§a## PRO M. SCAVRO ORATIO
maxime fuit optandum M. Scauro, iudices, ut nullo suscepto cuiusquam odio sine offensione ac molestia retineret, id quod praecipue semper studuit, generis, familiae, nominis dignitatem. §csubiit etiam populi iudicium inquirente Cn. Domitio tribuno plebis. §dreus est factus a Q. Servilio Caepione lege Servilia, cum iudicia penes equestrem ordinem essent et P. Rutilio damnato nemo tam innocens videretur ut non timeret illa. §eab eodem etiam lege Varia custos ille rei publicae proditionis est in crimen vocatus; vexatus a Q. Vario tribuno plebis est. §fnon enim tantum admiratus sum ego illum virum, sicut omnes, sed etiam praecipue dilexi.
\n\n## PRO M. SCAVRO ORATIO\n\nIt was most to be desired, gentlemen of the jury, by Marcus Scaurus that, without incurring the hatred of anyone, and free from offense and annoyance, he might retain that which he always especially strove for: the dignity of his race, his family, and his name.\n\nHe also underwent a trial before the people, upon the inquiry of Gnaeus Domitius, tribune of the plebs.\n\nHe was made a defendant by Quintus Servilius Caepio under the Servilian law, at a time when the courts were in the hands of the equestrian order, and, after the condemnation of Publius Rutilius, no one seemed so innocent as not to fear those courts.\n\nBy the same man also, under the Varian law, that guardian of the republic was accused of treason; he was harassed by Quintus Varius, tribune of the plebs.\n\nFor I did not only admire that man, as everyone did, but also especially loved him.
primus enim me flagrantem studio laudis in spem impulit posse virtute me sine praesidio fortunae, quo contendissem, labore et constantia pervenire. §get quoniam congesta fuit accusatio magis acervo quodam criminum, non distinctione aliqua generum et varietate. §hBostarem igitur quendam dixit Norensem fugientem e Sardinia Scauri adventum prius illum sepultum quam huic cenam esse sublatam. §isi denique in illa bona invadere nullo modo potuisset nisi mortuo Bostare. §ksi me hercule, iudices, pro L. Tubulo dicerem, quem unum ex omni memoria sceleratissimum et audacissimum fuisse accepimus, tamen non timerem, venenum hospiti aut convivae si diceretur cenanti ab illo datum cui neque heres neque iratus fuisset. §mbona quam quod habebat veniret.
For he was the first to urge me, when I was burning with a desire for glory, into the hope that by virtue, without the protection of fortune, I could arrive by labor and perseverance at the place to which I directed my efforts.\n\nAnd since the accusation was compiled rather as a heap of charges, not with any distinction of classes and variety.\n\nTherefore, he said that a certain Bostar of Nora, fleeing from Sardinia from the arrival of Scaurus, was buried before the dinner was cleared away from Scaurus’s table.\n\nIf, in short, he could by no means have invaded those goods unless Bostar were dead.\n\nBy Hercules, gentlemen of the jury, if I were speaking on behalf of Lucius Tubulus, whom we have heard to be the most wicked and audacious man within memory, even so I should not fear if it were said that poison was given by him to a host or a dinner guest while dining, to one whose heir he was not, nor with whom he was angry.\n\n...that the property should be sold for less than what he had.
agedum ego defendi Scaurum, Triari; defende tu matrem. §nte metuere ne non solvendo fuisse, bona denique reus ne retinere voluisse quae proscripta essent, nisi. §ocum dare nollet Aris, clam ex Sardinia est fugere conatus. §predimunt (castores) se ea parte corporis, propter quam maxime expetuntur. §1qsic, inquam, se, iudices, res habet; neque hoc a me novum disputatur, sed quaesitum ab aliis est. §1rilla audivimus, hoc vero meminimus ac paene vidimus, eiusdem stirpis et nominis P. Crassum ne in manus incideret inimicorum, se ipsum interemisse. §2sac neque illius Crassi factum superioris isdem honoribus usus, qui fortissimus in bellis fuisset, M'. Aquilius potuit imitari §2-tis suae rerumque gestarum senectutis dedecore foedavit.
