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Cato! More speech fragments follow.
Regarding the false fights, Against Q. Minicius Thermus
[Thermus] said that the provisions had been guarded insufficiently well by the town counselors. He ordered their clothes to be torn off and them to be whipped. The Bruttiani flogged the town counselors; many mortal men saw this. Who can endure this insult, this rulership, this servitude? No king dared to do this; or for these things to happen to good men, born of a good people, men of good reputation!*
Where was the fellowship? Where the fidelity of his ancestors? The clear injuries, blows, whips, weals, those pains and tortures through shame and the greatest insult, with their own countrymen watching and many mortal men, that you dared to do! But how much mourning, lamentation, weeping, and tears I heard produced! Slaves bear injuries with too much suffering; what do you all think those men, born of a good people, endowed with the greatest virtue, held in their souls and will hold while they live?
Regarding the ten men, Against Q. Minicius Thermus
You think to cover over your infamous crime with a worse crime; you create a human slaughter, you create so great a massacre, you create ten funerals, you kill ten free heads, you snatch away life from ten men for an unspeakable reason--ten men unjudged, uncondemned.
Regarding Personal Expense**
I command that the book be brought forward, where my oration had been written regarding this matter which I had made a promise on with M. Cornelius; the tablets have been brought forward. The deeds of the ancestors have been examined well; from those are collected what I did for the sake of this republic. ***
When it and the other have been examined, this was written in the oration: “I never gave away money through ambition, neither my own nor that of friends.”
“Ah-ah! Don’t, don’t write that,” I said. “They won’t want to hear it.”
Then he read out: “I never set up prefects through the towns of your friends, who plundered their goods and children.” Delete that also; they don’t want to hear it.
Recite onward. “I never divided the booty, nor what had been captured from enemies, nor the money obtained from the sale of booty^, among my very few friends so that I might seize it from those who had taken it.” Delete that also; they wish nothing to be said less, it is not a deed to be recited.
“I never gave out the cavatio^^ so that they might seize much money through my authority for my friend.” Purge this also so that it is deleted as much as possible.
“I never gave out silver for gifts of wine among the public servants and my friends, nor did I act against the public good for a long time.” Certainly delete that entirely from the writing tablet.
Look, now, from what place the republic is, where, because I have done well for the republic from where I will take gratitude, now I do not dare to call up memory from the same place, lest it become hatred. It is thus led to do wickedness without punishment, to not be allowed to do good without punishment.
---
* Or, as the footnotes helpfully translate this idiom, “reckoned to be creditable.” So something like that.
** Or, specifically, “De Sumpto Suo”. Since “suo” is just an adjective meaning “belonging to him/herself”, and the speech is being given by Cato about himself, I’ve translated it as “Personal” as the least awkward and most accurate compromise I could find.
*** My footnotes say that large portions of this are narrated in the “historic present”, which is to say, it’s describing his current actions even though he’s speaking in the past tense. So...okay.
^ I love that Latin has a single word for “money obtained by the sale of booty.”
^^ The right to use the horses of the cursus publicus.
Regarding the false fights, Against Q. Minicius Thermus
[Thermus] said that the provisions had been guarded insufficiently well by the town counselors. He ordered their clothes to be torn off and them to be whipped. The Bruttiani flogged the town counselors; many mortal men saw this. Who can endure this insult, this rulership, this servitude? No king dared to do this; or for these things to happen to good men, born of a good people, men of good reputation!*
Where was the fellowship? Where the fidelity of his ancestors? The clear injuries, blows, whips, weals, those pains and tortures through shame and the greatest insult, with their own countrymen watching and many mortal men, that you dared to do! But how much mourning, lamentation, weeping, and tears I heard produced! Slaves bear injuries with too much suffering; what do you all think those men, born of a good people, endowed with the greatest virtue, held in their souls and will hold while they live?
Regarding the ten men, Against Q. Minicius Thermus
You think to cover over your infamous crime with a worse crime; you create a human slaughter, you create so great a massacre, you create ten funerals, you kill ten free heads, you snatch away life from ten men for an unspeakable reason--ten men unjudged, uncondemned.
Regarding Personal Expense**
I command that the book be brought forward, where my oration had been written regarding this matter which I had made a promise on with M. Cornelius; the tablets have been brought forward. The deeds of the ancestors have been examined well; from those are collected what I did for the sake of this republic. ***
When it and the other have been examined, this was written in the oration: “I never gave away money through ambition, neither my own nor that of friends.”
“Ah-ah! Don’t, don’t write that,” I said. “They won’t want to hear it.”
Then he read out: “I never set up prefects through the towns of your friends, who plundered their goods and children.” Delete that also; they don’t want to hear it.
Recite onward. “I never divided the booty, nor what had been captured from enemies, nor the money obtained from the sale of booty^, among my very few friends so that I might seize it from those who had taken it.” Delete that also; they wish nothing to be said less, it is not a deed to be recited.
“I never gave out the cavatio^^ so that they might seize much money through my authority for my friend.” Purge this also so that it is deleted as much as possible.
“I never gave out silver for gifts of wine among the public servants and my friends, nor did I act against the public good for a long time.” Certainly delete that entirely from the writing tablet.
Look, now, from what place the republic is, where, because I have done well for the republic from where I will take gratitude, now I do not dare to call up memory from the same place, lest it become hatred. It is thus led to do wickedness without punishment, to not be allowed to do good without punishment.
---
* Or, as the footnotes helpfully translate this idiom, “reckoned to be creditable.” So something like that.
** Or, specifically, “De Sumpto Suo”. Since “suo” is just an adjective meaning “belonging to him/herself”, and the speech is being given by Cato about himself, I’ve translated it as “Personal” as the least awkward and most accurate compromise I could find.
*** My footnotes say that large portions of this are narrated in the “historic present”, which is to say, it’s describing his current actions even though he’s speaking in the past tense. So...okay.
^ I love that Latin has a single word for “money obtained by the sale of booty.”
^^ The right to use the horses of the cursus publicus.