[15]
For what was the cause of Autronius? and what is the
cause of Sulla? The former tried to disturb and get rid of a prosecution for
bribery by raising in the first instance a sedition among gladiators and runaway slaves, and
after that as we all saw, by stoning people, and collecting a violent mob. Sulla, if his own
modesty and worth could not avail him, sought no other assistance. The former, when he had
been convicted, behaved in such a manner, not only in his secret designs and conversation, but
in every look and in his whole countenance, as to appear an enemy to the most honourable
orders in the state, hostile to every virtuous man, and a foe to his country. The latter
considered himself so bowed down, so broken down by that misfortune, that he thought that none
of his former dignity was left to him, except what he could retain by his present moderation.
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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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