[83]
But what comes next? Do I, who never praised Catiline, who never as consul countenanced
Catiline when he was on his trial, who have given evidence respecting the conspiracy against
others,—do I seem to you so far removed from sanity, so forgetful of my own
consistency, so forgetful of all the exploits which I have performed, as, though as consul I
waged war against the conspirators, now to wish to preserve their leader, and to bring my mind
now to defend the cause and the life of that same man whose weapon I lately blunted, and whose
flames I have but just extinguished? If, O judges, the republic itself, which has been
preserved by my labours and dangers, did not by its dignity recall me to wisdom and
consistency, still it is an instinct implanted by nature, to hate for ever the man whom you
have once feared, with whom you have contended for life and fortune, and from whose plots you
have escaped. But when my chief honours and the great glory of all my exploits are at stake;
when, as often as any one is convicted of any participation in this wickedness, the
recollection of the safety of the city having been secured by me is renewed, shall I be so mad
as to allow those things which I did in behalf of the common safety to appear now to have been
done by me more by chance and by good fortune than by virtue and wisdom?
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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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