[11]
Wherefore, if you decide on this you give me a companion in my address, dear and acceptable
to the Roman people; or if you prefer to adopt the opinion of Silanus, you will easily defend
me and yourselves from the reproach of cruelty, and I will prevail that it shall be much
lighter. Although, O conscript fathers, what cruelty can there be in chastising the enormity
of such excessive wickedness? For I decide from my own feeling. For so may I be allowed; to
enjoy the republic in safety in your company, as I am not moved to be somewhat vehement in
this cause by any severity of disposition, (for who is more merciful than I am?) but rather
by a singular humanity and mercifulness. For I seem to myself to see this city, the light of
the world and the citadel of all nations, falling on a sudden by one conflagration. I see in
my mind's eye miserable and unburied heaps of cities in my buried country; the sight of
Cethegus and his madness raging amid your slaughter is ever present to my sight.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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