Bellum Iugurthinum

" Were not my zeal for the good of the state, my fellow-citizens, superior to every other feeling, there are many considerations which would deter me from appearing in your cause; I allude to the power of the opposite party, your own tameness of spirit, the absence of all justice, and, above all, the fact that integrity is attended with more danger than honor. Indeed, it grieves me to relate, how, during the last fifteen years,[*](XXXI. During the last fifteen years] His annis quindecim. "It was at this time, A.U.C. 641, twenty-two years since the death of Tiberius Gracchus, and ten since that of Caius; Sallust, or Memmius, not to appear to make too nice a computation, takes a mean."Bernouf The manuscripts however, vary; some read fifteen, and others twelve. Cortius conjectured twenty, as a rounder number, which Kritzius and Dietsch have inserted in their texts. Twenty is also found in the Editio Victoriana, Florence, 1576.) you have been a sport to the arrogance of an oligarchy; how dishonorably, and how utterly unavenged, your defenders

have perished;[*](Your defenders have perished] Perierint vestri defensores. Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, and their adherents.) and how your spirit has become degenerate by sloth and indolence; for not even now, when your enemies are in your power, will you rouse yourselves to action, but continue still to stand in awe of those to whom you should be a terror.

" Yet, notwithstanding this state of things, I feel prompted to make an attack on the power of that faction. That liberty of speech,[*](Liberty of speech] Libertatem. Liberty of speech is evidently intended.) therefore, which has been left me by my father, I shall assuredly exert against them; but whether I shall use it in vain, or for your advantage, must, my fellow-citizens, depend upon yourselves. I do not, however, exhort you, as your ancestors have often done, to rise in arms against injustice. There is at present no need of violence, no need of secession; for your tyrants must work their fall by their own misconduct.

" After the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, whom they accused of aspiring to be king, persecutions were instituted against the common people of Rome; and after the slaughter of Caius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius, many of your order were put to death in prison. But let us leave these proceedings out of the question; let us admit that to restore their rights to the people, was to aspire to sovereignty; let us allow that what can not be avenged without shedding the blood of citizens, was done with justice. You have seen with silent indignation, however, in past years, the treasury pillaged; you have seen kings, and free people, paying tribute to a small party of Patricians, in whose hands were both the highest honors and the greatest wealth; but to have carried on such proceedings with impunity, they now deem but a small matter; and, at last, your laws and your honor, with every civil and religious obligation,[*](Every civil and religious obligation] Divina et humana omnia. "They offended against the laws, when they took bribes from an enemy ; against the honor of Rome, when they did what was unworthy of it, and greatly to its injury; and against gods and men, against all divine and human obligations, when they granted to a wicked prince not only impunity, but even rewards, for his crimes."Dietsch.) have been sacrificed for the benefit of your enemies. Nor do they, who have done these things, show either shame or contrition, but parade proudly before your

faces, displaying their sacerdotal dignities, their consulships, and some of them their triumphs, as if they regarded them as marks of honor, and not as fruits of their dishonesty. Slaves, purchased with money,[*](Slaves purchased with money, etc.] Servi, œre parati, etc. This is taken from another speech of Cato, of which a portion is preserved in Aul. Gell. x. 3: Servi injurias nimis œgre ferunt; quid illos bono genere natos, magnâ virtute prœditos, animi habuisse atque habituros, dum vivent? "Slaves are apt to be too impatient of injuries; and what feelings do you think that men of good family, and of great merit, must have had, and will have as long as they live ?") will not submit to unjust commands from their masters; yet you, my fellow-citizens, who are born to empire, tamely endure oppression.

"But who are these that have thus taken the government into their hands ? Men of the most abandoned character, of blood-stained hands, of insatiable avarice, of enormous guilt, and of matchless pride; men by whom integrity, reputation, public spirit,[*](Public spirit] Pietas. Under this word are included all duties that we ought to perform to those with whom we are intimately connected, or on whom we are dependent, as our parents, our country, and the gods. I have borrowed my translation of the word from Rose.) and indeed every thing, whether honorable or dishonorable, is converted to a means of gain. Some of them make it their defense that they have killed tribunes of the people; others, that they have instituted unjust prosecutions; others, that they have shed your blood; and thus, the more atrocities each has committed, the greater is his security; while your oppressors, whom the same desires, the same aversions, and the same fears, combine in strict union (a union which among good men is friendship, but among the bad confederacy in guilt), have excited in you, through your want of spirit, that terror which they ought to feel for their own crimes.

" But if your concern to preserve your liberty were as great as their ardor to increase their power of oppression, the state would not be distracted as it is at present; and the marks of favor which proceed from you,[*](The marks of favor which proceed from you] Beneficia vestra. Offices of state, civil and military.) would be conferred, not on the most shameless, but on the most deserving. Your forefathers, in order to assert their rights and establish their authority, twice seceded in arms to Mount Aventine ; and will not you exert yourselves, to the utmost of your power, in defense of that liberty which you received from them ? Will you not display

so much the more spirit in the cause, from the reflection that it is a greater disgrace to lose[*](A greater disgrace to lose, etc.] Quòd majus dedecus est parta amitere qnam omnino non paravisse. Thucyd. ii. 62.) what has been gained, than not to have gained it at all ?

