Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (40 page)

[9] Now, conscript fathers, I can see where my own interest lies. Suppose you adopt the proposal of Gaius Caesar. Since he has taken what is reckoned to be the ‘popular’ path in politics, it may be that I will have less reason to worry about being attacked by popular politicians, given that it was he who formulated and advocated the proposal. But if you adopt the other one, I fear that that may entail more trouble for me. Even so, the national interest ought to prevail over considerations of my own safety.

So we have from Caesar, as his own standing and the distinction of his ancestors
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demand, a proposal which may serve as a pledge of his everlasting goodwill towards our country. It clearly shows what a difference there is between the fickleness of demagogues
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and the truly popular spirit which has the people’s interests at heart. [10] In fact I notice that one of those who wish to be considered popular politicians
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is absent from our meeting, evidently so as not to have to vote on the life or death of Roman citizens. Yet this is the man who two days ago gave Roman citizens into custody and voted me a
thanksgiving, and then yesterday voted generous rewards to the informers. When a man has authorized custody for the defendant, thanks for the investigator, and rewards for the informer, no one, surely, can be in any doubt as to what verdict he has arrived at regarding the whole question and the issue at stake.

But to return to Gaius Caesar: he recognizes that the Sempronian law
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relates to Roman citizens; that someone who is an enemy of the state cannot conceivably be viewed as a citizen; and that the man who carried the Sempronian law himself paid the penalty to the state by the will of the people. He is also not prepared to accept that Lentulus, in spite of his lavish expenditure of money, can be described any longer as a man of the people, given that he has so brutally and cruelly plotted the massacre of the Roman people and the destruction of this city. So although Caesar himself is the mildest and gentlest of men, he does not hesitate to consign Publius Lentulus to eternal darkness and chains, and he stipulates that no one should ever be permitted to attract attention to himself by reducing his punishment or ever to win popularity by bringing ruin on the Roman people. Finally, he proposes that his property be confiscated, so that he should be subjected to every kind of mental and physical torment and be reduced to poverty and destitution.

[11] If you adopt this proposal, then, you will be giving me a popular and well-liked companion to take with me to the public meeting.
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If, on the other hand, you prefer to adopt Silanus’ proposal, the Roman people will readily release both you and me from the accusation of cruelty, and I shall maintain that this proposal was in fact much the more lenient of the two.

In any case, conscript fathers, how can we call it cruelty when the crime we are punishing is so monstrous? My view springs from how I feel. It is true that I wish to be able to enjoy, together with yourselves, our country that has been saved. But it is no less true, insofar as I am having to take a firm line on this issue, that I am motivated not by vindictiveness—for who has a milder nature than I?—but by an exceptional sense of humanity and compassion. I imagine this city, the light of the world and the citadel of every nation, suddenly being burnt to the ground. I see in my mind’s eye pitiful heaps of citizens unburied, in a country that has itself been buried. There appears before my eyes a vision of Cethegus, crazily revelling over your corpses. [12] And when I imagine Lentulus ruling over us as
king, as he told us himself the soothsayers had given him reason to hope,
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and Gabinius arrayed in oriental splendour, and Catiline on hand with his army, I cannot help but shudder at the thought of mothers weeping, girls and boys running for their lives, and Vestal virgins being raped.
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It is precisely because this prospect seems to me so dreadfully pitiful and pitiable that I am taking a firm and resolute stance against those who would perpetrate such atrocities.

Let me ask you, if a head of a family were to find his children killed by a slave, his wife murdered, and his home burnt, and failed to inflict the greatest punishment possible on the slave responsible, would he be thought compassionate and merciful, or utterly cruel and inhuman? For my part, I would consider a man perverse and iron-hearted if he did not seek to reduce his own pain and torture by inflicting pain and torture on the person who had injured him. It therefore follows that in the case of these men who have plotted to butcher us, our wives, and our children, who have attempted to destroy the homes of each one of us and this home of the whole nation, and who have done this for the specific purpose of settling the tribe of the Allobroges upon the final traces of this city and upon the ashes of an empire that has been destroyed by fire, if we then act with severity, we shall surely be thought of as merciful. But if instead we choose to show leniency, we can only expect, amid the destruction of our country and its citizens, to acquire a reputation for the most terrible cruelty.

[13] I do not suppose that anyone thought that that valiant lover of his country, Lucius Caesar,
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was showing excessive cruelty two days ago when he declared that his brother-in-law—the husband of his most excellent sister—deserved to be put to death. He said this in the man’s presence and hearing too, adding that his own grandfather had been killed on a consul’s order, and that his grandfather’s son, a mere boy who was acting as envoy for his father, had been thrown into prison and executed. Had
they
done anything resembling what these men have done? Had
they
hatched a plot to destroy their country? The time to which Caesar was referring was one in which there was a desire for the state to provide handouts, a time when there was an element of factional strife.
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Moreover, Lentulus’ illustrious grandfather
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took up arms and went after Gracchus. He even sustained a serious wound in his efforts to ensure the preservation of the national interest—whereas this Lentulus, by contrast, calls in the
Gauls to overturn the foundations of the state, rouses the slaves to revolt, summons Catiline, and assigns us to Cethegus to be butchered, the rest of the citizens to Gabinius to be killed, the city to Cassius to be burnt, and the whole of Italy to Catiline to be plundered and laid waste. You are afraid, I take it, that in the case of such a monstrous and unspeakable crime as this, people may think your reaction excessive! On the contrary, we ought to be much more afraid of people thinking that by sparing punishment we have been cruel towards our country than that by applying it with severity we have been over-harsh towards our bitterest enemies.

