[17]
Wherefore, if this consideration moves any one, that it
has been heard that some tool of Lentulus is running about the shops,—is hoping
that the minds of some poor and ignorant men may be corrupted by bribery; that, indeed, has
been attempted and begun, but no one has been found either so wretched in their fortune or so
abandoned in their inclination as not to wish the place of their seat and work and daily
gain, their chamber and their bed, and, in short, the tranquil course of their lives, to be
still preserved to them. And far the greater part of those who are in the
shops,—yes, indeed, (for that is the more correct way of speaking,) the whole of
this class is of all the most attached to tranquillity; their whole stock, indeed, their
whole employment and livelihood, exists by the peaceful intercourse of the citizens, and is
wholly supported by peace. And if their gains are diminished whenever their shops are shut,
what will they be when they are burnt?
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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