrying out their business, but by the greed, the arrogance, the cruelty of Gabinius, the publicans have been now almost ruined and overthrown. Whom indeed, in these straits of the treasury, you must yet rescue — though many of them you can no longer help, men who, on account of that public enemy of the Senate, that bitter foe of the equestrian order and of all good men, have lost their possessions and their good name as well; whom no thrift, no self-restraint, no virtue, no labour, no distinction has been able to defend against the audacity of that glutton and brigand.
itaque, patres conscripti, videtis non temeritate redemptionis aut negoti gerendi inscitia, sed avaritia, superbia, crudelitate Gabini paene adflictos iam atque eversos publicanos: quibus quidem vos in his angustiis aerari tamen subveniatis necesse est, etsi iam multis non potestis, qui propter illum hostem senatus, inimicissimum ordinis equestris bonorumque omnium, non solum bona sed etiam honestatem miseri deperdiderunt, quos non parsimonia, non continentia, non virtus, non labor, non splendor tueri potuit contra illius helluonis et praedonis audaciam.
What of those who even now sustain themselves by the props of patrimony or the generosity of friends — shall we suffer them to perish? If a man cannot enjoy his public contract because of an enemy, the censorial law itself protects him: shall the man whom this enemy will not suffer to enjoy it — a man who, even if he is not so styled, is an enemy — shall help not be brought to him? Keep then in the province longer the man who makes compacts with the enemy at the cost of the allies, and with the allies at the cost of the citizens; who reckons himself worth more than his colleague on this score: that the other deceived you by gloom and by face, while he himself never pretended to be less worthless than he was. Piso, on the other hand, glories on a different ground: that in a short time he has brought it to pass that C. Gabinius is not thought, alone of all men, the most worthless.
quid? qui se etiam nunc subsidiis patrimoni aut amicorum liberalitate sustentant, hos perire patiemur? an si qui frui publico non potuit per hostem, hic tegitur ipsa lege censoria: quem is frui non sinit qui est, etiam si non appellatur, hostis, huic ferri auxilium non oportet? retinete igitur in provincia diutius eum qui de sociis cum hostibus, de civibus cum sociis faciat pactiones, qui hoc etiam se pluris esse quam conlegam putet, quod ille vos tristitia vultuque deceperit, ipse numquam se minus quam erat nequam esse simularit. Piso autem alio quodam modo gloriatur se brevi tempore perfecisse ne C. Gabinius unus omnium nequissimus existimaretur.
Were these men, then, even if they were not at some point to be brought home from their provinces — would you not think they ought to be torn out? And would you keep these twin pestilences — this disaster to allies, to soldiers, this ruin of publicans, this devastation of provinces, this stain on our empire? Yet you yourselves, in the previous year, recalled these very same men once they had reached their provinces. At that time, had your judgement been free, and had the matter not been put off so often and at last torn from your hands, you would have restored what you wanted — your own authority — by recalling those through whom it had been lost, and by stripping from them the very rewards which they had earned by their crime and the overthrow of their country.
hos vos de provinciis, si non aliquando deducendi essent, deripiendos non putaretis? et has duplicis pestis sociorum, militum cladis, publicanorum ruinas, provinciarum vastitates, imperi maculas teneretis? at idem vos anno superiore hos eosdem revocabatis, cum in provincias pervenissent: quo tempore si liberum vestrum iudicium fuisset nec totiens dilata res nec ad extremum e manibus erepta, restituissetis, id quod cupiebatis, vestram auctoritatem, iis per quos erat amissa revocatis, et iis ipsis praemiis extortis quae erant pro scelere atque eversione patriae consecuti.
If from that punishment they then escaped — by the resources of others, not their own, against your most strenuous will — yet they have undergone another, much greater and graver, punishment. For what punishment can fall more grievous upon a man who has, if not any shame for fame, at least some fear of legal sanction, than not to be believed, when he sends letters reporting on the commonwealth that the war has been well conducted? This the Senate decided when in full session it denied a thanksgiving to Gabinius: first, that nothing was to be believed by a man stained by every wickedness and outrage; next, that by a traitor — and one whom they had known to be while present an open enemy of the commonwealth — the commonwealth could not have been well managed; and last, that not even the immortal gods would wish their temples to be opened, and supplications offered to them, in the name of so foul and so wicked a man. So that other one is either himself a learned man and rather subtly schooled by his Greeks (in whose company he now gluttonises on the open stage, where formerly he used to do it behind the curtain), or he has friends with more sense than Gabinius has — whose letters are nowhere produced.
qua e poena si tum aliorum opibus, non suis, invitissimis vobis evolarunt, at aliam multo maiorem gravioremque subierunt. quae enim homini in quo aliqui, si non famae pudor, at supplici timor est gravior poena accidere potuit quam non credi litteris iis quae rem publicam bene gestam in bello nuntiarent? hoc statuit senatus, cum frequens supplicationem Gabinio denegavit: primum homini sceleribus flagitiis contaminatissimo nihil esse credendum, deinde a proditore, atque eo quem praesentem hostem rei publicae cognosset, bene rem publicam geri non potuisse, postremo ne deos quidem immortalis velle aperiri sua templa et sibi supplicari hominis impurissimi et sceleratissimi nomine. itaque ille alter aut ipse est homo doctus et a suis Graecis subtilius eruditus, quibuscum iam in exostra helluatur, antea post siparium solebat, aut amicos habet prudentiores quam Gabinius, cuius nullae litterae proferuntur.
Are these, then, the men we are to keep as our commanders? Of whom one does not dare to inform us why he is being saluted as imperator, and the other — if his couriers do not slacken — must in a few days repent his daring. His friends, if he has any — if any can be friends to a beast so monstrous and so foul — console themselves with this: that the Senate refused a thanksgiving to T. Albucius too. The first thing unlike here is that one was a campaign in Sardinia against bandits in sheepskins, conducted by a propraetor with a single auxiliary cohort; the other a war finished off against the greatest peoples and tyrants of Syria, with a consular army and a consular command. Then again, Albucius had decreed beforehand for himself, in Sardinia, the very thing he was asking from the Senate: it was common knowledge that the Greekling and frivolous fellow had as good as held a triumph in his own province, and the Senate, by refusing the thanksgiving, set a mark upon his rashness.
hosce igitur imperatores habebimus? quorum alter non audet nos certiores facere qua re imperator appelletur, alterum, si tabellarii non cessarint, necesse est paucis diebus paeniteat audere: cuius amici si qui sunt, aut si beluae tam immani tamque taetrae possunt ulli esse amici, hac consolatione utuntur, etiam T. Albucio supplicationem hunc ordinem denegasse. quod est primum dissimile, res in Sardinia cum mastrucatis latrunculis a propraetore una cohorte auxiliaria gesta, et bellum cum maximis Syriae gentibus et tyrannis consulari exercitu imperioque confectum. deinde Albucius, quod a senatu petebat, ipse sibi in Sardinia ante decreverat; constabat enim Graecum hominem ac levem in ipsa provincia quasi triumphasse, itaque hanc eius temeritatem senatus supplicatione denegata notavit.
