[10]
I have not yet said what you did yourself, but only what you allowed to be
done. Nor does it make much difference, especially in a consul whether he
himself harnesses the republic with pernicious laws mid infamous harangues,
or allows others to harass it. Can there be any excuse for a consul, I will
not say being disaffected to the state, but sitting with his hands before
him dawdling and sleeping amid the greatest commotions of the republic? For
nearly a hundred years had we possessed the Aelian and Fufian law; for four
hundred years had we enjoyed the censor's power of deciding on, and
animadverting on, the conduct of citizens; laws which I will not say no
wicked man has ever dared to uproot, but which no one has ever been able to
uproot, a power which no one, not if he were ever so profligate has ever
attempted to diminish so as to prevent a formal judgment from
being passed every fifth year on our morals.
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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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