[6]
Quintus Catulus the chief of this body the great leader of the public
council, in the fullest possible house, called me the father of my country.
This most illustrious man, who is at this moment sitting close to you,
Lucius Gellius, in the hearing of all these people, said that a civic crown
was owed to me by the republic.1 Though I was only
clad in the garb of peace, the senate, by an unprecedented sort of
supplication, opened the temples of the gods in my honour; not
because I had successfully governed the republic, that being a compliment
which had been paid to many, but because I had saved it, that being an
honour which has never been conferred on any one. When in the assembly of
the people, on giving up my office, I was prevented saying what I had
intended by the tribune of the people, and when he would only allow me to
take the oath, I swore without any hesitation that the republic and this
city had been saved by my single exertions.
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1 A civic crown was given to those who had saved the life of a citizen.
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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