1But if you take this upon yourselves and offer your services for this purpose, if you sit here so that the children of those whose goods have been sold may be brought before you, take care, by the immortal gods! 1judges, that a new and far crueller proscription does not seem to have been set on foot through you. 1That earlier one, which was carried out against those who were able to bear arms, the senate nevertheless refused to sanction, so that nothing might seem to have been done by public authority more harshly than the custom of our ancestors had established; but this one, which extends to their children and to the very cradles of infants, unless you reject and spurn it in this trial, see, by the immortal gods!
1to what point you think the commonwealth will come! 154It befits wise men, endowed with such authority and power as you possess, to bring remedies above all to the ills from which the commonwealth most suffers. 154There is none of you who does not understand that the Roman people, once thought most merciful towards its enemies, is at this time suffering from cruelty at home. 154Remove this from the state, judges, refuse to allow it to range any longer in this commonwealth; 154for it has not only this evil in it, that it has destroyed so many citizens most atrociously, but it has also taken pity away from the gentlest of men by making them used to misfortunes.
154For when every hour we see or hear of something being done atrociously, even those of us who are by nature most gentle lose from our hearts, through the constant succession of troubles, all feeling of humanity.