Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics)

by Cicero

  [114] But if those liberators of ours have removed themselves from our sight, they have at least left behind the example of what they have done. They have done what no one ever did before. Brutus made war on Tarquinius,* who was king in the days when kings were permitted at Rome. Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were all killed because they were suspected of having regal aspirations. But these men were the first to take up swords not against an aspirant to regal power, but against a ruling king. And just as their action is splendid and godlike on its own, so it is available for imitation—especially as they thereby acquired a glory which heaven itself seems scarcely able to contain. For though the awareness of having done so noble a deed was sufficient reward in itself, even so I do not think that mortals have the right to despise immortality.

  [115] Therefore remember, Marcus Antonius, the day on which you abolished the dictatorship.* Place before your eyes the joy of the senate and people of Rome. Now compare that with this marketing conducted by you and persons close to you,* and you will appreciate what a gulf lies between profit and praise. But just as people who suffer from the numbness of sensation brought on by a disease are incapable of tasting food, so, I am sure, the lustful, the greedy, and the criminal cannot savour real praise. All right, then: if the prospect of praise cannot induce you to do right, cannot even fear call you away from your filthy actions? You are not afraid of the courts. If that is because you are innocent, then I approve. But if it is because you rely on violence, then you evidently do not appreciate that a person like that who has no fear of the courts has something else that he ought to be afraid of.* [116] And if you are not afraid of brave men and loyal citizens because they are kept from you by force of arms, then, believe me, your own supporters will not tolerate you for long.*

  And what sort of a life is it to live in fear, day and night, of one’s own supporters? Unless, of course, you have bound yours to you by acts of greater generosity than Caesar did in the case of certain of his assassins who were his supporters—if, that is, you can be compared to that man in any way at all! He had innate ability, strategic skill, a good memory, literary talent, a painstaking nature, an intelligent mind, and a capacity for hard work. His achievements in war, though catastrophic for Rome, were nevertheless great. Having aimed at monarchy for many years, he undertook great labours and ran great risks, and so achieved his goal. He won over the ignorant masses with shows, building projects, largesses, and banquets. His followers he bound to him by rewards, his opponents by an apparent clemency. In short, he succeeded in bringing a free country, partly because of its fear, partly because of its passivity, to an acceptance of servitude. [117] You I can compare to him only in lust for power; in all other respects you do not bear comparison with him.

  But out of the many evils which Caesar inflicted on our country, there has come one good thing: the Roman people have now learned how far they can trust each person, whom they can rely on, and whom they should beware of. Do you not reflect on this—and realize that for brave men it is enough to have learned how noble in the act, how popular in the benefit it confers, and how glorious in the fame it brings is the assassination of a tyrant? Or do you imagine that, when people could not endure Caesar, they will put up with you? [118] Mark my words, from now on it will be a race to carry out the task: the lack of an opportunity will be no reason for delay.

  Look back, I ask you, Marcus Antonius, look back at last on your country. Think of the people from whom you are sprung, not of those with whom you live. With me, do as you will: only make your peace with your country. But that is for you; I shall speak for myself. I defended this country when I was a young man: I shall not desert it now that I am old. I faced down the swords of Catiline: I shall not flinch before yours. Yes, and I would willingly offer my body, if the freedom of this country could at once be secured by my death, and the suffering of the Roman people at last be delivered of that with which it has so long been pregnant. [119] If nearly twenty years ago in this very temple I declared that death could not be untimely for a man who had reached the consulship,* with how much more truth could I now say ‘for an old man’? In fact, for me, conscript fathers, death is actually desirable now that I have discharged the responsibilities of the offices I attained and completed the tasks I undertook. Two things alone I long for: first, that when I die I may leave the Roman people free—the immortal gods could bestow on me no greater blessing; and second, that each person’s fate may reflect the way he has behaved towards his country.

  EXPLANATORY NOTES

  Notes are cued to section numbers in the text. For recurring terms see the Glossary.

  IN VERREM I

  your order: the senatorial order.

  Gaius Verres: Cicero’s custom in his speeches is to refer to his enemy by name as infrequently as possible, unless for special effect; normally expressions such as ‘that man’ (iste) are preferred. In this speech, Verres is referred to by name only nine times. I have tried to retain something of this reticence in the translation, though it has often been necessary to name Verres where Cicero does not (I do so nineteen times). Here Cicero does name Verres, for effect.

  which we both share: since Cicero was a senator too.

  an embezzler … city jurisdiction: Verres served under Gnaeus Papirius Carbo in Cisalpine Gaul in 83, but stole his military treasury and deserted him for Sulla; he plundered Asia and Pamphylia (part of the province of Cilicia) while serving under Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella in 80–79, against whom he testified at the latter’s extortion trial in 78 (Dolabella was convicted); and he allegedly sold justice while city praetor at Rome in 74 (praedonem, ‘cheater’, is Cicero’s clever substitution for the similar-sounding praetorem, ‘praetor’).

