Lengthy speeches, therefore, are never to be sill except when the senate is precipitating some rash -measure, as it does far too often through ambition. It may be desirable for a speaker, if there is no aid to be obtained from any magistrate, to occupy a whole day, or when the subject of debate is so important as to demand all the copiousness of" the orator, both in exhortation and explanation, in both which kinds of oratory our friend Cato is remarkably distinguished. _ And. as to the addition, that he should uphold the interests of the people, it is clearly necessary for a senator ‘to be acquainted with the general state of the republic. And this is a subject of very extensive application; since it comprehends a knowledge of the military affairs, the state of the treasury, the foreign alliances, the friends and stipendiaries of the republic; an acquaintance with the regulations, the resources and the engagements of each people; a sufficient knowledge of the practices of deliberations to. maintain them; and a familiarity with the precedents of our ancestors. You therefore see that the science of politics taxes every power of intellect, diligence, and memory, in order to acquire and maintain that elaborate information, without which no one can be called an accomplished senator.
The next law relates to the public deliberations of the people, in which it is especially enjoined that all violence be avoided. For nothing is more destructive in states, nothing so contrary to law and right, nothing less civil and humane, than to carry anything by violence and agitation in a sound and constitutional government. It commands that respect be paid to any magistrate who interposes his veto; than which injunction nothing can be more admirable, since it is better that a good measure be sometimes impeded, than that a bad one should be carried.
XIX. When I say that in all cases of fraud it is necessary to go before a pleader, I follow the opinion of Crassus, one of our wisest men, whose counsel was adopted by the senate, which decreed when the consul Claudius made a motion respecting Carbo’s sedition, that they could not take cognisance of sedition, except through the medium of an official pleader, who should lay the case before the people; since it was allowable for him who made a proposition to abandon it as soon as it began to occasion disturbance; while a man who persists when he can do no good, is seeking for violence, which is by this law deprived of all impunity.
Then follows the law, which states that he who acts as a preventer of evil measures by the interposition of his veto, is a good citizen, And who would not zealously come to the assistance of the commonwealth, when stimulated by the hope of acquiring a character so glorious?
Next succeed certain regulations, which we likewise find in the public institutions and laws—that the auspices be observed, and the augurs obeyed. It is the duty of a good augur to remember, that it is his duty to stand by the republic at the time of its greatest emergency; that he is appointed as the minister and prophet of the all-good and all-great Jupiter, just as those men are his to whom he has entrusted the auspices; and that definite portions of the heavens are ON THE LAWS. A481 ON THE LAWS. A481 committed to him, in order that by them he may often be able to succour the state in her hour of danger and necessity.
Then follow provisions respecting the promulgation of laws, respecting the proposing their successive counts and clauses separately, and the duty of listening to the remonstrances and objections, not of the magistrates only, but of private individuals.
After this, we find two excellent laws selected from the Twelve Tables. One of which forbids unfair privileges: the other will not permit sentence of death to be passed on any citizen, except in the supreme court of the comitia centuriata. It is a marvellous thing, that, before such magistrates as seditious tribunes of the people were known or ever thought of, our ancestors should. have provided so carefully for posterity. They forbade laws to be enacted against particular individuals, for that is what we call “ privilege,” than which nothing can be more inequitable; since it is the plain meaning of the word law, that what has been decreed should be equally enjoined to all. And they refused to sanction any enactments respecting particular individuals which were not openly proposed in the centuriata comitia. For when the people are summoned by rank, order, and age, they use much more consideration in giving their suffrages, than when they are promiscuously convoked by tribes.
_ It was therefore very truly observed in my own particular cause, by Lucius Cotta, a man of vast genius and consummate prudence, that no sentence whatever had been legally pronounced against us; for, besides the fact that that comitia was held under the fear of an armed mob of slaves, and comitia tributa could neither pass capital sentence nor any adjudications of privilege, there was, therefore, no need of a law for the recal of a person against whom no sentence whatever had been legally pronounced. But it appeared both to ourselves, and to other most illustrious men, to be more proper, seeing that slaves and vagabonds persisted in declaring that they had passed some sentence upon me, that all Italy should manifest as openly as possible what it thought on the subject.; XX. Next follow those laws which relate to pecuniary bribes and canvassing. And since these cannot be so well chastised by censures as by penalties, it is added, let all such DE NAT. ETC. II abuses be visited with equivalent penalty and punishment, go that every one may be duly punished for his fault: violence ‘being corrected by death, avarice by fines, and ambition by: ignominy.
