[81]
Or this I ask, O
judges, if on that day that family of Clodius had done what it
wished,—if Publius Sestius, who was left for dead had really been
slain, would you have had recourse to arms? Would you have roused yourselves
up to the courage of your fathers and to the valour of your ancestors? Would
you at last have endeavoured to wrest the republic out of the hands of that
deadly robber? Or would you even then have remained quiet and dawdled, and
been afraid, when you saw the republic overwhelmed and taken possession of
by the most impious assassins and by slaves? If then you would have avenged
his death, if you had any idea of continuing free men, and of retaining the
constitution, do you think that you ought to hesitate as to what you ought
to say, and feel, and think, and decide as to his virtue now that he is
alive?
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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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