[20]
But to say no more of the general question, let us come to our own individual
case. Which do you think was easiest, O Tubero, for Ligarius to depart from
Africa, or for you to abstain from coming into Africa? “Could we
so abstain,” you will say, “after the senate had voted
that we should do so?” If you ask me, I say, Certainly not. But
still the same senate had appointed Ligarius lieutenant. And he obeyed them
at a time when men were forced to obey the senate; but you obeyed at a time
when no one obeyed them who did not like it. Do I then find fault with you?
By no means;—for a man of your family, of your name, of your race,
of your hereditary principles, could not act otherwise. But I do not grant
that you have a right to reprove in others the very same conduct which you
boast of in yourselves.
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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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