ch. 673.67I find that he spoke there as follows:
Though, Quirites, my own conscience is clear, it is,
nevertheless, with feelings of the deepest shame that
I have come before you. That you should know—that it
will be handed down to posterity—that
the Aequi and Volscians, who were lately hardly
a match for the Hernici, have in the fourth consulship
of T. Quinctius come in arms up to the walls of Rome
with impunity! Although we have long been living in
such a state, although public affairs are in such a
condition, that my mind augurs nothing good, still,
had I known that this disgrace was coming in this
year, of all others, I would have avoided by exile or
by death, had there been no other means of escape, the
honour of a consulship. So then, if those arms which
were at our gates had been in the hands of men worthy
of the name, Rome could have been taken whilst I was
consul! I had enough of honours, enough and more than
enough of life, I ought to have died in my third
consulship. Who was it that those most dastardly foes
felt contempt for, us consuls, or you Quirites? If the
fault is in us, strip us of an office which we are
unworthy to hold, and if that is not enough, visit us
with punishment. If the fault is in you, may there be
no one, either god or man, who will punish your sins;
may you repent of them! It was not your cowardice that
provoked their contempt, nor their valour that gave
them confidence; they have been too often defeated,
put to flight, driven out of their entrenchments,
deprived of their territory, not to know themselves
and you. It is the dissensions between the two orders,
the quarrels between patricians and plebeians that
is poisoning the life of this City. As long as our
power respects no limits, and your liberty
acknowledges no restraints, as long as you are
impatient of patrician, we of plebeian magistrates, so
long has the courage of our enemies been rising. What
in heaven's name do you want? You set your hearts on
having tribunes of the plebs, we yielded, for the sake
of peace. You yearned for decemvirs, we consented to
their appointment; you grew utterly weary of them, we
compelled them to resign. Your hatred pursued them
into private life; to satisfy you, we allowed the
noblest and most distinguished of our order to suffer
death or go into exile. You wanted tribunes of the
plebs to be appointed again; you have appointed them.
Although we saw how unjust it was to the patricians
that men devoted to your interests should be elected
consuls, we have seen even that patrician office
conferred by favour of the plebs The tribunes'
protective authority, the right of appeal to the
people, the resolutions of the plebs made binding on
the patricians, the suppression of our rights and
privileges under the pretext of making the laws equal
for all—these things we have submitted to, and do
submit to. What term is there to be to our
dissensions? When shall we ever be allowed to have a
united City, when will this ever be our common
fatherland? We who have lost, show more calmness and
evenness of temper than you who have won. Is it not
enough that you have made us fear you? It was against
us that the Aventine was seized, against us the Sacred
Hill occupied. When the Esquiline is all but captured
and the Volscian is trying to scale the rampart, no
one dislodges him. Against us you show yourselves men;
against us you take up arms.
