[93]
O ye immortal gods! what an end do you show to us? what hope of the republic
do you hold out to us? How few men will be found of such virtue and courage
as to embrace the cause of the republic when it is the justest of causes?
and to consult the interests of the virtuous part of the community? and to
seek no glory but that which is solid and genuine? when he knows that of
those two monsters so nearly fatal to the republic, Gabinius and Piso, one
is every day amassing a countless sum of gold from the peaceful and opulent
treasuries of Syria; and is waging
war on quiet tribes, in order to pour into the deep and bottomless gulf of
his lusts their ancient and hitherto untasted and undiminished riches; and
is building in a most conspicuous place a villa of such a
size, that that villa, of which that very man, when tribune of the people,
once unfolded a picture in the assembly of the people, in order (virtuous
man and free from all taint of covetousness that he was) to excite odium
against a most virtuous and brave citizen, appears now little more than a
hut by the side of it.
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