[106]
Now, unless I am mistaken, the state is in such a condition, that if you take
away the artisans who are hired to support the party of these wicked men,
everybody in the republic appears to be of the same opinion. In truth, there
are three places in which the opinion and inclination of the Roman people
may be ascertained in the greatest degree; the assembly, the comitia, and the meetings at the games and at
exhibitions of gladiators. What assembly has there been of late years, which
has not been a packed and bribed one, but a genuine one, in which the
unanimity of the Roman people has not been very perceivable? Many assemblies
were held concerning me by that most wicked gladiator, to which no one ever
went who was unbribed, no one who was an honest man; no good man could
endure to behold that ill-omened countenance, or to listen to that frantic
voice. Those assemblies were, I admit that those assemblies of abandoned men
were necessarily turbulent.
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