[82]
Although we have all at all times been of this
disposition with respect to crushing traitors to our country,—that
since the glory would be ours, we should consider the danger and the
unpopularity ours also. For what praise should I have deserved to have given
to me, when I showed so much courage in my consulship on
behalf of you and of your children, if I had supposed that I could venture
on the exploits which I was attempting without very great struggles and
dangers to myself? What woman is there who would not dare to slay a wicked
and mischievous citizen, if she was not afraid of the danger of the attempt?
But the man who, though unpopularity, and death, and punishment are before
his eyes still ventures to defend the republic with no less alacrity than if
no such evils threatened him, he deserves to be considered really a man.
It behoves a grateful people to reward those citizens who have deserved well
of the republic; it is the part of a brave man, not to be so moved even by
execution itself, as to repent of having acted bravely.
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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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