[17]
But
if these things were constantly taking place at Athens, when that was the first city, not only
in Greece, but in almost all the world, what moderation do you suppose there was in the
assemblies in Phrygia and Mysia? It is usually men of those nations who throw our own
assemblies into confusion; what do you suppose is the case when they are by themselves?
Athenagoras, that celebrated man of Cyme, was beaten with rods, because, at a time of famine,
he had ventured to export corn. An assembly was summoned at the request of Laelius.
Athenagoras came forward, and, being a Greek among Greeks, he said a good deal, not about his
fault, but in the way of complaining of his punishment. They voted by holding up their hands.
A decree was passed. Is this evidence? The men of Pergamus, having been lately feasted, having
been a little while before glutted with every sort of present,—I mean, all the
cobblers and girdle-makers in Pergamus,—cried out whatever Mithridates (who governed
that multitude, not by his authority, but by fattening them up) chose. Is this the testimony
of that city? I brought witnesses from Sicily in pursuance of the public resolution of the
island. But the evidence that I brought was the evidence not of an excited assembly, but of a
senate on its oath.
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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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