For Gaius Rabirius on a Charge of High Treason
Pro C. Rabirio Perduellionis Reo
Headnote
Cicero’s defence as consul of the elderly senator Gaius Rabirius, prosecuted by the tribune Titus Labienus on a revived charge of perduellio — high treason against the Roman state — for an alleged part in the killing of the tribune Lucius Saturninus thirty-seven years earlier, in 100 BC. Saturninus and his confederate Glaucia had seized the Capitoline; the consul Marius, by decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum), called all loyal citizens to arms, and Saturninus was killed after surrender, together with Labienus’s own uncle Quintus, who was on the Capitoline among the rebels. Labienus’s prosecution was revived in 63 BC at the instigation of Caesar, who saw an opportunity to put the legitimacy of the senatus consultum ultimum on trial: if the consul Marius’s emergency decree had not warranted the killing of citizens without trial, then the weapon by which the Senate had defended itself for a generation was broken — and would not be available to Cicero in the months ahead. The procedural form of perduellio was itself archaic: judgment by two officers (duumviri perduellionis), an executioner waiting in the Forum, the sentence of crucifixion on the Field of Mars in the words recited from the regal commentaries (“go, lictor, bind his hands; veil his head; hang him on the unlucky tree”). Cicero calls these the carmina of Tarquin, the dirges of torture, and in his consulship has caused them to be set aside; the prosecution had to be transferred from the duumviri to a straight prosecution before the people in the comitia centuriata, with Cicero limited by Labienus to half an hour of speech.
The argument is consular through and through. Cicero does not deny that arms were taken up against Saturninus; he embraces it, and demands that everyone who that day rallied to the consuls’ call — Marius, Catulus, Scaurus, the two Mucii, Crassus, Antonius, the entire equestrian order, the princeps senatus Aemilius leaning on his stick, the crippled Scaevola leaning on a spear, the praetors and the consulars and “all the most illustrious men” — be acknowledged as sharing in Rabirius’s act. Either the senatus consultum ultimum justifies all of them, or it justifies none. The prosecution is unmasked as an attack not on one elderly senator but on the supreme protection of the commonwealth, the auxilium maiestatis atque imperi, in the year that Cicero will need to invoke it against Catiline. The closing peroration begs the citizens not by their verdict to take from him, and from the commonwealth, “the hope of liberty, the hope of safety, the hope of dignity.”
The text survives mutilated: there are textual gaps in sections 31 and 35, and the closing lines are damaged. The trial itself ended without a verdict — when the proceedings in the comitia centuriata were near judgment, the praetor Metellus Celer is said to have hauled down the red flag that flew on the Janiculum (the signal for an enemy attack on the city) and dissolved the assembly under the old law. Rabirius went free; the senatus consultum ultimum stood; and a few months later Cicero invoked it against the Catilinarian conspirators.
Although, citizens, it is not my custom at the opening of a speech to give the reason for my having undertaken this or that defence — because in every fellow-citizen’s hour of danger I have always thought the bond of common citizenship a sufficiently just claim on me — nevertheless in this defence, where the life, the reputation, and the entire fortunes of Gaius Rabirius are at stake, the reason for my obligation must, I think, be set out: because the cause that has seemed most just to me for taking up his defence ought also to seem to you the most just for acquitting him.
etsi, Quirites, non est meae consuetudinis initio dicendi rationem reddere qua de causa quemque defendam, propterea quod cum omnibus civibus in eorum periculis semper satis iustam mihi causam necessitudinis esse duxi, tamen in hac defensione capitis, famae fortunarumque omnium C. Rabiri proponenda ratio videtur esse offici mei, propterea quod, quae iustissima mihi causa ad hunc defendendum esse visa est, eadem vobis ad absolvendum debet videri.
For though long-standing friendship, the man’s standing, the claims of common humanity, and the whole habit of my life have urged me to defend Gaius Rabirius, what compelled me to do so with the utmost zeal was something else: the safety of the commonwealth, the duty of a consul, the consulship itself, which you committed to me together with the safety of the commonwealth. For it is not, citizens, the guilt of any crime, not the odium of his way of life, not, finally, any old, just, and weighty private enmities of citizens that have summoned Gaius Rabirius into peril of his life: it is that the supreme protection of the majesty and authority of Rome which we have inherited from our ancestors should be torn out of the commonwealth; that hereafter the authority of the Senate, the imperium of the consuls, the consensus of loyal men should count for nothing against the plague and ruin of the state. To overthrow these things, the old age, the weakness, the friendlessness of one man have been put to the test.
nam me cum amicitiae vetustas, cum dignitas hominis, cum ratio humanitatis, cum meae vitae perpetua consuetudo ad C. Rabirium defendendum est adhortata, tum vero, ut id studiosissime facerem, salus rei publicae, consulare officium, consulatus denique ipse mihi una a vobis cum salute rei publicae commendatus coegit. non enim C. Rabirium culpa delicti, non invidia vitae, Quirites, non denique veteres iustae gravesque inimicitiae civium in discrimen capitis vocaverunt, sed ut illud summum auxilium maiestatis atque imperi quod nobis a maioribus est traditum de re publica tolleretur, ut nihil posthac auctoritas senatus, nihil consulare imperium, nihil consensio bonorum contra pestem ac perniciem civitatis valeret, idcirco in his rebus evertendis unius hominis senectus, infirmitas solitudoque temptata est.
If, then, it is the part of a good consul, when he sees all the supports of the commonwealth being shaken and torn loose, to bring help to his country, to come to the aid of the common safety and fortunes, to call upon the loyalty of his fellow citizens, to count his own safety after the safety of all — it is also the part of loyal and brave citizens, such as you have shown yourselves at every crisis of the commonwealth, to block off every road to sedition, to fortify the commonwealth’s defences, to think the highest authority resides in the consuls and the highest counsel in the Senate, and to judge that whoever has followed those things deserves praise and honour rather than punishment and execution.
quam ob rem si est boni consulis, cum cuncta auxilia rei publicae labefactari convellique videat, ferre opem patriae, succurrere saluti fortunisque communibus, implorare civium fidem, suam salutem posteriorem salute communi ducere, est etiam bonorum et fortium civium, quales vos omnibus rei publicae temporibus exstitistis, intercludere omnis seditionum vias, munire praesidia rei publicae, summum in consulibus imperium, summum in senatu consilium putare; ea qui secutus sit, laude potius et honore quam poena et supplicio dignum iudicare.
