the rights of peace. Of course! since you cannot be safe and fully protected under Sulla's dominion, unless Vettius of Picenum and the clerk Cornelius[1] may squander the goods which others have honestly acquired; unless you all approve the proscription of innocent men because of their wealth, the tortures of distinguished citizens, a city depopulated by exile and murder, the goods of wretched citizens sold or given away as if they were the spoils of the Cimbri. Sulla blames me for having possessions which are derived from the goods of the proscribed. But in fact it is the very greatest of his crimes that neither I nor anyone else would have been safe if we did what was right. Moreover, the property which at that time I bought through fear and paid for I nevertheless restore now to its rightful owners, and it is not my purpose to allow any booty to be taken from the citizens. Let it be enough to have endured what our frenzy has brought about—Roman armies pitted against each other, our arms turned away from the enemy and against ourselves. Let there be an end to crime and outrage; of which, however, Sulla is so far from repenting that he counts them among his titles to glory, and, if he were allowed, would more eagerly do them again.
But now I care no longer what you think of him, but what you dare; for while you are all waiting for someone else to assume the lead, I fear lest you may be caught, not by his forces, which are insignificant and degenerate, but through your own indifference, which allows him to continue his course of rapine and to seem fortunate[2] in proportion to his audacity. For with the exception of his crime-stained minions,
