Search -
The Roman nights at the tomb of the Scipios (1825)
The Roman nights at the tomb of the Scipios - 1825 Author:Alessandro Verri Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CONFERENCE THE THIRD. Ctxsar exposes the Corruptions of the Republic, and asserts the necessity of a Monarchy. Buutus was silent, and Caesar turning himsel... more »f towards the multitude, commenced:—" If I, Julius Caesar, through my liberality, through my triumphs, and through my greatness of soul, have acquired any grace or esteem from you, I beseech ye to grant me in death this only reward, that you would now listen to me with complacency. If I were indeed to blame, already hath the steel of this man and his followers consummated your wrath with dreadful vengeance. At least then, let this favour be accorded to me, which is not even denied to malefactors, that I may protect my own cause with becoming language." Then, addressing himself to Brutus, he pro- ceeded in this manner:—" Now, that thou hast exposed the reasons for which thou cut me offfrom Rome, as its most fatal incumbrance, I ought to be permitted to expose the reasons which induced me to exalt myself above civil equality, of which this was the first, and indeed the leading cause, that in those days, whoever possessed any particular degree of virtue, was obliged to make choice of the one of two conditions, either empire or slavery. Besides, the multitude could not entertain a more reasonable wish, than that of taking refuge from universal overwhelming anarchy, under the government of one supreme moderator. Injuries, indeed, neither recent nor small, but infinite, inveterate, incurable and destructive, had not only rendered true liberty insecure, but even overthrown and destroyed it a long time before we had come into existence. " And, in order that the truth of these general assertions may be made manifest, call to mind, that, almost a century before I fell under thy weapon, the insolence of Curiatius the Tribune...« less