Catilinarian Orations, 3.24

Cicero  translated by C. D. Yonge

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24Remember, O citizens, all civil dissensions, and not only those which you have heard of, but these also which you yourselves remember and have seen. Lucius Sylla crushed Publius Sulpicius; he drove from the city Caius Marius the guardian of this city; and of many other brave men some he drove from the city, and some he murdered. Cnæus Octavius the consul drove his colleague by force of arms out of the city; all this place was crowded with heaps of carcases and flowed with the blood of citizens; afterwards Cinna and Marius got the upper hand; and then most illustrious men were put to death, and the lights of the state were extinguished. Afterwards Sylla avenged the cruelty of this victory; it is needless to say with what a diminution of the citizens, and with what disasters to the republic. Marcus Lepidus disagreed with that most eminent and brave man Quintus Catulus. His death did not cause as much grief to the republic as that of the others.

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