[53]
And if now the Roman people had been consulted about
that business, and if you had not done everything by the instrumentality of
slaves and robbers, was it impossible for the Roman people to approve of the
part of the measure relating to the king of Cyprus, and to approve of that part which affected
Byzantine exiles? What other force, what other meaning, I should like to
know, has the Caecilian and Didian law, except this; that the people are not
to be forced in consequence of many different things being joined in one
complicated bill, either to accept what it disapproves of; or reject what it
approves?
What shall we say if you carried the bill by violence? is it, nevertheless, a
law? Or can anything appear to have been done rightfully which was
notoriously done by violence? And if, at the very time of your getting this
law passed, when the city was stormed, stones were not thrown, and men did
not actually come to blows hand to hand, is that any proof that you were
able to contrive that disgrace and ruin to the city without extreme
violence?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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