C. autem Figulum mansuetissimum, pacato iuris civilis studio celeberrimum, prudentiae moderationisque immemorem reddiderunt: consulatus enim repulsae dolore accensus, eo quidem magis quod illum bis patri suo datum meminerat, cum ad eum postero comitiorum die multi consulendi causa venissent, omnes dimisit, praefatus [omnes] consulere scitis, consulem facere nescitis? dictum graviter et merito, sed tamen aliquanto melius non dictum: nam quis populo Romano irasci sapienter potest? Itaque ne illi quidem probandi, quamvis factum eorum nobilitatis splendore protectum sit, qui, quod Cn. Flavius humillimae quondam sortis praeturam adeptus erat offensi, anulos aureos sibimet ipsis et phaleras equis suis detractas abiecerunt, doloris impotentiam tantum non luctu professo testati.
But C. Figulus was of the mildest temper, very well known from his peaceable pursuit of civil law, and they made him forget good sense and moderation. He was bitterly hurt by his rejection for the Consulship, all the more because he remembered that his father had been given the office twice. The day after the election when many came to consult him he dismissed them all with the words, You know how to consult me, dont you know how to make me Consul? A weighty saying and deserved, and yet rather better not said. For who can wisely be angry with the Roman people? So the following too are not to be approved of, though what they did was defended by the lustre of nobility: those who in dudgeon because Cn. Flavius, a man of the lowest antecedents, had attained the Praetorship, stripped their gold rings from their fingers and the trappings from their horses and threw them away, advertising their lack of self-control by almost open mourning.
final_alignments\Valerius_Memorable_Book9.json