  Manius Glabrio: Manius Acilius Glabrio, the presiding magistrate. This passage suggests that the defence were hostile to Glabrio, which helps account for their eagerness to have the trial prolonged into 69 (cf. § 29). He may therefore have favoured Cicero; at any rate he allowed him to deviate from the normal procedure in his prosecution. Glabrio went on to be consul in 67, supporting his colleague Gaius Calpurnius Piso’s law against electoral malpractice, and then briefly became commander in Bithynia and Pontus in 66 before being superseded by Pompey. He was possibly censor in 64. For an account of his connections and likely political opinions (not an optimate, and probably no friend of the Metelli), see L. Hayne, CP 69 (1974), 280–2. On his family connections, see also §§ 51–2 below, with notes.

  he found someone … to Achaea: Cicero is reticent about the details of this other extortion trial, which delayed his own prosecution by three months (Ver. 2.1.30). B. A. Marshall (Philologus, 121 (1977), 83–9) has argued that the prosecutor in that trial may have been Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos (consul in 57) and the defendant Gaius Scribonius Curio, the governor of Macedonia from 75 to 72 who is mentioned below at § 18 (where see note); Achaea fell under the supervision of the governor of Macedonia.

  in fact … as far as Brundisium!: perhaps an assistant was sent instead.

  the rejection of jurors: before the trial began, both sides had the right to reject some of the jurors that had been assigned to the case; we know only that a non-senator could reject no more than three. Cicero says that it was obvious to those present (the Roman people) that the jurors Verres chose to reject were those of unimpeachable honesty, whom he would have no chance of bribing.

  what eloquence or fluency great enough: Cicero is thinking of Hortensius (as he was at §9 ‘if he had had the slightest confidence … in anyone’s eloquence’). It suits his purpose to make much of Hortensius’ powers of persuasion.

  by his own quaestor: for the events referred to in this paragraph, see third note on §2 above. Cicero emphasizes the special, enduring loyalty which a quaestor was expected to show towards the senior magistrate (consul or governor) to whom he had been assigned by lot (for a study of this loyalty, see L. A. Thompson, Historia, 11 (1962), 339–55); Verres betrayed both Carbo and Dolabella.

  o
ur own victorious generals: after destroying Carthage in 146, Scipio Aemilianus returned to Sicily all the statues which the Carthaginians had taken from it (Ver. 2.4.73–4).

  when the lots were cast: i.e. the lots to decide which members of the panel assigned to the case should be selected as jurors; this was the penultimate stage in the selection of the jury, the final stage being the rejection of a set number of jurors by both prosecution and defence (see first note on §10 above).

  any mark … on the voting-tablets: since jurors voted by secret ballot and the voting-tablets were identical, any attempt at bribery would depend on the tablets (which were coated with wax) being marked in some way, so that the bribery-agent could check that the jurors he had bribed had fulfilled their part of the bargain.

  since the consular elections: at which Hortensius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus were elected consuls for 69.

  Gaius Curio: Gaius Scribonius Curio, consul of 76, governor of Macedonia from 75 to 72, and later censor in 61. We can infer from what follows that he was a supporter of Verres (both had done well out of Sulla’s proscriptions). In 61 he supported Clodius against Cicero; Cicero wrote a pamphet attacking him, and later tried to deny authorship of it when he was in exile and needed Curio’s support. See W. C. McDermott, AJP 93 (1972), 381–411 for a history of the relations between the two men. On the possibility that Curio was the defendant whose trial for extortion delayed Cicero’s prosecution of Verres, see first note on §6 above.

  the Arch of Fabius: the triumphal arch of Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus (consul in 121), erected in c. 120 to commemorate Fabius’ victory over the Allobroges and other tribes in Gaul. It was the first triumphal arch in or near the forum, and stood near the entry to the forum on the Sacred Way. Its inscriptions were discovered in the sixteenth century, but have since been lost.

  I formally declare: Curio jokingly uses the same language as that used by the consul presiding over the elections when officially announcing the result.

  the transfer of the courts: to the equestrian order. The people Cicero claims to be quoting, ‘all the best people’, were senators.

  were drawing lots: to decide which praetor would be in charge of which court.

  Marcus Metellus: Marcus Caecilius Metellus, brother of the Lucius Metellus who had succeeded Verres in Sicily and of the Quintus Metellus who had just been elected consul (with Hortensius) for 69. We learn below at §30 that he was one of the jurors in this trial.

  a number of chests … to a Roman equestrian: these chests of money had been used for bribery at the consular and praetorian elections which had just taken place (as the reference to these elections in the next section makes clear). The identities of the senator and equestrian are not known.

  at my election: the impending aedilician elections, at which Verres hoped to prevent Cicero being elected aedile for 69.

  when he had been standing for the praetorship: in 75.

  the Romilian tribe: the first of the thirty-one rural tribes. Its territory lay on the right bank of the Tiber, on land said to have been taken from Veii by Romulus; see L. R. Taylor, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (Rome, 1960), 38.

  preoccupied and tied down by the present trial: and therefore not in a position to prosecute them.

  most wholeheartedly: Cicero was top of the poll (Pis. 2).

