perform then an expiatory sacrifice for Lentulus, let us appease the shade of Cethegus, let us call back their associates from banishment. Let us, if so it must be, in our turn bear the punishment due to too exact a loyalty and to an excessive love of our country. For it is we who are now named by informers, against us charges are invented, for us perils are afoot. . . Well, we see now clearly enough the mind and will of the Roman People. In every way which is open to it the Roman People makes it clear what it thinks; there is no difference of opinion or of wish or of utterance. So if any man summons me to that bar, here I am. I do not refuse the Roman People for judge in this quarrel, nay I claim its decision. Only let force be absent, let swords and stones be kept out of the way, let the hired gangs depart, let the slaves be silent. No one who hears me, if he be but a citizen and a freeman, will be so unfair as not to judge that the question is not of punishment for me, but of reward."[1]
Cicero's demands for a free decision of the people were of course absurd. Cæsar's object was, not to give the Roman People an opportunity of expressing its opinion about the execution of Lentulus, but merely to coerce or to muzzle a dangerous political opponent. Cicero had rejected his offers, and though Cæsar had no wish to hurt Cicero unnecessarily, he had decided that the blow should fall. To this most practical of statesmen it would have appeared the extreme of simplicity to allow his victim a chance of escape. He intended to effect Cicero's
- ↑ Pro Flacco. ch. 38.
