[143]
For why should I speak separately of all the other punishments inflicted on Roman
citizens, rather than generally, and in the lump? That prison which was built at
Syracuse, by that most cruel tyrant
Dionysius, which is called the stone-quarries, was, under his government, the home
of Roman citizens. As any one of them offended his eyes or his mind, he was
instantly thrown into the stone-quarries. I see that this appears a scandalous thing
to you, O judges; and I had observed that, at the former pleading, when the
witnesses stated these things; for you thought that the privileges of freedom ought
to be maintained, not only here, where there are tribunes of the people, where there
are other magistrates, where there is a forum with many courts of justice, where
there is the authority of the senate, where there is the opinion of the Roman people
to hold a man in check, where the Roman people itself is present in great numbers;
but, in whatever country or nation the privileges of Roman citizens are violated,
you, O judges, decide that that violation concerns the common cause of freedom, and
of your dignity.
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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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