De Lege Agraria

that you may surround, and hold in subjection, the whole republic with your soldiers, and your cities and your garrisons , that you may be able to proscribe and to deprive of the sight of these men Cnaeus Pompeius himself by whose protection and assistance the Roman people has repeatedly been triumphant over its most active enemies and its most worthless citizens that there may be nothing, which is either capable of being tampered with by means of gold and silver, or carried by numbers and votes, or accomplished by force and violence, which you do not hold in your own power, and under your dominion; that meanwhile you may go at full speed through every nation and every kingdom with the most absolute power,—with unrestricted authority as judges, and with immense sums of money; that you may come into the camp of Cnaeus Pompeius, and sell his very camp itself, if it be desirable for you to do so; that in the meantime, you, being freed from every restraint of law, and from all fear of the courts of justice, and from all danger, may be able to stand for all the other magistracies; so that no one may be able to bring you before the Roman people, or summon you before any court,—so that the senate may not be able to compel you, nor the consul to restrain you, nor the tribune of the people to offer any impediment to you.