But let him take his comfort, and let him think this signal disgrace — since it has been branded upon only one man besides himself — a lighter thing, provided that he wait for the same end as the man whose example he uses for consolation: especially since in Albucius there was neither the lust of Piso nor the audacity of Gabinius, and yet by this single blow he fell — the Senate’s mark of shame.
sed fruatur sane hoc solacio atque hanc insignem ignominiam (quoniam uni praeter se inusta est ), putet esse leviorem, dum modo, cuius exemplo se consolatur, eius exitum exspectet, praesertim cum in Albucio nec Pisonis libidines nec audacia Gabini fuerit ac tamen hac una plaga conciderit, ignominia senatus.
And yet whoever assigns the two Gauls to the two consuls keeps both of these men; and whoever assigns one of the Gauls and either Syria or Macedonia still keeps one of them, and makes a different lot in cases of equal wickedness. “I shall make those provinces praetorian,” he says, “so that Piso and Gabinius shall be succeeded at once.” — if he allows it! For then the tribune will be able to interpose; now he cannot. So I, the very same man who am now assigning Syria and Macedonia to those who shall have been designated consuls, I shall assign these same provinces as praetorian provinces too — so that the praetors may have annual provinces, and we may see, as soon as may be, those whom we cannot bear to look upon. But, believe me, succession will never be made to those men, unless the question is brought up under the law that does not allow interposition on provinces. So this opportunity having been let slip, an entire year must be waited out by you; and meanwhile the calamity of the citizens, the misery of the allies, and the impunity of the most wicked of men is prolonged.
atqui duas Gallias qui decernit consulibus duobus, hos retinet ambo; qui autem alteram Galliam et aut Syriam aut Macedoniam, tamen alterum retinet et in utriusque pari scelere disparem condicionem facit. faciam, inquit, illas praetorias, ut Pisoni et Gabinio succedatur statim. si hic sinat! tum enim tribunus intercedere poterit, nunc non potest. itaque ego idem, qui nunc consulibus iis qui designati erunt Syriam Macedoniamque decerno, decernam easdem praetorias, ut et praetores annuas provincias habeant et eos quam primum videamus quos animo aequo videre non possumus. sed, mihi credite, numquam succedetur illis, nisi cum ea lege referetur qua intercedi de provinciis non licebit. itaque hoc tempore amisso annus est integer vobis exspectandus; quo interiecto civium calamitas, sociorum aerumna, sceleratissimorum hominum impunitas propagatur.
But suppose those men were the best of men — still, in my opinion, I would not yet hold that C. Caesar must be succeeded. On this point I will say what I think, senators; and I will not fear that interruption from my closest friend, by which a little while ago my speech was broken off. He says, that excellent man, that I ought not to be more hostile to Gabinius than to Caesar; that the whole storm to which I yielded was raised by Caesar as instigator and abettor. If first I should answer him this — that I take account of the common good, not of my own pain — can I not make my case, when I claim to be doing what I can do by the example of the bravest and most distinguished citizens? Did not Tiberius Gracchus — the father, I mean, whose sons would they had not fallen short of their father’s gravity! — attain such great praise on this score: that as tribune of the plebs, alone of all that college, he came to the aid of L. Scipio, the bitterest enemy both of him and of his brother Africanus; and swore in the contio that he had not made up the quarrel, but that it seemed to him beneath the dignity of the empire that, where the captive enemy generals had been led in Scipio’s triumph, that Scipio should himself now be led to the same place who had led the triumph?
quod si essent illi optimi viri, tamen ego mea sententia C. Caesari succedendum nondum putarem. qua de re dicam, patres conscripti, quae sentio, atque illam interpellationem mei familiarissimi, qua paulo ante interrupta est oratio mea, non pertimescam. negat me vir optimus inimiciorem Gabinio debere esse quam Caesari: omnem illam tempestatem cui cesserim Caesare impulsore atque adiutore esse excitatam. cui si primum sic respondeam, me communis utilitatis habere rationem, non doloris mei, possimne probare, cum id me facere dicam quod exemplo fortissimorum et clarissimorum civium facere possim? an ti. Gracchus—patrem dico, cuius utinam filii ne degenerassent a gravitate patria!—tantam laudem est adeptus, quos tribunus plebis solus ex toto illo conlegio L. Scipioni auxilio fuit, inimicissimus et ipsius et fratris eius Africani, iuravitque in contione se in gratiam non redisse, sed alienum sibi videri dignitate imperi quo duces essent hostium Scipione triumphante ducti, eodem ipsum duci qui triumphasset?
Who had more enemies than C. Marius? L. Crassus, M. Scaurus were strangers to him, all the Metelli his enemies: yet they not only did not call him — their enemy — back from Gaul by their votes, but on account of the war in Gaul they assigned to him an extraordinary province. The greatest war in Gaul has been fought; the greatest peoples have been subdued by Caesar, but not yet bound fast by laws, by sure jurisdiction, by a sufficiently firm peace. We see the war advanced and, to speak the truth, almost finished — but on these terms: that, if the same man who began it pursues it to the end, we shall see all completed; if he is succeeded, there is danger that we may hear of the remnants of that great war stirred up afresh and renewed. Therefore I — a senator, hostile, if you wish, to the man — ought to be a friend, as I have always been, to the commonwealth.
quis plenior inimicorum fuit C. Mario? L. Crassus, M. Scaurus alieni, inimici omnes Metelli: at ii non modo illum inimicum ex Gallia sententiis suis non detrahebant, sed ei propter rationem Gallici belli provinciam extra ordinem decernebant. bellum in Gallia maximum gestum est; domitae sunt a Caesare maximae nationes, sed nondum legibus, nondum iure certo, nondum satis firma pace devinctae. bellum adfectum videmus et, vere ut dicam, paene confectum, sed ita ut, si idem extrema persequitur qui inchoavit, iam omnia perfecta videamus, si succeditur, periculum sit ne instauratas maximi belli reliquias ac renovatas audiamus. ergo ego senator—inimicus, si ita vultis, homini—amicus esse, sicut semper fui, rei publicae debeo.
