65.
And the prosecutor has dared, while pleading in this cause, to exhort you, O
judges, to show at last some severity, and at length to apply some healing
measures to the republic. But that is not a remedy when the knife is applied
to some sound and healthy part of the body, that is the act of an
executioner and mere inhumanity. Those are the men who really apply healing
remedies to the republic, who cut out some pestilence as if it were a wen on
the person of the state.
[136]
But in order that my speech may have some termination, and that I may cease
speaking before you are weary of listening to me with attention, I will
finish my argument about the party of the best men and about their leaders
and about those who are the chief defenders of the republic. I will stir you
up, O young men, especially you who are of noble birth, to the imitation of
your ancestors and I will exhort you who have the opportunity of arriving at
high rank by the exercise of genius and virtue to adopt that line of conduct
by which many new men have become crowned with honour and glory.
[137]
This, believe me, is the only path to praise,
and dignity and honour,—to be praised and beloved by men who are
wise and good, and endowed with good dispositions by nature; to become acquainted with the constitution of the state, as it has been most
wisely established by our ancestors, who, when they could no longer endure
the power of a king, created annual magistrates on the principle of making
the senate the perpetual supreme council of the republic, and of allowing
men to be elected into that body by the whole people, and of opening the
road to that supreme order to the industry and virtue of all the citizens.
They established the senate as the guardian, and president, and protector of
the republic; they chose the magistrates to depend on the authority of this
order, and to be as it were the ministers of this most dignified council;
and they contrived that the senate itself should be strengthened by the high
respectability of those ranks which came nearest to it, and so be able to
defend and promote the liberties and interests of the common people.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.