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which has thus laid you under the necessity of fighting, has set before your eyes those rewards of victory, than which no man was ever wont to wish for greater from the immortal gods. Should we, by our valour, recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravished from our fathers, these would be no inconsiderable prizes. Yet what are these? The wealth of Rome, whatever riches she has heaped together in the spoils of nations, all these, with the | masters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed in driving the cattle upon the vast mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia—you have hitherto met with no reward worthy of the labours and dangers you have undergone. The time is now come, to reap the full recompense of your toilsome marches over so many mountains and rivers, and through so many nations, all of them in arms. This is the place which fortune has appointed to be the limits of your labours; it is here that you will finish your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompense of your completed service. For I would not have you imagine that victory will be as difficult as the name of a Roman war is great and sounding. It has often happened that a despised enemy has given a bloody battle, and the most renowned kings and nations have by a small force been overthrown. And if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there wherein they may stand in competition with you? For (to say nothing of your service in war for twenty years together, with so much valour and success) from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmost bounds of the earth, through so many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw soldiers, an undisciplined army, beaten, vanquished, besieged by the Gauls the very last summer, an army unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him.

Or shall I, who was born, I might almost say, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general-shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themselves shall I compare myself with this half-year captain-a captain, before whom

should one place the two armies without their ensigns, I am persuaded he would not know to which of them he is consul? I esteem it no small advantage, soldiers, that there is not one among you who has not often been an eye-witness of my exploits in war-not one, of whose valour I myself have not been a spectator, so as to be able to name the times and places of his noble achievements; that with soldiers, whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whose pupil I was before I became their general, I shall march against an army of men, strangers to one another.

On what side soever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and strength; a veteran infantry; a most gallant cavalry; you, my allies, most faithful and valiant; you, Carthaginians, whom not only your country's cause, but the justest anger impels to battle. The hope, the courage of assailants is always greater than those who act upon the defensive. With hostile banners displayed, you are come down upon Italy; you bring the war. Grief, injuries, indignities fire your minds, and spur you forward to revenge! First they demanded me-that I, your general, should be delivered up to them; next all of you, who had fought at the siege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to death by the extremest tortures. Proud and cruel nation! Everything must be yours, and at your disposal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we shall make war, with whom we shall make peace! You are to set us bounds, to shut us up within hills and rivers; but you-you are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed. Pass not the Iberus. What next? Touch not the Saguntines; is Saguntum upon the Iberus? Move not a step toward that city. Is it a small matter, then, that you have deprived us of our ancient possessions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too? Well, we shall yield Spain! and thenyou will pass into Africa. Will pass, did I say y? This very year they ordered one of their consuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, soldiers, there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our swords. Come on, then. Be men. The Romans may with more safety be cowards they have their own country behind them, have places of refuge to flee to, and are secure from danger

in the roads thither; but for you there is no middle fortune between death and victory. Let this be but well fixed in your minds, and once again, I say, you are conquerors.

JUNIUS BRUTUS OVER THE DEAD BODY
OF LUCRETIA.

YES, noble lady! I swear by this blood, which was once so pure, and which nothing but royal villany could have polluted, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius the proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and sword; nor will I ever suffer any of that family, or of any other whatsoever, to be king in Rome. Ye gods, I call you to witness this my oath! There, Romans, turn your eyes to that sad spectacle the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus' wifeshe died by her own hand.

See there a noble lady, whom the lust of a Tarquin reduced to the necessity of being her own executioner, to attest her innocence! Hospitably entertained by her as a kinsman of her husband's, Sextus, the perfidious guest, became her brutal ravisher. The chaste, the generous

Lucretia could not survive the insult.

Glorious woman!

but once only treated as a slave, she thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, disdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, shall men, with such an example before our eyes, and after five-and-twenty years of ignominious servitude, shall we, through a fear of dying, defer one single instant to assert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have so long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The patricians are at the head of the enterprise. The city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things necessary. There is nothing wanting to secure the success, if our own courage do not fail us. Can all these warriors, who have ever been so brave when foreign enemies were to be subdued, or when conquests were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards when they are to deliver themselves from slavery? Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The soldiers, you imagine, will

take the part of their general. Banish so groundless a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men. Your fellow-citi

zens in the camp feel the weight of oppression with as quick a sense as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly seize the occasion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant that there may be some among them who, through E baseness of spirit or a bad education, will be disposed to to favour the tyrant, the number of these can be but small, and we have means sufficient in our hands to reduce them to reason. They have left us hostages more dear to them than life their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans! The gods are for us- -those gods, whose temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned with sacrifices and libations. made with polluted hands-polluted with blood, and with numberless unexpiated crimes committed against his subjects. Ye gods, who protected our forefathers, ye genii, who watch for the preservation and glory of Rome, do you inspire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious cause! and we will, to our last breath, defend your worship from profanation!

ORATION AGAINST CATILINE.

CATILINE, how far art thou to abuse our forbearance ? How long are we to be deluded by the mockery of thy madness? Where art thou to stop, in this career of unbridled licentiousness? Has the nightly guard at the Palatium nothing in it to alarm you; the patrols throughout the city, nothing; the confusion of the people, nothing; the assemblage of all true lovers of their country, nothing; the guarded majesty of this assembly, nothing; and all the eyes that at this instant are rivetted upon yours-have they nothing to denounce, nor you to apprehend? not your conscience inform you, that the sun shines upon your secrets? And do you not discover a full knowledge of your conspiracy, revealed on the countenance of every man around you? Your employment on the last night—your occupations on the preceding night-the place where you met-the persons who met and the plot fabricated at the

Does

the mediators between me and thee; for, at present, you are much too near me. I will not suffer you, I will not longer undergo you.

Lucius Catiline, away! Begin as soon as you are able this shameful and unnatural war. Begin it, on your part, under the shade of every dreadful omen; on mine, with the sure and certain hope of safety to my country, and glory to myself: and, when this you have done, then, do Thou, whose altar was first founded by the founder of our state-Thou, the establisher of this city, pour out thy vengeance upon this man, and all his adherents. Save us from his fury; our public altars, our sacred temples, our houses, and household gods, our liberties, our lives. Pursue, tutelar god, pursue them, these foes to the gods and goodness- these plunderers of Italy-these assassins of Rome. Erase them out of this life; and in the next let thy vengeance pursue them, insatiable, implacable, immortal!

ORATION AGAINST VERRES.

THE time is come, fathers, when that which has long been wished for, towards allaying the envy your order has been subject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is (not by human contrivance, but superior direction) effectually put in our power. An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewise in foreign countries, both dangerous to you and pernicious to the state, namely: "that in prosecutions, men of wealth are always safe, however clearly convicted." There is now to be brought upon his trial before you, to the confusion, I hope, of the propagators of this slanderous imputation, one, whose life and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial persons; but who, according to his own reckoning, and declared dependance upon his riches, is already acquitted; I mean Caius Verres. I have undertaken this prosecution, fathers, at the general desire, and with the great expectation of the Roman people; not that I might draw envy upon that illustrious order of which the accused happens to be, but with the direct design of clearing your justice and impartiality before the world. For I have brought upon his trial

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