The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 | Page 9

however, you have repeatedly heard me speak. Do you think that he
would have been willing to deserve even immortality, at the price of
being feared in consequence of his licentious use of arms? What he
considered life, what he considered prosperity, was the being equal to
the rest of the citizens in freedom, and chief of them all in worth.
Therefore, to say no more of the prosperity of your grandfather, I
should prefer that most bitter day of his death to the domination of
Lucius Cinna, by whom he was most barbarously slain.
But why should I seek to make an impression on you by my speech?
For, if the end of Caius Caesar cannot influence you to prefer being
loved to being feared, no speech of any one will do any good or have
any influence with you; and those who think him happy are themselves
miserable. No one is happy who lives on such terms that he may be put
to death not merely with impunity, but even to the great glory of his
slayer. Wherefore, change your mind, I entreat you, and look back upon
your ancestors, and govern the republic in such a way that your

fellow-citizens may rejoice that you were born; without which no one
can be happy nor illustrious.
XV. And, indeed, you have both of you had many judgments delivered
respecting you by the Roman people, by which I am greatly concerned
that you are not sufficiently influenced. For what was the meaning of
the shouts of the innumerable crowd of citizens collected at the
gladiatorial games? or of the verses made by the people? or of the
extraordinary applause at the sight of the statue of Pompeius? and at
that sight of the two tribunes of the people who are opposed to you?
Are these things a feeble indication of the incredible unanimity of the
entire Roman people? What more? Did the applause at the games of
Apollo, or, I should rather say, testimony and judgment there given by
the Roman people, appear to you of small importance? Oh! happy are
those men who, though they themselves were unable to be present on
account of the violence of arms, still were present in spirit, and had a
place in the breasts and hearts of the Roman people. Unless, perhaps,
you think that it was Accius who was applauded on that occasion, and
who bore off the palm sixty years after his first appearance, and not
Brutus, who was absent from the games which he himself was
exhibiting, while at that most splendid spectacle the Roman people
showed their zeal in his favour though he was absent, and soothed their
own regret for their deliverer by uninterrupted applause and clamour.
I myself, indeed, am a man who have at all times despised that
applause which is bestowed by the vulgar crowd, but at the same time,
when it is bestowed by those of the highest, and of the middle, and of
the lowest rank, and, in short, by all ranks together, and when those
men who were previously accustomed to aim at nothing but the favour
of the people keep aloof, I then think that, not mere applause, but a
deliberate verdict. If this appears to you unimportant, which is in reality
most significant, do you also despise the fact of which you have had
experience,--namely, that the life of Aulus Hirtius is so dear to the
Roman people? For it was sufficient for him to be esteemed by the
Roman people as he is; to be popular among his friends, in which
respect he surpasses everybody; to be beloved by his own kinsmen,
who do love him beyond measure; but in whose case before do we ever
recollect such anxiety and such fear being manifested? Certainly in no
one's.

What, then, are we to do? In the name of the immortal gods, can you
interpret these facts, and see what is their purport? What do you think
that those men think of your lives, to whom the lives of those men who
they hope will consult the welfare of the republic are so dear? I have
reaped, O conscript fathers, the reward of my return, since I have said
enough to bear testimony of my consistency whatever event may befall
me, and since I have been kindly and attentively listened to by you.
And if I have such opportunities frequently without exposing both
myself and you to danger, I shall avail myself of them. If not, as far as I
can I shall reserve myself not for myself, but rather for the republic. I
have lived long enough for the course of human life, or for my own
glory. If any additional life is granted to me, it shall be bestowed