[5]
Did you then, O you deadly pest of the republic, by means of the sword and
arms, by the terror of an armed force, by the wickedness of the consuls, and
the threats of most audacious men,—by enlisting slaves, by
besieging the temples, by occupying the forum, by oppressing the senate,
contrive to compel the departure of that citizen from his home and from his
country, in order to prevent actual battles between the virtuous and wicked
citizens,—though you now confess that he was regretted and sent
for back and recalled by the senate, by all good men, and by the whole of
Italy, as the only means of
preserving the republic? “But on that day of disturbance you ought
not,” says he, “to have come into the senate, you ought
not to have entered the Capitol.”
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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