2.
[4]
He is selling all the possessions in Italy, in
regular order. Forsooth, he is very busy in that occupation. For does not omit one. He goes
through the whole of Sicily in the account-books of
the censors. He does not omit one single house, or one single field. You have heard an
auction of the property of the Roman people given notice of by tribune of the people, and
fixed for the month of January and I suppose you do not doubt, that they who procured these
things by their arms and their valour, did not sell the for the sake of the treasury, on
purpose that we might have something to sell for the sake of bribery.
[5]
See, now, how much more undisguisedly than before he proceeds on his course. For it has
been already shown by how they attacked Pompeius in the earlier part of the law; and now they
shall show it also themselves. He orders the lands belonging to the men of Attalia and Olympus
to be sold. These lands the victory of Publius Servilius, that most gallant general, had made
the property of the Roman people. After that, the royal domains in Macedonia, which were acquired partly by the valour of Titus
Flamininus, and part by that of Lucius Paullus, who conquered Perses. After that, that most
excellent and productive land which belongs Corinth, which was added to the revenues of the Roman people by the campaigns
and successes of Lucius Mummius. After that, they sell the lands in Spain near Carthagena, acquired by the distinguished valour of
the two Scipios. Then Carthagena itself, which Publius Scipio, having stripped it of all its
fortifications, consecrated to the eternal recollection of men, whether his purpose was to
keep up the memory of the disaster of the Carthaginians, or to bear witness to our victory,
or to fulfill some religious obligation.
[6]
Having sold all
these ensigns and crowns, as it were, of the empire, with which the republic was adorned, and
handed down to you by your ancestors, they then order the lands to be sold which the king
Mithridates possessed in Paphlagonia, and Pontus, and Cappadocia. Do they not seem to be pursuing without much disguise, and almost
with the crier's spear, the army of Cnaeus Pompeius, when they order those lands to be sold
in which he is now engaged and carrying on war?
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