45 BC
                       SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS

                            by Marcus Tullius Cicero

                     translated by Charles Duke Yonge, A.B.







şiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
DAK Upgraded Edition, Copyright 2000, DAK Industries 2000, Inc(R)şI

{ARGUMENT
                             THE ARGUMENT
-
  This speech, like those for Marcellus and Ligarius, was addressed to
Caesar. Deiotarus was king of Galatia, and during Cicero's
proconsulship in Cilicia he had formed a friendship with him, and
had been of great assistance to him in his campaign against Pacorus
and the Parthians. Having been an adherent of Pompey, he had already
been deprived of a considerable part of his dominions by Caesar, and
he was now accused by his grandson, who was aware of Caesar's
inveterate dislike of him, of having formed a design against
Caesar's life four years before, when he entertained him in his palace
on his return from Egypt. It is probable that Caesar was aware of
the groundlessness of the charge, but countenanced it, and allowed
it to be brought before him, in the hopes of finding a pretext for
stripping the king of all the rest of his dominions. Brutus espoused
Deiotarus's cause very warmly, and went towards Spain to meet
Caesar, and made him a most earnest address in favor of Deiotarus.
  The present trial was held in Caesar's house, and Cicero proved
the king's innocence so completely that Caesar was unable to condemn
him; but, as he would not acquit him, he adjourned the further
consideration of the matter till he himself could go into the East and
investigate the affair on the spot. This speech was delivered in the
year of Caesar's fourth consulship; the year before he was killed.

{SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS
                  SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS
-
  IN all causes of more than ordinary importance, O Caius Caesar, I am
accustomed, at the beginning of my speech, to be more vehemently
affected than either common custom or my own age appears to require.
And in this particular cause I am agitated by so many
considerations, that in proportion as my fidelity to my friend
inspires me with zeal to defend the safety of King Deiotarus, in the
same proportion do my fears take away from my ability to do so. In the
first place, I am speaking in defence of the life and fortunes of a
king; and although there is no particular injustice in such a fact,
especially when it is one's self who is in danger, yet it is so
unusual for a king to be tried for his life, that up to this time no
such thing has ever been heard of. In the second place, I am compelled
now to defend against a most atrocious accusation that very king
whom I, in common with all the Senate, used formerly to extol on
account of his uninterrupted services toward our republic. There is
this further consideration, that I am disturbed by the cruelty of
one of the prosecutors, and by the unworthy conduct of the other.
  O cruel, not to say wicked and impious, Castor! a grandson, who
has brought his grandfather into danger of his life, and has caused
that man to dread his youth, whose old age he was bound to defend
and protect; who has sought to recommend his entrance into life to our
favor by impiety and wickedness; who has instigated his
grandfather's slave, whom he corrupted by bribes, to accuse his
master, and has carried him away from the feet of the king's
ambassadors.
  But when I saw the countenance and heard the words of this runaway
slave, accusing his master- his absent master- his master, who was a
most devoted friend to our republic- I did not feel so much grief at
the depressed condition of the monarch himself, as fear for the
general fortunes of everyone. For though, according to the usage of
our ancestors, it is not lawful to examine a slave as a witness
against his master, not even by torture- in which mode of
examination pain might, perhaps, elicit the truth from a man even
against his will- a slave has arisen, who, without any compulsion,
accuses him against whom he might not legally say a word even on the
rack.
  This thing also, O Caius Caesar, at times disturbs me; which,
however, I cease to fear when I come to a complete recollection of
your disposition. For in principle it is an unjust thing, but by
your wisdom it becomes a most just one. For it is a serious business
(if you consider the matter by itself) to speak concerning a crime
before that man against whose life you are accused of having meditated
that crime; for there is hardly anybody who, when he is a judge in any
matter in which his own safety is at stake, does not act with more
partiality toward himself than toward the accused person; but, O Caius
Caesar, your admirable and extraordinary natural virtue to a great
extent releases me from this fear. For I am not so much afraid what
you may wish to decide with respect to King Deiotarus, as I am sure
what you wish to decide in all other cases.
