Cassius Dio
Roman History
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Book XLV
The following is contained in the Forty-fifth of Dio's Rome:—
1. About Gaius Octavius, who afterward was named Augustus (chaps. 1-9).
2. About Sextus, the son of Pompey (chap. 10).
3. How Caesar and Antony began to quarrel (chaps. 11-17).
4. How Cicero delivered a public speech against Antony (chaps. 18-47).
B.C.
44
Duration of time, the remainder of the fifth
dictatorship of C. Iulius Caesar, with Aemilius Lepidus as his master
of the horse, and of his fifth consulship with Marcus Antonius.
So much for Antony's conduct. Now Gaius Octavius Caepias, as the son of
Caesar's niece, Attia, was named, came from Velitrae in the Volscian
country; after being bereft of his father Octavius he was brought up in
the house of his mother and her husband, Lucius Philippus, but on
attaining maturity lived with Caesar. For Caesar, being childless and
basing great hopes upon him, loved and cherished him, intending to
leave him as successor to his name, authority, and sovereignty. He was
influenced largely by Attia's emphatic declaration that the youth had
been engendered by Apollo; for while sleeping once in his temple, she
said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this
that caused her at the end of the allotted time to bear a son. Before
he came to the light of day she saw in a dream her entrails lifted to
the heavens and spreading out over all the earth; and the same night
Octavius thought that the sun rose from her womb. Hardly had the child
been born when Nigidius Figulus, a senator, straightway prophesied for
him absolute power. This man could distinguish most accurately of his
contemporaries the order of the firmament and the differences between
the stars, what they accomplish when by themselves and when together,
by their conjunctions and by their intervals, and for this reason had
incurred the charge of practising some forbidden art. He, then, on this
occasion met Octavius, who on account of the birth of the child, was
somewhat late in reaching the senate-house (for there happened to be a
meeting of the senate that day), and upon asking him why he was late
and learning the cause, he cried out, "You have begotten a master over
us." At this Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant, but
Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible for it to suffer
any such fate. These things we reported at that time; and while the
child was being brought up in the country, an eagle snatched from his
hands a loaf of bread and after soaring aloft flew down and gave it
back to him. When he was now a lad and was staying in Rome, Cicero
dreamed that the boy had been let down from the sky by golden chains to
the Capitol and had received a whip from Jupiter. He did not know who
the boy was, but meeting him the next day on the Capitol itself, he
recognized him and told the vision to the bystanders. Catulus, who had
likewise never seen Octavius, thought in his sleep that all the noble
boys had marched in a solemn procession to Jupiter on the Capitol, and
in the course of the ceremony the god had cast what looked like an
image of Rome into that boy's lap. Startled at this, he went up to the
Capitol to offer prayers to the god, and finding there Octavius, who
had gone up for some reason or other, he compared his appearance with
the dream and convinced himself of the truth of the vision. When,
later, Octavius had grown up and reached maturity and was putting on
man's dress, his tunic was rent on both sides from his shoulders and
fell to his feet. Now this event in itself not only foreboded no good
as an omen, but it also distressed those who were present because it
had happened on the occasion of his first putting on man's garb; it
occurred, however, to Octavius to say, "I shall have the whole
senatorial dignity beneath my feet," and the outcome proved in
accordance with his words. Caesar, accordingly, founded great hopes
upon him as a result of all this, enrolled him among the patricians,
and trained him for the rule, carefully educating him in all the arts
that should be possessed by one who was destined to direct well and
worthily so great a power. Thus he was practised in oratory, not only
in the Latin language but in the Greek as well, was vigorously trained
in military service, and thoroughly instructed in politics and the art
of government.
Now this Octavius chanced at the time that Caesar was murdered to be in
Apollonia on the Ionic Gulf, pursuing his education; for he had been
sent ahead thither in view of Caesar's intended campaign against the
Parthians. When he learned what had happened, he was of course grieved,
but did not dare to begin a revolution at once; for he had not yet
heard that he had been made Caesar's son or even his heir, and moreover
the first news he received was to the effect that the people were of
one mind in the affair. When, however, he had crossed to Brundisium and
had been informed about Caesar's will and the people's second thought,
he made no delay, particularly as he had large sums of money and
numerous soldiers who had been sent ahead under his charge, but
immediately assumed the name of Caesar, succeeded to his estate, and
began to busy himself with public affairs. At the time he seemed to
some to have acted recklessly and daringly in this, but later, thanks
to his good fortune and the successes he achieved, he acquired a
reputation for bravery for this act. For it has often happened that men
who were wrong in undertaking some project have gained a reputation for
good judgment, because they had the luck to gain their ends; while
others, who made the best possible choice, have been charged with folly
because they were not fortunate enough to attain their objects. He,
too, acted in a precarious and hazardous fashion; for he was only just
past boyhood, being eighteen years of age, and saw that his succession
to the inheritance and the family was sure to provoke jealousy and
censure; yet he set out in pursuit of objects such as had led to
Caesar's murder, which had not been avenged, and he feared neither the
assassins nor Lepidus and Antony. Nevertheless, he was not thought to
have planned badly, because he proved to be successful. Heaven,
however, indicated in no obscure manner all the confusion that would
result to the Romans from it; for as he was entering Rome a great halo
with the colours of the rainbow surrounded the whole sun.
In this way he who was formerly called Octavius, but already by this
time Caesar, and subsequently Augustus, took a hand in public affairs;
and he managed and dealt with them more vigorously than any man in his
prime, more prudently than any graybeard. In the first place, he
entered the city as if for the sole purpose of succeeding to the
inheritance, coming as a private citizen with only a few attendants,
without any display. Again, he did not utter threats against any one
nor show that he was displeased at what had occurred and would take
vengeance for it. Indeed, so far from demanding of Antony any of the
money that he had previously plundered, he actually paid court to him,
although he was insulted and wronged by him. For Antony did him many
injuries both in word and deed, particularly when the lex curiata was
proposed by which the transfer of Octavius into Caesar's family was to
take place; Antony himself pretended to be doing his best to have it
passed, but through some tribunes he kept securing its postponement, in
order that the young man, not being as yet Caesar's son according to
law, might not meddle with the property and might be weaker in all
other ways. Caesar was vexed at this, but as he was unable to speak his
mind freely, he bore it until he had won over the multitude, by whom he
understood his father had been raised to honour. For he knew that they
were angry at Caesar's death and hoped they would be devoted to him as
his son, and he perceived that they hated Antony on account of his
conduct as master of the horse and also for his failure to punish the
assassins. Hence he undertook to become tribune as a starting point for
popular leadership and to secure the power that would result from it;
and he accordingly became a candidate for the place of Cinna, which was
vacant. Though hindered by Antony's followers, he did not desist, and
after using persuasion upon Tiberius Cannutius, a tribune, he was by
him brought before the populace; and taking as his pretext the gift
bequeathed the people by Caesar, he addressed them in appropriate
words, promising that he would discharge the debt at once and giving
them cause to hope for much besides. After this came the festival
appointed in honour of the completion of the temple of Venus, which
some, while Caesar was still alive, had promised to celebrate, but were
now holding in slight regard, even as they did the games in the Circus
in honour of the Parilia; so, to win the favour of the populace, he
provided for it at his private expense, on the ground that it concerned
him because of his family. At this time out of fear of Antony he did
not bring into the theatre either Caesar's gilded chair or his crown
set with precious stones, as had been permitted by decree. When,
however, a certain star during all those days appeared in the north
toward evening, which some called a comet, claiming that it foretold
the usual occurrences, while the majority, instead of believing it,
ascribed it to Caesar, interpreting it to mean that he had become
immortal and had been received into the number of the stars, Octavius
then took courage and set up in the temple of Venus a bronze statue of
him with a star above his head. And when this act also was allowed, no
one trying to prevent it through fear of the populace, then at last
some of the other decrees already passed in honour of Caesar were put
into effect. Thus they called one of the months July after him, and in
the course of certain festivals of thanksgiving for victory they
sacrificed during one special day in memory of his name. For these
reasons the soldiers also, particularly since some of them received
largesses of money, readily took the side of Caesar.