Hence the labour in defending him is mine in particular, but the will to save the man must be one I share with you. For you ought to consider, citizens, that within the memory of mankind no greater matter, none more dangerous, none more requiring foresight from you all has ever been undertaken by a tribune of the plebs, defended by a consul, or laid before the Roman people. For nothing else is at issue in this case, citizens, except that there shall hereafter be no public council in the commonwealth, no concord of loyal men against the fury and audacity of the wicked, no refuge and stronghold of safety in the last extremities of the state.
quam ob rem labor in hoc defendendo praecipue meus est, studium vero conservandi hominis commune mihi vobiscum esse debebit. sic enim existimare debetis, Quirites, post hominum memoriam rem nullam maiorem, magis periculosam, magis ab omnibus vobis providendam neque a tribuno pl. susceptam neque a consule defensam neque ad populum Romanum esse delatam. agitur enim nihil aliud in hac causa, Quirites, nisi ut nullum sit posthac in re publica publicum consilium, nulla bonorum consensio contra improborum furorem et audaciam, nullum extremis rei publicae temporibus perfugium et praesidium salutis.
Since this is so, first — as is necessary in so vast a struggle for life, reputation, and all one’s fortunes — I beg of Jupiter Best and Greatest and the rest of the immortal gods and goddesses, by whose help and aid this commonwealth is ruled far more than by the reason and counsel of men, that they grant peace and indulgence; I pray them to permit this day to have dawned both for preserving this man’s safety and for setting the commonwealth on its foundations. Then I beseech and implore you, citizens, whose power comes nearest to the divine power of the immortal gods, since at one and the same moment the life of Gaius Rabirius, a most wretched and most innocent man, and the safety of the commonwealth are committed to your hands and your votes, to bring to a man’s fortunes that mercy, and to the commonwealth’s safety that wisdom, which are habitually yours.
quae cum ita sint, primum, quod in tanta dimicatione capitis, famae fortunarumque omnium fieri necesse est, ab Iove optimo maximo ceterisque dis deabusque immortalibus, quorum ope et auxilio multo magis haec res publica quam ratione hominum et consilio gubernatur, pacem ac veniam peto precorque ab eis ut hodiernum diem et ad huius salutem conservandam et ad rem publicam constituendam inluxisse patiantur. deinde vos, Quirites, quorum potestas proxime ad deorum immortalium numen accedit, oro atque obsecro, quoniam uno tempore vita C. Rabiri, hominis miserrimi atque innocentissimi, salus rei publicae vestris manibus suffragiisque permittitur, adhibeatis in hominis fortunis misericordiam, in rei publicae salute sapientiam quam soletis.
Now, since you, Titus Labienus, by your strict timing have stood in the way of my own diligence, and have driven me out of the orderly span allotted for the defence into the narrow joint of half an hour, I shall comply — with what is most unjust, the prosecutor’s terms, and with what is most pitiful, an enemy’s authority. Yet by this prescription of half an hour you have left me the part of an advocate but stripped me of the part of a consul: for half an hour will be just about enough for the defence, but too little for the protest.
nunc quoniam, T. Labiene, diligentiae meae temporis angustiis obstitisti meque ex comparato et constituto spatio defensionis in semihorae articulum coegisti, parebitur et, quod iniquissimum est, accusatoris condicioni et, quod miserrimum, inimici potestati. quamquam in hac praescriptione semihorae patroni mihi partis reliquisti, consulis ademisti, propterea quod ad defendendum prope modum satis erit hoc mihi temporis, ad conquerendum vero parum.
Unless perhaps you think I ought to answer at length about the religious sites and groves which you say my client has profaned. On that charge nothing has ever been said by you except that the same charge was made against Gaius Rabirius by Gaius Macer. In which I marvel that you remember what Macer, his enemy, charged him with, but have forgotten what fair-minded jurors on oath delivered as their verdict.
Nisi forte de locis religiosis ac de lucis quos ab hoc violatos esse dixisti pluribus verbis tibi respondendum putas; quo in crimine nihil est umquam abs te dictum, nisi a C. Macro obiectum esse crimen id C. Rabirio. in quo ego demiror meminisse te quid obiecerit C. Rabirio Macer inimicus, oblitum esse quid aequi et iurati iudices iudicarint.
Or shall a long speech be poured out about the alleged embezzlement and the burning of the records office? On that charge a kinsman of Gaius Rabirius, Gaius Curtius, was honourably acquitted in a most distinguished trial in keeping with his integrity; while Rabirius himself was never so much as named as a suspect, never mind brought to trial. Or must I answer more carefully about the sister’s son? whom you said was killed by my client, when an excuse of a death in the family was being looked for in order to delay a trial. What is more likely than that he held his sister’s husband dearer than his sister’s son — so much dearer that the one was robbed of life with utter cruelty, while for the other a stay of two days was sought in postponement of the trial? Or must more be said about other men’s slaves held in defiance of the Lex Fabia (a law against the kidnapping of free men), or about Roman citizens flogged or killed in defiance of the Lex Porcia (a law forbidding the scourging of citizens), when Gaius Rabirius is honoured by all Apulia with such enthusiasm and by Campania with such singular goodwill, when not only individuals but almost whole regions have come together to ward off the danger to him — regions extending considerably wider than the bare name and limits of his neighbourhood would call for? And what need have I to prepare a long speech against what is set down in the same indictment of fines, that he has spared neither his own chastity nor anyone else’s?
an de peculatu facto aut de tabulario incenso longa oratio est expromenda? quo in crimine propinquus C. Rabiri iudicio clarissimo, C. Curtius, pro virtute sua est honestissime liberatus, ipse vero Rabirius non modo in iudicium horum criminum, sed ne in tenuissimam quidem suspicionem verbo est umquam vocatus. an de sororis filio diligentius respondendum est? quem ab hoc necatum esse dixisti, cum ad iudici moram familiaris funeris excusatio quaereretur. quid enim est tam veri simile quam cariorem huic sororis maritum quam sororis filium fuisse, atque ita cariorem ut alter vita crudelissime privaretur, cum alteri ad prolationem iudici biduum quaereretur? an de servis alienis contra legem Fabiam retentis, aut de civibus Romanis contra legem Porciam verberatis aut necatis plura dicenda sunt, cum tanto studio C. Rabirius totius Apuliae, singulari voluntate Campaniae ornetur, cumque ad eius propulsandum periculum non modo homines sed prope regiones ipsae convenerint, aliquanto etiam latius excitatae quam ipsius vicinitatis nomen ac termini postulabant? nam quid ego ad id longam orationem comparem quod est in eadem multae inrogatione praescriptum, hunc nec suae nec alienae pudicitiae pepercisse?