What if I lay aside my own enmities for the sake of the commonwealth: who, in justice, will reproach me? Especially when I have always thought that the patterns of all my counsels and acts ought to be sought from the deeds of the greatest men. Was not that famous M. Lepidus, who was twice consul and pontifex maximus, praised — not only by the testimony of memory but by the letters of the annals and the voice of the highest poet — because, on the day he was made censor, with M. Fulvius his colleague, his bitterest enemy, he was reconciled to him on the spot in the Campus, that they might defend the common duty of the censorship by a common mind and will?
quid? si ipsas inimicitias depono rei publicae causa, quis me tandem iure reprehendet? praesertim cum ego omnium meorum consiliorum atque factorum exempla semper ex summorum hominum factis mihi censuerim petenda. an vero M. ille Lepidus, qui bis consul et pontifex maximus fuit, non solum memoriae testimonio, sed etiam annalium litteris et summi poetae voce laudatus est quod cum M. Fulvio conlega, quo die censor est factus, homine inimicissimo, in campo statim rediit in gratiam, ut commune officium censurae communi animo ac voluntate defenderent?
And, to leave aside antiquity — which is beyond counting — did not your own father, Philippus, at one time make peace with his bitterest enemies? With all of whom the same commonwealth reconciled him as had estranged him.
atque ut vetera, quae sunt innumerabilia, mittam, tuus pater, Philippe, nonne uno tempore cum suis inimicissimis in gratiam rediit? quibus eum omnibus eadem res publica reconciliavit quae alienarat.
I pass over many examples, because I look on these lights and ornaments of our state, P. Servilius and M. Lucullus. Would that L. Lucullus too were sitting yonder! What feuds in this city were graver than the feuds between the Luculli and Servilius? Which feuds, in those bravest of men, the interest of the commonwealth and their own dignity not only quenched but actually carried over into friendship and the habit of intimacy. What of Q. Metellus Nepos — did he not, when consul, in the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, moved both by your authority and by the incredible weight of P. Servilius’s eloquence, in his very absence and by his own great kindness, make peace with me? Can I, then, be hostile to a man whose letters and fame and dispatches have my ears every day full of the new names of nations, peoples, places?
multa praetereo, quod intueor coram haec lumina atque ornamenta rei publicae, P. Servilium et M. Lucullum. Vtinam etiam L. Lucullus illic adsideret! quae fuerunt inimicitiae in civitate graviores quam Lucullorum atque Servili? quas in viris fortissimis non solum exstinxit rei publicae utilitas dignitasque ipsorum, sed etiam ad amicitiam consuetudinemque traduxit. quid? Q. Metellus Nepos nonne consul in templo Iovis optimi maximi, permotus cum auctoritate vestra tum illius P. Servili incredibili gravitate dicendi, absens mecum summo suo beneficio rediit in gratiam? an ego possum huic esse inimicus cuius litteris fama nuntiis celebrantur aures cotidie meae novis nominibus gentium nationum locorum?
I burn, believe me, senators — as you yourselves think and do for me — with a kind of incredible love of country: which love of country once compelled me to come to its rescue against the gravest dangers, with a struggle that put my life at stake; and again, when I saw all weapons aimed from every side at our country, to face them and take the blow alone, on behalf of all. This my old and unbroken feeling toward the commonwealth brings me back, reconciles me, restores me to friendship with C. Caesar.
ardeo, mihi credite, patres conscripti,—id quod vosmet de me existimatis et facitis ipsi,—incredibili quodam amore patriae, qui me amor et subvenire olim impendentibus periculis maximis cum dimicatione capitis et rursum, cum omnia tela undique esse intenta in patriam viderem, subire coegit atque excipere unum pro universis. hic me meus in rem publicam animus pristinus ac perennis cum C. Caesare reducit, reconciliat, restituit in gratiam.
In the end let men think what they wish: I cannot be other than friend to anyone who has deserved well of the commonwealth. For if I declared not enmity but war on those who wished to destroy all this with flame and sword — when some of them were my close friends, and some had even been freed from capital trials by my own defending — why should the same commonwealth which could inflame me against friends not be able to placate me toward enemies? What hatred had I against P. Clodius, except that I judged the man would be a public danger to his country who, fired by the most shameful lust, had violated by one crime the two most sacred things, religion and chastity? Is there any doubt then, from the things he has done and does daily, that in attacking him I had more regard for the commonwealth than for my own peace — while certain men, in defending him, had more regard for their own peace than for the common good?
quod volent denique homines existiment: nemini ego possum esse bene merenti de re publica non amicus. etenim si iis qui haec omnia flamma ac ferro delere voluerunt non inimicitias solum sed etiam bellum indixi atque intuli, cum partim mihi illorum familiares, partim etiam me defendente capitis iudiciis essent liberati, cur eadem res publica quae me in amicos inflammare potuit inimicis placare non possit? quod mihi odium cum P. Clodio fuit, nisi quod perniciosum patriae civem fore putabam qui turpissima libidine incensus duas res sanctissimas, religionem et pudicitiam, uno scelere violasset? num est igitur dubium ex iis rebus quas is egit agitque cotidie quin ego in illo oppugnando rei publicae plus quam otio meo, non nulli in eodem defendendo suo plus otio quam communi prospexerint?
I confess that I differed from C. Caesar in matters of state and felt with you; but now I assent to the same men with whom I formerly felt. For you yourselves, to whom L. Piso does not dare to send letters about his own doings, you who condemned the letters of Gabinius with a notable mark and a new disgrace, have decreed thanksgivings to C. Caesar in number such as no one ever received from one war, and with honour such as no one ever received at all. Why then should I look for some person to bring me back into friendship with him? The most august order has brought me back, and that order which is both the source and chief mover of public counsel and of all my own counsels. I follow you, senators; I obey you, I assent to you; you who, so long as you did not particularly approve C. Caesar’s policies in the commonwealth, saw me also less closely linked with him; afterwards, when by his exploits you changed your minds and your wills, you saw me not only the companion of your opinion but its eulogist.
ego me a C. Caesare in re publica dissensisse fateor et sensisse vobiscum; sed nunc isdem vobis adsentior cum quibus antea sentiebam. vos enim, ad quos litteras L. Piso de suis rebus non audet mittere, qui Gabini litteras insigni quadam nota atque ignominia nova condemnastis, C. Caesari supplicationes decrevistis numero ut nemini uno ex bello, honore ut omnino nemini. cur igitur exspectem hominem aliquem qui me cum illo in gratiam reducat? reduxit ordo amplissimus, et ordo is qui est et publici consili et meorum omnium consiliorum auctor et princeps. vos sequor, patres conscripti, vobis obtempero, vobis adsentior, qui, quam diu C. Caesaris consilia in re publica non maxime diligebatis, me quoque cum illo minus coniunctum videbatis: postea quam rebus gestis mentis vestras voluntatesque mutastis, me non solum comitem esse sententiae vestrae sed etiam laudatorem vidistis.
