sword, from famine, and from death, think highly worthy of the severest punishment? You who can never be forgiven your enormous crimes, neither by the senate, nor by the Roman knights, nor by any order of men in the state; neither in the city, nor in any part of Italy? You who hate yourself, who fear every body, who dare trust your cause to no person, and who stand condemned by our own judgment? I never thirsted for your blood, I never wished for that heaviest punishment which is inflicted by our laws, which the virtuous may be exposed to as well as the vicious; but I wished to see you abject, contemptible, despised by others, abandoned by yourself, given over to despair, alarmed at every thing, frightened at the least noise, distrustful of your circumstances, without a voice, without liberty, without authority, without the least shadow of consular dignity, ever fearful, ever trembling, and the servile flatterer of all you meet; this I wished to see, and this I have seen. If what you dread, therefore, should befal you, I shall not indeed be sorry at it; but if that should be a slow event, I shall still enjoy your infamy: nor will it give me less pleasure to see you dreading an impeachment, than if I saw you impeached; nor less joy to see you always despicable, than to see you in a sordid habit only for a while.

ORATIO XII.

PRO T. ANNIO MILONE*.

I-ETSI vereor, judices, ne turpe sit, pro fortissimo viro dicere incipientem, timere; minimeque deceat, cum T. Annius [Milo] ipse magis de reipublicæ salute, quàm de sua perturbetur, me ad ejus causam parem animi magnitudinem afferre non posse; (1) tamen hæc novi judicii nova forma terret oculos: qui quocunque inciderunt, veterem consuetudinem fori, et pristinum morem judiciorum requirunt : non enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat: non usitatâ frequentiâ stipati sumus; nam illa præsidia, quæ pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim collocata sunt, non afferunt tamen

*This beautiful oration was made in the 55th year of Cicero's age upon the following occafion. In the year of Rome 701, T. Annius Milo, Q. Metellus Scipio, and P. Plautius Hypfæus, ftood candidates for the confulfhip; and according to Plutarch, pushed on their several interest with such open violence and bribery, as if it had been to be carried only by money or arms. P. Clodius, Milo's profeffed enemy, food at the fame time for the prætorfhip, and used all his intereft to diappoint Milo, by whofe obtaining the confulfhip he was fure to be controlled in the exercise of his magiftracy. The fenate and the better fort, were generally in Milo's intereft; and Cicero, in particular, ferved him with diftinguished zeal. Three of the tribunes were violent against him, the other feven were his faft friends: above all M. Cœlius, who, out of regard to Cicero, was very active in his fervice. But whilft matters were proceeding in a very favourable train for him, and nothing seemed wanting to crown his fuccefs, but to bring on the election, which his adverfaries, for that reafon endeavoured to keep back; all his hopes and fortunes were blasted at once by an unhappy rencounter with Clodius, in which Clodius was killed by his fervants, and by his command. His body was left in the Appian road, where it fell; but was taken up foon after by Tedius, a fenator, who happened to come by, and brought it to Rome; where it was expofed, all covered with blood and wounds, to the view of the populace, who flocked about it in crowds to lament the miserable fate of their leader. The next day, Sextus Clodius, a kinsman of the deceased, and one of his chief incendiaries, together with the three tribunes, Milo's enemies, employed all the arts of party and faction to inflame the mob, which they did to fuch a height of fury, that, fnatching up the body, they ran away with it into the fenate-house, and, tearing up the benches, tables, and every thing combuftible, dreffed up a funeral pile upon the fpot; and, together with the body, burnt the house itself, with a bafilica or public hall adjoining. Several other outrages were committed; so that the fenate were obliged to pass a decree, that the inter-rex, affifted by the tribunes and Pompey, fbould take care that the republic received no dés

ORATION XII.

FOR T. ANNIUŠ MILO:

SECT. I THOUGH I am apprehensive, my lords, it may seem a reflection on a person's character to discover any signs of fear, when he is entering on the defence of so brave a man, and particularly unbecoming in me, that when T. Annius Milo himself is more concerned for the safety of the state than his own, I should not be able to maintain an equal greatness of mind in pleading his cause; yet I must own, the unusal manner in which this new kind of trial is conducted, strikes me with a kind of terror, while I am looking around me, in vain, for the ancient usages of the forum, and the forms that have been hitherto observed in our courts of judicature. Your bench is

riment; and that Pompey in particular, fbould raise a body of troops for the common fecurity; which he presently drew together from all parts of Italy. Amidit this confufion, the rumour of a dictator being induftriously spread, and alarming the senate, they resolved presently to create Pompey the fingle conful, whose election was accordingly declared by the inter-rex, after an inter-regnum of near two months. Pompey applied himself immediately to quiet the public disorders, and published several new laws prepared by him for that purpofe; one of them was to appoint a special commiffion to enquire into Clodius's death, &c. and to appoint an extraordinary judge, of consular rank, to prefide in it. He attended Milo's trial himself, with a ftrong guard to preserve peace: the accusers were young Appius, the nephew of Clodius, M. Antonius, and P. Valerius. Cicero was the only advocate on Milo's fide; but as foon as he rose up to speak, he was received with fo rude a clamour by the Clodians, that he was much discomposed and daunted at his first fetting out: he recovered spirit enough, however, to go through his speech, which was taken down in writing, and published as it was delivered; though the copy of it now extant is supposed to have been retouched, and corrected by him afterwards, for a prefent to Milo, who was condemned, and went into exile at Marseilles, a few days after his condemnation,

