{"schema_version":1,"access":"public","rights":"Public-domain or compatibly licensed source editions; provenance is retained per record.","work":{"slug":"cicero-philippic-2","title":"Second Philippic","author":"Marcus Tullius Cicero","tradition":"roman","language":"la","genre":"oration","period":"44 BCE","source_url":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/8b536bdf3ed1f43494055efe112433b4a58eab67/data/phi0474/phi035/phi0474.phi035.perseus-lat2.xml","original":{"text":"### Chapter 1\n\nSECTION 1\nquonam meo fato, patres conscripti, fieri dicam ut nemo his annis viginti rei publicae fuerit hostis qui non bellum eodem tempore mihi quoque indixerit? nec vero necesse est quemquam a me nominari: vobiscum ipsi recordamini. mihi poenarum illi plus quam optarem dederunt: te miror, Antoni, quorum facta imitere, eorum exitus non perhorrescere. atque hoc in aliis minus mirabar. nemo enim illorum inimicus mihi fuit voluntarius: omnes a me rei publicae causa lacessiti. tu ne verbo quidem violatus, ut audacior quam Catilina, furiosior quam Clodius viderere, ultro me maledictis lacessisti, tuamque a me alienationem commendationem tibi ad impios civis fore putavisti.\n\nSECTION 2\nquid putem? contemptumne me? non video nec in vita nec in gratia nec in rebus gestis nec in hac mea mediocritate ingeni quid despicere possit Antonius. an in senatu facillime de me detrahi posse credidit? qui ordo clarissimis civibus bene gestae rei publicae testimonium multis, mihi uni conservatae dedit. an decertare mecum voluit contentione dicendi? hoc quidem est beneficium. quid enim plenius, quid uberius quam mihi et pro me et contra Antonium dicere? illud profecto: non existimavit sui similibus probari posse se esse hostem patriae, nisi mihi esset inimicus.\n\n### Chapter 2\n\nSECTION 3\ncui prius quam de ceteris rebus respondeo, de amicitia quam a me violatam esse criminatus est, quod ego gravissimum crimen iudico, pauca dicam.\n\ncontra rem suam me nescio quando venisse questus est. an ego non venirem contra alienum pro familiari et necessario, non venirem contra gratiam non virtutis spe, sed aetatis flore conlectam, non venirem contra iniuriam quam iste intercessoris iniquissimi beneficio obtinuit, non iure praetorio? sed hoc idcirco commemoratum a te puto ut te infimo ordini commendares, cum omnes ⟨te⟩ recordarentur libertini generum et liberos tuos nepotes Q. Fadi, libertini hominis, fuisse. at enim te in disciplinam meam tradideras—nam ita dixisti—domum meam ventitaras. ne tu, si id fecisses, melius famae, melius pudicitiae tuae consuluisses. sed neque fecisti nec, si cuperes, tibi id per C. Curionem facere licuisset.\n\nSECTION 4\nauguratus petitionem mihi te concessisse dixisti. O incredibilem audaciam, o impudentiam praedicandam! quo enim tempore me augurem a toto conlegio expetitum Cn. Pompeius et Q. Hortensius nominaverunt—nec enim licebat a pluribus nominari—tu nec solvendo eras nec te ullo modo nisi eversa re publica incolumem fore putabas. poteras autem eo tempore auguratum petere cum in Italia Curio non esset, aut tum cum es factus unam tribum sine Curione ferre potuisses? cuius etiam familiares de vi condemnati sunt, quod tui nimis studiosi fuissent.\n\n### Chapter 3\n\nSECTION 5\nat beneficio sum tuo usus. quo? quamquam illud ipsum quod commemoras semper prae me tuli: malui me tibi debere confiteri quam cuiquam minus prudenti non satis gratus videri. sed quo beneficio? quod me Brundisi non occideris? quem ipse victor qui tibi, ut tute gloriari solebas, detulerat ex latronibus suis principatum, salvum esse voluisset, in Italiam ire iussisset, eum tu occideres? fac potuisse. quod est aliud, patres conscripti, beneficium latronum nisi ut commemorare possint eis se dedisse vitam quibus non ademerint? quod si esset beneficium, numquam qui illum interfecerunt a quo erant conservati, quos tu ipse clarissimos viros soles appellare, tantam essent gloriam consecuti. quale autem beneficium est quod te abstinueris nefario scelere? qua in re non tam iucundum mihi videri debuit non interfectum ⟨me⟩ a te quam miserum te id impune facere potuisse.\n\nSECTION 6\nsed sit beneficium, quando quidem maius accipi a latrone nullum potuit: in quo potes me dicere ingratum? an de interitu rei publicae queri non debui, ne in te ingratus viderer? at in illa querela misera quidem et luctuosa, sed mihi pro hoc gradu in quo me senatus populusque Romanus conlocavit necessaria, quid est dictum a me cum contumelia, quid non moderate, quid non amice? quod quidem cuius temperantiae fuit, de M. Antonio querentem abstinere maledicto, praesertim cum tu reliquias rei publicae dissipavisses, cum domi tuae turpissimo mercatu omnia essent venalia, cum leges eas quae numquam promulgatae essent et de te et a te latas confiterere, cum auspicia augur, intercessionem consul sustulisses, cum esses foedissime stipatus armatis, cum omnis impuritates impudica in domo cotidie susciperes vino lustrisque confectus.\n\n### Chapter 4\n\nSECTION 7\nat ego, tamquam mihi cum M. Crasso contentio esset, quocum multae et magnae fuerunt, non cum uno gladiatore nequissimo, de re publica graviter querens de homine nihil dixi. itaque hodie perficiam ut intellegat quantum a me beneficium tum acceperit. at etiam litteras, quas me sibi misisse diceret, recitavit homo et humanitatis expers et vitae communis ignarus. quis enim umquam qui paulum modo bonorum consuetudinem nosset, litteras ad se ab amico missas offensione aliqua interposita in medium protulit palamque recitavit? quid est aliud tollere ex vita vitae societatem, tollere amicorum conloquia absentium? quam multa ioca solent esse in epistulis quae, prolata si sint, inepta videantur, quam multa seria neque tamen ullo modo divolganda!\n\nSECTION 8\nsit hoc inhumanitatis: stultitiam incredibilem videte. quid habes quod mihi opponas, homo diserte, ut mustelae tamen Seio et Tironi Numisio videris? qui cum hoc ipso tempore stent cum gladiis in conspectu senatus, ego quoque te disertum putabo, si ostenderis quo modo sis eos inter sicarios defensurus. sed quid opponas tandem, si negem me umquam ad te istas litteras misisse? quo me teste convincas? an chirographo? in quo habes scientiam quaestuosam. qui possis? sunt enim librari manu. iam invideo magistro tuo, qui te tanta mercede quantam iam proferam nihil sapere doceat.\n\nSECTION 9\nquid enim est minus non dico oratoris, sed hominis quam id obicere adversario quod ille si verbo negarit longius progredi non possit qui obiecerit? at ego non nego, teque in isto ipso convinco non inhumanitatis solum sed etiam amentiae. quod enim verbum in istis litteris est non plenum humanitatis, offici, benevolentiae? omne autem crimen tuum est quod de te in his litteris non male existimem, quod scribam tamquam ad civem, tamquam ad bonum virum, non tamquam ad sceleratum et latronem. at ego tuas litteras, etsi iure poteram a te lacessitus, tamen non proferam: quibus petis ut tibi per me liceat quendam de exsilio reducere, adiurasque id te invito me non esse facturum; idque a me impetras. quid enim me interponerem audaciae tuae, quam neque auctoritas huius ordinis neque existimatio populi Romani neque leges ullae possent coercere?\n\n### Chapter 5\n\nSECTION 10\nverum tamen quid erat quod me rogares, si erat is de quo rogabas Caesaris lege reductus? sed videlicet meam gratiam voluit esse, in quo ne ipsius quidem ulla esse poterat lege lata.\n\nsed cum mihi, patres conscripti, et pro me aliquid et in M. Antonium multa dicenda sint, alterum peto a vobis ut me pro me dicentem benigne, alterum ipse efficiam ut, contra illum cum dicam, attente audiatis. simul illud oro: si meam cum in omni vita tum in dicendo moderationem modestiamque cognostis, ne me hodie, cum isti, ut provocavit, respondero, oblitum esse putetis mei. non tractabo ut consulem: ne ille quidem me ut consularem. etsi ille nullo modo consul, vel quod ita vivit vel quod ita rem publicam gerit vel quod ita factus est; ego sine ulla controversia consularis.\n\nSECTION 11\nVt igitur intellegeretis qualem ipse se consulem profiteretur, obiecit mihi consulatum meum. qui consulatus verbo meus, patres conscripti, re vester fuit. quid enim ego constitui, quid gessi, quid egi nisi ex huius ordinis consilio, auctoritate, sententia? haec tu homo sapiens, non solum eloquens, apud eos quorum consilio sapientiaque gesta sunt ausus es vituperare? quis autem meum consulatum praeter te et P. Clodium qui vituperaret inventus est? cuius quidem tibi fatum, sicuti C. Curioni, manet, quoniam id domi tuae est quod fuit illorum utrique fatale.\n\nSECTION 12\nnon placet M. Antonio consulatus meus. at placuit P. Servilio, ut eum primum nominem ex illius temporis consularibus qui proxime est mortuus; placuit Q. Catulo, cuius semper in hac re publica vivet auctoritas; placuit duobus Lucullis, M. Crasso, Q. Hortensio, C. Curioni, C. Pisoni, M’. Glabrioni, M’. Lepido, L. Volcatio, C. Figulo, D. Silano, L. Murenae, qui tum erant consules designati; placuit idem quod consularibus M. Catoni, qui cum multa vita excedens providit, tum quod te consulem non vidit. maxime vero consulatum meum Cn. Pompeius probavit qui, ut me primum decedens ex Syria vidit, complexus et gratulans meo beneficio patriam se visurum esse dixit. sed quid singulos commemoro? frequentissimo senatui sic placuit ut esset nemo qui mihi non ut parenti gratias ageret, qui mihi non vitam suam, fortunas, liberos, rem publicam referret acceptam.\n\n### Chapter 6\n\nSECTION 13\nsed quoniam illis quos nominavi tot et talibus viris res publica orbata est, veniamus ad vivos qui duo de consularium numero reliqui sunt. L. Cotta, vir summo ingenio summaque prudentia, rebus eis gestis quas tu reprehendis supplicationem decrevit verbis amplissimis, eique illi ipsi quos modo nominavi consulares senatusque cunctus adsensus est; qui honos post conditam hanc urbem habitus est togato ante me nemini.\n\nSECTION 14\nL. Caesar, avunculus tuus, qua oratione, qua constantia, qua gravitate sententiam dixit in sororis suae virum, vitricum tuum! hunc tu cum auctorem et praeceptorem omnium consiliorum totiusque vitae debuisses habere, vitrici te similem quam avunculi maluisti. huius ego alienus consiliis consul usus sum: tu, sororis filius, ecquid ad eum umquam de re publica rettulisti? at ad quos refert? di immortales! ad eos scilicet quorum nobis etiam dies natales audiendi sunt. hodie non descendit Antonius.\n\n### Chapter 7\n\nSECTION 15\ncur? dat nataliciam in hortis. cui? neminem nominabo: putate tum Phormioni alicui, tum Gnathoni, tum etiam Ballioni. O foeditatem hominis flagitiosam, o impudentiam, nequitiam, libidinem non ferendam! tu cum principem senatorem, civem singularem tam propinquum habeas, ad eum de re publica nihil referas, referas ad eos qui suam rem nullam habent, tuam exhauriunt? tuus videlicet salutaris consulatus, perniciosus meus. adeone pudorem cum pudicitia perdidisti ut hoc in eo templo dicere ausus sis in quo ego senatum illum qui quondam florens orbi terrarum praesidebat consulebam, tu homines perditissimos cum gladiis conlocavisti?\n\nSECTION 16\nat etiam ausus es—quid autem est quod tu non audeas?—clivum Capitolinum dicere me consule plenum servorum armatorum fuisse. Vt illa, credo, nefaria senatus consulta fierent, vim adferebam senatui. O miser, sive illa tibi nota non sunt—nihil enim boni nosti—sive sunt, qui apud talis viros tam impudenter loquare! quis enim eques Romanus, quis praeter te adulescens nobilis, quis ullius ordinis qui se civem esse meminisset, cum senatus in hoc templo esset, in clivo Capitolino non fuit, quis nomen non dedit? quamquam nec scribae sufficere nec tabulae nomina illorum capere potuerunt.\n\nSECTION 17\netenim cum homines nefarii de patriae parricidio confiterentur, consciorum indiciis, sua manu, voce paene litterarum coacti se urbem inflammare, civis trucidare, vastare Italiam, delere rem publicam consensisse, quis esset qui ad salutem communem defendendam non excitaretur, praesertim cum senatus populusque Romanus haberet ducem, qualis si qui nunc esset, tibi idem quod illis accidit contigisset? ad sepulturam corpus vitrici sui negat a me datum. hoc vero ne P. quidem Clodius dixit umquam: quem, quia iure ei inimicus fui, doleo a te omnibus vitiis iam esse superatum.\n\n### Chapter 8\n\nSECTION 18\nqui autem tibi venit in mentem redigere in memoriam nostram te domi P. Lentuli esse educatum? an verebare ne non putaremus natura te potuisse tam improbum evadere, nisi accessisset etiam disciplina? tam autem eras excors ut tota in oratione tua tecum ipse pugnares, non modo non cohaerentia inter se diceres, sed maxime diiuncta atque contraria, ut non tanta mecum quanta tibi tecum esset contentio. vitricum tuum fuisse in tanto scelere fatebare, poena adfectum querebare. ita quod proprie meum est laudasti; quod totum est senatus reprehendisti. nam comprehensio sontium mea, animadversio senatus fuit. homo disertus non intellegit eum quem contra dicit laudari a se; eos apud quos dicit vituperari.\n\nSECTION 19\niam illud cuius est, non dico audaciae—cupit enim se audacem—sed, quod minime volt, stultitiae, qua vincit omnis, clivi Capitolini mentionem facere, cum inter subsellia nostra versentur armati, cum in hac cella Concordiae, di immortales! in qua me consule salutares sententiae dictae sunt, quibus ad hanc diem viximus, cum gladiis homines conlocati stent? accusa senatum; accusa equestrem ordinem qui tum cum senatu copulatus fuit; accusa omnis ordines, omnis civis, dum confiteare hunc ordinem hoc ipso tempore ab Ituraeis circumsederi. haec tu non propter audaciam dicis tam impudenter, sed quia tantam rerum repugnantiam non vides. nihil profecto sapis. quid est enim dementius quam, cum rei publicae perniciosa arma ipse ceperis, obicere alteri salutaria?\n\nSECTION 20\nat etiam quodam loco facetus esse voluisti. quam id te, di boni, non decebat! in quo est tua culpa non nulla. aliquid enim salis a mima uxore trahere potuisti. ‘cedant arma togae.’ quid? tum nonne cesserunt? at postea tuis armis cessit toga. quaeramus igitur utrum melius fuerit libertati populi Romani sceleratorum arma an libertatem nostram armis tuis cedere. nec vero tibi de versibus plura respondebo: tantum dicam breviter, te neque illos neque ullas omnino litteras nosse; me nec rei publicae nec amicis umquam defuisse, et tamen omni genere monumentorum meorum perfecisse operis subsicivis ut meae vigiliae meaeque litterae et iuventuti utilitatis et nomini Romano laudis aliquid adferrent. sed haec non huius temporis: maiora videamus.\n\n### Chapter 9\n\nSECTION 21\nP. Clodium meo consilio interfectum esse dixisti. quidnam homines putarent, si tum occisus esset cum tu illum in foro inspectante populo Romano gladio insecutus es negotiumque transegisses, nisi se ille in scalas tabernae librariae coniecisset eisque oppilatis impetum tuum compressisset? quod quidem ego favisse me tibi fateor, suasisse ne tu quidem dicis. at Miloni ne favere quidem potui; prius enim rem transegit quam quisquam eum facturum id suspicaretur. at ego suasi. scilicet is animus erat Milonis ut prodesse rei publicae sine suasore non posset. at laetatus sum. quid ergo? in tanta laetitia cunctae civitatis me unum tristem esse oportebat?\n\nSECTION 22\nquamquam de morte Clodi fuit quaestio non satis prudenter illa quidem constituta— quid enim attinebat nova lege quaeri de eo qui hominem occidisset, cum esset legibus quaestio constituta?—quaesitum est tamen. quod igitur, cum res agebatur, nemo in me dixit, id tot annis post tu es inventus qui diceres?\n\n### Chapter 10\n\nSECTION 23\nquod vero dicere ausus es idque multis verbis, opera mea Pompeium a Caesaris amicitia esse diiunctum ob eamque causam culpa mea bellum civile esse natum, in eo non tu quidem tota re sed, quod maximum est, temporibus errasti. ego M. Bibulo, praestantissimo civi, consule nihil praetermisi, quantum facere enitique potui, quin Pompeium a Caesaris coniunctione avocarem. in quo Caesar felicior fuit. ipse enim Pompeium a mea familiaritate diiunxit. postea vero quam se totum Pompeius Caesari tradidit, quid ego illum ab eo distrahere conarer? stulti erat sperare, suadere impudentis.\n\nSECTION 24\nduo tamen tempora inciderunt quibus aliquid contra Caesarem Pompeio suaserim. ea velim reprehendas, si potes: unum ne quinquenni imperium Caesari prorogaret, alterum ne pateretur ferri ut absentis eius ratio haberetur. quorum si utrumvis persuasissem, in has miserias numquam incidissemus. atque idem ego, cum iam opes omnis et suas et populi Romani Pompeius ad Caesarem detulisset, seroque ea sentire coepisset quae multo ante provideram, inferrique patriae bellum viderem nefarium, pacis, concordiae, compositionis auctor esse non destiti, meaque illa vox est nota multis: ‘Vtinam, Cn. Pompei, cum C. Caesare societatem aut numquam coisses aut numquam diremisses! fuit alterum gravitatis, alterum prudentiae tuae.’ haec mea, M. Antoni, semper et de Pompeio et de re publica consilia fuerunt. quae si valuissent, res publica staret, tu tuis flagitiis, egestate, infamia concidisses.\n\n### Chapter 11\n\nSECTION 25\nsed haec vetera, illud vero recens, Caesarem meo consilio interfectum. iam vereor, patres conscripti, ne, quod turpissimum est, praevaricatorem mihi apposuisse videar, qui me non solum meis laudibus ornaret sed etiam oneraret alienis. quis enim meum in ista societate gloriosissimi facti nomen audivit? cuius autem qui in eo numero fuisset nomen est occultatum? occultatum dico? cuius non statim divolgatum? Citius dixerim iactasse se aliquos ut fuisse in ea societate viderentur, cum conscii non fuissent, quam ut quisquam celari vellet qui fuisset.\n\nSECTION 26\nquam veri simile porro est in tot hominibus partim obscuris, partim adulescentibus neminem occultantibus meum nomen latere potuisse? etenim si auctores ad liberandam patriam desiderarentur illis actoribus, Brutos ego impellerem, quorum uterque L. Bruti imaginem cotidie videret, alter etiam Ahalae? hi igitur his maioribus ab alienis potius consilium peterent quam a suis et foris potius quam domo? quid? C. Cassius in ea familia natus quae non modo dominatum, sed ne potentiam quidem cuiusquam ferre potuit, me auctorem, credo, desideravit: qui etiam sine his clarissimis viris hanc rem in Cilicia ad ostium fluminis Cydni confecisset, si ille ad eam ripam quam constituerat, non ad contrariam navis appulisset. Cn.\n\nSECTION 27\nDomitium non patris interitus, clarissimi viri, non avunculi mors, non spoliatio dignitatis ad recuperandam libertatem, sed mea auctoritas excitavit? an C. Trebonio ego persuasi? cui ne suadere quidem ausus essem. quo etiam maiorem ei res publica gratiam debet qui libertatem populi Romani unius amicitiae praeposuit depulsorque dominatus quam particeps esse maluit. an L. Tillius Cimber me est auctorem secutus? quem ego magis fecisse illam rem sum admiratus quam facturum putavi, admiratus autem ob eam causam quod immemor beneficiorum, memor patriae fuisset. quid duos Servilios—Cascas dicam an Ahalas?—et hos auctoritate mea censes excitatos potius quam caritate rei publicae? longum est persequi ceteros, idque rei publicae praeclarum fuisse tam multos, ipsis gloriosum.\n\n### Chapter 12\n\nSECTION 28\nat quem ad modum me coarguerit homo acutus recordamini. ‘Caesare interfecto’ inquit ‘statim cruentum alte extollens Brutus pugionem Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus.’ cur mihi potissimum? quia sciebam? vide ne illa causa fuerit appellandi mei quod, cum rem gessisset consimilem rebus eis quas ipse gesseram, me potissimum testatus est se aemulum mearum laudum exstitisse.