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[23]
O ye immortal gods! where are the habits and virtues of our forefathers? Caius
Popillius, in the time of our ancestors, when he had been sent as ambassador to
Antiochus the king, and had given him notice, in the words of the senate, to
depart from Alexandria, which he
was besieging, on the king's seeking to delay giving his answer, drew a line
round him where he was standing with his rod, and stated that he should report
him to the senate if he did not answer him as to what he intended to do before
he moved out of that line which surrounded him. He did well. For he had brought
with him the countenance of the senate, and the authority of the Roman people;
and if a man does not obey that, we are not to receive commands from him in
return, but he is to be utterly rejected.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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