I rather suspect that this is precisely why a half hour has been allotted me by Labienus — so that I should not say more about chastity. So you see that for these charges, which require an advocate’s diligence, that half hour of yours has been more than long enough. The other part, on the killing of Saturninus, you wished to be too narrow and constricted: but that part calls not for an orator’s talent but for a consul’s protection, and demands it.
quin etiam suspicor eo mihi semihoram ab Labieno praestitutam esse ut ne plura de pudicitia dicerem. ergo ad haec crimina quae patroni diligentiam desiderant intellegis mihi semihoram istam nimium longam fuisse. illam alteram partem de nece Saturnini nimis exiguam atque angustam esse voluisti; quae non oratoris ingenium sed consulis auxilium implorat et flagitat.
For as to the trial for high treason, the abolition of which you keep accusing me of, that charge is mine, not Rabirius’s. And I would to heaven, citizens, that I had been either the first or the only man in this commonwealth to abolish it! Would that this thing he wishes to make my reproach were the proper testimony to my praise. For what could be wished for that I should rather have than to have driven the executioner from the Forum and the cross from the Field of Mars in my consulship? But that praise belongs first to our ancestors, citizens, who, when they had expelled the kings, kept no trace of the cruelty of kingship in the free people; then to the many brave men who wished your liberty to be guarded not by the sharpness of penalties but by the mildness of laws.
nam de perduellionis iudicio, quod a me sublatum esse criminari soles, meum crimen est, non Rabiri. quod utinam, Quirites, ego id aut primus aut solus ex hac re publica sustulissem! utinam hoc, quod ille crimen esse volt, proprium testimonium meae laudis esset. quid enim optari potest quod ego mallem quam me in consulatu meo carnificem de foro, crucem de campo sustulisse? sed ista laus primum est maiorum nostrorum, Quirites, qui expulsis regibus nullum in libero populo vestigium crudelitatis regiae retinuerunt, deinde multorum virorum fortium qui vestram libertatem non acerbitate suppliciorum infestam sed lenitate legum munitam esse voluerunt.
On which then of us, Labienus, is the title “friend of the people” to fall: on you, who think that against Roman citizens at the very public assembly the executioner and the chains ought to be brought, who order that on the Field of Mars at a comitia centuriata, in a place taken by the auspices, a cross be planted and set up for the punishment of citizens? or on me, who forbid the assembly to be polluted by contact with the executioner, who say that the Forum of the Roman people is to be cleansed of those traces of unspeakable crime, who maintain that the assembly should remain pure, the Field of Mars sacred, the body of every Roman citizen inviolate, the right of liberty whole?
quam ob rem uter nostrum tandem, Labiene, popularis est, tune qui civibus Romanis in contione ipsa carnificem, qui vincla adhiberi putas oportere, qui in campo Martio comitiis centuriatis auspicato in loco crucem ad civium supplicium defigi et constitui iubes, an ego qui funestari contionem contagione carnificis veto, qui expiandum forum populi Romani ab illis nefarii sceleris vestigiis esse dico, qui castam contionem, sanctum campum, inviolatum corpus omnium civium Romanorum, integrum ius libertatis defendo servari oportere?
A fine “friend of the people” you make for a tribune of the plebs — guardian and defender of right and liberty! The Lex Porcia took the rods from the body of every Roman citizen; this man in his mercy has brought back the lash. The Lex Porcia tore the citizen’s liberty from the lictor; Labienus, “friend of the people,” has handed it to the executioner. Gaius Gracchus passed a law that no judgment should be passed on the life of a Roman citizen without your order; this “friend of the people” has compelled, without your order, two officers (the duumviri) not to try a Roman citizen but, with no case stated, to condemn a Roman citizen on a capital charge.
popularis vero tribunus pl. custos defensorque iuris et libertatis! Porcia lex virgas ab omnium civium Romanorum corpore amovit, hic misericors flagella rettulit; Porcia lex libertatem civium lictori eripuit, Labienus, homo popularis, carnifici tradidit; C. Gracchus legem tulit ne de capite civium Romanorum iniussu vestro iudicaretur, hic popularis a ii viris iniussu vestro non iudicari de cive Romano sed indicta causa civem Romanum capitis condemnari coegit.
You make mention to me of the Lex Porcia, of Gaius Gracchus, of these men’s love of liberty, of any popular man you please — you, who have tried to violate the liberty of this people, to test its mildness, to alter its discipline, with punishments unheard of and a savagery of language never heard before? For these formulas of yours, which delight you, the gentle and popular man — “Go, lictor, bind his hands” — belong not to this liberty and this mildness; they belong not even to Romulus or Numa Pompilius. They are the dirges of torture out of Tarquin, that most arrogant and most cruel of kings, which you, the mild and popular man, recall with such pleasure: “Veil his head, hang him on the unlucky tree.” Words, citizens, which long ago in this commonwealth were buried not only in the darkness of antiquity but in the light of liberty.
tu mihi etiam legis Porciae, tu C. Gracchi, tu horum libertatis, tu cuiusquam denique hominis popularis mentionem facis, qui non modo suppliciis invisitatis sed etiam verborum crudelitate inaudita violare libertatem huius populi, temptare mansuetudinem, commutare disciplinam conatus es? namque haec tua, quae te, hominem clementem popularemque, delectant, ’I, lictor, conliga manvs,’ non modo huius libertatis mansuetudinisque non sunt sed ne Romuli quidem aut Numae Pompili; Tarquini, superbissimi atque crudelissimi regis, ista sunt cruciatus carmina quae tu, homo lenis ac popularis, libentissime commemoras: ’ Capvt obnvbito, arbori infelici svspendito,’ quae verba, Quirites, iam pridem in hac re publica non solum tenebris vetustatis verum etiam luce libertatis oppressa sunt.
Could you really suppose, if that proceeding of yours were popular, if it had any element of fairness or of right in it, that Gaius Gracchus would have left it untouched? Did, I suppose, your uncle’s death cause you a sharper grief than his brother’s death caused Gaius Gracchus, and is the death of an uncle whom you never saw bitterer to you than was to him the death of the brother with whom he had lived in perfect harmony? With as much right do you avenge an uncle’s death as he would have pursued a brother’s, if he had wished to act on this principle? And did this Labienus of yours, your uncle, whoever he may have been, leave behind in the Roman people as much regret as Tiberius Gracchus had left? Is your filial duty greater than Gaius Gracchus’s, or your spirit, or your judgment, or your resources, or your authority, or your eloquence? — which, if they had been smallest in him, would still in comparison with your gifts have been counted greatest.
an vero, si actio ista popularis esset et si ullam partem aequitatis haberet aut iuris, C. Gracchus eam reliquisset? scilicet tibi graviorem dolorem patrui tui mors attulit quam C. Graccho fratris, et tibi acerbior eius patrui mors est quem numquam vidisti quam illi eius fratris quicum concordissime vixerat, et simili iure tu ulcisceris patrui mortem atque ille persequeretur fratris, si ista ratione agere voluisset, et par desiderium sui reliquit apud populum Romanum Labienus iste, patruus vester, quisquis fuit, ac Ti. Gracchus reliquerat. an pietas tua maior quam C. Gracchi, an animus, an consilium, an opes, an auctoritas, an eloquentia? quae si in illo minima fuissent, tamen prae tuis facultatibus maxima putarentur.