[14] But I cannot pretend, conscript fathers, that I am not hearing whispers. I can hear what people are saying, and it sounds as if they are worried that I do not have the resources to implement whatever decision you come to today. But let me assure you, conscript fathers, that everything has been anticipated, planned, and arranged, partly by the extremely careful precautions which I have taken myself, but partly also by the much stronger determination of the Roman people to defend their sovereignty and hold on to all that they have. Everyone has come here today, people of every order, every class, and every age. The forum is packed, the temples surrounding the forum are packed, the entrances to this temple where we are now are all packed. This is the only issue since the foundation of our city on which everyone holds exactly the same opinion—excepting only those who realize that they must die, and so prefer to die along with everyone else rather than on their own. [15] I for my part am quite happy to make an exception of such people and treat them as a special case: I would not class them as wicked fellow-citizens, but as the deadliest external enemies.

But as for everyone else—immortal gods!—how numerous they are, how determined they are, and how nobly they have united in defence of our common safety and honour! Do I of all people
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have to remind you at this point of the Roman equestrians? While they yield to you the first place in rank and deliberation, they are your rivals in their love for their country. Now, after many years of conflict, this day and this issue unite them with you, calling them back into alliance and harmony with this order.
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And if we can make this national unity, forged in my consulship, permanent, then I can promise you that no internal civil disturbance will ever again affect any part of our national life. I see that the treasury tribunes have courageously
come forward with no less determination to defend the country. I see also that the entire body of scribes,
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who happen to have come to the treasury today in considerable numbers, have turned their attention from the allotment of their posts to the national security. [16] All the free-born citizens are here, even the poorest of them, in one vast crowd. In fact, is there a single person here who does not regard these temples, the sight of our city, the possession of freedom, and indeed this light of day and the very soil of our shared homeland as not just dear to him, but a source of joy and delight? It is worth your while, too, conscript fathers, to take note of the feelings of the freedmen. They by their own merit have obtained the rights of citizens, and sincerely consider this their home—while certain others who were born here, and born to the best families, have thought of it not as their homeland, but as an enemy city. But why do I mention these orders and individuals when their private fortunes, their common political interest, and—what is sweetest of all—their very freedom has roused them to defend their country in its hour of danger? There is no slave, so long as his existence is at least endurable, who does not shudder at the criminality of citizens, who does not wish Rome to remain standing, and who does not apply himself as hard as he dares and as hard as he can to preserve the national security.

[17] So if any of you happen to be worried by what people are saying, that a particular pimp of Lentulus’ is going round the shops hoping that he can use money to corrupt the minds of the poor and naive, then let me tell you that the man did indeed try this and make the attempt. But he failed to find anyone so down at heel or so criminally inclined as not to wish to preserve his work-place, job, and livelihood, his couch and his bed, and the easy routine of his life. On the contrary, the vast majority of shopkeepers, in fact the entire class (it must be said) is absolutely committed to peace. All their capital, employment, and profits are dependent on a supply of customers, and rely on peaceful conditions. If their profits fall when their shops are closed, what will be the effect on those profits, do you think, when their shops have been set on fire?

[18] Conscript fathers, that is how the matter stands.
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The support of the Roman people does not fail you: so you make sure that you do not appear to be failing the Roman people. You have a consul who has been allowed to escape from a great many dangers and plots and from the jaws of death not for the sake of his own life, but to ensure
your safety. All the orders are united in heart, mind, determination, courage, and voice to save our country. Beset by the torches and weapons of a diabolical conspiracy, our common homeland stretches her suppliant hands to you. To you she commends herself, to you she commends the lives of all her citizens, to you she commends the citadel and the Capitol, to you she commends the altars of her household gods, to you she commends yonder eternal fire of Vesta,
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to you she commends the temples and shrines of all the gods, and to you she commends the walls and houses of the city. And it is on your own lives, on those of your wives and children, on your property, on your homes, and on your hearths that you must today reach your decision.

[19] You have a leader who is thinking of you and not of himself—something you do not always have. You have a situation in which all the orders, all men, and the entire Roman people are all of one mind—something which, on a domestic issue, we have never seen before today. Just think what enormous effort was involved in creating our empire, what valour in establishing our freedom, what divine favour in increasing and building up our prosperity—and how a single night
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almost destroyed all of this. Your task today is to make sure that such a thing can never again be contemplated, let alone brought off, by citizens. And the reason I have said this is not to rally you—indeed, you have almost overtaken me in determination—but simply so that my voice, which ought to be the chief voice in the state, will be seen to have fulfilled its consular duty.

[20] Now before I ask you once again for your views, I should like to say a word about myself. You can see for yourselves how many people are members of this conspiracy—a great many. And I can see for myself how many personal enemies I have made—the same number. I believe, however, that these people are base, weak, contemptible, and craven. But if that gang should ever again be stirred up by the insanity of some criminal, and succeed in overpowering your authority and that of the state, I shall never, conscript fathers, regret the actions and the line I have taken. Death they may threaten me with; but we are all going to die. In life, on the other hand, no one has ever received such honours as you have voted me in your decrees. Others have received your thanks for having served the country well—but I alone for having saved it.

[21] Let Scipio have his fame,
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since by his intelligence and courage
he forced Hannibal to leave Italy and return to Africa; let the second Africanus be showered with the highest praise for destroying the two cities most hostile to this empire of ours, Carthage and Numantia; let Paullus be judged outstanding, since his triumph was adorned by the most noble and once the most powerful of kings, Perseus; let Marius have everlasting glory for twice liberating Italy from occupation and the prospect of slavery; and let Pompeius be rated higher than all of these, since his achievements and merits are bounded by the same borders and limits as the course of the sun. But amid the praise due to these men there will surely be some space left for my own glory—unless perhaps it is a greater achievement to open up provinces for us to go out to than to ensure that those who have gone out to them have a country to which they can return in triumph.
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