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[5]
Do you not recollect, in the name of the immortal gods! what resolutions you have
given utterance to against those men? You have repealed the acts of Marcus
Antonius; you have taken down his laws; you have voted that they were carried by
violence, and with a disregard of the auspices; you have called out the levies
throughout all Italy; you have
pronounced that colleague and ally of all wickedness a public enemy. What peace
can there be with this man? Even if he were a foreign enemy, still, after such
actions as have taken place, it would be scarcely possible, by any means
whatever, to have peace. Though seas and mountains, and vast regions lay between
you, still you would hate such a man without seeing him. But these men will
stick to your eyes, and when they can, to your very throats; for what fences
will be strong enough for us to restrain savage beasts?—Oh, but the
result of war is uncertain. It is at all events in the power of brave men, such
as you ought to be, to display your valour (for certainly brave men can do
that), and not to fear the caprice of fortune.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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