The last laws which we have cited are not in use among - “us, though very necessary to the state. We have no proper registration of laws. Our laws, therefore, are such as the apparitors declare them to be, and we are forced to take the word of their copyists as our security. We have no public legal registry, in which our laws may lie open to the notice of the people. ‘The Greeks are more careful than ourselves in this matter, as they have instituted legal registrars, whom they call vowopiAaxes. Their office is not only to preserve the original copies of the laws, as was the custom among our ancestors, but also to take notice of the conduct of men, and to recall them to their obedience to the law.
This care may be entrusted to the censors, since we wish at all times to maintain their functions in the state. It is likewise to the censors, according to our legal maxim, that those who retire from magisterial offices should report and explain their proceedings when in office, in order to enable the censors to pronounce upon them fairly. ‘This is done in Greece by publicly constituted accusers, who, however, could never have much weight unless their functions were voluntary and honorary. It is therefore better, that the case should be stated to, and the accounts laid before, the censors, reserving intact all their rights to the accuser and the law.
But we have now sufficiently discussed the offices and duties of magistrates, unless you demand further information on any point, _ Atticus.—Why, if we held our peace, the very subject itself would admonish you what you ought further to say.
_ Marcus.—Would it? I suppose you want me next to treat of judgments, as that is a kindred subject to that of magistrates.
Atticus.—What then! do you think nothing remains to be said on the rights of the Romans, which you proposed to investigate?
Marcus.—What would you have me say on such a topic?
Atticus.—I would have you treat of those regulations, of which I think it most disgraceful to those who live in a a ees republic to be ignorant: for as you remarked just now, 1 can only read our laws by favour of the copyists; and so I observe that many of our magistrates are so ignorant of their own laws, that they know no more about them than their clerks choose to tell them. Since, therefore, when you had proposed to explain the laws of religion, you thought it became you to treat of the alienation of sacred things, in like manner, now that you have described the laws of our magistrates, you must discuss their power and their rights. _ Marcus.,—I will endeavour to do so briefly, if I can; for your father’s friend, M. Junius, addressed to him a copious treatise on this subject, which, in my opinion, is extremely well and ingeniously written. But, on the subject of the law of nature, we ought to think to ourselves, and to speak from our own hearts; but when we are considering the rights of the Roman people, we must then repeat what has Peen bequeathed and handed down to us.
Atticus.—Such, indeed, appears to me the right method of proceeding, and T shall listen with pleasure to all you may choose to say on these topics.
[How many books of this treatise originally existed is not known. It is certain that there were five, and Davies thinks there were eight; but we have nothing beyond the first three. | As one and the same universal nature unites and corroborates all the parts of the world, so did she unite into one harmonious family all mankind. But men through their depravity disagreed and quarrelled, not recollecting that they are all consanguineous and akin, and equally subject to the same paternal providence. If this fact, indeed, were but kept in. mind, all men might live the amiable life of the gods.
It was a very bold and hazardous measure of the Greek government, to consecrate the images of Love and Cupid in the public theatres, Let us congratulate ourselves, since death gives us something better than we enjoy in life, and not a worse condition of things; for that immortality may truly be termed divine, wherein the mind flourishes, emancipated from the body, and being delivered from sensualism, is free from evil.
ON STANDING FOR THE CONSULSHIP . ADDRESSED BY QUINTUS CICERO TO HIS BROTHER, M. T. CICERO.
J. AurHovuaH you have everything which man can attain to, either by natural genius, or by experience, or by industry, still, out of my affection for you, I have not thought it unbecoming to write you an account of those things which have occurred to me, who day and night can think of nothing but your canvass: not with the idea of being able to suggest to you anything new beyond what you already know, but in order that those things which at present seem scattered and unlimited, might by method and arrangement be presented under one aspect. Although, therefore, nature is of the greatest possible weight, still it seems possible that in a business lasting only a few months, art might prove superior to nature. Consider what the city is, what is that you are seeking for, and who you yourself are. Think almost every day as you descend to the forum, I am a new man—lIam. seeking the consulship—and the city where I am doing so is Rome. The novelty of your name you will, to a great extent, take off by your reputation as a speaker. That is an accomplishment which has always carried with it a great deal of dignity. The man who is considered a worthy advocate for men of consular dignity, cannot be reckoned unworthy of the consulship. Wherefore, since you start from this glory, and since whatever you are, you are in consequence of your reputation in this act, you must come so prepared to speak, ’ as if in each individual case the trial would be one calling for every possible kind of ability. Take care that everything which can be an aid to the display of that ability (and of which I know you have an ample store) is always ready and available, and constantly recollect what Demetrius has recorded of the study and practice of Demosthenes.
