3

in that office there is some evil. But without that evil, we should not have the good which is attained in it. The power of the tribunes of the commons is excessive. Who denies it? Yet the violence of the people is far more fierce and vehement; and it is sometimes milder, because it has a leader, than if it had none. For the leader reflects that he is advancing at his own risk, whereas a popular impulse takes no account of its own danger. Sometimes, you will say, it is inflamed by the tribunes; but then it is frequently lulled by them. For what (tribunician) college is so desperate, that none out of ten is in his senses?+ When this power had been conceded by our forefathers to the people, their arms fell; the sedition was extinguished a harmonising measure had been discovered, whereby men of slender means imagined they were rendered equal to the great:7 and in this alone consisted the safety of the state. But, you will say, there were the two Gracchi. You may enumerate as many as you choose besides them ; since ten are created, you will find some mischievous tribunes in every epoch. Either the kings ought not to have been expelled, or else freedom ought to have been given to the commons in deed, not in word: it was, however, given on such terms, that it yielded to the influence 10 of the great.

:

XV. The Romans, seeing from the citadel the city full of the enemy, some new disaster continually arising on every side, were unable not only to retain their presence of mind, but even to command their senses. Wherever the

3 At.

4 Sanâ mente esse.

9 Sic.

5 Temperamentum.
10 Auctoritas.

6 Tenuiores.

7 Principes. 8 Memoria. 1 Quum, with imperfect subjunctive. The notion 'continually' is contained in the imperfect tense, which is often used to signify repetition. 2 Mentibus consipere. 3 Auribus atque oculis satis constare.

4

shouts of the foe, the lamentations of women and children, the crackling of fire, and the crash of falling roofs, called their attention, terrified at every sound, they turned their thoughts, faces, and eyes, as if stationed by fortune to be spectators of the ruin of their country, and left to protect no part of their property, except their own persons: so much more to be pitied than others that have ever been besieged, inasmuch as they were (at once) invested (and) shut out from their country, beholding all their effects in the power of their enemies. Nor (was) the night (which) succeeded a day so miserably spent more tranquil: daylight then followed a restless night: nor was there any moment which was free from the spectacle of some new disaster. Nevertheless, burdened and overwhelmed by so many evils, they abated not their courage, determined,10 although they had beheld all things levelled by conflagration and ruin, to defend,10 by their valour, the hill which they occupied, ill-provided and narrow as it was, yet the refuge11 of freedom. And at last, as the same things happened every day, they had abstracted their thoughts, as if inured to calamities, from all sense of their misfortunes; gazing only upon the arms, and the swords in their hands, as the sole remnants of their hopes."

12

XVI. There have always been, in this country, two classes of those who have studied to engage in public affairs, and to distinguish themselves therein of these classes the one has chosen the name and the attributes 2 of the popular party,3 the other of the aristocratic party.3 Those who wished that what they did and what they said

4 Adverto. 5 Ad spectaculum. 8 Excipio. 9 Cesso a.

12 Singular.

6

• Participle.

7 Substantive. 10 Quin defenderent. 11 Relictus. 1 Excellentius se gerere. 2 Haberi-esse. 3 Po

pulares-optimates.

should be agreeable to the multitude, were regarded [as members of] the popular party; while those who conducted themselves so as to recommend their principles to all the best men, were regarded as aristocrats. Who, you will ask, are the best men? If you enquire as to their number, they are countless; and, indeed, we could not otherwise maintain the constitution. They are the leaders of the public policy, and those who adhere to them: members of the highest orders, to whom the senate is open the citizens of the municipalities, and the residents in the country:8 men engaged in business: nay, even freedmen are aristocrats. The members of this class are, as I have said, widely and variously diffused: but the whole class may, to remove misapprehension, be briefly described and defined. All are aristocrats, who do not injure others, 10 nor are illdisposed, nor agitators," nor entangled by domestic misfortunes. Those who defer to the wishes, the interests, the political principles12 of these men, are defenders of the aristocracy, and the aristocracy themselves consist of 13 the most dignified and illustrious of the citizens, and of the leading men in the state. What, then, is the object proposed to these governors of the Commonwealth, which they are bound to fix their gaze upon,14 and whither (they are bound) to direct their course?

3

XVII. These are the foundations, these the elements,1 which must be maintained by our leading men, and defended even at the risk of life: the rites of religion, the auspices, the powers of the magistrates, the authority of the senate, the laws, the institutions of our ancestors, the

Ergo. • Stare. 7 Sectam sequi.

4 Consilia. 5 Romani. 9 Numerus, singular.

12 Opinio in gubernandâ republicâ.

1 Membra.

10 Nocentes.

13 Numeror.

4

8 Rustici

11 Furiosi.

14 Intueri.

2 Caput. * Religiones. Mos, singular.

courts of justice,5 the administration of justice, the national credit, the provinces, the allies, the prestige of the empire, the military system, the treasury. To be the defender and the patron of these institutions, so numerous and so important, demands great ability and great resolution. For, among the masses of our countrymen, there are a multitude of men who, either from fear of punishment, conscious of their crimes, seek fresh tumults and revolutions in the state; or who, owing to a constitutional love of agitation,10 feed upon the discords of their countrymen and on sedition; or who, on account of the embarrassment of their private affairs, had rather be consumed in a conflagration which involved their country,11 than themselves alone.12 And when these men have found abettors and leaders of their profligate designs,13 commotions 14 are raised in the state: so that those who have sought for the government of their country, must watch, and strive with all their knowledge and diligence that, by the preservation15 of those (institutions) which I have just declared to be the foundations and elements, they may be enabled to maintain their course, and to reach the port of leisure and of dignity. Were I to deny that this path is thorny, difficult, full of danger, and of ambuscades, I should lie; especially as I have not only always been aware of it, but have even experienced 16 it in a greater degree than others. The state is attacked by forces more powerful than those by which it is defended, because reckless and abandoned men are impelled by a nod, and are even spontaneously excited to treason 17: patriots" 18 I know not how-are slower; and, neglecting 15 the beginnings of things, are

5 Judicia.

10 Insitus animi furor. dys-studia vitiaque. ciple perfect passive. 18 Boni.

14 Fluctus.

16 Sentio.

15 Ablative absolute, parti

17 Contra rempublicam.

awakened only by absolute 19 necessity at the eleventh hour;20 so that sometimes, through procrastination and delay, while they long to retain ease, even apart from dignity, they lose both by their own fault. And those who have determined to be defenders of the state, if inconstant, fall away if deficient in courage, 22 flinch; 23 they alone endure, and suffer everything in their country's cause, who resemble your father, Scaurus, who resisted all the leaders of sedition from Gracchus down to Q. Varius: whom no violence, no intimidation, no unpopularity 24 shook: or Q. Catulus, in recent times, whom neither the tempest of peril, nor the breeze of honor, was ever able to seduce from his course, either through hope or through fear.

XVIII. However, this path, these principles of political life, were far more dangerous in former times, when the anxiety of the multitude for the advantage of the people was in many respects at variance with the interests of the commonwealth. The law of ballot was proposed by L. Cassius. The people believed their independence was at issue. The leading men dissented, and dreaded the temerity of the mob, and the license of the ballot, where the safety of the aristocracy was concerned.3 Tib. Gracchus proposed his agrarian law. It was pleasing to the people: the fortunes of the poor seemed to be established by it. The aristocracy exerted themselves against it, because they saw that discord was excited by it; and believed the state would be robbed of its defenders, if rich men were deprived of tenures they had long held. C. Gracchus proposed a corn law. The idea was agreeable to the Roman populace;