erations that one might cite who should enter upon a long
discussion of such questions, you must also take account of the
following fact,--that we have come here now to assist our country under
oppression and to ward off those that are harming her. If she were in no
danger, we should neither have come into Italy with arms,--since it is
unlawful,--nor should we have left unfinished the business of the Celts
and Britons, when we might have subjugated those regions too. Then is it
not remarkable if we who are here for vengeance upon the evildoers
should show ourselves no less greedy of gain than they? Is it not
inconceivable that when we have arrived to aid our country we should
force her to require other allies against us? And yet I think my claims
so much better warranted than Pompey's that I have often challenged him
to a trial; and since he by reason of his guilty conscience has refused
to have the questions peaceably decided, I hope by this act of his to
attach to my cause all the allies and the entire people. But now, if we
also shall take up a course similar to his, I shall not have any decent
excuse to offer nor be able to charge my opponents with any unbecoming
conduct. You must also look ahead very carefully to the justice of your
cause. If you have this, the strength that arms afford is full of hope,
but without it nothing remains sure, though for the moment a man may be
successful.

[-33-] "That nature has ordained this most of you understand, and you
fulfill all your duties without urging. That is why I have convened
you,--to make you both witnesses and spectators of my words and acts.
But you are not of such a character as some men I have been mentioning
and therefore it is that you receive praise. Only some few of you
observe how, in addition to working many injuries and paying no penalty
at all for them hitherto, these malcontents are also threatening us.
However, as a general principle, I do not think it well for any ruler to
be subdued by his subjects, nor do I believe that any safety could
possibly result, if the class appointed to assist a person should
attempt to overcome him. Consider what sort of order could exist in a
house where those in the prime of youth should despise their elders, or
what order in schools, if the students should pay no heed to their
instructors? What health would there be for the sick, if those
indisposed should not obey their physicians in all points, or what
safety for the na