[11,9] Ἀξιῶ δ´ ὑμᾶς, Ἄππιε, τοὺς προεστηκότας τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὸ κοινὸν ἀπὸ τῶν συμφερόντων οὐχὶ τὸ ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς ἰδίᾳ λυσιτελοῦν ὀφείλοντας σκοπεῖν, ἐάν τι τῶν ἀληθῶν μετὰ παρρησίας, ἀλλὰ μὴ καθ´ ἡδονὰς τὰς ὑμετέρας λέγω, μή μοι διὰ τοῦτ´ ἀπεχθάνεσθαι ἐνθυμουμένους, ὅτι οὐκ ἐπὶ λοιδορίᾳ καὶ προπηλακισμῷ τῆς ἀρχῆς ὑμῶν ποιήσομαι τοὺς λόγους, ἀλλ´ ἵνα δείξας, ἐν οἵῳ κλύδωνι τὰ πράγματα σαλεύει τῆς πόλεως, τὴν σωτηρίαν καὶ ἐπανόρθωσιν αὐτῶν ἥτις ἔσται φράσω. ἅπασι μὲν γὰρ ἴσως, ὅσοις τῇ πατρίδι ... δωσιν, ἀναγκαῖός ἐστιν ὁ περὶ τῶν κοινῇ συμφερόντων λόγος, μάλιστα δ´ ἐμοί. πρῶτον μὲν γάρ, ὅτι γνώμης ἄρχειν ἠξίωμαι διὰ τιμήν· αἰσχύνη δὲ καὶ μωρία πολλὴ πρῶτον ἀναστάντα μὴ οὐχ ἃ δεῖ πρῶτον ἐπανορθώσασθαι λέγειν. ἔπειθ´ ὅτι συμβέβηκεν ὄντι θείῳ πρὸς πατρὸς Ἀππίου τοῦ προεστηκότος τῆς δεκαδαρχίας ἥδεσθαί τε πάντων μάλιστα, ὅταν εὖ τὰ κοινὰ ὑπ´ αὐτῶν ἐπιτροπεύηται, καὶ ἀνιᾶσθαι παντὸς ὁτουδήτινος μᾶλλον, ὅταν μὴ καλῶς. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὅτι ταύτην πολιτείας διαδέδεγμαι προαίρεσιν ἐκ προγόνων τὰ κοινὰ συμφέροντα πρὸ τῶν οἰκείων λυσιτελῶν αἱρεῖσθαι καὶ μηδένα κίνδυνον ἴδιον ὑπολογίζεσθαι, ἣν οὐκ ἂν προδοίην ἑκὼν εἶναι {δέ μοι ταύτην τοῦ βίου προαίρεσιν} καὶ οὐκ ἂν καταισχύναιμι τὰς ἐκείνων τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀρετάς. περὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς καθεστώσης πολιτείας, ὅτι πονηρῶς ἡμῖν ἔχει, καὶ δυσχεραίνουσιν ὀλίγου δεῖν πάντες αὐτῇ, μέγιστον ὑμῖν γενέσθω τεκμήριον {πάντες οἱ τὰ κοινὰ διοικοῦντες} ὃ μόνον οὐδ´ ἀγνοεῖν ἔξεστιν ὑμῖν, ὅτι φεύγουσιν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως ὁσημέραι καταλιπόντες τὰς πατρῴας ἑστίας οἱ χαριέστατοι τῶν δημοτικῶν, οἱ μὲν εἰς τὰς πλησιοχώρους πόλεις ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ τέκνοις μετατιθέμενοι τὰς οἰκήσεις, οἱ δ´ εἰς τοὺς πλεῖστον ἀπέχοντας τῆς πόλεως ἀγρούς· καὶ οὐδὲ τῶν πατρικίων πολλοὶ τὰς κατ´ ἄστυ ποιοῦνται διατριβὰς ὡς πρότερον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων οἱ πλείους τὸν βίον ἔχουσιν ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς. καὶ τί δεῖ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων λέγειν, ὅτε καὶ τῶν βουλευτῶν ὀλίγοι μέν τινες οἱ κατὰ συγγένειαν ἢ φιλίαν προσήκοντες ὑμῖν ὑπομένουσιν ἐντὸς τείχους, οἱ δ´ ἄλλοι τὴν ἐρημίαν ποθεινοτέραν ἡγοῦνται τῆς πατρίδος; ὅτε γοῦν ἐδέησεν ὑμῖν καλέσαι τὴν βουλήν, ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν καθ´ ἕνα καλούμενοι συνῆλθον, οἷς πάτριον ἦν ἅμα ταῖς ἀρχαῖς διὰ φυλακῆς ἔχειν τὴν πατρίδα καὶ μηδενὸς ἀπολείπεσθαι τῶν κοινῶν. ἆρ´ οὖν τἀγαθὰ φεύγοντας ὑπολαμβάνετε ἀνθρώπους καταλιπεῖν τὰς ἑαυτῶν πατρίδας ἢ τὰ κακά; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἴομαι τὰ κακά. καίτοι τίνος ἔλαττον οἴεσθ´ εἶναι κακὸν πόλει καὶ ταῦτα τῇ Ῥωμαίων, ᾗ πολλῶν οἰκείων δεῖ σωμάτων, εἰ μέλλει βεβαίως καθέξειν τὴν τῶν προσοίκων ἀρχήν, τὸ καταλείπεσθαι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν δημοτικῶν, ἐρημοῦσθαι δ´ ὑπὸ τῶν πατρικίων, οὔτε πολέμου κατασχόντος αὐτὴν οὔτε νόσου λοιμικῆς οὔτ´ ἄλλης θεηλάτου συμφορᾶς οὐδεμιᾶς;

