"Orations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cicero Marcus Tullius)

as for the laws which he, in your presence, read, and declared, and
passed,--in the passing of which he gloried, and on which he believed
that the safety of the republic depended, especially those concerning
provinces and concerning judicial proceedings,--can we, I say, we who
defend the acts of Caesar, think that those laws deserve to be upset?

And yet, concerning those laws which were proposed, we have, at all
events, the power of complaining, but concerning those which are
actually passed we have not even had that privilege. For they, without
any proposal of them to the people, were passed before they were
framed. Men ask, what is the reason why I, or why any one of you, O
conscript fathers, should be afraid of bad laws while we have virtuous
tribunes of the people? We have men ready to interpose their veto,
ready to defend the republic with the sanctions of religion. We ought
to be strangers to fear. What do you mean by interposing the veto?
says he, what are all these sanctions of religion which you are
talking about? Those, forsooth, on which the safety of the republic
depends. We are neglecting those things, and thinking them too
old-fashioned and foolish. The forum will be surrounded, every
entrance of it will be blocked up, armed men will be placed in
garrison, as it were, at many points. What then?--whatever is
accomplished by those means will be law. And you will order, I
suppose, all those regularly passed decrees to be engraved on brazen
tablets "The consuls consulted the people in regular form," (Is this
the way of consulting the people that we have received from our
ancestors?) "and the people voted it with due regularity" What people?
that which was excluded from the forum? Under what law did they do so?
under that which has been wholly abrogated by violence and arms? But
I am saying all this with reference to the future, because it is the
part of a friend to point out evils which may be avoided and if they
never ensue, that will be the best refutation of my speech. I am
speaking of laws which have been proposed, concerning which you have
still full power to decide either way. I am pointing out the defects,
away with them! I am denouncing violence and arms, away with them too!

XI. You and your colleague, O Dolabella, ought not, indeed, to be
angry with me for speaking in defence of the republic. Although I do
not think that you yourself will be; I know your willingness to listen
to reason. They say that your colleague, in this fortune of his, which
he himself thinks so good, but which would seem to me more favourable
if (not to use any harsh language) he were to imitate the example set
him by the consulship of his grandfathers and of his uncle,--they say
that he has been exceedingly offended. And I see what a formidable
thing it is to have the same man angry with me and also armed;
especially at a time when men can use their swords with such impunity.
But I will propose a condition which I myself think reasonable, and
which I do not imagine Marcus Antonius will reject. If I have said
anything insulting against his way of life or against his morals,
I will not object to his being my bitterest enemy. But if I have
maintained the same habits that I have already adopted in the