"But some will ask me, 'What course of conduct, then, would you advise us to pursue ?' I would advise you to inflict punishment on those who have sacrificed the interests of their country to the enemy; not, indeed, by arms, or any violence (which would be more unbecoming, however, for you to inflict than for them to suffer), but by prosecutions, and by the evidence of Jugurtha himself, who, if he has really surrendered, will doubtless obey your summons; whereas, if he shows contempt for it, you will at once judge what sort of a peace or surrender it is, from which springs impunity to Jugurtha for his crimes, immense wealth to a few men in power, and loss and infamy to the republic.

"But perhaps you are not yet weary of the tyranny of these men; perhaps these times please you less than those[*](These times please you less than those, etc.] Illa quàm hœc tempora magis placent, etc. "Those times, which immediately succeeded the deaths of the Gracchi, and which were distinguished for the tyranny of the nobles, and the humiliation of the people; these times, in which the people have begun to rouse their spirit and exert their liberty."Burnouf.) when kingdoms, provinces, laws, rights, the administration of justice, war and peace, and indeed every thing civil and religious, was in the hands of an oligarchy; while you, that is, the people of Rome, though unconquered by foreign enemies, and rulers of all nations around, were content with being alloyed to live; for which of you had spirit to throw off your slavery ? For myself, indeed, though I think it most disgraceful to receive an injury without resenting it, yet I could easily allow you to pardon these basest of traitors, because they are your fellow-citizens, were it not certain that your indulgence would end in your destruction. For such is their presumption, that to escape punishment for their misdeeds will have but little effect upon them, unless they be deprived, at the same time, of the power of doing mischief; and endless anxiety will remain for you, if you shall have to reflect that you must either be slaves or preserve your liberty by force of arms.

"Of mutual trust, or concord, what hope is there? They wish to be lords, you desire to be free; they seek to inflict injury,

you to repel it; they treat your allies as enemies, your enemies as allies. With feelings so opposite, can peace or friendship subsist between you ? I warn, therefore, and exhort you, not to allow such enormous dishonesty to go unpunished. It is not an embezzlement of the public money[*](Embezzlement of the public money] Peculatus œrarii. Peculator, qui furtum facit pecuniæ publicæ. Ascon. Pedian. in Cic. Verr. i.) that has been committed; nor is it a forcible extortion of money from your allies; offenses which, though great, are now, from their frequency, considered as nothing; but the authority of the senate, and your own power, have been sacrificed to the bitterest of enemies, and the public interest has been betrayed for money, both at home and abroad; and unless these misdeeds be investigated, and punishment be inflicted on the guilty, what remains for us but to live the slaves of those who committed them For those who do what they will with impunity are undoubtedly kings.[*](Kings] I have substituted the plural for the singular. "No name was more hated at Rome than that of a king; and no sentiment, accordingly, could have been better adapted to inflame the minds of Memmius's hearers, than that which he here utters."Dietsch.)

"I do not, however, wish to encourage you, O Romans, to be better satisfied at finding your fellow-citizens guilty than innocent, but merely to warn you not to bring ruin on the good, by suffering the bad to escape. It is far better, in any government, to be unmindful of a service than of an injury ; for a good man, if neglected, only becomes less active; but a bad man, more daring. Besides, if the crimes of the wicked are suppressed,[*](If the crimes of the wicked are suppressed, etc.] Si injuriœ non sint haud sœpe auxilii egeas. "Some foolishly interpret auxilium as signifying auxilium tribunicium, the aid of the tribunes; but it is evident to me that Sallust means aid against the injuries of bad men, i.e. revenge or punishment."Kritzius. "If injuries are repressed, or prevented, there will be less need for the help of good men, and it will be of less consequence if they become inactive."Dietsch.) the state will seldom need extraordinary support from the virtuous."

By repeating these and similar sentiments, Memmius prevailed on the people to send Lucius Cassius,[*](XXXII. Lucius Cassius] This is the man from whom came the common saying cui bono? "Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people thought the most accurate and wisest of judges, was accustomed constantly to inquire, in the progress of a cause, cui bono fuisset, of what advantage any thing had been." Cic. pro Rose. Am. 30. "His tribunal," says Valerius Maximus (iii. 7), "was called, from his excessive severity, the rock of the accused." It was probably on account of this quality in his character that he was now sent into Numidia.) who was

then prætor, to Jugurtha, and to bring him, under guarantee of the public faith,[*](Under guarantee of the public faith] Interpositâ fide publicâ. See Cat. 47, 48. So a little below, fidem suam interponit. Interpono is "to pledge.") to Rome, in order that, by the prince's evidence, the misconduct of Scaurus and the rest, whom they charged with having taken bribes, might more easily be made manifest.

During the course of these proceedings at Rome, those whom Bestia had left in Numidia in command of the army, following the example of their general, had been guilty of many scandalous transactions. Some, seduced by gold, had restored Jugurtha his elephants; others had sold him his deserters; others had ravaged the lands of those at peace with us; so strong a spirit of rapacity, like the contagion of a pestilence, had pervaded the breasts of all.

Cassius, when the measure proposed by Memmius had been carried, and while all the nobility were in consternation, set out on his mission to Jugurtha, whom, alarmed as he was, and despairing of his fortune, from a sense of guilt, he admonished " that since he had surrendered himself to the Romans, he had better make trial of their mercy than their power." He also pledged his own word, which Jugurtha valued not less than that of the public, for his safety. Such, at that period, was the reputation of Cassius.