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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [22.1] “That the populace seceded, after hims, not because of necessity and want, but because they were elated by the mischievous hope of destroying your aristocracy and of becoming themselves masters of the commonwealth, I think has become clear to nearly all of you when you observe the advantages which they gained by the accommodation. For they were not content, after they had destroyed the good faith which gave validity to their contracts and had abolished the laws made to secure it, to carry their meddling no farther, but introducing a new magistracy designed to overthrow that of the consuls, they made it sacred and inviolable by law, and have now, unobserved by you, senators, been acquiring a tyrannical power through this newly-enacted law. [2] For when their leaders, in their great power putting forward the specious pretence of coming to the aid of such plebeians as are wronged, sack and pillage whatever they please by virtue of that power, and when there is no man, either private citizen or magistrate, who will oppose their lawless deeds for fear of this law, which destroys even our liberty of speech as well as of action by imposing the penalty of death on all who utter a word befitting freemen, what other name ought to be given by sensible men to this domination but that which is the true one and which you would all own to be such, namely, a tyranny? And if we are under the tyranny, not of one man, but of a whole populace, what is the difference? For the effect of both is the same. [3] It would have been best, therefore, never to have permitted even the seed of this power to be sown, but rather to have submitted to everything, as the excellent Appius, who foresaw these mischiefs from afar, advised. But if that could not be, we ought now at least with one accord to pluck it up by the roots and cast it out of the city while it is yet weak and easily combatted. [4] And we are not the first or the only persons to whom this experience has come, senators, but oft-times in the part many who have been reduced to unenviable straits and have failed to take the best counsel in matters of the greatest consequence, since they did not check the beginnings of the evil, have endeavoured to prevent its growth. And the repentance of those who are late in beginning to be wise, though inferior to foresight, yet, when viewed in another light, is seen to be no less valuable, since it wipes out the error originally made in ignorance by preventing its consequences.

  [23.1] “But if any of you, while looking upon the actions of the populace as outrageous and believing that they ought to be prevented from making any further mistakes, are nevertheless afraid of seeming to be the first to violate the agreement and transgress the oaths, let them know that, since they will not be the aggressors but will be repelling aggression, and will not be violating the agreement but rather punishing the violators of it, they will not only be guiltless towards the gods, but will also be doing an act of justice while they consult their own interest. [2] And let this be a strong argument that it is not you who are taking the first steps to break the agreement and violate treaty, but rather the plebeian element, by not observing the conditions upon which they obtained their return. For, after asking for the tribunician power, not in order to injure the senate, but to secure themselves from being injured by the senate, they no longer employ this power for the purposes they ought or on the terms on which they obtained it, but for the overthrow and destruction of the established government. [3] For surely you recall the recent assembly of the people and the harangues there made by their demagogues, what arrogance and unruliness they showed, and how these infatuated men vaunt themselves now, since they have discovered that the whole control of the commonwealth lies in the vote, which they will control, being more numerous than we. [4] What, therefore, remains for us to do, now that they have begun to violate the compact and the law, but to repel to attacks of the aggressors, to deprive them justly of what they now unjustly possess, and for the future to put a stop to their craving for ever more and more? And we should return thanks to the gods for not having permitted them, when they had gained an unfair advantage at first, to act after that with moderation, but for having inspired them with this shamelessness and officiousness which have forced you to endeavour both to recover the rights you have lost and to guard with due care those that remain.

  [24] “The present opportunity is favourable as no other, if you really intend to begin to act with wisdom, since the greater part of the plebeians are now reduced to dire straits by the famine and the rest cannot hold out for want of money if they find proves scarce and dear. The worst of them and those who were never pleased with the aristocracy will be forced to leave the city, and the more reasonable will be compelled to behave themselves in an orderly manner without giving you any further trouble. [2] Keep the provisions, therefore, under guard, and abate nothing of the price of commodities, but pass a vote that they shall now be sold at as high a price as ever. For this you have just grounds and plausible excuses in the ungrateful clamour of the populace to the effect that the scarcity of corn was contrived by you, whereas it was occasioned by their own revolt and the desolation of the country which they caused when they pillaged it just as if it had been the territory of an enemy; and again in the disbursements from the treasury to the men sent to purchase corn, and in many other instances in which you have been wronged by them. By this means we shall also know at last what that grievous treatment is which they are going to inflict upon us if we refuse to gratify the people in everything, as their demagogues threatened in order to frighten us. [3] But if you let this opportunity also slip from your grasp, you will often pray for such another. Moreover, if the people should become aware that you desired to overthrow their power but were deterred, they will bear down much harder upon you, looking upon your desire as a proof of enmity and upon your inability to carry it out as evidence of cowardice.”

