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I have never thirsted for your blood; I have never sought in your case for
that extreme severity of the law and of judgment which at times may fall
alike on the virtuous and on the guilty. But I have wished to see you
abject, despised, scorned by all the rest of the citizens;
looking with despair on your prospects, and abandoned even by yourself;
looking timidly around at every noise which sounded near you; trembling at
everything; distrusting the continuance of even your present safety, such as
it is; not daring to utter a word; deprived of all liberty, destitute of all
authority, stripped of all the dignity of a consul and of a man of consular
rank; shivering, trembling, and fawning on all men. And I have seen you.
Wherefore, if that future befalls you which you are in hourly apprehension
of, I shall be in no respect concerned at it; if it is even a long while
coming, still I shall enjoy the indignities to which you are exposed; and I
shall be quite as well pleased to see you in daily fear of a prosecution as
actually before the court; nor shall I rejoice less at seeing you in
constant and unceasing distress, than I should if I saw you for a short time
in the mourning robe of a criminal on his trial.
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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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