Cicero

Therefore many of the prominent men also were in favour of the law, and foremost among them Antonius the colleague of Cicero, who expected to be one of the ten. It was thought also that he knew about the conspiracy of Catiline and was not averse to it, owing to the magnitude of his debts; and this was what gave most alarm to the nobles.

This alarm Cicero first sought to allay by getting the province of Macedonia voted to his colleague, while he himself declined the proffered province of Gaul; and by this favour he induced Antonius, like a hired actor, to play the second role to him in defence of their country. Then, as soon as Antonius had been caught and was tractable, Cicero opposed himself with more courage to the innovators.

Accordingly, he denounced the proposed law in the senate at great length, and so terrified the very promoters of it that they had no reply to make to him. And when they made a second attempt and after full preparation summoned the consuls to appear before the people, Cicero had not the slightest fear, but bidding the senate follow him and leading the way, he not only got the law rejected, but also induced the tribunes to desist from the rest of their measures, so overpowered were they by his eloquence.[*](See the three orations de lege Agraria, which have come down to us almost intact.)

For this man beyond all others showed the Romans how great a charm eloquence adds to the right, and that justice is invincible if it is correctly put in words, and that it behooves the careful statesman always in his acts to choose the right instead of the agreeable, and in his words to take away all vexatious features from what is advantageous.

A proof of the charm of his discourse may be found in an incident of his consulship connected with the public spectacles. In earlier times, it seems, the men of the equestrian order were mingled with the multitudes in the theatres and saw the spectacles along with the people, seated as chance would have it; Marcus Otho was the first to separate in point of honour the knights from the rest of the citizens, which he did when he was praetor,[*](It was in 67 B.C., four years before Cicero’s consulship, that Lucius Roscius Otho, as tribune of the people, introduced his law giving the equites a special place at the spectacles, namely, the fourteen rows of seats next those of the senators. The law, however, had only recently been enacted.) and gave them a particular place of their own at the spectacles, which they still retain.