But what is there in this case that men should especially marvel at and reprove — my own counsel, when I myself have previously decreed many things which had to do more with the standing of the man than with the necessity of the commonwealth? I voted by my own motion a thanksgiving of fifteen days. For the commonwealth as many days as for C. Marius were enough; for the immortal gods that same gratitude was not too small a measure as for the greatest wars; therefore the surplus of days was a tribute paid to the man’s standing.
sed quid est quod in hac causa maxime homines admirentur et reprehendant meum consilium, cum ego idem antea multa decrerim quae magis ad hominis dignitatem quam ad rei publicae necessitatem pertinerent? supplicationem quindecim dierum decrevi sententia mea. rei publicae satis erat tot dierum quot C. Mario; dis immortalibus non erat exigua eadem gratulatio quae ex maximis bellis; ergo ille cumulus dierum hominis est dignitati tributus.
On which point I — who as consul first proposed a thanksgiving of ten days when Mithridates was killed and the Mithridatic war finished by Cn. Pompey, and on whose motion a consular thanksgiving was first doubled (for you assented to me when, after the letters of the same Pompey were read out, you decreed a ten-day thanksgiving for the completion of all wars by sea and by land) — I, I say, marvelled at the courage and greatness of soul of Cn. Pompey, in that, although he had himself been preferred above all others in every honour, he was assigning a fuller honour to another than he himself had obtained. Therefore in that thanksgiving which I proposed, the substance was paid to the immortal gods and to the institutions of our forefathers and to the commonwealth’s interest, but the dignity of the words, the honour, the novelty, and the number of days were granted to Caesar’s own praise and glory.
in quo ego, quo consule referente primum decem dierum est supplicatio decreta Cn. Pompeio Mithridate interfecto et confecto Mithridatico bello, et cuius sententia primum duplicata est supplicatio consularis,—mihi enim estis adsensi cum, eiusdem Pompei litteris recitatis, confectis omnibus maritimis terrestribusque bellis, supplicationem dierum decem decrevistis,— sum Cn. Pompei virtutem et animi magnitudinem admiratus, quod, cum ipse ceteris omnibus esset omni honore antelatus, ampliorem honorem alteri tribuebat quam ipse erat consecutus. ergo in illa supplicatione quam ego decrevi, res ipsa tributa est dis immortalibus et maiorum institutis et utilitati rei publicae, sed dignitas verborum, honos et novitas et numerus dierum Caesaris ipsius laudi gloriaeque concessus est.
The pay of the army was lately referred to us: I not only voted for it but worked to bring you to vote for it; I answered many objectors; I was present at the drawing-up. There too I attributed more to the man than to any unspecified necessity. For I judged that even without this support of money he could keep the army by the booty already won, and finish the war; but I did not think that the lustre and adornment of his triumph should be diminished by our parsimony. The matter of the ten legates was raised — whom some refused outright; some asked for precedents; some put off the day; some gave them without any ornament of words. There too I spoke so that all should understand I was doing, more amply, what I felt for the commonwealth’s sake, on account of Caesar’s own dignity.
relatum est ad nos nuper de stipendio exercitus: non decrevi solum sed etiam ut vos decerneretis laboravi, multa dissentientibus respondi, scribendo adfui. tum quoque homini plus tribui quam nescio cui necessitati. illum enim arbitrabar etiam sine hoc subsidio pecuniae retinere exercitum praeda ante parta et bellum conficere posse; sed decus illud et ornamentum triumphi minuendum nostra parsimonia non putavi. actum est de decem legatis, quos alii omnino non dabant, alii exempla quaerebant, alii tempus differebant, alii sine ullis verborum ornamentis dabant: in ea quoque re sic sum locutus ut omnes intellegerent me id quod rei publicae causa sentirem facere uberius propter ipsius Caesaris dignitatem.
But that same I, in now assigning the provinces — I who handled all those earlier matters in silence — am being interrupted, when in those previous causes the man’s standing was a help to me, but in this case nothing else moves me but the calculation of the war, the supreme advantage of the commonwealth. For Caesar himself: what reason can he have for wishing to linger in his province, except so that what has been begun by him may be handed over completed to the commonwealth? The pleasantness of the regions, I suppose, the beauty of the cities, the courtesy and refinement of those peoples and nations, the desire of victory, the pushing-out of the empire’s borders — these things are keeping him there. What can be found rougher than those lands, more uncultivated than those towns, more savage than those peoples, more notable than so many victories, more remote than the Ocean? Or has his return to the country some occasion for offence? With the people, who sent him? Or with the Senate, by whom he was honoured? Does the day add to longing for him, or rather to forgetfulness; and does that laurel won by great dangers, after a long interval, lose its freshness? Therefore, if any do not love the man, there is no reason for them to call him back from the province: they call him back to glory, to a triumph, to congratulations, to the highest honour of the Senate, to the goodwill of the equestrian order, to the love of the people.
at ego idem nunc in provinciis decernendis, qui illas omnis res egi silentio, interpellor, cum in superioribus causis hominis ornamenta adiumento fuerint, in hac me nihil aliud nisi ratio belli, nisi summa utilitas rei publicae moveat. nam ipse Caesar quid est cur in provincia commorari velit, nisi ut ea quae per eum adfecta sunt perfecta rei publicae tradat? amoenitas eum, credo, locorum, urbium pulchritudo, hominum nationumque illarum humanitas et lepos, victoriae cupiditas, finium imperi propagatio retinet. quid illis terris asperius, quid incultius oppidis, quid nationibus immanius, quid porro tot victoriis praestabilius, quid Oceano longius inveniri potest? an reditus in patriam habet aliquam offensionem? utrum apud populum a quo missus, an apud senatum a quo ornatus est? an dies auget eius desiderium, an magis oblivionem, ac laurea illa magnis periculis parta amittit longo intervallo viriditatem? qua re, si qui hominem non diligunt, nihil est quod eum de provincia devocent: ad gloriam devocant, ad triumphum, ad gratulationem, ad summum honorem senatus, equestris ordinis gratiam, populi caritatem.
But if he, on account of the commonwealth’s interest, does not hasten to enjoy this most signal good fortune — in order to bring all those things to completion — what ought I, a senator, to do, who, even if he should wish otherwise, would still have to take counsel for the commonwealth? I myself understand it thus, senators: that at this time, in assigning the provinces, we ought to take account of perpetual peace. For who does not feel that everything else is free for us from all peril and even from the suspicion of war?
sed si ille hac tam eximia fortuna propter utilitatem rei publicae frui non properat, ut omnia illa conficiat, quid ego senator facere debeo, quem, etiam si ille aliud vellet, rei publicae consulere oporteret? ego vero sic intellego, patres conscripti, nos hoc tempore in provinciis decernendis perpetuae pacis habere oportere rationem. nam quis hoc non sentit, omnia alia esse nobis vacua ab omni periculo atque etiam suspicione belli?
