Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)
Page 650
[8] After he had uttered many other reproaches of like nature and withheld neither any bitter fact nor any opprobrious word, he concluded with this declaration — which gave greater offence to the multitude than all the rest — that the commonwealth would never cease being divided into factions over every matter, but would always suffer from some fresh distemper following the old as long as the tribunician power should last. He pointed out that it is important to examine the beginnings of every political and public institution, to see that they shall be righteous and just; for from good seeds are wont to come good and wholesome fruit, and from bad seeds evil and deadly fruit.
[1] εἰ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, ἥδε ἡ ἀρχὴ μεθ᾽ ὁμονοίας εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐπὶ τῷ πάντων ἀγαθῷ παροῦσα σὺν οἰωνοῖς τε καὶ ὀττείαις, πολλῶν ἂν ἡμῖν ἐγίνετο καὶ μεγάλων ἀγαθῶν αἰτία, χαρίτων, ὁμοφροσύνης, εὐνομίας, ἐλπίδων χρηστῶν παρὰ τοῦ δαιμονίου, μυρίων ἄλλων: νῦν δέ, βία γὰρ αὐτὴν εἰσήγαγε καὶ παρανομία καὶ στάσις καὶ πολέμου δέος ἐμφυλίου καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔχθιστα ἐν ἀνθρώποις τί οὖν ἔτι καὶ μέλλει χρηστὸν ἔσεσθαί ποτ᾽ ἢ σωτήριον τοιαύτας λαβούσης τὰς ἀρχάς; ὥστε περίεστιν ἡμῖν ἴασιν καὶ ἀλεξήματα τῶν ἀναβλαστανόντων ἐξ αὐτῆς κακῶν ζητεῖν, ὁπόσα εἰς ἀνθρώπινον πίπτει λογισμόν, μενούσης ἔτι τῆς [p. 354]
[45.1] “If, now,” he said, “this magistracy had been introduced into the commonwealth harmoniously, for the good of all, entering in with the sanction of both omens and religious rites, it would have been the source of many blessings to us — kindly services, harmony, wholesome laws, hopes of blessings from Heaven, and countless any other benefits. But as it is, since it was introduced by violence, lawlessness, sedition, the fear of civil war, and by everything mankind most abhors, what good or salutary thing can one now expect will ever come of it when it had such beginnings? So that it is vain for us to seek for a cure and for the aids which human reason suggests against the evils that are continually springing out of it, so long as the pernicious root remains.
[2] πονηρᾶς ῥίζης. οὐ γὰρ ἔσται πέρας οὐδ᾽ ἀπαλλαγὴ τῶν δαιμονίων χόλων, ἕως ἂν ἥδε ἡ βάσκανος ἐρινὺς καὶ φαγέδαινα ἐγκαθημένη πάντα σήπῃ καὶ διαφθείρῃ τὰ καλά. ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὲρ μὲν τούτων ἕτερος ἔσται λόγος καὶ καιρὸς ἐπιτηδειότερος, νῦν δ᾽ ἐπεὶ τὰ παρόντα εὖ τίθεσθαι χρή, πᾶσαν εἰρωνείαν ἀφεὶς τάδε ὑμῖν λέγω: οὔθ᾽ ὅδε ὁ νόμος οὔτ᾽ ἄλλος οὐδείς, ὃν οὐχ ἡ βουλὴ προβουλεύσει, κύριος ἐπὶ τῆς ἐμῆς ὑπατείας γενήσεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ λόγοις ἀγωνιοῦμαι περὶ τῆς ἀριστοκρατίας, κἂν εἰς τὰ ἔργα δέῃ χωρεῖν οὐδ᾽ ἐν τούτοις τῶν ἐναντιουμένων λελείψομαι: καὶ εἰ μὴ πρότερον ἔγνωτε, ὅσην ἰσχὺν ἔχει τὸ τῶν ὑπάτων κράτος, ἐπὶ τῆς ἐμῆς ἀρχῆς μαθήσεσθε.
[2] For we shall have no end of outbursts of the divine wrath, no deliverance from them, while this malignant curse and cancer, firmly imbedded in our body politic, corrupts and destroys all that is wholesome. But for the discussion of this subject another occasion will be more suitable. For the moment, since it is necessary to compose the present disturbances, I put aside all equivocation and say this to you: Neither this nor any other law shall become valid during my consulship without a preliminary decree of the senate; on the contrary, I will fight for the aristocracy not only with words, but, if it shall be necessary to proceed to deeds, I shall not be outdone by its opponents even in these. And if you did not know before the extent of the consular power, you shall learn it during my term of office.”
