39.
[103]
But will you allow this portico to stand on the Palatine Hill, and on the most beautiful spot in the whole
city, erected as an everlasting token to keep alive the recollection of all
nations and of all foes of the frenzy of the tribunes, of the wickedness of
the consuls of the cruelty of the conspirators, of the calamity of the
republic, and of my sufferings? A portico which, out of the affection which
you have and always have had for the republic, you ought to wish to pull
down, not only by your votes, but, if it were necessary, even by your hands.
Unless, perchance, the religious consecration of it by that chastest of
pontiffs deters any one.
[104]
O that action, which careless men laugh at, but which graver citizens cannot
hear of without the greatest indignation; has Publius Clodius, who removed
religion even out of the house of the Pontifex Maximus,1
introduced it into mine? Do you, you who are the ministers of the religious
ceremonies and sacrifices, admit this man to be an originator and regulator
of public religion? O ye immortal gods! (for I wish you to hear these
things), does Publius Clodius have the management of your sacred rites? Does
he feel a reverent awe of your divine power? Is he a man who thinks that all
human affairs are regulated by your providence? Is he not mocking the
authority of all those eminent men who are here present? Is he not abusing
your authority, O priests? Can any expression of religion escape or fall
from that mouth? of religion, which with that same mouth you have most
foully and shamefully violated, by accusing the senate of passing severe
degrees about religion.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
1 The Pontifex Maximus was Julius Caesar; and it was in his house that the mysteries of the Bona Dea were being celebrated when Clodius got access to it. On which account Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.