But when in all these things Gaius Gracchus surpassed all men, what gulf, then, do you suppose lies between him and you? And yet Gaius Gracchus would have died first of the most cruel death a thousand times over before he would have allowed the executioner to stand at his assembly — the man whom the censors’ laws sought to deprive not of the Forum only but even of this sky and air and dwelling-place in the city. This man dares to call himself “friend of the people” and to call me a stranger to your interests, when he has hunted out all his harshness of penalty and language not from the memory of yourselves and your fathers but from the records of annals and from the commentaries of kings, while I with all my powers, all my counsels, all my words and deeds have fought against and resisted his cruelty? Unless perhaps you wish for yourselves the condition which slaves, if they had not the hope of liberty set before them, could in no way bear.
Cum vero his rebus omnibus C. Gracchus omnis vicerit, quantum intervallum tandem inter te atque illum interiectum putas? sed moreretur prius acerbissima morte miliens C. Gracchus quam in eius contione carnifex consisteret; quem non modo foro sed etiam caelo hoc ac spiritu censoriae leges atque urbis domicilio carere voluerunt. hic se popularem dicere audet, me alienum a commodis vestris, cum iste omnis et suppliciorum et verborum acerbitates non ex memoria vestra ac patrum vestrorum sed ex annalium monumentis atque ex regum commentariis conquisierit, ego omnibus meis opibus, omnibus consiliis, omnibus dictis atque factis repugnarim et restiterim crudelitati? nisi forte hanc condicionem vobis esse voltis quam servi, si libertatis spem propositam non haberent, ferre nullo modo possent.
A miserable thing is the disgrace of a public conviction, miserable the confiscation of one’s goods, miserable exile; yet in every such calamity some trace of liberty is kept. And if at last death is set before us, let us die in liberty: let the executioner, the veiling of the head, the very name of the cross be far not only from the body of Roman citizens but even from their thought, from their eyes, from their ears. For the actual happening and endurance, but also the prospect, the expectation, the very mention of all these things, is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man. Or shall the kindness of their masters by the touch of one rod free our slaves from the fear of all such punishments, and shall not our deeds, our years lived, your honours, free us from the rods, from the hook, from the very terror of the cross?
misera est ignominia iudiciorum publicorum, misera multatio bonorum, miserum exsilium; sed tamen in omni calamitate retinetur aliquod vestigium libertatis. mors denique si proponitur, in libertate moriamur, carnifex vero et obductio capitis et nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus. harum enim omnium rerum non solum eventus atque perpessio sed etiam condicio, exspectatio, mentio ipsa denique indigna cive Romano atque homine libero est. an vero servos nostros horum suppliciorum omnium metu dominorum benignitas vindicta una liberat; nos a verberibus, ab unco, a crucis denique terrore neque res gestae neque acta aetas neque vestri honores vindicabunt?
Therefore, Labienus, I confess and even profess and proclaim it openly: by my counsel, my courage, my authority you have been driven back from that cruel, lawless proceeding of yours — a proceeding that was not tribunician but kingly. In which proceeding, although you set at naught all the precedents of our ancestors, all our laws, all the authority of the Senate, all the religious rites and the public laws of the auspices — nevertheless from me on these points in this so brief allotment of time you shall not hear: ample time will be given us for that argument.
quam ob rem fateor atque etiam, Labiene, profiteor et prae me fero te ex illa crudeli, importuna, non tribunicia actione sed regia, meo consilio, virtute, auctoritate esse depulsum. qua tu in actione quamquam omnia exempla maiorum, omnis leges, omnem auctoritatem senatus, omnis religiones atque auspiciorum publica iura neglexisti, tamen a me haec in hoc tam exiguo meo tempore non audies; liberum tempus nobis dabitur ad istam disceptationem.
Now I shall speak of the charge concerning Saturninus and the death of your most distinguished uncle. You charge that Lucius Saturninus was killed by Gaius Rabirius. But that Gaius Rabirius previously, on the testimony of many witnesses and with Quintus Hortensius defending him most copiously, showed to be false. For my own part, were the matter open to me, I should take up this charge, I should acknowledge it, I should confess it. Would that the case allowed me the latitude to be able to declare this — that by Gaius Rabirius’s hand Lucius Saturninus, an enemy of the Roman people, was put to death! — That shouting of yours does not move me, but consoles me, since it shows that there are some unschooled citizens, but not many. Believe me, this Roman people which keeps silence here would never have made me consul if it thought that it could be flustered by your shouting. How much fainter the cry has grown already! Why don’t you check the voice that betrays your folly, that bears witness to your few numbers!
nunc de Saturnini crimine ac de clarissimi patrui tui morte dicemus. arguis occisum esse a C. Rabirio L. Saturninum. at id C. Rabirius multorum testimoniis, Q. Hortensio copiosissime defendente, antea falsum esse docuit; ego autem, si mihi esset integrum, susciperem hoc crimen, agnoscerem, confiterer. Vtinam hanc mihi facultatem causa concederet ut possem hoc praedicare, C. Rabiri manu L. Saturninum, hostem populi Romani, interfectum!— nihil me clamor iste commovet sed consolatur, cum indicat esse quosdam civis imperitos sed non multos. numquam, mihi credite, populus Romanus hic qui silet consulem me fecisset, si vestro clamore perturbatum iri arbitraretur. quanto iam levior est acclamatio! quin continetis vocem indicem stultitiae vestrae, testem paucitatis!
I should gladly, I say, confess — if I could do so truthfully, or even if it were open to me — that Lucius Saturninus was killed by the hand of Gaius Rabirius, and I should think that deed a most splendid one. But since I cannot do that, I will confess what for praise will count for less, but for the charge no less. I confess that for the killing of Saturninus Gaius Rabirius took up arms. What now, Labienus? what graver confession do you await from me, or what greater charge against my client? unless you suppose there is some difference between the man who killed and the man who was armed for the purpose of killing. If it was a crime to kill Saturninus, arms cannot have been taken up against Saturninus without crime. If you grant that arms were taken up by right, you must grant that he was killed by right.
