19.
[42]
Wherefore, if you do require to be reminded at all by me, O judges, (which, in truth, you do
not,) it seems to me I may, without presuming too much on my authority, give you this gentle
hint,—that you ought to consider that those men are carefully to be preserved by
you, whose valour, and energy, and good fortune in military affairs have been tried and
ascertained. There has been a greater abundance of such men in the republic than there is now;
and when there was, people consulted not only their safety, but their honour also. What, then,
ought you to do now, when military studies have become obsolete among our youth, and when our
best men and our greatest generals have been taken from us, partly by age, and partly by the
dissensions of the state and the ill fortune of the republic? When so many wars are
necessarily undertaken by us, when so many arise suddenly and unexpectedly, do you not think
that you ought to preserve this man for the critical occasions of the republic, and to excite
others by his example to the pursuit of honour and virtue?
[43]
Recollect what lieutenants Lucius Julius, and Publius Rutilius, and Lucius Cato, and Cnaeus
Pompeius have lately had in war. You will see that at that time there existed also Marcus
Cornutus, Lucius Cinna, and Lucius Sulla, men of praetorian rank, and of the greatest skill in
war; and, besides them, Caius Marius, Publius Didius, Quintus Catulus, and Publius Crassus,
men not learned in the science of war through books, but accomplished and renowned by their
achievements and their victories. Come now, cast your eyes over the senate house, look
thoroughly into every part of the republic; do you see no possible event in which you may
require men like those? or, if any such event should arise, do you think that the Roman people
is at this moment rich in such men? And if you carefully consider all these circumstances, you
will rather, O judges, retain at home, for yourselves and for your children, a man energetic
in undertaking the toils of war, gallant in encountering its dangers, skillful in its practice
and its discipline, prudent in his designs, fortunate and successful in their accomplishment,
than deliver him over to nations most hostile to the Roman people, and most cruel, by
condemning him.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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