§34.31.1ibi permisso, seu dicere prius seu audire mallet, ita coepit tyrannus: “si ipse per me, T. Quincti vosque qui adestis, causam excogitare, cur mihi aut indixissetis bellum aut inferretis, possem, tacitus eventum fortunae meae expectassem; §34.31.2nunc imperare animo nequivi, quin, priusquam perirem, cur periturus essem, scirem.
There, permission having been given, whether he preferred to speak first or to listen, the tyrant thus began: "If I myself, Titus Quinctius, and you who are present, could devise by myself the reason why you had either declared war on me or were waging it, I would have awaited the outcome of my fortune in silence; but as it is, I could not command my mind so as not to know, before I perished, why I was to perish.
et hercules, §34.31.3si tales essetis, qualis esse Carthaginienses fama est, apud quos nihil societatis fides sancti haberet, in me quoque vobis quid faceretis minus pensi esse non mirarer; §34.31.4nunc cum vos intueor, Romanos esse video, §34.31.5qui rerum divinarum foedera, humanarum fidem socialem sanctissimam habeatis; cum me ipse respexi, eum me esse spero, cui et publice, sicut ceteris Lacedaemoniis, vobiscum vetustissimum foedus sit et meo nomine privatim amicitia ac societas, nuper Philippi bello renovata.
And indeed, if you were such as rumor says the Carthaginians are, among whom the faith of an alliance holds nothing sacred, I would not wonder that what you did against me also was of little concern to you; but now when I look at you, I see that you are Romans, who hold the treaties of divine matters and the social faith of human matters most sacred; when I have looked back at myself, I hope that I am he who has both publicly, as with the rest of the Lacedaemonians, a most ancient treaty with you, and in my own name privately friendship and alliance, recently renewed in the war with Philip.
But indeed, you say, I have violated and overturned it, because I hold the state of the Argives.
quo modo hoc tuear? re an tempore? res mihi duplicem defensionem praebet; nam et ipsis vocantibus ac tradentibus urbem eam accepi, non occupavi, et accepi, cum Philippi partium, non in vestra societate esset.
How shall I defend this? By the fact or by the time? The fact provides me with a double defense; for I received that city when they themselves were calling and surrendering it, I did not seize it, and I received it when it belonged to Philip's faction, not in your alliance.
§34.31.8tempus autem eo me liberat, quod, cum iam Argos haberem, societas mihi vobiscum convenit, et, ut vobis mitterem ad bellum auxilia, non, ut Argis praesidium deducerem, §34.31.9pepigistis.
On the other hand, the time frees me from this, because, when I already held Argos, an alliance was agreed upon between me and you, and that you should covenant for me to send auxiliaries to you for the war, not that I should withdraw the garrison from Argos.
at hercule in ea controversia, quae de Argis est, superior sum et aequitate rei, quod non vestram urbem, §34.31.10sed hostium, quod volentem, non vi coactam accepi, et vestra confessione, quod in condicionibus societatis Argos mihi reliquistis; §34.31.11ceterum nomen tyranni et facta me premunt, quod servos ad libertatem voco, quod in agros inopem plebem deduco.
But indeed in this controversy, which is about Argos, I am superior both by the equity of the case, because I received not your city, but that of the enemy, and that a willing one, not compelled by force, and by your own confession, because in the terms of the alliance you left Argos to me; but the name of tyrant and my deeds oppress me, because I call slaves to liberty, because I lead the needy plebs into the fields.
§34.31.12de nomine hoc respondere possum, me, qualiscumque sum, eundem esse, qui fui, cum tu ipse mecum, T. §34.31.13Quincti, societatem pepigisti.
Concerning this name, I can answer that, whatever I am, I am the same as I was when you yourself, Titus Quinctius, covenanted the alliance with me.
tum me regem appellari a vobis memini, nunc tyrannum vocari video.
I remember that I was then called king by you, now I see that I am called tyrant.
itaque, si ego nomen imperii mutassem, mihi meae inconstantiae, cum vos mutetis, vobis vestrae reddenda ratio est.
Therefore, if I had changed the name of my power, I would have to give an account of my inconsistency; since you change it, you must give an account of yours.
§34.31.14quod ad multitudinem servis liberatis auctam et egentibus divisum agrum attinet, possum quidem et in hoc me iure temporis tutari: §34.31.15iam feceram haec, qualiacumque sunt, cum societatem mecum pepigistis et auxilia in bello adversus Philippum accepistis; §34.31.16sed si nunc ea fecissem, non dico “quid in eo vos laesissem aut vestram amicitiam violassem?”, sed illud, me more atque instituto maiorum fecisse.
As to what pertains to the multitude increased by liberated slaves and the land divided among the needy, I can indeed defend myself in this also by the right of the time: I had already done these things, whatever they are, when you covenanted the alliance with me and received auxiliaries in the war against Philip; but even if I had done them now, I do not say 'how would I have harmed you in that or violated your friendship?', but this, that I did it by the custom and institution of our ancestors. Do not demand that those things which are done at Lacedaemon be measured by your laws and institutions.
§34.31.17nolite ad vestras leges atque instituta exigere ea, quae Lacedaemone fiunt. nihil comparare singula necesse est.
There is no need to compare individual matters.
vos a censu equitem, a censu peditem legitis, et paucos excellere opibus, plebem subiectam esse illis vultis; §34.31.18noster legum lator non in paucorum manu rem publicam esse voluit, quem vos senatum appellatis, nec excellere unum aut alterum ordinem in civitate, sed per aequationem fortunae ac dignitatis fore credidit, ut multi essent qui arma pro patria ferrent.
You choose the horseman by census, the foot soldier by census, and you wish a few to excel in wealth and the plebs to be subject to them; our lawgiver did not wish the republic to be in the hands of a few, which you call the senate, nor one or the other order to excel in the state, but believed that through the equalization of fortune and dignity it would come to pass that there would be many who would bear arms for their country.
§34.31.19pluribus me ipse egisse quam pro patria sermonis brevitate fateor; et breviter peroratum esse potuit, nihil me, postquam vobiscum institui amicitiam, cur eius vos paeniteret, commisisse. ”
I confess that I myself have acted with more words than is consistent with the brevity of my country's speech; and it could have been briefly concluded: that I have committed nothing, since I established friendship with you, for which you should repent of it."