Come now, I have defended Scaurus, Triarius; do you defend the mother.\n\n...that you feared lest he should be insolvent, and finally, lest the defendant should wish to retain those goods which had been proscribed, unless...\n\nWhen Aris refused to give, he tried to flee secretly from Sardinia.\n\nBeavers redeem themselves by that part of their body for which they are most sought after.\n\nThus, I say, gentlemen of the jury, the matter stands; nor is this a new argument discussed by me, but it has been investigated by others.\n\nWe have heard those things, but this indeed we remember and almost saw: that Publius Crassus, of the same stock and name, killed himself lest he should fall into the hands of his enemies.\n\nAnd neither could Manius Aquilius, who had enjoyed the same offices as that elder Crassus and had been most brave in wars, imitate his deed,\n\n...defiled the glory of his greatness and of his achievements with the disgrace of his old age.
quid vero? alterum Crassum temporibus isdem num aut clarissimi viri Iulii aut summo imperio praeditus M. Antonius potuit imitari?
But what indeed? In those same times, could either the most illustrious Julii or Marcus Antonius, endowed with supreme command, imitate the other Crassus?\n\nWhat?
§3quid? in omnibus monumentis Graeciae, quae sunt verbis ornatiora quam rebus, quis invenitur, cum ab Aiace fabulisque discesseris, qui tamen ipse
"
ignominiae dolore, ut ait poeta, victor insolens se
victum non potuit pati,
"
praeter Atheniensem Themistoclem, qui se ipse morte multavit? §4at Graeculi quidem multa fingunt, apud quos etiam Cleombrotum Ambraciotam ferunt se ex altissimo praecipitasse muro, non quo acerbitatis accepisset aliquid, sed, ut video scriptum apud Graecos, cum summi philosophi Platonis graviter et ornate scriptum librum de morte legisset, in quo, ut opinor, Socrates illo ipso die quo erat ei moriendum permulta disputat, hanc esse mortem quam nos vitam putaremus, cum corpore animus tamquam carcere saeptus teneretur, vitam autem esse eam cum idem animus vinclis corporis liberatus in eum se locum unde esset ortus rettulisset.
In all the monuments of Greece, which are more ornate in words than in deeds, who is to be found—once you depart from Ajax and the fables (yet even he, "with the pain of ignominy," as the poet says, "could not endure that he, an insolent victor, should be conquered")—except the Athenian Themistocles, who punished himself with death?\n\nBut the Greeks indeed invent many things, among whom they even say that Cleombrotus of Ambracia cast himself down from a very high wall, not because he had suffered any hardship, but, as I see written among the Greeks, because he had read that gravely and ornately written book on death by the supreme philosopher Plato, in which, as I suppose, Socrates on that very day on which he was to die argues at great length that this is death which we think to be life, since the soul is kept enclosed by the body as if in a prison, whereas that is life when the same soul, freed from the chains of the body, has returned to that place whence it had arisen.\n\nDid, then, that Sardinian woman of yours know or read Pythagoras or Plato?
§5num igitur ista tua Sarda Pythagoram aut Platonem norat aut legerat? qui tamen ipsi mortem ita laudant ut fugere vitam vetent atque id contra foedus fieri dicant legemque naturae.
Who, nevertheless, praise death in such a way that they forbid fleeing from life, and say that this is done against the covenant and law of nature.
Aliam quidem causam mortis voluntariae nullam profecto iustam reperietis.
You will certainly find no other just cause of voluntary death.
atque hoc ille vidit; nam iecit quodam loco vita illam mulierem spoliari quam pudicitia maluisse.
And he saw this; for he asserted in a certain place that that woman preferred to be deprived of life rather than of her chastity.