Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
The family produced many distinguished men, the greatest of whom was Rullus, who was for that reason named Maximus by the Romans. From him Fabius Maximus, of whom I am now writing, was fourth in descent. His own personal nickname was Verrucosus, because he had a little wart growing on his upper lip.
This had been brought forward by Rullus, one of the Tribunes, toward the end of the last year. The Tribunes came into office in December, whereas at this period of the Republic the Consuls were in power only on and from January 1st. Cicero, who had been unable to get the particulars of the new law till it had been proclaimed, had but a few days to master its details.
Two men accordingly the people proclaimed Maximi, which means the Greatest; Valerius, because he reconciled the senate to the people when there was a misunderstanding between them; and Fabius Rullus, because he ejected from the senate certain rich persons the children of freedmen who had been enrolled in the list of senators.
"But you, Rullus, and those who are with you, have been mistaken grievously in supposing that you will be regarded as friends of the people in your attempts to subvert the Republic in opposition to a Consul who is known in very truth to be the people's friend I call upon you, I invite you to meet me in the assembly. Let us have the people of Rome as a judge between us.
It is so grand as to make us feel that a Consul of Rome, who had the cares of Rome on his shoulders, was entitled to declare his own greatness to the Senate and to the people. There are the two important orations that spoken first in the Senate, and then the speech to the people from which I have already quoted the passage personal to Rullus.
For what will there be left to us untouched in the Republic, what will remain of your authority and freedom, when Rullus, and those whom you fear much more than Rullus, with this band of ready knaves, with all the rascaldom of Rome, laden with gold and silver, shall have seized on Capua and all the cities round?
Whatever may have been the private intentions of Rullus, whether good or bad, it is evident, even at this distance of time, that a redistribution of property was intended which can only be described as a general subversion. To this the new Consul opposed himself vehemently, successfully, and, we must needs say, patriotically.
He appointed M. Antonius his Master of the Horse and sent him to Rome. The soldiers having got what they asked for were no longer soldiers, but citizens; and Cæsar in the subsequent part of the conference properly addressed them as Quirites, just as Cicero addresses the Roman people by this name in one of his orations against Rullus.
When speaking to the oligarchs in the Senate of Rullus and his land law, it was easy enough to carry them with him. That a Consul should oppose a Tribune who was coming forward with a "Lex agraria" in his hands, as the latest disciple of the Gracchi, was not out of the common order of things.
It has been supposed that Cicero was insulting the Tribune because he was dirty. Not so. He was ridiculing Rullus because Rullus had dared to go about in mourning "sordidatus" on behalf of his country. But the tone in which Cicero speaks of himself is magnificent.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking