Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 2, ch. 3 / sec. 5 (3.3/3.5) (44-10-24 BC) [tr. Grant (1960)]

Dave — Thu, 29 May 2025 16:13:51 +0000

That, Senators, is what a favour from gangsters amounts to. They refrain from murdering someone; then they boast that they have spared him!

[Quod est aliud, patres conscripti, beneficium latronum, nisi ut commemorare possint iis se dedisse vitam, quibus non ademerint?]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 2, ch. 3 / sec. 5 (3.3/3.5) (44-10-24 BC) [tr. Grant (1960)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

What other services, my lords, can robbers render, save that they can claim to have given life to those whose lives they spare?
[tr. King (1877)]

How; are brigands "benefactors," except in being able to assert that they have granted life to those from whom they have not taken it?
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

Us not this, O conscript fathers, such a kindness as is done by banditti, who are contented with being able to boast that they have granted their lives to all those men whose lives they have not taken?
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

How else can brigands confer a favour, conscript fathers, except by asserting that they have granted life to those from whom they have not taken it away?
[tr. Berry (2006)]

What is the kindness of outlaws, members of the Senate, other than their ability to remind us that they gave life to people from whom they did not steal it?
[tr. McElduff (2011)]

WIST Quotations

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 2, ch. 3 / sec. 5 (3.3/3.5) (44-10-24 BC) [tr. Grant (1960)]