But the very name of an agrarian law
set patrician households in a flutter, and Cicero stooped to be their
advocate. He attacked Rullus with brutal sarcasm. He insulted his
appearance; he ridiculed his dress, his hair, and his beard. He mocked at
his bad enunciation and bad grammar. No one more despised the mob than
Cicero; but because Rullus had said that the city rabble was dangerously
powerful, and ought to be "drawn off" to some wholesome employment, the
eloquent consul condescended to quote the words, to score a point against
his opponent; and he told the crowd that their tribune had described a
number of excellent citizens to the Senate as no better than the contents
of a cesspool.[10]
By these methods Cicero caught the people's voices. The plan came to
nothing, and his consulship would have waned away, undistinguished by any
act which his country would have cared to remember, but for an accident
which raised him for a moment into a position of real consequence, and
impressed on his own mind a conviction that he was a second Romulus.
Revolutionary conspiracies are only formidable when the government against
which they are directed is already despised and detested. As long as an
administration is endurable the majority of citizens prefer to bear with
it, and will assist in repressing violent attempts at its overthrow.
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