These and like arguments failed to impress
the emperor. He at once addressed himself to answer them, and
thus harangued the assembled
Senate. "My ancestors, the most ancient of whom was made at once a citizen
and a noble of
Rome, encourage me to govern by the
same policy of transferring to this city all conspicuous merit, wherever
found. And indeed I know, as facts, that the Julii came from
Alba, the Coruncanii from
Camerium, the Porcii from
Tusculum, and not to inquire too minutely into the past,
that new members have been brought into the Senate from
Etruria and
Lucania and the
whole of
Italy, that
Italy
itself was at last extended to the
Alps, to the end
that not only single persons but entire countries and tribes might be united
under our name. We had unshaken peace at home; we prospered in all our
foreign relations, in the days when
Italy beyond the
Po was admitted to share our citizenship, and when, enrolling in our ranks
the most vigorous of the provincials, under colour of settling our legions
throughout the world, we recruited our exhausted empire. Are we sorry that
the Balbi came to us from
Spain, and other men not
less illustrious from
Narbon Gaul? Their descendants
are still among us, and do not yield to us in patriotism.
"What was the
ruin of
Sparta and
Athens,
but this, that mighty as they were in war, they spurned from them as aliens
those whom they had conquered? Our founder Romulus, on the other hand, was
so wise that he fought as enemies and then hailed as fellow-citizens several
nations on the very same day. Strangers have reigned over us. That
freedmen's sons should be intrusted with public offices is not, as many
wrongly think, a sudden innovation, but was a common practice in the old
commonwealth. But, it will be said, we have fought with the Senones. I
suppose then that the Volsci and Æqui never stood in array against us.
Our city was taken by the Gauls. Well, we also gave hostages to the
Etruscans, and passed under the yoke of the Samnites. On the whole, if you
review all our wars, never has one been finished in a shorter time than that
with the Gauls. Thenceforth they have preserved an unbroken and loyal peace.
United as they now are with us by manners, education, and intermarriage, let
them bring us their gold and their wealth rather than enjoy it in isolation.
Everything, Senators, which we now hold to be of the highest antiquity, was
once new.
Plebeian magistrates came after patrician; Latin
magistrates after plebeian; magistrates of other Italian peoples after
Latin. This practice too will establish itself, and what we are this day
justifying by precedents, will be itself a precedent."