In the next place, let the number of your friends, and the description of which they are, be seen. For you have all those classes in your favour which such men usually have had: namely, all the publicans: nearly all the equestrian order, also many municipal towns, many individuals of every order in the state who have been defended by you: some colleges, also many young men who have been won over by their taste for eloquence: and the diligent daily attendance of your personal friends. Take care to preserve all these friends by recommending them, by asking them, and by making them by every means possible to understand, those who are under obligations to you, that there will never be any other opportunity of showing their gratitude; and those who wish for your services, that there will never be any other opportunity of laying you under an obligation to them. “s There is another thing, also, which appears to me calculated. to be of gteat assistance to a new man: I mean the goodwill of the nobles, and especially of those of consular rank. It is well that they unto whose rank and number you wish to come, should themselves consider you worthy to be one of that rank and number. All these men must be carefully asked for their votes, and you must assure them, and persuade them, that we have always held the same sentiments concerning the state that the chief nobles have; and that we have never been inclined to the popular party; that if we have ever given utterance to any popular sentiments, we have done so either with the view of uniting Cneus Pompey to our party, in order to have him who was the most powerful man in the state either a friend to our canvass, or at all events not an enemy to it. Moreover, take pains with the young nobles, so as to turn them over, and to retain the affections of all those who are favourable to you. They will bring you much dignity. You have many such friends. Take care that they know of what great importance you consider them. If you can gain those who at present have only no objection to you, to be eager for you, they will be of the greatest service.
II. And it is of great service to your canvass as a new man, that the nobles who are standing with you are of such characters, that there is no one who can say that their high birth ought to be more in their favour than your virtue ought to be in yours. For who is there who fancies that Publius Galba or Lucius Cassius, men of the highest rank, are standing for the consulship? You see, then, that men of.
the most distinguished families are not equal to you, because they are destitute of energy. But Antonius and Catiline are troublesome. I say that they are very desirable competitors for one who is a new man, industrious, innocent, eloquent, and popular among the judges. They are both assassins from their childhood, both men of lascivious character, both needy men.! We have seen the property of the one put up to auction; we have heard his voice, when he swore that he could not have a fair trial at Rome against a man of Greek extraction. And we know that he has been expelled the senate. And by the admirable discrimination of the censor, we had him as competitor for the queestorship, with Sabillius and Panthera for his friends, when he had no sureties whom he could produce at the table. In which magistracy he bought that mistress whom he had openly at home, for a hundred and fifty drachms, And in his canvass for the consulship, he has preferred pillaging all the innkeepers by the most infamous exercise of ‘his powers as lieutenant, to being present and canvassing the Roman people.
As for the other, O ye Gods, how splendid he is! In the first place, he is as noble as the other: is he more so? No, but he is more virtuous, on which account the one fears his. own shadow, the other does not fear even the laws, being born in his father’s beggary, educated in his sister’s immodesty, and strengthened in the slaughter of the citizens; a man whose first entrance into public affairs was by the murder of Roman knights. For Sylla had appointed Catiline alone to command those Gauls who then were mowing off the heads of the Titinii, the Nannii; and the Tanusii, among whom he murdered, with his own hand, that most excellent man, Quintus auy pint 1 See note at the end.
488 ON STANDING FOR THE CONSULSHIP, Ceecilius, his own sister’s husband, a Roman knight, of no party, always quiet by nature, and now also by his age.