A rumour accordingly got abroad and it seemed likely that something
unusual would take place. This belief was due particularly to the
circumstance that once, when Octavius wished to speak with Antony in
court about something, from an elevated and conspicuous place, as he
had been wont to do in his father's lifetime, Antony would not permit
it, but caused his lictors to drag him down and drive him out. All were
exceedingly vexed, especially as Caesar, with a view to casting odium
upon his rival an attracting the multitude, would no longer even
frequent the Forum. So Antony became alarmed, and in conversation with
the bystanders one days remarked that he harboured no anger against
Caesar, but on the contrary owed him good-will, and was ready to end
all suspicion. The statement was reported to the other, they held a
conference, and some thought they had become reconciled. For they
understood each other's feeling accurately, and, thinking it
inopportune at that time to put them to the test, they tried to come to
terms by making a few mutual concessions. And for some days they kept
quiet; then they began to suspect each other afresh, as a result either
of some actual treachery or some false calumny, as regularly happens
under such conditions, and fell out again. For when men become
reconciled after some great enmity they are suspicious of many acts
that have no significance and of many chance occurrences; in brief,
they regard everything, in the light of their former hostility, as done
on purpose and for an evil end. And in the meantime those who are
neutral aggravate the trouble between them by bearing reports back and
forth under the pretence of good-will and thus exasperating them still
further. For there is a very large element which is anxious to see all
those who have power at variance with one another, an element which
consequently takes delight in their enmity and joins in plots against
them. And the one who has previously suffered from calumny is very easy
to deceive with words adapted to the purpose by friends whose
attachment is free from suspicion. Thus it was that these men, who even
before this had not trusted each other, became now more estranged than
ever.
So Antony, seeing that Caesar was gaining ground, attempted to attract
the populace by various baits, to see if he could detach them from his
rival and win them to himself. Hence he introduced a measure for the
opening up to settlement of a great amount of land, including the reign
of the Pontine marshes, since these had already been filled in and were
capable of cultivation. He did this through his brother Lucius
Antonius, who was tribune; for the three Antonii, who were brothers,
all held offices at the same time, Marcus being consul, Lucius tribune,
and Gaius praetor. This in particular enabled them to remove those who
were then governing the allies and subjects (except the majority of the
assassins and some others whom they regarded as loyal) and to choose
others in their place, and also to grant to some the privilege of
holding office for an unusually long term, contrary to the laws
established by Caesar. And thus Macedonia, which had fallen to Marcus
by lot, was appropriated by his brother Gaius, while Marcus himself
with the legions previously sent to Apollonia took in its place
Cisalpine Gaul, to which Decimus Brutus had been assigned, because it
was very powerful in soldiers and money. After these arrangements had
been voted, the pardon granted to Sextus Pompey, who already had
considerable influence, was confirmed, in spite of the fact that it had
originally been granted by Caesar to him as to all the rest. It was
further resolved that whatever money in silver or gold the public
treasury had received from his ancestral estate should be restored; but
as for the lands belonging to it, Antony held the most of them and made
no restoration.
This was the business in which these men were now engaged. I shall now
relate how Sextus had fared. When he had fled from Corduba on the
former occasion, he first came to Lacetania and concealed himself
there. He was pursued, to be sure, but eluded discovery because the
natives were kindly disposed to him out of regard for his father's
memory. Later, when Caesar had set out for Italy and only a small army
was left behind in Baetica, Sextus was joined both by the natives and
by those who had escaped from the battle; and with them he came again
into Baetica, because he thought it a more suitable region in which to
carry on war. There he gained possession of soldiers and cities,
particularly after Caesar's death, some voluntarily and some forcibly;
for the commander in charge of them, Gaius Asinius Pollio, had no
strong force. He next set out against Spanish Carthage, but since in
his absence Pollio made an attack and did some damage, he returned with
a large force, met his opponent, and routed him, after which the
following accident enabled him to terrify and conquer the rest also,
who were contending fiercely. Pollio had cast off his general's cloak,
in order to suffer less chance of detection in his flight, and another
man of the same name, a distinguished knight, had fallen. The soldiers,
hearing the name of the latter, who was lying there, and seeing the
garment, which had been captured, were deceived, thinking that their
general had perished, and so surrendered. In this way Sextus conquered
and gained possession of nearly the whole region. When he had thus
become powerful, Lepidus arrived to govern the adjoining portion of
Spain, and persuaded him to enter into an agreement on the condition of
recovering his father's estate. And Antony, influenced by his
friendship for Lepidus and by his hostility toward Caesar, caused such
a decree to be passed.
So Sextus, in this way and on these conditions, departed from Spain. As
for Caesar and Antony, in all their acts they were opposing each other,
but had not yet fallen out openly, and while in reality they had become
enemies, they tried to disguise the fact so far as appearances went. As
a result all other interests in the city were in great confusion and
turmoil. The citizens were still at peace and yet already at war; the
appearance of liberty was kept up, but the deeds done were those of a
monarchy. To a casual observer Antony, since he held the consulship,
seemed to be getting the best of it, but the zeal of the masses was for
Caesar. This was partly on his father's account, partly on account of
their hopes for what he kept promising them, but above all because they
were displeased at the great power of Antony and were inclined to
assist Caesar while he was as yet devoid of strength. Neither man, to
be sure, had their affection; but they were always eager for a change
of government, and it was their nature to overthrow every party that
had the upper hand and to help the one that was being oppressed.
