[71]
Do not then, O Cato, deprive the lower class of men of
this power of showing their dutiful feelings; allow these men, who hope for everything from
us, to have something also themselves, which they may be able to give us. If they have nothing
beyond their own vote, that is but little; since they have no interest which they can exert in
the votes of others. They themselves, as they are accustomed to say, cannot plead for us,
cannot go bail for us, cannot invite us to their houses; but they ask all these things of us,
and do not think that they can requite the services which they receive from us by anything but
by their attentions of this sort. Therefore they resisted the Fabian law, which regulated the
number of an escort and the resolution of the senate, which was passed in the consulship of
Lucius Caesar. For there is no punishment which can prevent the regard shown by the poorer
classes for this description of attention.
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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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