1.
If any one of you, O conscript fathers, is waiting to see what provinces I
shall propose to decree to the consuls, let him consider in his own mind
what men I must think it most desirable to recall from the provinces; and
then he will not have any doubt what ought to be my
sentiments, when he has once seriously thought what it is absolutely
inevitable that they should be. And if I were the first to deliver the
opinion which I am about to state, you would in truth praise it; if I were
to stand alone in it, at all events you would pardon me. Even if my opinion
were to appear to you on the whole somewhat ineligible, still you would make
some allowance for my just indignation. But, as the case stands at present,
O conscript fathers, I feel no ordinary delight because it is so entirely
for the advantage of the republic that Syria and Macedonia should be the provinces decreed to the consuls,
that my own private feelings are in no respect at variance with the general
good; and because also I can cite the authority of Publius Servilius, who
has delivered his opinion before me, a most illustrious man, and of singular
good faith and attachment both to the republic in general, and to my safety
in particular.
[2]
And if he, both just now,
and whenever he has had any opportunity or possibility of speaking on the
subject, has thought it his duty to brand not only with his adverse opinion
but with the greatest severity of language, Gabinius and Piso, as the two
monsters who have been almost the destruction of the republic, both on other
accounts, and also most especially because of their extraordinary wickedness
and unseemly inhumanity towards me, with what feelings ought I myself to be
actuated towards those men,—I whose safety they devoted and ruined
for the gratification of their own evil passions?
But in declaring my sentiments at this time, I will not be guided by my
indignation, nor will I make my speech subservient to my enmity. The same
feelings which every individual among you ought to entertain towards those
men, shall influence me also. My own predominant and peculiar feeling of
private indignation, which, however, you have always considered as belonging
to yourselves in common with me, I will put aside while delivering my
opinion, and reserve for a more fitting opportunity of revenge.
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