§17esto simul etiam sollicitudo aliqua et legum et iudiciorum maior quidam metus.
Let it be that at the same time there is also some anxiety and a certain greater fear of both laws and trials.
nos ista numquam contempsimus
—ita enim disputabant—
sed hanc vitam quietam atque otiosam secuti sumus; quae quoniam honore caret, careat etiam molestia. tam es tu iudex eques quam ego senator.
"We have never despised those things" —for so they argued— "but we have followed this quiet and leisurely life; since it lacks public honor, let it also lack trouble." "You are as much a knight who is a judge as I am a senator." It is so, but you sought that position, while I am forced into this one.
ita est, sed tu istud petisti, ego hoc cogor. qua re aut iudici mihi non esse liceat, aut lege senatoria non teneri.
Therefore, let it either be permitted to me not to be a judge, or not to be bound by the senatorial law.
§18hoc vos, equites Romani, ius a patribus acceptum amittetis? moneo ne faciatis.
Will you, Roman knights, lose this right received from your ancestors? I warn you not to do so.
rapientur homines in haec iudicia ex omni non modo invidia sed sermone malivolorum, nisi cavetis.
Men will be dragged into these trials from every source not only of envy but also of the gossip of malicious people, unless you are careful.
si iam vobis nuntiaretur in senatu sententias dici ut his legibus teneremini, concurrendum ad curiam putaretis; si lex ferretur, convolaretis ad rostra.
If it were now announced to you that opinions were being delivered in the senate that you should be bound by these laws, you would think that you ought to run to the senate house; if a law were being proposed, you would flock to the rostra.
vos senatus liberos hac lege esse voluit, populus numquam adligavit, soluti huc convenistis; ne constricti discedatis cavete.
The senate wished you to be free from this law, the people never bound you, you came here free; see to it that you do not depart bound.
§19nam, si Postumo fraudi fuerit, qui nec tribunus nec praefectus nec ex Italia comes nec familiaris Gabini fuit, quonam se modo defendent posthac qui vestri ordinis cum magistratibus nostris fuerint his causis implicati?
tu,
inquit,
Gabinium ut regem reduceret impulisti. non patitur mea me iam fides de Gabinio gravius agere.
For, if it should turn out to be a source of harm to Postumus, who was neither tribune, nor prefect, nor a companion from Italy, nor a close friend of Gabinius, in what way, pray, will those of your order defend themselves hereafter who may be involved in these cases with our magistrates? ¦8 "You," he says, "instigated Gabinius to restore the king." My good faith does not now permit me to act too harshly toward Gabinius.
quem enim ex tantis inimicitiis receptum in gratiam summo studio defenderim, hunc adflictum violare non debeo.
For a man whom, received into favor after such great enmities, I defended with the greatest zeal, I ought not to violate now that he is afflicted.
Quocum me si ante Cn. Pompei auctoritas in gratiam non reduxisset, nunc iam ipsius fortuna reduceret.
If the authority of Gnaeus Pompeius had not previously restored me to favor with him, his own misfortune would restore me now.
§20sed tamen, cum ita dicis, Postumi impulsu Gabinium profectum Alexandream, si defensioni Gabini fidem non habes, obliviscerisne etiam accusationis tuae? Gabinius se id fecisse dicebat rei publicae causa, quod classem Archelai timeret, quod mare refertum fore praedonum putaret; lege etiam id sibi licuisse dicebat.
But yet, when you say so, that Gabinius set out for Alexandria at the instigation of Postumus, if you have no confidence in the defense of Gabinius, do you also forget your own accusation? Gabinius used to say that he had done this for the sake of the republic, because he feared the fleet of Archelaus, because he thought the sea would be filled with pirates; he also said that it was permitted to him by law.
tu inimicus negas.
You, his enemy, deny this.
ignosco, et eo magis quod est contra illud iudicatum.
I grant it, and all the more because it is contrary to that verdict.
redeo igitur ad crimen et accusationem tuam.
Therefore, I return to your charge and accusation.
§21quid vociferabare? decem milia talentum Gabinio esse promissa.
What were you shouting? That ten thousand talents had been promised to Gabinius.
auctor videlicet perblandus reperiendus fuit qui hominem, ut tu vis, avarissimum exoraret, HS bis miliens et quadringentiens ne magno opere contemneret.
A very persuasive intermediary, forsooth, had to be found who could persuade a man, as you would have it, most greedy, not to look down upon two hundred and forty million sesterces.
Gabinius illud, quoquo consilio fecit, fecit certe suo; quaecumque mens illa fuit, Gabini fuit.
Gabinius, with whatever plan he did it, certainly did it with his own; whatever that mind was, it was Gabinius's.
Sive ille, ut ipse dicebat, gloriam, sive, ut tu vis, pecuniam quaesivit, sibi, non Rabirio quaesivit; Rabirius enim non Gabini comes vel sectator nec ad Gabini, cuius id negotium non erat, sed ad P. Lentuli, clarissimi viri, auctoritatem a senatu profectam et consilio certo et spe non dubia Roma contenderat.
Whether he, as he himself said, sought glory, or, as you would have it, money, he sought it for himself, not for Rabirius; for Rabirius had hastened from Rome, not as a companion or follower of Gabinius, nor on the authority of Gabinius, whose business it was not, but on the authority of Publius Lentulus, a most distinguished man, which had proceeded from the senate, with a definite plan and a hope not in doubt.
§22at dioecetes fuit regius. et quidem in custodia etiam fuit regia et vis vitae eius adlata paene est; multa praeterea quae libido regis, quae necessitas coegit perferre, pertulit.
"But he was the royal chief financial officer (dioecetes)." And indeed he was even in royal custody, and violence was almost brought against his life; besides, he endured many things which the caprice of the king and necessity forced him to endure.
quarum omnium rerum una reprehensio est quod regnum intrarit, quod potestati se regis commiserit.
Of all these things, there is only one point of blame: that he entered the kingdom, and that he committed himself to the power of the king.
verum si quaerimus, stulte.
But if we ask the truth, he did so foolishly.
quid enim stultius quam equitem Romanum ex hac urbe, huius, inquam, rei publicae civem, quae est una maxime et fuit semper libera, venire in eum locum ubi parendum alteri et serviendum sit?
For what is more foolish than for a Roman knight from this city, a citizen, I say, of this republic, which is uniquely and has always been free, to come into a place where one must obey another and serve as a slave?
§23sed ego in hoc tamen Postumo non ignoscam, homini mediocriter docto, in quo videam sapientissimos homines esse lapsos? virum unum totius Graeciae facile doctissimum, Platonem, iniquitate Dionysi, Siciliae tyranni, cui se ille commiserat, in maximis periculis insidiisque esse versatum accepimus;
But shall I nevertheless not forgive in this Postumus, a man of moderate learning, when I see that the wisest men have slipped?
Callisthenem, doctum hominem, comitem Magni Alexandri, ab Alexandro necatum; Demetrium, qui Phalereus vocitatus est, et ex re publica Atheniensi, quam optime gesserat, et ex doctrina nobilem et clarum, in eodem isto Aegyptio regno aspide ad corpus admota vita esse privatum.
We have heard that Plato, easily the most learned man of all Greece, by the injustice of Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily to whom he had committed himself, was involved in the greatest dangers and plots; that Callisthenes, a learned man and companion of Alexander the Great, was put to death by Alexander; and that Demetrius, who was called Phalereus, noble and famous both from the Athenian republic, which he had governed excellently, and from his learning, was deprived of his life in that same Egyptian kingdom by an asp applied to his body.