[12]
Afterwards, O conscript fathers, not
because the matter was doubtful, but in order to cut off every argument from
this furious man, if he chose to remain any longer in this city which he was
anxious to destroy, you passed a decree that a reference should be made to
the college of pontiffs as to the religious liability of my house. What
obligation can there possibly be from our greatest doubts and most serious
religious apprehensions, as to which we may not be relieved by the answer
and dictum of Publius Servilius or Marcus Lucullus alone? In all matters
concerning the public sacrifices, or the great games, or the ceremonies of
the household gods, and of Vesta, the mother of the city, or even concerning
that great sacrifice itself which is performed for the safety of the Roman
people, and which since the first foundation of Rome has never been profaned except by
the wickedness of this single holy guardian of religion, whatever three
pontiffs have decided, has at all times appeared to the Roman people, and to
the senate, and to the immortal gods themselves, sufficiently holy,
sufficiently august, sufficiently religious. But Publius Lentulus being both
consul and pontiff, and Publius Servilius, and Marcus Lucullus, and Quintus
Metellus, and Marcus Glabrio, and Marcus Messala, and Lucius Lentulus, the
priest of Mars, and Publius Galba, and Quintus Metellus Scipio, and Caius
Fannius, and Marcus Lepidus, and Lucius Claudius, the king of the
sacrifices, and Marcus Scaurus, and Marcus Crassus, and Caius Curio, and
Sextus Caesar, the priest of Jupiter, and Quintus Cornelius, and Publius Albinovanus,
and Quintus Terentius, the lesser1 pontiffs,
having investigated the case after it had been argued before
them on two separate occasions, in the presence of a great number of the
noblest and wisest of the citizens, all unanimously pronounced my house free
from all religious obligation.
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1 Originally the number of pontiffs was four, or, including the Pontifex Maximus, five. In the year B.C. 300 the Ogulnian law raised the number from four to eight; in the year B.C. 81 Sulla increased the number to fifteen, including the Pontifex Maximus; and after him Julius Caesar increased the number to sixteen. Besides these there were other pontiffs distinguished as minores, of whom three are mentioned here; the nature of whose office seems rather uncertain; but it appears probable that it was a name of late introduction, and applied to the secretaries of the pontiffs when the real pontiffs had begun to neglect their duties, and to leave the greater part of them to be performed by their secretaries. Vide Smith, Dict Ant. v. Pontifex.
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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