[3]
I am waiting to see what this vigilant and clever tribune
is contriving. Let the Scantian 1 wood, says he, be sold. Did you then find
this wood mentioned among the possessions that were left, or in the pasture lands of the
lessors? If there is anything which you have hunted out, and discovered, brought to light out
of darkness, although it is not just, still use that, since it is convenient, and since you
yourself were the person to bring it forward. But shall you sell the Scantian wood while we
are consuls, and while this senate is in existence? Shall you touch any of the revenues?
Shall you take away from the Roman people that which is their strength in time of war, their
ornament in time of peace? But then indeed, I shall think myself a lazier consul than those
fearless men who filled this office in the times of our ancestors; because the revenues which
were acquired by the Roman people when they were consuls, will be considered not able to be
preserved when I am consul.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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