law which would not have paffed if it could have brought him to life. If his deftroyer then should confefs the fact, need he fear to be punished by thofe whom he has delivered? The Greeks render divine honours to those who put tyrants to death. What have I feen at Athens? what in other cities of Greece? what ceremonies were inftituted for fuch heroes? what hymns? what fongs? The honours paid them were almoft equal to those paid to the immortal gods. And will you not only refufe to pay any honours to the preferver of fo great a people, and the avenger of fuch execrable villainies, but even fuffer him to he dragged to punishment? He would have confeffed, I fay, had he done the action; he would have bravely and freely confeffed that he did it for the common good; and, indeed, he ought not only to have confeffed, but to have proclaimed it.

nours upon diftinguished patriots; and it is the part of a brave man, not to be induced by the greateft fufferings to repent of having boldly difcharged his duty. Milo therefore might have made the confeffion which Ahala, Nafica, Opimius, Marius, and I myself, formerly made. And had his country been grateful, he might have. rejoiced; if ungrateful, his confcience mult ftill have fupported him under ingratitude." But that gratitude is due to him for this favour, my lords, the fortune of Rome, your own prefervation, and the immortal gods, all declare. Nor is it poffible that any man can think otherwise, but he who denies the existence of an over-ruling power or divine providence; who is unaffected by the majefty of your empire, the fun itfelf, the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, the changes and laws of nature, and, above all, the wildom of our ancestors, who religioufly obferved the facred rites, ceremonies, and aufpices, and carefully tranfmitted them to their polterity.

For if he does not deny an action for which he defires nothing but pardon, is it likely that he would fcruple to confefs what he might hope to be rewarded for? unless he thinks it is more agreeable to you, that he should defend his own life, than the lives of your order; especially, as by fuch a confeffion, if you were inclined to be grateful, he might expect to obtain the noblest honours. But if you had not approved of the action (though how is it poffible that a perfon can difapprove of his own fafety!) if the courage of the bravest man alive had not been agreeable to his countrymen; he would have departed with fteadiness and refolution from fo ungrateful a city. For what can fhew greater ingratitude, than that all fhould rejoice, while he alone remained dikonfolate, who was the caufe of all the joy? Yet, in deftroying the enemies of our country, this has been our conftant perfuafion, that as the glory would be ours, fo we should expect our fhare of odium and danger. For what praife had been due to me, when in my confulate I made fo many hazardous attempts for you and your pofterity, if I could have propofed to carry my defigns into execution without the greatest struggles and difficulties? what woman would not dare to kill the most villainous and outrageous citizen, if fhe had no danger to fear? But the man who bravely defends his country with the profpect of public odium, danger, and death, is a man indeed. It is the duty of a grateful people to bestow distinguished ho

There is, there certainly is fuch a Power; nor can this grand and beautiful fabric of nature be without an animating principle, when these bodies and feeble frames of ours are endowed with life and perception. Unless perhaps men think otherwife, becaufe it is not immediately difcerned by them; as if we could difcern that principle of wifdom and forefight by which we act and speak, or even could discover the manner and place of its exiftence. This, this is the very power which has often, in a wonderful manner, crowned Rome with glory and profperity; which has destroyed and removed this plague; which infpired him with prefumption to irritate by violence, and provoke by the fword, the braveft of men, in order to be conquered by him; a victory over whom would have procured him eternal impunity, and full fcope to his audaciousness. This, my lords, was not effected by human prudence, nor even by the common care of the immortal gods. Our facred places themfelves, by heavens, which faw this monfter fall, feemed to be interested in his fate, and to vindicate their rights in his deftruction. For you, ye Alban mounts and groves, I implore and atteft, ye demolifhed altars of the Albans, the companions and partners of the Roman rites, which his fury, after having demolished the facred groves, buried under the extravagant piles of his building. Upon his fall, your