— libenter,inquam, confiterer, si vere possem aut etiam si mihi esset integrum, C. Rabiri manu L. Saturninum esse occisum, et id facinus pulcherrimum esse arbitrarer; sed, quoniam id facere non possum, confitebor id quod ad laudem minus valebit, ad crimen non minus. confiteor interficiendi Saturnini causa C. Rabirium arma cepisse. quid est, Labiene? quam a me graviorem confessionem aut quod in hunc maius crimen exspectas? nisi vero interesse aliquid putas inter eum qui hominem occidit, et eum qui cum telo occidendi hominis causa fuit. si interfici Saturninum nefas fuit, arma sumpta esse contra Saturninum sine scelere non possunt; si arma iure sumpta concedis, inter fectum iure concedas necesse est.
A decree of the Senate is passed, that the consuls Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius should call upon the tribunes of the plebs and the praetors as they thought fit, and should see to it that the imperium and the majesty of the Roman people be preserved. They call upon all the tribunes of the plebs except Saturninus, and all the praetors except Glaucia: those who wished the commonwealth safe they bid take up arms and follow them. All obey: from the temple of Sancus and the public arsenals arms are issued to the Roman people, with the consul Gaius Marius distributing them. And here, to leave the rest aside, I ask you, Labienus, on your own account: when Saturninus was holding the Capitoline armed, when there were with him Gaius Glaucia, Gaius Saufeius, even that ex-shackled Gracchus from the workhouse — I shall add, since you so wish, your uncle Quintus Labienus too — and in the Forum on the other side were the consuls Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and behind them the entire Senate (and that very Senate which even you yourselves, who now bring these patres conscripti who are now in office into hatred for the easier disparagement of the present body, used to praise); when the equestrian order — and what knights, immortal gods! the knights of our fathers’ generation, who at that time held a great share of the commonwealth and the entire dignity of the courts — when all men of all orders who thought their own safety was bound up in the safety of the commonwealth had taken up arms: what, finally, was Gaius Rabirius to do?
fit senatus consultum ut C. Marius L. Valerius consules adhiberent tribunos pl. et praetores, quos eis videretur, operamque darent ut imperium populi Romani maiestasque conservaretur. adhibent omnis tribunos pl. praeter Saturninum, praetores praeter Glauciam; qui rem publicam salvam esse vellent, arma capere et se sequi iubent. parent omnes; ex aede Sancus armamentariisque publicis arma populo Romano C. Mario consule distribuente dantur. hic iam, ut omittam cetera, de te ipso, Labiene, quaero. Cum Saturninus Capitolium teneret armatus, esset una C. Glaucia, C. Saufeius, etiam ille ex compedibus atque ergastulo Gracchus; addam, quoniam ita vis, eodem Q. Labienum, patruum tuum; in foro autem C. Marius et L. Valerius Flaccus consules, post cunctus senatus, atque ille senatus quem etiam vos ipsi, qui hos patres conscriptos qui nunc sunt in invidiam vocatis, quo facilius de hoc senatu detrahere possitis, laudare consuevistis, cum equester ordo—at quorum equitum, di immortales! patrum nostrorum atque eius aetatis, qui tum magnam partem rei publicae atque omnem dignitatem iudiciorum tenebant,—cum omnes omnium ordinum homines qui in salute rei publicae salutem suam repositam esse arbitrabantur arma cepissent: quid tandem C. Rabirio faciendum fuit?
On your own account, I say, Labienus, I ask. When the consuls had called to arms by decree of the Senate, when armed Marcus Aemilius the princeps senatus had taken his stand in the Comitium, who, since he could scarcely move, did not think the slowness of his feet would be an obstacle for pursuit but an obstacle for flight; when, finally, Quintus Scaevola, broken with old age, ruined by disease, maimed and crippled in every limb, leaning on a spear, was showing both the strength of his spirit and the weakness of his body; when Lucius Metellus, Servius Galba, Gaius Serranus, Publius Rutilius, Gaius Fimbria, Quintus Catulus, and all who were then men of consular rank had taken up arms for the common safety; when all the praetors, the entire nobility and youth came running — the two Domitii (Gnaeus and Lucius), Lucius Crassus, Quintus Mucius, Gaius Claudius, Marcus Drusus, when all the Octavii, the Metelli, the Iulii, the Cassii, the Catos, the Pompeii, when Lucius Philippus, Lucius Scipio, when Marcus Lepidus, when Decimus Brutus, when this very Publius Servilius, under whose command, Labienus, you served, when this Quintus Catulus here, then quite a young man, when this Gaius Curio, when, finally, all the most illustrious men were with the consuls: what then was it fitting for Gaius Rabirius to do? to lurk shut in and hidden in some out-of-the-way place, and to cover up his cowardice with walls and the protection of darkness? or to make for the Capitoline and there join your uncle and the rest who were taking refuge in death because of the foulness of their lives? or to come together with Marius, Scaurus, Catulus, Metellus, Scaevola, with all loyal men, in a partnership not of safety only but also of danger?
de te ipso, inquam, Labiene, quaero. Cum ad arma consules ex senatus consulto vocavissent, cum armatus M. Aemilius, princeps senatus, in comitio constitisset, qui cum ingredi vix posset, non ad insequendum sibi tarditatem pedum sed ad fugiendum impedimento fore putabat, cum denique Q. Scaevola confectus senectute, perditus morbo, mancus et membris omnibus captus ac debilis, hastili nixus et animi vim et infirmitatem corporis ostenderet, cum L. Metellus, Ser. Galba, C. Serranus, P. Rutilius, C. Fimbria, Q. Catulus omnesque qui tum erant consulares pro salute communi arma cepissent, cum omnes praetores, cuncta nobilitas ac iuventus accurreret, Cn. et L. Domitii, L. Crassus, Q. Mucius, C. Claudius, M. Drusus, cum omnes Octavii, Metelli, Iulii, Cassii, Catones, Pompeii, cum L. Philippus, L. Scipio, cum M. Lepidus, cum D. Brutus, cum hic ipse P. Servilius, quo tu imperatore, Labiene, meruisti, cum hic Q. Catulus, admodum tum adulescens, cum hic C. Curio, cum denique omnes clarissimi viri cum consulibus essent: quid tandem C. Rabirium facere convenit? utrum inclusum atque abditum latere in occulto atque ignaviam suam tenebrarum ac parietum custodiis tegere, an in Capitolium pergere atque ibi se cum tuo patruo et ceteris ad mortem propter vitae turpitudinem confugientibus congregare, an cum Mario, Scauro, Catulo, Metello, Scaevola, cum bonis denique omnibus coire non modo salutis verum etiam periculi societatem?
