[19]
You are of that most ancient municipal town of Tusculum, from which many of our
consular families are derived, among which is also the Juventian family;
there have not so many families of that rank proceeded from all the other
municipal towns put together. Plancius comes from the prefecture of
Atina; certainly a less ancient
and distinguished abode, and not so near to the city. How much difference do
you think this ought to make in standing for an office? In the first place,
which people do you suppose are most eager to support their own
fellow-citizens; the people of Atina, or those of Tusculum? The one, (for this is a matter with which I may
easily be well acquainted, on account of my neighbourhood to them,) when
they saw the father of this most accomplished and excellent
man, Cnaeus Saturninus, elected aedile, and afterwards, when they saw him
elected praetor, were delighted in a most extraordinary manner, because he
was the first man who had ever brought a curule honour, not only into that
family, but even into that prefecture. But I never understood that the
others (I suppose because that municipality is crammed full of consuls, for
I know to a certainty that they are not an ill-natured people) were
particularly delighted at any honour obtained by their fellow-citizens. This
is our feeling, and it is the feeling of our municipal towns.
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