Long since we see that vast sea, by whose seething not only sea-routes but cities and military roads were held in check, kept secure for the Roman people by the courage of Cn. Pompey from the Ocean to the farthest Pontus, as if it were one safe and closed harbour; those nations which by their numbers and very mass were able to overflow into our provinces have, by the same man, been partly cut down, partly held back, so that Asia, which used to mark the limit of our empire, is now itself ringed by three new provinces. I can speak of every region, of every kind of enemy: there is no people which has not either been so reduced as scarcely to exist, or so subdued as to keep quiet, or so pacified as to rejoice in our victory and our empire.
iam diu mare videmus illud immensum, cuius fervore non solum maritimi cursus sed urbes etiam et viae militares iam tenebantur, virtute Cn. Pompei sic a populo Romano ab Oceano usque ad ultimum Pontum tamquam unum aliquem portum tutum et clausum teneri; nationes eas, quae numero hominum ac multitudine ipsa poterant in provincias nostras redundare, ita ab eodem esse partim recisas, partim repressas, ut Asia, quae imperium antea nostrum terminabat, nunc tribus novis provinciis ipsa cingatur. possum de omni regione, de omni genere hostium dicere: nulla gens est quae non aut ita sublata sit ut vix exstet, aut ita domita ut quiescat, aut ita pacata ut victoria nostra imperioque laetetur.
The Gallic war, senators, has been fought, with C. Caesar as commander; before, it had only been beaten back. Always our commanders thought those nations were rather to be repelled in war than provoked. Even the great C. Marius himself, whose godlike and outstanding courage came to the rescue when the Roman people had been struck by great mournings and slaughters, drove back the vast forces of the Gauls flowing into Italy: he did not himself penetrate to their cities and seats. Lately my own companion in labours, dangers, and counsels, C. Pomptinus, that bravest of men, broke in battle the war of the Allobroges, suddenly risen and stirred up by the wicked conspiracy, and tamed those who had provoked him; and content with that victory — with the commonwealth freed from fear — he kept quiet. C. Caesar’s reckoning, I see, has been a very different one. He judged that he had to make war not only with those whom he saw already in arms against the Roman people, but that all of Gaul had to be brought under our sway.
bellum Gallicum, patres conscripti, C. Caesare imperatore gestum est, antea tantum modo repulsum. semper illas nationes nostri imperatores refutandas potius bello quam lacessendas putaverunt. ipse ille C. Marius, cuius divina atque eximia virtus magnis populi Romani luctibus funeribusque subvenit, influentis in Italiam Gallorum maximas copias repressit, non ipse ad eorum urbis sedisque penetravit. modo ille meorum laborum periculorum consiliorum socius, C. Pomptinus, fortissimus vir, ortum repente bellum Allobrogum atque hac scelerata coniuratione excitatum proeliis fregit eosque domuit qui lacessierant, et ea victoria contentus re publica metu liberata quievit. C. Caesaris longe aliam video fuisse rationem; non enim sibi solum cum iis quos iam armatos contra populum Romanum videbat bellandum esse duxit, sed totam Galliam in nostram dicionem esse redigendam.
And so he has fought most successfully, in the greatest battles, against the fiercest peoples, the Germans and the Helvetii; the rest he has terrified, beaten down, tamed, accustomed to obey the empire of the Roman people; and regions and peoples that no records, no voice, no fame had made known to us before, our commander, our army, the arms of the Roman people have traversed. Before, senators, we held but a path through Gaul; the rest of the parts were held by nations either hostile to our empire, or untrustworthy, or unknown, or at any rate savage and barbarous and warlike — nations which there has never been a man who did not desire to see broken and tamed. No one ever thought wisely about our state, from the very beginning of this empire, who did not judge that Gaul was most of all to be feared by it; but on account of the violence and the multitude of those peoples, they had never before been fought with all together. We resisted always when provoked: at last, now, it has been brought about that the limit of our empire and the limit of those lands is one and the same.
itaque cum acerrimis nationibus et maximis Germanorum et Helvetiorum proeliis felicissime decertavit, ceteras conterruit, compulit, domuit, imperio populi Romani parere adsuefecit, et quas regiones quasque gentis nullae nobis antea litterae, nulla vox, nulla fama notas fecerat, has noster imperator nosterque exercitus et populi Romani arma peragrarunt. semitam tantum Galliae tenebamus antea, patres conscripti; ceterae partes a gentibus aut inimicis huic imperio aut infidis aut incognitis aut certe immanibus et barbaris et bellicosis tenebantur; quas nationes nemo umquam fuit quin frangi domarique cuperet. nemo sapienter de re publica nostra cogitavit, iam inde a principio huius imperi, quin Galliam maxime timendam huic imperio putaret; sed propter vim ac multitudinem gentium illarum numquam est antea cum omnibus dimicatum. restitimus semper lacessiti: nunc denique est perfectum ut imperi nostri terrarumque illarum idem esset extremum.
The Alps had fortified Italy formerly, by nature, not without some divine help; for if that approach had lain open to the savagery and multitude of the Gauls, never would this city have offered a home and seat to the highest empire. Now they may sink as they please! For there is nothing beyond that height of mountains, all the way to the Ocean, that Italy need fear. Yet a single summer, or two at most — by fear or hope, by punishment or rewards, by arms or laws — can bind all Gaul fast in eternal chains: but if the country is left half-finished and bitter, although now cut down it will at some point rise up and break out again into renewed war.
Alpibus Italiam munierat antea natura non sine aliquo divino numine; nam si ille aditus Gallorum immanitati multitudinique patuisset, numquam haec urbs summo imperio domicilium ac sedem praebuisset. quae iam licet considant! nihil est enim ultra illam altitudinem montium usque ad Oceanum quod sit Italiae pertimescendum. sed tamen una atque altera aestas vel metu vel spe vel poena vel praemiis vel armis vel legibus potest totam Galliam sempiternis vinculis adstringere: impolitae vero res et acerbae si erunt relictae, quamquam sunt accisae, tamen efferent se aliquando et ad renovandum bellum revirescent.
Therefore let Gaul be in the keeping of the man to whose loyalty and courage and good fortune it has been entrusted. If he, adorned with the most splendid gifts of Fortune, were unwilling to put that goddess to the test more often than he must; if he were hastening to his fatherland, to the household gods, to the standing he sees set out for him in the state, to his most beloved children, to his most distinguished son-in-law; if he were eager to ride into the Capitol the victor with that signal laurel; if, in short, he feared some chance, which now can no longer add as much as it might take away — yet we ourselves should still wish that all those things be brought to completion by the same man by whom they were begun. But seeing that he has long since done enough for his own glory, but not yet enough for the commonwealth, and prefers to come later to the fruits of his own labours rather than not to fulfil the task he has undertaken on behalf of the state — we ought neither to call back a commander on fire to manage the commonwealth’s business well, nor to throw into confusion and to hinder the whole plan of the Gallic war, now almost laid out.
qua re sit in eius tutela Gallia cuius fidei virtuti felicitati commendata est. qui si Fortunae muneribus amplissimis ornatus saepius eius deae periculum facere nollet, si in patriam, si ad deos penatis, si ad eam dignitatem quam in civitate sibi propositam videt, si ad iucundissimos liberos, si ad clarissimum generum redire properaret, si in Capitolium invehi victor cum illa insigni laurea gestiret, si denique timeret casum aliquem, qui illi tantum addere iam non potest quantum auferre, nos tamen oporteret ab eodem illa omnia a quo profligata sunt confici velle: cum vero ille suae gloriae iam pridem rei publicae nondum satis fecerit, et malit tamen tardius ad suorum laborum fructus pervenire quam non explere susceptum rei publicae munus, nec imperatorem incensum ad rem publicam bene gerendam revocare nec totam Gallici belli rationem prope iam explicatam perturbare atque impedire debemus.
