[76]
and
therefore he, a most upright man, a most virtuous citizen, though he was the grandson of
Lucius Paullus, the sister's son, as I have said before, of Publius Africanus, lost the
praetorship by his kid skins.
The Roman people disapproves of private luxury, but admires public magnificence. It does not
love profuse banquets, still less does it love sordid and uncivilized behaviour. It makes a
proper distinction between different duties and different seasons; and allows of vicissitudes
of labour and pleasure. For as to what you say, that it is not right for men's minds to be
influenced, in appointing magistrates, by any other consideration than that of the worth of
the candidates, this principle even you yourself—you, a man of the greatest
worth—do not in every case adhere to. For why do you ark any one to take pains for
you, to assist you? You ask me to make you governor over myself to entrust myself to you. What
is the meaning of this? Ought I to be asked this by you, or should not you rather be asked by
me to undertake labour and danger for the sake of my safety?
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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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