40.
[86]
And as this is the case, O judges, in the first place for the sake of the republic, than
which nothing ought to be of more importance in the eyes of every one, I do warn you, as I am
entitled to do by my extreme diligence in the cause of the republic, which is well known to
all of you,—I do exhort you, as my consular authority gives me a right to
do,—I do entreat you, as the magnitude of the danger justifies me in dying, to
provide for the tranquillity, for the peace, for the safety, for the lives of yourselves and
of all the rest of your fellow-citizens. In the next place I do appeal to your good faith, O
judges, (whether you may think that I do so in the spirit of an advocate or a friend signifies
but little,) and beg of you, not to overwhelm the recent exaltation of Lucius Murena, an
unfortunate man, of one oppressed both by bodily disease and by vexation of mind, by a fresh
cause for morning. He has been lately distinguished by the greatest kindness of the Roman
people, and has seemed fortunate in being the first man to bring the honours of
the consulship into an old family, and a most ancient municipality. Now, in a mourning and
unbecoming gait, debilitated by sickness, worn out with tears and grief, he is a suppliant to
you, O judges, invoking your good faith, imploring your pity, fixing all his hopes on your
power and your assistance.
[87]
Do not, in the name of the
immortal gods, O judges, deprive him not only of that office which he thought conferred
additional honour on him, and at the same time of all the honours which he had gained before,
and of all his dignity and fortune. And, O judges, what Lucius Murena is begging and
entreating of you is no more than this; that if he has done no injury unjustly to any one, if
he has offended no man's ears or inclination, if he has never (to say the least) given any one
reason to hate him either at home or when engaged in war, he may in that case find among you
moderation in judging, and a refuge for men in dejection, and assistance for modest merit. The
deprivation of the consulship is a measure calculated to excite great feelings of pity, O
judges. For with the consulship everything else is taken away too. And at such times as these
the consulship itself is hardly a thing to envy a man. For it is exposed to the harangues of
seditious men, to the plots of conspirators, to the attacks of Catiline. It is opposed
single-handed to every danger, and to every sort of unpopularity.
[88]
So that, O judges, I do not see what there is in this beautiful consulship
which need be grudged to Murena, or to any other man among us. But those things in it which
are calculated to make a man an object of pity, are visible to my eyes, and you too can
clearly see and comprehend them.
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