§5.66.1τοιαῦτα τοῦ Οὐαλερίου λέγοντος καὶ πολλῶν τὴν γνώμην ἐπαινούντων Ἄππιος Κλαύδιος Σαβῖνος ἐν τῷ προσήκοντι κληθεὶς τόπῳ τἀναντία παρῄνει διδάσκων, ὅτι τὸ στασιάζον οὐκ ἐξαιρεθήσεται τῆς πόλεως, ἐὰν ψηφίσωνται χρεῶν ἀποκοπάς, ἀλλʼ ἔτι πονηρότερον ἔσται μεταχθὲν ἀπὸ τῶν πενήτων εἰς τοὺς εὐπόρους.
While Valerius was saying these things and many were praising his opinion, Appius Claudius Sabinus, being called upon in his proper turn, advised the contrary, showing that the factional element would not be removed from the city if they should vote for a cancellation of debts, but would become even more virulent, being transferred from the poor to the wealthy.
§5.66.2δῆλον γὰρ δὴ πᾶσιν ὑπάρχειν, ὅτι χαλεπῶς οἴσουσιν οἱ μέλλοντες ἀποστερεῖσθαι τῶν χρημάτων πολῖταί τʼ ὄντες καὶ ἐπίτιμοι καὶ πάσας ἐστρατευμένοι τὰς ἐπιβαλούσας ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως στρατείας, οὐδʼ ἀξιοῦντες ἃ κατέλιπον αὐτοῖς οἱ πατέρες καὶ αὐτοὶ φιλεργοῦντες καὶ σωφρόνως ζῶντες ἐκτήσαντο δημεύεσθαι τοῖς πονηροτάτοις καὶ ἀργοτάτοις τῶν πολιτῶν.
For it was indeed clear to all that those who were about to be deprived of their money—being citizens, holding full rights, and having served in all the campaigns imposed upon them on behalf of the city—would take it hard; nor did they think it right that what their fathers had left them, and what they themselves had acquired by being industrious and living temperately, should be confiscated for the benefit of the most wicked and lazy of the citizens.
πολλῆς δʼ εἶναι μωρίας ἔργον τῷ χείρονι μέρει τοῦ πολιτεύματος χαρίζεσθαι βουλομένους τοῦ κρείττονος ὑπερορᾶν καὶ τοῖς ἀδικωτάτοις τῶν πολιτῶν τὰς ἀλλοτρίας δημεύοντας οὐσίας τῶν δικαίως αὐτὰς κτησαμένων ἀφαιρεῖσθαι.
And he said it was the mark of great folly, in their desire to favor the worse part of the commonwealth, to neglect the better, and, by confiscating the property of others for the benefit of the most unjust citizens, to deprive those who had justly acquired it.
§5.66.3ἐνθυμεῖσθαί τʼ αὐτοὺς ἠξίου, ὅτι οὐχ ὑπὸ τῶν πενήτων καὶ οὐδεμίαν ἰσχὺν ἐχόντων αἱ πόλεις ἀπόλλυνται τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖν ἀναγκαζομένων, ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ τῶν εὐπόρων καὶ τὰ πολιτικὰ πράττειν δυναμένων, ὅταν ὑπὸ τῶν χειρόνων ὑβρίζωνται καὶ τῶν δικαίων μὴ τυγχάνωσιν.
And he urged them to reflect that cities are not destroyed by the poor and those who have no power when they are compelled to do what is just, but by the wealthy and those capable of managing public affairs, when they are insulted by their inferiors and fail to obtain justice.
εἰ δὲ μηδὲν ἀγανακτήσειν μέλλοιεν οἱ τῶν συμβολαίων ἀποστερούμενοι, πρᾴως δέ πως καὶ ῥᾳθύμως οἴσειν τὰς βλάβας, οὐδʼ οὕτως ἔφη καλῶς ἕξειν σφίσιν οὐδʼ ἀσφαλῶς δωρεὰν τοῖς πένησι χαρίζεσθαι τοιαύτην, διʼ ἣν ἀσυνάλλακτος ὁ κοινὸς ἔσται βίος καὶ μισάλληλος καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων χρειῶν, ὧν χωρὶς οὐκ ἔνεστιν οἰκεῖσθαι τὰς πόλεις, ἐνδεής, οὔτε τὴν χώραν σπειρόντων ἔτι καὶ φυτευόντων τῶν γεωργῶν, οὔτε τὴν θάλατταν πλεόντων καὶ διαμειβομένων τὰς διαποντίους ἀγορὰς τῶν ἐμπόρων, οὔτε ἄλλην ἐργασίαν οὐδεμίαν δικαίαν ποιουμένων τῶν πενήτων.
And even if those who were deprived of their contracts were not going to be at all resentful, but were to bear their losses in a gentle and indifferent manner, he said that not even so would it be well or safe for them to grant such a gift to the poor, by which their common life would become transactional-free, full of mutual hatred, and lacking in those necessary requirements without which cities cannot be inhabited—neither the farmers any longer sowing and planting the land, nor the merchants sailing the sea and exchanging overseas goods, nor the poor performing any other honest labor.
§5.66.4εἰς ἅπαντα γὰρ ταῦτα τοῖς δεομένοις ἀφορμῆς οὐδένα τῶν εὐπόρων τὰ ἑαυτοῦ χρήματα προήσεσθαι· ἐκ δὲ τούτων φθονήσεσθαι μὲν εὐπορίαν, καταλυθήσεσθαι δὲ φιλεργίαν, κρείττω δὲ μοῖραν ἕξειν τοὺς ἀκολάστους τῶν σωφρόνων, τοὺς δʼ ἀδίκους τῶν δικαίων καὶ τοὺς σφετεριζομένους τἀλλότρια τῶν φυλαττόντων τὰ ἴδια.
For to all these people who stood in need of capital, none of the wealthy would advance his own money; and as a consequence of this, wealth would be envied, industry would be abolished, and the intemperate would have a better lot than the temperate, the unjust than the just, and those who appropriate the property of others than those who guard their own.
ταῦτα δʼ εἶναι τὰ ποιοῦντα διχοστασίας ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι καὶ ἀλληλοφθορίας ἀπαύστους καὶ πᾶσαν ἄλλην κακῶν ἰδέαν, ὑφʼ ὧν αἱ μὲν εὐτυχέστατα πράξασαι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἀφῃρέθησαν, αἱ δὲ τῆς χείρονος μοίρας τυχοῦσαι πανώλεθροι διεφθάρησαν.
And these are the things that produce factions in cities, and unceasing mutual destruction, and every other form of evil, by which those cities that had fared most prosperously were deprived of their liberty, while those that met with a worse fate were utterly destroyed.