[15]
For the consuls assisted
Clodius while doing those very things which Catiline was only attempting
when I as consul defeated his machinations. He, indeed, wished to massacre
the senate; you two abolished it. He wished to destroy the laws by fire and
sword; you two abrogated them. He wished the country to
perish; you two aided him. What, during your consulship, was ever
accomplished except by force of arms? That band of conspirators wished to
fire the city; you two sought to burn the house of that man, to whom it was
owing that the city was not burnt. And even these men, if they had a consul
like you, would never have thought of burning the city: For they did not
wish to deprive themselves of their homes; but as long as those consuls
flourished, they thought that there would be no home for their wickedness.
They desired the slaughter of the citizens; you desired to bring them to
slavery; and in this were even more cruel than they; for, until your
consulship, the spirit of liberty was so deeply implanted in this people,
that they would have thought it preferable to die rather than to become
slaves.
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