THE NINTH
PHILIPPIC.
THE
ARGUMENT.
Servius Sulpicius, as has been already said, had died on his embassy to Marcus Antonius, before Mutina; and the day after the delivery of the preceding speech, Pansa again called the senate together to deliberate on the honors to be paid to his memory. He himself proposed a public funeral, a sepulcher, and a statue. Servilius opposed the statue, as due only to those who had been slain by violence while in discharge of their duties as ambassadors.
[1] I wish, O conscript fathers, that the immortal gods had granted to us to return thanks to Servius Sulpicius while alive, rather than thus to devise honors for him now that he is dead. Nor have I any doubt, but that if that man had been able himself to give us his report of the proceedings of his embassy, his return would have been acceptable to you and salutary to the republic. Not that either Lucius. Piso or Lucius Philippus have been deficient in either zeal or care in the performance of so important a duty and so grave a commission; but, as Servius Sulpicius was superior in age to them, and in wisdom to every one, he, being suddenly taken from the business, left the whole embassy crippled and enfeebled.
[2] But if deserved honors have been paid to any
ambassador after death, there is no one by whom they can be found to have been
ever more fully deserved than by Servius Sulpicius. The rest of those men who
have died while engaged on an embassy, have gone forth, subject indeed to the
usual uncertainties of life, but without any especial danger or fear of death.
Servius Sulpicius set out with some hope indeed of reaching Antonius, but with
none of returning. But though he was so very ill that if any exertion were
added to his bad state of health, he would have no hope of himself, still he
did not refuse to try, even while at his last gasp, to be of some service to
the republic. Therefore neither the severity of the winter, nor the snow, nor
the length of the journey, nor the badness of the roads, nor his daily
increasing illness, delayed him. And when he had arrived where he might meet
and confer with the man to whom he had been sent, he departed this life in the
midst of his care and consideration as to how he might best discharge the duty
which he had undertaken.
[3] As therefore, O Caius Pansa, you have done well in
other respects, so you have acted admirably in exhorting us this day to pay
honor to Servius Sulpicius, and in yourself making an eloquent oration in his
praise. And after the speech which we have heard from you, I should have been
content to say nothing beyond barely giving my vote, if I did not think it
necessary to reply to Publius Servilius, who has declared his opinion that this
honor of a statue ought to be granted to no one who has not been actually slain
with a sword while performing the duties of his embassy. But I, O
conscript fathers, consider that this was the feeling of our ancestors, that
they considered that it was the cause of death, and not the manner of it, which
was a proper subject for inquiry. In fact, they thought fit that a monument
should be erected to any man whose death was caused by an embassy, in order to
tempt men in perilous wars to be the more bold in undertaking the office of an
ambassador. What we ought to do, therefore, is, not to scrutinize the
precedents afforded by our ancestors, but to explain their intentions from
which the precedents themselves arose.
Ch.
[4] Lar Tolumnius, the king of
[5] On this a statue was given to him by our ancestors
as a recompense for his life, which might ennoble his progeny for many years,
and which is now the only memorial left of so illustrious a family. But in his
case, and in that of Tullus Cluvius, and Lucius Roscius, and Spurius Antius,
and Caius Fulcinius, who were slain by the king of Veii, it was not the blood
that was shed at their death, but the death itself which was encountered in the
service of the republic, which was the cause of their being thus honored.
Ch.
Therefore, O conscript fathers, if it had been chance
which had caused the death of Servius. Sulpicius, I should sorrow indeed over
such a loss to the republic, but I should consider him deserving of the honor,
not of a monument, but of a public mourning. But, as it is, who is there who
doubts that it was the embassy itself which caused his death? For he took death
away with him; though, if he had remained among us, his own care, and the
attention of his most excellent son and his most faithful wife, might have
warded it off.
[6] But he, as he saw that, if he did not obey your
authority, he should not be acting like himself; but that if he did obey, then
that duty, undertaken for the welfare of the republic, would be the end of his
life; preferred dying at a most critical period of the republic, to appearing
to have done less service to the republic than he might have done.