IfI. Why should I say that he now seeks the consulship; he who, in the sight of the Roman people, beat a man most beloved by the Roman people, Marcus Marius, with rods made of iron, through the whole city? and drove him to the tomb of Catulus, and there tore his living body with every kind of torture: and while he was standing there, beheaded _ him with his sword and with his own right-hand, while his left-hand was holding his hair away from his neck, and bore away his head in his own hand, while streams of blood were flowing between his fingers? Who afterwards lived in such a way with actors and gladiators that he employed, the one as the assistants of his lusts, and the others as accomplices in his crimes. A man who never came to any place of such holiness and purity, that (though it had no fault in any other respect) still he did not leave some suspicion and discredit attaching to it, owing to his own wickedness. A man who has made his greatest friends of the Curii and Annii in the senate-house, of the Sapale and Carvilii in the auctionrooms, and the Pompilii and Veltii in the equestrian order. Who has so much boldness and so much wickedness, so much art in his lust, and so much resolution to effect his purpose, that he has isolated noble children almost in the very bosoms of their parents? Why should I mention Africa to you, why the evidence of the witnesses? These things you know, and I advise you to read them often.
However, I think I ought not to pass over this—that, first of all, he came off from that trial in as indigent a condition as some of his judges were in before that trial; and, in the second place, so overwhelmed with unpopularity, that another trial was daily demanded against him. He is in such a state, that he has more to fear if he remains quiet, than to despise if he excites any disturbance. How much better fortune have you in your canyass than that new man, Caius Ceelius, lately had? He was a candidate at the same time with two men of the noblest birth, and of such character that all their other qualifications were superior to their nobility,—men of the greatest ability, the greatest modesty, the most distinguished services, the most excellent reasons for canvassing, and the greatest diligence in prosecuting their’ canvass, And yet, while one was absent,! Ceelius, although he was far inferior in birth, and superior in hardly any point, defeated the other. Wherefore, if you act as nature and the studies which you have always pursued enable you to, as the occasion and your own interest require, as you can, and as you ought, you will not have a hard contest with those competitors, who are not nearly so illustrious by birth as they are notorious for their vices. For what citizen can be found so unprincipled, as to be willing by one vote to draw two daggers against the republic?
IV. Since I have explained what aids to your newness you have, and may have, I think I must next speak of the importance of the honour for which you are standing. You are seeking for the consulship, an honour of which there is no one who does not think you worthy; but there are many who will grudge it to you. For you, being a man of equestrian rank, are aiming at the chief rank in the state,—and at a rank the chief in such a sense, that that honour will confer much more dignity on a brave, eloquent, and innocent man, than on any one else. Do not believe that those who have enjoyed this honour fail to see how much dignity you will have when you have attained it too, But I suspect that those men envy you (except, indeed, such as may be your own especial friends), who, though born of consular families, have not obtained the same honour as their ancestors. I think that even new men of pretorian rank, with the exception of such as are under personal obligations to you, are not inclined to be surpassed in honour by you. And I well know that you are aware how many envious persons there are among the people, and how many, in consequence of the events of late years, are alienated from the new men; and some, too, must inevitably be personally angry with you yourself, on account of the causes which you have pleaded, Recollect this cireumstance, too,—do you think that you have made any friends by the great zeal with which you have devoted yourself to increasing the glory of Cnzeus Pompeius? Wherefore, as you are seeking the highest office in the state, and as you see that 1 The Latin is cum deesset altu; which is very obscure, if it is not corrupt. Palermus proposes to read decessit for decessisset, had died; an this can hardly be, for if one was dead, Ceelius had no competitor eft, wa eed at there are motions in operation which will be adverse to you, you must exert all your reason, and care, and labour, and diligence.: VY. And the standing for offices is divided into diligence of two kinds; one of which must depend on the zeal of your friends, the other on the inclinations of the people. The zeal of your friends must be gained by kindnesses and services done by you, by length of friendship, by the affability and pleasantness of your own nature. But the name of friends is one used more extensively in a canvass for offices than in any other occasion in life; for now, every one who shows you any geodwill whatever, every one who is civil to you, or who comes to your house, must be ranked in the number of your friends. But still it is the most advantageous thing of all to be beloved by and agreeable to those who are our friends from any more honourable cause, such as relationship, affinity, or companionship, or any other connexion. In the next place, you must labour diligently to make every one, in proportion as he is familiar and intimate with you, love you, and wish your honour to be advanced as much as possible; then all those of your tribe, your neighbours, your clients, your freedmen, and, lastly, even your slaves; for nearly all the conversation with reference to a man’s forensic fame emanates from persons connected with his house. Then you must make friends of every sort;—friends for show, men illustrious from their rank and reputation, who, even if they are not very effective as voters or canvassers, nevertheless add some dignity to the candidate;—and magistrates, for the purpose of obtaining your rights, among whom, the consuls especially, and next to them the tribunes of the people, are men of preeminent influence in bringing over the centuries to your interests.