[1] Ἄππιος μὲν δὴ ταῦτ᾽ εἶπεν, ἐκ δὲ τῶν δημάρχων ὁ πρεσβύτατος καὶ πλείστου ἀξιώματος τυγχάνων, Γάιος Λαιτώριος, ἀνὴρ ἔν τε τοῖς πολέμοις ἐγνωσμένος εἶναι ψυχὴν οὐ κακὸς καὶ τὰ πολιτικὰ πράττειν οὐκ ἀδύνατος, ἀνίσταται πρὸς ταῦτ᾽ ἀπολογησόμενος: καὶ διῆλθεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ δήμου λόγον πολὺν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενος: ὡς πολλὰς μὲν καὶ χαλεπὰς στρατείας οἱ βλασφημούμενοι πρὸς αὐτοῦ πένητες ἐστρατεύσαντο, οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων, ὅτε τὴν ἀνάγκην ἄν τις ᾐτιάσατο, ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἐκείνων ἐκβολὴν ἐλευθερίαν κτώμενοι τῇ πατρίδι καὶ ἡγεμονίαν: [p. 355]
[46.1] Thus Appius spoke; and, on the side of the tribunes, the oldest and most highly respected, Gaius Laetorius, a man acknowledged to be of no mean courage in warfare and not without ability in public affairs, rose up to answer him; and he delivered a long speech in behalf of the populace, beginning with the earliest times. He showed that the poor whom Appius maligned had made many hard campaigns not only under their kings, when one might say their action was due to compulsion, but also after the expulsion of the kings, when they were acquiring liberty and supremacy for the fatherland.
[2] ἀμοιβὴν δ᾽ οὐδεμίαν ἐκομίσαντο παρὰ τῶν πατρικίων, οὐδ᾽ ἀπήλαυσαν οὐδενὸς τῶν κοινῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς πολέμῳ ἁλόντες ἀφῃρέθησαν ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, ἣν ἀνασώσασθαι βουλόμενοι καταλιπεῖν ἠναγκάσθησαν τὴν πατρίδα πόθῳ γῆς ἑτέρας, ἐν ᾗ τὸ μὴ ὑβρίζεσθαι αὐτοῖς ἐλευθέροις οὖσιν ὑπάρξει: καὶ οὔτε βιασάμενοι τὴν βουλὴν οὔτε πολέμῳ προσαναγκάσαντες εὕροντο τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ σφέτερα κάθοδον, ἀξιούσῃ δὲ καὶ δεομένῃ τὰ ἐκλειφθέντα ἀπολαβεῖν εἴξαντες ἔδωκαν.
[2] But they had received no recompense from the patricians nor enjoyed any of the public advantages, but, like captives taken in war, had been deprived by them even of their liberty, to recover which they had been compelled to leave their country in their yearning for another land in which they might live as free men without being insulted. And they had obtained their return to their possessions neither by offering violence to the senate nor by resorting to the compulsion of war, but by yielding to it when it asked and implored them to receive back their abandoned possessions.
[3] τούς θ᾽ ὅρκους διεξῄει καὶ τὰς συνθήκας τὰς ἐπὶ τῇ καθόδῳ γενομένας ἀνεκαλεῖτο: ἐν αἷς ἦν ἀμνηστία μὲν πρῶτον ἁπάντων, ἔπειτ᾽ ἐξουσία τοῖς πένησιν ἀρχὰς ἀποδεικνύναι, τιμωροὺς μὲν ἐσομένας σφίσιν αὐτοῖς,
[3] He mentioned the oaths and appealed to the terms of the compact which had been made to induce them to return, among which there was, first, a general amnesty, and then for the poor the power of choosing magistrates who should assist them and oppose those who would do violence to them.
[4] τοῖς δὲ κατισχύειν βουλομένοις ἀντιπάλους. διεξελθὼν δὲ ταῦτα τοὺς νόμους ἐπεδείκνυτο, οὓς ὁ δῆμος ἐπεκύρωσεν οὐ πρ�
�� πολλοῦ, τόν τε περὶ τῶν δικαστηρίων τῆς μεταγωγῆς, ὡς ἔδωκεν ἡ βουλὴ τῷ δήμῳ τὴν ἐξουσίαν κρίνειν οὓς ἂν αὐτοῖς δόξειε τῶν πατρικίων, καὶ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ψηφοφορίας, ὃς οὐκ ἔτι τὴν λοχῖτιν ἐκκλησίαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν κουριᾶτιν ἐποίει τῶν ψήφων κυρίαν.
[4] After recounting these matters, he cited the laws which the people had not long before ratified, both the one concerning the transfer of the courts, by which the senate had granted to the people the power to try any of the patricians they should think fit, and also the one concerning the manner of their voting, which no longer made the centuriate assembly, but rather the tribal assembly, responsible for the voting.
