[150]
If I were saying this among Scythians,
not before such a multitude of Roman citizens, not before the most select senators
of the city, not in the forum of the Roman people,—if I were relating such
numerous and bitter punishments inflicted on Roman citizens, I should move the pity
of even those barbarous men. For so great is the dignity of this empire, so great is
the honour in which the Roman name is held among all nations, that the exercise of
such cruelty towards our citizens seems to be permitted to no one. Can I think that
there is any safety or any refuge for you, when I see you hemmed in by the severity
of the judges, and entangled as it were in the meshes of a net by the concourse of
the Roman people here present?
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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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