[7]
What then does this Marian tribune of the
people say, when he is trying to make us, who are Sulla's friends, unpopular?
“Whatever has been given, or assigned, or sold, or granted by public authority,
whether lands, or houses, or lakes, or marshes, or sites, or properties,” (he has
omitted to mention the sky and sea, but he has omitted nothing else,) “since the
consulship of Marius and Carbo.” By whom,
O Rullus? Who has allotted anything whatever since the Consulship of Marius and Carbo? Who
has given anything, who has granted anything, except Sulla? “Let all those things
remain in the same condition.” In what condition? He is undermining something or
other. This over active and too energetic tribune of the people is rescinding the acts of
Sulla. “As those things which have become private property according to the most
regular possible course of law.” Are they then to be held on a surer tenure than a
man's paternal and hereditary property?
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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