Tab. IIanitor post Cladem, sive Custos Portarum et Legum. Tabula Actis Mundi more veterum picta (a machina).The Doorkeeper after Defeat, or The Guardian of Doors and Laws. Painted for Acta Mundi in the classical manner (AI-generated).
Pro Re Publica · De ianitore praesidisFor the Republic · On the President's Doorkeeper
De ianitore post cladem
On the Doorkeeper after Defeat
Donaldus Trump, ut Euronews et The American Conservative nuntiant, tertio post cladem comitiorum die Stephanum Miller, virum durum et fidum, summum aulae suae praefectum creavit, Susanna Wiles ad alia translata. Constantiam post cladem Romanam esse censeo; sed ianitorem qui fores aulae tuetur leges quoque tueri oportet.
Donald Trump, as Euronews and The American Conservative report, has made Stephen Miller, a hard and loyal man, the chief officer of his household on the third day after his defeat at the polls, moving Susie Wiles to other duties. Steadiness after defeat, in my judgment, is Roman; but the doorkeeper who guards the doors of the palace must guard the laws as well.
Cur hoc legimusWhy we read this Quia post cladem comitiorum magistratus non concordiam quaerit sed aciem contra senatum instruit.Because after an electoral defeat the magistrate seeks not concord, but draws up battle lines against the senate.
Quamquam, patres conscripti, non ignoro quanto cum strepitu haec res trans Oceanum accepta sit, tamen, cum videam diurnarios fere omnes de uno homine potius quam de re publica disputare, de ea mihi dicendum esse arbitror. Die Veneris, ante diem VIII Idus Novembres, Donaldus Trump, praeses Civitatum Foederatarum, ut Euronews et The American Conservative nuntiant, in foro suo quod Truth Social appellatur edixit Stephanum Miller, annos unum et quadraginta natum, adhuc legatum praefecti aulae et consiliarium de tutela patriae, a die Lunae, ante diem V Idus Novembres, summum aulae praefectum futurum esse; Susannam autem Wiles, annos novem et sexaginta natam, quae prima mulier eo munere functa est, ad res comitiales praesidis transferri.
Although I am well aware, conscript fathers, with what an uproar this business has been received across the Ocean, yet when I see nearly every journalist arguing about one man rather than about the republic, I think it my duty to speak of it. On Friday, the sixth of November, Donald Trump, President of the United States, as Euronews and The American Conservative report, announced on his own forum, which is called Truth Social, that Stephen Miller, forty-one years of age, until now deputy chief of staff and adviser on homeland security, would from Monday, the ninth of November, be chief of staff of the White House; and that Susie Wiles, sixty-nine years of age, the first woman to hold that office, would be transferred to the President's political operation.
Accidit hoc tertio die postquam factio Republicana comitiis mediis utramque curiam amisit, Democratis, ut Euronews refert, imperium utriusque adeptis. Praeses Wiles, ut aiunt, egregie munere functam esse laudavit; ipsa ministerium illud summum vitae suae honorem fuisse scripsit. Miller vero, ut omnes consentiunt, praecipuus auctor fuit eorum consiliorum quae ad limitem claudendum et ad advenas magno numero expellendos spectant. Thomas Tillis, senator Carolinae Septentrionalis ex ipsa factione Republicana, iam magistratu decessurus, apud CNN hanc electionem omnium pessimam et errorem ingentem esse dixit. Narrant praeterea ei qui audiverunt Millerum, cum munus peteret, praesidi suasisse ut bellum Iranicum, quod fautores eius proditionis instar haberent, ad finem perduceret.
This happened on the third day after the Republican party lost both chambers in the midterm elections, the Democrats, as Euronews reports, having won control of each. The President, we are told, praised Wiles for having done her work outstandingly; she herself wrote that the service had been the honor of her life. Miller, all agree, was the chief author of the policies aimed at closing the border and expelling newcomers in great numbers. Thom Tillis, senator for North Carolina from the Republican party itself, and soon to leave office, said on CNN that this was the worst of all choices and a colossal mistake. Those who heard him report that Miller, when he sought the post, urged the President to bring the Iran war, which his supporters regarded as a kind of betrayal, to an end.
Quid igitur clamant isti? Praesidem, a populo repulsum, pertinaciam pro consilio sumpsisse. At ego, qui consul rem publicam a Catilina servavi, qui in exsilium pulsus et a populo eodem paulo post revocatus sum, didici quam levis sit multitudinis sententia et quam turpe sit eam ad singulos ventos sequi. Maiores nostri, cum post Cannas consul Varro, sub quo clades accepta erat, Romam rediret, non eum accusaverunt, sed obviam ei processerunt gratiasque egerunt quod de re publica non desperasset; nec captivos redemerunt nec legatum Hannibalis in urbem admiserunt. Qui igitur post cladem non ad victores supplex accurrit, sed fidissimum quemque artius sibi adiungit, is more maiorum agit, non furore.
What, then, are these people shouting? That the President, rebuffed by the people, has mistaken obstinacy for counsel. But I, who as consul saved the republic from Catiline, who was driven into exile and soon recalled by that same people, have learned how fickle the opinion of the crowd is, and how shameful it is to follow it with every change of wind. When the consul Varro, under whom the disaster had been suffered, returned to Rome after Cannae, our ancestors did not accuse him; they went out to meet him and thanked him for not having despaired of the republic; and they neither ransomed the captives nor admitted Hannibal's envoy into the city. He, therefore, who after defeat binds his most loyal men more closely to himself acts by the custom of our ancestors, not from madness.
