[26]
If, after having done so many services to the republic, I were to ask for myself no other
reward from the senate and people of Rome beyond honourable ease, who is there who would not
grant it to me? If I were to ask, that they would keep all honours, and commands, and
provinces, and triumphs, and all the other insignia of eminent renown to themselves, and that
they would allow me to enjoy the sight of the city which I had saved, and a tranquil and quiet
mind?—What, however, if I do not ask this? what, if my former industry, my anxiety,
my assistance, my labour, my vigilance is still at the service of my friends, and ready at the
call of every one? If my friends never seek in vain for my zeal on their behalf in the forum,
nor the republic in the senate house; if neither the holiday earned by my previous
achievements, nor the excuse—which my past honours or my present age might supply me
with, is employed to save me from trouble; if my good-will—my industry, my house, my
attention, and my ears are always open to all men; if I have not even any time left to
recollect and think over those things which I have done for the safety of the whole body of
citizens; shall this still be called kingly power, when no one can possibly be found who would
act as my substitute in it?
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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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