§7.49.1πρῶτον μὲν οὖν τοῦθʼ ὑμᾶς ἤδη ποτὲ ἀξιῶ βεβαίως μαθεῖν, ὅτι δυσμενῆ καὶ πολέμιον ἔχετε τῇ καθεστώσῃ πολιτείᾳ τὸν δημοτικὸν ὄχλον, καὶ πάνθʼ ὅσα μαλακισθέντες αὐτῷ συνεχωρήσατε μάτην θʼ ὑμῖν ἀνήλωται καὶ καταφρονήσεως αἴτια γέγονεν, ὡς διὰ τὴν ἀνάγκην συγχωρηθέντα ὑφʼ ὑμῶν, ἀλλʼ §7.49.2οὐκ ἀπʼ εὐνοίας οὐδὲ κατὰ κρίσιν.
First of all, then, I demand that you at last now learn this for certain, that you have the plebeian crowd hostile and inimical to the established constitution, and that all those things which you, out of weakness, conceded to them have both been spent by you in vain and have become a cause of contempt, as having been conceded by you out of necessity, and not from goodwill nor by judgment.
σκοπεῖτε γὰρ οὕτως.
For consider it in this way.
ὅτʼ ἀπέστη λαβὼν τὰ ὅπλα ὁ δῆμος ἀφʼ ὑμῶν καὶ πολέμιος ὑμῖν ἐτόλμησεν ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ γενέσθαι, ἀδικηθεὶς μὲν οὐδέν, τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι δὲ τὰ χρέα τοῖς συμβεβληκόσι διαλῦσαι σκηπτόμενος, καὶ εἰ ψηφίσαισθε ὑμεῖς χρεῶν τʼ ἀποκοπὰς καὶ ἄδειαν ὧν ἥμαρτε κατὰ τὴν ἀπόστασιν οὐθενὸς ἔτι δεήσεσθαι ἔφησεν, ἔγνωσαν οἱ πλείους ὑμῶν, οὐ γὰρ δὴ πάντες γε, παρακρουσθέντες ὑπὸ τῶν συμβούλων, ὡς μή ποτε ὤφελον, ἀκυρῶσαι τοὺς ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει τεθέντας νόμους καὶ μηθενὸς τῶν τότε γεγενημένων μνησικακεῖν ἀδικημάτων.
When the people revolted, taking up arms against you, and dared to become openly hostile to you—having suffered no injustice, but alleging as a pretext that they were unable to pay their debts to those who had lent to them, and when they declared that, if you should vote for both a cancellation of debts and impunity for what they had committed during the secession, they would need nothing further—the majority of you, for certainly not all, deceived by your advisers (would that it had never happened!), resolved to annul the laws established on credit and to bear no grudge for any of the offenses committed at that time.
§7.49.3οὐκ ἠγάπησε ταύτης τυχὼν τῆς χάριτος, ἧς μόνης μεμνημένος ἔφη πεποιῆσθαι τὴν ἀπόστασιν, ἀλλʼ εὐθὺς ἑτέραν ἔτι ταύτης ᾔτει μείζω καὶ παρανομωτέραν δωρεάν, ἐξουσίαν αὐτῷ δοθῆναι δημάρχους ἐξ αὐτοῦ καθʼ ἕκαστον ἔτος ἀποδεικνύναι, πρόφασιν μὲν ποιούμενος τὴν ἡμετέραν ἰσχύν, ἵνα δὴ τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις καὶ κατισχυομένοις τῶν πενήτων ἐπικουρία τις ὑπάρχῃ καὶ καταφυγή· ὡς δὲ τἀληθὲς εἶχεν, ἐπιβουλεύων τῷ κόσμῳ τῆς πολιτείας καὶ εἰς δημοκρατίαν περιστῆσαι τὰ πράγματα §7.49.4βουλόμενος.
They were not satisfied with obtaining this favor, which alone they mentioned when they said they had made their secession, but immediately demanded another gift, still greater and more lawless than this, namely, that power should be given to them to appoint tribunes from their own number every year, making a pretext of our power, so that indeed there might be some assistance and refuge for those of the poor who were wronged and oppressed, but as the truth was, plotting against the order of the constitution and wishing to change the state of affairs into a democracy.
καὶ τοῦτʼ ἔπεισαν ἡμᾶς οἱ σύμβουλοι τὸ ἀρχεῖον ἐᾶσαι παρελθεῖν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐπὶ τῷ κοινῷ παραγινόμενον κακῷ, καὶ μάλιστʼ ἐπὶ τῷ κατὰ τῆς βουλῆς φθόνῳ, πολλά, εἴπερ ἄρα μέμνησθε, κεκραγότος ἐμοῦ καὶ μαρτυρομένου θεούς τε καὶ ἀνθρώπους ὅτι πόλεμον ἐμφύλιον ἄπαυστον εἰς τὴν πόλιν εἰσάξετε, καὶ πάνθʼ ὅσα ὑμῖν προβέβηκε λέγοντος.
And our advisers persuaded us to allow this magistracy to enter into the city, though it was introduced to the common ruin, and especially to the envy against the senate, while I cried out much, if indeed you remember, and called gods and men to witness that you would bring an endless civil war into the city, and said everything that has since happened to you.