6.
[14]
The prosecutor indulges me with a gesture. He intimates that Cnaeus Pompeius
acted ignorantly. As if it were a lighter charge, when one has
been occupied in affairs of state in so important a republic, and been
presiding over the most serious transactions, to do anything which you know
not to be legal, or to be utterly ignorant what is legal. Do you really mean
that he did not know, he who had waged a most formidable and important war
in Spain, what were the rights of
the city of Gades? or that he did
not catch the correct interpretation of a treaty made with the people, as
not understanding their language? Will any one then dare to say that Cnaeus
Pompeius is ignorant of that which the most ordinary men, men of no
knowledge of the world, of no military experience, which every common
amanuensis professes to be acquainted with?
[15]
I, indeed, think on the contrary, O judges, that while Cnaeus Pompeius
excels in every kind and variety of accomplishment, even of those which are
not easily learnt without the most perfect leisure for their study, his most
extraordinary credit and his most admirable knowledge consists in his
thorough acquaintance with the treaties, and agreements, and conditions of
other peoples, kings, and foreign nations, in short, with the entire laws of
war and peace; unless, indeed, you mean to make out that the things which
our books teach us while in the shade and at our leisure, Cnaeus Pompeius
was incapable of learning, either from books, when he was in the enjoyment
of peace, or from the actual transactions, when he was engaged in the
business of the state.
It is my opinion, O judges,1 this action is
more to be attributed to the fault of the times than of the individual. Nor
will I say any more about a trial of so scandalous a description. For it is
the stain and disgrace of this age to envy virtue, and to seek to crush the
budding flower of worth and dignity. In truth, if Cnaeus Pompeius had lived
five hundred years ago,
[16]
that man from
whom, while a young man and a Roman knight, the senate had often sought aid
for the general safety; whose exploits had had all nations for their stage,
being crowned everywhere by the most illustrious victories, both by land and
sea; of which three triumphs had been the witnesses, proving that the whole
world was made subject to our empire; whom the Roman people
had distinguished with unexampled honours, in that case if it were now said
among you that anything that he had done had been done in contravention of a
treaty, who would listen to such a statement? No one. For his death would
have put an end to the envy of him, his achievements would rest in the glory
of his undying name. As then his virtue, if it were only heard of by us,
would leave no room for doubt or question, shall it when present among us,
when it has been experienced and beheld by ourselves, be injured by the
voice of detractors?
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
1 Orellius considers the text here as hopelessly corrupt, I have translated the reading of Hottomann, which Orellius approves, and gives in his note.
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.