  [25] After this speech of Marcius the opinions of the senators were divided and a great tumult arose among them. For those who from the beginning had opposed the plebeians and submitted to the accommodation against their will, among whom were almost all the youth and the richest and most ambitious of the older senators, some of them resenting the losses sustained in the loans they had made under contract and others their defeat when they sought office, applauded Marcius as a man of spirit and a lover of his country, who advised what was best for the commonwealth. [2] On the other hand, the senators whose sympathies were with the populace and who set no undue value on riches and thought nothing was or necessary than peace, were offended at his speech and rejected his advice. These maintained that they ought to surpass the humbler citizens, not in violence, but in kindness, and that they ought to regard reasonableness as not unbecoming, but necessary, particularly when it was manifested out of goodwill towards their fellow-citizens; and they declared that the advice of Marcius was madness, not frankness of speech or liberty. But this group was small and weak, and hence was overborne by the more violent party. [3] The tribunes, seeing this — for they were present in the senate at the invitation of the consuls — cried out and were in great conflict of mind, calling Marcius the pest and bane of the state for uttering malicious words against the populace; and unless the patricians should prevent his design of introducing civil war into the state by punishing him with death or banishment, they said they would do so themselves. [4] When a still greater tumult arose at these words of the tribunes, particularly on the part of the younger senators, who bore their threats with impatience, Marcius, inspired by these manifestations, now attacked the tribunes with greater arrogance and boldness, saying to them: “Unless you cease disturbing the commonwealth and stirring up the poor by your harangues, I shall no longer oppose you with words, but with deeds.”

  [26.1] The senate being now embittered, the tribunes, finding that those who desired to take away the power granted to the people outnumbered those who advised adhering to the agreement, rushed out of the senate-house shouting and calling upon the gods who had been witnesses to their oaths. After this they assembled the people, and having acquainted them with the speech made by Marcius in the senate, they summoned him to make his defence. [2] But when he paid no regard to them, but
repulsed with abusive words the attendants by whom he was summoned, the tribunes grew still more indignant, and taking with them the aediles and many other citizens, ran to seize him; he chanced to be still standing before the senate-house, attended by a large number of the patricians and by the rest of his faction. [3] When the tribunes caught sight of him, they ordered the aediles to lay hold of his person and, if he refused to follow them, to bring him away by force. The aediles at that time were Titus Junius Brutus and Gaius Visellius Ruga. These advanced with the intention of seizing him; but the patricians, looking upon it as a terrible thing that any one of their number should be forcibly carried away by the tribunes before being tried, placed themselves in front of Marcius, and striking all who approached him, drove them away. [4] The news of this occurrence having been spread through the whole city, all rushed out of their houses, the magistrates and the men of means with the purpose of assisting the patricians in protecting Marcius and of recovering their ancient form of government, and those of humble condition and straitened circumstances prepared to aid the tribunes and to carry out any orders they might give. And the feeling of respect, which had hitherto restrained them from venturing to commit any lawless acts against one another, they had now abandoned. However, they did not commit any irreparable deed that day, but postponed a decision until the following day, out of deference to the advice and exhortations of the consuls.

  [27.1] The next day the tribunes were the first to descend to the Forum; and assembling the people, they came forward one after the other and preferred many charges against the patricians, alleging that they had violated their treaty and transgressed the oaths by which they had promised the people to forget and forgive the past. As proofs that they were not sincerely reconciled to the plebeians they pointed to the scarcity of corn which the patricians had brought about, to the sending out of the two colonies, and to all the other things they had contrived with a view to diminishing the number of the populace. [2] After that they inveighed violently against Marcius, repeating the words he had spoken in the senate, and told them that, when he was summoned by the people to make his defence before them, he had not only not deigned to come, but had even driven away with blows the aediles who came to fetch them. They summoned, as witnesses of what had passed in the senate, the most honoured members of that body, and, as witnesses of the insult offered to the aediles, all the plebeians who had been present at the time in the Forum. [3] Having spoken thus, they gave leave to the patricians to make their defence if they wished; and for that purpose they kept the people together till the senate should be dismissed. For it happened that the patricians were holding a session concerning this very matter, debating whether they should clear themselves to the people of the charges that had been brought against them or should remain quiet. When the majority of the opinions inclined to humane rather than to stubborn measures, the consuls dismissed the meeting and came to the Forum with the intention both of refuting the charges brought against their whole order and of asking the people not to come to any irreparable decision against Marcius. And Minucius, the older of the consuls, coming forward, spoke as follows:

  [28.1] “Our defence as regards the scarcity is a very brief one, plebeians, and we shall offer no other witnesses than you yourselves to prove the truth of what we allege. For surely even you yourselves know that the land produced no crops of grain for the reason that none was sown. And as for the general ruin of the land, you have no need to be informed by others to what cause it was due and by what means at last the largest and the most fertile part of the land has come to lack all crops, slaves, and cattle — partly because it was being laid waste by the enemy and partly because it was incapable of supplying you who are so numerous and have no other resource. [2] Believe, then, that the famine was occasioned, not by what your demagogues charge, but by what you yourselves know to be true, and cease to attribute this misfortune to plotting on our part and to be angry with us when we are guilty of no wrongdoing. [3] As to the colonists, there was a necessity for sending them out since it was the unanimous decision of all of you to garrison places that will be of use in time of war; and sending them out when the occasion was so very urgent has proved of great advantage both to those who went out and to you who are left behind. For the colonists enjoy there a greater plenty of all the necessaries of life, and those who remain here suffer less from the scarcity of provisions; and the principle of impartiality in sharing the decrees of Fortune, to which we patricians submitted along with you plebeians when we chose the colonists by lot, is not open to censure.

