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5.
[12]
Shall the senate, according to this custom which has now obtained, style a man
imperator if he has slain a thousand or two of
Spaniards, or Gauls, or Thracians; and now that so many legions have been
routed, now that such a multitude of enemies has been slain,—yes,
enemies, I say, although our enemies within the city do not fancy this
expression,—shall we pay to our most illustrious generals the honor of
a supplication, and refuse them the name of imperator? For with what great honor, and joy, and exultation
ought the deliverers of this city themselves to enter into this temple, when
yesterday, on account of the exploits which they have performed, the Roman
people carried me in an ovation, almost in a triumph from my house to the
Capitol, and back again from the Capitol to my own house?
[13]
That is indeed in my opinion a just and genuine triumph,
when men who have deserved well of the republic receive public testimony to
their merits from the unanimous consent of the senate. For if, at a time of
general rejoicing on the part of the Roman people, they addressed their
congratulations to one individual, that is a great proof of their opinion of
him; if they gave him thanks, that is a greater still; if they did both, then
nothing more honorable to him can be possibly imagined.
Are you saying all this of yourself? some one will ask. It is indeed against my
will that I do so; but my indignation at injustice makes me boastful, contrary
to my usual habit. Is it not sufficient that thanks should not be given to men
who have well earned them, by men who are ignorant of the very nature of virtue?
And shall accusations and odium be attempted to be excited against those men who
devote all their thoughts to insuring the safety of the republic?
[14]
For you well know that there has been a common
report for the last few days, that the day before the wine feast,1 that is to say,
on this very day, I was intending to come forth with the fasces as dictator. One would think that this story was invented
against some gladiator, or robber, or Catiline, and not against a man who had
prevented any such step from ever being taken in the republic. Was I, who
defeated and overthrew and crushed Catiline, when he was attempting such
wickedness, a likely man myself all on a sudden to turn out Catiline? Under what
auspices could I, an augur, take those fasces? How
long should I have been likely to keep them? to whom was I to deliver them as my
successor? The idea of any one having been so wicked as to invent such a tale!
or so mad as to believe it! In what could such a suspicion, or rather such
gossip, have originated?
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