[11]
But I am confident that some fate is hanging over these
men; and that the punishment long since due to their iniquity, and worthlessness, and
wickedness, and lust, is either visibly at hand or at least rapidly approaching. And if my
consulship shall have removed, since it cannot cure them, it will have added, not some brief
span, but many ages of existence to the republic. For there is no nation for us to
fear,—no king who can make war on the Roman people. All foreign affairs are
tranquilized, both by land and sea, by the valour of one man. Domestic war alone remains. The
only plots against us are within our own walls,—the danger is within,—the
enemy is within. We must war with luxury, with madness, with wickedness. For this war, O
citizens, I offer myself as the general. I take on myself the enmity of profligate men. What
can be cured, I will cure, by whatever means it may be possible. What must be cut away, I
will not suffer to spread, to the ruin of the republic. Let them depart, or let them stay
quiet; or if they remain in the city and in the same disposition as at present, let them
expect what they deserve.
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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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