84 THE ORATION OF SILAS (4)

'The safety of this institution must not be too often allowed to be risked on one person. As long as you, O Caitlin, plotted against me while I was the consul-elect, I defended myself, not with a public guard, but by my own private diligence. When, in the next consular comitia, you wished to slay me when I was actually consul, and your competitors also, in the Campus grounds, I checked your nefarious attempt by the assistance and resources of my own friends, without exciting any disturbance publicly. In short, as often as you attacked me, I by myself opposed you, and that, too, tho I saw that my ruin was connected with great disaster to the institution. But now you are openly attacking the entire institution. For if I order you to be put to death, the rest of the conspirators will still remain in this institution; if, as I have long been exhorting you, you depart, your companions, those worthless dregs of this sacred place, will be drawn off from this place, too.'