[1] διεξελθὼν δὲ τὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ δήμου λόγον, ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ τὸν Ἄππιον: ἔπειτα σὺ τολμᾷς, εἶπε, λοιδορεῖσθαι τούτοις, δι᾽ οὓς μεγάλη μὲν [p. 356] ἐκ μικρᾶς, ἐπιφανὴς δ᾽ ἐξ ἀδόξου γέγονεν ἡ πόλις; καὶ στασιαστὰς ἑτέρους ἀποκαλεῖς καὶ φυγαδικήν τινα τύχην ὀνειδίζεις, ὥσπερ οὐχ ἁπάντων ἔτι τούτων μεμνημένων τὸ καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς, ὅτι στασιάσαντες οἱ σοὶ πρόγονοι πρὸς τοὺς ἐν τέλει καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν πατρίδα καταλιπόντες ἐνθάδ᾽ ἱδρύθησαν ἱκέται; εἰ μὴ ἄρα ὑμεῖς μὲν ἐκλιπόντες τὴν ἑαυτῶν πατρίδα πόθῳ τῆς ἐλευθερίας καλὸν ἔργον ἐπράττετε, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ τὰ
[47.1] When he had finished his defence of the populace, he turned to Appius and said: “After this do you dare revile these men through whom the commonwealth, once small, has become great, and, once obscure, illustrious? And do you call your opponents seditious and reproach them for a fate akin to exile, as if all these men here did not still remember what befel your own family — that your ancestors, having raised a sedition against the authorities and abandoned their country, settled here as suppliants? Unless, indeed, your folk, when they forsook their country through a desire for liberty, did a noble thing, but Romans, when they did the same thing as you, did an ignoble thing!
[2] ὅμοια ὑμῖν δεδρακότες οὐ καλόν. τολμᾷς δὲ καὶ τὴν τῶν δημάρχων ἐξουσίαν ὡς ἐπὶ κακῷ παρεληλυθυῖαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν λοιδορεῖν, καὶ πείθεις τουτουσὶ καταλῦσαι τὴν τῶν πενήτων ἐπικουρίαν τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ ἀκίνητον καὶ μεγάλαις ἠσφαλισμένην ἐκ θεῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀνάγκαις, ὦ μισοδημότατε καὶ τυραννικώτατε; καὶ οὐδὲ τοῦτ᾽ ἄρα ἐδυνήθης μαθεῖν, ὅτι τῇ τε βουλῇ καὶ τῇ σεαυτοῦ ἀρχῇ ταῦτα λέγων λοιδορῇ; καὶ γὰρ ἡ βουλὴ διαναστᾶσα πρὸς τοὺς βασιλεῖς, ὧν οὐκέτι τὰς ὑπερηφανίας καὶ τὰς ὕβρεις ὑποφέρειν ἠξίου, τὸ τῶν ὑπάτων ἀρχεῖον κατεστήσατο, καὶ πρὶν ἐκείνους ἐξελάσαι τῆς πόλεως ἑτέρους ἐποίησε τῆς βασιλικῆς ἐξουσίας κυρίους.
[2] Do you dare also to revile the tribunician power as having been introduced into the commonwealth for a mischievous purpose and do you attempt to persuade these men here to abrogate this sacred and inviolable protection of the poor, safeguarded as it is by powerful sanctions which stem from both gods and men, O greatest enemy of the populace and most tyrannical of men? Have you not been able, then, to learn even this, that in saying these things you traduce both the senate and your own magistracy? For the senate, having risen against the kings, whose arrogance and insults they resolved to bear no longer, established the consulship, and before they had expelled the kings, invested others with the royal authority.
[3] ὥσθ᾽ ἃ περὶ τῆς δημαρχίας λέγεις, ὡς ἐπὶ κακῷ παρεληλυθυίας, ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ διχοστασίας ἔλαβε, ταῦτα καὶ κατὰ τῆς ὑπατείας λέγεις. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκείνην ἄλλη τις εἰσήγαγε πρόφασις, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ
[3] So that everything you say against the tribunician power as having been introduced for a mischievous purpose, since it had its origin in sedition, you say against the consulship also; for there was no other ground for introducing that magistracy than the sedition of the patricians against the kings.
[4] πρὸς τοὺς βασιλεῖς τῶν πατρικίων στάσις. ἀλλὰ τί ταῦτά σοι διαλέγομαι, ὡς χρηστῷ καὶ μετρίῳ πολίτῃ, ὃν ἅπαντες ἴσασιν οὗτοι σκαιὸν ὄντα διὰ γένος καὶ [p. 357] πικρὸν καὶ μισόδημον καὶ τὸ θηριῶδες ὑπὸ φύσεως οὐδέποτ᾽ ἐξημερῶσαι δυνάμενον, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὁμόσε χωρῶ σοι τὰ ἔργα ἐπίπροσθεν ποιησάμενος τῶν λόγων, καὶ δείκνυμι, ὅσην ἰσχὺν ὁ δῆμος ἔχων λέληθέ σε, ὃν οὐκ ᾐσχύνθης ἀνέστιον καὶ ῥυπαρὸν καλῶν, καὶ ὅσον ἥδε ἡ ἀρχὴ δυναμένη, ἥν δε ὁ νόμος ἐκτρέπεσθαι καὶ εἴκειν ἀναγκάζει; παρεὶς δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἅπασαν εἰρωνείαν ἔργου ἕξομαι.
