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25“That you may see, now, that I am speaking the truth, look at present conditions and then consider our position in olden times. Do you not see what is taking place—that the people are again being divided and torn asunder and that, with some choosing this side and some that, they have already fallen into two parties and two camps, 2and that the one side has seized the Capitol as if they feared the Gauls or somebody, while the others with headquarters in the Forum are preparing, as if they were so many Carthaginians and not Romans, to besiege them? 3Have you not heard how, though formerly citizens often quarrelled, even to the extent of occupying the Aventine once, and the Capitol, and some of them the Sacred Mount, yet as often as they were reconciled on fair terms, or by yielding a little one to the other, they at once stopped hating one another, 4and lived the rest of their lives in such peace and harmony that together they carried through successfully many great wars? And how, on the other hand, as often as they had recourse to murders and bloodshed, the one side deluded by the plea of defending themselves against aggression, and the other side by an ambition to appear to be inferior to none, no good ever came of it? 5Why need I waste time by reciting to you, who know them equally well, the names of Valerius, Horatius, Saturninus, Glaucia, the Gracchi? With such examples before you, examples chosen not from foreign countries but from your own, 6do not hesitate to imitate the right course and to guard against the wrong, but in the conviction that you have already had in the events themselves a proof of the outcome of the plans you are now making, do not any longer look upon what I say as mere words, but consider that the interests of the state are already involved. 7For thus you will not be led by any vague notion to put to the hazard your hopes, doubtful at best, but will foresee with justifiable confidence the certainty of your calculations.
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