\n\nSECTION 29\ntu autem, omnium stultissime, non intellegis, si, id quod me arguis, voluisse interfici Caesarem crimen sit, etiam laetatum esse morte Caesaris crimen esse? quid enim interest inter suasorem facti et probatorem? aut quid refert utrum voluerim fieri an gaudeam factum? ecquis est igitur exceptis eis qui illum regnare gaudebant qui illud aut fieri noluerit aut factum improbarit? omnes ergo in culpa. etenim omnes boni, quantum in ipsis fuit, Caesarem occiderunt: aliis consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio defuit; voluntas nemini.\n\nSECTION 30\nsed stuporem hominis vel dicam pecudis attendite. sic enim dixit: ‘Brutus, quem ego honoris causa nomino, cruentum pugionem tenens Ciceronem exclamavit: ex quo intellegi debet eum conscium fuisse.’ ergo ego sceleratus appellor a te quem tu suspicatum aliquid suspicaris; ille qui stillantem prae se pugionem tulit, is a te honoris causa nominatur? esto; sit in verbis tuis hic stupor: quanto in rebus sententiisque maior? constitue hoc, consul, aliquando, Brutorum, C. Cassi, Cn. Domiti, C. Treboni, reliquorum quam velis esse causam; edormi crapulam, inquam, et exhala. an faces admovendae sunt quae excitent tantae causae indormientem? numquamne intelleges statuendum tibi esse utrum illi qui istam rem gesserunt homicidaene sint an vindices libertatis.\n\n### Chapter 13\n\nSECTION 31\nattende enim paulisper cogitationemque sobrii hominis punctum temporis suscipe. ego qui sum illorum, ut ipse fateor, familiaris, ut a te arguor, socius, nego quicquam esse medium: confiteor eos, nisi liberatores populi Romani conservatoresque rei publicae sint, plus quam sicarios, plus quam homicidas, plus etiam quam parricidas esse, si quidem est atrocius patriae parentem quam suum occidere. tu homo sapiens et considerate, quid dicis? si parricidas, cur honoris causa a te sunt et in hoc ordine et apud populum Romanum semper appellati? cur M. Brutus referente te legibus est solutus, si ab urbe plus quam decem dies afuisset? cur ludi Apollinares incredibili M. Bruti honore celebrati? cur provinciae Bruto, Cassio datae, cur quaestores additi, cur legatorum numerus auctus? atqui haec acta per te. non igitur homicidas. sequitur ut liberatores tuo iudicio, quando quidem tertium nihil potest esse.\n\nSECTION 32\nquid est? num conturbo te? non enim fortasse satis quae diiunctius dicuntur intellegis. sed tamen haec summa est conclusionis meae: quoniam scelere a te liberati sunt, ab eodem amplissimis praemiis dignissimos iudicatos. itaque iam retexo orationem meam. scribam ad illos ut, si qui forte, quod a te mihi obiectum est, quaerent sitne verum, ne cui negent. etenim vereor ne aut celatum me illis ipsis non honestum aut invitatum refugisse mihi sit turpissimum. quae enim res umquam, pro sancte Iuppiter! non modo in hac urbe sed in omnibus terris est gesta maior; quae gloriosior, quae commendatior hominum memoriae sempiternae? in huius me tu consili societatem tamquam in equum Troianum cum principibus includis?\n\nSECTION 33\nnon recuso; ago etiam gratias, quoquo animo facis. tanta enim res est ut invidiam istam quam tu in me vis concitare cum laude non comparem. quid enim beatius illis quos tu expulsos a te praedicas et relegatos? qui locus est aut tam desertus aut tam inhumanus qui illos, cum accesserint, non adfari atque appetere videatur? qui homines tam agrestes qui se, cum eos aspexerint, non maximum cepisse vitae fructum putent? quae vero tam immemor posteritas, quae tam ingratae litterae reperientur quae eorum gloriam non immortalitatis memoria prosequantur? tu vero ascribe me talem in numerum.\n\n### Chapter 14\n\nSECTION 34\nsed unam rem vereor ne non probes: si enim fuissem, non solum regem sed etiam regnum de re publica sustulissem; et, si meus stilus ille fuisset, ut dicitur, mihi crede, non solum unum actum sed totam fabulam confecissem. quamquam si interfici Caesarem voluisse crimen est, vide, quaeso, Antoni, quid tibi futurum sit, quem et Narbone hoc consilium cum C. Trebonio cepisse notissimum est et ob eius consili societatem, cum interficeretur Caesar, tum te a Trebonio vidimus sevocari. ego autem—vide quam tecum agam non inimice—quod bene cogitasti aliquando, laudo; quod non indicasti, gratias ago; quod non fecisti, ignosco.\n\nSECTION 35\nvirum res illa quaerebat. quod si te in iudicium quis adducat usurpetque illud Cassianum, ‘cui bono fuerit,’ vide, quaeso, ne haereas. quamquam illud quidem fuit, ut tu dicebas, omnibus bono qui servire nolebant, tibi tamen praecipue qui non modo non servis sed etiam regnas; qui maximo te aere alieno ad aedem Opis liberavisti; qui per easdem tabulas innumerabilem pecuniam dissipavisti; ad quem e domo Caesaris tam multa delata sunt; cuius domi quaestuosissima est falsorum commentariorum et chirographorum officina, agrorum, oppidorum, immunitatium, vectigalium flagitiosissimae nundinae.\n\nSECTION 36\netenim quae res egestati et aeri alieno tuo praeter mortem Caesaris subvenire potuisset? nescio quid conturbatus esse videris: num quid subtimes ne ad te hoc crimen pertinere videatur? libero te metu: nemo credet umquam; non est tuum de re publica bene mereri; habet istius pulcherrimi facti clarissimos viros res publica auctores; ego te tantum gaudere dico, fecisse non arguo. respondi maximis criminibus: nunc etiam reliquis respondendum est.\n\n### Chapter 15\n\nSECTION 37\ncastra mihi Pompei atque illud omne tempus obiecisti. quo quidem tempore si, ut dixi, meum consilium auctoritasque valuisset, tu hodie egeres, nos liberi essemus; res publica non tot duces et exercitus amisisset. fateor enim me, cum ea quae acciderunt providerem futura, tanta in maestitia fuisse quanta ceteri optimi cives, si idem providissent, fuissent. dolebam, dolebam, patres conscripti, rem publicam vestris quondam meisque consiliis conservatam brevi tempore esse perituram. nec vero eram tam indoctus ignarusque rerum ut frangerer animo propter vitae cupiditatem, quae me manens conficeret angoribus, dimissa molestiis omnibus liberaret. illos ego praestantissimos viros, lumina rei publicae, vivere volebam, tot consularis, tot praetorios, tot honestissimos senatores, omnem praeterea florem nobilitatis ac iuventutis, tum optimorum civium exercitus; qui si viverent, quamvis iniqua condicione pacis—mihi enim omnis pax cum civibus bello civili utilior videbatur—rem publicam hodie teneremus.\n\nSECTION 38\nquae sententia si valuisset ac non ei maxime mihi quorum ego vitae consulebam spe victoriae elati obstitissent, ut alia omittam, tu certe numquam in hoc ordine vel potius numquam in hac urbe mansisses. at vero Cn. Pompei voluntatem a me alienabat oratio mea. an ille quemquam plus dilexit, cum ullo aut sermones aut consilia contulit saepius? quod quidem erat magnum, de summa re publica dissentientis in eadem consuetudine amicitiae permanere. ego quid ille et contra ille quid ego sentirem et spectarem videbat. ego incolumitati civium primum, ut postea dignitati possemus, ille praesenti dignitati potius consulebat. quod autem habebat uterque quid sequeretur, idcirco tolerabilior erat nostra dissensio.\n\n### Chapter 16\n\nSECTION 39\nquid vero ille singularis vir ac paene divinus de me senserit sciunt qui eum de Pharsalia fuga Paphum persecuti sunt. numquam ab eo mentio de me nisi honorifica, nisi plena amicissimi desideri, cum me vidisse plus fateretur, se speravisse meliora. et eius viri nomine me insectari audes cuius me amicum, te sectorem esse fateare? sed omittatur bellum illud in quo tu nimium felix fuisti. ne ⟨de⟩ iocis quidem respondebo quibus me in castris usum esse dixisti: erant quidem illa castra plena curae; verum tamen homines, quamvis in turbidis rebus sint, tamen, si modo homines sunt, interdum animis relaxantur.\n\nSECTION 40\nquod autem idem maestitiam meam reprehendit, idem iocum, magno argumento est me in utroque fuisse moderatum.\n\nhereditates mihi negasti venire. Vtinam hoc tuum verum crimen esset! plures amici mei et necessarii viverent. sed qui istuc tibi venit in mentem? ego enim amplius sestertium ducentiens acceptum hereditatibus rettuli. quamquam in hoc genere fateor feliciorem esse te. me nemo nisi amicus fecit heredem, ut cum illo commodo, si quod erat, animi quidam dolor iungeretur; te is quem tu vidisti numquam, L. Rubrius Casinas fecit heredem.\n\nSECTION 41\net quidem vide quam te amarit is qui albus aterne fuerit ignoras. fratris filium praeterit, Q. Fufi, honestissimi equitis Romani suique amicissimi, quem palam heredem semper factitarat, ne nominat quidem: te, quem numquam viderat aut certe numquam salutaverat, fecit heredem. velim mihi dicas, nisi molestum est, L. Turselius qua facie fuerit, qua statura, quo municipio, qua tribu. ‘nihil scio’ inquies ‘nisi quae praedia habuerit.’ igitur fratrem exheredans te faciebat heredem. in multas praeterea pecunias alienissimorum hominum vi eiectis veris heredibus, tamquam heres esset, invasit.\n\n### Chapter 17\n\nSECTION 42\nquamquam hoc maxime admiratus sum, mentionem te hereditatum ausum esse facere, cum ipse hereditatem patris non adisses.\n\nhaec ut conligeres, homo amentissime, tot dies in aliena villa declamasti? quamquam tu quidem, ut tui familiarissimi dictitant, vini exhalandi, non ingeni acuendi causa declamitas. at vero adhibes ioci causa magistrum suffragio tuo et compotorum tuorum rhetorem, cui concessisti ut in te quae vellet diceret, salsum omnino hominem, sed materia facilis in te et in tuos dicta dicere. vide autem quid intersit inter te et avum tuum. ille sensim dicebat quod causae prodesset; tu cursim dicis aliena.\n\nSECTION 43\nat quanta merces rhetori data est! audite, audite, patres conscripti, et cognoscite rei publicae volnera. duo milia iugerum campi Leontini Sex. Clodio rhetori adsignasti et quidem immunia, ut populi Romani tanta mercede nihil sapere disceres. num etiam hoc, homo audacissime, ex Caesaris commentariis? sed dicam alio loco et de Leontino agro et de Campano, quos iste agros ereptos rei publicae turpissimis possessoribus inquinavit. iam enim, quoniam criminibus eius satis respondi, de ipso emendatore et correctore nostro quaedam dicenda sunt. nec enim omnia effundam, ut, si saepius decertandum sit, ut erit, semper novus veniam: quam facultatem mihi multitudo istius vitiorum peccatorumque largitur.\n\n### Chapter 18\n\nSECTION 44\nvisne igitur te inspiciamus a puero? sic opinor; a principio ordiamur. tenesne memoria praetextatum te decoxisse? ‘Patris’ inquies ‘ista culpa est.’ concedo. etenim est pietatis plena defensio. illud tamen audaciae tuae quod sedisti in quattuordecim ordinibus, cum esset lege Roscia decoctoribus certus locus constitutus, quamvis quis fortunae vitio, non suo decoxisset. sumpsisti virilem, quam statim muliebrem togam reddidisti. primo volgare scortum; certa flagiti merces nec ea parva; sed cito Curio intervenit qui te a meretricio quaestu abduxit et, tamquam stolam dedisset, in matrimonio stabili et certo conlocavit.\n\nSECTION 45\nnemo umquam puer emptus libidinis causa tam fuit in domini potestate quam tu in Curionis. quotiens te pater eius domu sua eiecit, quotiens custodes posuit ne limen intrares? cum tu tamen nocte socia, hortante libidine, cogente mercede, per tegulas demitterere. quae flagitia domus illa diutius ferre non potuit. scisne me de rebus mihi notissimis dicere? recordare tempus illud cum pater Curio maerens iacebat in lecto; filius se ad pedes meos prosternens, lacrimans, te mihi commendabat; orabat ut se contra suum patrem, si sestertium sexagiens peteret, defenderem; tantum enim se pro te intercessisse dicebat. ipse autem amore ardens confirmabat, quod desiderium tui discidi ferre non posset, se in exsilium iturum.\n\nSECTION 46\nquo tempore ego quanta mala florentissimae familiae sedavi vel potius sustuli! patri persuasi ut aes alienum fili dissolveret; redimeret adulescentem, summa spe et animi et ingeni praeditum, rei familiaris facultatibus eumque non modo tua familiaritate sed etiam congressione patrio iure et potestate prohiberet. haec tu cum per me acta meminisses, nisi illis quos videmus gladiis confideres, maledictis me provocare ausus esses.\n\n### Chapter 19\n\nSECTION 47\nsed iam stupra et flagitia omittamus: sunt quaedam quae honeste non possum dicere; tu autem eo liberior quod ea in te admisisti quae a verecundo inimico audire non posses. sed reliquum vitae cursum videte, quem quidem celeriter perstringam. ad haec enim quae in civili bello, in maximis rei publicae miseriis fecit, et ad ea quae cotidie facit, festinat animus. quae peto ut, quamquam multo notiora vobis quam mihi sunt, tamen, ut facitis, attente audiatis. debet enim talibus in rebus excitare animos non cognitio solum rerum sed etiam recordatio; etsi incidamus, opinor, media ne nimis sero ad extrema veniamus.\n\nSECTION 48\nintimus erat in tribunatu Clodio qui sua erga me beneficia commemorat; eius omnium incendiorum fax, cuius etiam domi iam tum quiddam molitus est. quid dicam ipse optime intellegit. Inde iter Alexandream contra senatus auctoritatem, contra rem publicam et religiones; sed habebat ducem Gabinium, quicum quidvis rectissime facere posset. qui tum inde reditus aut qualis? prius in ultimam Galliam ex Aegypto quam domum. quae autem domus? Suam enim quisque domum tum obtinebat nec erat usquam tua. domum dico? quid erat in terris ubi in tuo pedem poneres praeter unum Misenum quod cum sociis tamquam Sisaponem tenebas.\n\n### Chapter 20\n\nSECTION 49\nvenis e Gallia ad quaesturam petendam. aude dicere te prius ad parentem tuam venisse quam ad me. acceperam iam ante Caesaris litteras ut mihi satis fieri paterer a te: itaque ne loqui quidem sum te passus de gratia. postea sum cultus a te, tu a me observatus in petitione quaesturae; quo quidem tempore P. Clodium approbante populo Romano in foro es conatus occidere, cumque eam rem tua sponte conarere, non impulsu meo, tamen ita praedicabas, te non existimare, nisi illum interfecisses, umquam mihi pro tuis in me iniuriis satis esse facturum. in quo demiror cur Milonem impulsu meo rem illam egisse dicas, cum te ultro mihi idem illud deferentem numquam sim adhortatus. quamquam, si in eo perseverares, ad tuam gloriam rem illam referri malebam quam ad meam gratiam.\n\n### Chapter 21\n\nSECTION 50\nquaestor es factus: deinde continuo sine senatus consulto, sine sorte, sine lege ad Caesarem cucurristi. id enim unum in terris egestatis, aeris alieni, nequitiae perditis vitae rationibus perfugium esse ducebas. ibi te cum et illius largitionibus et tuis rapinis explevisses, si hoc est explere, ⟨expilare⟩ quod statim effundas, advolasti egens ad tribunatum, ut in eo magistratu, si posses, viri tui similis esses.\n\naccipite nunc, quaeso, non ea quae ipse in se atque in domesticum decus impure et intemperanter, sed quae in nos fortunasque nostras, id est in universam rem publicam, impie ac nefarie fecerit. ab huius enim scelere omnium malorum principium natum reperietis.\n\nSECTION 51\nnam cum L. Lentulo C. Marcello consulibus Kalendis Ianuariis labentem et prope cadentem rem publicam fulcire cuperetis ipsique C. Caesari, si sana mente esset, consulere velletis, tum iste venditum atque emancipatum tribunatum consiliis vestris opposuit cervicesque suas ei subiecit securi qua multi minoribus in peccatis occiderunt. in te, M. Antoni, id decrevit senatus et quidem incolumis, nondum tot luminibus exstinctis quod in hostem togatum decerni est solitum more maiorum. et tu apud patres conscriptos contra me dicere ausus es, cum ab hoc ordine ego conservator essem, tu hostis rei publicae iudicatus? commemoratio illius tui sceleris intermissa est, non memoria deleta. dum genus hominum, dum populi Romani nomen exstabit—quod quidem erit, si per te licebit, sempiternum—tua illa pestifera intercessio nominabitur.\n\nSECTION 52\nquid cupide a senatu, quid temere fiebat, cum tu unus adulescens universum ordinem decernere de salute rei publicae prohibuisti, neque semel, sed saepius, neque tu tecum de senatus auctoritate agi passus es? quid autem agebatur nisi ne deleri et everti rem publicam funditus velles, cum te neque principes civitatis rogando neque maiores natu monendo neque frequens senatus agendo de vendita atque addicta sententia movere potuit? tum illud multis rebus ante temptatis necessario tibi volnus inflictum est quod paucis ante te, quorum incolumis fuit nemo:\n\n### Chapter 22\n\nSECTION 53\ntum contra te dedit arma hic ordo consulibus reliquisque imperiis et potestatibus: quae non effugisses, nisi te ad arma Caesaris contulisses. tu, tu, inquam, M. Antoni, princeps C. Caesari omnia perturbare cupienti causam belli contra patriam ferendi dedisti. quid enim aliud ille dicebat, quam causam sui dementissimi consili et facti adferebat, nisi quod intercessio neglecta, ius tribunicium sublatum, circumscriptus a senatu esset Antonius? omitto quam haec falsa, quam levia, praesertim cum omnino nulla causa iusta cuiquam esse possit contra patriam arma capiendi. sed nihil de Caesare: tibi certe confitendum est causam perniciosissimi belli in persona tua constitisse.\n\nSECTION 54\nO miserum te, si haec intellegis, miseriorem, si non intellegis hoc litteris mandari, hoc memoriae prodi, huius rei ne posteritatem quidem omnium saeculorum umquam immemorem fore, consules ex Italia expulsos, cumque eis Cn. Pompeium quod imperi populi Romani decus ac lumen fuit, omnis consularis qui per valetudinem exsequi cladem illam fugamque potuissent, praetores, praetorios, tribunos plebis, magnam partem senatus, omnem subolem iuventutis, unoque verbo rem publicam expulsam atque exterminatam suis sedibus!\n\nSECTION 55\nVt igitur in seminibus est causa arborum et stirpium, sic huius luctuosissimi belli semen tu fuisti. doletis tris exercitus populi Romani interfectos: interfecit Antonius. desideratis clarissimos civis: eos quoque vobis eripuit Antonius. auctoritas huius ordinis adflicta est: adflixit Antonius. omnia denique, quae postea vidimus—quid autem mali non vidimus?—si recte ratiocinabimur, uni accepta referemus Antonio. Vt Helena Troianis, sic iste huic rei publicae belli causa, causa pestis atque exiti fuit. reliquae partes tribunatus principi similes. omnia perfecit quae senatus salva re publica ne fieri possent profecerat. cuius tamen scelus in scelere cognoscite.\n\n### Chapter 23\n\nSECTION 56\nrestituebat multos calamitosos: in eis patrui nulla mentio. si severus, cur non in omnis? si misericors, cur non in suos? sed omitto ceteros: Licinium lenticulam de alea condemnatum, conlusorem suum, restituit, quasi vero ludere cum condemnato non liceret, sed ut quod in alea perdiderat beneficio legis dissolveret. quam attulisti rationem populo Romano cur eum restitui oporteret? absentem, credo, in reos relatum; rem indicta causa iudicatam; nullum fuisse de alea lege iudicium; vi oppressum et armis; postremo, quod de patruo tuo dicebatur, pecunia iudicium esse corruptum? nihil horum. at vir bonus et re publica dignus. nihil id quidem ad rem; ego tamen, quoniam condemnatum esse pro nihilo est, si ita esset, ignoscerem. hominem omnium nequissimum qui non dubitaret vel in foro alea ludere, lege quae est de alea condemnatum qui in integrum restituit, is non apertissime studium suum ipse profitetur?\n\nSECTION 57\nin eodem vero tribunatu, cum Caesar in Hispaniam proficiscens huic conculcandam Italiam tradidisset, quae fuit eius peragratio itinerum, lustratio municipiorum! scio me in rebus celebratissimis omnium sermone versari, eaque quae dico dicturusque sum notiora esse omnibus qui in Italia tum fuerunt quam mihi qui non fui: notabo tamen singulas res, etsi nullo modo poterit oratio mea satis facere vestrae scientiae. etenim quod umquam in terris tantum flagitium exstitisse auditum est, tantam turpitudinem, tantum dedecus.