Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [56.1] “If, then, you admit the populace also to a share in the government, no evil will arise for you here. But the man who aims at greater power than the rest of his fellow-citizens and has formed a faction in the senate of all who are willing to share his disaffection and his crimes (for when we are deliberating concerning the commonwealth we ought to foresee every likely contingency), this great and august person, I say, when called upon by the tribunes to appear before the popular assembly, before the lowly and humble people, will have to give an accounting of both his actions and his purpose, and if found guilty, suffer the punishment he deserves. [2] And lest the people themselves, when vested with so great a power, should grow wanton and, seduced by the demagoguery of the worst men, make war upon the best citizens (for it is in the masses as a rule that tyranny springs up), some person of exceptional sagacity, created dictator by you, will guard against this evil and will not allow them to do anything lawless; for, being invested with absolute and irresponsible power, he will cut off the diseased part of the commonwealth and will not permit that which is as yet uninfected to be contaminated; he will reform in the best manner possible the habits, usages and aims of the citizens, and appoint such magistrates as he thinks will govern the south with the greatest prudence; and having effected these things within the space of six months, he will again become a private citizen, receiving no other reward for these actions than the honour. [3] Do you, then, bearing these things in mind, and believing that this is the most perfect form of government, debar the populace from nothing, but, even as you have granted them the right of choosing the magistrates who are to preside each year over the commonwealth, as well as confirming or invalidating laws, of declaring war and making peace — which are the greatest and the most important matters that come up for action in the commonwealth — and have not invested the senate with authority over any one of these matters, in like manner give them also a share in the courts, and particularly in the trials of those who are accused of crimes against the state by raising a sedition or aiming at tyranny or discussing a betrayal of the state with the enemy or attempt us some other mischief of like nature. [4] For the more formidable you make it for the overbearing and self-seeking to transgress the laws and to alter your customs, by appointing many eyes to watch and many men to keep guard over them, the better will be the condition of your commonwealth.”

  [57.1] After he had said this and other things to the same purport, he ended. And the rest of the senators who rose up after him, except a few, concurred in his opinion. When the preliminary decree of the senate was to be drawn up, Marcius, asking leave to speak, said: “You all know, senators, how I have acted with regard to the commonwealth, and that it is because of my goodwill toward you that I have come into this danger, and furthermore that your behaviour toward me has been contrary to my expectation; and you will know this even better when the action against me has ended. [2] However, since the opinion of Valerius prevails, may these measures prove of advantage to you and may I prove a poor judge of future events. But in order not only that you who are to draw up the decree may know upon what terms you going to deliver me up to the people, but that I also may not fail to know on what charge I am to defend myself, pray order the tribunes to declare in your presence what the crime is of which they intend to accuse me and what title they propose to give to the cause.”

  [58.1] He said this in the belief that he was to be tried for the words he had spoken in the senate, and also from a desire that the tribunes should acknowledge that they intend to accuse him on this charge. But the tribunes, after consulting together, charged him with aiming at tyranny and ordered him to come prepared to make his defence against that charge. For they were unwilling to confine their accusation to a single point, and that neither a strong one in itself nor acceptable to the senate, but were scheming to obtain for themselves the authority to bring any charges they wished against Marcius, and were expecting to deprive him of the assistance of the senators. Thereupon Marcius said: “Very well, if this is the charge on which I am to be tried, I submit myself to the judgment of the plebeians; and let there be nothing to prevent the drawing up of the preliminary decree.” [2] The greater part of the senators too were well pleased that he was to be tried upon this charge, for two reasons — first, that to speak one’s mind freely in the senate was not going to render one liable to an accounting, and second, that Marcius, who had led a modest and irreproachable life, would easily clear himself of that accusation. [3] After this the preliminary decree for the trial was drawn up and Marcius was given time till the third market-day to prepare his defence. The Romans had markets then, as now, every eighth day, upon which days the plebeians resorted to the city from the country and exchanged their produce for the goods they bought, settled their grievances in court, and ratified by their votes such matters of public business as either et laws assigned or the senate referred to them for decision; and as the greater part of them were small farmers and poor, they passed in the country the seven days intervening between the markets. [4] As soon, therefore, as the tribunes received the preliminary decree they went of the Forum, and calling the people together, gave great praise to the senate, and then, after reading the decree, appointed a day for holding the trial, at which they asked all the citizens to be present, as matters of the greatest moment were to be decided by them.