  I am affected, also, by the unusual circumstances of the trial in
this place; because I am pleading so important a cause- one, the
fellow of which has never been brought under discussion- within the
walls of a private house; I am pleading it out of the hearing of any
court or body of auditors, which are a great support and encouragement
to an orator. I rest on nothing but your eyes, your person and
countenance; I behold you alone; the whole of my speech is necessarily
confined to you alone. And if those considerations are very
important as regards my hope of establishing the truth, they for all
that are impediments of the energy of my mind, and to the proper
enthusiasm and ardor of speaking.
                           {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 5}
  For if, O Caius Caesar, I were pleading this cause in the forum,
still having you for my auditor and my judge, with what great
cheerfulness would the concourse of the Roman people inspire me! For
what citizen would do otherwise than favor that king, the whole of
whose life he would recollect had been spent in the wars of the
Roman people? I should be beholding the senate-house, I should be
surveying the forum, I should call the heaven above me itself to
witness; and so, while calling to mind the kindness of the immortal
gods, and of the Roman people, and of the Senate to king Deiotarus, it
would be impossible for me to be at a loss for topics or arguments for
my speech. But since the walls of a house narrow all these topics, and
since the pleading of the cause is greatly crippled by the place, it
behooves you, O Caesar, who have yourself often pleaded for many
defendants, to consider within yourself what my feelings at present
must be; so that your justice, and also your careful attention in
listening to me, may the more easily lessen my natural agitation and
anxiety.
  But before I say anything about the accusation itself, I will say
a few words about the hopes entertained by the accusers. For though
they appear to be possessed of no great skill or experience in
affairs, nevertheless they have never, surely, undertaken this cause
without some hope or other and some definite design.
  They were not ignorant that you were offended with king Deiotarus.
They recollected that he had been already exposed to some
inconvenience and loss on account of the displeasure with which you
regarded him; and while they knew that you were angry with him, they
had had proofs also that you were friendly to them. And as they
would be speaking before you of a matter involving personal danger
to yourself, they reckoned that a fictitious charge would easily lodge
in your mind, which was already sore. Wherefore, O Caius Caesar, first
of all by your good faith, and wisdom, and firmness, and clemency
deliver us from this fear, and prevent our suspecting that there is
any ill temper lurking in you. I entreat you by that right hand of
yours which you pledged in token of everlasting friendship to king
Deiotarus; by that right hand, I say, which is not more trustworthy in
wars or in battles than in promises and pledges of good faith. You
have chosen to enter his house, you have chosen to renew with him
the ancient ties of friendship and hospitality. His household gods
have received you under their protection; the altars and hearths of
king Deiotarus have beheld you at peace with and friendly towards him.
  You are accustomed, O Caius Caesar, not only to be prevailed upon by
entreaties easily, but to be prevailed on once for all. No enemy has
ever been reconciled to you who has found any remnant of hostility
remaining in your breast afterward. Although, who is there who has not
heard of your complaints against king Deiotarus? You have never
accused him as being an enemy to you, but as being a friend very slack
in his duty; because his inclination led him more to friendships
with Cnaeus Pompeius than with you. And yet that very fact you said
that you would have pardoned, if when he sent reinforcements and
even his son to Pompeius, he had himself availed himself of the excuse
furnished him by his age. And in this way, while you were acquitting
him of the most important charges, you left behind only the little
blame of his friendship for another. Therefore, you not only abstained
from punishing him, but you released him from all apprehension; you
acknowledged him as your friend, you left him king. And, indeed, his
proceedings were not dictated by any hatred of you; he fell by the
general error of us all. That king, whom the Senate had repeatedly
addressed by this name, using it in decrees most complimentary to him,
and who from his youth up had always considered that order most
important and most sacred, being a man living at a great distance, and
a foreigner by birth, was perplexed by the same affairs which
embarrassed us who were born and who at all times had lived in the
middle of the republic.
  When he heard that men had taken arms by the authority of the
Senate, acting with great unanimity; that the defence of the
republic had been intrusted to the consuls, the praetors, the tribunes
of the people, and to all of us who had received the title of
Imperator, he was agitated in his mind, and being a man most deeply
attached to this empire, he became alarmed for the safety of the Roman
people, in which also he considered that his own was bound up. And
being in a state of the greatest alarm, he thought it best to remain
quiet himself. But he was beyond measure agitated when he heard that
the consuls had fled from Italy, and all the men of consular rank (for
so it was reported) with them, and all the Senate, and that the
whole of Italy was emptied. For the road was wide open for all such
messengers and reports to travel to the East, and no true accounts
followed. He never heard a word of the conditions which you offered,
nor of your eagerness for concord and peace, nor of the way in which
certain men conspired against your dignity. And though this was the
state of things, still he continued quiet until ambassadors and
letters came to him from Cnaeus Pompeius. Pardon Deiotarus, pardon
him, I entreat you, O Caesar, if he, though a king, yielded to the
authority of that man whom we all followed, and on whom both gods
and men had heaped every sort of distinction, and on whom you yourself
had conferred the most numerous and most important honors * of all.
