Amic. 12.1Haec igitur lēx in amīcitiā sanciātur, ut neque rogēmus rēs turpīs nec faciāmus rogātī.Let this law, then, be established in friendship: that we neither ask for shameful things nor do them when asked. Amic. 12.1Turpis enim excūsātiō est et minimē accipienda cum in cēterīs peccātīs, tum sī quis contrā rem pūblicam sē amīcī causā fēcisse fateātur.For it is a shameful excuse, and one by no means to be accepted, both in other wrongdoings and above all if someone should confess that he acted against the state for a friend's sake. Amic. 12.1Etenim eō locō, Fannī et Scaevola, locātī sumus, ut nōs longē prōspicere oporteat futūrōs cāsūs reī pūblicae.For we have been placed, Fannius and Scaevola, in such a position that we ought to look far ahead to the future misfortunes of the state. Amic. 12.1Dēflexit iam aliquantulum dē spatiō curriculōque cōnsuētūdō maiōrum.The custom of our ancestors has already swerved somewhat from its track and course. Amic. 12.41Tib.Tiberius Amic. 12.41Gracchus regnum occupāre cōnātus est, vel regnāvit is quidem paucōs mēnsēs.Gracchus tried to seize kingly power, or rather he actually reigned for a few months.
Amic. 12.41Num quid simile populus Rōmānus audierat aut vīderat?Had the Roman people ever heard or seen anything like it? Amic. 12.41Hunc etiam post mortem secūtī amīcī et propinquī quid in P. Scīpiōne effēcerint, sine lacrimīs nōn queō dīcere.What his friends and kinsmen, following him even after his death, did in the case of Publius Scipio, I cannot tell without tears. Amic. 12.41Nam Carbōnem, quōcumque modō potuimus, propter recentem poenam Tib.For Carbo, in whatever way we could, because of the recent punishment of Tiberius Amic. 12.41Gracchī sustinuimus.Gracchus, we held in check. Amic. 12.41Dē C. Gracchī autem tribūnātū quid exspectem nōn libet augurārī;What I expect from the tribunate of Gaius Gracchus I do not care to foretell; Amic. 12.41serpit deinde rēs, quae prōclīvis ad perniciem, cum semel coepit, lābitur.then the thing creeps on, and once it has begun, it slides headlong towards ruin. Amic. 12.41Vidētis in tabellā iam ante quanta sit facta lābēs, prīmō Gabīniā lēge, bienniō autem post Cassiā.You see what havoc has already been wrought in the matter of the ballot, first by the Gabinian law, and two years later by the Cassian. Amic. 12.41Vidēre iam videor populum ā senātū disiūnctum, multitūdinis arbitriō rēs maximās agī.I seem to see already the people estranged from the senate, and the greatest affairs conducted at the whim of the mob.
Amic. 12.41Plūrēs enim discent quem ad modum haec fīant, quam quem ad modum hīs resistātur.For more men will learn how such things are done than how they are resisted. Amic. 12.42Quōrsum haec?What is the point of all this? Amic. 12.42Quia sine sociīs nēmō quicquam tāle cōnātur.That no one attempts anything of this kind without allies. Amic. 12.42Praecipiendum est igitur bonīs, ut;Good men must therefore be taught that, Amic. 12.42sī in eius modī amīcitiās ignārī cāsū aliquō inciderint, nē exīstiment ita sē alligātōs, ut ab amīcīs in magnā aliquā rē pūblicā peccantibus nōn discēdant;if by some chance they have fallen unawares into friendships of this sort, they should not think themselves so bound that they do not withdraw from friends who are doing wrong in some important public matter; Amic. 12.42improbīs autem poena statuenda est, nec vērō minor eīs quī secūtī erunt alterum, quam eīs quī ipsī fuerint impietātis ducēs.for the wicked, on the other hand, a penalty must be fixed, and no lighter for those who have followed another than for those who were themselves the leaders of the impiety. Amic. 12.42Quis clārior in Graeciā Themistocle, quis potentior?Who in Greece was more famous than Themistocles, who more powerful?
Amic. 12.42Quī cum imperātor bellō Persicō servitūte Graeciam līberāvisset propterque invidiam in exsilium expulsus esset, ingrātae patriae iniūriam nōn tulit, quam ferre dēbuit: fēcit idem quod vīgintī annīs ante apud nōs fēcerat Coriolānus.When, as general in the Persian War, he had freed Greece from slavery and had been driven into exile through ill will, he did not bear the injustice of his ungrateful country, as he ought to have borne it: he did the same as Coriolanus had done among us twenty years before. Amic. 12.42Hīs adiūtor contrā patriam inventus est nēmō;No one was found to help these men against their country; Amic. 12.42itaque mortem sibi uterque cōnscīvit.and so each of them took his own life. Amic. 12.43Quā rē tālis improbōrum cōnsēnsiō nōn modo excūsātiōne amīcitiae tegenda nōn est, sed potius suppliciō omnī vindicanda est, ut nē quis concessum putet amīcum vel bellum patriae īnferentem sequī.Wherefore such a league of wicked men must not only not be covered by the excuse of friendship, but must rather be punished with every kind of penalty, so that no one may think it permitted to follow a friend even when he is making war on his country.
Amic. 12.43Quod quidem, ut rēs īre coepit, haud sciō an aliquandō futūrum sit;And indeed, the way things have begun to go, I rather think this may one day happen; Amic. 12.43mihi autem nōn minōrī cūrae est, quālis rēs pūblica post mortem meam futūra sit, quam quālis hodiē sit.but it is no less my concern what the state will be like after my death than what it is like today.