  [59.1] When news of this was spread abroad, there was great enthusiasm and marshalling of both the plebeian and the patricians, the former feeling that they were about to avenge themselves upon the most arrogant of all men, and the latter striving earnestly to save the champion of the aristocracy from falling into the hands of his enemies; and to both parties it seemed that their whole claim to life and liberty was at stake in this trial. When the third market-day arrived, such a crowd of people from the country as had never before been known had come together in the city and held possession of the Forum from the very break of day. The tribunes then summoned the populace to the tribal assembly, first having roped off portions of the Forum in which the tribes were to take their places separately. [2] And this was the first time the Romans ever met in their trial assembly to give their votes against a man, the patricians very violently opposing it and demanding that the centuriate assembly should be convened, as was their time-honoured custom. For in earlier times, whenever the people were to give their votes upon any point referred to them by the senate, the consuls had summoned the centuriate assembly, after first offering up the sacrifices required by law, some of which are still performed down to our time. [3] The populace was wont to assemble in the field of Mars before the city, drawn up under their centurions and their standards as in war. They did not give their votes all at the same time, but each by their respective centuries, when these were called upon by the consuls. And there being in all one hundred and ninety-three centuries, and these distributed into six classes, that class was first called and gave its vote which consisted of those citizens who had the highest property rating and who stood in the foremost rank in battle; in this were comprised eighteen centuries of horse and eighty of foot. [4] The class that voted in the second place was composed of those of smaller fortunes who occupied an inferior position in battle and had not the same armour as the front-line fighters, but less; this multitude formed twenty centuries, and to them were added two centuries of carpenters, armourers and other artificers employed in making engines of war. Those who were called to vote in the third class made up twenty centuries; they had a lower rating than those of the second class and were posted behind them, and the arms they carried were not equal to those of the men in front of them. [5] Those next called had a still lower property rating and had a safer post in battle and their armour was lighter; these also were divided into twenty centuries, and arrayed with them were two centuries of horn-blowers and trumpeters. The class which was called in the fifth place consisted of those whose property was rated very low, and their arms were javelins and slings; these had no fixed place in the battle-line, but being light-
armed men and mobile, they attended the heavy-armed men and were distributed into thirty centuries. [6] The poorest of the citizens, who were not less numerous than all the rest, voted last and made but one century; they were exempt from the military levies and from the war-taxes paid by the rest of the citizens in proportion to their ratings, and for both these reasons were given the least honour in voting. [7] If, therefore, in the case of the first centuries, which consisted of the horse and of such of the foot as stood in the foremost rank in battle, ninety-seven centuries were of the same opinion, the voting was at an end and the remaining ninety-six centuries were not called upon to give their votes. But if this was not the case, the second class, composed of twenty-two centuries, was called, and then the third and so on till ninety-seven centuries were of the same opinion. Generally the points in dispute were determined by the classes first summoned, so that it was then needless to take those of the later classes. [8] It seldom happened that a matter was so doubtful that the voting went on till the last class was reached, consisting of the poorest citizens; and it was in the nature of a miracle when, in consequence of the first hundred and ninety-two centuries being equally divided, the addition of this last vote to the rest turned the scale one way or the other. [9] The supporters of Marcius, accordingly, demanded that this assembly based on the census should be called, expecting that he might perhaps be acquitted by the first class with its ninety-eight centuries, or, if not, at least by the second or third class. On the other hand, the tribunes, who also suspected this outcome, thought they ought to call the tribal assembly and to empower it to decide this cause, to the end that neither the poor might be at a disadvantage as compared with the rich nor the light-armed men have a less honourable station than the heavy-armed, nor the mass of plebeians, by being relegated to the last calls, be excluded from equal rights with the others, but that all the citizens might be equal to one another in their votes and equal in honour, and at one might give their votes by tribes. [10] The claim of the tribunes seemed to be more just than that of the patricians in that they thought the tribunal of the people ought to be a popular, not an oligarchic, tribunal, and that the cognizance of crimes committed against the commonwealth ought to be common to all.

  [60.1] The tribunes having with difficulty gained this point also from the patricians, when it was time for the trial to be held, Minucius, one of the consuls, rose first and spoke as the senate had directed him. First he reminded the populace of all the benefits they had received from the patricians; and next he asked that in return for so many good offices they should grant at their request one necessary favour in the interest of the public welfare. [2] In addition to this, he praised harmony and peace, told of the great good fortune which each of them brings to states, and inveighed against discord and civil wars, by which, he told them, many cities had been destroyed with all their inhabitants and whole nations had perished utterly. He exhorted them not to indulge their resentment so far as to prefer worse counsels to better, but with sober reason to contemplate future events, nor, again, to take the worst of their fellow-citizens for their advisers when deliberating concerning matters of the greatest importance, but rather those they esteemed the best, men from whom they knew their country had received many benefits in both peace and war and whom you would not have any reason to distrust, as if they had changed their natures. [3] But the sum and substance of his whole discourse was to persuade them to pass no vote against Marcius, but preferably to acquit him for his own sake, remembering what sort of man he had proved himself toward the commonwealth and how many battles he had won in fighting for both its liberty and its supremacy, and that they would be acting in neither a pious nor a just manner nor in a way worthy of themselves, if they held a grudge against him for his objectionable words, while feeling no gratitude for his splendid deeds. [4] The present occasion, too, he told them, was a splendid one for acquitting him, when he had come in person to surrender himself to his adversaries and was ready to acquiesce in whatever they should decide concerning him. If, however, they were unable to become reconciled to him, but were harsh and inexorable, he asked them to bear in mind that the senate, consisting of three hundred men who were the best in the city, was present to intercede for him, and begged them to feel some compassion and to soften their hearts, and not for the sake of punishing one enemy to reject the intercession of so many friends, but rather as a favour to many good men to disregard the prosecution of one man. [5] Having said this and other things to the same purport, he ended his speech with this suggestion, that if they acquitted the man by taking a vote, they would seem to have freed him because he had done the people any wrong, whereas, if they prevented the trial from being completed, they would appear to have done so as a favour to those who interceded in his behalf.