You yourself, Labienus, what would you do in such a case and at such a moment? When the calculation of cowardice was driving you to flight and into hiding, when the wickedness and madness of Lucius Saturninus was summoning you to the Capitoline, when the consuls were calling you to the safety and freedom of your country, what authority, then, what voice, whose lead would you most wish to follow, whose command to obey? “My uncle was with Saturninus,” he says. What about your father — with whom was he? What about your relatives, the Roman knights? What about your whole prefecture, your district, your neighbourhood? What about the entire Picene country — did it follow tribunician madness or consular authority?
tu denique, Labiene, quid faceres tali in re ac tempore? Cum ignaviae ratio te in fugam atque in latebras impelleret, improbitas et furor L. Saturnini in Capitolium arcesseret, consules ad patriae salutem ac libertatem vocarent, quam tandem auctoritatem, quam vocem, cuius sectam sequi, cuius imperio parere potissimum velles? ’ patruus,’ inquit, ’meus cum Saturnino fuit.’ quid? pater quicum? quid? propinqui vestri, equites Romani? quid? omnis praefectura, regio, vicinitas vestra? quid? ager Picenus universus utrum tribunicium furorem, an consularem auctoritatem secutus est?
I assert this for my part: what you now publicly declare about your uncle, no man as yet has confessed about himself; no one, I say, has been found so abandoned, so lost, so deserted not just by all honour but even by the pretence of honour, as to confess that he was on the Capitoline with Saturninus. But your uncle was. Granted; let him have been — and have been so under no compulsion, under no despair of his own affairs, driven by no domestic wounds; let intimacy with Lucius Saturninus have led him to put friendship before country: was that any reason why Gaius Rabirius should have deserted the commonwealth, should have failed to appear in that armed assembly of loyal men, should have refused to obey the voice and command of the consuls?
equidem hoc adfirmo quod tu nunc de tuo patruo praedicas, neminem umquam adhuc de se esse confessum; nemo est, inquam, inventus tam profligatus, tam perditus, tam ab omni non modo honestate sed etiam simulatione honestatis relictus, qui se in Capitolio fuisse cum Saturnino fateretur. at fuit vester patruus. fuerit, et fuerit nulla vi, nulla desperatione rerum suarum, nullis domesticis volneribus coactus; induxerit eum L. Saturnini familiaritas ut amicitiam patriae praeponeret; idcircone oportuit C. Rabirium desciscere a re publica, non comparere in illa armata multitudine bonorum, consulum voci atque imperio non oboedire?
But we see that in the nature of things three courses lay open: to be with Saturninus, or to be with the loyal, or to lie hidden. To lie hidden was as good as the most disgraceful death; to be with Saturninus was madness and crime; courage and honour and shame compelled a man to be with the consuls. Is this what you put on trial as a charge — that Gaius Rabirius was with those whom he would have been most insane to attack and most disgraced to abandon? But Gaius Decianus, of whom you so often make mention, was condemned because, in prosecuting Publius Furius — a man marked with every brand of dishonour — with the utmost zeal of all loyal men, he dared to lament Saturninus’s death in a public assembly; and Sextus Titius was condemned for keeping a portrait of Lucius Saturninus in his house. The Roman knights ruled in that trial that the man was a wicked citizen and not to be tolerated in the state who, by displaying the portrait of a man as hostile and seditious as that, would either honour his death, or stir up regret in the unschooled by an appeal to pity, or signal his own intent to imitate the wickedness.
atqui videmus haec in rerum natura tria fuisse, ut aut cum Saturnino esset, aut cum bonis, aut lateret. latere mortis erat instar turpissimae, cum Saturnino esse furoris et sceleris; virtus et honestas et pudor cum consulibus esse cogebat. hoc tu igitur in crimen vocas, quod cum eis fuerit C. Rabirius quos amentissimus fuisset si oppugnasset, turpissimus si reliquisset? at C. Decianus, de quo tu saepe commemoras, quia, cum hominem omnibus insignem notis turpitudinis, P. Furium, accusaret summo studio bonorum omnium, queri est ausus in contione de morte Saturnini, condemnatus est, et Sex. Titius, quod habuit imaginem L. Saturnini domi suae, condemnatus est. statuerunt equites Romani illo iudicio improbum civem esse et non retinendum in civitate, qui hominis hostilem in modum seditiosi imagine aut mortem eius honestaret, aut desideria imperitorum misericordia commoveret, aut suam significaret imitandae improbitatis voluntatem.
And so it seems strange to me, Labienus, where you came by that portrait of yours; for after Sextus Titius was condemned, no one was found bold enough to keep one of them. Had you heard of this, or could you for your years have known it, you would never have brought to the Rostra and the public assembly the portrait that, posted up in his house, brought ruin and exile on Sextus Titius; nor would you ever have steered your craft onto those rocks where you might see the wreck of Sextus Titius’s vessel and the foundering of Gaius Decianus’s fortunes. But in all this you slip from inexperience. You have undertaken a cause older than your own memory, a cause which died before you were born; and a cause in which you yourself would assuredly have stood, had your years allowed it, you bring to trial.
itaque mihi mirum videtur unde hanc tu, Labiene, imaginem quam habes inveneris; nam sex. Titio damnato qui istam habere auderet inventus est nemo. quod tu si audisses aut si per aetatem scire potuisses, numquam profecto istam imaginem quae domi posita pestem atque exsilium Sex. Titio attulisset in rostra atque in contionem attulisses, nec tuas umquam ratis ad eos scopulos appulisses ad quos Sex. Titi adflictam navem et in quibus C. Deciani naufragium fortunarum videres. sed in his rebus omnibus imprudentia laberis. causam enim suscepisti antiquiorem memoria tua, quae causa ante mortua est quam tu natus es; et qua in causa tute profecto fuisses, si per aetatem esse potuisses, eam causam in iudicium vocas.
