Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 2.pdf/255



what character I now address you I am unable to declare. A private man I can not call myself, for you have bestowed upon me the title of prince; nor can I style myself a prince, while another is still in possession of the sovereign power. In what description you yourselves are to be classed, is to me a matter of doubt, and must remain so, till the question is decided whether you have in your camp the emperor of Rome, or a public enemy. Hear ye how the same voice that demands vengeance on me, calls for your destruction? So evident is it that we can neither die nor live otherwise than together.

Such is the humanity of Galba, perhaps he has already pronounced our doom; since, without a request, of his own free will, he could consign to the sword so many thousand innocent soldiers. My heart recoils with horror, when I reflect on the disastrous day on which he made his public entry