Nor, indeed, does it follow that, because your exploits have thrown
a cloud over the praises of others, we have, therefore, entirely
lost all recollection of Cnaeus Pompeius. Who is there who is ignorant
how great the name of that man was, how great his influence, how great
his renown in every description of war, how great were the honors paid
him by the Roman people, and by the Senate, and by you yourself? He
had surpassed all his predecessors in glory as much as you have
surpassed all the world. Therefore, we used to count up with
admiration the wars and the victories, and the triumphs, and the
consulships, of Cnaeus Pompeius. But yours we are wholly unable to
reckon.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 10}
-
  * For Caesar had given Pompey his daughter in marriage.
-
  To him then came king Deiotarus in this miserable and fatal war,
to him whom he had previously assisted in his regular wars against the
enemies of Rome, and with whom he was bound, not only by ties of
hospitality, but also by personal intimacy. And he came, either
because he had been asked, as a friend; or because he had been sent
for as an ally; or because he had been summoned, like one who had
learned to obey the Senate; and last of all, he joined the losing, not
the winning side.
  Therefore, after the result of the battle of Pharsalia, he
departed from Pompeius; he did not choose to persist in hopes of which
he saw no end. He thought he had done quite enough to satisfy the
claims of duty, if indeed he was under any such obligations, and
that he had made quite mistake enough if he had ignorantly erred. He
returned home; and all the time that you were engaged in the
Alexandrian War, he consulted your interests. He supported in his
palaces and from his own resources the army of Cnaeus Domitius, that
most distinguished man. He sent money to Ephesus to him whom you
selected as the most faithful and most highly esteemed of all your
friends. He gave him money a second time; he gave him money a third
time for you to employ in the war, though he was forced to sell
property by auction in order to raise it. He exposed his own person to
danger, and he was with you, serving in your army against Pharnaces,
and he considered him as his own enemy because he was yours. And all
those actions of his were accepted by you, O Caius Caesar, in such a
spirit that you paid him the highest possible honors, and confirmed
him in the dignity and title of king.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 15}
  He, therefore, having been not only released from danger by you, but
having been also distinguished by you with the highest honors, is
now accused of having intended to assassinate you in his own house-
a thing which you cannot in truth possibly suspect, unless you
consider him to have been utterly mad. For, to say nothing of what a
deed of enormous wickedness it would have been to assassinate his
guest in the sight of his own household gods; what a deed of
enormous unreasonableness it would have been to have extinguished
the brightest light of all nations, and of all human recollection;
what a deed of enormous ferocity it would have been to have had no
dread of the conqueror of the whole earth; what a sign of an inhuman
and ungrateful disposition it would have been to be found to behave
like a despot to the very man by whom he had been addressed as a king;
to say nothing of all this, what a deed of utter frenzy would it
have been to rouse all kings, of whom there were numbers on the
borders of his own kingdom, all free nations, all the allies, all
the provinces, all the arms, in short, of every people on earth
against himself alone! To what misery would he not have exposed his
kingdom, his house, his wife, and his beloved son, not merely by the
accomplishment of such a crime, but even by the bare idea of it!
  But I suppose that improvident and rash man did not see all this! On
the contrary, who is a more considerate man than he? Who is more
secret in his plans? Who is more prudent? Although in this place it is
not so much on the ground of cleverness and prudence that it seems
to me that I should defend Deiotarus, as on that of good faith and
religious feeling and conduct. You are well acquainted, O Caius
Caesar, with the honesty of the man, with his virtuous habits, with
his wisdom and firmness. Indeed, who is there who has ever heard of
the name of the Roman people, who had not heard also of the integrity,
and wisdom, and virtue, and good faith of Deiotarus? A crime, then,
that cannot be imputed to an imprudent man, on account of his fear
of instant destruction, nor to an unscrupulous man, unless he be at
the same time utterly insane; will you pretend that such a crime was
thought of by a most virtuous man, and one too who was never accounted
a fool?