He had an opportunity of recruiting his strength and
taking care of himself in many cities through which his journey lay. He was met
by the liberal invitation of many entertainers, as his dignity deserved, and
the men too who were sent with him exhorted him to take rest, and to think of
his own health. But he, refusing all delay, hastening on, eager to perform your
commands, persevered in this his constant purpose, in spite of the hindrances
of his illness.
[7] And as Antonius was above all things disturbed by
his arrival, because the commands which were laid upon him by your orders had
been drawn up by the authority and wisdom of Servius Sulpicius, he showed
plainly how he hated the senate by the evident joy which he displayed at the death
of the adviser of the senate.
Leptines then did not kill Octavius, nor did the king of
[8] But if, O conscript fathers, you would only recollect the excuses alleged by Servius Sulpicius why he should not be appointed to this embassy, then no doubt will be left on your minds that we ought to repair by the honor paid to the dead the injury which we did to him while living. For it is you, O conscript fathers (it is a grave charge to make, but it must be uttered), it is you, I say, who have deprived Servius Sulpicius of life. For when you saw him pleading his illness as an excuse more by the truth of the fact than by any labored plea of words, you were not indeed cruel (for what can be more impossible for this order to be guilty of than that), but as you hoped that there was nothing that could not be accomplished by his authority and wisdom, you opposed his excuse with great earnestness, and compelled the man, who had always thought your decisions of the greatest weight, to abandon his own opinion.
[9] But when there was added the exhortation of Pansa, the consul, delivered with more weight than the ears of Servius Sulpicius had learned to resist, then at last he led me and his own son aside, and said that he was hound to prefer your authority to his own life. And we, admiring his virtue, did not dare to oppose his determination. His son was moved with extraordinary piety and affection, and my own grief did not fall far short of his agitation; but each of us was compelled to yield to his greatness of mind, and to the dignity of his language, when he, indeed, amid the loud praises and congratulations of you all, promised to do whatever you wished, and not to avoid the danger which might be incurred by the adoption of the opinion of which he himself had been the author. And we the next day escorted him early in the morning as he hastened forth to execute your commands. And he, in truth, when departing, spoke with me in such a manner that his language seemed like an omen of his fate.
[10] Restore then, O conscript fathers, life to him from whom you have taken it. For the life of the dead consists in the recollection cherished of them by the living. Take care that he, whom you without, intending it sent to his death, shall from you receive immortality. And if you by your decree erect a statue to him in the rostra, no forgetfulness of posterity will ever obscure the memory of his embassy. For the remainder of the life of Servius Sulpicius will be recommended to the eternal recollection of all men by many and splendid memorials. The praise of all mortals will forever celebrate his wisdom, his firmness, his loyalty, his admirable vigilance and prudence in upholding the interests of the public. Nor will that admirable, and incredible, and almost godlike skill of his in interpreting the laws and explaining the principles of equity be buried in silence. If all the men of all ages, who have ever had any acquaintance with the law in this city, were got together into one place, they would not deserve to be compared to Servius Sulpicius.
[11] Nor was he more skillful in explaining the law than in laying down the principles of justice. Those maxims which were derived from laws, and from the common law, he constantly referred to the original principles of kindness and equity. Nor was he more fond of arranging the conduct of lawsuits than of preventing disputes altogether. Therefore he is not in want of this memorial which a statue will provide; he has other and better ones. For this statue will be only a witness of his honorable death; those actions will be the memorial of his glorious life. So that this will be rather a monument of the gratitude of the senate, than of the glory of the man.
[12] The affection of the son, too, will appear to have great influence in moving us to honor the father; for although, being overwhelmed with grief, he is not present, still you ought to be animated with the same feelings as if he were present. But he is in such distress, that no father ever sorrowed more over the loss of an only son than he grieves for the death of his father. Indeed, I think that it concerns also the fame of Servius Sulpicius the son, that he should appear to have paid all due respect to his father. Although Servius Sulpicius could leave no nobler monument behind him than his son, the image of his own manners, and virtues, and wisdom, and piety, and genius; whose grief can either be alleviated by this honor paid to his father by you, or by no consolation at all.
