[30]
Though there are some men in this body who either do not see what threatens, or dissemble
what they do see; who have fed the hope of Catiline by mild sentiments, and have strengthened
the rising conspiracy by not believing it; influenced by whose authority many, and they not
wicked, but only ignorant, if I punished him would say that I had acted cruelly and
tyranically. But I know that if he arrives at the camp of Manlius to which he is going, there
will be no one so stupid as not to see that there has been a conspiracy; no one so hardened
as not to confess it. But if this man alone were put to death, I know that this disease of
the republic would be only checked for awhile, not eradicated for ever. But if he banishes
himself; and takes with him all his friends, and collects at one point all the ruined men
from every quarter, then not only will this full-grown plague of the republic be extinguished
and eradicated, but also the root and seed of all future evils
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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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