Nor did Cicero.
He knew that much was bad, and had himself seen many things that were very evil.

He had lived through the dominations of Marius and Sulla, and had seen the old practices of Roman government brought down to the pretence of traditional forms.

But still, so he thought, there was life left in the old forms, if they could be revivified by patriotism, labor, and intelligence.

It was the best that he could imagine for the State--infinitely better than the chance of falling into the bloody hands of one Marius and one Sulla after another.

Mommsen tells us that nothing could be more rotten than the condition of oligarchical government into which Rome had fallen; and we are inclined to agree with Mommsen, because we have seen what followed.