[62]
His tribuneship followed. Why need I speak of his extraordinary magnanimity,
and of his incredible virtue? You remember that day on which, when the
temple was occupied by his colleague,1 and while we were all alarmed for the life of that good man
and that great citizen, he himself came most courageously into the temple,
stilled the clamours of the men by his authority and checked the violence of
the wicked by his intrepidity. Then, indeed, he encountered danger, but he
encountered it for an adequate reason and how great that motion was, it is
not necessary for me to say at present. But if he had not obeyed that most
wicked motion with respect to the affairs of Cyprus, the same disgrace would nevertheless have attached
to the republic. For after the kingdom had been confiscated, the motion was
made about Cato mentioning him expressly by name. And suppose he had refused to obey it,
can you doubt that violence would have been used towards him, since in that
case all the acts of that year would have seemed to be undermined by that
one man?
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1 Metellus Celer
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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