For those opinions of distinguished men are by no means to be approved, of which the one decrees Further Gaul along with Syria, the other Hither Gaul. He who decrees the Further throws into confusion all the things I have just been discussing; he shows at the same time that he holds for law that which he denies to be law; and the part of the province on which interposition is not possible, this he tears away — the part that has a defender, he leaves alone. And he so manages it that what was given by the people he does not violate; what the Senate gave, he as a senator hastens to take away. The other has regard for the plan of the Gallic war, and discharges the office of a good senator: a law which he does not regard as such, even that he keeps; for he sets a date in advance for the successor. And yet nothing seems to me more alien from the dignity and the discipline of our forefathers than that he who, on the Kalends of January, ought as consul already to have his province, should appear to have it as a thing betrothed but not yet decreed.
nam illae sententiae virorum clarissimorum minime probandae sunt, quorum alter ulteriorem Galliam decernit cum Syria, alter citeriorem. qui ulteriorem, omnia illa de quibus disserui paulo ante perturbat; simul ostendit eam se tenere legem quam esse legem neget, et, quae pars provinciae sit cui non possit intercedi, hanc se avellere, quae defensorem habeat, non tangere; simul et illud facit, ut, quod illi a populo datum sit, id non violet, quod senatus dederit, id senator properet auferre. alter belli Gallici rationem habet, fungitur officio boni senatoris, legem quam non putat, eam quoque servat; praefinit enim successori diem. quamquam mihi nihil videtur alienius a dignitate disciplinaque maiorum quam ut, qui consul Kalendis Ianuariis habere provinciam debet, is ut eam desponsam non decretam habere videatur.
Suppose someone goes through his whole consulship without a province for whom no province had been decreed before he was elected. Will he draw lots, or not? For both not to draw lots is absurd, and not to have the thing one drew is absurd. Will he set out in the general’s cloak? Whither? Where it will not be lawful for him to come before a fixed day. In January, in February he will not have a province: at last on the Kalends of March a province will suddenly be born to him.
fuerit toto in consulatu sine provincia cui fuerit, ante quam designatus est, decreta provincia. sortietur an non? nam et non sortiri absurdum est, et quod sortitus sis non habere. proficiscetur paludatus? quo? quo pervenire ante certam diem non licebit. Ianuario, Februario provinciam non habebit: Kalendis ei denique Martiis nascetur repente provincia.
And yet under these motions Piso will remain in his province. Which things, if they are grave in themselves, this is graver still: that to fine a commander by reduction of his province is an insult, and care must be taken that this happen not only to the highest of men but even to a moderate one. I understand, senators, that you have decreed many distinguished honours and almost unique ones to C. Caesar. If because he had so deserved, you were grateful; but if also that he might be most closely linked with this order, you were wise and far-seeing. This order has never embraced anyone with its honours and benefits who has thought any standing more outstanding than that which he had attained through you. No one has ever been able to be a leading man here who has preferred to be a popular man. But men who have either, on account of their unworthiness, distrusted themselves; or, on account of the disparagement of others, been driven from association with this order, have often been forced from this harbour into those waves almost of necessity. If, after that tossing and that popular course, they bring back a public matter well managed and turn their gaze again to the Senate-house and wish to be received by this most august body, they ought not only not to be turned away but actually to be sought after.
ac tamen his sententiis Piso in provincia permanebit. quae cum gravia sunt tum nihil gravius illo, quod multari imperatorem deminutione provinciae contumeliosum est, neque solum summo in viro sed etiam mediocri in homine ne accidat providendum. ego vos intellego, patres conscripti, multos decrevisse eximios honores C. Caesari et prope singularis. si quod ita meritus erat grati, sin etiam ut quam coniunctissimus huic ordini esset, sapientes ac divini fuistis. neminem umquam est hic ordo complexus honoribus et beneficiis suis qui ullam dignitatem praestabiliorem ea quam per vos esset adeptus putarit. nemo umquam hic potuit esse princeps qui maluerit esse popularis. sed homines aut propter indignitatem suam diffisi ipsi sibi, aut propter reliquorum obtrectationem ab huius ordinis coniunctione depulsi, saepe ex hoc portu se in illos fluctus prope necessario contulerunt; qui si ex illa iactatione cursuque populari bene gesta re publica referunt aspectum in curiam atque huic amplissimae dignitati esse commendati volunt, non modo non repellendi sunt verum etiam expetendi.
We are warned by the bravest man and best consul within memory to take care that the Hither Gaul not be assigned, against our will, to someone after the men who shall now have been designated consuls; and that thereafter forever it be held in popular and turbulent fashion by those who attack this order. This blow, although I do not despise it, senators — especially when warned of it by the wisest of consuls and the most diligent guardian of peace and quiet — yet I judge that it is more vehemently to be feared if I shall lessen the honour of most distinguished and most powerful men or shall reject their zeal toward this order. For that C. Iulius, having been adorned by the Senate with all signal or unprecedented marks of honour, should hand over this province from his own hand to one whom you would least wish; should leave not even freedom to that order through which he himself has won the most splendid glory — to bring myself to suspect this is in no way possible. To begin with, what feeling each man will have, I do not know: what I have to hope, I see. This I, as senator, ought to do, so far as I can: that no distinguished or powerful man may seem to have just cause to be angry with this order.
monemur a fortissimo viro atque optimo post hominum memoriam consule ut provideamus ne citerior Gallia nobis invitis alicui decernatur post eos consules qui nunc erunt designati, perpetuoque posthac ab iis qui hunc ordinem oppugnent populari ac turbulenta ratione teneatur. quam ego plagam etsi non contemno, patres conscripti, praesertim monitus a sapientissimo consule et diligentissimo custode pacis atque oti, tamen vehementius arbitror pertimescendum si hominum clarissimorum ac potentissimorum aut honorem minuero aut studium erga hunc ordinem repudiaro. nam ut C. Iulius omnibus a senatu eximiis aut novis rebus ornatus per manus hanc provinciam tradat ei cui minime vos velitis, per quem ordinem ipse amplissimam sit gloriam consecutus, ei ne libertatem quidem relinquat, adduci ad suspicandum nullo modo possum. postremo quo quisque animo futurus sit, nescio: quid sperem, video. praestare hoc senator debeo, quantum possum, ne quis vir clarus aut potens huic ordini iure irasci posse videatur.
