[10]
And, O Romans, a promised liberality which, however you may be
encouraged by words to expect it, cannot be performed by any possible means without
exhausting the treasury, ought not to appear to you an agreeable measure, or one calculated
to promote your real interests. Nor are the disturbances of the courts of justice, and the
reversals of judicial decisions, and the restoration of convicted persons to be considered as
measures advantageous to the people; for they are rather the preludes to the total ruin of
cities whose affairs are already in a falling and almost desperate state. Nor, if any men
promise lands to the Roman people, or if they hold out to you, under false pretences, hopes
of such things, while in secret they are keeping entirely different objects in view, are they
to be thought devoted to the true interests of the people.
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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