§6.41.1quo modo extorqueant, non quo modo petant honores, quaerunt; et ita maxima sunt adepturi, ut nihil ne pro minimis quidem debeant; et occasionibus potius quam virtute petere honores malunt.
They seek how they may extort honors, not how they may seek them; and they are about to obtain the greatest things in such a way that they will owe nothing even for the least; and they prefer to seek honors through opportunities rather than through virtue.
§6.41.2est aliquis, qui se inspici, aestimari fastidiat, qui certos sibi uni honores inter dimicantes competitores aequum censeat esse, qui se arbitrio vestro eximat, qui vestra necessaria suffragia pro voluntariis et serva pro liberis faciat.
Is there anyone who disdains to be inspected and evaluated, who thinks it fair that certain honors be assured to himself alone among competing rivals, who exempts himself from your judgment, and who makes your voluntary votes compulsory and your free votes slavish?
§6.41.3omitto Licinium Sextiumque, quorum annos in perpetua potestate tamquam regum in Capitolio numeratis;
I pass over Licinius and Sextius, whose years in perpetual power you count as if they were kings on the Capitol; who is there today in the state so humble to whom the way to the consulship does not become easier through the opportunity of that law than to us and to our children?
quis est hodie in civitate tam humilis, cui non via ad consulatum facilior per istius legis occasionem quam nobis ac liberis nostris fiat? si quidem nos, ne cum volueritis quidem, creare interdum poteritis, istos, etiam si nolueritis, necesse erit.
Since indeed we, even when you wish, will sometimes not be able to be created, while for those men, even if you do not wish, it will be necessary.
de indignitate satis dictum est.
Enough has been said of the indignity.
§6.41.4at enim dignitas ad homines pertinet;
But indeed, dignity belongs to men; what shall I say of religious rites and auspices, which is a direct contempt and injury of the immortal gods?
quid de religionibus atque auspiciis, quae propria deorum inmortalium contemptio atque iniuria est, loquar? auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace, domi militiaeque omnia geri quis est, qui ignoret?
Who is there who does not know that this city was founded under auspices, and that under auspices all things in war and peace, at home and in the field, are conducted?
§6.41.5penes quos igitur sunt auspicia more maiorum? nempe penes patres;
In whose hands, then, are the auspices according to the custom of our ancestors?
nam plebeius quidem magistratus nullus auspicato creatur; §6.41.6nobis adeo propria sunt auspicia, ut non solum, quos populus creat patricios magistratus, non aliter quam auspicato creet, sed nos quoque ipsi sine suffragio populi auspicato interregem prodamus et privati auspicia habeamus, quae isti ne in magistratibus quidem habent.
Surely in the hands of the patricians; for indeed, no plebeian magistrate is created under auspices; The auspices are so proper to us that not only does the people create the patrician magistrates only under auspices, but we ourselves also, without the vote of the people, declare an interrex under auspices and hold auspices as private citizens, which those men do not have even in their magistracies.
§6.41.7quid igitur aliud quam tollit ex civitate auspicia, qui plebeios consules creando a patribus, qui soli ea habere possunt, aufert?
What else, then, does he do but abolish auspices from the state, who, by creating plebeian consuls, takes them away from the patricians, who alone are able to hold them?
§6.41.8eludant nunc licet religiones “quid enim esse, si pulli non pascantur, si ex cavea tardius exierint, si occecinerit avis?” parva sunt haec; sed parva ista non contemnendo maiores nostri maximam hanc rem fecerunt;
Let them now mock at religious rites: "What does it matter, indeed, if the chickens do not feed, if they come out of the cage too slowly, if a bird sings inauspiciously?" These are small things; but by not despising those small things, our ancestors made this state greatest.
§6.41.9nunc nos, tamquam iam nihil pace deorum opus sit, omnes caerimonias polluimus.
Now we, as if there were no longer any need for the peace of the gods, pollute all ceremonies.
vulgo ergo pontifices, augures, sacrificuli reges creentur; cuilibet apicem dialem, dummodo homo sit, inponamus; tradamus ancilia, penetralia, deos deorumque curam, quibus nefas est;
Let priests, augurs, and sacrificial kings be created indiscriminately; let us place the cap of Jupiter upon anyone, provided he is a human; let us hand over the sacred shields, the inner shrines, the gods, and the care of the gods, to those for whom it is a sin.
§6.41.10non leges auspicato ferantur, non magistratus creentur nec centuriatis nec curiatis comitiis patres auctores fiant; Sextius et Licinius tamquam Romulus ac Tatius in urbe Romana regnent, quia pecunias alienas, quia agros dono dant.
Let laws not be proposed under auspices, let magistrates not be created, let the patricians not become approvers either in the centuriate or curiate assemblies; let Sextius and Licinius reign in the city of Rome like Romulus and Tatius, because they give other people's money and lands as a gift.
§6.41.11tanta dulcedo est ex alienis fortunis praedandi, nec in mentem venit altera lege solitudines vastas in agris fieri pellendo finibus dominos, altera fidem abrogari, cum qua omnis humana societas tollitur?
Is the sweetness of plundering from other people's fortunes so great, and does it not come to mind that by one law vast solitudes are created in the fields by expelling the owners from their territories, and by the other, credit is abolished, along with which all human society is destroyed?
§6.41.12omnium rerum causa vobis antiquandas censeo istas rogationes.
For all these reasons, I think that those bills should be rejected by you.
quod faxitis, deos velim fortunare. ”
What you do, I would wish the gods to prosper."