11.
[27]
To these acts of his, being not only aids to my safety, but even ornaments of my dignity,
you yourselves added the rest that was wanting. You decreed that no one should by any means
whatever hinder that matter from proceeding; that if any one did try to interpose any
obstacle, you would be very angry and indignant; that he would be acting in a manner contrary
to the interests of the republic, and the safety of good men, and the unanimous wish of the
citizens; and that such a man was instantly to be reported to you. And you passed a vote that
if they persisted in interposing obstacles, I was to return in spite of them. Why need I tell
how thanks were given to all those who had come up from the municipal towns; or that they were
entreated to be present with equal eagerness on that day when the whole affair was
consummated? Lastly, why need I tell what you did on that day which Publius Lentulus has made
as a birthday to me, and to my brother, and to our children, to be recollected not only by us,
who are now alive, but by all our race for ever? On which day, in the comitia centuriata, which our ancestors rightly called and considered the real
comitia, he summoned us back to our country, so that the same
centuries which had made me consul should declare their approval of my consulship.
[28]
On that day what citizen was there who thought it right, whatever his
age or state of health might be, to deny himself the opportunity of giving his vote for my
safety? When did you ever see such a multitude assembled in the Campus, such a splendid show
of all Italy and of all orders of men? when did you ever see movers, and tellers, and keepers
of the votes all of such high rank? Therefore, through the active, and admirable, and godlike
kindness of Publius Lentulus, we were not allowed to return to our country, as some most
eminent citizens have been, but we were brought back in triumph, borne by white horses in a
gilded car.
[29]
Can I ever appear grateful enough to Cnaeus Pompeius, who said, not only among you who all
were of the same opinion, but also before the whole Roman people, that the safety of the
republic had been preserved by me, and was inseparably connected with mine? who recommended my
cause to the wise, and taught the ignorant, and at the same time checked the wicked by his
authority, and encouraged the good; who not only exhorted the Roman people to espouse my
cause, but even entreated them to do so, as if he were speaking for a brother or a parent;
who, at a time when he was forced to keep within his house from fear of contests and
bloodshed, begged even of the preceding tribunes to propose and carry a law respecting my
safety; who in a colony lately erected, where he himself was discharging the duties of a
magistrate in it, where there was no bribed interrupter, declared that the privilegium
1 passed
against me was violent and cruel, confirming that declaration by the authority of most honourable men, and by public letters, and, being the chief man there, gave his
opinion that it was becoming to implore the protection of all Italy for my safety; who, when
he himself had always been a most firm friend to me, laboured also to make all his own friends
also to me.
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1 “A Privilegium signified an enactment that had for its object a single person, which is indicated by the form of the word privae res, being the same as singulae res. It might be beneficial to the party to whom it referred, or not; but it is generally used by Cicero in the unfavourable sense.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 500, v. Lex. “In the time of the republic it was not allowed to pass or to propose such a law.”—Riddle, v. Privilegium. But I do not know his authority for such a statement.
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