  Quintus Metellus: Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul-elect of 69, the brother of Marcus Metellus and of Lucius, Verres’ successor in Sicily. After his consulship he became governor of Achaea and Crete; in Crete he defeated the pirates (68–67) and organized the island as a Roman province (66), thus earning for himself the cognomen ‘Creticus’.

  the preliminary votes at his election: Cicero claims that when the consular elections took place, Verres bribed the centuries that voted first (consuls were elected by the centuries in the centuriate assembly, not by the tribal assembly) to vote for Metellus; Metellus then repaid the favour by assuring Verres that he would help him out at his trial in 69. Cicero’s play on words seems forced in English translation but is much neater in Latin, where praerogativa means both ‘the century which votes first in the centuriate assembly’ and also ‘a forecast’ (here, a forecast of Metellus’ goodwill, translated loosely as ‘a preliminary vote of confidence’). At elections, later centuries often took their lead from the way the first ones voted (so it made sense to target bribes at the first ones); the choice of the first century was therefore seen as a forecast of the eventual result (cf. Phil. 2.82).

  The second consul-elect: Quintus Metellus. He was second because Hortensius was top of the poll.

  Lucius Metellus: Lucius Caecilius Metellus, brother of Quintus and Marcus. He went on to become consul in 68, but died early in his year of office.

  ‘I am consul … comes to no harm’: this little speech conveys, as Cicero intends, a strong impression of the arrogance and power of the Metelli (note that Metellus says he is consul, although still only consul-elect). Their arrogance is borne out by a famous letter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (the husband of Clodia Metelli) to Cicero in 62: ‘So I am dressed in mourning—I, who am in command of a province, in command of an army, who am fighting a war! It was not like this in our ancestors’ time …’ (Fam. 5.1.2).

  the power of two praetors: Lucius Metellus, governor of Sicily, was technically propraetor (in this translation I use the word ‘governor’ for ease of comprehension, though the Romans had no such term, referring instead to proconsuls and propraetors).

  you were made consul not by fate: an allusion to a line attributed to Naevius (third century BC), ‘By fate the Metelli become consuls at Rome’ (on Naevius and the Metelli, see H. B. Mattingly, Historia, 9 (1960), 414–39). If Verres really made this remark, it would be one of several indications that he had a lively sense of humour (cf. §40).

  So he will have two consuls … on his side: i.e. if the trial is delayed until 69.

  Manius Glabrio: see note on §4 above. Cicero described him as ‘lazy and negligent’ many years later at Brut. 239 (46 BC).

  the colleague of our prosecutor: he and Cicero had been elected plebeian aediles for 69. He must have progressed to the praetorship since Cicero mentions him at Att. 1.1.1 as a possible rival (though not a serious one) for the consulship of 63.

  in Junius’ court: Gaius Junius had presided over a controversial trial in 74, when Aulus Cluentius Habitus had accused his stepfather Statius Abbius Oppianicus of attempting to poison him; Oppianicus was convicted by a majority of one. It was widely believed that Oppianicus was innocent of the charge and that Cluentius had obtained his conviction by bribing the jury (‘the terrible corruption that took place’); Junius was afterwards fined on a technicality, his career ruined. Oppianicus died in exile, and in 66 his son accused Cluentius in turn of having poisoned him; Cicero defended Cluentius (in Pro Cluentio), denied that his client had been responsible for the corruption in the earlier trial (the so-called Junius trial), and secured his acquittal.

  Quintus Manlius and Quintus Cornificius: Manlius’ identity is uncertain. Cornificius progressed to the praetorship and stood against Cicero for the consulship of 63 (at Att. 1.1.1 Cicero views his candidature as as much of a joke as Caesonius’). Tribunes of the plebs took up office on 10 December.

  Publius Sulpicius: quaestor-elect; quaestors took up office on 5 December. Since he was already a senator (all the jurors in this case were senators), he must have been appointed to the senate by Sulla, but not yet have held a senatorial magistracy.

  Marcus Crepereius … Lucius Cassius … Gnaeus Tremellius: military tribunes-elect (i.e. designated for the more prestigious, elected military tribunates, not simply appointed). Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa had been quaestor in 71; the other two were presumably also ex-quaestors. Tremellius had military experience: he served under Crassus against Spartacus, and was defeated and wounded, in 71. He became praetor in the early 50s, and then probably held a provincial governorship in 51–50. He is not to be confused with the older man of the same name
who was an agricultural authority and appears as an interlocutor in Varro’s De re rustica.

  Marcus Metellus’ place: Marcus Metellus, the praetor-elect who was to assume the presidency of the court in 69, was also one of the jurors in 70.