Sallust Speech of Lepidus 1.

55
This attack on Sulla's rule was made in 78 B.C., the year of the consulship of Q.
Lutatius Catulus and M. Aemilius Lepidus.

Violence of Lepidus attack on Sulla + Emphasis on Sulla as master on Roman

world - Sallustian formulation of Lepidus speech delivered in early consulship
Main topic attack on Sullan regime
Sallust expands programmatic introduction to problems of the decade, some
anachronistic
Material governed by constant theme moral and political degeneration of basic
Roman virtus brought future of Roman republic to crisis point

Tone of patrician consul counselling people, not that of demagogue and

revolutionary

1 Clementia et probitas vostra, Quirites, quibus per ceteras gentis maxumi et

clari estis, plurumum timoris mihi faciunt advorsum tyrannidem L. Sullae, ne,
quae ipsi nefanda aestumatis, ea parum credundo de aliis circumveniamini
praesertim cum illi spes omnis in scelere atque perfidia sit neque se aliter tutum
putet, quam si peior atque intestabilior metu vostro fuerit, quo captis libertatis
curam miseria eximat aut, si provideritis, in tutandis2 periculis magis quam
ulciscendo teneamini.
Your clemency and your honesty, citizens, through which you are the greatest
and esteemed throughout other nations, cause me the greatest fear in the face
of the tyranny of Lucius Sulla. I fear that you may be beset by not believing
others capable of committing those actions which you yourselves reckon are
abominable especially since every hope of that man (Sulla) rests in crime and
wickedness, and since he does not think himself safe likewise unless he has
proved himself worse and more detestable than you fear, so that when you have
been beguiled, wretchedness might destroy your care for your freedom or if
you do take precautions, you might be more occupied with staying safe from
dangers than in taking revenge.

2 Satellites quidem eius, homines maxumi nominis optumis maiorum exemplis,

nequeo satis mirari, qui dominationis in vos servitium suum mercedem dant et
utrumque per iniuriam malunt quam optumo iure liberi agere, 3 praeclara
Brutorum atque Aemiliorum et Lutatiorum proles, geniti ad ea quae maiores
virtute peperere subvortunda. 4 Nam quid a Pyrrho, Hannibale, Philippoque et
Antiocho defensum est aliud quam libertas et suae cuique sedes, neu cui nisi
legibus pareremus? 5 Quae cuncta scaevos3 iste Romulus quasi ab externis
rapta tenet, non tot exercituum clade neque consulum et aliorum principum,
quos fortuna belli consumpserat, satiatus, sed tum crudelior, cum plerosque
secundae res in miserationem ex ira vortunt. 6 Quin solus omnium post
memoriam humani generis4 supplicia in post futuros composuit, quis prius iniuria

quam vita certa esset, pravissumeque per sceleris immanitatem adhuc tutus fuit,
dum vos metu gravioris serviti a repetunda libertate terremini.
As for his satellites, men of the greatest name with the best examples of their
ancestors, who, I cannot be amazed enough, who are willing to purchase
domination of you with their own slavery and prefer those things along with
injustice than to live as free men under the best right, the outstanding descent of
the Brutii, Aemili, and the Lutatii, born for the sake of overthrowing what their
ancestors won through courage. For what was defended from Pyrrhus, Hannibal,
Philip and Antiochus other than freedom and each mans own home, and the
right to submit to nothing except the laws? All these things that caricature of
Romulus keeps as if seized from foreigners, not content with the slaughter of so
many armies and of the consuls and other leading men, whom the fortune of war
had destroyed, but he grows crueller, as favourable circumstances turns the
majority of men from anger into pity. Nay, he alone in the memory of all men has
decided a punishment for those not yet born, who are certain of outrage before
they are certain of life, and worst of all, he has been safe as yet through the
immensity of his crime, while you through fear of a more severe servitude are
frightened from seeking your liberty.