  And in what way do you try and support this invention! in a way
not only not calculated to win belief, but not even such as to give
rise to the least suspicion. When, says the prosecutor, you had come
to the Luceian fort, and had turned aside to the palace of the king
your entertainer, there was a certain place where all those things
were arranged which the king had settled to offer you as presents.
To this place he intended to conduct you on coming out of the bath,
before you lay down; for there were armed men stationed in that very
place on purpose to kill you. This is the charge; this is the reason
why a runaway should accuse a monarch, a slave accuse his master! I,
in truth, O Caius Caesar, at the very beginning, when the cause was
originally laid before me, was struck with a suspicion that
Phidippus the physician, one of the king's slaves, who had been sent
with the ambassadors, had been corrupted by that young man. He has
suborned the physician to act as informer, thought I; he will be
sure to invent some accusation of poisoning. Although my conjecture
was some way from the exact truth, it was not much out as to the
general principle of the accusation. What says the physician? Not a
word about poison. But in the first place, that might have been
administered much more secretly in a potion or in food; in the
second place, a crime is committed in that way with greater
impunity, because when it has been done, it can be denied. If he had
assassinated you openly, he would have brought upon himself not only
the hatred of all nations, but their arms also. If he had slain you by
poison, to be sure he never would have been able to conceal the action
from the divine wrath of the Jupiter who presides over hospitality,
but he might perhaps have concealed it from men. Are we, then, to
suppose that that which he might have attempted in secret, and have
executed with great caution, he never intrusted to you who were a
skilful physician, and, as he believed, a faithful servant, and yet
that he could conceal nothing from you with respect to arms, and
blood, and ambuscade? And how cleverly is the whole accusation
worked up! It was your own good fortune, says he, that fortune which
always preserves you, which saved you then. You said that you did
not wish at that moment to see the presents.
  What happened afterward? Did Deiotarus, after he had failed in
accomplishing the business at that time, at once dismiss his army? was
there no other place where he could set an ambush? But you said that
when you had supped you would come back again the same way; and you
did so. Was it a very difficult job to detain the armed men one or two
hours in the place where they had been stationed? After you had
spent your time at the banquet courteously and merrily, then you
went back that way, as you had said; and then and there you found that
the behavior of Deiotarus to you resembled that of king Attalus to
Publius Africanus: to whom, as we have read, he sent the most
magnificent gifts from Asia to Numantia; which Africanus accepted in
the sight of all his army. And when Deiotarus, being present with you,
had done all this in a kingly spirit and with royal courtesy, you
departed to your chamber. I entreat you, O Caesar, trace back your
recollection of that time, bring that day back before your eyes,
remember the countenances of the men who were then gazing on you and
admiring you; was there any trepidation among them? any disorder?
Was anything done except in an orderly and quiet manner- except as
became the establishment of a dignified and honorable man? What reason
then can be imagined why he should have intended to murder you after
you had bathed, and why he should not have chosen to do so after you
had supped? "Oh, he put it off," says the prosecutor, "till the next
day, in order that when he arrived at the Luceian fort, he might there
put his designs in execution." I do not understand the effect of his
changing the place; but still the whole case was conducted in an
incriminatory manner. "When," says the prosecutor, "you said after
supper that you wished to vomit, they began to lead you to the
bath-room; for that was the place where the ambuscade was; but still
that same fortune of yours saved you; you said that you had rather
go to your bedroom." May the gods forgive you, you runaway slave!
Are you so utterly, not only worthless and infamous, but also stupid
and senseless? What? were they brazen statues that he had planted in
ambush, so that they could not be moved from the bath-room to the
bed-chamber?
  Here you have the whole charge as to the ambuscade: for he said
nothing further. "In all this," says he, "I was his accomplice."
What do you mean? Was he so demented as to allow a man to leave him
who was privy to so enormous a wickedness? As even to send him to
Rome, where he knew his grandson was, who was most bitterly hostile to
him, and where Caius Caesar was, against whom he had laid this plot?
especially when he was the only man who could give any information
against him in his absence. "My brothers too," says he, "because
they also were privy to it, he threw into prison." When, then, he
was putting those men in prison whom he had with him, did he leave you
at large and send you to Rome- you who knew the very same facts
which you say that they knew?