And these things, even if I were Caesar’s bitterest enemy, I should still feel for the sake of the commonwealth. But I think it not out of place — so that I may be less often interrupted by some, or less often reproached by the silent thoughts of others — to set out briefly what is the reason and basis of my dealings with Caesar. And first, the time of intimacy and habitual friendship which from the youth of all of us has held between him and me, and my brother, and our cousin C. Varro, I pass over. After I had entered fully into public life, I dissented from him on these terms: that, in the parting of opinion, we still remained joined in friendship.
atque haec, si inimicissimus essem C. Caesari, sentirem tamen rei publicae causa. sed non alienum esse arbitror, quo minus saepe aut interpeller a non nullis aut tacitorum existimatione reprendar, explicare breviter quae mihi sit ratio et causa cum Caesare. ac primum illud tempus familiaritatis et consuetudinis quae mihi cum illo, quae fratri meo, quae C. Varroni, consobrino nostro, ab omnium nostrum adulescentia fuit, praetermitto. postea quam sum penitus in rem publicam ingressus, ita dissensi ab illo ut in disiunctione sententiae coniuncti tamen amicitia maneremus.
As consul he undertook those measures of which he wished me to be a sharer; and if I did not consent to them at the time, his own judgement of me was bound to be welcome. He asked me to accept the place on the board of five; he wished me to be among the three consulars most closely associated with him; he offered me the legateship of my choice, with whatever honour I should choose. All these I refused, not from any ungrateful spirit but from a certain stubbornness of conviction. How wisely, I do not argue: with many I shall not make my case; consistently and bravely, surely yes — I, who, when I might have armed myself with the strongest resources against the wickedness of my enemies and beaten back popular onslaughts with a popular bulwark, chose rather to take up whatever fortune, to undergo violence and outrage, than either to dissent from your most sacred minds or to swerve from my standing. But not only the man who has received a kindness ought to be grateful: so too the man who had it in his power to receive it. I judged that those ornaments with which he was adorning me did not befit me, and were not consonant with the things I had done; but I felt that he, with friendly mind, held me in the same place as the leading citizen, his son-in-law.
consul ille egit eas res quarum me participem esse voluit; quibus ego si minus adsentiebar, tamen illius mihi iudicium gratum esse debebat. me ille ut quinqueviratum acciperem rogavit; me in tribus sibi coniunctissimis consularibus esse voluit; mihi legationem quam vellem, quanto cum honore vellem, detulit. quae ego omnia non ingrato animo, sed obstinatione quadam sententiae repudiavi. quam sapienter, non disputo; multis enim non probabo; constanter quidem et fortiter certe, qui cum me firmissimis opibus contra scelus inimicorum munire et popularis impetus populari praesidio propulsare possem, quamvis excipere fortunam, subire vim atque iniuriam malui quam aut a vestris sanctissimis mentibus dissidere aut de meo statu declinare. sed non is solum gratus debet esse qui accepit beneficium, verum etiam is cui potestas accipiendi fuit. ego illa ornamenta quibus ille me ornabat decere me et convenire iis rebus quas gesseram non putabam; illum quidem amico animo me habere eodem loco quo principem civium, suum generum, sentiebam.
He passed over to the plebs my enemy — whether angry with me, because he saw that I could not be linked with him even in benefits, or whether prevailed upon. Even this was no real injury. For afterwards he advised me, and even asked me, to be his legate. Not even this did I accept; not because I thought it foreign to my dignity, but because I did not suspect that so great a public crime was hanging over us from the next consuls. Therefore until now I have rather to be on my guard against my arrogance in the face of his generosity, than against his injury in our friendship.
traduxit ad plebem inimicum meum sive iratus mihi, quod me secum ne in beneficiis quidem videbat posse coniungi, sive exoratus. ne haec quidem fuit iniuria. nam postea me ut sibi essem legatus non solum suasit, verum etiam rogavit. ne id quidem accepi; non quo alienum mea dignitate arbitrarer, sed quod tantum rei publicae sceleris impendere a consulibus proximis non suspicabar. ergo adhuc magis est mihi verendum ne mea superbia in illius liberalitate quam ne illius iniuria in nostra amicitia reprendatur.
Lo, that storm! the gloom of good men, the sudden and unforeseen alarm, the darkness of the commonwealth, the ruin and burning of the state; terror cast upon Caesar about his acts; fear of slaughter to all good men; the wickedness of the consuls, their greed, their poverty, their daring! If I was not helped, I had no right to be; if abandoned, perhaps he was looking out for himself; if even attacked, as some men think or wish, the friendship was violated, I received an injury, I should have been an enemy — I do not deny it. But if at the very moment when you were missing me as your dearest son, he too wished me safe; and if you yourselves thought it relevant to that cause that Caesar’s will not be averse to my preservation; and if I have his son-in-law as witness for that will of his — the same man who roused Italy in the municipalities, the Roman people in the contio, you yourselves, always most desirous of me, in the Capitol, on behalf of my safety; if, finally, the same Cn. Pompey is to me a witness on Caesar’s will and a guarantor to him on mine: do I not seem to you, by recollection of the most distant time and memory of the most recent, bound to wish that middle saddest period — if I cannot pluck it out of the nature of things — at any rate to fall out of my heart?
ecce illa tempestas, caligo bonorum et subita atque improvisa formido, tenebrae rei publicae, ruina atque incendium civitatis, terror iniectus Caesari de eius actis, metus caedis bonis omnibus, consulum scelus, cupiditas, egestas, audacia! si non sum adiutus, non debui; si desertus, sibi fortasse providit; si etiam oppugnatus, ut quidam aut putant aut volunt, violata amicitia est, accepi iniuriam, inimicus esse debui, non nego: sed si idem ille tum me salvum esse voluit cum vos me ut carissimum filium desiderabatis, et si vos idem pertinere ad causam illam putabatis voluntatem Caesaris a salute mea non abhorrere, et si illius voluntatis generum eius habeo testem, qui idem Italiam in municipiis, populum Romanum in contione, vos mei semper cupidissimos in Capitolio ad meam salutem incitavit, si denique Cn. Pompeius idem mihi testis de voluntate Caesaris et sponsor est illi de mea, nonne vobis videor et ultimi temporis recordatione et proximi memoria medium illud tristissimum tempus debere, si ex rerum natura non possim evellere, ex animo quidem certe excidere?