Quaeramus deinde quis ianitor praesidi sit timendus. Non durus ille et severus, sed lenis et blandus, qui aditum vendit, qui opulentis servit, qualis Seianus apud Tiberium, quales Pallas et Narcissus apud Claudium fuerunt. De Millero quid obiciunt acta? Nihil de pecunia, nihil de muneribus, nihil de gratia venali; obiciunt severitatem et fidem, quae crimina apud maiores laudes fuissent. Verba autem illa, durum eum esse et discordiae auctorem, adversariorum sunt, non iudicum; ea refero, non sequor.
Let us next ask what kind of doorkeeper a President should fear. It is the smooth and flattering one, who sells access and serves the rich, as Sejanus was to Tiberius, as Pallas and Narcissus were to Claudius. What do the reports charge against Miller? Nothing about money, nothing about gifts, nothing about favor for sale; they charge him with severity and loyalty, which among our ancestors would have been praises, not crimes. As for those words, that he is a hard-liner and a maker of discord, they belong to his adversaries, not to judges; I report them, I do not adopt them.
Neque tamen, patres conscripti, ita laudo ut nihil timeam. Nam, ut Euronews memorat, mense Ianuario Minneapoli duo qui reclamabant a ministris advenis coercendis praepositis interfecti sunt, unde magnae contiones et querelae ortae sunt. Severitas quae lege non continetur iam non severitas est, sed vis; et qui limitem tuetur, idem leges tueri debet, ne quod iure facit iniuria corrumpat. Hoc ipse sensi, cum mihi, qui sine iudicio coniuratos supplicio affeceram, lex de capite civis obiceretur.
And yet, conscript fathers, I do not praise him so as to fear nothing. For, as Euronews recalls, in January at Minneapolis two protesters were killed by the agents charged with immigration, and great demonstrations and complaints arose from it. Severity that the law does not restrain is no longer severity but force; and the man who guards the frontier must guard the laws as well, lest wrongdoing corrupt what he does by right. I felt this myself, when I, who had put conspirators to death without trial, found a law about the life of a citizen hurled against me.
Remedium in promptu est neque novum. Teneat praeses virum suum fidum; sed is ianitor meminerit, quod philosophi nostri docent, «ut enim tutela, sic procuratio rei publicae ad eorum utilitatem, qui commissi sunt, non ad eorum, quibus commissa est, gerenda est». Adeat curias quae nunc adversariorum sunt, non supplex neque ramum oleae ferens, sed ut legatus qui iure agit; limitem lege et iudiciis custodiat, non tumultu; bellum quod populus, ut acta narrant, non probavit, si vere ita suasit, quam primum finiat. Hoc enim est post cladem constanter agere: non sententias mutare ad clamorem, sed rationes ad rem publicam conferre.
The remedy is at hand, and it is not new. Let the President keep his loyal man; but let that doorkeeper remember what our philosophers teach: "for the administration of the state, like a guardianship, must be conducted for the benefit of those entrusted to it, not of those to whom it is entrusted." Let him approach the chambers that now belong to his adversaries, neither as a suppliant nor bearing an olive branch, but as an envoy who acts by right; let him guard the frontier by law and the courts, not by tumult; and the war which the people, as the reports tell, did not approve, let him end as soon as he can, if that is truly what he advised. For this is to act with constancy after defeat: to direct one's plans to the good of the republic, whatever the shouting.
Quid de nobis posteri loquentur, nescio; de hoc praeside id scio, eos iudicaturos esse non quid post repulsam clamaverit, sed quid fecerit. Victi enim non sunt qui ceciderunt, sed qui desperaverunt.
What posterity will say of us I do not know; of this President I know this, that it will judge him by what he did after his rebuff. For the vanquished are those who have despaired.
FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES
- Cic. Off. 1.85Ut enim tutela, sic procuratio rei publicae ad eorum utilitatem, qui commissi sunt, non ad eorum, quibus commissa est, gerenda est
FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES
- American RenaissanceLive Updates: Stephen Miller to Replace Susie Wiles as Trump’s Chief of Staff
- The American ConservativeTrump Names Stephen Miller New Chief of Staff
- EuronewsTrump appoints immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as new chief of staff
- The Gateway PunditRINO Thom Tillis Melts Down Over Trump Naming Stephen Miller White House Chief of Staff — Calls It “Worst of All Possible Choices” and a “COLOSSAL MISTAKE” (VIDEO)
Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.
M. Tullius Cicero
Orator, consul, pater patriae — ut ipse non desinit commemorare. Catilinae coniurationem oppressit, rem publicam defendit dum potuit, et Antonii iussu occisus est. Nemo Romanus diligentius res novas ad leges maiorum exegit.Orator, consul, Father of his Country — as he never tires of reminding you. He crushed Catiline’s conspiracy, defended the Republic as long as it could be defended, and was murdered on Antony’s orders. No Roman measured new things against the ancestral constitution more relentlessly.
Haec vox restituta est ex his libris:This voice is reconstructed from:
Scribe ad Cicero: tabellarius epistulam tuam per vias Romanas feret, et responsum post dies aliquot redibit.Write to Cicero: the courier carries your letter along the Roman roads, and a reply comes back after a few days.
LEGE ETIAMREAD NEXT
- De iure iurando: animum iurantis non suffragio factionis iudicariOn the Oath: The Swearer's Heart Is Not to Be Judged by a Faction's VoteCicero
- In laudatores qui dorsum laudant et onus augentAgainst the Eulogists Who Praise the Backbone and Add to the LoadCicero
- De civitate non ad arbitrium factionis eripiendaThat Citizenship Must Not Be Snatched Away at a Faction's PleasureCicero
- De commeatu aërio ex castris Mildenhall in Germaniam et Hispaniam translatoOn the air supply train moved from the camp at Mildenhall to Germany and SpainCaesar
- Ieiunium non est temperantiaFasting Is Not TemperanceFrontinus
