[162]
Then he orders the man to be most violently scourged on
all sides. In the middle of the forum of Messana a Roman citizen, O judges, was beaten with rods; while in the
mean time no groan was heard, no other expression was heard from that wretched man,
amid all his pain, and between the sound of the blows, except these words,
“I am a citizen of Rome.” He fancied that by this one statement of his
citizenship he could ward off all blows, and remove all torture from his person. He
not only did not succeed in averting by his entreaties the violence of the rods, but
as he kept on repeating his entreaties and the assertion of his citizenship, a
cross—a cross I say—was got ready for that miserable man, who
had never witnessed such a stretch of power.
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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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