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 20}
  The remainder of the accusation was of a twofold character; one part
of which was, that the king was always at his watchtower because he
was so disaffected to your interests; the other, that he had levied
a large army against you. As to the army, I will reply to that
charge in a very few words, as I will to the rest of the charges. King
Deiotarus never had any forces with which he could have made war
upon the Roman people; but only just sufficient to protect his own
territories from the incursions of enemies, and to send reinforcements
to our generals. And before this time he was able to maintain a larger
force than he can now; at present he can with difficulty keep up a
very small one. "Oh, but he sent to Caecilius; I don't know who it was
he sent, but he threw those whom he sent, or rather ordered to go,
into prison, because they would not go." I do not stop to ask how
far it is probable that a king should have had no one to send; or that
those whom he ordered to go should not have obeyed him; or how it
was that those men who refused obedience in so important an affair,
were put in prison, and not executed; but still, when he was sending
Caecilius, * was he ignorant that that party had been defeated, or did
he think that Caecilius a person of great importance? a man whom he,
who was well acquainted with our leading men, would have despised
because he knew him, and just as much because he did not know him.
He added, also, that he did not send his best cavalry; I dare say,
they were old troops, O Caesar: nothing to your cavalry; but still
they were the best men he had, his picked men. He says that one of the
body was recognized as being a slave; I do not believe it; I never
heard of it. But still, even if such a thing had happened, I should
not conceive that that was any fault of the king's.
-
  * This was Quintius Caecilius Brassus, a zealous partisan of
Pompey's, who after the battle of Pharsalia collected some of the
remnants of his army in Syria, with which he afterward joined
Cassius after the death of Caesar.
-
  "He was very ill-disposed towards you." How so? He hoped, I suppose,
that you would find it difficult to get out of Alexandria, on
account of the nature of the country and of the river. But, at that
very time, he supplied you with money, and with provisions for your
army; he co-operated to the utmost of his power with the officer to
whom you had given command in Asia; he assisted you when victorious,
not only in the way of affording you hospitality, but with you he
encountered danger, and stood by your side in the array of battle.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 25}
  The African War followed: there were unfavorable reports spread
about you, which also roused that frantic Caecilius. What on that
occasion was the disposition evinced towards you by the king? He
sold property by auction, and preferred stripping himself, to not
supplying you with money. "But," says the prosecutor, "at that very
time he was sending men to Nicaea, and to Ephesus, to catch every
report that came from Africa, and to bring it to him with all
speed." Therefore, when news came that Domitius had perished by
shipwreck, and that you were blockaded in some fortress, he quoted a
Greek verse with reference to Domitius, having the same meaning as
that of our poet:
-
            "So can we well afford to lose our friends,
            If our foes perish in the same destruction:" *
-
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 30}
  an expression which he would never have uttered had he been ever
so much an enemy to you. For he himself is a man of a humane
disposition; and that verse is a savage one. Besides, how could a
man be a friend to Domitius, who was an enemy to you? Moreover, why
should he be an enemy to you, by whom he might even have been put to
death according to the laws of war, and by whom he recollected that he
and his son had been appointed kings?
-
  * The Greek proverb is given by Plutarch as erreto philos son
echthro. If the Latin iambic quoted by Cicero comes from any Latin
poet, it is not known who he was.
-
  What is the next statement? What is the next step taken by this
scoundrel? He says that Deiotarus was so elated at this, that he
drowned his joy in wine, and danced naked at a banquet. What cross
is there that could be a sufficient punishment for this slave? Did
anyone ever see Deiotarus dancing, did anyone ever see him drunk?
