[4]
And if, as is accustomed to be done in some states, an
advocate were appointed to this cause by the public, that man would above all others be
assigned to one invested with honours as his defender, who having himself enjoyed the same
honour, brought to his advocacy no less authority than ability. But if those who are being
wafted from the main into harbour are wont with the greatest care to inform those who are
sailing out of harbour, of the character of storms, and pirates, and of places, because nature
prompts us to favour those who are entering on the same dangers which we have passed through,
of what disposition ought I to be, who after having been much tossed about am now almost in
sight of land, towards him by whom I see the greatest tempests of the republic about to be
encountered? Wherefore, if it is the part of a virtuous consul not only to see what is being
done, but to foresee what is likely to happen, I will show in another place how much it is for
the interest of the common safety that there should be two consuls in the republic on the
first of January.
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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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