rebus dubiis consultant, ab odio, amicitia, ira atque misericordia, vacuos esse decet. Haud facile animus verum providet, ubi illa obficiunt; neque quisquam omnium lubidini simul et usui1 paruit. Ubi intenderis ingenium, valet2: si lubido possidet, ea dominatur, animus nihil valet. Magna mihi copia est memorandi, Patres conscripti, qui reges atque populi, ira aut misericordia impulsi, male consuluerint: sed ea malo dicere, quæ majores nostri, contra lubidinem animi, recte atque ordine3 fecere. Bello Macedonico1, quod cum rege Perse gessimus, Rhodiorum civitas 5, magna atque magnifica, quæ populi Romani opibus creverat, infida atque adversa nobis fuit:sed postquam, bello confecto, de Rhodiis consultum est, majores nostri, ne quis divitiarum magis, quam injuriæ caussa, bellum inceptum diceret, impunitos eos dimi 6 Rhodes became famous as the greatest maritime power of the eastern Mediterranean, after the fall of Athens in the fourth century B. C. It had proved itself a faithful ally of the Romans in the war with Antiochus, king of Syria (B. c. 190), and had received from them the countries of Lycia and Caria. In the Macedonian war it inclined to the other side, or, at least, trimmed between the two. Comp. Vell. i. 9. dubia fide speculati fortunam proniores regis partibus fuisse visi sunt. 6 Impunitos. The Romans did not turn their arms upon them, and overthrow their commonwealth: they contented themselves with taking from them their possessions in Lycia and sere. Item bellis Punicis omnibus, cum sæpe Carthaginienses et in pace, et per inducias', multa nefaria facinora fecissent, numquam ipsi per occasionem2 talia fecere 3; magis, quid se dignum foret, quam quid in illis jure fieri posset, quærebant. Hoc idem5 providendum est, Patres conscripti, ne plus valeat apud vos P. Lentuli et ceterorum scelus, quam vestra dignitas; neu magis iræ vestræ, quam famæ, consulatis. Nam si digna pœna pro factis eorum reperitur, novum consilium adprobo: sin magnitudo sceleris omnium ingenia exsuperat, iis utendum censeo, quæ legibus comparata sunt. Plerique eorum, qui ante me sententias dixerunt, composite atque magnifice9 Caria. See Liv. xlv. 25. Comp. also 1 Per inducias, "in time of truce." 2 Per occasionem, "when opportunity offered." 3 Talia fecere, "did the like," "retaliated." 4 In illis, "in their case." Comp. Catil. 9: in amicis fideles; and examples there given. 5 Hoc idem, "this, which is a similar case to the foregoing." 6 Novum consilium, “a new course of proceeding," unusual, novel; i. e. the proposition of Silenus for inflicting death on the conspirators, which the senate had no right to do. No Roman citizen could, in strict law, be condemned to death, except by a vote of the people. On the other hand, the senate by the appointment of a dictator, or by investing the consuls with summary powers, by a senatus-consultum ultimum, i. e. caveant consules 8 ne respublica aliquid detrimenti capiat, claimed the right of suspending the ordinary operation of the laws. The people always regarded these stretches of prerogative as illegal encroachments, and in the sequel declared, at the instigation of the tribune Clodius, that Cicero had committed a judicial murder in executing the conspirators by virtue of a decree of the senate. 7 Omnium ingenia exsuperat, "transcends the imaginations of all." 8 Composite, "in studied and elaborate orations." So composito: Virgil, Æn. ii. 129. Composito rumpit vocem et me destinat aræ. casum reipublicæ miserati sunt: quæ belli sævitia esset, quæ victis acciderent, enumeravere; rapi virgines, pueros; divelli liberos a parentum complexu ; matres familiarum pati, quæ victoribus collibuissent; fana atque domos exspoliari; cædem, incendia fieri; postremo, armis, cadaveribus, cruore atque luctu omnia compleri. Sed per deos immortales! quo illa oratio pertinuit? an, uti vos infestos conjurationi faceret? Scilicet, quem res tanta atque tam atrox non permovit, eum oratio accendet! Non ita est: neque cuiquam mortalium injuriæ suæ parvæ videntur: multi eas gravius æquo habuere. Sed alia aliis licentia est1, Patres conscripti. Qui demissi in obscuro vitam habent, si quid iracundia deliquere, pauci sciunt; fama atque fortuna eorum pares sunt: qui magno imperio præditi in excelso ætatem agunt, eorum facta cuncti mortales novere. Ita in maxima fortuna minima licentia est: neque studere, neque odisse, sed minime irasci decet: quæ apud alios iracundia dicitur, in imperio superbia atque crudelitas adpellatur. Equidem ego sic æstimo, Patres conscripti, omnes cruciatus minores, quam facinora illorum, esse: sed plerique mortales postrema meminere, et in hominibus impiis, sceleris obliti, de pœna disserunt, si ea paullo severior fuit. D. Silanum, virum fortem atque strenuum, certo scio, quæ dixerit, studio reipublicæ dixisse, neque illum in tanta re gratiam, 1 Sed alia aliis licentia est: scil. irascendi, or iracundia delinquendi, "some men have more licence to give way to anger than others." aut inimicitias exercere; eos mores, eam modestiam 1 viri cognovi. Verum sententia non mihi crudelis, quid enim in tales homines crudele fieri potest? sed aliena a republica nostra videtur. Nam profecto aut metus, aut injuria 2 te subegit, Silane, consulem designatum, genus pœnæ novum decernere. De timore supervacaneum est disserere, cum, præsertim diligentia clarissimi viri, consulis, tanta præsidia sint in armis. De pœna possumus equidem dicere3, id quod 1 Eos mores, eam modestiam. Comp. Catil. 