[39]
By
this clause, I say, O Romans, that all nations, and people, and provinces, and kingdoms, are
given up and handed over to the dominion, and judgment, and power of the decemvirs. This is
the first thing; for I ask what place there is anywhere in the world which the decemvirs may
not be able to say has been made the property of the Roman people? For, when the same person
who has made the assertion is also to judge of the truth of it, what is there which he may
not say, when he is also the person to decide in the question? It will be very convenient to
say, that Pergamus, and Smyrna, and Tralles, and Ephesus, and Miletus, and Cyzicus, and, in short, all Asia,
which has been recovered since the consulship of Lucius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius, has
become the property of the Roman people. Will language fail him in which to assert such a
doctrine? or, when the same person makes the statement and judges of the truth of it, will it
be impossible to induce him to give a false decision? or, if he is unwilling to pass sentence
on Asia, will he not estimate at his own price its
release from the dread of condemnation?
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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