[2]
Will he also boast to
me that he obtained even magistracy without one repulse? I am able to make
that boast concerning myself with true exultation; for the Roman people did
confer all its honours on me in that way-on me, a new man. But when you were
made quaestor, even men who had never seen you gave that honour to your
name. You were made aedile. A Piso was elected by the Roman people; but not
the Piso that you are. The praetorship also was conferred in reality on your
ancestors. They, though dead, were well known; but no one had as yet known
anything of you, though you were alive.
When the Roman people made me quaestor among the first of the candidates, and
first aedile, and first praetor, as they did by a unanimous vote, they were
paying that compliment to me on my own account and not to my
family,—to my habits of life, not to my ancestors,—to my
proved virtue, and not to any nobleness of birth of which they had heard.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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