on with the leading men
of the state, march forth through the Esquiline gate, with that same
determined spirit; or, if you do not even venture thus far, behold
from your walls your lands laid waste with fire and sword, booty
driven off, houses set on fire in every direction and smoking. But, I
may be told, it is only the public weal that is in a worse condition
through this: the land is burned, the city is besieged, the glory of
the war rests with the enemy. What in the name of Heaven--what is the
state of your own private affairs? Even now to each of you his own
private losses from the country will be announced. What, pray, is
there at home, whence you can recruit them? Will the tribunes restore
and re-establish what you have lost? Of sound and words they will heap
on you as much as you please, and of charges against the leading men,
laws one after another, and public meetings. But from these meetings
never has one of you returned home more increased in substance or in
fortune. Has any one ever brought back to his wife and children aught
save hatred, quarrels, grudges public and private, from which you may
ever be protected, not by your own valour and integrity, but by the
aid of others? But, by Hercules! When you served under the command of
us consuls, not under tribunes, in the camp and not in the forum, and
the enemy trembled at your shout in the field of battle, not the Roman
patricians in the assembly, having gained booty and taken land from
the enemy, loaded with wealth and glory, both public and private, you
used to return home in triumph to your household gods: now you allow
the enemy to go off laden with your property. Continue fast bound to
your assemblies, live in the forum; the necessity of taking the field,
which you strive to escape, still follows you. It was hard on you to
march against the AEquans and the Volscians: the war is at your gates:
if it is not driven from thence, it will soon be within your walls,
and will scale the citadel and Capitol, and follow you into your very
houses. Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be held, and an
army to be marched out to Algidum; yet we sit down listless at home,
quarrelling with each other like women, delighting in present peace,
and not seeing that after that short-lived inactivity war will return
with interest. That there are other topics more pleasing than these,
I well know; but even though my own mind did not prompt me to it,
necessity obliges me to s