§3.68.1agitedum, ubi hic curiam circumsederitis et forum infestum feceritis et carcerem impleveritis principibus, §3.68.2iisdem istis ferocibus animis egredimini extra portam Esquilinam aut, si ne hoc quidem audetis, ex muris visite agros vestros ferro ignique vastatos, praedam abigi, fumare incensa passim tecta.
Come now, when you have surrounded the senate-house here and made the forum hostile and filled the prison with the leading men, with those same fierce spirits of yours, march out beyond the Esquiline gate, or, if you do not even dare this, view from the walls your fields devastated by iron and fire, the booty being driven off, and the burned roofs smoking everywhere.
§3.68.3at enim communis res per haec loco est peiore: ager uritur, urbs obsidetur, belli gloria penes hostes est.
But you will say, "The public interest is in a worse position because of these things: the land is burned, the city is besieged, the glory of war is in the power of the enemy." What of it?
quid tandem? privatae res vestrae quo statu sunt? iam unicuique ex agris sua damna nuntiabuntur.
In what condition are your private affairs? Soon his own losses will be announced to each one from the fields.
quid est tandem domi, unde ea expleatis?
What, pray, is there at home from which you may make them good?
§3.68.4tribuni vobis amissa reddent ac restituent? vocis verborumque quantum voletis ingerent et criminum in principes et legum aliarum super alias et contionum; sed ex illis contionibus numquam vestrum quisquam re, fortuna domum auctior rediit.
Will the tribunes return and restore to you what has been lost? They will heap upon you as much of voice and words as you wish, of accusations against the leading men, of laws piled upon laws, and of public assemblies; but from those assemblies not one of you ever returned home increased in substance or fortune.
§3.68.5ecquis rettulit aliquid ad coniugem ac liberos praeter odia, offensiones, simultates publicas privatasque? a quibus semper non vestra virtute innocentiaque, sed auxilio alieno tuti sitis.
Has anyone carried back anything to his wife and children except hatreds, offenses, and enmities, both public and private? From which you are always protected not by your own valor and innocence, but by alien aid.
§3.68.6at hercules cum stipendia nobis consulibus, non tribunis ducibus, et in castris, non in foro faciebatis, et in acie vestrum clamorem hostes, non in contione patres Romani horrebant, praeda parta, agro ex hoste capto, pleni fortunarum gloriaeque simul publicae, simul privatae triumphantes domum ad penates redibatis;
But, by Hercules, when you performed military service under us consuls, not under the leadership of tribunes, and in the camp, not in the forum, and when the enemy in the battle line, not the Roman fathers in the assembly, dreaded your shout, then, with booty acquired and land taken from the enemy, full of both public and private fortune and glory at the same time, you returned home in triumph to your household gods.
nunc oneratum vestris fortunis hostem abire sinitis.
Now you allow the enemy to depart laden with your fortunes.
§3.68.7haerete adfixi contionibus et in foro vivite; sequetur vos necessitas militandi, quam fugitis.
Cling, fixed to your assemblies, and live in the forum; the necessity of military service, which you flee, will follow you.
grave erat in Aequos et Volscos proficisci; ante portas est bellum; si inde non pellitur, iam intra moenia erit et arcem et Capitolium scandet et in domos vestras vos persequetur.
It was a heavy thing to march against the Aequi and Volsci; the war is before the gates; if it is not driven from there, it will soon be within the walls and will climb the citadel and the Capitol, and will pursue you into your homes.
§3.68.8biennio ante senatus dilectum haberi et educi exercitum in Algidum iussit; sedemus desides domi mulierum ritu inter nos altercantes, praesenti pace laeti nec cernentes ex otio illo brevi multiplex bellum rediturum.
Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be held and the army to be led out to Mount Algidus; we sit idle at home, quarreling among ourselves in the manner of women, rejoicing in the present peace and not discerning that from that brief leisure a manifold war will return.
§3.68.9his ego gratiora dictu alia esse scio; sed me vera pro gratis loqui, etsi meum ingenium non moneret, necessitas cogit.
I know that other things are more pleasing to be said than these; but necessity compels me to speak the truth instead of pleasing things, even if my own character did not advise it.
vellem equidem vobis placere, Quirites; sed multo malo vos salvos esse, qualicumque erga me animo futuri estis.
Indeed, I should wish to please you, Quirites; but I prefer much more that you should be safe, with whatever mind you are going to be toward me.
§3.68.10natura ita comparatum est, ut, qui apud multitudinem sua causa loquitur, gratior eo sit, cuius mens nihil praeter publicum commodum videt; nisi forte adsentatores publicos, plebicolas istos, qui vos nec in armis nec in otio esse sinunt, vestra vos causa incitare et stimulare putatis.
It is so constituted by nature that he who speaks for his own sake before the crowd is more pleasing than he whose mind sees nothing except the public advantage; unless perhaps you think that those public flatterers, those crowd-pleasers, who allow you to be neither in arms nor at leisure, are inciting and stimulating you for your own sake.
§3.68.11concitati aut honori aut quaestui illis estis, et, quia in concordia ordinum nullos se usquam esse vident, malae rei se quam nullius turbarum ac seditionum duces esse volunt.
Stirred up, you are a source of honor or profit to them, and because they see that in the harmony of the orders they are nothing anywhere, they wish to be leaders of an evil thing, of disturbances and seditions, rather than of nothing.
quarum rerum si vos taedium tandem capere potest §3.68.12et patrum vestrosque antiquos mores vultis pro his novis sumere, §3.68.13nulla supplicia recuso, nisi paucis diebus hos populatores agrorum nostrorum fusos fugatosque castris exuero et a portis nostris moenibusque ad illorum urbes hunc belli terrorem, quo nunc vos attoniti estis, transtulero. ”
If weariness of these things can at last seize you, and you wish to adopt the ancient manners of the fathers and of yourselves in place of these new ones, I refuse no punishment, unless within a few days I strip of their camp these devastators of our fields, routed and put to flight, and transfer this terror of war, by which you are now astonished, from our gates and walls to their cities.”