mortal, upon destroying and ending
the whole Roman nation. What seed of human beings would be left, if all
the remainder of mankind should do the same as you? You are their leaders
and may rightly bear the responsibility for universal destruction. Or,
even if no others emulate you, will you not be justly hated for the very
reason that you overlook what no one else would overlook, and neglect
what no one else would neglect? You are introducing customs and
practices, which, if imitated, would lead to the annihilation of all,
and, if hated, would end in your own punishment. We do not spare
murderers because all persons do not murder, nor do we let temple-robbers
go because not everybody robs temples: but anybody who is convicted of
committing any forbidden act is chastised for the very reason that he
alone, or as one of a small group, does such things as no one else would
do. [-5-] Yet if one should name over the greatest offences, there is
none to compare with that which is now being committed by you, and this
statement holds true not only if you examine crime for crime but if you
compare all of them together with this single one of yours. You have
incurred blood guiltiness by not begetting those who ought to be your
descendants; you are sacrilegious in putting an end to the names and
honors of your ancestors; you are impious in abolishing your families,
which were instituted by the gods, and destroying the greatest of
offerings to them,--the human being,--and by overthrowing in this way
their rites and their temples. Moreover, by causing the downfall of the
government you are disobedient to the laws, and you even betray your
country by rendering her barren and childless: nay more, you lay her even
with the dust by making her destitute of inhabitants. A city consists of
human beings, not of houses or porticos or fora empty of men. Think what
rage would justly seize the great Romulus, the founder of our race, if he
could reflect on the circumstances of his own birth, and then upon
your attitude,--refusing to get children even by lawful marriages! How
wrathful would the Romans who were his followers be when they considered
that they themselves even seized foreign girls, but you are not satisfied
with those of your own race. They actually had children even by their
enemies: you will not beget them even of women with undisputed standing
in the State. How incensed would Curtius be, who endured to die that
the married men might