t, this Caius, who hath been slain today,
hath brought more terrible calamities upon us than did all the rest,
not only by exercising his ungoverned rage upon his fellow citizens,
but also upon his kindred and friends, and alike upon all others, and by
inflicting still greater miseries upon them, as punishments, which they
never deserved, he being equally furious against men and against the
gods. For tyrants are not content to gain their sweet pleasure, and this
by acting injuriously, and in the vexation they bring both upon men's
estates and their wives; but they look upon that to be their principal
advantage, when they can utterly overthrow the entire families of their
enemies; while all lovers of liberty are the enemies of tyranny. Nor can
those that patiently endure what miseries they bring on them gain their
friendship; for as they are conscious of the abundant mischiefs they
have brought on these men, and how magnanimously they have borne their
hard fortunes, they cannot but be sensible what evils they have done,
and thence only depend on security from what they are suspicious of,
if it may be in their power to take them quite out of the world. Since,
then, we are now gotten clear of such great misfortunes, and are only
accountable to one another, [which form of government affords us the
best assurance of our present concord, and promises us the best security
from evil designs, and will be most for our own glory in settling the
city in good order,] you ought, every one of you in particular, to make
provision for his own, and in general for the public utility: or, on
the contrary, they may declare their dissent to such things as have
been proposed, and this without any hazard of danger to come upon
them, because they have now no lord set over them, who, without fear
of punishment, could do mischief to the city, and had an uncontrollable
power to take off those that freely declared their opinions. Nor has any
thing so much contributed to this increase of tyranny of late as sloth,
and a timorous forbearance of contradicting the emperor's will; while
men had an over-great inclination to the sweetness of peace, and had
learned to live like slaves; and as many of us as either heard of
intolerable calamities that happened at a distance from us, or saw
the miseries that were near us, out of the dread of dying virtuously,
endured a death joined with the utmost infamy. We ought, then, in the
first place, to decree the greates