9.
But Caius Decianus, whom you often mention, was condemned, because, when he was accusing,
with the earnest approval of all good men, a man notorious for every description of infamy,
Publius Furius, he dared to complain in the assembly of the death of Saturninus. And Sextus
Titius was condemned for having an image of Lucius Saturninus in his house. The Roman knights
laid it down by that decision that that man was a worthless citizen, and one who ought not to
be allowed to remain in the state, who either by keeping his image sought, to do credit to the
death of a man who was seditious to such a degree as to become an enemy to the republic, or
who sought by pity to excite the regrets of ignorant men, or who showed his own inclination to
imitate such villainy.
[25]
Therefore it does seem a marvellous
thing to me, where you, O Labienus, found thus image which you have. For after Sextus Titius
was condemned, no one could be found who would dare to have it in his possession. But if you
had heard of that, or if, from your age, you could have known it, you certainly would never
have brought that image, which, even when concealed in his house, had brought ruin and exile
on Sextus Titius, into the rostrum, and into the assembly of the people; nor would you ever
have driven your designs on those rocks on which you had seen the ship of Sextus Titius dashed
to pieces, and the fortunes of Caius Decianus hopelessly wrecked. But in all these matters you
are erring out of ignorance. For you have undertaken the advocacy of a cause which is older
than your own recollections; a cause which was dead before you were born; that cause in which
you yourself would have been, if your age had allowed you to be so, you are bringing before
this court.
[26]
Do you not understand, in the first place, what
sort of men, what sort of citizens they were whom, now that they are dead, you are accusing of
the greatest wickedness? Are you not aware, how many of those who are still alive, you, by the
same accusation, are bringing into peril of their lives? For if Caius Rabirius committed a
capital crime in having borne arms against Lucius Saturninus, yet the age which he was then of
might furnish him with some excuse by which to secure himself from danger. But how are we to
defend Quintus Catulus, the father of this Catulus, a man in whom the very highest wisdom,
eminent virtue, and singular humanity were combined? and Marcus Scaurus, a man of great
gravity, wisdom, and prudence? or the two Mucii, or Lucius Crassus, or Marcus Antonius, who
was at that time outside the city with a guard? all men than whom there was no one of greater
wisdom or ability in the whole city; or how are we to defend the other men of equal dignity,
the guardians and counselors of the republic, who behaved in the same way, now that they are
dead?
[27]
What are we to say about those most honourable men
and most excellent citizens, the Roman knights, who then combined with the senate in defence
of the safety of the republic? What are we to say of the aerarian tribunes, 1 and of the men of all the other orders in the state,
who then took up arms in defence of the common liberties of all?
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
1 “The tribuni aerarii, who constituted an order in the latter days of the republic, and who were, in fact, the representatives of the most respectable plebeians, were originally heads of tribes, who acted as; general inspectors and collectors of the aes militare for the payment of the troops.” “The charge of the treasury was originally entrusted to the quaestors and their assistants, the tribuni aerarii.” “Niebuhr supposes that the tribuni aerani, who occur down to the end of the republic, were only the successors of the tribunes of the tribes.” Vide Smith, Dict. Ant. pp. 19, 20, 987, vv. Aerarii, Aerarium, Tribunus.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.