altars

altars, your rites, flourished, your power prevailed, which he had defiled with all manner of villainy. And you, O venerable Jupiter! from your lofty Latian mount, whose lakes, whofe woods and borders, he polluted with the most abominable luft, and every fpecies of guilt, at laft opened your eyes to behold his deftruction to you, and in your presence, was the late, but just and deferved penalty paid. For furely it can never be alledged that in his encounter with Milo before the chapel of the Bona Dea, which stands upon the estate of that worthy and accomplished youth, P. Sextius Gallus, it was by chance he received that first wound, which delivered him up to a fhameful death, I may fay under the eye of the goddess herself: no; it was that he might appear not acquitted by the infamous decree, but referved only for this fignal punishment

Nor can it be denied that the anger of the gods infpired his followers with fuch madness, as to commit to the flames his expofed body, without pageants, without finging, without fhews, without pomp, without lamentations, without any oration in his praife, without the rites of burial, befmeared with gore and dirt, and deprived of that funeral folemnity which is always granted even to enemies. It was inconfiftent with piety, I imagine, that the images of fuch illuftrious perfons fhould grace fo monstrous a parricide; nor could he be torn by the dogs, when dead, in a more proper place than that where he had been fo often condemned while alive. Truly, the fortune of the Roman people feemed to me hard and cruel, which faw and fuffered him to infult the ftate for fo many years. He defiled with luft our most facred rites; violated the most folenin decrees of the fenate; openly corrupted his judges; haraffed the fenate in his tribunefhip: abolished those acts which were paffed with the concurrence of every order for the fafety of the state; drove me from my country; plundered my goods; fired my houfe; perfecuted my wife and children; declared an execrable war againft Pompey; aflaffinated magiftrates and citizens; burnt my brother's houfe; laid Tufcany wafte; drove many from their habitations and eftates; was very eager and furious; neither Rome, Italy, provinces nor kingdoms, could confine his frenzy. In his houfe, laws were hatched, which were to fubject us to our own slaves; there was nothing belonging to any one, which

he coveted, that this year he did not think would he his own. None but Milo oppofed his defigns; he looked upon Pompey, the man who was best able to oppose him, as firmly attached to his intereft, by their late reconciliation. The power of Cæfar he called his own; and my fall had taught him to defpife the fentiments of all good men; Milo alone refifted him.

In this fituation, the immortal gods, as I before obferved, infpired that furious mifcreant with a defign to way-lay Milo. No otherwife could the monster have been deftroyed; the ftate could never have avenged its own caufe. Is it to be imagined, that the fenate could have restrained him when he was prætor, after having effected nothing while he was only in a private ftation? Could the confuls have been ftrong enough to check their prætor? In the first place, had Milo been killed, the two confuls must have been of his faction; in the next place, what conful would have had courage to oppofe him when prætor, whom he remembered, while tribune, to have grievously haraffed a perfon of confular dignity? He might have oppressed, feized, and obtained every thing: by a new law which was found among the other Clodian laws, he would have made our flaves his freed-men. In short, had not the immortal gods infpired him, effeminate as he was, with the frantic refolution of attempting to kill the braveft of men, you would this day have had no republic. Had he been prætor, had he been conful, if indeed we can fuppofe that thefe temples and thefe walls could have ftood till his confulthip; in short, had he been alive, would he have committed no mifchief; who, when dead, by the direction of Sextus Clodius, one of his dependants, fet the fenate-houfe on fire? Was ever fight more dreadful, more fhocking, and more miferable? That the temple of holiness, dignity, wifdom, public counfel, the head of this city, the fanctuary of her allies, the refuge of all nations, the feat granted to this order by the unanimous voice of the Roman people, fhould be fired, erased, and defiled? And not by a giddy mob, though even that would have been dreadful, but by one man; who, if he dared to commit fuch havock for his deceased friend as a revenger, what would he not, as a leader, have done for him when living? He chafe to throw the body of Clodius into the fenate-houfe, that, when dead, he might