\n\n### Chapter 24\n\nSECTION 58\nvehebatur in essedo tribunus plebis; lictores laureati antecedebant, inter quos aperta lectica mima portabatur, quam ex oppidis municipales homines honesti, obviam necessario prodeuntes, non noto illo et mimico nomine, sed Volumniam consalutabant. sequebatur raeda cum lenonibus, comites nequissimi; reiecta mater amicam impuri fili tamquam nurum sequebatur. O miserae mulieris fecunditatem calamitosam! Horum flagitiorum iste vestigiis omnia municipia, praefecturas, colonias, totam denique Italiam impressit.\n\nSECTION 59\nreliquorum factorum eius, patres conscripti, difficilis est sane reprehensio et lubrica. versatus in bello est; saturavit se sanguine dissimillimorum sui civium: felix fuit, si potest ulla in scelere esse felicitas. sed quoniam veteranis cautum esse volumus, quamquam dissimilis est militum causa et tua—illi secuti sunt, tu quaesisti ducem—tamen, ne apud illos me in invidiam voces, nihil de genere belli dicam. Victor e Thessalia Brundisium cum legionibus revertisti. ibi me non occidisti. Magnum beneficium! potuisse enim fateor. quamquam nemo erat eorum qui tum tecum fuerunt qui mihi non censeret parci oportere.\n\nSECTION 60\ntanta est enim caritas patriae ut vestris etiam legionibus sanctus essem, quod eam a me servatam esse meminissent. sed fac id te dedisse mihi quod non ademisti, meque a te habere vitam, quia non a te sit erepta: licuitne mihi per tuas contumelias hoc tuum beneficium sic tueri ut tuebar, praesertim cum te haec auditurum videres.\n\n### Chapter 25\n\nSECTION 61\nvenisti Brundisium, in sinum quidem et in complexum tuae mimulae. quid est? num mentior? quam miserum est id negare non posse quod sit turpissimum confiteri! si te municipiorum non pudebat, ne veterani quidem exercitus? quis enim miles fuit qui Brundisi illam non viderit? quis qui nescierit venisse eam tibi tot dierum viam gratulatum? quis qui non indoluerit tam sero se quam nequam hominem secutus esset cognoscere?\n\nSECTION 62\nItaliae rursus percursatio eadem comite mima; in oppida militum crudelis et misera deductio; in urbe auri, argenti maximeque vini foeda direptio. accessit ut Caesare ignaro, cum esset ille Alexandreae, beneficio amicorum eius magister equitum constitueretur. tum existimavit se suo iure cum Hippia vivere et equos vectigalis Sergio mimo tradere; tum sibi non hanc quam nunc male tuetur, sed M. Pisonis domum ubi habitaret legerat. quid ego istius decreta, quid rapinas, quid hereditatum possessiones datas, quid ereptas proferam? cogebat egestas; quo se verteret non habebat: nondum ei tanta a L. Rubrio, non a L. Turselio hereditas venerat; nondum in Cn. Pompei locum multorumque aliorum qui aberant repentinus heres successerat. erat vivendum latronum ritu, ut tantum haberet, quantum rapere potuisset.\n\nSECTION 63\nsed haec quae robustioris improbitatis sunt, omittamus: loquamur potius de nequissimo genere levitatis. tu istis faucibus, istis lateribus, ista gladiatoria totius corporis firmitate tantum vini in Hippiae nuptiis exhauseras ut tibi necesse esset in populi Romani conspectu vomere postridie. O rem non modo visu foedam sed etiam auditu! si inter cenam in ipsis tuis immanibus illis poculis hoc tibi accidisset, quis non turpe duceret? in coetu vero populi Romani negotium publicum gerens, magister equitum, cui ructare turpe esset, is vomens frustis esculentis vinum redolentibus gremium suum et totum tribunal implevit. sed haec ipse fatetur esse in suis sordibus: veniamus ad splendida.\n\n### Chapter 26\n\nSECTION 64\nCaesar Alexandrea se recepit, felix, ut sibi quidem videbatur, mea autem sententia, qui rei publicae sit infelix, felix esse nemo potest. hasta posita pro aede Iovis Statoris bona Cn. Pompei—miserum me! consumptis enim lacrimis tamen infixus animo haeret dolor—bona, inquam, Cn. Pompei Magni voci acerbissimae subiecta praeconis. Vna in illa re servitutis oblita civitas ingemuit servientibusque animis, cum omnia metu tenerentur, gemitus tamen populi Romani liber fuit. exspectantibus omnibus quisnam esset tam impius, tam demens, tam dis hominibusque hostis qui ad illud scelus sectionis auderet accedere, inventus est nemo praeter Antonium, praesertim cum tot essent circum hastam illam qui alia omnia auderent: unus inventus est qui id auderet quod omnium fugisset et reformidasset audacia.\n\n### Chapter 27\n\nSECTION 65\ntantus igitur te stupor oppressit vel, ut verius dicam, tantus furor ut primum, cum sector sis isto loco natus, deinde cum Pompei sector, non te exsecratum populo Romano, non detestabilem, non omnis tibi deos, non omnis homines et esse inimicos et futuros scias? at quam insolenter statim helluo invasit in eius viri fortunas cuius virtute terribilior erat populus Romanus exteris gentibus, iustitia carior! in eius igitur viri copias cum se subito ingurgitasset, exsultabat gaudio persona de mimo, modo egens, repente dives. sed, ut est apud poetam nescio quem ‘male parta male dilabuntur.’\n\nSECTION 66\nincredibile ac simile portenti est quonam modo illa tam multa quam paucis non dico mensibus sed diebus effuderit. maximus vini numerus fuit, permagnum optimi pondus argenti, pretiosa vestis, multa et lauta supellex et magnifica multis locis, non illa quidem luxuriosi hominis, sed tamen abundantis. Horum paucis diebus nihil erat. quae Charybdis tam vorax?\n\nSECTION 67\nCharybdin dico? quae si fuit, animal unum fuit: Oceanus, me dius fidius, vix videtur tot res tam dissipatas, tam distantibus in locis positas tam cito absorbere potuisse. nihil erat clausum, nihil obsignatum, nihil scriptum. apothecae totae nequissimis hominibus condonabantur; alia mimi rapiebant, alia mimae; domus erat aleatoribus referta, plena ebriorum; totos dies potabatur atque id locis pluribus; suggerebantur etiam saepe—non enim semper iste felix—damna aleatoria; conchyliatis Cn. Pompei peristromatis servorum in cellis lectos stratos videres. quam ob rem desinite mirari haec tam celeriter esse consumpta. non modo unius patrimonium quamvis amplum, ut illud fuit, sed urbis et regna celeriter tanta nequitia devorare potuisset. at idem aedis etiam et hortos.\n\n### Chapter 28\n\nSECTION 68\nO audaciam immanem! tu etiam ingredi illam domum ausus es, tu illud sanctissimum limen intrare, tu illarum aedium dis penatibus os impurissimum ostendere? quam domum aliquamdiu nemo aspicere poterat, nemo sine lacrimis praeterire, hac te in domo tam diu deversari non pudet? in qua, quamvis nihil sapias, tamen nihil tibi potest esse iucundum. an tu illa in vestibulo rostra cum aspexisti, domum tuam te introire putas? fieri non potest. quamvis enim sine mente, sine sensu sis, ut es, tamen et te et tua et tuos nosti. nec vero te umquam neque vigilantem neque in somnis credo posse mente consistere. necesse est, quamvis sis, ut es, violentus et furens, cum tibi obiecta sit species singularis viri, perterritum te de somno excitari, furere etiam saepe vigilantem.\n\nSECTION 69\nme quidem miseret parietum ipsorum atque tectorum. quid enim umquam domus illa viderat nisi pudicum, quid nisi ex optimo more et sanctissima disciplina? fuit enim ille vir, patres conscripti, sicuti scitis, cum foris clarus tum domi admirandus, neque rebus externis magis laudandus quam institutis domesticis. huius in sedibus pro cubiculis stabula, pro conclavibus popinae sunt. etsi iam negat. nolite quaerere; frugi factus est: illam suam suas res sibi habere iussit, ex duodecim tabulis clavis ademit, exegit. quam porro spectatus civis, quam probatus! cuius ex omni vita nihil est honestius quam quod cum mima fecit divortium.\n\nSECTION 70\nat quam crebro usurpat: ‘et consul et Antonius!’ hoc est dicere, et consul et impudicissimus, et consul et homo nequissimus. quid est enim aliud Antonius? nam si dignitas significaretur in nomine, dixisset, credo, aliquando avus tuus se et consulem et Antonium. numquam dixit. dixisset etiam conlega meus, patruus tuus, nisi si tu es solus Antonius. sed omitto ea peccata quae non sunt earum partium propria quibus tu rem publicam vexavisti: ad ipsas tuas partis redeo, id est ad civile bellum, quod natum, conflatum, susceptum opera tua est.\n\n### Chapter 29\n\nSECTION 71\ncui bello cum propter timiditatem tuam tum propter libidines defuisti. gustaras civilem sanguinem vel potius exsorbueras; fueras in acie Pharsalica antesignanus; L. Domitium, clarissimum et nobilissimum virum, occideras multosque praeterea qui e proelio effugerant, quos Caesar, ut non nullos, fortasse servasset, crudelissime persecutus trucidaras. quibus rebus tantis talibus gestis quid fuit causae cur in Africam Caesarem non sequerere, cum praesertim belli pars tanta restaret? itaque quem locum apud ipsum Caesarem post eius ex Africa reditum obtinuisti? quo numero fuisti? cuius tu imperatoris quaestor fueras, dictatoris magister equitum, belli princeps, crudelitatis auctor, praedae socius, testamento, ut dicebas ipse, filius, appellatus es de pecunia quam pro domo, pro hortis, pro sectione debebas.\n\nSECTION 72\nprimo respondisti plane ferociter et, ne omnia videar contra te, prope modum aequa et iusta dicebas: ‘A me C. Caesar pecuniam? cur potius quam ego ab illo? an sine me ille vicit? at ne potuit quidem. ego ad illum belli civilis causam attuli; ego leges perniciosas rogavi; ego arma contra consules imperatoresque populi Romani, contra senatum populumque Romanum, contra deos patrios arasque et focos, contra patriam tuli. num sibi soli vicit? quorum facinus est commune, cur non sit eorum praeda communis?’ ius postulabas, sed quid ad rem?\n\nSECTION 73\nplus ille poterat. itaque excussis tuis vocibus et ad te et ad praedes tuos milites misit, cum repente a te praeclara illa tabula prolata est. qui risus hominum, tantam esse tabulam, tam varias, tam multas possessiones, ex quibus praeter partem Miseni nihil erat quod is qui auctionaretur posset suum dicere. auctionis vero miserabilis aspectus: vestis Pompei non multa eaque maculosa; eiusdem quaedam argentea vasa conlisa, sordidata mancipia, ut doleremus quicquam esse ex illis reliquiis quod videre possemus.\n\nSECTION 74\nhanc tamen auctionem heredes L. Rubri decreto Caesaris prohibuerunt. haerebat nebulo: quo se verteret non habebat. quin his ipsis temporibus domi Caesaris percussor ab isto missus deprehensus dicebatur esse cum sica: de quo Caesar in senatu aperte in te invehens questus est. proficiscitur in Hispaniam Caesar paucis tibi ad solvendum propter inopiam tuam prorogatis diebus. ne tum quidem sequeris. tam bonus gladiator rudem tam cito? hunc igitur quisquam qui in suis partibus, id est in suis fortunis, tam timidus fuerit pertimescat.\n\n### Chapter 30\n\nSECTION 75\nprofectus est aliquando tandem in Hispaniam; sed tuto, ut ait, pervenire non potuit. quonam modo igitur Dolabella pervenit? aut non suscipienda fuit ista causa, Antoni, aut, cum suscepisses, defendenda usque ad extremum. ter depugnavit Caesar cum civibus, in Thessalia, Africa, Hispania. omnibus adfuit his pugnis Dolabella; in Hispaniensi etiam volnus accepit. si de meo iudicio quaeris, nollem; sed tamen consilium a primo reprehendendum, laudanda constantia. tu vero quid es? Cn. Pompei liberi tum primum patriam repetebant. esto, fuerit haec partium causa communis. repetebant praeterea deos patrios, aras, focos, larem suum familiarem, in quae tu invaseras. haec cum peterent armis ei quorum erant legibus—etsi in rebus iniquissimis quid potest esse aequi?—tamen quem erat aequissimum contra Cn. Pompei liberos pugnare? quem? te sectorem.\n\nSECTION 76\nan ut tu Narbone mensas hospitum convomeres Dolabella pro te in Hispania dimicaret?\n\nqui vero Narbone reditus! etiam quaerebat cur ego ex ipso cursu tam subito revertissem. exposui nuper, patres conscripti, causam reditus mei. volui, si possem, etiam ante Kalendas Ianuarias prodesse rei publicae. nam, quod quaerebas quo modo redissem, primum luce, non tenebris; deinde cum calceis et toga, nullis nec Gallicis nec lacerna. at etiam aspicis me et quidem, ut videris, iratus. ne tu iam mecum in gratiam redeas, si scias quam me pudeat nequitiae tuae, cuius te ipsum non pudet. ex omnium omnibus flagitiis nullum turpius vidi, nullum audivi. qui magister equitum fuisse tibi viderere, in proximum annum consulatum peteres vel potius rogares, per municipia coloniasque Galliae, a qua nos tum cum consulatus petebatur, non rogabatur, petere consulatum solebamus, cum Gallicis et lacerna cucurristi.\n\n### Chapter 31\n\nSECTION 77\nat videte levitatem hominis. cum hora diei decima fere ad Saxa rubra venisset, delituit in quadam cauponula atque ibi se occultans perpotavit ad vesperum; inde cisio celeriter ad urbem advectus domum venit capite involuto. ianitor, ‘quis tu?’ ‘A Marco tabellarius.’ confestim ad eam deducitur cuius causa venerat, eique epistulam tradidit. quam cum illa legeret flens—erat enim scripta amatorie; caput autem litterarum sibi cum illa mima posthac nihil futurum; omnem se amorem abiecisse illim atque in hanc transfudisse—cum mulier fleret uberius, homo misericors ferre non potuit, caput aperuit, in collum invasit. O hominem nequam! quid enim aliud dicam? magis proprie nihil possum dicere. ergo, ut te catamitum, nec opinato cum te ostendisses, praeter spem mulier aspiceret, idcirco urbem terrore nocturno, Italiam multorum dierum metu perturbasti?\n\n### Chapter 32\n\nSECTION 78\net domi quidem causam amoris habuisti, foris etiam turpiorem ne L. Plancus praedes tuos venderet. productus autem in contionem a tribuno plebis cum respondisses te rei tuae causa venisse, populum etiam dicacem in te reddidisti. sed nimis multa de nugis: ad maiora veniamus.\n\nC. Caesari ex Hispania redeunti obviam longissime processisti. celeriter isti, redisti, ut cognosceret te si minus fortem, at tamen strenuum. factus es ei rursus nescio quo modo familiaris. habebat hoc omnino Caesar: quem plane perditum aere alieno egentemque, si eundem nequam hominem audacemque cognorat, hunc in familiaritatem libentissime recipiebat.\n\nSECTION 79\nhis igitur rebus praeclare commendatus iussus es renuntiari consul et quidem cum ipso. nihil queror de Dolabella qui tum est impulsus, inductus, elusus. qua in re quanta fuerit uterque vestrum perfidia in Dolabellam quis ignorat? ille induxit ut peteret, promissum et receptum intervertit ad seque transtulit; tu eius perfidiae voluntatem tuam ascripsisti. veniunt Kalendae Ianuariae; cogimur in senatum: invectus est copiosius multo in istum et paratius Dolabella quam nunc ego.\n\nSECTION 80\nhic autem iratus quae dixit, di boni! primum cum Caesar ostendisset se, prius quam proficisceretur, Dolabellam consulem esse iussurum—quem negant regem, qui et faceret semper eius modi aliquid et diceret—sed cum Caesar ita dixisset, tum hic bonus augur eo se sacerdotio praeditum esse dixit ut comitia auspiciis vel impedire vel vitiare posset, idque se facturum esse adseveravit. in quo primum incredibilem stupiditatem hominis cognoscite.\n\nSECTION 81\nquid enim? istud quod te sacerdoti iure facere posse dixisti, si augur non esses et consul esses, minus facere potuisses? vide ne etiam facilius. nos enim nuntiationem solum habemus, consules et reliqui magistratus etiam spectionem. esto: hoc imperite; nec enim est ab homine numquam sobrio postulanda prudentia, sed videte impudentiam. multis ante mensibus in senatu dixit se Dolabellae comitia aut prohibiturum auspiciis aut id facturum esse quod fecit. quisquamne divinare potest quid viti in auspiciis futurum sit, nisi qui de caelo servare constituit? quod neque licet comitiis per leges et si qui servavit non comitiis habitis, sed prius quam habeantur, debet nuntiare. verum implicata inscientia impudentia est: nec scit quod augurem nec facit quod pudentem decet.\n\n### Chapter 33\n\nSECTION 82\natque ex illo die recordamini eius usque ad Idus Martias consulatum. quis umquam apparitor tam humilis, tam abiectus? nihil ipse poterat; omnia rogabat; caput in aversam lecticam inserens, beneficia quae venderet a conlega petebat. ecce Dolabellae comitiorum dies. sortitio praerogativae; quiescit. renuntiatur: tacet. prima classis vocatur, deinde ita ut adsolet suffragia, tum secunda classis, quae omnia sunt citius facta quam dixi.\n\nSECTION 83\nconfecto negotio bonus augur—C. Laelium diceres—‘Alio die’ inquit. O impudentiam singularem! quid videras, quid senseras, quid audieras? neque enim te de caelo servasse dixisti nec hodie dicis. id igitur obvenit vitium quod tu iam Kalendis Ianuariis futurum esse provideras et tanto ante praedixeras. ergo hercule magna, ut spero, tua potius quam rei publicae calamitate ementitus es auspicia; obstrinxisti religione populum Romanum; augur auguri, consul consuli obnuntiasti. nolo plura, ne acta Dolabellae videar convellere, quae necesse est aliquando ad nostrum conlegium deferantur. sed adrogantiam hominis insolentiamque cognoscite.\n\n### Chapter 34\n\nSECTION 84\nquam diu tu voles, vitiosus consul Dolabella; rursus, cum voles, salvis auspiciis creatus. si nihil est, cum augur eis verbis nuntiat, quibus tu nuntiasti, confitere te, cum ‘Alio die’ dixeris, sobrium non fuisse; sin est aliqua vis in istis verbis, ea quae sit augur a conlega requiro.\n\nsed ne forte ex multis rebus gestis M. Antoni rem unam pulcherrimam transiliat oratio, ad Lupercalia veniamus. non dissimulat, patres conscripti: apparet esse commotum; sudat, pallet. Quidlibet, modo ne nauseet, faciat quod in porticu Minucia fecit. quae potest esse turpitudinis tantae defensio? cupio audire, ut videam ubi rhetoris sit tanta merces, ubi campus Leontinus appareat.\n\nSECTION 85\nsedebat in rostris conlega tuus amictus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus. escendis, accedis ad sellam—ita eras Lupercus ut te consulem esse meminisse deberes—diadema ostendis. gemitus toto foro. Vnde diadema? non enim abiectum sustuleras, sed attuleras domo meditatum et cogitatum scelus. tu diadema imponebas cum plangore populi; ille cum plausu reiciebat. tu ergo unus, scelerate, inventus es qui cum auctor regni esses, eumque quem conlegam habebas dominum habere velles, idem temptares quid populus Romanus ferre et pati posset.\n\nSECTION 86\nat etiam misericordiam captabas: supplex te ad pedes abiciebas. quid petens? ut servires? tibi uni peteres qui ita a puero vixeras ut omnia paterere, ut facile servires; a nobis populoque Romano mandatum id certe non habebas. O praeclaram illam eloquentiam tuam, cum es nudus contionatus! quid hoc turpius, quid foedius, quid suppliciis omnibus dignius? num exspectas dum te stimulis fodiamus? haec te, si ullam partem habes sensus, lacerat, haec cruentat oratio. vereor ne imminuam summorum virorum gloriam; dicam tamen dolore commotus. quid indignius quam vivere eum qui imposuerit diadema, cum omnes fateantur iure interfectum esse qui abiecerit?\n\nSECTION 87\nat etiam ascribi iussit in fastis ad Lupercalia: C. Caesari, dictatori perpetuo, M. Antonium consulem populi iussu regnum detulisse; Caesarem uti noluisse. iam iam minime miror te otium perturbare; non modo urbem odisse sed etiam lucem; cum perditissimis latronibus non solum de die sed etiam in diem bibere. Vbi enim tu in pace consistes? qui locus tibi in legibus et in iudiciis esse potest, quae tu, quantum in te fuit, dominatu regio sustulisti? ideone L. Tarquinius exactus, Sp. Cassius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius necati ut multis post saeculis a M. Antonio, quod fas non est, rex Romae constitueretur?