  [61.1] When Minucius had done speaking, Sicinius the tribune came forward and said that he would neither betray the liberty of the plebeians himself nor willingly permit others to betray it, but if the patricians really consented that the man should be tried by the plebeians, he would take their votes and do nothing more. [2] After this Minucius came forward and said: “Since you are eager, tribunes, that a vote shall be taken by all means concerning this man, let not your accusations go beyond the formal charge, but, as you have alleged that he aims at tyranny, show this and bring your evidence to prove it. But neither mention nor charge him with the words you accuse him of having spoken in the senate against the people. For the senate has voted to acquit him of this accusation and has thought proper that he should appear before the people upon specific charges.” And he thereupon read out the preliminary decree. [3] Having said this and adjured them to adhere to it, he descended from the tribunal. Sicinius was the first of the tribunes to set forth the charge, which he did in a very studied and elaborate speech, attributing everything the man had continued to say or do against the people to a design to set up tyranny. Then, after him, the most influential of the tribunes spoke.

  [62.1] When Marcius was given an opportunity to speak, he began from his earliest youth and enumerated all the campaigns he had made in the service of the commonwealth, the crowns he had received from the generals as rewards of victory, the foes he had taken captive and the citizens he had saved in battle; and in each instance that he mentioned he displayed his rewards, cited the generals as witnesses, and called by name upon the citizens whom he had saved. [2] These came forward with lamentations and entreated their fellow-citizens not to destroy as an enemy the man to whom they owed their preservation, begging one life in return for many and offering themselves in his stead to be treated by them as they thought fit. The greater part of them were plebeians and men extremely useful to the commonwealth; and their countenances and their entreaties roused such a sense of shame in the people that they were moved to pity and tears. [3] Then Marcius, rending his garments, showed his breast full of wounds and every other part of his body covered with scars, and asked them if they thought that to save one’s fellow-citizens in war and to destroy in time of peace those thus saved were actions of the same kind of person, and if anyone who is endeavouring to set up a tyranny ever expels from the state the common people, by whom tyranny is chiefly abetted and nourished. While he was yet speaking, those of the plebeians who were fair-minded and lovers of the right cried out to acquit him, and were ashamed that a man who had so often scorned his own life to preserve them all was even being brought to trial in the first place upon such a charge. [4] Those, however, who were by nature malevolent, enemies of the right, and easy to be led into any kind of sedition were sorry they were going to have to acquit him, but felt that they could not do otherwise, since they could find no evidence of his having aimed at tyranny, which was the point upon which they had been called to give their votes.

  [63.1] when this had been observed by Decius, the one who had spoken in the senate and prevailed on them to pass the decree for the trial, he rose up, and having commanded silence, said: “Since, plebeians, the patricians acquit Marcius of the words he spoke in the s
enate and of the violent and overbearing deeds that followed because of them, and do not permit us, either, to accuse him, hear what other deed, quite apart from words, this honourable man has been guilty of toward you, how insolent and tyrannical a deed, and learn what law of yours he, though a private citizen, has broken. [2] You all know, of course, that the law ordains that all the spoils we are able to take from the enemy by our valour shall belong to the public and that not only no private citizen has the disposition of them, but not even the general of our forces himself; but the quaestor, taking them over, sells them and turns the proceeds over to the public treasury. And this law, during all the time our city has been inhabited, not only has been violated by no one, but has not even been criticized as being a bad law. But Marcius here is there is and only man who, in contempt of this law while it stood and was valid, has thought fit, plebeians, to appropriate to himself the spoils which belong to us in common; and this was only last year, not long ago. [3] For when you made an incursion into the territory of the Antiates and captured many prisoners, many cattle, and a great quantity of corn, together with many other effects, he neither reported these to the quaestor nor sold them himself and turned the proceeds over to the public treasury, but distributed and gave as a present to his own friends the entire booty. This action, now, I aver to be a proof of his aiming at tyranny. What else could it be, when he used the public funds to gratify his flatterers, his bodyguards, and the accomplices in the tyranny he meditated? And this I maintain to be an open violation of the law. [4] Let Marcius, then, come forward and show one of two things — either that he did not distribute among his friends the spoils he took from the enemy’s country, or that in doing so he is not violating the laws. But neither of these things will he be able to say to you. For you yourselves are acquainted with both matters — with the law and with what he did. And if you acquit him, your decision cannot possibly be regarded as in accordance with justice and your oaths. Say naught, then, about your crowns, your rewards of valour, your wounds, and all the rest of that claptrap, and answer to these points, Marcius: for now I yield the floor to you.”