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[27]
For we are not sending to Hannibal to desire him to
retire from before Saguntum; to whom
the senate formerly sent Publius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus. Baebius Tampilus;
who, if Hannibal did not comply, were ordered to proceed to Carthage. Whither do we order our
ambassadors to proceed, if Antonius does not comply? Are we sending an embassy
to our own citizen, to beg him not to attack a general and a colony of the Roman
people? Is it so? Is it becoming to us to beg this by means of ambassadors? What
is the difference in the name of the immortal gods, whether he attacks this city
itself or whether he attacks an outpost of this city a colony of the Roman
people established for the sake of its being a bulwark and protection to us? The
siege of Saguntum was the cause of the
second Punic war, which Hannibal carried on against our ancestors. It was quite
right to send ambassadors to him They were sent to a Carthaginian, they were
sent on behalf of those who were the enemies of Hannibal and our allies. What is
there resembling that case here? We are sending to one of our own citizens to
beg him not to blockade a general of the Roman army, not to attack our army and
our colony,—in short not to be an enemy or ours. Come; suppose he
obeys, shall we either be inclined, or shall we be able by any possibility, to
treat him as one of our citizens?
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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