burn

burn what he had fubverted when living. Are there any who complain of the Appian way, and yet are filent as to the fenate-house? Can we imagine that the foram could have been defended against that man, when living, whofe lifeless corfe deftroyed the fenate-house? Raife, raise him if you can from the dead; will you break the force of the living man, when you can scarce fuftain the rage occafioned by his unburied body? Unless you pretend that you sustained the attacks of thofe who ran to the senate house with torches, to the temple of Caftor with scythes, and flew all over the forum with fwords. You faw the Roman people maffacred, an affembly attacked with arms, while they were attentively hearing Marcus Caelius, the tribune of the people; a man undaunt ed in the service of the republic; most refolute in whatever cause he undertakes; devoted to good men, and to the authority of the fenate; and who has difcovered a divine and amazing fidelity to Milo under his prefent circumftances; to which he was reduced either by the force of envy, or a fingular turn of fortune.

But now I have faid enough in relation to the caufe, and perhaps taken too much liberty in digreffing from the main fubject. What then remains, but to befeech and adjure you, my lords, to extend that com paffion to a brave man, which he difdains to implore, but which I, even against his confent, implore and earnestly intreat. Though you have not feen him fhed a fingle tear while all are weeping around him, though he has preferved the fame fteady countenance, the fame firmness of voice and language, do not on this account withhold it from him: indeed I know not whether these circumstances ought not to plead with you in his favour. If in the combats of gladiators, where perfons of the lowest rank, the very dregs of the people, are engaged, we look with fo much contempt on cowards, on those who meanly beg their lives, and are fo fond of faving the brave, the intrepid, and those who chearfully offer their breafts to the fword; if, I fay, we feel more pity for those who feem above aking our pity, than for those who with earnestness intreat it, how much more ought we to be thus affected where the interefts of our bravest citizens are concerned? The words of Milo, my lords, which he frequently utters, and which I daily hear, kill and confound me. May my fellow-citizens, fays he, flourish, may they

be fafe, may they be glorious, may they be happy! May this renowned city profper, and my country, which shall ever be dear to me, in whatsoever manner the fhall please to treat me: fince I must not live with my fellow-citizens, let them enjoy peace and tranquillity without me; but then, to me, let them owe their happiness. I will withdraw, and retire into exile: if I cannot be a member of a virtuous com monwealth, it will be fome fatisfaction not to live in a bad one; and as foon as I fet foot within a well-regulated and free state, there will I fix my abode. Alas, cries he, my fruitlefs toils! my fallacious hopes ! my vain and empty fchemes! Could I who, in my tribunefhip, when the ftate was under oppreffion, gave myself up wholly to the fervice of the fenate, which I found almost destroyed; to the service of the Roman knights, whose strength was fo much weakened; to the service of all good citizens, from whom the oppreffive arms of Clodius had wrefted their due authority; could I ever have imagined I should want a guard of honeft men to defend me? When I reflored you to your country, (for we frequently difcourfe together) could I ever have thought that I fhould be driven myfelf into banifhment ? Where is now that fenate, to whofe intereft we devoted ourfelves? Where, where, fays he, are thofe Roman knights of yours? What is become of that warm affection the municipal towns formerly teftified in your favour? What is become of the acclamations of all Italy? What is become of thy art, of thy eloquence, my Tully, which have fo often been employed to preserve your fellow-citizens? Am I the only perfon, to whom alone they can give no affiftance; I, who have fo often engaged my life in your defence?