Consequently they made us of the two to suit their own desires. Thus,
after humbling Antony at this time through Caesar, they next undertook
to destroy the latter also. For in their irritation against the men
successively in power they regularly took up with the weaker side and
attempted with its help to overthrow the others; afterwards they would
become estranged from this side also. Thus exposing both of them to
envy in turn, they alternately loved and hated, elevated and humbled,
the same persons.
While they were thus disposed toward Caesar and Antony, the war began
in the following way. When Antony had set out for Brundisium to meet
the soldiers who had crossed over from Macedonia, Caesar sent some men
to that city with money, who were to arrive there before Antony and win
over the men, while he himself went to Campania and collected a large
number of men, chiefly from Capua, because the people there had
received their land and city from his father, whom he said he was
avenging. He made them many promises and gave them on the spot two
thousand sesterces apiece. From these men was constituted the corps of
evocati, which one might translate the "recalled," because after having
their military service they were recalled to it again. Caesar took
charge of them, hastened to Rome before Antony returned, and came
before the people, who had been made ready for him by Cannutius. There
he reminded them in detail of the many excellent deeds his father had
performed, delivered a lengthy, though moderate, defence of himself,
and brought charges against Antony. He also praised the soldiers who
had accompanied him, saying that they had come voluntarily to lend aid
to the city, that they had elected him to preside over the state, and
that through him they made known these facts to all. For this speech he
received the approbation of his following and of the throng that stood
by, after which he departed for Etruria with a view to obtaining an
accession to his forces from that region. While he was doing this
Antony had at first been kindly received in Brundisium by the soldiers,
because they expected to secure more from him than was offered them by
Caesar; for they believed that he possessed much more than his rival.
When, however, he promised to give them merely four hundred sesterces
apiece, they raised an outcry, but he reduced them to submission by
ordering centurions as well as others to be slain before the eyes of
himself and of his wife. So for the time being the soldiers were quiet,
but when they arrived near the capital on the way to Gaul they
mutinied, and many of them, despising the lieutenants who had been set
over them, changed to Caesar's side; in fact, the Martian legion, as it
was called, and the fourth went over to him in a body. Caesar took
charge of them and won their attachment by giving money to them
likewise,— an act which added many more to his cause. He also captured
all the elephants of Antony, by falling in with them suddenly as they
were being driven along. Antony stopped in Rome only long enough to
arrange a few affairs and to administer the oath to all the rest of the
soldiers who were in their company; then he set out for Gaul, fearing
that it, too, might begin an uprising. Caesar, on his side, did not
delay, but followed after him.
The governor of Gaul at this time was Decimus Brutus, and Antony placed
great hope in him, because he had helped to slay Caesar. But matters
turned out as follows. Decimus had no suspicion of Caesar, for the
latter had uttered no threats against the assassins; and, on the other
hand, he saw that Antony was as much a foe of himself as of Caesar or
of any of the rest who had any power, as a result of his natural
cupidity; therefore he refused to give way to him. Caesar, when he
heard of this, was for some time at a loss what course to adopt. For he
hated both Decimus and Antony, but saw no way in which he could contend
against them both at once; for he was by no means yet a match for
either one of the two, and he was furthermore afraid that if he risked
such a move he might throw them into each other's arms and have to face
their united opposition. After stopping to reflect, therefore, that the
struggle with Antony had already begun and was urgent, but that it was
not yet a fitting season for avenging his father, he made a friend of
Decimus. For he well understood that he should find no great difficulty
in fighting against Decimus later, if with his aid he could first
overcome his adversaries, but that in Antony he should again have a
powerful antagonist; so serious were the differences between them.
Accordingly he sent to Decimus, proposing friendship and also promising
alliance, if he would refuse to receive Antony. This proposal caused
the people in the city likewise to espouse Caesar's cause. Just at this
time the year was drawing to a close and no consul was on the ground,
Dolabella having been previously sent by Antony to Syria; nevertheless,
eulogies both of Caesar and of Brutus themselves and of the soldiers
who had abandoned Antony were delivered in the senate with the
concurrence of the tribunes. And in order that they might deliberate
about the situation in security when the new year should begin, they
voted to employ a guard of soldiers at their meetings. This pleased
nearly all who were in Rome at the time, since they cordially detested
Antony, and it was particularly gratifying to Cicero. For he, on
account of his very bitter hostility toward Antony, was paying court to
Caesar, and so far as he could, both by speech and by action, strove to
assist him in every way and to injure Antony. It was for this reason
that, although he had left the city to accompany his son to Athens in
the interest of the young man's education, he returned on ascertaining
that the two men had become enemies.
Besides these events which took place that year, Servilius Isauricus
died at a very advanced age. I have mentioned him both for this reason
and to show how the Romans of that period respected men who were
prominent through merit and hated those who behaved insolently, even in
the smallest matters. This Servilius, it seems, had once while walking
met on the road a man on horseback, who, so Africa from dismounting at
his approach, galloped right on. Later he recognized the fellow in a
defendant in court, and when he mentioned the incident to the jurors,
they gave the man no further hearing, the unanimously condemned him.
In the consulship of Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius (for Vibius was now
appointed consul in spite of the fact that his father's name had been
posted on the tablets of Sulla) a meeting of the senate was held and
opinions expressed for three successive days, including the very first
day of the year. For because of the war which was upon them and the
portents, very numerous and unfavourable, which took place, they were
so excited that they failed to observe even the dies nefasti and to
refrain on those days from deliberating about any of their interests.
Vast numbers of thunderbolts had fallen, some of them descending on the
shrine of Capitoline Jupiter which stood in the temple of Victory; also
a mighty windstorm occurred which snapped off and scattered the tablets
erected about the temple of Saturn and the shrine of Fides and also
overturned and shattered the statue of Minerva the Protectress, which
Cicero had set up on the Capitol before his exile. This, now, portended
death to Cicero himself. Another thing that frightened the rest of the
population was a great earthquake which occurred, and the fact that a
bull which was being sacrificed on account of it in the temple of Vesta
leaped up after the ceremony. In addition to these omens, clear as they
were, a flash darted across from the east to the west and a new star
was seen for several days. Then the light of the sun seemed to be
diminished and even extinguished, and at times to appear in three
circles, one of which was surmounted very a fiery crown of sheaves.
This came true for them as clearly as ever any prophecy did. For the
three men were in power,— I mean Caesar, Lepidus, and Antony,— and of
these Caesar subsequently secured the victory. At the same time that
these things occurred all sorts of oracles foreshadowing the downfall
of the republic were recited. Crows, moreover, flew into the temple of
Castor and Pollux and pecked out the names of the consuls, Antony and
Dolabella, which were inscribed there somewhere on a tablet. And by
night dogs would gather together in large numbers throughout the city
and especially near the house of the high priest, Lepidus, and howl.
