The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers
The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers
The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers
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312 UELIUS; OR,<br />
and his speech is in everybody<br />
s hands. I cannot forbear<br />
giving you another instance likewise, although<br />
it is one<br />
particularly relating to myself. You may remember that<br />
in the consulate <strong>of</strong> Lucius Mancinus and Quintus Maximus,<br />
the brother <strong>of</strong> Scipio, a very popular law was moved by<br />
Caius Licinius, who proposed that the privilege <strong>of</strong> electing<br />
to the sacerdotal <strong>of</strong>fices should be transferred from the<br />
respective colleges to the general assemblies <strong>of</strong> the people ;<br />
and let me remark, by the way, it was upon this occasion<br />
that Licinius, in complaisance to the people, first intro<br />
duced the practice <strong>of</strong> addressing them with his back<br />
turned upon the Senate-house. Nevertheless, the pious<br />
reverence which is due to every circumstance that con<br />
cerns the worship <strong>of</strong> the immortal gods, together with the<br />
arguments by which I exposed the impropriety <strong>of</strong> his<br />
motion, prevailed over all the specious colourings <strong>of</strong> his<br />
plausible oratory. This affair was agitated during my<br />
Praetorship, and I was not chosen Consul till five<br />
years afterwards, so that it is evident I owed my<br />
success more to the force <strong>of</strong> truth than to the influence<br />
<strong>of</strong> station.<br />
Now, if in popular assemblies, a scene, <strong>of</strong> all others,<br />
in which fiction and fallacious representations have the<br />
greatest scope, and are usually employed with the most<br />
success, Truth, when fairly stated and properly enforced,<br />
could thus prevail, with how much more reason may she<br />
expect to be favourably heard in an intercourse <strong>of</strong> friend<br />
ship, the very essence where<strong>of</strong> depends upon sincerity 1<br />
In a commerce <strong>of</strong> this nature, indeed, if you are not<br />
permitted to see into the most hidden recesses <strong>of</strong> your<br />
friend s bosom, and do not with equal unreserve lay open<br />
to him the full exposure <strong>of</strong> your own, there can be no<br />
just ground for confidence on either side, nor even sufficient<br />
evidence that any affection subsists between you. With<br />
respect, however, to that particular deviation from truth<br />
which is the object <strong>of</strong> our present consideration, it must
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