7 Agundum atque obviam eundum est, Quirites, ne spolia vostra penes illum5
sint, non prolatandum neque votis paranda auxilia. Nisi forte speratis taedium
iam aut pudorem tyrannidis Sullae esse et eum per scelus occupata periculosius
dimissurum. 8 At ille eo processit, ut nihil gloriosum nisi tutum et omnia
retinendae dominationis honesta aestumet. 9 Itaque illa quies et otium cum
libertate, quae multi probi potius quam laborem cum honoribus capessebant,
nulla sunt; 10 hac tempestate serviundum aut imperitandum, habendus metus
est aut faciundus, Quirites. 11 Nam quid ultra? Quaeve humana superant aut
divina impolluta sunt? Populus Romanus, paulo ante gentium moderator, exutus
imperio,6 gloria, iure, agitandi inops despectusque, ne servilia quidem alimenta
reliqua habet. 12 Sociorum et Lati magna vis civitate pro multis et egregiis factis
a vobis data per unum prohibentur et plebis innoxiae patrias sedes occupavere
pauci satellites mercedem scelerum. 13 Leges, iudicia, aerarium, provinciae,
reges penes unum, denique necis civium et vitae licentia. 14 Simul humanas
hostias vidistis et sepulcra infecta sanguine civili. 15 Estne viris reliqui aliud
quam solvere iniuriam aut mori per virtutem? Quoniam quidem unum omnibus
finem natura vel ferro saeptis statuit neque quisquam extremam necessitatem
nihil ausus nisi muliebri ingenio exspectat.

You must rouse yourselves and resist him, citizens, lest your spoils be bestowed
on him. You must not delay nor look for help through prayers. Unless by chance
you hope that Sulla is already weary or ashamed of his tyranny and that which
he has seized through crime he will send off more dangerously. But he has come
to such a point that he considers nothing glorious unless it is safe and regards all
ways of retaining his dominion honourable. And so that rest and leisure along
with freedom, which many honourable men used to eagerly seize rather than
labour and its honours, is no more. In these troubled times, one must serve or
one must rule, and one must either be fearful or cause fear, citizens. For what
else is left? What human things survive, and what divine laws are unsullied? The
Roman people, a short while ago the ruler of nations, stripped of power, of glory,
and law, without means of accomplishing its affairs and scorned, has not even
slave rations. A great part of our allies and of the people of latium who were

granted citizenship by you for their many excellent deeds are being debarred
through this one man and a few of satellites have seized the ancestral homes of
the innocent common populace as reward for their crimes. The laws, the courts,
the treasury, the provinces, kings, and at last the power of life and death of the
citizens is in the power of one man. At the same time, you see human sacrifices
and tombs stained with the blood of citizens. Is there anything left for men other
than to rid themselves injustice or to die valiantly? since truly nature has
decreed one and the same end for all even for those encased in steel, and no
one awaits the last necessity, having dared nothing, unless he has the spirit of a
woman.

16 Verum ego seditiosus, uti Sulla ait, qui praemia turbarum queror, et bellum
cupiens, qui iura pacis p390repeto. 17 Scilicet, quia non aliter salvi satisque tuti
in imperio eritis, nisi Vettius Picens et scriba Cornelius aliena bene parata7
prodegerint; nisi approbaritis omnes proscriptionem innoxiorum ob divitias,
cruciatus virorum illustrium, vastam urbem fuga et caedibus, bona civium
miserorum quasi Cimbricam praedam venum aut dono datam. 18 At obiectat
mihi possessiones ex bonis proscriptorum; quod quidem scelerum illius vel
maxumum est, non me neque quemquam omnium satis tutum fuisse, si recte
faceremus. Atque illa, quae tum formidine mercatus sum, pretio soluto iure
dominis tamen restituo, neque pati consilium est ullam ex civibus praedam esse.
19 Satis illa fuerint, quae rabie contracta toleravimus, manus conserentis inter se
Romanos exercitus et arma ab externis in nosmet vorsa; scelerum et
contumeliarum omnium finis sit; quorum adeo Sullam non paenitet, ut et facta in
gloria numeret et, si liceat, avidius fecerit.
But, as Sulla says, I am a sower of sedition, I who complain about the reward of
civil strife, and I am desirous of war, I who reclaim the right of peace. Doubtless,
because you cannot be safe and protected enough under his dominion, unless
Vettius Picens and the scribe Cornelius squander the goods which others have
honestly acquired; unless you all approve the proscription of innocent people on
account of riches, the torture of illustrious men, the city laid waste by flight and
by murders, the goods of wretched citizens as if Cimbrian booty sold or given as
a gift. But Sulla blames me for the possessions from the goods of the proscribed;
for indeed it is the very greatest of crimes that neither I nor anyone else of
everyone would have been safe, if we had done what is right. But those things
which then bought in fear, I yet having paid the price now restore to its rightful
owners, nor it is my plan to allow any booty to be taken from citizens. Let this
things be enough, which we have tolerated, brought about by our own madness,
Roman armies pitted against each other and weapons turned away from foreign
enemies against ourselves; let it be the end of all crimes and outrages; of these
Sulla is so far from repenting that he both counts them among his claims to
glory, and if he were allowed, he would do them more avidly.

