Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [78.1] “But why do you not declare openly the terms of your mission and say plainly what you have come to ask? On the strength of what hopes do you ask us to return to the city? The prospect of what kind of fortune awaiting us are we to take to guide us on the way? The prospect of what cheer or joy that is going to receive us? For we have not as yet heard you promise any act of kindness or of benefit — no honours, no magistracies, no relief of our poverty, nor, in a word, anything else whatever. And yet it is not what you intend to do that you should tell us, but what you have already done, in order that, having already some action before us as an earnest of your goodwill, we may infer that the remaining actions will be of like nature. [2] I suppose, though, that they will answer to this that they are come with full powers in all matters, so that whatever we can persuade one another to accept is to be valid. Grant this to be so, and let the natural results follow; I offer no objections. But I desire to learn from them what is to happen afterwards, when we have stated the conditions upon which we think fit to return and these conditions have been accepted by them: Who will stand surety to us for the carrying out of the terms? [3] Trusting to what assurance shall we drop the arms from our hands and put our persons again in the power of these men? Shall we trust to the decrees of the senate that will be drawn up concerning these matters? For surely they have not been drawn up already. And what shall hinder these from being annulled in turn by other decrees, whenever Appius and those of his faction shall think fit? Or shall we trust to the high standing of the envoys who pledge their own good faith? But the senate has already made use of these men to deceive us. Or shall we trust to agreements sworn to by oaths taken in the name of the gods, gaining our assurance from these? But for my part, I am more afraid of this than of any other kind of assurance men can give, because I observe that it is treated contemptuously by those in positions of command, and because I understand, not now for the first time, but as the result of many experiences in the past, that forced agreements made by men desirous of ruling with those who strive to retain their freedom last only as long as the necessity exists which compelled those agreements. [4] What kind of friendship, therefore, and good faith is that under which we shall be obliged to court one another against our will while we each are watching for our own opportunities? And after this will come suspicions and continual accusations of one another, jealousies and hatreds and every other kind of evil, and a constant struggle to see which of us shall first effect the destruction of his adversary, each believing that in delay lies disaster.

  [79.1] “There is no greater evil, as all are aware, than civil war, in which the conquered are unfortunate and the conquerors are unjust, and it is the fate of the former to be destroyed by their dearest ones, and of the latter to destroy those who are dearest to them. To such misfortunes and to such abhorred calamities do not summon us, patricians, nor let us, plebeians, answer their summons, but let us acquiesce in the fate which has separated us. No, let them have the whole city to themselves and enjoy it without us, and let them reap alone every other advantage after they have driven the humble and obscure plebeians from the fatherland. As for us, let us depart whithersoever Heaven shall conduct us, feeling that we are leaving an alien place and not our own city. [2] For there remains to none of us here either an allotment of land, or an ancestral hearth, or common sacrifices, or any position of dignity, such as one would possess in one’s fatherland, the desire for which things might induce us to cling to this country even against our will; nay we have not even the liberty of our own persons which we have purchased with many hardships. For some of these advantages have been destroyed by the many wars, some have been consumed by the scarcity of the necessaries of daily life, and of others we have been robbed by these haughty money-lenders, for whom we poor wretches are at last obliged to till our own allotments, digging, planting, ploughing, tending flocks, and becoming fellow-slaves with our own slaves taken by us in war, some of us being bound with chains, some with fetters, and others, like the most savage of wild beasts, dragging wooden clogs and iron balls. [3] I same nothing of the tortures and insults, the stripes, the labours from dawn till dark, and every other cruelty, violence, and insolence that we have undergone. Accordingly, now that we are freed by Heaven from so many and great evils, let us gladly fly from them with all the eagerness and ability each of us possesses, taking as the guides of our journey Fortune and the god who ever preserve us, and looking upon our liberty as our country and our valour as our wealth. For any land will receive us as partners, since we shall be no cause of offence in any case to those who receive us, and in some cases shall actually be of service.

  [80.1] “Of this let many Greeks and many barbarians serve us as examples, particularly the ancestors of both these men and ourselves; some of whom, leaving Asia with Aeneas, came into Europe and built a city in the country of the Latins, and others, coming as colonists from Alba under the leadership of Romulus, built in these parts the city we are now leaving. [2] We have with us forces not merely a left larger than they had, but actually three times their number, and a more just cause for removing. For those who removed from Troy were driven out by enemies, but we are driven hence by friends; and it is a more pitiable experience doubtless to be expelled by one’s own people than by foreigners. [3] Those who took part in the expedition of Romulus scorned the country of their ancestors in the hope of acquiring a better; but we, who are abandoning the life which had for us no city and no hearth, are going forth as a colony that will be neither hateful to the gods nor troublesome to men nor grievous to any country, and moreover we have not inflicted blood-shed and slaughter upon the kinsmen who are driving us forth, nor have we laid waste with fire and sword the country we are leaving, nor left behind any other memorial of an everlasting hatred, as is the usual practice of people who are driven into exile in violation of treaties and reduced to unenviable straits. [4] And calling to witness the gods and other divinities who direct all human affairs with justice, and leaving it to them to avenge our wrongs, we make but this one request, that those of us who have left in the city infant children and parents, and wives, in case these shall be willing to share our fortunes, may get them back. We are satisfied to receive these, and we ask for naught else besides from our fatherland. But fare you well and lead the life you choose, you who are so unwilling to associate as fellow-citizens and to share your blessings with those of humbler estate.”

