This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
[12]
There was a motion
being made about some supplications; a kind of measure when senators are not
usually wanting; for they are under the compulsion, not of pledges, but of the
influence of those men whose honour is being complimented; and the case is the
same when the motion has reference to a triumph. The consuls are so free from
anxiety at these times, that it is almost entirely free for a senator to absent
himself if he pleases. And as the general custom of our body was well known to
me, and as I was hardly recovered from the fatigue of my journey, and was vexed
with myself, I sent a man to him, out of regard for my friendship to him, to
tell him that I should not be there. But he, in the hearing of you all, declared
that he would come with masons to my house; this was said with too much passion
and very intemperately. For, for what crime is there such a heavy punishment
appointed as that, that any one should venture to say in this assembly that he,
with the assistance of a lot of common operatives, would pull down a house which
had been built at the public expense in accordance with a vote of the senate.
And who ever employed such compulsion as the threat of such an injury as that to
a senator? or what severer punishment has ever been imposed for
absence than the forfeiture of a pledge, or a fine? But if he had known what
opinion I should have delivered on the subject, he would have remitted somewhat
of the rigour of his compulsion.
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.