All kingly virtues are united in that man, and that I think yourself
are well aware of, O Caesar, but most especially is that singular
and admirable economy of his conspicuous. Although this is an
attribute for which I know that it is not usual to praise kings. To
say that a man is economical is not much praise for a king. To be
brave, just, severe, dignified, magnanimous, open-handed,
beneficent, liberal- these are the praises suited to a king. Economy
is a virtue for a private individual. Let everyone take it as he
please: but I consider economy- that is to say, moderation and
temperance- the very greatest of virtues. And this existed in this man
from his earliest youth, and was experienced by, and known to, all
Asia, and by all our magistrates and ambassadors, and by all the Roman
knights who trafficked in Asia.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 35}
  It was by many successive steps of dutiful service towards our
republic that he arrived at this title of king; but still, whatever
leisure he had from the wars of the Roman people, he devoted
entirely to cultivating friendship and intimacy with our citizens, and
to uniting his affairs and interests to theirs. So that he was not
only considered a noble tetrarch, but also an excellent father of a
family, and a most industrious farmer and grazier. Did he, then,
who, while a young man, before he had arrived at his subsequent high
rank, never did anything that was inconsistent with the most rigid
virtue and the greatest dignity, after he had raised to himself the
esteem in which he is now held, and when he had become of so
advanced an age, did he dance?
  You ought, O Castor, rather to imitate the manner and principles
of your grandfather, than calumniate a most virtuous and most
illustrious man with the language of a runaway slave. Even if you
had had a grandfather who was a dancer, and not a man from whom
examples of modesty and chastity might be deprived, still this
reproach is one which is very little suited to your age. Those
pursuits to which he had been habituated from his earliest age- not
dancing, but such as would train him to wield his arms and manage
his horses in the best manner- those all had now failed him at his
advanced time of life; so that we used to wonder, when several men had
lifted Deiotarus on his horse, how so old a man as he could contrive
to stick on. But this young man, who was a soldier of mine in Cilicia,
and a comrade of mine in Greece, how was he used to ride about in that
army of ours, with his own picked body of cavalry, whom his father had
sent with him to join Pompeius! what gallops he used to take! how he
used to display his skill! What a parade he used to make! How did he
refuse to yield to anyone in his zeal and eagerness for the success of
that cause! But even after the army was lost, I, who had at all
times been an adviser of peace, but who, after the battle of
Pharsalia, urged everyone not to lay aside, but to throw away their
arms, could never bring this young man to adopt my advice, both
because of his own eagerness for that war, and because he thought
himself bound to satisfy the expectations of his father.
  Happy is that house which has obtained, not only impunity, but
license to accuse others! Unfortunate Deiotarus, who is not only
accused by one who was in the same camp with him, before you, but
who is impeached even by his own relations. Cannot you, O Castor, be
content with your own good fortune without bringing misery on your
relations?
  Grant that there may be enmity between you; which, however, there
ought not to be; for it was king Deiotarus who raised your family,
when abject and obscure, from darkness into light. Who ever heard of
your father, or who he was, before they heard whose son-in-law he was?
But even supposing you repudiated the name of the connection with ever
so much ingratitude and impiety, still you might have conducted your
quarrel like a man, and not pursue him with a false accusation, not
seek his life, not prosecute him on a capital charge. Be it so: let
even this excess of bitterness and hatred be permitted. Was it to go
to such an extent, that all the laws of ordinary life and of common
safety, and even of humanity, are to be violated? to tamper with
slaves by words, to corrupt them by hopes and promises; to lead them
away to your own house, to arm them against their masters, to wage
an impious war not against one relation, but against every family in
the world? For that corruption of slaves, if it be not only
unpunished, but even approved by such a great authority as that of
this tribunal, no walls, no laws, no rights will be sufficient for the
protection of our safety. For when that which is in our houses and
is our own can sally out with impunity and fight against us, slavery
then gets the mastery, and the master's position is slavery.
  Shame on the times, and on our present habits! That Cnaeus Domitius,
whom we as boys saw consul, and censor, and chief pontiff, when, as
tribune of the people, he had impeached Marcus Scaurus, the chief
man of the state, before the people, and when a slave of Scaurus had
come secretly to him at his own house, and had offered to give
information with respect to charges which might be brought against his
master, ordered the slave to be apprehended, and taken to Scaurus. See
what a difference there is now- although it is a shame of me to
compare Castor to Domitius; still he sent his slave back to his enemy,
you have seduced one from your grandfather; he refused to listen to
one though he had not been bribed, you have bribed one; he rejected
a slave as his assistant against his master, you have employed one
even as an accuser. But was it only once that that fellow was
corrupted by you? Did he not escape back again to the ambassadors
after he had been brought forward by you, and after he had been with
you? Did he not even come to this Cnaeus Domitius? Did not he, in
the hearing of this Servius Sulpicius, that most illustrious man,
who is present here, and of this Titus Torquatus, a most virtuous
young man, who is also present, confess that he had been bribed by
you, and that it was by your promises that he had been instigated to
this dishonesty?
