[10]
I see that of those men who wish to be considered attached to the
people one man is absent, that they may not seem forsooth to give a vote about the lives of
Roman citizens. He only three days ago gave Roman citizens into custody, and decreed me a
supplication, and voted most magnificent rewards to the witnesses only yesterday. It is not
now doubtful to any one what he, who voted for the imprisonment of the criminals,
congratulation to him who had detected them, and rewards to those who had proved the crime,
thinks of the whole matter, and of the cause. But Caius Caesar considers that the Sempronian
1 law
was passed about Roman citizens, but that he who is an enemy of the republic can by no means
be a citizen; and moreover that the very proposer of the Sempronian law suffered punishment
by the command of the people. He also denies that Lentulus, a briber and a spendthrift, after
he has formed such cruel and bitter plans about the destruction of the Roman people and the
ruin of this city, can be called a friend of the people. Therefore this most gentle and
merciful man does not hesitate to commit Publius Lentulus to eternal darkness and
imprisonment, and establishes a law to all posterity that no one shall be able to boast of
alleviating his punishment or hereafter to appear a friend of the people to the destruction
of the Roman people. He adds also the confiscation of their goods, so that want also and
beggary may be added to all the torments of mind and body.
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1 The Sempronian law was proposed by Caius Gracchus, B.C. 123, and enacted that the people only should decide respecting the life or civil condition of a citizen. It is alluded to also in the oration Pro Rabir. c. 4, where Cicero says, “Caius Gracchus passed a law that no decision should be come to about the life of a Roman citizen without your command,” speaking to the Quirites.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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