[13] But when I recollect the many conversations which in the days of our intimacy on earth I have had with Servius Sulpicius, it appears to me, that if there be any feeling in the dead, a brazen statue, and that too a pedestrian one, will be more acceptable to him than a gilt equestrian one, such as was first erected to Lucius Sulla. For Servius was wonderfully attached to the moderation of our forefathers, and was accustomed to reprove the insolence of this age. As if, therefore, I were able to consult himself as to what he would wish, so I give my vote for a pedestrian statue of brass, as if I were speaking by his authority and inclination; which by the honor of the memorial will diminish and mitigate the great grief and regret of his fellow-citizens.
[14] And it is certain that this my opinion, O
conscript fathers, will be approved of by the opinion of Publius Servilius, who
has given his vote that a sepulcher be publicly decreed to Servius Sulpicius,
but has voted against the statue. For if the death of an ambassador happening
without bloodshed and violence requires no honor, why does he vote for the
honor of a public funeral, which is the greatest honor that can be paid to a
dead man? If he grants that to Servius Sulpicius which was not given to Gnaeus.
Octavius, why does he think that we ought not to give to the former what was
given to the latter? Our ancestors, indeed, decreed statues to many men; public
sepulchers to few. But statues perish by weather, by violence, by lapse of
time; but the sanctity of the sepulchers is in the soil itself, which can neither be moved
nor destroyed by any violence; and while other things are extinguished, so sepulchers
become holier by age.
{As having been consecrated by rites and ceremonies. Until these rites were performed a corpse was merely “situs”, not “sepultus”. Those rites expressed a belief (cf.Cic. Tusc.I.12) that death was not annihilation, but “as it were a migration of life, which remained in the earth.”}.[15] Let, then, that man be distinguished by that honor also, a man to whom no honor can be given which is not deserved. Let us be grateful in paying respect in death to him to whom we can now show no other gratitude. And by that same step let the audacity of Marcus Antonius, waging a nefarious war, be branded with infamy. For when these honors have been paid to Servius Sulpicius, the evidence of his embassy having been insulted and rejected by Antonius, will remain for everlasting.
On which account I give my vote for a decree in this form: “As Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of Quintus, of the Lemonian tribe, at a most critical period of the republic, and being ill with a very serious and dangerous disease, preferred the authority of the senate and the safety of the republic to his own life, and struggled against the violence and severity of his illness, in order to arrive at the camp of Antonius, to which the senate had sent him; and as he, when he had almost arrived at the camp, being overwhelmed by the violence of the disease, has lost his life in discharging a most important office of the republic; and as his death has been in strict correspondence to a life passed with the greatest integrity and honor, during which he, Servius Sulpicius, has often been of great service to the republic, both as a private individual and in the discharge of various magistracies; [16] and as he, being such a man, has encountered death on behalf of the republic while employed on an embassy;the senate decrees that a brazen pedestrian statue {This statue was still standing in the time of Pomponius the jurist (Hadrianus, second century A.D.)} of Servius Sulpicius be erected in the rostra in compliance with the resolution of this order, and that his children and posterity shall have a place round this statue of five feet in every direction, from which to behold the games and gladiatorial combats, because he died in the cause of the republic; and that this reason be inscribed on the pedestal of the statue; and that Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius the consuls, one or both of them, if it seem good to them, shall command the quaestors of the city to let out a contract for making that pedestal and that statue, and erecting them in the rostra; and that whatever price they contract for, they shall take care the amount is given and paid to the contractor; and as in old times the senate has exerted its authority with respect to the obsequies of, and honors paid to brave men, it now decrees that he shall be carried to the tomb on the day of his funeral with the greatest possible solemnity.
[17] And as Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of
Quintus of the Lemonian tribe {Q.f.Lemonia Rufus.}, has deserved so well of the
republic as to be entitled to be complimented with all those distinctions; the
senate is of opinion, and thinks it for the advantage of the republic, that the
consule aedile should suspend the edict which usually prevails with respect to
funerals in the case of the funeral of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of
Quintus of the Lemonian tribe; and that Caius Pansa, the consul, shall assign
him a place for a tomb in the Esquiline plain, or in whatever place shall seem
good to him, extending thirty feet in every direction, where Servius Sulpicius
may be buried; and that that shall be his tomb, and that of his children and
posterity, as having been a tomb most deservedly given to them by the public
authority.”
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten
Opmerking: Alleen leden van deze blog kunnen een reactie posten.