Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/310

272 In setting forth the recent services, on which Cæsar rests his claims to the consideration of the Senate, Cicero has a theme worthy of his eloquence. Here there is no need for hesitation or apology. "He has striven on glorious battle-fields with the fierce tribes and mighty hosts of Germania and Helvetia; the rest he has terrified, checked, and tamed, and taught them to obey the commands of the Roman People. Over regions and nations which no book, no traveller, no report had made known to us, our general, our soldiers, and the arms of the Roman People have found a way. It was but a strip of Gaul that we held before, Senators; the rest was occupied by tribes, enemies of our rule or rebels against it, or by men unknown to us, or known only as dangerous, savage, and warlike. Every one desired that these tribes should be broken and subdued; from the first days of our empire there never has been a prudent statesman who did not recognise that Gaul was the great danger to our State. But owing to the might and multitude of those races we never before ventured to try conclusions with them as a nation. It was always we that were the challenged, and we fought only on the defensive. Now at length we have reached the consummation that our empire extends to the utmost limits of that land. Not without the Providence of Heaven nature piled the Alps to be a rampart to Italy. For if that approach had lain open to the fierce hordes of Gaul, never would this city have survived to be the seat and home of sovereignty. Now let them sink in the earth! for beyond those mountain peaks