5.
But I ask, since I am the prime mover in and the chief cause of this vote,
what fault is found with the vote itself? Was there not good reason for
adopting an unprecedented plan? Was not I as much concerned as any one in
that matter? or, had we any other resource? What circumstances, what reasons
could there be of greater consequence than famine? than sedition? than the
designs of you and your partisans? who thought that, if an opportunity was
given them of inflaming the minds of the ignorant, you, under the pretence
afforded by the scarcity of provisions, would be able to renew your wicked
and fatal practices.
[11]
As for corn, some of the countries which
usually supply it had not got it; some had sent it into other countries, I
imagine because of the great variety of sellers; and some were keeping it
back, shut up in their stores, in order suddenly to send it, so that the
supply might be more acceptable if they seemed to come to our aid when we
were in a state of actual famine. The matter was not one of uncertain
opinions, it was a case of actually existing danger, present to our eyes; it
was not one which we were looking forward to in conjecture, but one which we
were actually beholding by present experience. For when the scarcity was
getting more severe, so that it was actually want and famine that was
dreaded, and not mere dearness of price, there was a rush towards the Temple
of Concord, when the consul Metellus summoned the senate to meet in that
place. And if that was the genuine effect of the grief of men suffering
under famine, certainly the consuls had good reason to undertake the affair,
certainly the senate had good reason to adopt some determination or other.
But if the scarcity was the pretext, and if you in reality were the exciter
and kindler of sedition, ought we not all to have striven to take away all
shadow of pretext for your madness?
[12]
What,
if both these causes existed,—if there was both famine to excite
men, and you too like a nail working into this ulcer? was there not all the
more need to apply some remedy, which might put an end to both the evil
caused by nature, and to the other mischief imported into the case? There
was then both present dearness and impending famine; that is not enough; men
were attacked with stones. If that arose from the indignation of the common
people, without any one having stirred them up, it is a great misfortune;
but if, it was caused by the instigation of Publius Clodius, it is only the
habitual wickedness of a wicked man: if both these causes
existed,—if there was both a fact sufficient of itself to excite
the feelings of the multitude, and if there were leaders of sedition ready
and forearmed; then, does it not seem natural for the republic to have had
recourse to the protection of the consul and the loyalty of the senate? But
it is quite plain that one of these causes did exist; that there was a
difficulty of obtaining provisions, and an extreme scarcity of corn, so that
men were afraid not only of a continuance of high prices, but of actual
famine. No one denies it. But I do not wish you, O priests, to suspect that
that enemy of all tranquillity and peace was likely to seize on this as a
pretext for conflagration, and massacre, and rapine, unless you see it
proved.
[13]
Who are the men who were openly named in the senate by Quintus
Metellus,—your brother, O Metellus,—the consul, by whom
he said that he had been attacked with stones and actually hit? He named
Lucius Sergius and Marcus Lollius. Who is that Lollius? A man who is not
even at this moment by your side without his sword; who, while you were
tribune of the people, demanded (I will say nothing of his designs against
myself) to have the murder of Cnaeus Pompeius entrusted to him. Who is
Sergius? The armour-bearer of Catiline, your own body-guard, the
standard-bearer of sedition, the exciter of the shopkeepers, a man who has
been convicted of assault, an assassin, a stoner of men, a man who has
depopulated the forum, and blockaded the senate-house. With these leaders
and others like them, when you, at the time when provisions were dear, under
pretence of espousing the cause of the poor and ignorant, were preparing for
sudden attacks on the consuls, on the senate, on the property and fortunes
of the, rich; when it was impossible for you to find safety if affairs
remained in a tranquil state; when, the leaders being all desperate men, you
had your bands of profligates regularly enrolled and distributed into
decuries,—did it not behoove the senate to take good care that
that fatal firebrand did not fall upon these vast materials for sedition?
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