Again, the Po, which had flooded a large portion of the surrounding
territory, suddenly receded and left behind on the dry land a vast
number of snakes; and countless fish were cast up from the sea on the
shore near the mouths of the Tiber. Succeeding these terrors a terrible
plague spread over nearly all Italy, because of which the senate voted
that the Curia Hostilia should be rebuilt and that the spot where the
naval battle had taken place should be filled up. However, the curse
did not appear disposed to rest even then, especially since, when
Vibius was conducting the opening sacrifices on the first day of the
year, one of his lictors suddenly fell down and died. Because of these
events they took counsel during those days, and among the various men
who spoke on one side or the other Cicero addressed them as follows:
"You have heard recently, Conscript Fathers, when I made a statement to
you about the matter, why I made preparations for my departure,
thinking that I should be absent from the city for a long time, and
then hastily returned, with the idea that I should benefit you greatly.
For I could not, on the one hand, endure to live under a monarchy or a
tyranny, since under such a government I cannot live rightly as a free
citizen nor speak my mind safely nor die in a way that would be of
service to you; and yet, on the other hand, if opportunity should be
afforded to perform any necessary service, I would not shrink from
doing it, though it involved danger. For I deem it the business of an
upright man equally to keep himself safe in his country's interest, and
at the same time not to fail in any duty either of speech or of action,
even if it be necessary to suffer some harm while saving his country.
"This being the case, although a large measure of safety was afforded
even by Caesar both to you and to me for the discussion of pressing
questions, yet since you have further voted to assemble under guard, we
must frame all our words and acts this day in such a fashion as to
settle the present difficulties and to provide for the future, that we
may not again be compelled to decide in a similar way about them. Now
that our situation is difficult and dangerous and requires much care
and thought, you yourselves have made evident, if and no other way, at
least by this measure; for you would not have voted to keep the
senate-house under guard, if it had been possible for you to deliberate
without fear in accordance with your accustomed further order and in
quiet. We must also accomplish something of importance by very reason
of the soldiers who are here, so that we may not incur the disgrace
that would certainly follow from asking for them as if we feared
somebody, and then neglecting affairs as if we were liable to no
danger. We should then appear to have acquired them only nominally on
behalf of the city against Antony, but in reality to have given them to
him to be used against ourselves, and it would look as if in addition
to the other legions which he is gathering against his country he
needed to acquire these very men also, in order that you might not pass
any vote against him even to-day.
"Yet some have reached such a point of shamelessness as to dare to say
that he is not warring against the state, and have credited you with a
simplicity so great as to think that they will persuade you to pay heed
to their words rather than to his acts. But who would choose to shut
his eyes to his acts and the campaign he has made against our allies
without any orders from the senate or the people, the countries he is
overrunning, the cities he is besieging, the threats he is hurling
against us all, and the hopes with which he is doing all this, and
would choose instead to believe, to his own ruin, the words of these
men and their false statements, by the way they put you off with
pretexts and excuses? I, for my part, do not admit that in doing this
he is acting legally or constitutionally. Far from it: he abandoned the
province of Macedonia, which had been assigned to him by lot, chose
instead the province of Gaul, which did not belong to him at all,
assumed control of the legions which Caesar had sent ahead against the
Parthians and keeps them about him, though no danger threatens Italy,
and after leaving the city during the period of his consulship now goes
about pillaging and ruining the country; for these reasons I declare
that he has long been an enemy of us all. And if you did not perceive
it immediately at the outset or feel indignation at each of his
actions, he deserves to be hated all the more on that very account, in
that he does not stop injuring you who are so long-suffering. He might
perchance have obtained pardon for the errors which he committed at
first, but now by his persistence in them he has reached such a pitch
of knavery that he ought to be brought to book for his former offences
as well. And you ought to be excessively careful in regard to the
situation, when you see this and ponder it — that the man who has so
often despised you in matters so weighty cannot, as he would like, be
corrected by the same gentleness and kindliness as you have shown
before, but must now, even though never before, be chastised, quite
against his will, by force of arms.
"And do not, because he partly persuaded and partly compelled you to
vote him certain privileges, imagine that this makes him less guilty or
deserving of less punishment. Quite the reverse: for this very
procedure he particularly deserves to be punished, because, after
determining beforehand to commit many outrages, he not only
accomplished some of them through you, but also employed against you
yourselves the resources which came from you, which by deception he
forced you to vote to him when you neither realised nor foresaw
anything of the sort. For after you had abrogated of your own free will
the positions of command assigned by Caesar or by the lot to each man,
would you ever have allowed this fellow to distribute numerous
appointments to his friends and companions, sending his brother Gaius
to Macedonia, and assigning to himself Gaul together with the legions,
which he had no occasion to use in your defence? Do you not recall how,
when he found you in consternation over Caesar's death, he carried out
all the schemes that he chose, communicating woman to you carefully
dissimulated and at inopportune moments, and executing others on his
own responsibility, thus adding villainy to his deception, while all
his acts were accomplished by violence? At least he employed soldiers,
and barbarians, too, against you. And need any one be surprised that in
those days an occasional vote was passed which should not have been
passed, when even now we have not obtained freedom to say and do
anything that is needful in any other way than by the aid of a
body-guard? If we had then been encompassed by this guard, he would not
have obtained what some one may say he has obtained, nor would he have
risen thereby to power and have done the deeds that followed.
Accordingly, let no one retort that the rights which at his command and
under compulsion and amid laments we had the appearance of giving him
were legally and right fully bestowed. For even in private business
that is not observed as binding which a man does under compulsion from
another.
