[175]
For as for your thinking yourself now relieved from all fear for
your reputation, and at the summit of all honour as consul elect, believe me, it is
no less laborious a task to preserve those honours and kindnesses, conferred on you
by the Roman people, than to acquire them. This city has borne as long as it could,
as long as there was no help for it, that kingly sort of sway of yours which you
have exercised in the courts of justice, and in every part of the republic. It has
borne it, I say. But on the day when the tribunes of the people were restored to the
Roman people, all those privileges (if you are not yourself already aware of it)
were taken away from you. At this very time the eyes of all men are directed on each
individual among us, to see with what good faith I prosecute him, with what
scrupulous justice these men judge him, in what manner you defend him.
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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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