[40]
But since enough has been said of all these offences which the soothsayers
say have been committed, let us see now what these same soothsayers say that
we are being warned of at this time by the immortal gods. They warn us
“to take care that bloodshed and danger be not brought upon the
senators and chief men of the state, through the discord and dissension of
the nobles; and that our senators do not become disheartened from being
deprived of support by which the provinces may fall under the power of a
single master, and our armies be defeated, and a great loss of power
ensue.” All these are the words of the soothsayers, I am not
adding any thing of my own. Who then of the nobles is it who is causing this
discord? The same man and that not by any force of his own genius or wisdom
but by some blundering of ours which he—for it was not very much
concealed—easily perceived. For this consideration makes the
present distress of the republic the more shameful, that even by him it is
not afflicted in such a way that it may seem to fall like a brave man in
battle, having received honourable wounds in front from a gallant foe.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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