Those who have ever gained the votes of a tribe or of a century through your influence, or who hope to do so, or who have ever received, or who expect to receive, any kindness from you, conciliate and make sure of by every means in your power, For, for many years, ambitious men have been labouring vigorously, with all their zeal and energy, to obtain: the objects of their ambition from the men of their own tribe. And do you take pains witii these men, by all imaginable means, to cause them to be eager in your cause with all their hearts and all their inclinations, And if men were only: ON STANDING FOR THE CONSULSHIP. AQT grateful, then all these things ought to be ready done to your hand, as, in fact, I trust that they are. For the last two years you have laid under obligations four companies of citizens, who may be of the greatest influence in aiding you in the object of your ambition; those, namely, of Marcus Fundeenius, of Quintus Galbus, of Caius Cornelius, and ‘of Caius Orcininus. And I know what these companies, when they brought their consent to you, promised you.and assured you of most positively; for I was present. Wherefore you must take care that, on this occasion, you exact of them a requital for your services, by continually reminding them, by asking them, by renewing your kindnesses, by cultivating their goodwill; so as to let them understand that they will never have any other opportunity of showing their gratitude.
And, indeed, these men will be excited to zeal in your behalf, both by hopes of your services in future, and by a recollection of your recent exertions in their cause. And altogether, since your canvass is abundantly fortified by that kind of friendship which you have gained by your defence of causes, take care that, of all those men who are under obligations to you, each man may have his part carefully marked out and allotted to him. And as you have never been troublesome to any one of them in any matter, take care that they understand that you have reserved the requital of all those obligations which you think that you are entitled to demand at their hands, to the present time..
VI. But since there are three things by which men are chiefly won over to benevolence, and to zealous canvassing and voting for another,—namely, by past service, or future hope, or pure inclination,—you must consider how you may most effectually act upon each of these motives. Men are won over by very slight services, to think them reason sufficient to be zealous in the cause of a candidate; so that there is little danger of persons whom you have actually saved,— and there are many such,—not understanding that, if they do not satisfy your expectations at the present time, they will never be esteemed by any one hereafter. But though this is the case, still they must be solicited for their votes, and carefully brought over to the opinion that, though they are at present under obligations to us, we shall now, in our turn, appear under obligations to them. But as to those who are bound to us by hope,—and that kind of men are far the most energetic and busy in one’s service,—you must take care that your aid appears to be destined for and made ready for them, and hat they understand that you are an attentive spectator of their services; so that it may appear that you distinctly see and observe what proceeds from each individual.
The third kind is those who are a man’s friends from pure inclination; and those men must be strengthened in their purpose by thanking them earnestly, by accommodating your discourse to those motives which lead each man to be zealous for you, by showing a corresponding inclination to be of service to them, and by holding them out hopes of close friendship, familiarity, and intimacy with you. And with reference to all these kinds of friends, you must estimate and consider what the power of each individual is; so that you may know both how to show your complaisance for each person, and what to expect and ask from each person. For there are some men of great influence in their own neighbourhoods or municipalities,—some men of general energy | and authority, who, even if they have not previously taken pains to keep up their interest, still can easily at once exert themselves in the cause of that man to whom they are under obligations, or whom they wish to serve, This kind of men you must cultivate in such a way that they themselves may understand that you see what you have to expect from each of them, that you appreciate what you do receive, and that you recollect what you have received, But there are others 7 who have either no influence at all, or are even unpopular among the people of their tribe, and who have not any energy or power to enable them to be of service on a sudden emergency. You must make a distinction with respect to these men; lest, while your hopes are placed on some great thing, you may in reality derive but little assistance from them.
VII. And although a candidate must have his strength in, and his main reliance on, friendships previously formed and established, nevertheless, in the course of the canvass, many very useful friendships are also formed; for amid its other annoyances, still a canyass has this one advantage,—that in the rest of your life you are not able to form friendships with whomsoever you please; for if you were at any other time to