\n\n### Chapter 35\n\nSECTION 88\nsed ad auspicia redeamus, de quibus Idibus Martiis fuit in senatu Caesar acturus. quaero: tum tu quid egisses? audiebam equidem te paratum venisse, quod me de ementitis auspiciis, quibus tamen parere necesse erat, putares esse dicturum. sustulit illum diem fortuna rei publicae. num etiam tuum de auspiciis iudicium interitus Caesaris sustulit? sed incidi in id tempus quod eis rebus in quas ingressa erat oratio praevertendum est. quae tua fuga, quae formido praeclaro illo die, quae propter conscientiam scelerum desperatio vitae, cum ex illa fuga beneficio eorum qui te, si sanus esses, salvum esse voluerunt, clam te domum recepisti!\n\nSECTION 89\nO mea frustra semper verissima auguria rerum futurarum! dicebam illis in Capitolio liberatoribus nostris, cum me ad te ire vellent, ut ad defendendam rem publicam te adhortarer, quoad metueres, omnia te promissurum; simul ac timere desisses, similem te futurum tui. itaque cum ceteri consulares irent, redirent, in sententia mansi: neque te illo die neque postero vidi neque ullam societatem optimis civibus cum importunissimo hoste foedere ullo confirmari posse credidi. post diem tertium veni in aedem telluris et quidem invitus, cum omnis aditus armati obsiderent.\n\n### Chapter 36\n\nSECTION 90\nqui tibi dies ille, Antoni, fuit? quamquam mihi inimicus subito exstitisti, tamen me tui miseret quod tibi invideris. qui tu vir, di immortales, et quantus fuisses, si illius diei mentem servare potuisses! pacem haberemus, quae erat facta per obsidem puerum nobilem, M. Bambalionis nepotem. quamquam bonum te timor faciebat, non diuturnus magister offici, improbum fecit ea quae, dum timor abest, a te non discedit, audacia. etsi tum, cum optimum te putabant me quidem dissentiente, funeri tyranni, si illud funus fuit, sceleratissime praefuisti.\n\nSECTION 91\ntua illa pulchra laudatio, tua miseratio, tua cohortatio; tu, tu, inquam, illas faces incendisti, et eas quibus semustilatus ille est et eas quibus incensa L. Bellieni domus deflagravit. tu illos impetus perditorum hominum et ex maxima parte servorum quos nos vi manuque reppulimus in nostras domos immisisti. idem tamen quasi fuligine abstersa reliquis diebus in Capitolio praeclara senatus consulta fecisti, ne qua post Idus Martias immunitatis tabula neve cuius benefici figeretur. meministi ipse de exsulibus, scis de immunitate quid dixeris. optimum vero quod dictaturae nomen in perpetuum de re publica sustulisti: quo quidem facto tantum te cepisse odium regni videbatur ut eius omnem propter proximum dictatorem metum tolleres. constituta res publica videbatur aliis,\n\nSECTION 92\nmihi vero nullo modo, qui omnia te gubernante naufragia metuebam. num igitur me fefellit, aut num diutius sui potuit esse dissimilis? inspectantibus vobis toto Capitolio tabulae figebantur, neque solum singulis venibant immunitates sed etiam populis universis: civitas non iam singillatim, sed provinciis totis dabatur. itaque si haec manent quae stante re publica manere non possunt, provincias universas, patres conscripti, perdidistis, neque vectigalia solum sed etiam imperium populi Romani huius domesticis nundinis deminutum est.\n\n### Chapter 37\n\nSECTION 93\nVbi est septiens miliens quod est in tabulis quae sunt ad Opis? funestae illius quidem pecuniae, sed tamen quae nos, si eis quorum erat non redderetur, a tributis posset vindicare. tu autem quadringentiens sestertium quod Idibus Martiis debuisti quonam modo ante Kalendas Aprilis debere desisti? sunt ea quidem innumerabilia quae a tuis emebantur non insciente te, sed unum egregium de rege Deiotaro, populi Romani amicissimo, decretum in Capitolio fixum: quo proposito nemo erat qui in ipso dolore risum posset continere.\n\nSECTION 94\nquis enim cuiquam inimicior quam Deiotaro Caesar? aeque atque huic ordini, ut equestri, ut Massiliensibus, ut omnibus quibus rem publicam populi Romani caram esse sentiebat. igitur a quo vivo nec praesens nec absens rex Deiotarus quicquam aequi boni impetravit, apud mortuum factus est gratiosus. compellarat hospitem praesens, computarat pecuniam, in eius tetrarchia unum ex Graecis comitibus suis conlocarat, Armeniam abstulerat a senatu datam. haec vivus eripuit, reddit mortuus.\n\nSECTION 95\nat quibus verbis? modo aequum sibi videri, modo non iniquum. mira verborum complexio! at ille numquam—semper enim absenti adfui Deiotaro— quicquam sibi quod nos pro illo postularemus aequum dixit videri. syngrapha sesterti centiens per legatos, viros bonos, sed timidos et imperitos, sine nostra, sine reliquorum hospitum regis sententia facta in gynaecio est, quo in loco plurimae res venierunt et veneunt. qua ex syngrapha quid sis acturus meditere censeo: rex enim ipse sua sponte, nullis commentariis Caesaris, simul atque audivit eius interitum, suo Marte res suas recuperavit.\n\nSECTION 96\nsciebat homo sapiens ius semper hoc fuisse ut, quae tyranni eripuissent, ea tyrannis interfectis ei quibus erepta essent recuperarent. nemo igitur iure consultus, ne iste quidem, qui tibi uni est iure consultus, per quem haec agis, ex ista syngrapha deberi dicet pro eis rebus quae erant ante syngrapham recuperatae. non enim a te emit, sed prius quam tu suum sibi venderes ipse possedit. ille vir fuit; nos quidem contemnendi qui auctorem odimus, acta defendimus.\n\n### Chapter 38\n\nSECTION 97\nquid ego de commentariis infinitis, quid de innumerabilibus chirographis loquar? quorum etiam institores sunt qui ea tamquam gladiatorum libellos palam venditent. itaque tanti acervi nummorum apud istum construuntur ut iam expendantur, non numerentur pecuniae. at quam caeca avaritia est! nuper fixa tabula est qua civitates locupletissimae Cretensium vectigalibus liberantur, statuiturque ne post M. Brutum pro consule sit Creta provincia. tu mentis compos, tu non constringendus? an Caesaris decreto Creta post M. Bruti decessum potuit liberari, cum Creta nihil ad Brutum Caesare vivo pertineret? at huius venditione decreti—ne nihil actum putetis—provinciam Cretam perdidistis. omnino nemo ullius rei fuit emptor cui defuerit hic venditor.\n\nSECTION 98\net de exsulibus legem quam fixisti Caesar tulit? nullius insector calamitatem: tantum queror, primum eorum reditus inquinatos quorum causam Caesar dissimilem iudicarit; deinde nescio cur non reliquis idem tribuas: neque enim plus quam tres aut quattuor reliqui sunt. qui simili in calamitate sunt, cur tua misericordia non simili fruuntur, cur eos habes in loco patrui? de quo ferre, cum de reliquis ferres, noluisti: quem etiam ad censuram petendam impulisti, eamque petitionem comparasti quae et risus hominum et querelas moveret. cur autem ea comitia non habuisti?\n\nSECTION 99\nan quia tribunus plebis sinistrum fulmen nuntiabat? cum tua quid interest, nulla auspicia sunt; cum tuorum, tum fis religiosus. quid? eundem in vii viratu nonne destituisti? intervenit enim cui metuisti, credo, ne salvo capite negare non posses. omnibus eum contumeliis onerasti quem patris loco, si ulla in te pietas esset, colere debebas. filiam eius, sororem tuam, eiecisti, alia condicione quaesita et ante perspecta. non est satis: probri insimulasti pudicissimam feminam. quid est quod addi possit? contentus eo non fuisti: frequentissimo senatu Kalendis Ianuariis sedente patruo hanc tibi esse cum Dolabella causam odi dicere ausus es quod ab eo sorori et uxori tuae stuprum esse oblatum comperisses. quis interpretari potest, impudentiorne qui in senatu, an improbior qui in Dolabellam, an impurior qui patre audiente, an crudelior qui in illam miseram tam spurce, tam impie dixeris.\n\n### Chapter 39\n\nSECTION 100\nsed ad chirographa redeamus. quae tua fuit cognitio? Acta enim Caesaris pacis causa confirmata sunt a senatu: quae quidem Caesar egisset, non ea quae egisse Caesarem dixisset Antonius. Vnde ista erumpunt, quo auctore proferuntur? si sunt falsa, cur probantur? si vera, cur veneunt? at sic placuerat ut ex Kalendis Iuniis de Caesaris actis cum consilio cognosceretis. quod fuit consilium, quem umquam convocasti, quas Kalendas Iunias exspectasti? an eas ad quas te peragratis veteranorum coloniis stipatum armis rettulisti?\n\nO praeclaram illam percursationem tuam mense Aprili atque Maio, tum cum etiam Capuam coloniam deducere conatus es! quem ad modum illinc abieris vel potius paene non abieris scimus.\n\nSECTION 101\ncui tu urbi minitaris. Vtinam conere, ut aliquando illud ‘paene’ tollatur! at quam nobilis est tua illa peregrinatio! quid prandiorum apparatus, quid furiosam vinolentiam tuam proferam? tua ista detrimenta sunt, illa nostra: agrum Campanum, qui cum de vectigalibus eximebatur ut militibus daretur, tamen infligi magnum rei publicae volnus putabamus, hunc tu compransoribus tuis et conlusoribus dividebas. mimos dico et mimas, patres conscripti, in agro Campano conlocatos. quid iam querar de agro Leontino? quoniam quidem hae quondam arationes Campana et Leontina in populi Romani patrimonio grandiferae et fructuosae ferebantur. Medico tria milia iugerum: quid, si te sanasset? rhetori duo: quid, si te disertum facere potuisset.\n\n### Chapter 40\n\nSECTION 102\nsed ad iter Italiamque redeamus. deduxisti coloniam Casilinum, quo Caesar ante deduxerat. consuluisti me per litteras de Capua tu quidem, sed idem de Casilino respondissem: possesne ubi colonia esset, eo coloniam novam iure deducere. negavi in eam coloniam quae esset auspicato deducta, dum esset incolumis, coloniam novam iure deduci: colonos novos ascribi posse rescripsi. tu autem insolentia elatus omni auspiciorum iure turbato Casilinum coloniam deduxisti, quo erat paucis annis ante deducta, ut vexillum tolleres, ut aratrum circumduceres; cuius quidem vomere portam Capuae paene perstrinxisti, ut florentis coloniae territorium minueretur.\n\nSECTION 103\nab hac perturbatione religionum advolas in M. Varronis, sanctissimi atque integerrimi viri, fundum Casinatem. quo iure, quo ore? ‘eodem,’ inquies ‘quo in heredum L. Rubri, quo in heredum L. Turseli praedia, quo in reliquas innumerabilis possessiones.’ et si ab hasta, valeat hasta, valeant tabulae, modo Caesaris, non tuae, quibus debuisti, non quibus tu te liberavisti. Varronis quidem Casinatem fundum quis venisse dicit, quis hastam istius venditionis vidit, quis vocem praeconis audivit? misisse te dicis Alexandream qui emeret a Caesare; ipsum enim exspectare magnum fuit.\n\n### Chapter 41\n\nSECTION 104\nquis vero audivit umquam—nullius autem salus curae pluribus fuit— de fortunis Varronis rem ullam esse detractam? quid? si etiam scripsit ad te Caesar ut redderes, quid satis potest dici de tanta impudentia? Remove gladios parumper illos quos videmus: iam intelleges aliam causam esse hastae Caesaris, aliam confidentiae et temeritatis tuae. non enim te dominus modo illis sedibus sed quivis amicus, vicinus, hospes, procurator arcebit. at quam multos dies in ea villa turpissime es perbacchatus! ab hora tertia bibebatur, ludebatur, vomebatur. O tecta ipsa misera, ‘quam dispari domino’—quamquam quo modo iste dominus—sed tamen quam ab dispari tenebantur! studiorum enim suorum M. Varro voluit illud, non libidinum deversorium.\n\nSECTION 105\nquae in illa villa antea dicebantur, quae cogitabantur, quae litteris mandabantur! iura populi Romani, monumenta maiorum, omnis sapientiae ratio omnisque doctrinae. at vero te inquilino —non enim domino—personabant omnia vocibus ebriorum, natabant pavimenta vino, madebant parietes, ingenui pueri cum meritoriis, scorta inter matres familias versabantur. Casino salutatum veniebant, Aquino, Interamna: admissus est nemo. iure id quidem; in homine enim turpissimo obsolefiebant dignitatis insignia.\n\nSECTION 106\ncum inde Romam proficiscens ad Aquinum accederet, obviam ei processit, ut est frequens municipium, magna sane multitudo. at iste operta lectica latus per oppidum est ut mortuus. stulte Aquinates: sed tamen in via habitabant. quid Anagnini? qui, cum essent devii, descenderunt ut istum, tamquam si esset consul, salutarent. incredibile dictu, sed inter omnis constabat neminem esse resalutatum, praesertim cum duos secum Anagninos haberet, mustelam et Laconem, quorum alter gladiorum est princeps, alter poculorum.\n\n### Chapter 42\n\nSECTION 107\nquid ego illas istius minas contumeliasque commemorem quibus invectus est in Sidicinos, vexavit Puteolanos, quod C. Cassium et Brutos patronos adoptassent? Magno quidem studio, iudicio, benevolentia, caritate, non, ut te et Basilum, vi et armis, et alios vestri similis quos clientis nemo habere velit, non modo illorum cliens esse. interea dum tu abes, qui dies ille conlegae tui fuit, cum illud quod venerari solebas bustum in foro evertit? qua re tibi nuntiata, ut constabat inter eos qui una fuerunt concidisti. quid evenerit postea nescio—metum credo valuisse et arma—conlegam quidem de caelo detraxisti effecistique non tu quidem etiam nunc ut similis tui, sed certe ut dissimilis esset sui.\n\nSECTION 108\nqui vero inde reditus Romam, quae perturbatio totius urbis! memineramus Cinnam nimis potentem, Sullam postea dominantem, modo Caesarem regnantem videramus. erant fortasse gladii, sed absconditi nec ita multi. ista vero quae et quanta barbaria est! agmine quadrato cum gladiis sequuntur; scutorum lecticas portari videmus. atque his quidem iam inveteratis, patres conscripti, consuetudine obduruimus. Kalendis Iuniis cum in senatum, ut erat constitutum, venire vellemus, metu perterriti repente diffugimus.\n\nSECTION 109\nat iste, qui senatu non egeret, neque desideravit quemquam et potius discessu nostro laetatus est statimque illa mirabilia facinora effecit. qui chirographa Caesaris defendisset lucri sui causa, is leges Caesaris easque praeclaras, ut rem publicam concutere posset, evertit. numerum annorum provinciis prorogavit; idemque, cum actorum Caesaris defensor esse deberet, et in publicis et in privatis rebus acta Caesaris rescidit. in publicis nihil est lege gravius; in privatis firmissimum est testamentum. leges alias sine promulgatione sustulit, alias ut tolleret promulgavit. testamentum inritum fecit, quod etiam infimis civibus semper obtentum est. signa, tabulas, quas populo Caesar una cum hortis legavit, eas hic partim in hortos Pompei deportavit, partim in villam Scipionis.\n\n### Chapter 43\n\nSECTION 110\net tu in Caesaris memoria diligens, tu illum amas mortuum? quem is honorem maiorem consecutus erat quam ut haberet pulvinar, simulacrum, fastigium, flaminem? est ergo flamen, ut Iovi, ut Marti, ut Quirino, sic divo Iulio M. Antonius? quid igitur cessas? cur non inauguraris? sume diem, vide qui te inauguret: conlegae sumus; nemo negabit. O detestabilem hominem, sive quod tyranni sacerdos es sive quod mortui! quaero deinceps num hodiernus dies qui sit ignores? nescis heri quartum in circo diem ludorum Romanorum fuisse? te autem ipsum ad populum tulisse ut quintus praeterea dies Caesari tribueretur? cur non sumus praetextati? cur honorem Caesaris tua lege datum deseri patimur? an supplicationes addendo diem contaminari passus es, pulvinaria noluisti? aut undique religionem tolle aut usque quaque conserva.\n\nSECTION 111\nquaeris placeatne mihi pulvinar esse, fastigium, flaminem. mihi vero nihil istorum placet: sed tu qui acta Caesaris defendis quid potes dicere cur alia defendas, alia non cures? Nisi forte vis fateri te omnia quaestu tuo, non illius dignitate metiri. quid ad haec tandem? exspecto enim eloquentiam. disertissimum cognovi avum tuum, at te etiam apertiorem in dicendo. ille numquam nudus est contionatus: tuum hominis simplicis pectus vidimus. respondebisne ad haec, aut omnino hiscere audebis? ecquid reperies ex tam longa oratione mea cui te respondere posse confidas? sed praeterita omittamus.\n\n### Chapter 44\n\nSECTION 112\nhunc unum diem, unum, inquam, hodiernum diem, hoc punctum temporis, quo loquor, defende, si potes. cur armatorum corona senatus saeptus est, cur me tui satellites cum gladiis audiunt, cur valvae Concordiae non patent, cur homines omnium gentium maxime barbaros, Ituraeos, cum sagittis deducis in forum? praesidi sui causa se facere dicit. non igitur miliens perire est melius quam in sua civitate sine armatorum praesidio non posse vivere? sed nullum est istuc, mihi crede, praesidium: caritate te et benevolentia civium saeptum oportet esse, non armis.\n\nSECTION 113\neripiet et extorquebit tibi ista populus Romanus, utinam salvis nobis! sed quoquo modo nobiscum egeris, dum istis consiliis uteris, non potes, mihi crede, esse diuturnus. etenim ista tua minime avara coniunx quam ego sine contumelia describo nimium diu debet populo Romano tertiam pensionem. habet populus Romanus ad quos gubernacula rei publicae deferat: qui ubicumque terrarum sunt, ibi omne est rei publicae praesidium vel potius ipsa res publica, quae se adhuc tantum modo ulta est, nondum recuperavit. habet quidem certe res publica adulescentis nobilissimos paratos defensores. quam volent illi cedant otio consulentes; tamen a re publica revocabuntur. et nomen pacis dulce est et ipsa res salutaris; sed inter pacem et servitutem plurimum interest. pax est tranquilla libertas, servitus postremum malorum omnium, non modo bello sed morte etiam repellendum.\n\nSECTION 114\nquod si se ipsos illi nostri liberatores e conspectu nostro abstulerunt, at exemplum facti reliquerunt. illi quod nemo fecerat fecerunt. Tarquinium Brutus bello est persecutus, qui tum rex fuit cum esse Romae licebat; Sp. Cassius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius propter suspicionem regni appetendi sunt necati: hi primum cum gladiis non in regnum appetentem, sed in regnantem impetum fecerunt. quod cum ipsum factum per se praeclarum est atque divinum, tum expositum ad imitandum est, praesertim cum illi eam gloriam consecuti sint quae vix caelo capi posse videatur. etsi enim satis in ipsa conscientia pulcherrimi facti fructus erat, tamen mortali immortalitatem non arbitror contemnendam.\n\n### Chapter 45\n\nSECTION 115\nrecordare igitur illum, M. Antoni, diem quo dictaturam sustulisti; pone ante oculos laetitiam senatus populique Romani; confer cum hac nundinatione tua tuorumque: tum intelleges quantum inter laudem et lucrum intersit. sed nimirum, ut quidam morbo aliquo et sensus stupore suavitatem cibi non sentiunt, sic libidinosi, avari, facinerosi verae laudis gustatum non habent. sed si te laus adlicere ad recte faciendum non potest, ne metus quidem a foedissimis factis potest avocare? iudicia non metuis: si propter innocentiam, laudo; sin propter vim, non intellegis, qui isto modo iudicia non timeat, ei quid timendum sit?\n\nSECTION 116\nquod si non metuis viros fortis egregiosque civis, quod a corpore tuo prohibentur armis, tui te, mihi crede, diutius non ferent. quae est autem vita dies et noctes timere a suis? Nisi vero aut maioribus habes beneficiis obligatos quam ille quosdam habuit ex eis a quibus est interfectus, aut tu es ulla re cum eo comparandus. fuit in illo ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia; res bello gesserat, quamvis rei publicae calamitosas, at tamen magnas; multos annos regnare meditatus, magno labore, magnis periculis quod cogitarat effecerat; muneribus, monumentis, congiariis, epulis multitudinem imperitam delenierat; suos praemiis, adversarios clementiae specie devinxerat. quid multa? attulerat iam liberae civitati partim metu partim patientia consuetudinem serviendi.