Nor does he utter fuch fentiments as thefe, my lords, as I do now, with tears, but with the fame intrepid countenance you now behold. For he denies, he absolutely denies, that his fellow citizens have repaid his fervices with ingratitude; but he confeffes they have been too timorous, too apprehenfive of danger. He declares, that, in order to infure your fafety, he gained over the common people, all the fcum of the populace, to his intereft, when under their leader Clodius they threatened your property and your lives; that he not only curbed them by his refolution, but foothed their rage at the expence of his three inheritances. And while, by his li

berality,

berality, he appeafes the fury of the people, he entertains not the least doubt but that his extraordinary fervices to the ftate will procure him your affection and favour. Repeated proofs of the fenate's esteem, he acknowledges that he has received, even upon the prefent occafion; and declares, that, wherever fortune may convey him, the can never deprive him of thofe marks of honour, regard, and affection, conferred upon him by you and the people of Rome. He recollects too, that he was declared conful by the universal fuffrage of the people, the only thing he valued or defired; and that, in order to his being invefted with that office, the voice of the cryer was only wanting; a matter, in his opinion, of very little importance. But now if thefe arms are to be turned against him, at laft, 'tis a fatisfaction to him that it is not owing to his guilt, but to the fufpicion of it. He adds likewife, what is unquestionably true, that the brave and wife perform great actions, not fo much on account of the rewards attending them, as on account of their own intrinfic excellence; that through his whole courfe of life, whatever he has done has been nobly done, fince nothing can be more truly great than for a man to rescue his country from impending dangers: that they are without doubt happy, whom their fellow-citizens have repaid with their due reward of honour; but that neither are thofe to be esteemed unhappy, whofe fervices have exceeded their rewards. Yet, fhould we in the purfuits of virtue have any of its rewards in view, he is convinced that the nobleft of all is glory; that this alone compenfates the fhortnefs of life, by the immortality of fame; that by this we are ftill prefent, when abfent from the world, and furvive even after death; and that by the fteps of glory, in fhort, mortals feem to mount to heaven. Of me, fays he, the people of Rome, all the nations of the earth, fhall talk, and my name shall be known to the lateft pofterity. Nay, at this very time, when all my enemies combine to inflame an univerfal odium against me, yet I receive the thanks, congratulations, and applaufes of every affembly. Not to mention the Tuscan feftivals inftituted in honour of me, it is now about an hundred days fince the death of Clodius, and yet, I am perfuaded, not only the fame of this action, but the joy arifing from it, has reached beyond the remotelt bounds of the Roman empire. It is therefore, continues he, of little importance to

me, how this body of mine is disposed of, fince the glory of my name already fills, and fhall ever poffefs, every region of the earth.

This, Milo, is what you have often talked to me, while these were abfent; and now that they are prefent, I repeat it to you. Your fortitude I cannot fufficiently applaud, but the more noble and divine your virtue appears to me, the more diftrefs I feel in being torn from you, Nor when you are feparated from me, fhall I have the poor confolation of being angry with thofe who give the wound. For the feparation is not made by my enemies, but by my friends; not by those who have at any time treated me injurioufly, but by thofe to whom I have been always highly obliged. Load me, my lords, with as fevere afflictions as you please, even with that I have just mentioned, (and none surely can be more fevere) yet hall I ever retain a grateful fenfe of your former favours. But if you have loft the remembrance of these, or if I have fallen under your displeasure, why do not ye avenge yourselves rather upon me, than Milo? Long and happily enough shall I have lived, could I but die before fuch a calamity befall me. Now I have only one confolation to fupport me, the conscioufnefs of having performed for thee, my Milo, every good office of love and friendfhip it was in my power to perform. For thee, I have dared the resentment of the great and powerful: for thee, I have often expofed my life to the fwords of thy enemies; for thee, I have often proftrated myself as a fuppliant: I have embarked my own and my family's eftate on the fame bottom with thine; and at this very hour, if you are threatened with any violence, if your life runs any hazard, I demand a fhare in your danger. What now remains? what can I say? what can I do to repay the obligations I am under to you, but embrace your fortune, whatever it fhall be, as my own? I will not refuse; I accept my share in it: and, my lords, I intreat you either to crown the favours you have conferred upon me by the preserva tion of my friend, or cancel them by his deftruction.

Milo, I perceive, beholds my tears without the leaft emotion. Incredible firmness of foul! he thinks himself in exile there, where virtue has no place; and looks upon death, not as a punishment, but as the period of our lives. Let him

then