"And yet all these measures which you may seem to have voted you will
find to be unimportant and differing but little from established
custom. What was there so serious in the fact that one man was destined
to govern Macedonia or Gaul instead of another? Or what was the harm if
a man obtained soldiers during his consulship? But these are the things
that are harmful and abominable,— that our land should be ravaged, the
allied cities besieged, our soldiers armed against us, and our wealth
expended to our detriment; this you neither voted near would ever have
voted. Do not, then, merely because you have granted him certain
privileges, allow him to usurp what was not granted him; and do not
imagine that, because you have conceded certain points, he ought
therefore to be permitted to do what has not been conceded. Quite the
reverse: you should for this very reason both hate and punish him,
because he has dared not only in this case but in all other cases to
use against you the honour and kindness you have bestowed. Consider a
moment. Through my influence you voted that there should be peace and
harmony amongst you. This man, when he was ordered to manage the
business, performed it in such a way, taking Caesar's funeral as a
pretext, that almost the whole city was burned down and once more great
numbers were slaughtered. You ratified all the grants made to various
persons and all the laws laid down by Caesar, the B.C. they were all
excellent — far from it! — but because it was inadvisable to make any
change in them, if we were to live together free from suspicion and
without malice. This man, appointed to examine into Caesar's acts, has
abolished many of them and has substituted many others in the
documents. He has taken away lands and citizenship and exemption from
taxes and many other honours from their possessors, whether private
persons, kings, or cities, and has given them to men who did not
receive them, by altering the memoranda of Caesar; from those who were
unwilling to give up anything to his grasp he took away even what had
been given them, and sold this and everything else to such as wished to
buy. Yet you, foreseeing this very possibility, had voted that no
tablet should be set up after Caesar's death purporting to contain any
privilege by him to any one. Nevertheless, when it happened many times
after that, and he claimed that it was necessary for some provisions
found in Caesar's papers to be specially singled out and put into
effect, you assigned to him, in company with the foremost men, the task
of making such excerpts; but he, paying no attention to the others,
carried out everything alone according to his wishes, in regard to the
laws, the exiles, and the other matters which I enumerated a few
moments ago. This, indeed, is the way he chooses to execute all your
decrees.
"Has he, then, shown himself to be this sort of man only in these
affairs, while managing the rest rightly? When or how? Though ordered
to search out and produce the public moneys left behind by Caesar, has
he not seized them, paying a part to his creditors and spending a part
on high living, so that he no longer has any left even of this? Though
you hated the name of dictator on account of Caesar's sovereignty and
rejected it entirely from the state, has not Antony, even though he has
avoided adopting it,— as if the name in itself could do any harm,—
nevertheless exhibited a dictator's behaviour and his greed for gain
under the title of the consulship? Though you assigned to him the duty
of promoting harmony, has he not on his own responsibility begun this
great war, neither necessary nor sanctioned, against Caesar and
Decimus, whom you approve? Indeed, innumerable cases might be
mentioned, if one wished to go into details, in which you have
entrusted business to him to transact as consul, not a bit of which he
has performed as the circumstances demanded, but has done quite the
opposite, using against you the authority that you granted. Will you,
then, take upon yourselves also these base acts that he has committed
and say that you yourselves are responsible for all that has happened,
because you assigned to him the management and investigation of the
matters in question? How absurd! Why, if any one who had been chosen
general or envoy should fail in every way to his duty, you who sent him
would not incur blame for this. Indeed it would be a sorry state of
affairs, if all who are elected to perform some task should themselves
receive the advantages and the honours, but lay upon you the complaints
and the blame. Accordingly, it is not fitting to pay any heed to him
when he says, 'But it was you who permitted me to govern Gaul, you who
ordered me to administer the public finances, you who gave me the
legions from Macedonia.' It is true these measures were voted,— if,
indeed, you ought to put it that way, and not, instead, exact
punishment from him in his action in compelling you to pass the decree;
yet surely you never at any time gave him the right to restore the
exiles, to add laws surreptitiously, to sell the privileges of
citizenship and of exemption from taxes, to steal the public funds, to
plunder the possessions of the allies, to injure the cities, or to
undertake to play the tyrant over his native country. In fact, you
never conceded to any others all that they desired, though you have
voted many privileges to many persons; on the contrary, you have always
punished such men so far as you could, as indeed, you will also punish
him, if you take my advice now. For it is not in these matters alone
that he has shown himself to be such a man as you know and have seen
him to be, but absolutely in all the undertakings which he has ever
performed since entering public life.
"His private life and his personal acts of licentiousness and avarice I
shall willingly pass over, not because one would fail to discover the
he had committed many dreadful deeds of this sort too, but because, by
Hercules, I am ashamed to describe minutely and in detail, especially
to you who know it as well as I, how he spent his youth who were boys
at the time, how he sold to the highest bidder the vigour of his prime,
his secret lapses from chastity, his open fornications, what he let be
done to him as long as it was possible, what he did as early as he
could, his revels, his drunken debauches, and all the rest that follows
in their train. It is impossible for a person brought up in so great
licentiousness and shamelessness to avoid defiling his entire life; and
so from his private life he brought his lewdness and greed into his
public relations. I shall let this pass, then, and likewise, by
Jupiter, his visit to Gabinius in Egypt and his flight to Caesar in
Gaul, that I may not be charged with going minutely into every detail;
for I feel ashamed for you, that knowing him to be such a man, you
appointed him tribune and master of the horse and subsequently consul.
But I shall at present mention only his acts of drunken insolence and
of villainy in these very offices.
"Well, then, when he was tribune, he first of all prevented you from
accomplishing satisfactorily the business you then had in hand, by
shouting and bawling and alone of all the people opposing the public
peace of the state, until you became vexed and because of his conduct
passed the vote that you did. Then, though, as tribune, he was not
permitted by law to absent himself for a single night, he ran away from
the city, abandoning the duties of his office, and going as a deserter
to Caesar's camp, brought Caesar back against his country, drove you
out of Rome and from all the rest of Italy, and, in short, became the
prime cause of all the civil disorders that have since taken place
among you. Had he not at that time acted contrary to your wishes,
Caesar would never have found an excuse for the wars and could not, in
spite of all his shamelessness, have gathered a sufficient force in
defiance of your resolutions; but he would either have voluntarily laid
down his arms or have been brought to his sense unwillingly. As it is,
this fellow is the man who furnished Caesar with his excuses, who
destroyed the prestige of the senate, who increased the audacity of the
soldiers. He it is who planted the seeds of the evils which sprang up
afterwards; he it is who has proved the common bane, not only of us,
but also of practically the whole world, as, indeed, Heaven clearly
indicated. For when he proposed those astonishing laws, the whole city
was filled with thunder and lightning. Yet this accursed fellow paid no
attention to all this, though he claims to be an augur, but filled not
only the city but also the whole world with evils and with wars, as I
have said.
"Now after this is there any need of mentioning that he served as
master of the horse a whole year, something which had never before
occurred? Or that during this period also he was drunk and maudlin and
in the assemblies would frequently vomit the remains of yesterday's
debauch on the very rostra in the midst of his harangues? Or that he
went about Italy at the head of pimps and prostitutes and buffoons,
women as well as men, in the company of his lictors bearing their
festoons of laurel? Or that he alone of all men dared to buy the estate
of Pompey, having no regard for his own dignity or that great man's
memory, but grasping with delight these possessions over which we all
even at that time lamented? Indeed, he fairly threw himself upon this
and many other estates with the expectation of making no recompense for
them. Yet the price was nevertheless exacted from him with every
indignity and show of violence; so thoroughly did even Caesar condemn
his course. And all that he has acquired, vast in extent and levied
from every source, he has swallowed up in dicing, in harlotry, in
feasting and in drinking, like a second Charybdis.
