§28imitari, Castor, potius avi mores disciplinamque debebas quam optimo et clarissimo viro fugitivi ore male dicere.
Castor, you ought to have imitated your grandfather's manners and discipline rather than speak ill of an excellent and most illustrious man with the mouth of a runaway slave.
quod si saltatorem avum habuisses neque eum virum unde pudoris pudicitiaeque exempla peterentur, tamen hoc maledictum minime in illam aetatem conveniret.
But even if you had had a grandfather who was a dancer, and not such a man from whom examples of modesty and chastity might be sought, yet this slander would least of all suit that age.
quibus ille studiis ab ineunte aetate se imbuerat, non saltandi, sed bene ut armis, optime ut equis uteretur, ea tamen illum cuncta iam aetate defecerant.
Those pursuits with which he had imbued himself from his youth—not of dancing, but of using arms well, and horses excellently—yet all these had now failed him on account of his age.
itaque Deiotarum cum plures in equum sustulissent, quod haerere in eo senex posset, admirari solebamus: hic vero adulescens qui meus in Cilicia miles, in Graecia commilito fuit, cum in illo nostro exercitu equitaret cum suis delectis equitibus quos una cum eo ad Pompeium pater miserat, quos concursus facere solebat, quam se iactare, quam ostentare, quam nemini in illa causa studio et cupiditate concedere!
And so, when several men had lifted Deiotarus onto his horse, because as an old man he could scarcely stay on it, we used to wonder; but this young man, who was my soldier in Cilicia, and my fellow soldier in Greece, when he was riding in that army of ours with his chosen cavalry, whom his father had sent together with him to Pompey—what charges he used to make, how he used to throw himself about, how he displayed himself, how he yielded to no one in zeal and eagerness for that cause!
§29tum vero exercitu amisso ego, qui pacis semper auctor, post Pharsalicum autem proelium suasor fuissem armorum non ponendorum, sed abiciendorum, hunc ad meam auctoritatem non potui adducere, quod et ipse ardebat studio illius belli et patri satis faciendum arbitrabatur.
Then indeed, when the army was lost, I, who had always been an advocate of peace, and after the battle of Pharsalus had been an adviser not of laying down but of throwing away our arms, could not bring this young man over to my view, because he himself both burned with zeal for that war and thought he must satisfy his father.
felix ista domus quae non impunitatem solum adepta sit sed etiam accusandi licentiam: calamitosus Deiotarus qui et ab eo qui in isdem castris fuerit, et non modo apud te sed etiam a suis accusetur! vos vestra secunda fortuna, Castor, non potestis sine propinquorum calamitate esse contenti?
How happy is that house of yours, which has obtained not only impunity but also the license of accusing! How calamitous is Deiotarus, who is accused both by him who was in the same camp, and not only before you but even by his own relatives! Are you, Castor, unable to be content with your good fortune without the disaster of your relatives?
§30sint sane inimicitiae, quae esse non debebant—rex enim Deiotarus vestram familiam abiectam et obscuram e tenebris in lucem evocavit: quis tuum patrem ante quis esset quam cuius gener esset audivit?—sed quamvis ingrate et impie necessitudinis nomen repudiaretis, tamen inimicitias hominum more gerere poteratis, non ficto crimine insectari, non expetere vitam, non capitis arcessere.
Granted indeed that there is enmity, which ought not to exist—for King Deiotarus called your family, cast down and obscure, out of darkness into light; who had ever heard who your father was, before it was known whose son-in-law he was?—but however ungratefully and impiously you might repudiate the name of relationship, yet you could have conducted your enmities in the manner of men, not pursue him with a false charge, not seek his life, not summon him on a capital charge.
esto: concedatur haec quoque acerbitatis et odi magnitudo: adeone ut omnia vitae salutisque communis atque etiam humanitatis iura violentur? servum sollicitare verbis, spe promissisque corrumpere, abducere domum, contra dominum armare, hoc est non uni propinquo, sed omnibus familiis nefarium bellum indicere.
Be it so; let this great degree of bitterness and hatred also be conceded: but must it go so far that all the rights of life, of common safety, and even of humanity are violated? To solicit a slave with words, to corrupt him with hope and promises, to lead him away to one's house, to arm him against his master—this is to declare a nefarious war not against one relative, but against all households.
nam ista corruptela servi si non modo impunita fuerit sed etiam a tanta auctoritate approbata, nulli parietes nostram salutem, nullae leges, nulla iura custodient.
For if that corruption of a slave of yours shall not only have been unpunished, but even approved by so great an authority, no walls will guard our safety, no laws, no rights.
Vbi enim id quod intus est atque nostrum impune evolare potest contraque nos pugnare, fit in dominatu servitus, in servitute dominatus.
For where that which is within and is our own can fly out with impunity and fight against us, slavery arises in the master's place, and mastery in the slave's.
§31O tempora, o mores! Cn.
O the times! O the customs!
Domitius ille quem nos pueri consulem, censorem, pontificem maximum vidimus, cum tribunus plebis M. Scaurum principem civitatis in iudicium populi vocavisset Scaurique servus ad eum clam domum venisset et crimina in dominum delaturum se esse dixisset, prendi hominem iussit ad Scaurumque deduci.
That famous Gnaeus Domitius, whom we as boys saw as consul, censor, and pontifex maximus, when as tribune of the plebs he had summoned Marcus Scaurus, the chief man of the state, to a trial before the people, and a slave of Scaurus had come to him secretly at his house and said that he would bring charges against his master, ordered the man to be seized and led back to Scaurus.
vide quid intersit, etsi inique Castorem cum Domitio comparo: sed tamen ille inimico servum remisit, tu ab avo abduxisti; ille incorruptum audire noluit, tu corrupisti; ille adiutorem servum contra dominum repudiavit, tu etiam accusatorem adhibuisti.
See what a difference there is, although I unfairly compare Castor with Domitius; but yet, he sent back the slave to his enemy, you led him away from your grandfather; he refused to listen to him uncorrupted, you corrupted him; he rejected the slave as an assistant against his master, you even employed him as an accuser.
at semel iste est corruptus a vobis.
But, you will say, he was only once corrupted by you.
§32nonne, cum esset perductus et cum tecum fuisset, refugit ad legatos? nonne ad hunc Cn.
Did he not, when he had been brought over and had been with you, flee back to the ambassadors? Did he not come to this Gnaeus Domitius?
Domitium venit? nonne audiente hoc Ser. Sulpicio, clarissimo viro, qui tum casu apud Domitium cenabat, et hoc T. Torquato, optimo adulescente, se a te corruptum, tuis promissis in fraudem impulsum esse confessus est? quae est ista tam impotens, tam crudelis, tam immoderata inhumanitas? idcirco in hanc urbem venisti ut huius urbis iura et exempla corrumperes domesticaque immanitate nostrae civitatis humanitatem inquinares?
Did he not confess—in the hearing of Gnaeus Domitius here, and of Servius Sulpicius, a most illustrious man, who then by chance was dining at Domitius's house, and of Titus Torquatus, an excellent young man—that he had been corrupted by you, and driven into crime by your promises? What is that so unrestrained, so cruel, so immoderate inhumanity of yours? Did you come to this city for the purpose of corrupting the laws and examples of this city, and defiling the humanity of our state with your domestic cruelty?