\n\n### Chapter 46\n\nSECTION 117\ncum illo ego te dominandi cupiditate conferre possum, ceteris vero rebus nullo modo comparandus es. sed ex plurimis malis quae ab illo rei publicae sunt inusta hoc tamen boni est quod didicit iam populus Romanus quantum cuique crederet, quibus se committeret, a quibus caveret. haec non cogitas, neque intellegis satis esse viris fortibus didicisse quam sit re pulchrum, beneficio gratum, fama gloriosum tyrannum occidere? an, cum illum homines non tulerint, te ferent?\n\nSECTION 118\ncertatim posthac, mihi crede, ad hoc opus curretur neque occasionis tarditas exspectabitur.\n\nrespice, quaeso, aliquando rem publicam, M. Antoni, quibus ortus sis, non quibuscum vivas considera: mecum, ut voles: redi cum re publica in gratiam. sed de te tu videris; ego de me ipse profitebor. defendi rem publicam adulescens, non deseram senex: contempsi Catilinae gladios, non pertimescam tuos.\n\nSECTION 119\nquin etiam corpus libenter obtulerim, si repraesentari morte mea libertas civitatis potest, ut aliquando dolor populi Romani pariat quod iam diu parturit! etenim si abhinc annos prope viginti hoc ipso in templo negavi posse mortem immaturam esse consulari, quanto verius nunc negabo seni? mihi vero, patres conscripti, iam etiam optanda mors est, perfuncto rebus eis quas adeptus sum quasque gessi. duo modo haec opto, unum ut moriens populum Romanum liberum relinquam—hoc mihi maius ab dis immortalibus dari nihil potest—alterum ut ita cuique eveniat ut de re publica quisque mereatur.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-philippic-2/original.txt"},"translations":[{"id":"trn_cicero_philippic_2_mouseia","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"curated","note":"Complete machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from the Latin in separate source-only tasks; all 46 chapters and 119 sections retained. Source-language model review is recorded with the raw witness. Latin transcription: Perseus Project, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0; this adaptation uses the same license.","text":"### Chapter 1\n\nSECTION 1\nWhat destiny of mine, senators, am I to blame for this: that in these twenty years no one has been an enemy of the republic without also declaring war on me? I need name no names. Recall them for yourselves. They have paid me a heavier penalty than I could have wished. What astonishes me, Antony, is that you imitate their deeds without shuddering at their ends. In the others, indeed, I found it less surprising. Not one became my enemy of his own choosing: I had challenged them all in the republic’s cause. But you, whom I had not injured even by a word, attacked me unprovoked with abuse, eager to appear more reckless than Catiline, more frenzied than Clodius. You thought that estrangement from me would recommend you to disloyal citizens.\n\nSECTION 2\nWhat am I to suppose? That he despised me? I see nothing in my life, my standing, my achievements, or even my modest abilities that Antony could look down on. Did he think the senate the easiest place to diminish my reputation? This body has testified that many distinguished citizens served the republic well, but that I alone saved it. Did he wish to meet me in a contest of eloquence? That, at least, is a kindness. What richer, more abundant theme could I have than to speak for myself and against Antony? No, this must be it: he thought his own kind would never believe him an enemy of his country unless he made himself my enemy too.\n\n### Chapter 2\n\nSECTION 3\nBefore answering him on other matters, I shall say a few words about the friendship he accuses me of violating—an accusation I consider most serious.\n\nHe complained that at some time or other I had appeared against his interests. Was I not to oppose a stranger on behalf of a close and intimate friend? Was I not to oppose influence gathered through youthful beauty, not the promise of merit? Was I not to oppose an injustice he secured through the favor of a thoroughly unjust man who intervened for him, not through a praetor’s lawful judgment? But I suppose you recalled this to recommend yourself to the lowest order, reminding everyone that you had been a freedman’s son-in-law and that your children had been the grandchildren of Quintus Fadius, a freedman. Yet you had entrusted yourself to my teaching—so you said—and had often visited my house. Had you done so, you would certainly have taken better care of your reputation and your chastity. But you never did; and even had you wished to, Gaius Curio would not have allowed it.\n\nSECTION 4\nYou said you had yielded your candidacy for the augurship to me. Incredible audacity! Impudence worth proclaiming! When the entire college wanted me as an augur, and Gnaeus Pompey and Quintus Hortensius nominated me—for no more than two could nominate a candidate—you could not pay your debts and saw no hope of survival unless the republic were overthrown. Could you have stood for the augurship then, when Curio was not in Italy? Or, when you were eventually elected, could you have carried a single tribe without Curio? Even his associates were convicted of violence for supporting you too enthusiastically.\n\n### Chapter 3\n\nSECTION 5\nBut I received a kindness from you. What kindness? I have always openly acknowledged the very thing you mention: I preferred to confess an obligation to you rather than appear insufficiently grateful to anyone whose judgment was less sound. But what was the kindness? That you did not kill me at Brundisium? The victor himself, who had made you chief among his brigands, as you used to boast, wanted me safe and ordered me to return to Italy. Would you have killed that man? Suppose you could have. What other kindness, senators, do brigands offer than the right to boast that they gave life to those from whom they did not take it? If that were a kindness, the men who killed the man who had spared them—men you yourself habitually call most illustrious—would never have won such glory. And what sort of kindness is it to have refrained from an abominable crime? I ought to have felt less pleasure that you had not murdered me than misery that you could have done so with impunity.\n\nSECTION 6\nStill, let it count as a kindness, since no greater could have been received from a brigand. Where, then, can you call me ungrateful? Was I not to lament the republic’s destruction, lest I seem ungrateful to you? Yet in that lament, sorrowful and bitter, but necessary for a man in the position to which the senate and Roman people have raised me, what did I say that was insulting? What was not restrained? What was not friendly? What self-command it took to complain of Marcus Antony without abuse! Especially when you had scattered the republic’s remnants; when everything was for sale in the foul marketplace of your house; when you acknowledged laws as both concerning you and carried by you, though they had never been published beforehand; when, an augur, you had abolished the auspices, and, a consul, the right of veto; when armed men crowded disgustingly around you; when, worn out by wine and debauchery, you daily welcomed every impurity into your shameless home.\n\n### Chapter 4\n\nSECTION 7\nYet I spoke as though my opponent were Marcus Crassus, with whom I had many serious disputes, not a single utterly worthless gladiator: I lamented the republic gravely and said nothing against the man. Today, then, I shall make him understand how great a kindness he received from me on that occasion. He even read aloud a letter he claimed I had sent him—a man without civility or any understanding of life among others. Who with the slightest knowledge of decent society has ever brought out a friend’s private letter after some quarrel and read it publicly? What is that but to abolish the fellowship of life, to abolish the conversation of absent friends? How many jokes in letters would look foolish if published! How many serious matters belong there that must never be made public!\n\nSECTION 8\nCall that uncivilized. Now consider his unbelievable stupidity. What have you to bring against me, eloquent fellow—or so you seem, at least, to Seius Mustela and to Numisius Tiro? Since they are standing here now with swords in full view of the senate, I too shall think you eloquent if you show how you will defend them against a murder charge. But what, after all, could you bring against me if I denied ever sending you that letter? By what witness could you convict me? My handwriting? You have a profitable expertise in that. But how could you use it? The letter is in a secretary’s hand. I am already envious of your teacher, who is paid so much—as I shall shortly reveal—to teach you to understand nothing.\n\nSECTION 9\nWhat is less worthy, not merely of an orator but of a human being, than to charge an opponent with something when a bare denial leaves the accuser unable to go a step further? But I do not deny it. Indeed, the letter itself convicts you not only of incivility but of madness. What word in it is not full of courtesy, consideration and goodwill? Your whole accusation is that in this letter I do not think ill of you: that I write as to a citizen, as to an honorable man, not as to a criminal and a brigand. Yet I shall not publish your letter, though your provocation gives me every right to do so. In it you ask that, with my permission, you may bring someone back from exile; you swear you will not do so against my wishes; and you obtain my consent. Why should I have set myself against your recklessness, which neither this body’s authority, nor the Roman people’s judgment, nor any laws could restrain?\n\n### Chapter 5\n\nSECTION 10\nStill, why did you need to ask me, if the man you asked about had already been recalled under Caesar’s law? Apparently he wished to make it my favor, though, once the law was passed, it could not even be his own.\n\nBut since, senators, I must say something in my defense and much against Marcus Antony, I ask one thing of you: listen kindly when I speak for myself. The other I shall secure for myself: when I speak against him, you will listen closely. I also beg this: if you have known my restraint and moderation both throughout my life and in my speech, do not think that today, in answering the challenge he has thrown down, I have forgotten who I am. I shall not treat him as a consul: neither did he treat me as a former consul. Indeed, he is no consul at all, whether you consider how he lives, how he governs, or how he was elected. That I am a former consul is beyond dispute.\n\nSECTION 11\nTo show you what sort of consul he professed himself to be, he attacked my consulship. That consulship was mine in name, senators, but yours in reality. What did I resolve, accomplish or undertake except by this body’s counsel, authority and judgment? And you, wise man as well as eloquent, dared to criticize these deeds before the very men whose counsel and wisdom directed them? Who besides you and Publius Clodius has ever been found to condemn my consulship? His fate awaits you, as it awaited Gaius Curio: you have in your own home what proved fatal to them both.\n\nSECTION 12\nMarcus Antony disapproves of my consulship. But Publius Servilius approved it—to name first the most recently deceased of the former consuls of that time. Quintus Catulus approved it, whose authority will always live in this republic; so did both Luculluses, Marcus Crassus, Quintus Hortensius, Gaius Curio, Gaius Piso, Manius Glabrio, Manius Lepidus, Lucius Volcatius, Gaius Figulus, Decimus Silanus and Lucius Murena, who were then consuls-elect. Marcus Cato shared their approval; among the many things he foresaw as he left this life was the advantage of never seeing you consul. Above all, Gnaeus Pompey approved my consulship. When he first met me on his return from Syria, he embraced and congratulated me, saying that it was thanks to me that he would see his country again. But why name individuals? The senate, in its fullest attendance, approved it so completely that no one failed to thank me as a father, or to acknowledge that he owed me his life, his fortune, his children and the republic.\n\n### Chapter 6\n\nSECTION 13\nBut since the republic has been bereaved of the many great men I have named, let us turn to the living: the two former consuls who alone remain. Lucius Cotta, a man of the highest ability and judgment, proposed a public thanksgiving in the most generous terms for the very achievements you condemn. The former consuls I have just named, and the entire senate, assented. Since this city’s foundation, no civilian before me had received that honor.\n\nSECTION 14\nAnd Lucius Caesar, your uncle—with what eloquence, what firmness, what gravity he pronounced judgment on his sister’s husband, your stepfather! You ought to have made him the guide and teacher of all your counsels and your whole life; instead, you preferred to resemble your stepfather rather than your uncle. I, unrelated to him, followed his advice as consul. Have you, his sister’s son, ever consulted him at all about the republic? Whom, then, does he consult? Immortal gods! Men whose birthdays, apparently, we too must hear about. Antony has not come down to the Forum today.\n\n### Chapter 7\n\nSECTION 15\nWhy? He is giving a birthday feast in his gardens. For whom? I shall name no one. Imagine some Phormio, some Gnatho, even some Ballio. What disgraceful filth in a man! What unbearable shamelessness, worthlessness and lust! With a senator of the highest rank, an exceptional citizen, so closely related to you, do you consult him about nothing in public affairs, but consult men who have no property of their own and exhaust yours? Evidently your consulship saves the state, while mine destroyed it. Have you lost shame together with chastity so completely that you dared say this in the very temple where I consulted the senate that once, in its greatness, presided over the world, while you have stationed the most desperate men with swords?\n\nSECTION 16\nYou even dared—and what would you not dare?—to say that in my consulship the Capitoline slope was crowded with armed slaves. I was coercing the senate, I suppose, to obtain those wicked decrees! Wretched man: whether you know nothing of these events—for you know nothing good—or know them and still speak so shamelessly before such men! What Roman knight, what young noble except you, what person of any rank who remembered he was a citizen was not on the Capitoline slope while the senate met in this temple? Who did not enroll? Yet the clerks could not keep pace, nor could the registers hold their names.\n\nSECTION 17\nFor when criminals confessed their plot to murder their country—compelled by their accomplices’ testimony, by their own handwriting, by the almost speaking voice of their letters—to an agreement to burn the city, slaughter its citizens, devastate Italy and destroy the republic, who would not rise to defend the common safety? Especially when the senate and Roman people had a leader such as, if they had one now, would have brought the same fate upon you that befell those men. He says I refused him his stepfather’s body for burial. Not even Publius Clodius ever said that. Although I had good reason to be his enemy, I grieve that you have now surpassed him in every vice.\n\n### Chapter 8\n\nSECTION 18\nHow did it enter your head to remind us that you were brought up in Publius Lentulus’s house? Were you afraid we might think nature alone could have made you so wicked, without the help of training? So senseless were you that throughout your speech you contradicted yourself: not merely saying things that failed to fit together, but things utterly disconnected and opposed. Your quarrel was less with me than with yourself. You admitted your stepfather’s part in that enormous crime, yet complained that he was punished. Thus you praised what was mine alone and condemned what belonged entirely to the senate. The arrest of the guilty was my doing; their punishment was the senate’s. Our eloquent speaker does not understand that he praises the man he is attacking and condemns the men he is addressing.\n\nSECTION 19\nThen consider what audacity it took—I should not say audacity, for he likes to be called audacious, but stupidity, the quality he least wants named and in which he surpasses everyone—to mention the Capitoline slope while armed men move among our benches; while here, immortal gods, in this very sanctuary of Concord, where during my consulship the saving resolutions were pronounced that have kept us alive to this day, men stand posted with swords! Accuse the senate; accuse the equestrian order, which then stood united with it; accuse every rank, every citizen, provided you admit that this body is at this very moment hemmed in by Ituraeans. It is not daring that lets you speak with such shamelessness: you cannot see how completely the facts contradict you. You understand nothing at all. What could be madder than to take up arms yourself to ruin the republic and reproach another for taking them up to save it?\n\nSECTION 20\nAt one point you even tried to be witty. Good gods, how ill it suited you! And there you are not entirely blameless: you might have picked up a little wit from your mime-actress wife. “Let arms yield to the toga.” Well? Did they not yield then? But afterward the toga yielded to your arms. Let us ask which was better: that criminals’ weapons should yield to the Roman people’s liberty, or that our liberty should yield to your weapons. I shall answer no further about my verses. I shall say only this: you understand neither them nor literature of any kind. I have never failed the republic or my friends; yet in every kind of writing, by work done in spare hours, I have contrived that my sleepless labor and my books should bring some benefit to the young and some glory to the Roman name. But this is not the time for that. Let us turn to greater matters.\n\n### Chapter 9\n\nSECTION 21\nYou attributed Publius Clodius’s killing to my counsel. What would people have thought if he had been killed when you pursued him with a sword in the Forum before the Roman people’s eyes? You would have finished the business had he not flung himself up a bookseller’s stairs and blocked them to stop your attack. I confess I wished you success then; even you do not say I advised you. But with Milo I could not even have wished him success beforehand: he finished the business before anyone suspected he would attempt it. Yet I advised him, you say. As though Milo lacked the spirit to serve the republic without someone prompting him! But I rejoiced. Well? Amid the entire city’s rejoicing, was I alone supposed to mourn?\n\nSECTION 22\nThere was, however, an inquiry into Clodius’s death, though not a wisely constituted one. What need was there for a new law to investigate a man who had killed another, when existing laws already provided an inquiry? Still, an inquiry was held. And the charge no one brought against me while the case was being tried has waited all these years for you to bring it?\n\n### Chapter 10\n\nSECTION 23\nAs for what you dared to say at such length—that my efforts broke Pompey’s friendship with Caesar and that the civil war therefore began through my fault—your error lay not in the whole story, but in its most important element: the dates. During the consulship of Marcus Bibulus, an outstanding citizen, I left nothing undone, so far as effort and exertion could achieve it, to draw Pompey away from his alliance with Caesar. Caesar was more successful: he broke Pompey’s friendship with me. But once Pompey had surrendered himself wholly to Caesar, why should I have tried to tear him away? To hope for it would have been foolish; to urge it, presumptuous.