20 Neque iam quid existumetis de illo, sed quantum audeatis vereor, ne alius
alium principem expectantes ante capiamini, non opibus eius, quae futiles et
corruptae sunt, sed vostra socordia, qua raptum ire8 licet et quam audeat,9 tam
videri Felicem. 21 Nam praeter satellites commaculatos quis eadem p392volt aut
quis non omnia mutata praeter victoriam?10 Scilicet milites, quorum sanguine
Tarulae Scirtoque, pessumis servorum, divitiae partae sunt? 22 An quibus
praelatus in magistratibus capiundis Fufidius, ancilla turpis, honorum omnium
dehonestamentum? Itaque maxumam mihi fiduciam parit victor exercitus, cui

per tot volnera et labores nihil praeter tyrannum quaesitum est. 23 Nisi forte
tribuniciam potestatem evorsum profecti sunt per arma, conditam a maioribus
suis, utique iura et iudicia sibimet extorquerent, egregia scilicet mercede, cum
relegati in paludes et silvas contumeliam atque invidiam suam, praemia penes
paucos intellegerent.11
And I no longer fear what you think about him, but how much you dare, lest while
you are waiting for someone else to take the lead you may be caught before, not
by his forces, which are insignificant and degenerate, but by your negligence, by
which he is allowed to continue on a course of robbery and to seem fortunate in
proportion to his daring. For with the exception of his crime stained minions who
desires the same thing or who does not desire everything changed excepting his
victory? Doubtless the soldiers, with whose blood riches are gained for the worst
of slaves, Tarula and Scirtus? Or for is it those who in seeking office were held in
esteem before fufidius, the shameful slavegirl, the dishonour of all honours? And
so the victorious army gains my greatest confidence, which has gained nothing
through so many wounds and toils other than tyranny. But unless they took the
field by arms to overturn tribunician power, founded by their own ancestors, and
to wrest away from themselves their rights and jurisdictions, doubtless richly
rewarded, when banished to swams and woods they realised disgrace and hatred
are their own, and that rewards are in the hands of a few.
24 Quare igitur tanto agmine atque animis incedit? Quia secundae res mire sunt
vitiis optentui, quibus labefactis,12 quam formidatus est, tam contemnetur. Nisi
forte specie concordiae et pacis, quae sceleri et parricidio suo nomina indidit.
Neque aliter rem publicam et belli finem ait, nisi maneat expulsa agris plebes,
praeda civilis acerbissuma, ius iudiciumque omnium rerum penes se, quod populi
Romani fuit. 25 Quae si vobis pax et composita intelleguntur, maxuma
turbamenta rei publicae atque exitia probate, p394annuite legibus impositis,
accipite otium cum servitio et tradite exemplum posteris ad rem publicam suimet
sanguinis mercede circumveniundam!
26 Mihi quamquam per hoc summum imperium satis quaesitum erat nomini
maiorum, dignitati atque etiam praesidio, tamen non fuit consilium privatas opes
facere, potiorque visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio. 27 Quae si probatis,
adeste, Quirites, et bene iuvantibus divis M. Aemilium consulem ducem et
auctorem sequimini ad recipiundam libertatem!
Why then does he proceed with such a great force and with arrogance? Because
favourable circumstances is a wonderful screen for vices, but with this situation
reversed, as much as he has been feared he will be despised. Or perhaps he
makes an appearance of peace and harmony, which are the names he has
applied to crime and parricide. And likewise he says that the republic cannot
exist, nor the war ended, unless the plebs remain driven from their fields, unless
there is a most bitter plundering of the citizens, unless the rights and
jurisdictions of every matter are in his power, which the Roman people had held.
If this seems to you to be peace and order, show your approval for the greatest
disturbances of the republic and its destruction , accede to the laws imposed on
you, accept a peace along with servitude, teach the example to later generations
to ruin the republic at the price of their very own blood!