[126]
Whither shall the allies flee for refuge? Whose help shall they implore? by what
hope shall they still be retained in the desire to live, if you abandon them? Shall
they come to the senate and beg them to punish Verres? That is not a usual course;
it is not in accordance with the duty of the senate. Shall they betake themselves to
the Roman people? The people will easily find all excuse; for they will say that
they have established a law for the sake of the allies, and that they have appointed
you as guardians and vindicators of that law. This then is the only place to which
they can flee; this is the harbour, this is the citadel, this is the altar of the
allies; to which indeed they do not at present betake themselves with the same views
as they formerly used to entertain in seeking to recover their property. They are
not seeking to recover silver, nor gold, nor robes, nor slaves, nor ornaments which
have been carried off from their cities and their temples;—they fear, like
ignorant men, that the Roman people now allows such things and permits them to be
done. For we have now for many years been suffering; and we are silent when we see
that all the money of all the nations has come into the hands of a few men; which we
seem to tolerate and to permit with the more equanimity, because none of these
robbers conceals what he is doing; none of them take the least trouble to keep their
covetousness in any obscurity.
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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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