"All this, now, I will omit; but regarding the insults which he offered
to the state and the bloodshed which he caused throughout the whole
city alike how could any man remain silent? Do you not recall how
oppressive the very sight of him was to you, but most of all his deeds?
Why, merciful heavens, he first dared, within the city walls, in the
Forum, in the senate-house, on the Capitol, at one and there are time
to array himself in the purple-bordered robe and to gird on a sword, to
employ lictors and to have a body-guard of soldiers. Then, when he
might have checked the turmoil of the others, he not only failed to do
so, but even set you at variance when you were harmonious, partly by
his own acts and partly with the aid of others. Nay more, he took up
those very factions in turn, and by now assisting them and now opposing
them was chiefly responsible for great numbers of them being slain and
for the fact that the whole region of Pontus and Parthia was not
subdued at that time immediately after the victory over Pharnaces. For
Caesar, hastening hither with all speed to see what he was doing, did
not entirely complete any of those projects, as he certainly might have
done.
"And even this result did not sober him, but when he was consul he came
naked — naked, Conscript Fathers — and anointed into the Forum, taking
the Lupercalia as an excuse, then proceeded in company with his lictors
toward the rostra, and there harangued us while standing below. Why,
from the day the city was founded no one can point to any one else,
even a praetor, or tribune, or aedile, much less a consul, who ever did
such a thing. But it was the Lupercalia, you will say, and he had been
put in charge of the Julian College. Of course, though it was Sextus
Clodius who had trained him to conduct himself so, in return for the
two thousand plethra of the land of the Leontini. But you were consul,
my fine fellow,— for I will address you as though you were present,—
and it was neither proper nor permissible for you as such to speak thus
in the Forum, hard by the rostra, with all of us present, and to cause
us not only to behold your wonderful body, so plump and detestable, but
also to hear your accursed voice, dripping with unguents, uttering
those outrageous words,— for I wish to speak of this matter of your
mouth rather than anything else. The Lupercalia would not have failed
of its proper reverence without this; but you disgraced the whole city
at once,— to say nothing as yet about your remarks on that occasion.
For who does not know that the consulship is public, the property of
the whole people, that its dignity must be preserved everywhere, and
that its holder must nowhere strip naked or behave wantonly? Perhaps he
was imitating the famous Horatius of old or Cloelia of bygone days; yet
the latter swam across the river with all her clothing on, and the
former cast himself with his armour into the flood. It would be
fitting, would it not, to set up a statue of Antony also, so that as
the one man is seen armed even in the Tiber so the other might be seen
naked even in the Forum. It was by such conduct as has been cited that
those heroes of yore were wont to preserve us and give us liberty,
while he took away all our liberty from us, so far as was in his power,
destroyed the whole republic, and set up a despot in place of a consul,
a tyrant in place of a dictator over us. For you recall the nature of
his language when he approached the rostra, and the manner of his
behaviour when he had mounted it. And yet, when a man who is a Roman
and a consul has dared to name any one king of the Romans in the Roman
Forum, beside the rostra of liberty, in the presence of the whole
people and the whole senate, and straightway to set the diadem upon his
head and further to affirm falsely in the hearing of us all that we
ourselves bade him say and do this, what outrageous deed will that man
not dare, and from what terrible act will he refrain? Did we order you
to salute have one as king, we who laid a curse upon the very name of
king and because of it upon that of dictator as well Did we command you
to appoint any one tyrant, we who repulsed Pyrrhus from Italy, who
drove Antiochus back beyond the Taurus, who put an end to tyranny even
in Macedonia? No, by the rods of Valerius and the law of Porcius, no,
by the leg of Horatius and the hand of Mucius, no, by the spear of
Decius and the sword of Brutus! But you, unspeakable villain, begged
and pled to be made a slave, as Postumius pled to be delivered to the
Samnites, as Regulus to be given back to the Carthaginians, as Curtius
that he might hurl himself into the chasm. And where did you find this
recorded? In the same place, I suppose, where you discovered that the
Cretans were to be made free after Brutus' governorship, although it
was after Caesar's death that we voted he should govern them.
"So then, seeing that you have discovered his baneful disposition in so
many and so great matters, will you not take vengeance on him instead
of waiting to learn by experience, too, what the man who caused so much
trouble stripped would do to you when he is armed? Do you think that he
is not eager for the tyrant's power, that he does not pray to obtain it
some time, but will some day cast the desire of it out of his thoughts
after having once allowed it a resting-place in his mind, and will some
day abandon the hope of sole rulership for which he has spoken and
acted as he has with impunity? What human being who, while possessing
nothing but his own voice, would undertake to help some one else to
secure certain advantages, would not win them for himself when he
gained the power? Who that has dared to name another as tyrant over his
country and himself as well would not wish to be monarch himself?
Hence, even though you spared him then, hate him now for those acts
too. Do not wish to learn what he will do when his success equals his
desires, but taught by his previous audacity, plan beforehand to suffer
no further harm. What, indeed, is one to say? That Caesar acted rightly
at that time in accepting neither the name of king nor the diadem? Then
this man did wrong to offer something which pleased not even Caesar.
Or, on the other hand, that Caesar erred in enduring at all to look on
and listen to anything of the sort? If, then, Caesar justly suffered
death for this error, does not this man, also, who admitted in a way
that he desired to be tyrant, mostly richly deserve to perish? That
this is so is evident even from what I have previously said, but is
proved most clearly by what he did after that. For with what other
object than supremacy has he undertaken to stir up trouble and to
meddle in affairs, when he might have enjoyed quiet with safety? With
what other object has he chosen to make campaigns and to carry on war,
when it was in his power to remain at home without danger? For what
reason, when many have been unwilling to go out and take charge even of
the provinces that fell to them, does he not only lay claim to Gaul,
which does not belong to him in the least, but uses force upon it
because of its unwillingness? For what reason, when Decimus Brutus is
ready to surrender to us himself and his soldiers and his cities, has
this man not imitated him, instead of shutting him up and besieging
him? Surely it can only be for this purpose and against us that he is
strengthening himself in this and in every other way.
"Seeing all this, then, do we delay and give way to weakness and train
up so monstrous a tyrant against ourselves? Would it not be disgraceful
if, after our forefathers, who had been brought up in slavery, felt the
desire for liberty, we, who have lived under a free government, should
become slaves of our own accord? Or, again, if after gladly ridding
ourselves of the dominion of Caesar, though we had already received
many benefits at his hands, we should deliberately choose as our master
in his stead this man, who is far worse than he? For Caesar spared many
after his victories in war, whereas this man before attaining any power
slaughtered three hundred soldiers, among them some centurions, guilty
of no wrongdoing, in his own country, and in the presence and sight of
his wife, so that she was actually stained with their blood. And yet
what do you think the man who treated them so cruelly, when he owed
them care, will not do to all of you,— aye, down to the utmost
outrage,— if he shall conquer? And how can you believe that the man who
has lived so licentiously up to the present time will not proceed to
every extreme of insolence, if he shall also secure the authority given
by arms?
