[16]
This foul and savage brute, hampered as he was by the auspices, tied down by the precedents of our ancestors,
fettered by the bonds of holy laws, was on a sudden released by the
consul,1 who, as I imagine, was either won over by
entreaties, or, as many people thought, influenced by hostility to me, and
to at all events was ignorant and unsuspicious of the impending crimes and
misfortunes. And that tribune of the people, if he was successful in his
design of throwing the republic into confusion, did not owe it to any energy
of his own. For what energy could there be in the life of a man maddened by
the infamy of his brother, by his own adultery with his sister, and by every
sort of unheard-of licentiousness?
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1 There is great reason to think that there is some corruption here.
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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