[30]
The Latin allies had never anything worse to submit to
than (and it was a case of very rare occurrence) the being ordered by the
consul to depart from the city. And they had the power then of returning to
their own cities, to their own household gods; and in that general disaster
no peculiar ignominy was attached by name to any single individual. But what
is the case here? Is the consul to banish, by his edict, Roman citizens from
their household gods? is he to expel them from their country?
is he to select whom he pleases? to condemn and banish men by name? If he
had supposed that you, who are now sitting here, would continue to exist in
the republic,—if he had supposed that any image of the courts of
justice would remain or that there would be the least vestige of the old
constitution left in the state would he even have dared to wipe the senate
out of the republic in this way? to reject the prayers of the Roman knights?
in short, to overturn the rights and liberties of all the citizens by new
and unheard of edicts?
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