[19]
Our ancestors removed from Capua the magistrates, the senate, the general council, and
all the ensigns of the republic, and left nothing there except the bare name of Capua; not out of cruelty, (for what was ever more merciful
than they were? for they often restored their property even to foreign enemies when they had
been subdued;) but out of wisdom; because they saw that if any trace of the republic remained
within those walls, the city itself might be able to afford a home to supreme power. And
would not you too see how mischievous these things were, if you were not desirous of
overturning the republic, and of procuring a new sort of power for your own selves?
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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