"Do not, then, wait until you have suffered some such treatment and
then rue it, but be on our guard before you suffer; for it is rash to
allow dangers to come upon you and then to repent of it, when you might
have anticipated them. And do not choose to neglect the present
opportunity and then ask again for another Cassius or other Brutuses;
for it is ridiculous, when we have the power of aiding ourselves in
time, to seek men later on to set us free. Perhaps we shall not find
them, either, especially if we handle the present situation in such a
manner. For who would choose to encounter danger personally for the
republic, when he sees that we are publicly resigned to slavery? And
yet it is evident to everybody that Antony will not stop short with
what he is now doing, but that even in remote and smaller matters he is
strengthening himself against us. Surely he is warring against Decimus
and besieging Murena for no other purpose than that he may, after
conquering them, take them and employ them against us. For he has not
been wronged by them, that he can appear to be defending himself; nor,
again, will he, while desiring the goods that they possess and with
this in view enduring toils and dangers, be willing to regain from the
possessions belonging to us, who own their property and much besides.
Shall we, then, wait for him to secure this prize and still others, and
thus become a dangerous foe? Shall we trust his deception when he says
that he is not warring against the city? Who is so simple as to decide
whether a man is making war on us or not by his words rather than by
his deeds? I claim that this is not the first time he has been
unfriendly to us, now that he has abandoned the city and made a
campaign against our allies and is assailing Brutus besieging the
cities; but, in view of his former evil and licentious behaviour, not
only after Caesar's death but even in the latter's lifetime, I decide
that he has shown himself an enemy of our government and of our liberty
and a plotter against them. For who that loved his country or hated
tyranny would have committed a single one of the many and manifold
offences which he has perpetrated? Surely he is proved to have been for
a long time and in every way an enemy of ours, and the case stands
thus. If we now take measures against him most speedily, we shall also
recover all that has been lost; but if we neglect to do this and wait
till he himself admits that he is plotting against us, we shall lose
everything. For this he will never do, not even if he should actually
march upon the city, any more than did Marius or Cinna or Sulla; yet if
he gets control of affairs, he will not fail to act precisely as they
did, or still worse. For men who are eager to accomplish some object
are wont to say one thing, and those who have succeeded in
accomplishing it are wont to do quite a different thing; to gain their
end they pretend anything, but after obtaining it there is no desire
they deny themselves. Furthermore, the latest comers always desire to
surpass what their predecessors have ventured, thinking it a small
achievement to behave like them because that has been done before, but
preferring to do something original as the only thing worthy of
themselves, because unexpected.
"Seeing all this, then, Conscript Fathers, let us no longer delay nor
fall a prey to the indifference of the moment, but let us provide for
the safety of the future. Is it not shameful, when Caesar, who has just
emerged from boyhood and was but recently registered among the youths
of military age, shows so great thought for the state as to spend his
money and gather soldiers for its preservation, that we should neither
choose to perform our duty ourselves nor to coöperate with him,
even after obtaining a tangible proof of his good-will? For who does
not realize that, if he had not arrived here with the soldiers from
Campania, Antony would certainly have rushed at once from Brundisium,
just as he was, and would have burst into our city with all his armies
like a torrent? This also is disgraceful, that when the veterans have
voluntarily placed themselves at your service for the present crisis,
taking thought neither for their age nor for the wounds which they
received in past years while fighting for you, you should both refuse
to approve the war already declared by these very men, and show
yourselves altogether inferior to them who are facing the dangers. For
while you praise the soldiers who discovered the wickedness of Antony
and withdrew from him, though he was consul, and attached themselves to
Caesar,— that is, to you through him,— you shrink from voting for that
which you say they were right in doing. And yet we are grateful to
Brutus because he not only did not admit Antony to Gaul in the first
place, but is trying to repel him now that the other had made a
campaign against him. Why in the world, then, do we not do the same
ourselves? Why do we not imitate the rest whom we praise for their
proper attitude? Yet there are only two courses open to us: either we
must say that all these men, Caesar, I mean, and Brutus, the veterans,
and the legions,— have planned unwisely and ought to suffer punishment,
because without our sanction or that of the people they have dared to
offer armed resistance to their consul, some having deserted his
standard, and others having been gathered against him; or else we must
say that Antony has in our judgment long since admitted and still
admits by his deeds themselves that he is our enemy and ought to be
punished by common consent of us all. Now no one can fail to be aware
that the latter course is not only more just but more expedient for us.
For the man neither understands how to handle business himself — how or
by what means could one who lives in drunkenness or dicing? — nor has
he any companion who is of any account; for he loves only such as are
like himself and makes them the confidants of all his open and secret
undertakings. Moreover he is most cowardly in the gravest dangers and
most treacherous even to his intimate friends; and neither of these
qualities is suited for generalship and war. Who does not know that
after causing all our domestic troubles himself he then shared the
dangers as little as possible, tarrying long in Brundisium through
cowardice, so that Caesar was isolated and almost failed on his
account, and holding aloof from all the wars that followed against the
Egyptians, against Pharnaces, Africa, and Spain? Who does not know that
he won the favour of Clodius, and after using the other's tribuneship
for all the most outrageous ends, would have killed him with his own
hand, if I had accepted this offer of his? And again, as regards his
relations to Caesar, that after being first associated with him as
quaestor, when Caesar was praetor in Spain, then attaching himself to
him during the tribuneship, contrary to the liking of us all, and later
receiving from him countless sums and excessive honours, he tried to
inspire him with a desire for sole rulership and in consequence to
expose him to calumny, which two things more than anything else were
responsible for Caesar's death?
"Yet he once declared that it was I who instigated the assassins
against Caesar; so senseless is he as to venture to invent such high
praise for me. Now I, for my part, do not say that he was the actual
slayer of Caesar,— not because he was not willing, but because here,
too, he was timid,— yet I do say that by the very nature of his conduct
Caesar perished at his hands. For the one who provided the motive, so
that there seemed to be some justice in plotting against Caesar, is
this fellow who called him king, who gave him the diadem, who
previously slandered him even to his friends. Do I then, rejoice at the
death of Caesar, I, who never enjoyed anything but liberty at his
hands, and is Antony grieved, who has seized upon all his property and
has done much mischief on the pretext of his papers, and who, finally,
is eagerly striving to succeed to his sovereignty?