\n\nSECTION 24\nThere were, however, two occasions when I urged Pompey to oppose Caesar. Condemn them if you can. First, I urged him not to extend Caesar’s command for five years; second, not to allow a measure permitting Caesar’s candidacy to be considered in his absence. Had I persuaded him of either, we would never have fallen into these miseries. And when Pompey had already transferred all his own power and the Roman people’s to Caesar, when he began too late to perceive what I had foreseen long before, and I saw an impious war being brought upon our country, I never ceased to urge peace, harmony and a settlement. Many know my words: “Gnaeus Pompey, if only you had either never entered an alliance with Gaius Caesar, or never broken it!” The first course would have shown your firmness, the second your prudence. Such, Marcus Antony, was always my counsel concerning Pompey and the republic. Had it prevailed, the republic would stand, and you would have fallen under the weight of your own disgraces, poverty and infamy.\n\n### Chapter 11\n\nSECTION 25\nBut those are old matters. Here is a recent one: Caesar was killed on my advice. I begin to fear, senators, the most shameful suspicion—that I have planted a collusive accuser to adorn me not merely with my own honors, but to heap upon me those belonging to others. Was my name ever heard among those who shared in that supremely glorious act? And whose name among those who took part was concealed? Concealed, do I say? Whose was not immediately made public? I would sooner believe that some who knew nothing of it boasted of belonging to that company than that anyone who did belong wished to hide it.\n\nSECTION 26\nHow likely is it, moreover, that among so many men, some obscure, some young, and none concealing their names, mine could have remained hidden? If those who performed the deed needed men to urge them to liberate their country, was I to spur on the Brutuses? Both saw the image of Lucius Brutus every day, and one saw Ahala’s too. Were men with such ancestors to seek counsel from strangers rather than their own family, abroad rather than at home? And Gaius Cassius, born into a family that could endure neither tyranny nor even anyone’s undue influence—he needed my prompting, I suppose! Even without those illustrious men, he would have accomplished the deed in Cilicia at the mouth of the Cydnus, had Caesar brought his ships to the bank he had intended rather than the opposite one.\n\nSECTION 27\nWas Gnaeus Domitius roused to recover liberty not by the death of his most illustrious father, not by his uncle’s death, not by the stripping away of his rank, but by my influence? Or did I persuade Gaius Trebonius? I would not even have dared advise him. The republic owes him all the greater gratitude for placing the Roman people’s liberty above one man’s friendship, choosing to cast down tyranny instead of taking a share in it. And Lucius Tillius Cimber—was he acting on my authority? I was more surprised that he had done the deed than inclined beforehand to think he would. My surprise was precisely that he had forgotten favors received and remembered his country. And the two Serviliuses—shall I call them Cascas or Ahalas?—do you think my influence stirred them too, rather than love of the republic? It would take too long to go through the rest. That there were so many was a splendid thing for the republic, and glorious for the men themselves.\n\n### Chapter 12\n\nSECTION 28\nRemember how this acute fellow proved his case against me. “When Caesar had been killed,” he says, “Brutus at once lifted his bloody dagger high, called out Cicero by name, and congratulated him on liberty regained.” Why me above all? Because I knew? Consider whether the reason for calling my name was this: having performed a deed like those I had performed, he chose me above all to witness that he had become a rival to my glory.\n\nSECTION 29\nBut you, stupidest of men, do you not understand that if wishing Caesar killed—the charge you bring against me—is a crime, rejoicing at his death is a crime too? What difference is there between advising a deed and approving it? What does it matter whether I wished it done or am glad it has been done? Is there anyone, then, except those who rejoiced in his kingship, who either did not want it to happen or disapproved once it happened? We are all guilty, therefore. Every honorable man killed Caesar, so far as it lay in him: some lacked a plan, some the courage, some the opportunity. None lacked the will.\n\nSECTION 30\nBut attend to the stupidity of the man—or let me say the beast. These were his words: “Brutus, whom I name with respect, held up his bloody dagger and called out ‘Cicero’; from that we must understand that Cicero knew of the plot.” So you call me a criminal, merely suspecting that I suspected something; but the man who carried a dripping dagger before him, you name with respect? Very well. Let that stupidity pass in your words: how much greater it is in your actions and judgments! Decide at last, consul, how you wish the case of the Brutuses, Gaius Cassius, Gnaeus Domitius, Gaius Trebonius and the others to stand. Sleep off your drunken stupor, I say, and breathe out its fumes. Must torches be brought to wake you as you slumber over a cause so great? Will you never understand that you must decide whether the men who did that deed are murderers or champions of liberty?\n\n### Chapter 13\n\nSECTION 31\nListen a little, then, and for one moment adopt the thoughts of a sober man. I, who admit myself their friend and whom you accuse of being their accomplice, deny that there is any middle ground. I acknowledge that, unless they are liberators of the Roman people and saviors of the republic, they are worse than assassins, worse than murderers, worse even than men who kill their fathers—if indeed killing the father of one’s country is more atrocious than killing one’s own. What do you say, wise and thoughtful man? If they are parricides, why have you always named them with respect, both in this body and before the Roman people? Why, on your motion, was Marcus Brutus exempted from the laws if he should be absent from the city for more than ten days? Why were the Games of Apollo celebrated with extraordinary honor to Marcus Brutus? Why were provinces assigned to Brutus and Cassius, quaestors attached to them, and the number of their lieutenants increased? Yet all this was done through you. They are not murderers, then. It follows that, in your judgment, they are liberators, since no third possibility exists.\n\nSECTION 32\nWhat is it? Am I confusing you? Perhaps you do not quite understand arguments whose points are set some distance apart. Here, however, is the sum of my conclusion: since you acquitted them of crime, you also judged them worthy of the highest rewards. And so I am now unweaving my own speech. I shall write and tell them that, if anyone happens to ask whether your accusation against me is true, they should deny it to no one. For I fear that their having kept me in the dark would reflect badly on them, while my having refused an invitation would be utterly shameful for me. What deed, holy Jupiter, has ever been done, not merely in this city but in all the world, that was greater, more glorious, more worthy of humanity’s everlasting remembrance? Do you shut me among the leaders of this enterprise as though inside the Trojan horse?\n\nSECTION 33\nI do not object; indeed I thank you, whatever your intention. The deed is so great that the hostility you wish to stir against me cannot weigh beside its glory. Who could be happier than the men you boast of having driven out and banished? What place is so deserted or so uncivilized that, when they approach, it does not seem to speak to them and reach out to welcome them? What people are so rough that, on seeing them, they do not think they have received life’s greatest reward? What forgetful posterity, what ungrateful literature will ever be found that fails to preserve their glory in immortal remembrance? By all means enroll me among such men.\n\n### Chapter 14\n\nSECTION 34\nBut there is one thing I fear you may not approve. Had I been involved, I would have removed not merely the king but kingship from the republic. Had that pen been mine, as people say, believe me, I would have finished not just one act but the whole play. Yet if wishing Caesar killed is a crime, consider, Antony, what will become of you. It is common knowledge that you formed this plan with Gaius Trebonius at Narbo; and it was as a partner in that design that Trebonius, as we witnessed, drew you away during Caesar’s killing. For my part—see how little hostility I show you—I praise you for once having thought well, thank you for not having betrayed the plot, and forgive you for not having acted.\n\nSECTION 35\nThat undertaking needed a man. But if someone brings you to trial and invokes Cassius’s famous question, “Who benefited?”, take care that you are not at a loss. The deed did benefit everyone unwilling to be a slave, as you said; but it benefited you above all. You are not merely free of slavery: you are king. At the temple of Ops you freed yourself from an enormous debt. Through those same accounts you scattered incalculable sums. So much was carried to you from Caesar’s house! Your home houses a most profitable workshop for forged memoranda and signatures, a most disgraceful market in lands, towns, exemptions and revenues.\n\nSECTION 36\nWhat remedy for your destitution and indebtedness was there except Caesar’s death? Something seems to have unsettled you. Are you faintly afraid that this charge may appear to touch you? I release you from that fear: no one will ever believe it. To serve the republic well is not in your nature. The republic has illustrious men to claim as authors of that splendid deed. I say only that you rejoice in it; I do not accuse you of performing it. I have answered the gravest accusations. Now I must answer the rest.\n\n### Chapter 15\n\nSECTION 37\nYou reproached me with Pompey’s camp and that whole period. If my advice and influence had prevailed then, as I have said, you would be destitute today and we would be free; the republic would not have lost so many commanders and armies. I admit that, foreseeing what did come to pass, I felt as much sorrow as every other honorable citizen would have felt had he foreseen it too. I grieved, senators, I grieved that the republic, once saved by your counsels and mine, would soon perish. Nor was I so ignorant or unversed in affairs that a craving for life could break my spirit: if life remained, it would consume me with anguish; if I gave it up, it would release me from every trouble. I wanted those outstanding men, the lights of the republic, to live: so many who had been consuls, so many who had been praetors, so many honorable senators, all the flower of our nobility and youth, and the armies of our finest citizens. Had they lived, however harsh the terms of peace—for I thought any peace with fellow citizens more beneficial than civil war—we would hold the republic today.\n\nSECTION 38\nHad that view prevailed, had the very men whose lives I was protecting not opposed me most fiercely, carried away by hopes of victory, then, to pass over everything else, you certainly would never have remained in this body—or rather, in this city. But my speech, you say, estranged Gnaeus Pompey from me. Did he love anyone more? Did he more often share his conversations or counsels with anyone? It was no small thing that, disagreeing on the republic’s highest interests, we maintained the same intimacy of friendship. I saw what he thought and sought; he saw what I thought and sought. I looked first to our fellow citizens’ safety, so that we might afterward protect their standing; he looked rather to their standing at that moment. Since each had a purpose to pursue, our disagreement was easier to bear.\n\n### Chapter 16\n\nSECTION 39\nWhat that exceptional, almost divine man thought of me is known to those who followed him to Paphos after his flight from Pharsalus. He never mentioned me without honor, never without longing for a beloved friend. He admitted that I had seen further, while he had hoped for better things. And you dare attack me in the name of a man whose friend you admit I was, whose property you admit you bought at auction? But let us leave that war, in which you enjoyed far too much good fortune. I shall not even answer about the jokes you say I made in camp. That camp was indeed full of anxiety; yet people, however troubled their circumstances, sometimes relax their spirits, if they are human at all.\n\nSECTION 40\nHis condemning both my sorrow and my jokes is strong evidence that I was moderate in both.\n\nYou said no inheritances came to me. If only that accusation were true! More of my close and intimate friends would be alive. But how did that enter your head? I have entered in my accounts more than twenty million sesterces received in inheritances. I admit, though, that in this field you are luckier. No one but a friend has made me his heir, so that whatever material benefit there was came mingled with sorrow. But Lucius Rubrius of Casinum, whom you never saw, made you his heir.\n\nSECTION 41\nAnd consider how he loved you, this man of whom you cannot say whether he was fair or dark. He passes over his brother’s son; he does not even name the son of Quintus Fufius, a most honorable Roman knight and his intimate friend, though he had repeatedly declared that son his heir in public. He makes you his heir, though he had never seen you, or at least had never greeted you. Tell me, if you do not mind: what was Lucius Turselius’s face like? How tall was he? What town and tribe did he belong to? “I know nothing,” you will say, “except what estates he owned.” So he disinherited his brother and made you his heir. Besides these, Antony seized many fortunes belonging to complete strangers, violently expelling the true heirs and taking possession as though he himself were heir.\n\n### Chapter 17\n\nSECTION 42\nWhat astonished me most, though, was that you dared mention inheritances when you had not accepted your own father’s.\n\nWas it to assemble these charges, utter madman, that you spent so many days practicing speeches in another man’s villa? Yet your closest associates keep saying that you practice to breathe out the wine, not to sharpen your mind. You even employ a teacher for amusement, a rhetorician chosen by your own vote and that of your drinking companions. You have allowed him to say whatever he likes against you—a witty man, certainly, though you and your friends make easy targets. But see the difference between you and your grandfather: he spoke deliberately and to the point of the case; you speak at a gallop and beside the point.\n\nSECTION 43\nAnd what a fee that rhetorician received! Listen, senators, listen, and learn the wounds inflicted on the republic. You assigned two thousand iugera of the Leontine plain to the rhetorician Sextus Clodius, tax-free at that, so that at such expense to the Roman people you might learn to understand nothing. Was this too, most shameless man, found in Caesar’s memoranda? But elsewhere I shall speak of the Leontine and Campanian lands, which he tore from the republic and polluted with the most disgraceful occupants. Now that I have sufficiently answered his accusations, I must say something about this reformer and corrector of ours himself. I shall not pour everything out: if we must contest the matter again, as we shall, I want always to come with something new. His multitude of vices and offenses generously supplies me with that opportunity.\n\n### Chapter 18\n\nSECTION 44\nShall we examine you, then, from boyhood? I think so: let us start at the beginning. Do you remember going bankrupt before you had put off your boy’s bordered toga? “That was my father’s fault,” you will say. I grant it: a defense full of filial devotion. Yet it was your own audacity that made you sit in the fourteen rows, though the Roscian law assigned bankrupts a particular place, even if their bankruptcy arose from misfortune rather than their own fault. You put on the toga of a man and at once turned it into a woman’s. At first you were a common prostitute, with a fixed price for your disgrace, and no small one. But Curio soon intervened, drew you away from the prostitute’s trade and, as though clothing you in a married woman’s dress, settled you in a fixed and lasting marriage.\n\nSECTION 45\nNo boy bought for sexual pleasure was ever so completely in his master’s power as you were in Curio’s. How many times did his father drive you from the house? How many times did he set guards to bar your entrance? Yet with night as your accomplice, lust urging you and payment compelling you, you would lower yourself through the roof. That house could endure such disgraces no longer. Do you realize I am speaking of matters I know intimately? Remember when the elder Curio lay grieving on his bed, while his son threw himself at my feet, in tears, commending you to my care. He begged me to defend him against his father if he demanded the six million sesterces: that, he said, was the amount for which he had stood surety on your behalf. Burning with love, he declared that he would go into exile, unable to bear the pain of separation from you.\n\nSECTION 46\nWhat troubles I soothed—or rather, removed—from that flourishing family then! I persuaded the father to pay his son’s debts, to use his property to ransom a young man of the highest promise in character and ability, and, exercising a father’s lawful power, to forbid him not only your intimacy but even your company. Remembering that I had done all this, would you have dared provoke me with abuse unless you trusted in those swords we can see?\n\n### Chapter 19\n\nSECTION 47\nBut let us leave sexual outrages and disgraces. There are things I cannot decently say; you have all the more freedom because you have committed things you could not hear from a modest enemy. Look instead at the rest of his life, which I shall sketch rapidly. My mind hastens to what he did in the civil war, amid the republic’s greatest miseries, and to what he does every day. Though you know these matters far better than I, I ask you to listen closely, as you are doing. In such affairs, not only learning the facts but recalling them ought to stir our spirits. Still, let us pass over the middle of the story, I think, lest we reach the ending too late.\n\nSECTION 48\nThe man who recounts his kindnesses to me was Clodius’s intimate during his tribunate, the torch behind all his conflagrations. Even then, in Clodius’s own home, he attempted something: he understands perfectly what I mean. Then came the journey to Alexandria, against the senate’s authority, against the republic and religious prohibitions. But he had Gabinius as his commander, with whom anything at all could be done quite properly. And what return was there from that expedition, or what sort of return? From Egypt he went to farthest Gaul before going home. But what home? Everyone then still possessed his own house, and nowhere was there one of yours. A house, do I say? Where on earth could you set foot on anything of your own, except the single property at Misenum, which you held with partners as though it were the mine at Sisapo?