[187]
A clerk was presented with a golden ring, and an assembly
was convoked to witness that presentation. What must have been your face when you
saw in the assembly those men out of whose property that golden ring was provided
for the present; who themselves had laid aside their golden rings, and had taken
them off from their children, in order that your clerk might have the means to
support your liberality and kindness? Moreover, what was the preface to this
present? Was it the old one used by the generals?—“Since in
battle, in war, in military affairs, you....” There never was even any
mention of such matters while you were praetor. Was it this, “Since you
have never failed me in any act of covetousness, or in any baseness, and since you
have been concerned with me in all my wicked actions, both during my lieutenancy,
and my praetorship, and here in Sicily; on
account of all these things, since I have already made you rich, I now present you
with this golden ring?” This would have been the truth. For that golden
ring given by you does not prove he was a brave man, but only a rich one. As we
should judge that same ring, if given by some one else, to have evidence of virtue
when given by you, we consider it only an accompaniment to money.
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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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