Or do you not see, first, what men and what kind of men, now dead, you charge with the highest crime, and next, how many of those who are still alive you summon by the same charge into utmost danger of their lives? For if Gaius Rabirius committed a capital fraud because he bore arms against Lucius Saturninus, the years he was then will at least carry with them some plea against the danger to him; but Quintus Catulus, the father of this man here, in whom were the highest wisdom, surpassing virtue, singular humanity; Marcus Scaurus, of that gravity, that judgment, that prudence; the two Mucii, Lucius Crassus, Marcus Antonius (who was at that time outside the city with a guard), whose counsels and talents in this city were by far the greatest, and the rest, of equal dignity, the guardians and steersmen of the commonwealth — how shall we defend these dead men?
an non intellegis, primum quos homines et qualis viros mortuos summi sceleris arguas, deinde quot ex his qui vivunt eodem crimine in summum periculum capitis arcessas? nam si C. Rabirius fraudem capitalem admisit quod arma contra L. Saturninum tulit, huic quidem adferet aliquam deprecationem periculi aetas illa qua tum fuit; Q. vero Catulum, patrem huius, in quo summa sapientia, eximia virtus, singularis humanitas fuit, M. Scaurum, illa gravitate, illo consilio, illa prudentia, duos Mucios, L. Crassum, M. Antonium, qui tum extra urbem cum praesidio fuit, quorum in hac civitate longe maxima consilia atque ingenia fuerunt, ceteros pari dignitate praeditos custodes gubernatoresque rei publicae quem ad modum mortuos defendemus?
What shall we say of those most honourable men and best of citizens, the Roman knights, who then together with the Senate defended the safety of the commonwealth? what of the tribunes of the treasury and of the men of every other order who at that time took up arms for the common liberty? But why do I speak of all those who obeyed the consuls’ command? what shall the reputation of the consuls themselves come to? Lucius Flaccus — a man always most diligent in the commonwealth, in the holding of magistracies, in the priesthood and in the rites at which he presided — shall we condemn him, dead, of unspeakable crime and of parricide? Shall we add to this stain and infamy of death even the name of Gaius Marius? Gaius Marius, whom we may truly call father of the country, parent, I say, of your liberty and of this very commonwealth — shall we condemn him, dead, of unspeakable crime and of parricide?
quid de illis honestissimis viris atque optimis civibus, equitibus Romanis, dicemus qui tum una cum senatu salutem rei publicae defenderunt? quid de tribunis aerariis ceterorumque ordinum omnium hominibus qui tum arma pro communi libertate ceperunt? sed quid ego de eis omnibus qui consulari imperio paruerunt loquor? de ipsorum consulum fama quid futurum est? L. Flaccum, hominem cum semper in re publica, tum in magistratibus gerendis, in sacerdotio caerimoniisque quibus praeerat diligentissimum, nefarii sceleris ac parricidi mortuum condemnabimus? adiungemus ad hanc labem ignominiamque mortis etiam C. Mari nomen? C. Marium, quem vere patrem patriae, parentem, inquam, vestrae libertatis atque huiusce rei publicae possumus dicere, sceleris ac parricidi nefarii mortuum condemnabimus?
Indeed, if for Gaius Rabirius, because he went to arms, Titus Labienus thought a cross should be planted in the Field of Mars, what punishment, then, will be devised for the man who summoned him? And if a pledge was given to Saturninus, as you say very often, it was not Gaius Rabirius but Gaius Marius who gave it, and the same man who violated it, if he failed to keep it. What pledge, Labienus, could be given without a decree of the Senate? Are you so much a stranger in this city, so ignorant of our discipline and custom, that you do not know these things, that you seem to be travelling in a foreign state rather than holding a magistracy in your own?
etenim si C. Rabirio, quod iit ad arma, crucem T. Labienus in campo Martio defigendam putavit, quod tandem excogitabitur in eum supplicium qui vocavit? ac si fides Saturnino data est, quod abs te saepissime dicitur, non eam C. Rabirius sed C. Marius dedit, idemque violavit, si in fide non stetit. quae fides, Labiene, qui potuit sine senatus consulto dari? adeone hospes es huiusce urbis, adeone ignarus disciplinae consuetudinisque nostrae ut haec nescias, ut peregrinari in aliena civitate, non in tua magistratum gerere videare?
“What harm can these things now do to Gaius Marius,” he says, “since he is without sense and without life?” Is that so, indeed? Would Gaius Marius have lived through such labours and such dangers if he had thought of himself and of his glory in hope and spirit no further than the limits of life demanded? Did he, I suppose, think, when he had routed innumerable hosts of enemies in Italy and freed the commonwealth from siege, that all his goods would die with him? It is not so, citizens; nor does any one of us conduct himself in the dangers of the commonwealth with praise and courage who is not led on by the hope and the fruit of posterity. And so, for many other reasons the minds of good men seem to me to be divine and eternal, but most of all because the spirit of every best and wisest man so foreknows of the future that it seems to look at nothing but what is everlasting.
’ quid iam ista C. Mario,’ inquit, ’nocere possunt, quoniam sensu et vita caret?’ itane vero? tantis in laboribus C. Marius periculisque vixisset, si nihil longius quam vitae termini postulabant spe atque animo de se et gloria sua cogitasset? at, credo, cum innumerabilis hostium copias in Italia fudisset atque obsidione rem publicam liberasset, omnia sua secum una moritura arbitrabatur. non est ita, Quirites; neque quisquam nostrum in rei publicae periculis cum laude ac virtute versatur quin spe posteritatis fructuque ducatur. itaque cum multis aliis de causis virorum bonorum mentes divinae mihi atque aeternae videntur esse, tum maxime quod optimi et sapientissimi cuiusque animus ita praesentit in posterum ut nihil nisi sempiternum spectare videatur.
Wherefore I, calling to witness the spirit of Gaius Marius and of the rest of the wisest and bravest citizens, which seem to me to have passed from the life of men into the worship and sanctity of the gods, declare that for their reputation, glory, and memory, no less than for the shrines and sanctuaries of my fathers, I think I must do battle. And were I obliged to take up arms in defence of their renown, I should take them up no less briskly than they took theirs in defence of the common safety. For nature has marked out a slender course of life for us, citizens, but a measureless one of glory. So if we shall do honour to those who have already departed this life, we shall leave for ourselves a juster condition for our own deaths. But if you neglect those, Labienus, whom we can no longer see, do you think no thought ought to be taken even for those whom you do see?
quapropter equidem et C. Mari et ceterorum virorum sapientissimorum ac fortissimorum civium mentis, quae mihi videntur ex hominum vita ad deorum religionem et sanctimoniam demigrasse, testor me pro illorum fama, gloria, memoria non secus ac pro patriis fanis atque delubris propugnandum putare, ac, si pro illorum laude mihi arma capienda essent, non minus strenue caperem, quam illi pro communi salute ceperunt. etenim, Quirites, exiguum nobis vitae curriculum natura circumscripsit, immensum gloriae. qua re, si eos qui iam de vita decesserunt ornabimus, iustiorem nobis mortis condicionem relinquemus. sed si illos, Labiene, quos iam videre non possumus neglegis, ne his quidem quos vides consuli putas oportere?