(1) Tamen bæc novi judicii nova forma terret occulos.] The reason why Cicero calle this a new trial is, because Milo was not tried by the acting prætor, as was usual in criminal cafes, but by a special commiffion and an extraordinary judge. By the nova forma he refers to the frong guard which Pompey brought to the trial, in order to prevent any violence,

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oratori aliquid, ut in foro et in judicio, quanquam præsidiis salutaribus et necessariis septi sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus ; quæ si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, judices, nec inter tantam vim armorum existimarem oratori locum esse; sed me recreat et reficit (2) Cn. Pompeii, sapientissimi et justissimi viri, consilium : qui profecto nec justitiæ suæ putaret esse, quem reum sententiis judicum tradidisset, eundem telis militum dedere ; nec sapientiæ, temeritatem concitatæ multitudinis auctoritate publica armare. Quamobrem illa arma, centuriones, cohortes, non periculum nobis, sed præsidium denuntiant: neque solum, ut quieto, sed etiam . ut magno animo simus, hortantur: neque auxilium modo defensioni meæ, verum etiam silentium pollicentur. (3) Reliqua verò multitudo, quæ quidem est civium, tota nostra est: neque eorum quisquam, quos undique intuentes ex hoc ipso loco cernitis, unde aliqua pars fori aspici potest, et hujus exitum judicii exspectantes videtis, non cùm virtuti Milonis favet, tum de se, de liberis suis, de patria, de fortunis hodierno die decertari putat.

II. Unum genus est adversum infestumque nobis, eorum quos P. Clodii furor rapinis, incendiis, et omnibus exitiis publicis pavit: (4) qui hesternâ etiam concione incitati sunt, ut vobis voce præirent, quid judicaretis; quorum clamor si quis forte fuerit, admonere vos debebit, ut eum civem retineatis, qui semper genus illud hominum, clamoresque maximos pro vestrâ salute neglexit. Quamobrem adeste animis, judices, et timorem, si quem habetis, deponite. Nam si unquam de bonis et fortibus viris, si unquam de bene meritis civibus potestas vobis judicandi fuit: si denique unquam locus (5) amplissimorum ordinum delectis viris datus est, ubi sua studia erga fortes et bonos cives, quæ vultu et verbis sæpe significassent, re et sententiis declararent: hoc profecto tempore eam potestatem

(2) Cn. Pompeii, fapientissimi et juftiffimi viri] Though Pompey was not concerned for Clodius's death or the manner of it, but pleased rather that the republic was freed at any rate from so pestilent a demagogue; yet he resolved to take the benefit of the occafion, for getting rid of Milo too; from whofe ambition and high fpirit, he had reason to apprehend no less trouble. Cicero being fenfible of this, as well as of the great authority and influence of Pompey, endeavours, through the whole of this oration, to remove the effects which they might have upon the minds of the judges.

(3) Reliqua vero multitudo, qaæ quidem eft civium, tota noftra eft.] The Clodian party confifted principally of a fet of profligate, low, and abandoned wretches; whom Clodius, by his rapines had gained over to his interest. To thefe Cicero does not allow the name of citizens, on account of their infamous characters, and feditous practices. (4) Qui besternâ etiam concione incitati funt, ut vobis voce præirent, quid judicaretis.} Munatius Plancus Burfa, one of the three tribunes in oppofition to Milo, the very day before this oration was delivered, called the people together, and exhorted them to ap pear in a full body the next day, when judgment was to be given, and to declare their fentiments in fo public a manner that the criminal might not be fuffered to escape; which Cicero reflects upon as an insult on the liberty of the bench.

not surrounded with the usual circle; nor is the crowd such as used to throng us. For those guards you see planted before all the temples, however intended to prevent all violence, yet strike the orator with terror; so that even in the forum, and during a trial, though attended with an usual and necessary guard, I cannot help being under some apprehensions, at the same time I am sensible they are without foundation. Indeed if I imagined it was stationed there in opposition to Milo, I should give way, my lords, to the times, and conclude there was no room for an orator in the midst of such an armed force. But the prudence of Pompey, a man of such dintinguished wisdom and equity, both cheers and relieves me; whose justice will never suffer him to leave a person exposed to the rage of the soldiery, whom he has delivered up to a legal trial; nor his wisdom, to give the sanction of public authority to the outrages of a furious nob. Wherefore those arms, those centurions and cohorts, are so far from threatening me with danger, that they assure me of protection; they not only banish my fears, but inspire me with courage; and promise that I shall be heard, not merely with safety, but with silence and attention. As to the rest of the assembly, those, at least, that are Roman citizens, they are all on our side; nor is there a single person of all that multitude of spectators, whom you see on all sides of us, as far as any part of the forum can be distinguished, waiting the event of the trial, who, while he favours Milo, does not think his own fate, that of his posterity, his country, and his property likewise at stake.

SECT. IL There is indeed one set of men our inveterate enemies; they are those whom the madness of P. Clodius has trained up, and supported by plunder, firing of houses, and every species of public mischief; who were spirited up by these speeches of yesterday, to dictate to you what sentence you should pass. If these should chance to raise any clamour, it will only make you cautious how you part with a citizen who always despised that crew, and their loudest threatenings, where your safety was concerned. Act with spirit then, my lords; and if you ever entertained any fears, dismiss them all. For if ever you had it in your power to determine in favour of brave and worthy men, or of deserving citizens; in a word, if ever any occasion was presented to a number of persons selected from the most illustrious orders, of declaring, by their actions and their votes, that regard for the brave and virtuous, which they had often expressed by their looks and words; now is the time for

(5) Amplifsimorum ordinum delectis viris.] The judges in this tria! were chosen from the fenatorian and equeftrian orders; and Afconius tells us, that they were perfons of great abilities and unquestionable integrity.