[11,9] "I ask this, Appius, of you men who are at the head of the commonwealth and are in duty bound to consult the common interest of all rather than your private advantage, that if I speak some truths with frankness instead of trying to please you, you will not be offended on that account, when you consider that I shall not make my remarks with any intent to abuse and insult your magistracy, but in order to show in how great a sea the affairs of the commonwealth are tossed and to point out what will be both their safety and their reformation. It (p33) is perhaps incumbent upon all who - - - for the fatherland to speak of the matters that are for the public interest, and this is true particularly in my case. First, because I have been asked, as an honour due me, to take the lead in expressing my opinion, and it would be a shame, yes a great folly, for the man who rises up first not to mention the things that need to be reformed first. In the next place, because it has fallen to me, as the paternal uncle of Appius, the chief of the decemvirs, both to be pleased more than all others when the commonwealth is well governed by them and to be grieved above anyone else when it is not so governed. Besides these motives, I have inherited it as a political principle from my ancestors to prefer the interests of the public to my own private advantages and to take thought for no personal danger, a principle that I would not willingly betray and thus dishonour the virtues of those men. As to the present form of government, that it is in a bad state and that almost everyone is dissatisfied with it, let this be the strongest proof for you, the one thing you cannot be ignorant of, that the most respectable of the plebeians are daily abandoning their ancestral hearths and fleeing out of the city, some with their wives and children removing to the neighbouring cities and others to country districts that lie farthest from Rome. (p35) And even of the patricians not many continue to reside in the city as they formerly did, but the greater part of these also are living in the country. Yet why should I speak of the others when only a few even of the senators, and those such as are attached to you either by relationship or friendship, remain within the walls, while the rest regard solitude as more desirable than their native city? At any rate, when you found it necessary to assemble the senate, the members came together only when summoned from their country seats one by one — these men with whom it was a time-honoured custom to keep watch over the fatherland in conjunction with the magistrates and to shirk none of the public business. Do you imagine, then, that it is to flee from their blessings or rather from their evils that men abandon their native lands? For my part, I think it is from their evils. And yet what greater evil do you think there is for a commonwealth, particularly for that of the Romans, which needs many troops of its own nationals if it is to maintain firmly its sovereignty over its neighbours, than to be abandoned by the plebeians and deserted by the patricians, when oppressed neither by war, pestilence nor any other calamity inflicted by the hand of Heaven?