I assert that there is no man of all those who were at Rome on that day — the day you bring to trial — and was then of military age, who did not take up arms, who did not follow the consuls. All those whose actions on that day you can guess from their age are by you summoned by name on Gaius Rabirius’s capital charge. “But Rabirius killed Saturninus.” Would that he had done so! I should not be pleading against the punishment, but demanding the reward. For if to Scaeva, the slave of Quintus Croto, who killed Lucius Saturninus, freedom was given, what reward would have been fitting to give a Roman knight? And if Gaius Marius, because he ordered the pipes that supplied water to the temple and seat of Jupiter Best and Greatest to be cut, because on the Capitoline slope of wicked citizens... [text breaks off]
neminem esse dico ex his omnibus, qui illo die Romae fuerit, quem tu diem in iudicium vocas, pubesque tum fuerit, quin arma ceperit, quin consules secutus sit. omnes ei quorum tu ex aetate coniecturam facere potes quid tum fecerint abs te capitis C. Rabiri nomine citantur. at occidit Saturninum Rabirius. Vtinam fecisset! non supplicium deprecarer sed praemium postularem. etenim, si Scaevae, servo Q. Crotonis, qui occidit L. Saturninum, libertas data est, quod equiti Romano praemium dari par fuisset? et, si C. Marius, quod fistulas quibus aqua suppeditabatur Iovis optimi maximi templis ac sedibus praecidi imperarat, quod in clivo Capitolino improborum civium * * *
... [text breaks off]. And so the Senate in considering that case under my management was no more diligent or harsh than were all of you when, with your minds, your hands, your voices, you rejected the partition of the world and that very Campanian land itself.
* * * aret. itaque non senatus in ea causa cognoscenda me agente diligentior aut inclementior fuit quam vos universi, cum orbis terrae distributionem atque illum ipsum agrum Campanum animis, manibus, vocibus re pudiavistis.
I, the same man, cry out, declare, denounce, what the very author of this prosecution does. There is no king left, no people, no nation that you should fear; there is no foreign, no external evil that can creep into this commonwealth. If you wish this state to be immortal, if you wish this empire to be eternal, if you wish glory to remain everlasting, then we must guard against our own desires, against turbulent men greedy for revolution, against domestic evils, against plots from within.
idem ego quod is qui auctor huius iudicii est clamo, praedico, denuntio. nullus est reliquus rex, nulla gens, nulla natio quam pertimescatis; nullum adventicium, nullum extraneum malum est qu od insi nuare in han c rem publicam pos sit. si immorta lem hanc civitate m esse voltis, si aeter num hoc imperium, si g loriam sempiternam manere, nobis a nostris cupi ditatibus, a tu rbulen tis hominibus atque no varum rerum cupidis, ab intestinis malis, a domesticis co nsiliis est cavendum.
Against these evils, however, your ancestors left you a great defence — that voice of the consul: “those who wish the commonwealth to be safe.” Favour that voice, citizens; do not by your verdict take from me, do not snatch from the commonwealth, the hope of liberty, the hope of safety, the hope of dignity.
hisce autem m alis mag num praesid ium vo bis maiores ve stri re liquerunt, vo cem illam consulis: ’qui rem publicam salvam esse vellent.’ huic voci fave te, Quirites, neque v estro iudicio abstu leritis mihi neque eripueri tis rei publicae spem liberta tis, sp em salutis, spem digni tatis.
What should I do, if Titus Labienus had carried out a slaughter of citizens as Lucius Saturninus did, if he had broken open the prison, if he had seized the Capitoline with armed men? I should do the same as Gaius Marius did: refer the matter to the Senate; urge you to defend the commonwealth; armed myself, with you armed, stand against him. As it is, since there is no suspicion of arms, I see no weapons, no violence, no slaughter, no siege of the Capitoline and the citadel, but a pernicious accusation, a bitter trial, the whole business taken up by a tribune of the plebs against the commonwealth, I have thought I must call upon you not to arms but to the votes against an assault on your majesty. And so now I beg, beseech, urge you all. It is not the custom that a consul... [text breaks off]
quid fac erem, si T. Labie nus c aedem civium fecis set ut L. Satur ninus, si carcerem re fregi sset, si Capitoli um cum armatis occupa visset? facerem idem qu od C. Marius fe cit, a d senatum re ferr em, vos ad rem publicam defe ndendam co hort arer, armatus ipse vobiscum ar mato obsisterem. nunc quoniam armorum suspicio nulla est, tela non video, non vis, non caedes, non Capitoli atque arcis obsessio est, sed accusatio perniciosa, iudicium acerbum, res tota a tribuno pl. suscepta contra rem publicam, non vos ad arma vocan dos esse, verum ad suffragia cohortandos contra oppugnationem vestrae maiestatis putavi. itaque nunc vos omnis oro atque obtestor hortorque. non ita mos est, consulem es * * *
... [text breaks off]. He who has received face on, for the commonwealth, these scars and marks of valour, fears now lest he take a wound to his reputation; he whom the assaults of enemies could never move from his place, now stands in dread of the assault of his fellow-citizens, to which he must of necessity yield.
* * * t imet; qui hasce ore adverso pro re publica cicatrices ac notas virtutis accepit, is ne quod accipiat famae volnus perhorrescit; quem numquam incursiones hostium loco movere potuerunt, is nunc impetum civium, c ui n e cessario cedendum est, perhorrescit.
He no longer asks of you the ability to live well but to die honourably; he labours not so much to enjoy his own house as not to be deprived of his ancestors’ tomb. He asks and beseeches you for nothing else but that you not deprive him of a lawful funeral and a death at home; that you suffer the man who never shunned any danger of death for his country to be allowed to die in his country.
N eque a vobis iam bene v ivendi sed hones t e moriendi facul t atem petit, neque tam u t domo sua frua t ur quam ne patrio s epulcro privetur laborat. nihil al iud iam vos orat atque ob secrat nisi uti n e se legitimo funer e et domestica mor te privetis, ut eum qui pro patria nu llum umquam mor tis pe riculum fugit in patria mori pati amini.
I have spoken to the time set me by the tribune of the plebs; from you I ask and beg that you account this defence of mine faithful to a friend in danger and consular in loyalty to the commonwealth.
dixi ad id tempus q uod mihi a tribuno pl. pra esti tutum est; a vob is peto quaesoque ut ha nc me am defension em pro amici pericu lo fi delem, pro rei publicae salu te consularem pu te tis.
... and was by far the dearest both to the entire Roman people and most of all to the equestrian order.
et cum universo populo Romano, tum vero equestri ordini longe carissimus.