  [81] With these words Brutus ended his speech. All who were present regarded as true everything he said about principles of justice, as also the charges he made respecting the arrogance of the senate, but particularly what he said to show that the assurance offered for the performance of the agreement was full of fraud and deceit. But when at the last he described the abuses which the people had suffered at the hands of the money-lenders, and put every man in mind of his own misfortunes, no one was so stout of heart as not to be melted away by tears and to bewail their common calamities. And not only the people were affected in this manner, but likewise those who had come from the senate; for even the envoys could not restrain their tears when they considered the misfortunes that had arisen from the breaking up of the city, and for a long time they stood with eyes downcast and full of tears, and at a loss what to say. [2] But after this great lamentation had ceased and silence fell upon the assembly, there came forward to answer these accusations a man who seemed to excel the rest of the citizens in both age and rank. This was Titus Larcius, who had twice been chosen consul and had of all men made the best use of the power called the dictatorship, causing that invidious magistracy to be looked upon as sacred and worthy of all respect. [3] He, undertaking to speak to the point of justice, now censured the money-lenders for having acted with cruelty and inhumanity, and now reproached the poor for unjustly demanding to be relieved of their debts through violence rather than as a favour, and told them they were in the wrong to direct their anger against the senate for their failure to obtain any reasonable concession from that body, instead of against tho
se who were really to blame, [4] He also endeavoured to show that, while there was a small part of the people whose offence was involuntary and who were forced by their extreme poverty to demand the remission of their debts, yet the greater part of them were abandoned to licence and insolence and a life of pleasure, and were prepared to gratify their desires by robbing others; and he thought a difference ought to be made between the unfortunate and the depraved, and between those who needed kindness and those who deserved hatred. And though he advanced other arguments of this kind, which, while true enough, were not pleasing to all his hearers, he could not persuade them; but everything he said was received with a great murmur, some being indignant at his opening their griefs afresh, and others owning that he concealed no part of the truth; but the latter group was much smaller than the other, so that it was drowned out by numbers, and the clamour of the indignant group prevailed.

  [82.1] After Larcius had added a few more remarks to those I have reported and had reproached the people for their uprising and the precipitancy of their resolutions, Sicinius, who was then at the head of the populace, replied and inflamed their passions still more, saying that from these words of Larcius in particular they might learn what honours and gratitude would await them when they returned to their country. [2] “For if to those who are in the direst straits, who are imploring the assistance of the people, come hither for that purpose, it does not occur even now to speak words of moderation and humanity, what sentiments must we expect them to entertain when things have succeeded according to their wishes, and when those who are now insulted by their words become subject to their deeds? From what arrogance, from what abusive treatment, from what tyrannical cruelty will they refrain? [3] But if you are contented to be slaves all your lives, to be bound, scourged, and destroyed by fire, sword, famine, and every other abuse, don’t waste any time, but throw down your arms, offer your hands to be bound behind you, and follow them. But if you have any craving for liberty, do not bear with them. And as for you, envoys, either state the terms upon which you summon us or, if you will not do so, withdraw from the assembly. For after this we shall not give you leave to speak.”

  [83.1] When he had ceased speaking, all present shouted uproariously, showing that they approved of his reasoning and agreed with him. Then, when silence prevailed, Menenius Agrippa, he who had delivered the speech in the senate in behalf of the people and had, more than any other, brought about, by the motion he had offered, the sending of the envoys clothed with full powers, signified that he too wished to speak. The people looked upon this as the best thing they could ask, and now at least expected to hear proposals tending to a sincere accommodation and advice salutary to both parties. [2] And first they all roared their approval, calling to him with a great shout to speak; then they became quiet, and so great silence prevailed in the assembly that the place was as hushed as a desert. He seemed to employ in general the most persuasive arguments possible and those which gauged well the inclinations of his audience; and at the end of his speech he is said to have related a kind of fable that he composed after the manner of Aesop and that bore a close resemblance to the situation of the moment, and by this means chiefly to have won them over. For this reason his speech is thought worthy of record and it is quoted in all the ancient histories. His discourse was as follows:

