Quaestors, Aediles, even Tribunes, were still there. Perhaps it might
be given to him, to Cicero, to strengthen the hands of such officers.
At any rate, there was no better course open to him by which he could
serve his country.

The heaviest accusation brought against Cicero charges him with being
insincere to the various men with whom he was brought in contact in
carrying out the purpose of his life, and he has also been accused of
having changed his purpose. It has been alleged that, having begun
life as a democrat, he went over to the aristocracy as soon as he had
secured his high office of State. As we go on, it will be my object
to show that he was altogether sincere in his purpose, that he never
changed his political idea, and that, in these deviations as to men
and as to means, whether, for instance, he was ready to serve Caesar
or to oppose him, he was guided, even in the insincerity of his
utterances, by the sincerity of his purpose. I think that I can
remember, even in Great Britain, even in the days of Queen Victoria,
men sitting check by jowl on the same Treasury bench who have been
very bitter to each other with anything but friendly words. With us
fidelity in friendship is, happily, a virtue. In Rome expediency
governed everything. All I claim for Cicero is, that he was more
sincere than others around him.


NOTES:

[52] It was then that the foreign empire commenced, in ruling which
the simplicity and truth of purpose and patriotism of the Republic
were lost.