[210]
But you have not, even out of these men who
have lived more recently, one precedent of that authority. Whither, then, or to what
examples will you bring me back? Will you lead me away from those men who have spent
their lives in the service of the republic at a time when manners were very strict,
and when the opinion of men was considered of great weight, and when the courts of
justice were severe, to the existing caprice and licentiousness of men of the
present age? And do you seek precedents for your defence among those men, as a
warning to whom the Roman people have decided that they are in need of some severe
examples? I do not, indeed, altogether condemn the manners of the present time, as
long as we follow those examples which the Roman people approves of; not those which
it condemns. I will not look around me, I will not go out of doors to seek for any
one, while we have as judges those chiefs of the city, Publius Servilius and Quintus
Catulus, who are men of such authority, and distinguished for such exploits, that
they may be classed in that number of ancient and most illustrious men of whom I
have previously spoken.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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