§22tu denique, Labiene, quid faceres tali in re ac tempore? Cum ignaviae ratio te in fugam atque in latebras impelleret, improbitas et furor L. Saturnini in Capitolium arcesseret, consules ad patriae salutem ac libertatem vocarent, quam tandem auctoritatem, quam vocem, cuius sectam sequi, cuius imperio parere potissimum velles? 'patruus,' inquit, 'meus cum Saturnino fuit.
Labiene, what, in short, would you have done in such a situation and at such a time? When the consideration of cowardice was urging you to flight and to hiding places, the wickedness and madness of L. Saturninus was summoning you to the Capitol, and the consuls were calling you to the safety and freedom of the fatherland, whose authority, pray, whose voice, whose faction would you have wished to follow, whose command would you have preferred to obey? "My uncle," he says, "was with Saturninus." What?
' quid? pater quicum? quid? propinqui vestri, equites Romani? quid? omnis praefectura, regio, vicinitas vestra? quid? ager Picenus universus utrum tribunicium furorem, an consularem auctoritatem secutus est?
With whom was your father? What? Your relatives, the Roman knights? What? Your entire prefecture, region, neighborhood? What? Did the whole Picene territory follow the tribunician madness or the consular authority?
§23equidem hoc adfirmo quod tu nunc de tuo patruo praedicas, neminem umquam adhuc de se esse confessum; nemo est, inquam, inventus tam profligatus, tam perditus, tam ab omni non modo honestate sed etiam simulatione honestatis relictus, qui se in Capitolio fuisse cum Saturnino fateretur.
Indeed, I assert this: that which you now boast of concerning your uncle, no one hitherto has ever confessed concerning himself; no one, I say, has been found so abandoned, so ruined, so bereft of not only all integrity but even of the simulation of integrity, as to confess that he had been on the Capitol with Saturninus.
at fuit vester patruus. fuerit, et fuerit nulla vi, nulla desperatione rerum suarum, nullis domesticis volneribus coactus;
"But," you say, "your uncle was." Let it be that he was, and let it be that he was compelled by no force, by no despair of his own affairs, by no domestic wounds; let his intimacy with L.
induxerit eum L. Saturnini familiaritas ut amicitiam patriae praeponeret;
Saturninus have led him to prefer friendship to the fatherland; did C.
idcircone oportuit C. Rabirium desciscere a re publica, non comparere in illa armata multitudine bonorum, consulum voci atque imperio non oboedire?
Rabirius for that reason have to desert the republic, not to appear in that armed multitude of good men, and not to obey the voice and command of the consuls?
§24atqui videmus haec in rerum natura tria fuisse, ut aut cum Saturnino esset, aut cum bonis, aut lateret.
And yet we see that in the nature of things there were these three choices: that he should either be with Saturninus, or with the good men, or lie hid.
latere mortis erat instar turpissimae, cum Saturnino esse furoris et sceleris; virtus et honestas et pudor cum consulibus esse cogebat.
To lie hid was like the most shameful death; to be with Saturninus was of madness and crime; virtue and honor and shame compelled him to be with the consuls.
hoc tu igitur in crimen vocas, quod cum eis fuerit C. Rabirius quos amentissimus fuisset si oppugnasset, turpissimus si reliquisset? at C. Decianus, de quo tu saepe commemoras, quia, cum hominem omnibus insignem notis turpitudinis, P. Furium, accusaret summo studio bonorum omnium, queri est ausus in contione de morte Saturnini, condemnatus est, et Sex.
Is this, then, what you bring into accusation, that C. Rabirius was with those whom he would have been most mad if he had opposed, and most shameful if he had abandoned? But C. Decianus, of whom you often make mention, because, when he was accusing P. Furius, a man distinguished by all marks of baseness, with the greatest zeal of all good men, dared to complain in an assembly about the death of Saturninus, was condemned; and Sex.
Titius, quod habuit imaginem L. Saturnini domi suae, condemnatus est.
Titius, because he had an image of L. Saturninus in his house, was condemned.
statuerunt equites Romani illo iudicio improbum civem esse et non retinendum in civitate, qui hominis hostilem in modum seditiosi imagine aut mortem eius honestaret, aut desideria imperitorum misericordia commoveret, aut suam significaret imitandae improbitatis voluntatem.
The Roman knights decided by that judgment that he was a wicked citizen and not to be retained in the state, who by the image of a man rebellious in a hostile manner either honored his death, or moved the longings of the ignorant with pity, or indicated his own will to imitate his wickedness.
§25itaque mihi mirum videtur unde hanc tu, Labiene, imaginem quam habes inveneris; nam sex.
Therefore, it seems wonderful to me from where you, Labienus, found this image which you have; for after Sex.
Titio damnato qui istam habere auderet inventus est nemo.
Titius was condemned, no one was found who dared to have that one of yours.
quod tu si audisses aut si per aetatem scire potuisses, numquam profecto istam imaginem quae domi posita pestem atque exsilium Sex.
And if you had heard of this, or if by reason of your age you could have known it, you would surely never have brought that image, which, kept at home, had brought ruin and exile to Sex.
Titio attulisset in rostra atque in contionem attulisses, nec tuas umquam ratis ad eos scopulos appulisses ad quos Sex.
Titius, to the rostra and into the assembly, nor would you ever have steered your rafts toward those reefs against which you saw the shattered ship of Sex.
Titi adflictam navem et in quibus C. Deciani naufragium fortunarum videres.
Titius, and upon which you saw the shipwreck of the fortunes of C. Decianus.
sed in his rebus omnibus imprudentia laberis.
But in all these matters you slip through ignorance.
causam enim suscepisti antiquiorem memoria tua, quae causa ante mortua est quam tu natus es; et qua in causa tute profecto fuisses, si per aetatem esse potuisses, eam causam in iudicium vocas.
For you have undertaken a cause older than your memory, a cause which died before you were born; and a cause in which you yourself would surely have been, if you could have been by reason of your age, you call into judgment.
§26an non intellegis, primum quos homines et qualis viros mortuos summi sceleris arguas, deinde quot ex his qui vivunt eodem crimine in summum periculum capitis arcessas? nam si C. Rabirius fraudem capitalem admisit quod arma contra L. Saturninum tulit, huic quidem adferet aliquam deprecationem periculi aetas illa qua tum fuit; Q. vero Catulum, patrem huius, in quo summa sapientia, eximia virtus, singularis humanitas fuit, M. Scaurum, illa gravitate, illo consilio, illa prudentia, duos Mucios, L. Crassum, M. Antonium, qui tum extra urbem cum praesidio fuit, quorum in hac civitate longe maxima consilia atque ingenia fuerunt, ceteros pari dignitate praeditos custodes gubernatoresque rei publicae quem ad modum mortuos defendemus?
Or do you not understand, first, what sort of men and what quality of deceased heroes you accuse of the highest crime, and secondly, how many of those who are still living you summon into the greatest danger of their lives under the same charge? For if C. Rabirius committed a capital offense because he bore arms against L. Saturninus, that age at which he then was will indeed bring to this man some plea for the mitigation of his danger; but as for Q. Catulus, the father of this man, in whom was the highest wisdom, eminent virtue, and singular humanity, and M. Scaurus, of that dignity, that counsel, and that prudence, the two Mucii, L. Crassum, M. Antonius, who was then outside the city with a garrison, whose counsels and talents were by far the greatest in this state, and the others endowed with equal dignity, the guardians and governors of the republic—how shall we defend them now that they are dead?