Sunday, February 02, 2025
Unworthy of Holding Office
Cicero, Post Reditum in Senatu 4.10 (on Piso and Gabinius, consuls in 58 BC; tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey):
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Ah, but the Consuls then in office were petty men, whose base, perverse minds, filled with darkness and greed, could not contemplate or support or understand the very word "consulship"—the splendor of the office, the greatness of the authority it confers. They were no Consuls, but traffickers in provinces, barterers of your dignity.
Sed fuerunt ii consules, quorum mentes angustae, humiles, pravae, oppletae tenebris ac sordibus, nomen ipsum consulatus, splendorem illius honoris, magnitudinem tanti imperii nec intueri nec sustinere nec capere potuerunt, non consules, sed mercatores provinciarum ac venditores vestrae dignitatis.
