[35]
And when such was the state of all things,
O judges,—when the senate had no leaders or traitors, or I should
rather say open enemies, in the place of leaders,—when the
equestrian order was being put on its trial by the consuls,—when
the authority of all Italy was
trampled on,—when some men were banished by name others frightened
away by terror and danger,—when the temples were full of arms and
the forum of armed men; and when those facts were not concealed by the
silence of the consuls, but were openly approved of by them by their
speeches and their formal decision,—when we all of us saw the city
not yet perhaps razed and destroyed, but at all events already stormed and
in the power of the enemy,—nevertheless relying on the exceeding
zeal of the virtuous part of the citizens, we would have resisted, O judges,
even these enormous evils.
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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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