1We have read that when Thrasea Paetus had been praised by Arulenus Rusticus, and Helvidius Priscus by Herennius Senecio, it was a capital offence, and that savagery was directed not only against the authors themselves but also against their books, the triumvirs being assigned the task of burning the monuments of the most brilliant minds in the assembly-place and the forum. 2No doubt they thought that with that fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the senate and the conscience of the human race were being abolished; the teachers of philosophy were expelled besides, and every good art driven into exile, so that nothing honourable might be met with anywhere.
3We have certainly given a great proof of our patience; 3and just as the former age saw what was the extreme of liberty, so we saw the extreme of servitude, since even the exchange of speaking and listening had been taken from us by the informers' inquisitions. 4We would have lost memory itself together with our voice, if it were as much in our power to forget as to keep silent.