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 40}
  What then is the object of this shameless, and barbarous, and
unrestrained inhumanity? Was it for this that you came into this city,
that you might corrupt the principles predominant in, and the examples
furnished by this city, and that you might pollute the humanity of our
state by your own private ferocity?
  And how ingeniously have all your charges been collected! Blesamius,
says he (for it was in his name, a very excellent man, and one who was
a stranger to you, that he was calumniating you, O Deiotarus), used to
write to the king, that you, O Caesar, were very unpopular; that you
were considered a tyrant; that men were exceedingly offended at your
statue having been placed among those of the kings; that you were
never well received on your appearance in public. Do not you perceive,
O Caesar, that these statements were collected by these fellows,
from the city conversation of spiteful men? Could Blesamius have
written to say that Caesar was a tyrant? Ay, for he had seen the heads
of many citizens exposed; he had seen many men by the orders of Caesar
ill-treated, scourged and executed; he had seen many houses pillaged
and destroyed; he had seen the forum filled with armed troops! No;
those things which previously we always have felt after victories in
civil war, we have not seen now, when you have been our conqueror. You
are the only man- you I say, O Caius Caesar, are the only man, by
whose victory no one has perished except with arms in his hand. And
can the man whom we, free men, born in the enjoyment of the perfect
liberty of the Roman people, consider not only no tyrant, but as
even the most merciful man possible in the use of victory, can he
appear a tyrant to Blesamius, who is living under a king? For who
complains about a statue, especially about one single statue, when
he sees such a number? Great reason have we, indeed, to envy a man his
statues, when we do not grudge him trophies; for if it be the place
which provokes envy, surely there is no place more open and fit for
a statue than the rostra. And as to the way in which he is received in
public, why need I make any reply at all? for public applause has
never been desired by you, and sometimes, owing to the amazement
with which men have viewed your achievements, it has even been stifled
by the excess of their admiration; and perhaps, too, it has been
omitted because nothing vulgar could possibly appear worthy of you.
  I do not think that anything has been omitted by me; but some topics
have been reserved for the end of my speech, and they are of such a
nature that they ought to reconcile you cordially to Deiotarus- for
I am not now afraid of your being angry with him; I am apprehensive
rather of your suspecting that he harbors some resentment against you.
And that suspicion, believe me, O Caesar, is as remote as possible
from the truth. For he recollects only what he still has left owing to
you, and not what he has lost by your means; nor does he consider that
he has been deprived of anything by you, but, being aware that it
was necessary for you to give many rewards to many people, he did
not think it hard that you should take something from him who had been
on the other side. In truth, if that great prince, Antiochus the
Great, the king of Asia, who, after he had been conquered by Scipio,
was ordered to consider Mount Taurus as the boundary of his dominions,
and was deprived of all this Asia which is now a province of our
own- if he was accustomed to say that he had been kindly treated by
the Roman people, because he had been released by them from the care
of an overgrown empire, and was now at liberty to enjoy a kingdom of
moderate extent, Deiotarus can comfort himself more easily. For
Antiochus had suffered a chastisement for his insanity, my client only
for an error. You, O Caesar, gave everything to Deiotarus when you
gave him and his son the title of king; and as long as he is allowed
to retain and preserve this title, he does not think that the kindness
of the Roman people is at all diminished, or that the Senate has
come to any unfavorable decision respecting him. He preserves a
great and lofty spirit, and will never succumb to his enemies, nor
even to fortune.
  He thinks that by his previous conduct he has given birth to much,
and that by his own courage and virtue he still has much which he
cannot possibly be deprived of. For what fortune, or what accident, or
what injury can happen to Deiotarus of such severity as to efface
the decrees of all our generals respecting him? For he has been
complimented and distinguished ever since he was of an age to serve in
their camps, by all those men who had had the conduct of our wars in
Asia, and in Cappadocia, and in Pontus, and in Cilicia, and in
Syria. And what length of time will ever efface, what forgetfulness
will ever obliterate those numerous and honorable resolutions of the
Senate respecting him, which have been recorded in the public writings
and memorials of the Roman people?
