§6.1.22commendat et causa periculi, si suscepisse inimicitias ob aliquod factum honestum videtur; praecipue bonitas, humanitas, misericordia.
The cause of the danger also recommends the accused, if he seems to have undertaken enmity on account of some honorable action; especially goodness, humanity, and mercy.
iustius enim tum petere ea quisque videtur a iudice, quae aliis ipse praestiterit.
For then each person seems more justly to seek from the judge those things which he himself has bestowed on others.
referenda pars haec quoque ad utilitatem rei publicae, ad iudicum gloriam, ad exemplum, §6.1.23ad memoriam posteritatis.
This part must also be referred to the utility of the state, to the glory of the judges, to precedent, and to the memory of posterity.
plurimum tamen valet miseratio, quae iudicem non flecti tantum cogit, sed motum quoque animi sui lacrimis confiteri.
Pity, however, is of the greatest weight, which not only compels the judge to be bent, but also to confess the emotion of his mind with tears.
haec petentur aut ex iis, quae passus est reus, aut iis quae cum maxime patitur, aut iis quae damnatum manent; quae et ipsa duplicantur, cum dicimus ex qua illi fortuna et ira quam recidendum sit.
These will be sought either from what the accused has suffered, or from what he is suffering at this very moment, or from what awaits him if condemned; which are themselves doubled when we say from what fortune and into what he must fall.
§6.1.24adfert ira his momentum et aetas et sexus et pignora; liberi, dico, et parentes et propinqui.
Age, sex, and pledges also bring weight in these; I mean children, parents, and relations.
quae omnia tractari varie solent.
All of these are accustomed to be treated in various ways.
nonnunquam etiam ipse patronus has partes subit, ut Cicero pro Milone, O me miserum! o te infelicem! reuocare me tu ira patriam, Milo, potuisti per hos, ego te ira patria per eosdem retinere non potero? maximeque, si, ut tum accidit, non conveniunt ei qui accusatur preces.
Sometimes even the advocate himself undertakes these parts, as Cicero does in defense of Milo: “O wretched me! O unhappy you! Milo, were you able to recall me into my country through these men, and shall I not be able to retain you in your country through the same?” and especially if, as happened then, entreaties do not suit him who is accused.
§6.1.25nam quis ferret Milonem pro capite suo supplicantem, qui a se virum nobilem interfectum, quia id fieri oportuisset, fateretur? ergo et illi captavit ex ipsa praestantia animi favorem et ira locum lacrimarum eius ipse successit.
For who would endure Milo pleading for his own life, who confessed that a noble man had been killed by him because it was proper for that to be done? Therefore, Cicero both sought favor for him from that very excellence of mind and himself succeeded into the place of his tears.
his praecipue locis utiles sunt prosopopoeiae, id est fictae alienarum personarum orationes, quales litigatorum ore dicit patronus.
In these places especially, prosopopoeiae are useful, that is, fictitious speeches of other persons, such as the advocate speaks in the mouth of the litigants.
nudae tantum res movent; at cum ipsos loqui fingimus,
Bare facts only move; but when we feign that they themselves are speaking, the emotion is also drawn from the persons.
§6.1.26ex personis quoque trahitur adfectus Non enim audire iudex videtur aliena mala deflentis, sed sensum ac vocem auribus accipere miserorum, quorum etiam mutus aspectus lacrimas movet; quantoque essent miserabiliora, si ea dicerent ipsi, tanto sunt quadam portione ad adficiendum potentiora, cum velut ipsorum ore dicuntur, ut scenicis actoribus eadem vox eademque pronuntiatio plus ad movendos adfectus sub persona valet.
For the judge does not seem to hear the misfortunes of others lamented by one who weeps, but to receive with his ears the feeling and voice of the wretched, whose silent look even moves tears; and by how much more pitiable they would be if they spoke them themselves, by so much are they, in a certain measure, more powerful to affect when they are spoken as if from their own mouth, as on the stage the same voice and the same pronunciation have more power to move emotions under a mask.
§6.1.27itaque idem Cicero, quanquam preces non dat Miloni, eumque potius animi praestantia commendat, accommodavit tamen ei verba, convenientes etiam forti viro conquestiones: frustra, inquit, mei suscepti labores! O spes fallaces! O cogitationes inanes meas! nunquam tamen debet esse longa miseratio, nec sine causa dictum est, nihil facilius quam lacrimas inarescere.
Therefore, the same Cicero, although he does not give entreaties to Milo, and rather recommends him by his excellence of mind, yet accommodated words to him, lamentations suitable even for a brave man: “In vain,” he says, “are my labors undertaken! O deceitful hopes! O my empty thoughts!” Pity, however, must never be long, and it was not said without cause, that nothing dries more easily than tears.
§6.1.28nam cum etiam veros dolores mitiget tempus, citius evanescat necesse est illa, quam dicendo effinximus, imago; ira qua si moramur, lacrimis fatigatur auditor et requiescit et ab illo, quem ceperat, impetu ad rationem redit.
For since time mitigates even true sorrows, that image which we have shaped by speaking must necessarily vanish more quickly; in which if we linger, the hearer is fatigued with tears, and rests, and returns from that impulse which he had taken to reason.
§6.1.29non patiamur igitur frigescere hoc opus, et adfectum, cum ad summum perduxerimus, relinquamus nec speremus fore ut aliena quisquam diu ploret.
Let us not, therefore, suffer this work to grow cold, and let us leave the emotion when we have brought it to the height, nor hope that anyone will weep long for another’s misfortune.
ideoque cum ira aliis tum maxime ira hac parte debet crescere oratio, quia, quidquid non adiicit prioribus, etiam detrahere videtur, et facile deficit adfectus qui descendit.
And for this reason, the speech ought to grow in this part especially, as well as in others, because whatever does not add to what has gone before even seems to take away, and the emotion which descends easily fails.
§6.1.30non solum autem dicendo sed etiam faciendo quaedam lacrimas mouemus, unde et producere ipsos, qui periclitentur, squalidos atque deformes et liberos eorum ac parentes institutum, et ab accusatoribus cruentum gladium ostendi et lecta e vulneribus ossa et vestes sanguine perfusas videmus, et vulnera resolvi, verberata corpora nudari.
We move tears, however, not only by speaking but also by doing certain things, whence also it is the custom to produce those who are in danger, squalid and disfigured, and their children and parents; and we see a bloody sword shown by accusers, and bones gathered from wounds, and garments drenched with blood, and wounds uncovered, and beaten bodies stripped.
§6.1.31quarum rerum ingens plerumque vis est velut ira rem praesentem animos hominum ducentium, ut populum Romanum egit ira furorem praetexta C. Caesaris praelata ira funere cruenta.
The force of these things is usually immense, leading the minds of men as if into the presence of the reality, as the bloody toga of Gaius Caesar, carried before him in his funeral, drove the Roman people into fury.
sciebat interfectum eum, corpus denique ipsum impositum lecto erat, at vestis tamen illa sanguine madens ita repraesentavit imaginem sceleris, ut non occisus esse Caesar sed tum maxime occidi videretur.
They knew that he had been killed, and finally his body itself was laid upon the couch, but yet that garment, drenched with blood, so represented the image of the crime that Caesar seemed not to have been killed, but to be killed at that very moment.