Book 6
40.7
then, could I keep silence when I see that this L. Sextius, this C. Licinius, tribunes for life —good heavens! — have reached such a pitch of impudence during the nine years of their reign that they are refusing to allow you to vote as you please in the elections and in the enacting of laws?”
40.8
“On one condition,” they say, “you shall reappoint us tribunes for the tenth time.” What is this but saying, “What others seek we so thoroughly despise that we will not accept it without a heavy premium”?
40.9
But what premium have we to pay that we may always have you as tribunes of the plebs? “That you adopt all our measures en bloc, whether you agree with them or not, whether they are useful or the reverse.”
40.10
“Now I ask you —you Tarquinian tribunes Tarquinian tribunes=tribunes showing the same tyrannical and despotic spirit as the old Tarquins of the plebs —to listen to me. Suppose that I, as a citizen, call out from the middle of the Assembly, “Allow us, with your kind permission, to choose out of these proposed measures what we think beneficial for us and reject the
40.11
others.” “No,” he says, “you will not be allowed to do so. You would pass the measure about usury and the one about the distribution of land, for these concern you all; but you would not allow the City of Rome to witness the portentous sight of L. Sextius and C. Licinius as consuls, a prospect you regard with detestation and loathing. Either accept all, or I propose
