[35]
“But in the standing for the praetorship, Servius was elected first.”
Are you going (as if you were arguing on some written bond) to contend with the people that
whatever place of honour they have once given any one, that same rank they are bound to give
him in all other honours? For what sea, what Euripus do you think exists, which is liable to
such commotions,—to such great and various agitations of waves, as the storms and
tides by which the comitia are influenced? The interval of one
day,—the lapse of one night—often throws everything into confusion. The
slightest breeze of rumour sometimes changes the entire opinions of people. Often, even,
everything is done without any apparent cause, in a manner entirely at variance with the
opinions that have been expressed, or that indeed, are really entertained; so that sometimes
the people marvels that that has been done which has been done, as if it were not itself that
has done it.
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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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