\n\n### Chapter 20\n\nSECTION 49\nYou come back from Gaul to stand for the quaestorship. Dare to say you visited your mother before you visited me! I had already received Caesar’s letter asking me to accept satisfaction from you, so I would not even let you speak of reconciliation. Afterward you paid me your respects, and I supported you in your candidacy for the quaestorship. It was then that you tried to kill Publius Clodius in the Forum, with the Roman people’s approval. Though you attempted it of your own accord, not at my prompting, you proclaimed that unless you killed him you could never, in your judgment, make sufficient amends for your injuries to me. I therefore find it extraordinary that you say Milo acted at my prompting, when I never encouraged you, though you offered me the same service unasked. Yet had you persisted, I would have preferred that deed to be credited to your glory rather than to my favor.\n\n### Chapter 21\n\nSECTION 50\nYou became quaestor. Then immediately, without a senatorial decree, without drawing lots, without a law, you ran to Caesar. You thought him the one refuge on earth for poverty, debt, worthlessness and a ruined way of life. When you had filled yourself there with his largesse and your own plunder—if it is filling yourself to plunder what you immediately pour away—you flew back destitute to seek the tribunate, hoping in that office to resemble your husband if you could.\n\nNow listen, I ask you, not to the filthy, unrestrained things he did to himself and his family’s honor, but to the impious, criminal things he did to us and our fortunes—that is, to the whole republic. You will find that his crime was the beginning from which all our evils sprang.\n\nSECTION 51\nFor on the first of January, in the consulship of Lucius Lentulus and Gaius Marcellus, when you wished to shore up the tottering, almost collapsing republic, and to protect Gaius Caesar himself if he were in his right mind, Antony set his sold and surrendered tribunate against your counsels. He laid his neck beneath the axe that has killed many for lesser offenses. The senate decreed against you, Marcus Antony—and the senate was still intact, so many of its lights not yet extinguished—what ancestral custom ordained against a domestic enemy. And you dared speak against me before the senators, when this body had judged me the republic’s savior and you its enemy? Mention of that crime of yours has lapsed; remembrance has not been erased. As long as humanity endures, as long as the Roman people’s name survives—and, if you permit it, that will be forever—your deadly veto will be spoken of.\n\nSECTION 52\nWhat was the senate doing from passion or rashness when you, a young man alone, prevented this entire body from resolving on the republic’s safety? Not once but repeatedly, and you would not even allow the senate’s authority to be discussed with you. What was being sought except that you should not desire the republic’s utter overthrow and destruction? Neither the leading citizens’ entreaties, nor your elders’ warnings, nor the full senate’s efforts could move you from the position you had sold and signed away. Then, after many other remedies had first been tried, necessity dealt you that wound which few before you had received, and none survived:\n\n### Chapter 22\n\nSECTION 53\nThis body then armed the consuls and the other holders of command and office against you. You would not have escaped those arms had you not fled to Caesar’s. You, you, I say, Marcus Antony, first gave Gaius Caesar, eager to throw everything into confusion, a pretext to wage war on his country. What else did he say? What reason did he offer for his utterly mad plan and deed except that Antony’s veto had been disregarded, his tribunician rights abolished, and Antony himself hemmed in by the senate? I pass over how false and trivial this was, especially since no one can ever have a just cause for taking up arms against his country. But nothing more about Caesar: you, at least, must admit that your person supplied the pretext for that most ruinous war.\n\nSECTION 54\nWretched man, if you understand it; more wretched if you do not understand that this is being written down, handed on to memory, never to be forgotten even by the posterity of every future age: that the consuls were driven from Italy; with them Gnaeus Pompey, the glory and light of the Roman people’s empire; all the former consuls whose health allowed them to endure that disaster and flight; praetors, former praetors, tribunes of the people, a great part of the senate, the entire rising generation of young men—in a word, the republic itself, driven out and banished from its own home!\n\nSECTION 55\nAs seeds are the source of trees and plants, so you were the seed of that most sorrowful war. You grieve that three armies of the Roman people were destroyed: Antony destroyed them. Those illustrious citizens you mourn—Antony robbed you of them as well. The authority of this body lies broken: Antony broke it. In short, if we reckon rightly, everything we have since witnessed—and what evil have we not witnessed?—must be entered to Antony’s account alone. As Helen was to the Trojans, so he was to this republic: the cause of war, the cause of plague and destruction. The remaining acts of his tribunate matched its beginning. He accomplished everything the senate had successfully prevented from happening while the republic stood safe. Yet recognize the crime within his crime.\n\n### Chapter 23\n\nSECTION 56\nHe was restoring many men ruined by condemnation, but among them there was no mention of his uncle. If he was strict, why not toward everyone? If merciful, why not toward his own family? But I pass over the others. He restored his gambling partner, Licinius Lenticula, convicted of gambling—as though one could not play with a convicted man! No, he meant to discharge, through the favor of a law, what he had lost at play. What grounds for his restoration did you put before the Roman people? That he had been charged in his absence, I suppose? That judgment had been given without a hearing? That no trial had been held under the gambling law? That he had been crushed by force and arms? Or finally, as was said of your uncle, that bribery had corrupted the trial? None of these. But he was a good man, worthy of the republic? That has nothing to do with the issue; still, since conviction counts for nothing, I would excuse you if it were true. A man restores to full rights the most worthless of men, who did not hesitate to gamble even in the Forum and was convicted under the gambling law: is he not proclaiming his own taste as openly as possible?\n\nSECTION 57\nDuring that same tribunate, when Caesar left for Spain and handed Italy over to Antony to trample on, what a passage along the roads, what a circuit of the towns he made! I know I am speaking of things everyone discusses, and that what I say and am about to say is better known to all who were in Italy then than to me, who was not. Still, I shall mark the details, although my speech cannot possibly match your knowledge. Where on earth has anyone ever heard of such disgrace, such foulness, such dishonor?\n\n### Chapter 24\n\nSECTION 58\nThe tribune of the people rode in a war chariot. Laurel-crowned lictors went before him; among them an actress was carried in an open litter. Respectable townspeople, obliged to come out to meet her, greeted her not by her familiar stage name but as Volumnia. A carriage followed with pimps, his utterly worthless companions. His mother, pushed into the background, followed her filthy son’s mistress as though she were her daughter-in-law. Unhappy woman, what a disastrous fruit of motherhood! He stamped the traces of these disgraces upon every town, prefecture and colony—upon all Italy.\n\nSECTION 59\nCriticizing the rest of his deeds, senators, is indeed a difficult and slippery business. He took part in the war; he gorged himself on the blood of citizens utterly unlike himself; he was fortunate, if there can be any fortune in crime. But since we wish the veterans’ interests protected, although the soldiers’ case is unlike yours—they followed their commander; you sought one out—I shall say nothing about the character of that war, lest you stir their hostility against me. Back to Brundisium you came from Thessaly, a victor with your legions. There you did not kill me. A great kindness! For I admit you could have. Yet no one among those with you then thought I should not be spared.\n\nSECTION 60\nSo great is love of country that even your legions held me sacred, remembering that I had saved it. But suppose you gave me what you did not take away, and that I owe you my life because you did not seize it: could your insults have allowed me to go on honoring this kindness as I was honoring it, especially when you saw that you would have to hear these things?\n\n### Chapter 25\n\nSECTION 61\nYou came to Brundisium—straight into the lap and embrace of your little mime actress. What is it? Am I lying? How wretched to be unable to deny what it is utterly shameful to confess! If you felt no shame before the towns of Italy, did you feel none even before the veteran army? What soldier at Brundisium did not see her? Who did not know that she had traveled so many days to offer you her congratulations? Who did not grieve to discover so late what a worthless man he had followed?\n\nSECTION 62\nThen another dash through Italy, with the same mime actress for company; the cruel, pitiful planting of soldiers in the towns; in Rome, the foul plunder of gold, silver, and above all wine. To this was added his appointment as master of the horse, through the favor of Caesar’s friends, without Caesar’s knowledge, while Caesar was at Alexandria. Then he thought himself entitled to live with Hippias and hand over the horses that yielded revenue to Sergius the mime. Then he chose for his residence not the house he now so badly keeps up, but that of Marcus Piso. Why should I bring forward his decrees? Why his robberies? Why the estates whose possession he granted? Why those he seized? Poverty drove him; he had nowhere to turn. The great inheritance from Lucius Rubrius had not yet come to him, nor the one from Lucius Turselius. Nor had he yet installed himself as sudden heir to Gnaeus Pompey and the many others who were absent. He was compelled to live as brigands do: his possessions could extend no further than his plunder.\n\nSECTION 63\nBut let us pass over these exploits of his more muscular wickedness and speak instead of the vilest kind of frivolity. With that throat, those flanks, that gladiator’s strength throughout your body, you had drained so much wine at Hippias’s wedding that the next day you had to vomit in full view of the Roman people. A spectacle foul not only to see but even to hear of! If this had happened to you at dinner, over those monstrous drinking cups of yours, who would not have thought it disgraceful? But at an assembly of the Roman people, conducting public business as master of the horse—a man for whom even a belch would have been shameful—you vomited lumps of food reeking of wine into your lap and over the whole tribunal. But he admits himself that these belong among his filthy deeds. Let us come to his brilliant ones.\n\n### Chapter 26\n\nSECTION 64\nCaesar returned from Alexandria a fortunate man, at least in his own eyes. In my judgment, no man whose fortune is disastrous to the republic can be fortunate himself. The auction spear was planted before the temple of Jupiter Stator, and the property of Gnaeus Pompey—how wretched I am! Though my tears are spent, grief still clings, rooted in my heart—the property, I say, of Gnaeus Pompey the Great was subjected to the auctioneer’s most bitter cry. In this one matter the country forgot its slavery and groaned. Though its spirit was enslaved, though fear held everything in its grip, that groan of the Roman people was free. Everyone waited to see who could be so impious, so mad, so much the enemy of gods and men, as to dare approach that criminal sale. No one was found but Antony, though so many stood around that spear who would have dared anything else. One man was found to dare what the audacity of all the rest had shrunk from and dreaded.\n\n### Chapter 27\n\nSECTION 65\nHas such stupor overwhelmed you—or, to speak more truly, such madness—that, first, although you are a buyer of confiscated estates, born to the rank you were, and second, although the estate you bought was Pompey’s, you do not know that the Roman people curses you, that it abhors you, that all the gods, all human beings, are and will remain your enemies? And with what instant insolence that glutton swooped upon the fortune of the man whose valor had made the Roman people more formidable to foreign nations, whose justice had made it dearer! Having suddenly gorged himself on that man’s wealth, he leaped for joy like a character in a mime: penniless a moment ago, rich in an instant. But, as some poet says, “What is ill-gotten is ill-spent.”\n\nSECTION 66\nIt is incredible, something like a prodigy, how he poured out so much in so few—not months, I say, but days. There was an immense store of wine, a vast weight of the finest silver, costly clothing, and a great abundance of splendid furniture in many places—not the furnishings of a luxurious man, certainly, but of a wealthy one. Within a few days none of it remained. What Charybdis was ever so ravenous?\n\nSECTION 67\nCharybdis, do I say? If she ever existed, she was a single creature. By the god of good faith, Ocean itself could hardly, I think, have swallowed so quickly so many things, so widely scattered and kept in places so far apart. Nothing was locked up, nothing sealed, nothing entered in an inventory. Whole wine cellars were given away to the most worthless men; male mimes snatched one thing, female mimes another. The house was crammed with gamblers, full of drunkards; drinking went on all day, and in several places at once. His gambling deficits, too, were often made good—for this fellow did not always win. You could have seen beds in slaves’ rooms spread with Gnaeus Pompey’s purple coverlets. Stop wondering, then, that all this was consumed so quickly. Such depravity could swiftly have devoured not only one man’s estate, however ample, as that one was, but cities and kingdoms. And this same man took the house and gardens too.\n\n### Chapter 28\n\nSECTION 68\nWhat monstrous audacity! Did you dare even to enter that house—you, to cross that most sacred threshold, you, to show your utterly polluted face to the household gods of that home? For a time no one could look at that house, no one could pass it without tears. Are you not ashamed to have lodged there so long? However little understanding you have, nothing in it can give you pleasure. When you looked at those ships’ beaks in the entrance hall, did you think you were entering your own house? It cannot be. Mindless and senseless as you are, you still know yourself, your belongings, and your people. Indeed, I do not believe your mind can ever be at rest, waking or asleep. Violent and raving as you are, the apparition of that incomparable man must rise before you, startle you from sleep in terror, and often drive you mad even while you are awake.\n\nSECTION 69\nFor my part, I pity the very walls and roof. What had that house ever seen but chastity? What but conduct in keeping with the finest traditions and the strictest discipline? For that man, senators, as you know, was illustrious abroad and admirable at home, no more deserving of praise for his public achievements than for the ordering of his household. In his dwelling there are stables instead of bedrooms, taverns instead of private chambers. Though now Antony denies it. Do not ask: he has reformed. He ordered that woman of his to take her belongings, took away her keys as the Twelve Tables prescribe, and drove her out. What a distinguished citizen, what an exemplary man! In his whole life he has done nothing more honorable than divorce a mime actress.\n\nSECTION 70\nAnd how often he mouths the words “both consul and Antony”! That is to say, “both consul and utterly shameless,” “both consul and the most worthless of men.” What else does “Antony” mean? If the name signified distinction, your grandfather, I imagine, would sometimes have called himself “both consul and Antony.” He never did. My colleague, your uncle, would have said it too—unless you alone are an Antony. But I leave aside those offenses which do not belong specifically to the cause with which you ravaged the republic. I return to your cause itself: the civil war, which was born, kindled, and undertaken through your efforts.\n\n### Chapter 29\n\nSECTION 71\nYet that war found you absent, partly through cowardice and partly through lust. You had tasted your fellow citizens’ blood—or rather, drained it. You had fought in the front rank at Pharsalus. You had killed Lucius Domitius, a man of the highest distinction and noblest birth, and had hunted down and most cruelly slaughtered many others who escaped from the battle, men whom Caesar might perhaps have spared, as he spared some. After exploits so great and of such a kind, why did you not follow Caesar to Africa, especially when so much of the war remained? And so, what place did you hold with Caesar himself after his return from Africa? What was your standing? You had been his quaestor when he was a general, his master of the horse when he was dictator, a prime mover in his war, a promoter of his cruelty, a partner in his plunder, and, as you yourself used to say, his son in his will. You were called upon to pay the money you owed for the house, for the gardens, for the confiscated estate.\n\nSECTION 72\nAt first you answered with outright defiance and—to avoid seeming wholly against you—what you said was almost fair and just: “Gaius Caesar demands money from me? Why not I from him instead? Did he win without me? He could not even have done so. I brought him the pretext for civil war; I proposed ruinous laws; I took up arms against the consuls and generals of the Roman people, against the senate and the Roman people, against our ancestral gods, our altars and hearths, against our country. Did he win for himself alone? When men share the crime, why should they not share the spoils?” You were demanding your rights. But what did that matter?\n\nSECTION 73\nHe had the greater power. And so, brushing aside your bluster, he sent soldiers both to you and to your sureties. Suddenly you produced that splendid notice of sale. How people laughed at so long a notice, so many properties of such varied kinds, among which, apart from a share of the estate at Misenum, there was nothing the man holding the auction could call his own! And what a pitiful sight the auction was: a few of Pompey’s clothes, and those stained; some dented silver vessels of his; slaves in squalor. It grieved us that anything survived of those remnants for us to see.\n\nSECTION 74\nYet the heirs of Lucius Rubrius stopped even this auction by a decree of Caesar’s. The scoundrel was caught fast; he had nowhere to turn. Indeed, at this very time an assassin sent by him was said to have been caught in Caesar’s house with a dagger. Caesar complained of it in the senate, openly denouncing you. Caesar set out for Spain, allowing you a few more days to pay because you had no money. Even then you did not follow. So fine a gladiator, and taking the wooden sword of discharge so soon? Is anyone, then, to be frightened of a man who has shown such cowardice in his own cause—that is, where his own fortunes were at stake?