[124]
But above all other times
the sentiments of the entire Roman people were declared at the
exhibition of the gladiatorial games. For they were the gift of Scipio,
worthy both of him and Quintus Metellus, in whose honour they were given.
And they are a spectacle of that sort which is attended by immense numbers
and by every class of men, and with which the multitude is delighted above
all things into that crowd of spectators came Publius Sestius as tribune of
the people when during his whole period of office he had been nothing
whatever but serving my cause and he went among the people, not from any
personal desire of applause but that our enemies might themselves see the
inclinations of the universal people. He came, as you know, to the Maenian
pillar, and such great applause ensued from all the places for beholding the
spectacle all the way from the Capitol, and such universal clapping of hands
from every seat, that it was said that there had never been in any cause
whatever, greater or more manifest unanimity on the part of the Roman
people.
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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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