  [3] “We have been sent to you by the senate, plebeians, neither to excuse them nor to accuse you (for neither of these courses seemed to be opportune or suited to the conditions now disturbing the commonwealth), but to use every effort and every means to put an end to the sedition and to restore the government to its original form; and for that purpose we are invested with full powers. So that we do not think it at all necessary to discourse at great length, as Junius here has done, concerning principles of justice; but as regards the humane terms on which we think we ought to put an end to the sedition, and the assurance you shall have for the performance of our agreement, we shall tell you the decisions to which we have come. [4] When we considered that every sedition in any state is cured only when the causes that produced the disagreement are removed, we thought it necessary both to discover and to put an end to the primary causes of this dissension. And having found that the harsh exactions of debts have been the cause of the present ills, we are reforming those exactions as follows: We think it just that all those who have contracted debts and are unable to pay them should be relieved of their obligations; and if the persons of any who are default in their payments are already held under restraint by the limit for payment prescribed by law, it is our decision that these also shall be free. As for those who have been convicted in private suits and handed over to the creditors who won their suits against them, it is our wish that these also shall be free, and we set aside their sentences. [5] With regard to your debts of the past, therefore, which seemed to us to have led to your secession, we redress them in this manner; as to your future debts, whatever shall be approved of both by you, the people, and by the senate in joint consultation, after a law has been passed for that purpose, let it be so ordered. Are not these the things, plebeians, that divided you from the patricians? And did you not think it enough if you obtained these, without aiming at anything else? They are now granted to you. Return, then, to your country with joy.

  [84.1] “The assurances which shall confirm this agreement and secure to you the performance of it shall all be according to law and conformable to the practice of those who put an end to their enmities. The senate will confirm these arrangements by a vote and give the force of law to the conditions that shall be drawn up, But rather let your demands be drawn up by you here, and the senate will agree to them. [2] That the concessions now made to you will stand firm and unchanged and that nothing contrary to them shall be carried out later by the senate, first, we envoys are your sureties, giving you our persons, our lives, and our families as pledges; and in the next place, all the other senators who shall be named in the decree. For no decree will ever be drawn up contrary to the interests of the people so long as we oppose it, since we are the leading members of the senate and always deliver our opinions first. [3] The last assurance we shall give you is that in use among all men, both Greeks and barbarians, which no lapse of time shall ever overthrow, namely, the one which through oaths and treaties makes the gods sureties for the performance of agreements. Under this assurance many bitter enmities between private individuals and many wars that have arisen between states have been composed. Come now, accept this assurance also, whether you permit a few of the principal members of the senate to give your their oaths in the name of their whole body, or think fit that all the senators who are named in the decree shall swear over the sacrificial victims to maintain the agreement inviolable. [4] Do not traduce, Brutus, assurances given under the sanction of the gods and confirmed by the pledging of hands and by treaties, nor destroy the noblest of all human institutions; and as for you, plebeians, do not permit him to mention the wicked deeds of impious and tyrannical men, deeds far removed from the virtue of the Romans.

  [85.1] “I shall mention one other assurance which no man fails to know or questions, and then have done. And what is that? It is the assurance that introduces the common advantage and preserves both parts of the state through their mutual assistance. This, after all, is the first and only assurance that draws us together, and it will never permit us to be sundered from each other. For the ignorant multitude will always need and never cease to need prudent leadership, while the senate, which is capable of leadership, will always need multitudes willing to be ruled. This we know, not merely as a matter of opinion and conjecture, but also by actual experience. [2] Why, then, do we terrify and trouble one another? Why do we speak evil words when we have kindly deeds in our power? Why do we not rather open our arms and, embracing one another, return to our country to find there our old-time enjoyment of the dearest pleasures and the satisfaction of a yearning that is sweetest of all, instead of seeking securities that come to naught and faithless assurances, as do the
deadliest foes who suspect the worst of everything? As for us of the senate, plebeians, one assurance suffices, that you will never, if you return, behave yourselves badly toward us, and that is the knowledge we have of your excellent rearing, of your law-abiding habits, and of all your other virtues, of which you have given many proofs both in peace and in war. [3] And if, in consequence of the need of assurance and hope, the contracts should be revised by us jointly, we are confident that in all other respects at least you will be good citizens, and we have no need of either oaths or hostages or any other assurances from the people. However, we shall oppose you in nothing you desire. Concerning the matter of assurances, then, upon which subject Brutus endeavoured to malign us, this is enough. But if any groundless hatred is implanted in your minds, causing you to entertain a bad opinion of the senate, I desire to speak to that point also, plebeians, and I beg of you in the name of the gods to hear me with silence and attention.