7. eas divitias, eam bonam famam putabant. Tac. Hist. iv. 42. ea principis ætas, ea moderatio. In such cases hic is more usual than is. Jugur. 85. hæ sunt meæ imagines, hæc nobilitas. Lucan, ii. 380. hi mores hæc duri immota Catonis Secta fuit. Virg. En. vi. 129. Hoc opus hic labor est. 2 Aut metus, aut injuria, "you were impelled to propose capital punishment, either by excessive alarm (which there was no occasion for), or by a sense of the atrocity of the crime (in respect to which even capital punishment is quite inadequate.)" Novum pœnæ genus, is per euphemismum for death, which the Romans never named if they could avoid it. Hence the phrases supplicium for "capital punishment," in hostium numero habere, for "to put to the sword." ego et quidem; sed errant. Simplex enim est. Et hoc maxime ex ipsa constructione orationis possumus intelligere. Nam equidem facio, equidem facis, equidem facit dicimus. He goes on to prove the same from the combination of ego and equidem, citing from this chapter of the Catilina, Equidem ego sic existimo. Bentley maintained, however, that the use of equidem was confined at least to the first person singular down to the time of Nero: but this may be shewn to be erroneous from various passages in Plautus and Terence. Equidem then is best explained as a stronger form of quidem, the e being an intensive particle, as in edurus, egelidus, or enim, ecastor. (Handii, Tursellinus, ii. 423). If we consider the e to be a long syllable, equidem must be scanned equ'em, as we find the d of quidem, modo, idem, &c. frequently dropped by Plautus and Terence. (Donaldson's Varronianus, p. 280. 1 ed. See Bentley on Ter. Andr. i. 3. 20). Accordingly read in Pers. i. 10. per me equ'em sint omnia protinus alba; or per me qu'em. Lucan, viii. 824. Haud equ'em immerito...... Cautum; Virg, res habet, in luctu atque miseriis mortem ærumnarum requiem, non cruciatum esse; eam cuncta mortalium mala dissolvere; ultra neque curæ neque gaudio locum esse1. Sed, per deos immortales! quamobrem in sententiam non addidisti, uti prius verberibus in eos animadverteretur? an, quia lex Porcia2 vetat? at aliæ leges3 item condemnatis civibus animam non eripi, sed in exilium permitti jubent. An, quia gra Geor. i. 415. Haud equ'em, credo, quia sit divinitus illis. But it is not likely that this vulgar contraction would be admitted in heroic poetry; and it is better to consider the e short, as in enim. The various constructions in which equidem occurs may be seen in the following instances taken from good and early authors: Sallust, Catil. 52. equidem nos ami simus. Varro, de R. R. i. 5. equidem innu merabiles mihi videntur. Cic. Tusc. v. 35. vestræ equidem cœ næ jucundæ sunt. Virgil, En. x. 29. equidem, credo, Pers. ii. 2. 3. equidem si scis. dem orante ut ne id faceret Lucret. iii. 1091. certe equidem finis Sallust, Catil. 52. scitis equidem mi- Jugur. 10. equidem ego vobis 1 Ultra neque curæ neque gaudio materialism in the Chief Pontiff of the national religion. That such an avowal was really made appears from Cicero's reference to it in Catil. iv. 4. alter intelligit mortem a Dis immortalibus non esse supplicii causa constitutam, sed aut necessitatem naturæ aut laborum ac miseriarum quietem esse. Cicero himself only ventures, in opposition to this opinion, to allude to the belief of the ancients as a convenient check to crime: itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita, apud inferos ejusmodi quædam illi antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esse voluerunt. 2 Lex Porcia. The Porcian law, proposed by P. Porcius Læca, a tribune of the plebs, A.U. 454. See Liv. x. 9. Porcia lex sola pro tergo civium lata videtur, quod gravi pœna, si quis verberasset necassetve civem Romanum, sanxit. A citizen brought on a capital charge before the people might decline a trial by withdrawing into banishment. 3 Aliæ leges. The lex Sempronia of C. Gracchus also forbade the magistrate pronouncing a capital sentence against a citizen without first obtaining the sanction of the people. |