[89]
Do you think that the Roman people consists of these men who can be hired for
any purpose? who are easily instigated to offer violence to magistrates? to
besiege the senate? to wish every day for bloodshed, conflagration and
plunder? people, indeed, whom you could not possibly collect together unless
you shut up all the taverns; a people to whom you gave the Lentidii, and
Lollii, and Plaguleii, and Sergii, for leaders. Oh for the splendour and
dignity of the Roman people, for kings, for foreign nations, for the most
distant lands to fear; a multitude collected of slaves, of
hirelings, of, criminals, and beggars!
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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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