[4] But why do I talk thus with you as with a good and fair-minded citizen, when all these men here know that you are by inheritance mischievous, harsh and an enemy of the populace, and that you can never tame your inborn savagery? Why do I not rather come to grips with you, preferring actions to words, and show you how great is the strength, all unknown to you, of the populace, whom you were not ashamed to call homeless and vile, and how great is the power of this magistracy, to which the law obliges you to give way and submit? I too shall lay aside all equivocation and set to work.”
[1] ταῦτ᾽ εἰπὼν ὅρκον, ὅσπερ μέγιστος αὐτοῖς ἦν, διομοσάμενος ἢ τὸν νόμον ἐπικυρώσειν ἢ τοῦ ζῆν μεθήσεσθαι, σιωπῆς γενομένης ἐκ τοῦ πλήθους καὶ ἐναγωνίου προσδοκίας, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ μέλλει δρᾶν, ἐκέλευσε μεταχωρεῖν ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὸν Ἄππιον. ὡς δ᾽ οὐκ ἐπείθετο, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ῥαβδούχους παραστησάμενος καὶ τὸν ὄχλον, ὃν ἦγε παρασκευασάμενος οἴκοθεν, ἀπεμάχετο μὴ παραχωρῆσαι τῆς ἀγορᾶς, σιωπὴν ὑποκηρυξάμενος ὁ Λαιτώριος ἀνεῖπεν, ὅτι τὸν ὕπατον εἰς φυλακὴν κελεύουσιν ἀπάγειν οἱ δήμαρχοι.
[48.1] Having said this and sworn the strongest oath in use among the Romans that he would either get the law ratified or abandon life, the multitude meanwhile having become silent and being in an agony of expectation concerning what he was going to do, he ordered Appius to leave the assembly. And when Appius, instead of obeying, placed the lictors about him, together with the crowd which he had brought from home for that purpose, and obstinately refused to leave the Forum, Laetorius, after bidding the heralds to command silence, announced that the tribunes ordered the consul to be led away to prison.
[2] καὶ ὁ μὲν ὑπηρέτης κελευσθεὶς ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ προσῆγεν ὡς τοῦ σώματος ἐπιληψόμενος: τῶν δὲ ῥαβδούχων ὁ πρῶτος ἐπιτυχὼν παίων αὐτὸν ἀπήλασε. κραυγῆς δ᾽ ἐκ τῶν παρόντων γενομένης με�
�άλης καὶ ἀγανακτήσεως ἵεται αὐτὸς ὁ Λαιτώριος παρακελευσάμενος τοῖς ὄχλοις ἀμύνειν, καὶ οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἄππιον στῖφος ἔχοντες νέων πολὺ καὶ καρτερὸν ὑφίστανται. καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο λόγοι [p. 358] τ᾽ ἀσχήμονες ἐγένοντο εἰς ἀλλήλους καὶ καταβοαὶ καὶ σωμάτων ὠθισμοί: καὶ τελευτῶσα εἰς χεῖρας ἀπέσκηψεν ἡ ἔρις, καὶ εἰς λίθων ἤρξατο προβαίνειν βολάς.
[2] Upon this the assist by his command advanced in order to seize the person of Appius, but the foremost lictor with a successful blow drove him back. When those present raised a great outcry and showed their resentment, Laetorius himself rushed forward after appealing to the crowds to assist him, while Appius, supported by a numerous and vigorous body of young men, stood his ground. There followed unseemly words between the factions and shouting and the pushing of body against body; and at last the strife broke out into blows and they began to throw stones.
[3] ἐπέσχε δὲ ταῦτα καὶ τοῦ μὴ προσωτέρω χωρῆσαι τὰ δεινὰ Κοίντιος ἅτερος τῶν ὑπάτων αἴτιος ἐγένετο, δεόμενός τε πάντων καὶ λιπαρῶν σὺν τοῖς πρεσβυτάτοις τῶν ἐκ τοῦ συνεδρίου καὶ εἰς μέσους τοὺς ἁψιμαχοῦντας ὠθούμενος. ἦν δὲ καὶ τῆς ἡμέρας τὸ λειπόμενον βραχὺ