[92]
There were many other
circumstances also to be feared at that time. The contest, would, in truth,
have reached the slaves. So great a hatred of all good men had still got
possession of the minds of impious citizens, being burnt as it were into
their wicked minds by that ancient conspiracy.
Here, too, you warn me not to boast. You say that those things are
intolerable which I am accustomed to assert concerning myself; and being a
witty man, you put on quite a polite and elegant sort of language. You say
that I am accustomed to say that I am Jupiter; and also to make a frequent boast that Minerva is
my sister. I will not so much defend myself from the charge of insolence in
calling myself Jupiter, as from
that of ignorance in thinking Minerva the sister of Jupiter. But even if I do say so, I at all
events claim a virgin for my sister; but you would not allow your sister to
remain a virgin. Consider rather whether you have not a right to call
yourself Jupiter, because you have
established a right to call the same woman both sister and wife.
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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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