[5]
Therefore, with our Gallic legions, and with the levies which Quintus Metellus has raised
in the Picenian and Gallic territory, and with these troops which are every day being got
ready by us, I thoroughly despise that army composed of desperate old men, of clownish
profligates, and uneducated spendthrifts; of those who have preferred to desert their bail
rather than that army, and which will fall to pieces if I show them not the battle array of
our army, but an edict of the praetor. I wish he had taken with him those soldiers of his,
whom I see hovering about the forum, standing about the senate-house, even coming into the
senate, who shine with ointment, who glitter in purple; and if they remain here, remember
that that army is not so much to be feared by us as these men who have deserted the army. And
they are the more to be feared, because they are aware that I know what they are thinking of
and yet they are not influenced by it.
This text is part of:
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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