"But I return to my point that he has none of the qualities of a great
general or such as to win victories and does not possess many or
formidable legions. For the majority of the soldiers and the best ones
have deserted him, yes, and what is more, he has been deprived of his
elephants; as for the rest of his troops, they have practised outraging
and pillaging the allies more than waging war. Proof of the sort of
spirit that animates them is seen in the fact that they still adhere to
him, and proof of their lack of bravery in their failure to take
Mutina, though they have now been besieging it for so long a time. Such
is the condition of Antony and of his followers found to be. But Caesar
and Brutus and those arrayed with them are formidable opponents quite
by themselves,— Caesar, at any rate, has won over many of his rival's
soldiers, and Brutus is keeping him out of Gaul,— and if you also come
to their assistance, first by approving what they have done on their
own initiative, next by ratifying their acts, at the same time giving
them legal authority for the future, and then by sending out both the
consuls to take charge of the war, it is certain that none of his
present associates will continue to aid him. However, even if they
cling to him most tenaciously, he will not be able to resist all the
others at once, but will either lay down his arms voluntarily, as soon
as he ascertains that you have passed this vote, and place himself in
your hands, or will be captured against his will as the result of a
single battle.
"This is my advice to you, and, if it had been my lot to be consul, I
should certainly have carried it out, as I did in former days when I
defended you against Catiline and Lentulus (a relative of this very
man), who had conspired against you. Perhaps, however, some of you,
while regarding these suggestions as well made, think we ought first to
send envoys to him, and then, after learning his decision, in case he
voluntarily gives up his arms and submits to you, to take no action,
but if he persists in the same course of action, to declare upon him;
for this is the advice which I hear some persons wish to give you. Now
this plan is very attractive in theory, but in point of fact it is
disgraceful and dangerous to the city. For is it not disgraceful that
you should employ heralds and embassies to your fellow-citizens? With
foreign nations it is proper and necessary to treat first through
heralds and envoys, but upon citizens who are guilty of some
wrong-doing you should inflict punishment straightway, by trying them
in court if you can get them within reach of your votes, and by warring
against them if within reach of your arms. For all such are your
servants and servants of the people and of the laws, whether they wish
it or not; and it is not fitting either to coddle them or to put them
on an equal footing with the frees of the citizens, but to pursue and
chastise them like runaway servants, in the consciousness of your own
superiority. Is it not shameful that while he does not hesitate to
wrong us, we hesitate to defend ourselves? Or, again, that while he for
a long time, weapons in hand, has been carrying out all the deeds of
war, we are wasting our time in decrees and embassies, and that we
retaliate only with words and phrases upon the man whom we have long
since discovered by his deeds to be a wrong-doer? What are we hoping
for? That he will some day render us obedience and pay us respect? Yet
how would this be possible in the case of a man who has come to such a
point that he would not be able, even should he wish it, to live as an
ordinary citizen with us under a democratic government? Indeed, if he
were willing to live on a basis of common equality, he would never have
entered in the first place upon such a career as his; and even if he
had done so under the influence of folly or recklessness, he would
certainly have given it up speedily of his own accord. But as the case
stands, since he has once overstepped the limits imposed by the laws
and the constitution, and has acquired some power and authority by this
action, it is not conceivable that he would change of his own free will
or heed any one of your resolutions, but it is absolutely necessary
that such a man should be punished with those very weapons with which
he has dared to wrong us. And I beg you now to remember particularly
the remark which this man himself once uttered, to the effect that it
is impossible for you to be saved unless you conquer. Hence those who
bid years old send envoys are doing nothing else than causing you to
delay and causing your allies to become in consequence more remiss and
dispirited; while he, on the other hand, will meanwhile do whatever he
pleases, will destroy Decimus, will take Mutina by storm, and will
capture all Gaul, with the result that we shall no longer be able to
find means of dealing with him, but shall be under the necessity of
trembling before him, paying court to him, and worshipping him. Just
this one point further about the embassy and I am done: Antony did not
on his part give you any account of what he intended to do, that you
should do so yourselves.
"I, therefore, for these and all the other reasons advise you not to
delay or to lose time, but to make war upon him as quietly as possible,
reflecting that the majority of enterprises owe their success rather to
opportune occasions than to their strength; and you should by all means
feel perfectly sure for this very reason that I would never have given
up peace, in the midst of which I have most influence and have acquired
wealth and reputation, if it really were peace, nor would have urged
you to make war, did I not think it to your advantage. And I advise
you, Calenus, and the rest who are of the same mind as you, to be quiet
and allow the senate to vote the requisite measures, and not for the
sake of your private good-will toward Antony to betray the common
interests of us all. For this is my feeling, Conscript Fathers, that if
you heed my counsel, I shall very gladly enjoy freedom and safety with
you, but that if you vote anything different, I shall choose to die
rather than to live. For I have never at any time been afraid of death
as a consequence of my outspokenness (this accounts, indeed, for my
overwhelming success, the proof of which lies in the fact that you
decreed a sacrifice and festival in memory of the deeds done in my
consulship, an honour which had never before been granted to anybody
except one who had achieved some great success in war) and now I fear
it least of all. For death, if it befell me, would not be at all
unseasonable, especially when you consider that my consulship was so
many years ago (yet remember that in that very consulship I expressed
the same sentiment, in order that you might pay heed to me in
everything, knowing that I despised death), but to dread any one for
what he may do against you, and to be a slave to any one in common with
you would prove most unseasonable to me. Therefore I deem this last to
be the ruin and destruction not only of the body but also of the soul
and reputation, by which, and by which alone, we become in a certain
sense immortal; but to die speaking and acting in your behalf I regard
as equivalent to immortality.
"Now if Antony, also, realised this, he would never have entered upon
such a career, but would have even preferred to die as his grandfather
died rather than to behave like Cinna, who killed him. For, to mention
nothing else, Cinna was in turn slain not long afterward for this and
the other crimes he had committed; so that I am surprised also at this
feature in Antony's conduct, that, imitating his deeds as he does, he
shows no fear of some day falling a victim to a similar fate. The
murdered man, on the other hand, left behind to this very descendant
the reputation of greatness. But Antony has no longer any claim to be
saved on account of his relatives, since he has neither emulated his
grandfather nor inherited his father's property. Who, indeed, is
unaware of the fact that in restoring many who were exiled in Caesar's
time and later, in accordance, forsooth, with the directions of
Caesar's papers, he did not aid his uncle, but brought back his
fellow-gambler Lenticulus, who had been exiled for his unprincipled
life, and cherishes Bambalio, who is notorious for his very cognomen,
while he has treated his nearest relatives as I have described, as if
he were half angry at them because he was born to so noble a name?
Consequently he never inherited his father's goods, but has been the
heir of very many others, some of whom he never saw or heard of, and
others who are still living; for he has so stripped and despoiled them
that they differ in no way from dead men."
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