I, on my side, if it is not lawful for me, on the score of certain men, to glory thus — that I have given up my own pain and my own enmities to the commonwealth — if it seems that this belongs to a man of greater stature and very great wisdom, I shall use this defence which avails not so much for winning praise as for avoiding reproach: that I am a man of gratitude, and am moved not only by such great kindnesses but even by ordinary goodwill from men. From certain bravest of men, who have deserved most well of me, I ask: if I refused to make them sharers of my labours and discomforts, let them not wish me to be the partner of their feuds — especially when they themselves have allowed me by their own concession to defend now, in my own right, even those acts of Caesar’s which I neither attacked before nor undertook to defend.
ego vero, si mihi non licet per aliquos ita gloriari, me dolorem atque inimicitias meas rei publicae concessisse, si hoc magni cuiusdam hominis et persapientis videtur, utar hoc, quod non tam ad laudem adipiscendam quam ad vitandam vituperationem valet, hominem me esse gratum, et non modo tantis beneficiis, sed etiam mediocri hominum benivolentia commoveri. a viris fortissimis et de me optime meritis quibusdam peto ut, si ego illos meorum laborum atque incommodorum participes esse nolui, ne illi me suarum inimicitiarum socium velint esse, praesertim cum mihi idem illi concesserint ut etiam acta illa Caesaris, quae neque oppugnavi antea neque defendi, meo iam iure possim defendere.
For the highest men of the state, by whose counsel I preserved the commonwealth, and by whose authority I steered clear of that alliance with Caesar, deny that the Julian laws and the rest of the laws proposed under his consulship were lawfully passed. Yet they used to say that that proscription of mine, against the safety of the commonwealth, was passed with the auspices intact. So that man of the highest authority and greatest eloquence said gravely that my fall was the funeral of the commonwealth — but a lawful funeral, duly proclaimed. To me personally it is altogether most honourable that my withdrawal should be called a funeral of the commonwealth: the rest I do not reproach, but I take it for myself toward what I am arguing. For if they have dared to say that thing was lawfully passed which could be done by no precedent, and was lawful by no statute, because no man had observed the heavens — have they forgotten that, when the man who pushed it through was made plebeian by a curiate law, an observation from the heavens was reported? Who, if he could not be a plebeian at all, how could he be tribune of the plebs? And if his tribunate stands valid, so that nothing of Caesar’s acts can be invalidated — shall not only his tribunate stand valid, but even his most pernicious measures, with the religious sanction of the auspices preserved, appear to have been lawfully passed?
nam summi civitatis viri, quorum ego consilio rem publicam conservavi, et quorum auctoritate illam coniunctionem Caesaris defugi, Iulias leges et ceteras illo consule rogatas iure latas negant: idem illam proscriptionem capitis mei contra salutem rei publicae, sed salvis auspiciis rogatam esse dicebant. itaque vir summa auctoritate, summa eloquentia, dixit graviter casum illum meum funus esse rei publicae, sed funus iustum et indictum. mihi ipsi omnino perhonorificum est discessum meum funus dici rei publicae: reliqua non reprendo, sed mihi ad id quod sentio adsumo. nam si illud iure rogatum dicere ausi sunt quod nullo exemplo fieri potuit, nulla lege licuit, quia nemo de caelo servarat, oblitine erant tum cum ille qui id egerat plebeius est lege curiata factus dici de caelo esse servatum? qui si plebeius omnino esse non potuit, qui tribunus plebis potuit esse? et cuius tribunatus si ratus est, nihil est quod inritum ex actis Caesaris possit esse, eius non solum tribunatus ratus sed etiam perniciosissimae res, auspiciorum religione conservata, iure latae videbuntur?
Therefore either you must rule that the lex Aelia stands, that the lex Fufia is not abrogated, that it is not lawful to bring legislation on every court-day; that, when legislation is being brought, it is lawful to observe the heavens, to announce ill omens, to interpose; that the censorial verdict, the censorial mark, and that severest mastership of morals has not been removed from the state by wicked statutes; that, if a patrician was made tribune of the plebs, it was against the sacred laws; if a plebeian, that it was against the auspices — or men ought to allow me, in good causes, not to demand those rights which they themselves do not demand in ruined causes; especially when terms have on several occasions been offered to C. Caesar by them, that he should pass the same measures in another way — on which terms they were demanding the auspices, were approving the laws — whereas in the case of Clodius the auspices have the same weight with them, and yet all the laws have been overthrown to the ruin of the state.
qua re aut vobis statuendum est legem Aeliam manere, legem Fufiam non esse abrogatam, non omnibus fastis legem ferri licere; cum lex feratur, de caelo servari, obnuntiari, intercedi licere; censorium iudicium ac notionem et illud morum severissimum magisterium non esse nefariis legibus de civitate sublatum; si patricius tribunus plebis fuerit, contra leges sacratas, si plebeius, contra auspicia fuisse; aut mihi concedant homines oportet in rebus bonis non exquirere ea iura quae ipsi in perditis non exquirant, praesertim cum ab illis aliquotiens condicio C. Caesari lata sit ut easdem res alio modo ferret, qua condicione auspicia requirebant, leges comprobabant, in Clodio auspiciorum ratio sit eadem, leges omnes sint eversae ac perditae civitatis.
The last point is this. I, even if I had feuds with C. Caesar, ought at this moment to take counsel for the commonwealth, and reserve my feuds for another time; I might even, after the example of the greatest of men, lay aside feuds for the commonwealth’s sake. But since there has never been a feud, and what was thought a wrong has been wiped out by a kindness, my opinion, senators, will be this: if Caesar’s standing is at issue, I will yield to the man; if a certain honour, I will take counsel for the harmony of the Senate; if the authority of your decrees, I will preserve the consistency of the order in adorning the same commander; if the perpetual conduct of the Gallic war, I will look to the commonwealth; if some private duty of my own, I will show myself not ungrateful. And this I would gladly prove to all, senators; but I shall bear it most lightly if I fail to prove it either to those who shielded my enemy against your authority, or to those, if there are any, who will reproach my reconciliation with my enemy — when they themselves have not hesitated to be reconciled both with my enemy and with their own.
extremum illud est. ego, si essent inimicitiae mihi cum C. Caesare, tamen hoc tempore rei publicae consulere, inimicitias in aliud tempus reservare deberem; possem etiam summorum virorum exemplo inimicitias rei publicae causa deponere. sed cum inimicitiae fuerint numquam, opinio iniuriae beneficio sit exstincta, sententia mea, patres conscripti, si dignitas agitur Caesaris, homini tribuam; si honos quidam, senatus concordiae consulam; si auctoritas decretorum vestrorum, constantiam ordinis in eodem ornando imperatore servabo; si perpetua ratio Gallici belli, rei publicae providebo; si aliquod meum privatum officium, me non ingratum esse praestabo. atque hoc velim probare omnibus, patres conscripti; sed levissime feram si forte aut iis minus probaro qui meum inimicum repugnante vestra auctoritate texerunt, aut iis, si qui meum cum inimico suo reditum in gratiam vituperabunt, cum ipsi et cum meo et cum suo inimico in gratiam non dubitarint redire.