[83]
Wherefore, Titus Annius may well make the same
confession which Ahala made, which Nasica, which Opimius, which Marius,
which we ourselves have made: and then, if the republic were grateful, he
would rejoice; if ungrateful, then, though under the pressure of heavy
misfortune, he would still be supported by his own conscience.
But, O judges, the fortune of the Roman people, and your felicity, and the
immortal gods, all think that they are entitled to your grateful or this
service which has been thus done to you. Nor, indeed, can any one think
otherwise except it be a man who thinks that there is no such thing at all
as any divine power or authority—a man who is neither moved by the
vastness of your empire, nor by that sun above us, nor by the motions of
heaven and of the stars, nor by the vicissitudes and regular order of
things, nor (and that is the greatest thing of all) by the wisdom of our
ancestors; who both themselves cultivated with the most holy reverence the
sacred rites and religions ceremonies and auspices, and also handed them down to us their posterity to
be so cultivated by us.
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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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