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  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO FOR HIS HOUSE. ADDRESSED TO THE PRIESTS
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO RESPECTING THE ANSWERS OF THE SOOTHSAYERS. ADDRESSED TO THE SENATE.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CNAEUS PLANCIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SESTIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST PUBLIUS VATINIUS; CALLED ALSO, THE EXAMINATION OF PUBLIUS VATINIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF MARCUS CAELIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CONSULAR PROVINCES.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS CORNELIUS BALBUS.
  • THE ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS. ADDRESSED TO CAIUS CAESAR.
    		•

    M. Tullius Cicero, Orations: for his house, Plancius, Sextius, Coelius, Milo, Ligarius, etc. (ed. C. D. Yonge)

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. Albert Clark) | English (ed. C. D. Yonge)
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    text=Dom. text=Dom.:section=20 text=Dom.:section=33 text=Dom.:section=45 text=Dom.:section=58 text=Dom. text=Dom.:section=80 text=Dom.:section=91 text=Dom.:section=102 text=Dom. text=Dom.:section=127 text=Dom.:section=136 text=Dom.:section=145 text=Har.:section=4 text=Har. text=Har. text=Har.:section=31 text=Har.:section=40 text=Har.:section=48 text=Har.:section=57 text=Planc.:section=1 text=Planc.:section=11 text=Planc.:section=21 text=Planc.:section=30 text=Planc.:section=39 text=Planc.:section=49 text=Planc.:section=58 text=Planc.:section=66 text=Planc.:section=76 text=Planc.:section=86 text=Planc. text=Sest. text=Sest.:section=8 text=Sest.:section=17 text=Sest. text=Sest.:section=36 text=Sest. text=Sest.:section=53 text=Sest.:section=62 text=Sest.:section=71 text=Sest.:section=79 text=Sest.:section=89 text=Sest.:section=97 text=Sest.:section=103 text=Sest. text=Sest.:section=122 text=Sest.:section=130 text=Sest.:section=139 text=Vat. text=Vat.:section=8 text=Vat.:section=18 text=Vat.:section=27 text=Vat.:section=36 text=Cael.:section=1 text=Cael. text=Cael. text=Cael.:section=28 text=Cael. text=Cael.:section=43 text=Cael. text=Cael.:section=62 text=Cael. text=Prov. text=Prov.:section=7 text=Prov. text=Prov.:section=27 text=Prov.:section=36 text=Prov.:section=45 text=Balb. text=Balb.:section=14 text=Balb.:section=24 text=Balb.:section=33 text=Balb.:section=41 text=Balb.:section=50 text=Balb.:section=58 text=Pis. text=Pis.:section=6 text=Pis.:section=15 text=Pis. text=Pis.:section=34 text=Pis.:section=42 text=Pis.:section=50 text=Pis.:section=59 text=Pis.:section=70 text=Pis.:section=78 text=Pis.:section=86 text=Pis.:section=95 text=Mil.:section=3 text=Mil.:section=13 text=Mil. text=Mil.:section=32 text=Mil.:section=42 text=Mil.:section=54 text=Mil. text=Mil.:section=74 text=Mil.:section=84 text=Mil.:section=94 text=Rab. Post. text=Rab. Post.:section=7 text=Rab. Post.:section=17 text=Rab. Post.:section=28 text=Rab. Post. text=Rab. Post.:section=48 text=Marc. text=Marc.:section=18 text=Marc.:section=29 text=Lig.:section=2 text=Lig.:section=13 text=Lig. text=Lig. text=Deiot.:section=3 text=Deiot.:section=14 text=Deiot.:section=24 text=Deiot.:section=33

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    IV. But if there be any occasion on which it is proper to slay a man,--and there are many such,--surely that occasion is not only a just one, but even a necessary one, when violence is offered, and can only be repelled by violence. When a military tribune offered violence to a soldier in the army of Caius Marius, the kinsman of that commander was slain by the man whom he was insulting; for the virtuous youth chose to act though with danger, rather than to suffer infamously; and his illustrious commander acquitted him of all guilt, and treated him well. [10]  But what death can be unjust when inflicted on a secret plotter and robber?

    What is the meaning of our retinues, what of our swords? Surely it would never be permitted to us to have them if we might never use them. This, therefore, is a law, O judges, not written, but born with us,--which we have not learnt or received by tradition, or read, but which we have taken and sucked in and imbibed from nature herself; a law which we were not taught but to which we were made,--which we were not trained in, but which is ingrained in us,--namely, that if our life be in danger from plots, or from open violence, or from the weapons of robbers or enemies, every means of securing our safety is honourable. [11]  For laws are silent when arms are raised, and do not expect themselves to be waited for, when he who waits will have to suffer an undeserved penalty before he can exact a merited punishment.

    The law very wisely, and in a manner silently, gives a man a right to defend himself, and does not merely forbid a man to be slain, but forbids any one to leave a weapon about him with the object of slaying a man; so that as the object and not the weapon itself, is made the subject of the inquiry, the man who had used a weapon with the object of defending himself would be decided not to have had his weapon about him with the object of killing a man. Let, then, this principle [p. 395] remembered by you in this trial, O judges; for I do not doubt that I shall make good my defence before you, if you only remember--what you cannot forget--that a plotter against one may be lawfully slain.


    There are a total of 19 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Further comments from J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.:
    section 10 (general note)
    section 10: vero
    section 10: comitatus
    section 10: volunt
    section 10: adripuimus
    section 10: hausimus
    section 10: imbuti
    section 10: ut . . . esset
    section 10: incidisset
    section 11 (general note)
    section 11: sflent
    section 11: velit
    section 11: ante . . . quam
    section 11: etsi
    section 11: judicaretur
    section 11: hoc maneat in causa

    Cross references from Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges (eds. J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, A. A. Howard, Benj. L. D'Ooge):
    2, 316 [Agreement of Verb and Subject]: silent leges inter arma
    2, 413 [USES OF THE ABLATIVE AS INSTRUMENTAL]: quae [lex] esse cum telo vetat

    Cross references from J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.:
    Mil. [Argument]
    Mil. [II. Confutatio]

    Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
    redarius [Redarius]

    Cross references from A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin):
    fig.10335 [Patrician Calcei. (From Baumeister.)]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Mil.+10

    The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
    OCLC: 4709897


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