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[18]
What, in the name of mischief! is the object of
always opposing the name of the veterans to every good cause? For even if I were
attached to their virtue, as indeed I am, still, if they were arrogant I should
not be able to tolerate their airs. While we are endeavoring to break the bonds
of slavery, shall any one hinder us by saying that the veterans do not approve
of it? For they are not, I suppose, beyond all counting who are ready to take up
arms in defense of the common freedom! There is no man, except the veteran
soldiers, who is stimulated by the indignation of a freeman to repel slavery!
Can the republic then stand, relying wholly on veterans, without a great
reinforcement of the youth of the state? Whom, indeed, you ought to be attached
to, if they be assistants to you in the assertion of your freedom, but whom you
ought not to follow if they be the advisers of slavery.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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