The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 | Page 6

with which he will seek to efface the idea of his meanness; and he will
strive rather to appear worthy of being classed in the honourable
decuries, than to have deservedly ranked in a disreputable one.
IX. Another law was proposed, that men who had been condemned of
violence and treason may appeal to the public if they please. Is this now
a law, or rather an abrogation of all laws? For who is there at this day to
whom it is an object that that law should stand? No one is accused
under those laws; there is no one whom we think likely to be so
accused. For measures which have been carried by force of arms will
certainly never be impeached in a court of justice. But the measure is a
popular one. I wish, indeed, that you were willing to promote any
popular measure; for, at present, all the citizens agree with one mind
and one voice in their view of its bearing on the safety of the republic.
What is the meaning, then, of the eagerness to pass the law which
brings with it the greatest possible infamy, and no popularity at all? For
what can be more discreditable than for a man who has committed
treason against the Roman people by acts of violence, after he has been
condemned by a legal decision, to be able to return to that very course
of violence, on account of which he has been condemned? But why do
I argue any more about this law? as if the object aimed at were to
enable any one to appeal? The object is, the inevitable consequence
must be, that no one can ever be prosecuted under those laws. For what
prosecutor will be found insane enough to be willing, after the
defendant has been condemned, to expose himself to the fury of a hired
mob? or what judge will be bold enough to venture to condemn a
criminal, knowing that he will immediately be dragged before a gang of
hireling operatives? It is not, therefore, a right of appeal that is given by

that law, but two most salutary laws and modes of judicial investigation
that are abolished. And what is this but exhorting young men to be
turbulent, seditious, mischievous citizens?
To what extent of mischief will it not be possible to instigate the frenzy
of the tribunes now that these two rights of impeachment for violence
and for treason are annulled? What more? Is not this a substitution of a
new law for the laws of Caesar, which enact that every man who has
been convicted of violence, and also every man who has been
convicted of treason, shall be interdicted from fire and water? And,
when those men have a right of appeal given them, are not the acts of
Caesar rescinded? And those acts, O conscript fathers, I, who never
approved of them, have still thought it advisable to maintain for the
sake of concord, so that I not only did not think that the laws which
Caesar had passed in his lifetime ought to be repealed, but I did not
approve of meddling with those even which since the death of Caesar
you have seen produced and published.
X. Men have been recalled from banishment by a dead man; the
freedom of the city has been conferred, not only on individuals, but on
entire nations and provinces by a dead man; our revenues have been
diminished by the granting of countless exemptions by a dead man.
Therefore, do we defend these measures which have been brought from
his house on the authority of a single, but, I admit, a very excellent
individual, and as for the laws which he, in your presence, read, and
declared, and passed,--in the passing of which he gloried, and on which
he believed that the safety of the republic depended, especially those
concerning provinces and concerning judicial proceedings,--can we, I
say, we who defend the acts of Caesar, think that those laws deserve to
be upset?
And yet, concerning those laws which were proposed, we have, at all
events, the power of complaining, but concerning those which are
actually passed we have not even had that privilege. For they, without
any proposal of them to the people, were passed before they were
framed. Men ask, what is the reason why I, or why any one of you, O
conscript fathers, should be afraid of bad laws while we have virtuous
tribunes of the people? We have men ready to interpose their veto,
ready to defend the republic with the sanctions of religion. We ought to
be strangers to fear. What do you mean by interposing the veto? says he,

what are all these sanctions of religion which you are talking about?
Those,