[79]
I asked him on the first of January, to what men he was going to distribute that land, and
on what principles. He answered that he should begin with the Romilian tribe. In the first
place now, what is the object of such pride and arrogance as to cut off one portion of the
people, and to neglect the order of the tribes? to contrive to give land to the country
people who have it already, before any is given to the city people, to whom the hope of land
and the pleasure they are to derive from it is held out as an inducement ? Or if he says that
this is not what he said, and if he has some plan in his head to satisfy all of you, let him
produce it; let him allot it in divisions of ten acres; let him put forth your names in a
regular arrangement from the district of the Subura to that of the Arnus. If you perceive not
only that ten acres are not given to you, but that it is actually impossible for such a body
of men to be collected together in the district of Campania, will you nevertheless allow the republic to be harassed, the majesty
of the Roman people to be despised, and you yourselves to be deluded any longer by the
tribune of the people?
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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