[140]
And let no one on account of what has happened to me, or perhaps to one or
two others besides, fear to adopt this plan of life. One man in this state
whom I can mention, a man who had done great services to the republic,
Lucius Opimius, did fall in a most shameful manner. And if his grave is a
deserted one on the shore of Dyrrachium, he has a most superb monument in our forum. And
the Roman people itself at all times delivered him from danger, though he
was exceedingly unpopular with the mob on account of the death of Caius
Gracchus; and it was a storm coming from another quarter—from an
iniquitous judicial derision which crushed that illustrious citizen. But the
other men who have done good service to the state have either if for a while
they have been stricken by any sudden violence or tempest of popular odium,
been restored again and recalled by the people of its own accord, or else
they have passed their whole lives without any such injuries or attacks. But
they who have disregarded the wisdom of the senate, and the authority of
good men, and the established rules of our ancestors, and have sought to
become agreeable to an ignorant and excited multitude, have nearly all
suffered just retribution and made atonement to the republic either by
instant death, or shameful exile.
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