§4.3.1cum maxime haec in senatu agerentur, Canuleius pro legibus suis et adversus consules ita disseruit: §4.3.2“quanto opere vos, Quirites, contemnerent patres, quam indignos ducerent, qui una secum urbe intra eadem moenia viveretis, saepe equidem et ante videor animadvertisse, nunc tamen maxime, quod adeo atroces in has rogationes nostras coorti sunt,
At the very moment when these things were being actively discussed in the senate, Canuleius spoke in the following manner in support of his laws and against the consuls: "How greatly the patricians despise you, Quirites, how unworthy they judge you to live with them in one city, within the same walls, I seem to have noticed often before indeed, but now most of all, because they have risen up so fiercely against these proposals of ours.
§4.3.3quibus quid aliud quam admonemus cives nos eorum esse et, si non easdem opes habere, eandem tamen patriam incolere?
By these, what else do we do but remind our fellow citizens that we are their citizens, and that, if we do not possess the same wealth, we nevertheless inhabit the same country?
§4.3.4altera conubium petimus, quod finitumis externisque dari solet — nos quidem civitatem, quae plus quam conubium est, hostibus etiam victis dedimus —; §4.3.5altera nihil novi ferimus, sed id, quod populi est, repetimus atque usurpamus, ut, quibus velit, populus Romanus honores mandet.
By the one, we seek the right of intermarriage, which is customarily given to neighbors and foreigners—indeed, we have given citizenship, which is more than intermarriage, even to defeated enemies—; by the other, we bring forward nothing new, but reclaim and exercise that which belongs to the people, so that the Roman people may entrust honors to whomsoever they wish.
§4.3.6quid tandem est, cur caelum ac terras misceant, cur in me impetus modo paene in senatu sit factus, negent se manibus temperaturos violaturosque denuntient sacrosanctam potestatem?
Why, in the end, do they throw heaven and earth into confusion, why was an attack almost made on me just now in the senate, and why do they declare they will not hold back their hands, and threaten that they will violate the sacrosanct power?
§4.3.7si populo Romano liberum suffragium datur, ut, quibus velit, consulatum mandet, et non praeciditur spes plebeio quoque, si dignus summo honore erit, apiscendi summi honoris, stare urbs haec non poterit? de imperio actum est? et perinde hoc valet, plebeiusne consul fiat, tamquam servum aut libertinum aliquis consulem futurum dicat?
If the Roman people are given a free vote, so that they may entrust the consulship to whomsoever they wish, and if hope of attaining the highest honor is not cut off even from a plebeian, if he is worthy of the highest honor, will this city not be able to stand? Is it all over with our empire? And does this have the same weight, if a plebeian becomes consul, as if someone were to say that a slave or a freedman would be consul?
§4.3.8ecquid sentitis, in quanto contemptu vivatis? lucis vobis huius partem, si liceat, adimant; quod spiratis, quod vocem mittitis, quod formas hominum habetis, indignantur; quin etiam, §4.3.9si dis placet, nefas aiunt esse consulem plebeium fieri.
Do you perceive at all in how great a contempt you live? They would take away from you a part of this light, if they were allowed; they are indignant that you breathe, that you utter speech, that you have the forms of men; nay, even, if it please the gods, they say it is an impiety for a plebeian to become consul.
obsecro vos, si non ad fastos, non ad commentarios pontificum admittimur, ne ea quidem scimus, quae omnes peregrini etiam sciunt, consules in locum regum successisse nec aut iuris aut maiestatis quicquam habere, quod non in regibus ante fuerit?
I beseech you, even if we are not admitted to the fasti or the commentaries of the pontiffs, do we not know even those things which all foreigners also know, that the consuls succeeded to the place of kings, and have no right or majesty which did not exist before in the kings?
§4.3.10en numquam creditis fando auditum esse Numam Pompilium, non modo non patricium sed ne civem quidem Romanum, ex Sabino agro accitum, populi iussu patribus auctoribus Romae regnasse? L. deinde Tarquinium non Romanae modo,
Look, do you believe it has never been heard by rumor that Numa Pompilius, not only not a patrician but not even a Roman citizen, summoned from the Sabine country, reigned at Rome by the command of the people and with the authorization of the patricians?
§4.3.11sed ne Italicae quidem gentis, Demarati Corinthii filium, incolam ab Tarquiniis, vivis liberis Anci regem factum? Ser.
Then, that Lucius Tarquinius, of a family not only not Roman, but not even Italian, the son of Demaratus of Corinth, an immigrant from Tarquinii, was made king while the children of Ancus were still alive?
§4.3.12Tullium post hunc, captiva Corniculana natum, patre nullo, matre serva, ingenio virtute regnum tenuisse? quid enim de T. Tatio Sabino dicam, quem ipse Romulus, parens urbis, in societatem regni accepit?
That after him Servius Tullius, born of a captive woman of Corniculum, of no father, with a slave mother, held the kingdom by his talent and virtue? For why should I speak of Titus Tatius the Sabine, whom Romulus himself, the parent of the city, received into partnership of the kingdom?
§4.3.13ergo dum nullum fastiditur genus, in quo eniteret virtus, crevit imperium Romanum.
Therefore, as long as no class was despised in which virtue shone forth, the Roman empire grew.
paeniteat nunc vos plebei consulis, cum maiores nostri advenas reges non fastidierint et ne regibus quidem exactis clausa urbs fuerit peregrinae virtuti?
Should you now be displeased with a plebeian consul, when our ancestors did not despise foreign kings, and even after the kings were expelled, the city was not closed to foreign virtue?
§4.3.14Claudiam certe gentem post reges exactos ex Sabinis non in civitatem modo accepimus, sed etiam in patriciorum numerum.
We certainly received the Claudian gens from the Sabines after the kings were expelled, not only into the citizenship, but even into the number of the patricians.
ex peregrinone patricius, §4.3.15deinde consul fiat, civis Romanus si sit ex plebe, praecisa consulatus spes erit? utrum tandem non credimus fieri posse,
Shall a foreigner become a patrician, and then a consul, while if a Roman citizen is from the plebs, all hope of the consulship shall be cut off?
§4.3.16ut vir fortis ac strenuus, pace belloque bonus, ex plebe sit, Numae, L. Tarquinio, Ser.
Do we not believe, after all, that it can happen, that a brave and active man, good in peace and war, should be from the plebs, similar to Numa, Lucius Tarquinius, or Servius Tullius?
§4.3.17Tullio similis, an, ne si sit quidem, ad gubernacula rei publicae accedere eum patiemur potiusque decemviris, taeterrimis mortalium, qui tamen omnes ex patribus erant, quam optimis regum, novis hominibus, similis consules sumus habituri?
Or, even if there should be such a man, shall we not suffer him to approach the helm of the state, and shall we rather have consuls similar to the decemvirs, the most foul of mortals, who nevertheless were all from the patricians, than to the best of kings, who were new men?"