History of Rome

”So bitter to me, Quirites, are the contentions with the tribunes of the plebs, that as long as I lived at Ardea, I had no other solace for my most sorrowful exile than that I was far from these struggles, and for these same reasons, even if you had recalled me a thousand times by decree of the senate and order of the people, I should never have returned.

​Nor is it my own will that has now changed to make me return, but your fortune that has compelled me; for indeed, the object was that the fatherland should remain in its own seat, not that I should by all means be in the fatherland. And now I would gladly remain quiet and silent, did not this also concern a struggle for the fatherland; to fail which, as long as life lasts, is shameful for others, but for Camillus even a sin.

​For why did we seek to recover our city, why did we rescue it when besieged from the hands of the enemy, if we ourselves abandon it when recovered? And while, when the Gauls were victors and the entire city was captured, both Roman gods and men nevertheless held the Capitol and the citadel and dwelt there, shall now, when the Romans are victors and the city is recovered, the citadel and the Capitol also be abandoned? And shall our good fortune cause more devastation to this city than our adversity did?

​For my part, even if we had no religious rites established and handed down to us from hand to hand together with the city, yet so manifest a divine power has been present in Roman affairs in this tempestuous time, that I think all negligence of divine worship has been removed from men.

​For look at the successes or adversities of these years in succession; you will find that all things turned out prosperously for those who followed the gods, and adversely for those who despised them.

​Now first of all, the Veientine war—waged for so many years with so much labor—did not reach an end until, by the warning of the gods, the water was drained from the Alban lake.

​What, then, of this recent and unprecedented disaster of our city? Did it arise before the voice sent from heaven concerning the approach of the Gauls was despised, before the law of nations was violated by our envoys, and before that violation was passed over by us with the same negligence of the gods, when it ought to have been punished?

​Therefore, vanquished, captured, and ransomed, we have paid so great a penalty to gods and men that we might be a lesson to the whole world.

​Then, adversity reminded us of our religious duties; we fled to the Capitol, to the gods, to the seat of Jupiter Optimus Maximus; in the ruin of our affairs, we hid some of our sacred objects in the earth, and others we carried away to neighboring cities, removing them from the eyes of the enemy; though deserted by gods and men, we nevertheless did not interrupt the worship of the gods.

​Therefore, they have restored to us our fatherland, our victory, and our lost ancient glory in war; and upon the enemy, who, blinded by avarice, broke their treaty and pledge in the weighing of the gold, they have turned terror, flight, and slaughter.”