  Why need I speak of his valor? why of his greatness of mind? of
his wisdom? of his firmness and consistency? qualities which not
only have all wise and learned men pronounced to be the greatest
blessings, but which some have even considered the only real ones, and
have said that virtue wanted nothing more than these for the purpose
of living not only well, but even happily. He, considering these
things, and reflecting on them day and night, is so far from feeling
resentment against you (for he would not only be ungrateful, but
even mad to do so), that he attributes the whole of the tranquillity
and quiet of his old age which he enjoys, to your clemency.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 45}
  And as these were his sentiments previously, I do not doubt also
that after the receipt of your letters, of which I have read a copy,
which you gave to this Blesamius at Tarraco for Deiotarus, his
spirit became loftier still, and that he ceased to feel any anxiety
whatever. For in them you bid him entertain good hopes, and to be of
good courage- expressions which I know you are not in the habit of
using without a meaning; for I recollect that you wrote to me in
almost the same language, and that when you bade me entertain good
hopes of the future you were not deceiving me.
  I am anxious, indeed, in this cause of king Deiotarus, with whom the
affairs of this republic have united me in friendship, while our
mutual regard for one another has connected us by ties of hospitality,
with whom long acquaintance has engendered intimacy, and his great
services to me and to my army have wrought in me the greatest
affection for him. But while I am anxious about him, I am anxious also
about many most distinguished men, who have been pardoned by you,
and who ought to be able to consider their pardon, whenever
pronounced, as binding forever; and who ought not to feel that a doubt
is thrown on the permanency of your kindness to them, nor to have a
perpetual anxiety implanted in their minds; nor, in short, ought it to
be allowed to happen that any one of those men should begin again to
feel apprehension, who has once been released by you from fear.
  I ought not, O Caesar, to endeavor, as is often done by men in
such danger as this, to move your pity by my language. There is no
need of my doing so. Your feelings are of their own accord
accustomed to come to the aid of the suppliant and unfortunate,
without being elicited by the eloquence of anybody. Place before
your eyes two kings, and contemplate with your mind what you cannot
behold with your eyes. You will surely yield to your feelings of
compassion what you refused to your resentment. There are many
monuments of your clemency, but the chief, sure, are the secure
happiness of those men to whom it is you have been the author of
safety. And if such an action is glorious in the case of a private
individual, much more will it be celebrated when it is a king who is
the object of it. The title of king has always been accounted a holy
name in this city; but the names of ally and king, when united
together, are then the holiest of all titles.
  And these kings were afraid that if you were victorious they might
lose that name. But now that they have been allowed to retain it,
and have been confirmed in it by you, I confidently trust that they
will even transmit it to their posterity. Moreover, these
ambassadors whom you see before you, Hieras, and Blesamius, and
Antigonus, men with whom you and all of us have long been
acquainted, and also Dorylaus, a man of the same loyalty and virtue as
they, who was lately sent as ambassador to you in company with Hieras,
devoted friends of the king, and men too who, as I hope, are highly
esteemed by you, offer you their persons as hostages and pledges to
secure the safety of their prince. Ask Blesamius whether he ever wrote
anything to the king to the disparagement of your dignity. Hieras,
indeed, undertakes the whole cause of Deiotarus, and offers himself as
the defendant against all these charges in behalf of, and instead of
the king. He implores the aid of your recollection in his favor; a
quality in which you greatly excel: he declares that all the time that
you were in the tetrarchy of Deiotarus he never left your side. He
says that he met you on the frontier, and that he attended you to
the borders on the opposite side of the country; that when you left
the bath he was with you, and when you surveyed all those presents
after supper, and when you retired to rest in your bed-chamber. And he
says, too, that he attended you in the same unremitting manner all the
next day.
  Wherefore, if any one of those things which Deiotarus has been
accused of, really was thought of, he does not object to your thinking
the crime his. I entreat you, O Caius Caesar, to consider that on this
day your sentence will bring on those kings either most miserable
calamity, accompanied with infinite disgrace, or an unsullied
reputation attended with safety; and to desire the one of those
results would be an act of cruelty, to secure the other is an action
suitable to your clemency.
                          {SPEECH_IN_BEHALF_OF_KING_DEIOTARUS ^paragraph 50}
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            THE END OF SPEECH IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS