[37]
I am driven out, say you, if any one of my slaves is
driven out. Now you are right, for you are altering your language, and appealing, to justice.
For if we choose to adhere to the words themselves, how are you driven out when your servant
is driven out? But it is as you say—I ought to consider you yourself as driven out,
even if you were never touched. Is it not so? Come now, suppose not even one of your slaves
was driven from his place, if they were all kept and retained in the house; if you alone were
prevented from entering, and frightened away from your house by violence and arms; will you in
that case have this right of action which we have adopted, or some other form, or will you
have no action at all? It neither becomes your prudence nor your character to say that, in so
notable and so atrocious a case, there is no right of action. If there be any other kind of
action which has escaped our notice, tell us what it is. I wish to learn.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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