[82]
What place is there, O judges,
what time, what day, what night is there, that I have not been delivered and escaped from
their plots and attacks, not only by my own prudence, but much more by the providence of the
gods? It was not that they wished to slay me as an individual, but that they wished to get rid
of a vigilant consul, and to remove him from the guardianship of the republic; and they would
be just as glad, O Cato, to remove you too, if they could by any means contrive to do so; and
believe me, that is what they are wishing and planning to do. They see how much courage, how
much ability, how much authority, how much protection for the republic there is in you; but
they think that, when they have once seen the power of the tribunes stripped of the support
which it derives from the authority and assistance of the consuls, they will
then find it easier to crush you when you are deprived of your arms and vigour. For they have
no fear of another consul being elected in the place of this one; they see that that will
depend upon your colleagues; they hope that Silanus, any colleague; and that so will you
without any consul; and that so will the republic without any protector.
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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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