  [29.1] “What, then, possesses the demagogues to find fault with us for those things in which both our opinions and our fortunes are the same, whether they are hurtful, as they say, or advantageous, as we think. [2] As to the accusations they have made against us in connection with the recent meeting of the senate, to the effect that we did not think fit to show any moderation in the matter of the price of provisions, that we were plotting to abolish the tribunician power, that we still resented your secession and were eager to injure the plebeians in every way, and all the other like charges, we shall soon refute them by our actions, not only in doing you no injury, but also in confirming even now the tribunician power upon the same terms on which we then granted it to you, and in selling the corn at such price as you shall all of you determine. Have patience, therefore, and if any of these things are not performed, accuse us then. [3] But if you will carefully examine our differences, you will find that we patricians have greater reason to accuse the people than you have to blame the senate. For you wrong us, plebeians, — and be not offended at being told this, — if without waiting to learn the outcome of our deliberations you think fit to find fault with them already. [4] Yet who does not know that it would be the easiest of all things for anyone who wished to do so to destroy and abolish from a state the spirit of harmony by charging others with designs of which the proof, being still in the future and not yet mag, is no safeguard to the accused against suffering some injustice, but rather an excuse to the accuser for doing an injustice? [5] And it is not your leaders alone who deserve censure for accusing and calumniating the senate, but you yourselves no less than they for giving cdid to them and resenting injuries before experiencing them. For what you ought to have done, if it was future acts of injustice that you feared, was to reserve your anger for the future also; but, as matters stand, it appears that you have reached your decision with greater haste than prudence and are assuming that greater safety lies in greater baseness.

  [30.1] “Concerning the acts of injustice with which the tribunes have charged the senate as a body, I think what I have said sufficient. But since they also calumniate every one of us individually for whatever we say in the senate and charge that we are dividing the state, and since they are now endeavour you to put to death or banish Gaius Marcius, a man who loves his country and who expressed himself with frankness in discussing the public interests, I wish to tell you the rights of this matter also; and I ask you to consider whether what I shall say is not fair-minded and true. [2] When you, plebeians, were treating for a reconciliation with the senate, you thought it enough for you to be discharged of your debts, and you desired leave to choose magistrates out of your own body to protect the poor from oppression; and when you obtained both these things, you were very grateful to us. But to undermine the office of the consuls, to take away the authority of the senate to protect the interests of the commonwealth, or to overthrow the established form of government are things you neither asked nor intended to ask. [3] What possesses you, then, that you attempt now to upset all these institutions? Or relying upon what principle of justice do you seek to take away the offices which belong to us? For if you are going to make it dangerous for the senators to express their sentiments with frankness, what fairness is to be expected from the language of your leaders? Or relying upon what law will they undertake to punish any of the patricians with death or banishment? For neither the old laws nor the agreements recently made with the se
nate give you this power. [4] But to transgress the bounds prescribed by the laws and to render force superior to justice is the mark, not of a democracy, but, if you desire to hear the truth, of a tyranny. For my part, I should advise you, while giving up none of the benefits which you obtained from the senate, not to lay claim, either, to any now which you did not then demand when you were treating for a reconciliation with them.

  [31.1] “But in order to make it still more plain to you that your demagogues are making demands that are neither moderate nor just, but are aiming at illegal in impossible ends, pray transfer the situation to yourselves and consider it in this light: Imagine that the senators are accusing your political leaders of delivering in your assembly malicious speeches against the senate, of endeavouring to overthrow the established aristocracy, of raising a sedition in the state — all of which they could assert with truth, since they are doing all these things — and, worst of all, of aiming at greater power than was granted tom, in attempting to put to death without a trial anyone of our number they please; and imagine that the senators declare that the persons guilty of these crimes are to be put to death with impunity. [2] How would you bear this arrogance of the senate? And what would you say? Would you not become indignant and complain that you were treated outrageously if anyone deprives you of your freedom of speech and of your liberty by threatening to visit the extreme penalty upon any who have spoken frankly in behalf of the people? [3] You cannot deny that you would. Then do you think it reasonable that others should bear what you yourselves would not submit to? Are these purposes of yours, plebeians, becoming to citizens and do they show moderation? By making such demands do you not yourselves confirm the truth of the charges brought against you and show that those who advise us not to permit your lawless domination to gain new strength have at heart the rights of the commonwealth? So it seems to me, at least. [4] But if you desire to do just the opposite of what you have been charged with doing, follow my advice, moderate your behaviour, and bear as fellow-citizens should, rather than with ill humour, the words which give you offence. For if you do this, you will have a double advantage: you will be regarded as good men and those who are hostile to you will repent.