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[29]
Wherefore, since
the matter has come to such a crisis that the question is whether he is to make
atonement to the republic for his crimes, or we are to become slaves, let us at
last, I beseech you, by the immortal gods. O conscript fathers, adopt our
fathers' courage, and our fathers' virtue so as either to recover the liberty
belonging to the Roman name and race, or else to prefer death to slavery. We
have borne and endured many things which ought not to be endured in a free city:
some of us out of a hope of recovering our freedom, some from too great a
fondness for life. But if we have submitted to these things, which necessity and
a sort of forcer which may seem almost to have been put on us by destiny, have
compelled us to endure; though, in point of fact, we have not endured them; are
we also to bear with the most shameful and inhuman tyranny of this profligate
robber?
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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