\n\n### Chapter 30\n\nSECTION 75\nAt long last he did set out for Spain, but, he says, could not reach it safely. How, then, did Dolabella reach it? Either you should never have undertaken that cause, Antony, or, once you had, you should have defended it to the very end. Three times Caesar fought a decisive battle against his fellow citizens, in Thessaly, Africa, and Spain. Dolabella was present at all three battles; in Spain he was even wounded. If you ask my judgment, I wish he had not been there. Still, his original decision deserves censure, his constancy praise. But what are you? To begin with, Gnaeus Pompey’s sons were seeking to regain their country. Granted, their whole party shared that cause. But they were also seeking their ancestral gods, their altars and hearths, the guardian spirit of their own family home—all that you had invaded. When they sought by arms what belonged to them by law—though in circumstances so utterly unjust, what can be just?—still, who had the strongest obligation to fight against Gnaeus Pompey’s sons? Who? You, the buyer of their confiscated estate.\n\nSECTION 76\nWas Dolabella to fight for you in Spain so that you could vomit over your hosts’ tables at Narbo?\n\nAnd what a return from Narbo! He even asked why I had turned back so suddenly in the middle of my journey. I recently explained the reason for my return, senators. I wished, if I could, to be of service to the republic even before the first of January. As for your question about how I returned: first, in daylight, not in darkness; second, wearing formal shoes and a toga, without Gallic sandals or a traveling cloak. And you even glare at me—angrily, it seems. You would soon make your peace with me if you knew how ashamed I am of the depravity of which you yourself feel no shame. Of all the outrages committed by all men, I have seen nothing more disgraceful, I have heard of nothing more disgraceful. You, who thought yourself a former master of the horse, who were seeking—or rather begging for—the consulship for the coming year, raced about in Gallic sandals and a traveling cloak through the towns and colonies of Gaul, from which we used to seek support for the consulship in the days when men sought it rather than begged for it.\n\n### Chapter 31\n\nSECTION 77\nBut look at the man’s frivolity. He reached Saxa Rubra at about the tenth hour of the day, slipped into a little tavern, and hid there, drinking steadily until evening. Then he hurried to Rome in a two-wheeled carriage and came home with his head wrapped up. “Who are you?” asked the doorkeeper. “A messenger from Marcus.” He was taken at once to the woman for whose sake he had come, and handed her a letter. She read it in tears—for it was a love letter. Its main point was that he would have nothing more to do with that mime actress: he had cast off all his love for her and poured it into this woman instead. As the woman’s tears flowed still more freely, the tenderhearted fellow could bear it no longer: he bared his head and wrapped his arms about her neck. Such a scoundrel! What other name can I give him? I can find no more fitting words. So, for the sake of letting the woman see her catamite, beyond all her hopes, when you suddenly revealed yourself, you threw Rome into a night of terror and Italy into many days of fear?\n\n### Chapter 32\n\nSECTION 78\nAt home, then, you had love for your excuse; outside, you had one still more shameful: to keep Lucius Plancus from auctioning off your sureties’ property. But when a tribune of the people brought you before an assembly, and you answered that you had come on your own business, you even set the people making jokes at your expense. But too much of these trifles: let us come to greater matters.\n\nYou went a very long way to meet Gaius Caesar on his return from Spain. You went quickly and came back quickly, so that he might know you were energetic, even if not brave. Somehow or other you became his intimate again. Caesar certainly had this trait: when he knew a man to be utterly ruined by debt and destitute, and knew him also to be worthless and reckless, he welcomed him into his intimacy with the greatest pleasure.\n\nSECTION 79\nWith these splendid recommendations, orders were given that you should be proclaimed consul—and with Caesar himself as your colleague. I make no complaint here about Dolabella, who was then urged on, led along, and cheated. Who does not know how treacherously each of you treated Dolabella in that affair? Caesar induced him to stand, then broke his pledged promise and transferred the office to himself; you added your own willing assent to his treachery. The first of January came; we were compelled to attend the senate. Dolabella attacked this fellow at far greater length and with much more preparation than I do now.\n\nSECTION 80\nBut what this fellow said in his anger—good gods! First, Caesar had announced that before he left he would have Dolabella made consul—and people deny that he was a king, though he was forever doing and saying things of that sort! But when Caesar had said this, our excellent augur declared that he held a priesthood which gave him power either to obstruct the election through the auspices or to invalidate it, and he insisted that he would do so. Here, to begin with, observe the man’s incredible stupidity.\n\nSECTION 81\nWell? This thing you said you could do by the authority of your priesthood: if you had not been an augur, but had been consul, would you have had less power to do it? Consider whether you might not have done it even more easily. We augurs have only the right to report signs; consuls and the other magistrates also have the right to watch for them. Very well: that was ignorance. We must not demand good sense from a man who is never sober. But look at his shamelessness. Many months in advance he said in the senate that he would either prevent Dolabella’s election through the auspices or do what he in fact did. Can anyone divine what flaw will arise in the auspices unless he has resolved to watch the sky? The law does not permit that during an election; and if a man has watched, he must report it not after the election has been held, but before it is held. Yet his shamelessness is entangled with ignorance: he neither knows what an augur should know nor does what a decent man should do.\n\n### Chapter 33\n\nSECTION 82\nAnd recall his consulship from that day down to the Ides of March. Was any attendant ever so humble, so abject? He had no power himself; he begged for everything. Thrusting his head into the back of his colleague’s litter, he asked for favors he could sell. Then came the day of Dolabella’s election. The century that is to vote first is drawn by lot; he keeps quiet. Its vote is announced; he says nothing. The first class is called, then the voting proceeds as usual, then the second class—all done more quickly than I have told it.\n\nSECTION 83\nWhen the business is finished, our excellent augur—you would have thought him Gaius Laelius—says, “On another day.” What extraordinary shamelessness! What had you seen, what had you perceived, what had you heard? You did not say you had watched the sky, nor do you say so today. So the very flaw occurred which you had already foreseen on the first of January and predicted so far in advance! By Hercules, you falsified the auspices, with grave consequences, I hope, for yourself rather than for the republic. You laid a religious obligation upon the Roman people; as augur you reported an adverse omen against an augur, as consul against a consul. I will say no more, lest I seem to be undermining Dolabella’s acts, which must at some point be referred to our college. But recognize the man’s arrogance and insolence.\n\n### Chapter 34\n\nSECTION 84\nFor as long as you choose, Dolabella is a consul elected under flawed auspices; then again, whenever you choose, he has been elected with the auspices intact. If it means nothing when an augur makes a declaration in the words you used, confess that you were not sober when you said, “On another day.” But if those words have any force, I, an augur, ask my colleague what that force is.\n\nBut lest my speech pass over the single most glorious exploit among Marcus Antony’s many achievements, let us come to the Lupercalia. He does not hide it, senators: he is plainly shaken; he sweats, he turns pale. Let him do anything, so long as he does not vomit as he did in the Minucian Portico. What defense can there be for such disgrace? I long to hear it, to see where that great fee paid to his rhetoric teacher has gone, where the fields of Leontini show their worth.\n\nSECTION 85\nYour colleague sat on the rostra, wrapped in a purple toga, on a golden chair, wearing a crown. You mounted the platform, approached the chair—though you were a Lupercal priest, you should have remembered that you were consul—and displayed a diadem. A groan went up throughout the Forum. Where did the diadem come from? You had not picked it up where it lay discarded: you had brought it from home, a crime planned and pondered in advance. You tried to place the diadem on him amid the people’s lamentations; he rejected it amid their applause. You alone, then, criminal that you are, were found to advocate kingship, to wish for a master in the man you had as colleague, and at the same time to test what the Roman people could endure and suffer.\n\nSECTION 86\nYou even tried to win pity: you threw yourself at his feet as a suppliant. Asking for what? To be a slave? You should have asked for yourself alone, you who had lived from boyhood in such a way that you would submit to anything and find slavery easy. From us and from the Roman people you certainly had no such commission. What splendid eloquence you displayed, addressing the assembly naked! What could be more shameful? What more foul? What more deserving of every punishment? Are you waiting for us to stab you with goads? If you have any feeling at all, this speech tears you, this speech draws your blood. I fear I may diminish the glory of the greatest men; still, grief drives me to speak. What could be more outrageous than that the man who placed the diadem should live, when everyone admits that the man who rejected it was justly killed?\n\nSECTION 87\nHe even ordered this entry to be made in the calendar under the Lupercalia: “Marcus Antony, consul, offered the kingship to Gaius Caesar, dictator for life, at the people’s command; Caesar declined to accept it.” Now, now I am not in the least surprised that you disturb the peace; that you hate not only the city but the light of day; that with the most desperate bandits you drink not only in daylight but on into the next day. For where will you find a foothold in peace? What place can you have under the laws and in the courts, which you did everything in your power to abolish through royal domination? Was Lucius Tarquinius expelled, were Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius killed, so that many centuries later Marcus Antony could do what sacred law forbids and set up a king at Rome?\n\n### Chapter 35\n\nSECTION 88\nBut back to the auspices: Caesar meant to bring them before the senate on the Ides of March. Tell me, what course would you have taken then? I heard that you had come prepared, because you thought I would speak about the falsified auspices, which nonetheless had to be obeyed. The republic’s good fortune swept that day aside. But did Caesar’s death also sweep aside your judgment on the auspices? Yet I have reached a moment which must take precedence over the matters on which my speech had embarked. What flight was yours on that glorious day, what terror, what despair for your life born of the consciousness of your crimes, when, escaping from that flight through the kindness of those who wished you safe if you would be sane, you stole back home!\n\nSECTION 89\nMy prophecies of the future—always so true, always in vain! I told those liberators of ours on the Capitol, when they wanted me to go to you and urge you to defend the republic, that as long as you were afraid you would promise anything; the moment you stopped being afraid, you would be yourself again. And so, while the other former consuls went back and forth, I held to my judgment. I saw you neither that day nor the next, and I did not believe any treaty could cement a partnership between the best of citizens and their most savage enemy. On the third day I came to the temple of Tellus, and came unwillingly, with armed men blocking every approach.\n\n### Chapter 36\n\nSECTION 90\nAntony, what a day you had then! Though you suddenly made yourself my enemy, I still pity you for having begrudged yourself your own good fortune. Immortal gods, what a man you would have been, how great a man, if you could have kept the spirit of that day! We would have peace, secured by the surrender of a noble boy as hostage, the grandson of Marcus Bambalio. But it was fear that made you good—no lasting teacher of duty; what made you wicked was the recklessness that never leaves you when fear is absent. Yet even then, when people thought you excellent—I, for one, disagreed—you presided with utter criminality over the tyrant’s funeral, if funeral it was.\n\nSECTION 91\nThat splendid eulogy was yours, that appeal to pity yours, that incitement yours. You, you, I say, lit those torches—both the ones that half-burned his body and those that kindled the blaze which consumed Lucius Bellienus’s house. You unleashed those assaults on our houses by desperate men, most of them slaves, whom we beat back by force of arms. Yet in the days that followed, as though you had wiped away the soot, you procured excellent decrees of the Senate on the Capitol: after the Ides of March, no tablet granting exemption or any other favor was to be posted. You remember what you yourself said about the exiles; you know what you said about exemptions. Best of all, you abolished the very name of dictatorship from public life forever. By that act, indeed, you seemed to have conceived so deep a hatred of kingship that, because of the most recent dictator, you were removing every fear of it. To others the republic seemed settled;\n\nSECTION 92\nto me, not at all: with you at the helm, I feared every kind of shipwreck. Was I mistaken, then? Could he have gone on any longer being unlike himself? Before your eyes, tablets were being posted all over the Capitol. Exemptions were being sold not merely to individuals but to entire peoples; citizenship was being granted no longer person by person but to whole provinces. And so, if these measures stand—which cannot stand while the republic survives—you have lost whole provinces, senators. Not only the revenues but the sovereignty of the Roman people has been diminished by this man’s auctions in his own home.\n\n### Chapter 37\n\nSECTION 93\nWhere are the seven hundred million sesterces entered in the accounts kept in the temple of Ops? Bloodstained money, certainly; yet if it was not returned to its owners, it could have freed us from direct taxation. And you—how did you cease, before the first of April, to owe the forty million sesterces you owed on the Ides of March? Countless purchases passed through your people, and you knew about them. But one outstanding decree was posted on the Capitol, concerning King Deiotarus, a devoted friend of the Roman people. When it appeared, no one, even in the midst of grief, could keep from laughing.\n\nSECTION 94\nFor whom did Caesar hate more than Deiotarus? He hated him as much as this order, as the equestrian order, as the people of Massilia, as everyone he knew held the republic of the Roman people dear. So King Deiotarus, who could get nothing fair or favorable from him alive, whether present or absent, became influential with him dead. Caesar had confronted his host in person, calculated the money to be paid, installed one of his own Greek companions in his tetrarchy, and taken away the Armenia granted him by the Senate. What he seized while alive, he restores when dead.\n\nSECTION 95\nBut in what language? Now it “seems fair to him,” now “not unfair.” What a marvelous choice of words! Yet never—for I always represented Deiotarus in his absence—did Caesar say that anything we requested on the king’s behalf seemed fair to him. A bond for ten million sesterces was drawn up through the king’s envoys, good men but timid and inexperienced, without consulting us or the king’s other guest-friends. It was drawn up in the women’s quarters, where so many things have been sold and are still for sale. I advise you to consider what you intend to do about that bond. For the king himself, on his own initiative, without any memoranda of Caesar’s, recovered his possessions by his own force of arms as soon as he heard of Caesar’s death.\n\nSECTION 96\nThe wise man knew that this had always been the rule of justice: once tyrants were killed, those they had robbed could recover what had been seized. No legal expert, then—not even that fellow who is a legal expert for you alone, the man you use to conduct this business—will say that money is due under that bond for property recovered before the bond was signed. He did not buy it from you: he had possession of his own property before you tried to sell it back to him. He acted like a man. We deserve contempt: we hate the author and uphold his acts.\n\n### Chapter 38\n\nSECTION 97\nWhy should I speak of the endless memoranda, the countless handwritten orders? There are even dealers in them, hawking them openly like advertisements for gladiatorial shows. And so such heaps of coins are being piled up at his house that money is now weighed, not counted. But how blind greed is! A tablet has recently been posted exempting the wealthiest communities of Crete from tribute and stipulating that, after Marcus Brutus’s term as proconsul, Crete is no longer to be a province. Are you in your right mind? Should you not be put in restraints? Could a decree of Caesar’s have freed Crete after Marcus Brutus’s departure, when Crete had nothing to do with Brutus while Caesar was alive? Yet through the sale of this decree—do not imagine it has achieved nothing—you have lost the province of Crete. In short, whatever anyone wished to buy, this man never failed him as a seller.\n\nSECTION 98\nAnd the law about exiles that you posted—did Caesar enact that? I do not pursue anyone in his misfortune. My complaint is simply this: first, that the return of those whose cases Caesar had judged different has been tainted; next, that I do not know why you deny the same favor to the rest. There are no more than three or four left. Why do men in the same misfortune not enjoy the same mercy from you? Why do you treat them as you treat your uncle? When you proposed a measure for the others, you refused to propose one for him. You even urged him to stand for the censorship, and organized a campaign that provoked both laughter and complaints. But why did you not hold that election?\n\nSECTION 99\nWas it because a tribune of the people reported lightning on the left? When your own interest is at stake, there are no auspices; when your people’s interests are at stake, you become scrupulously religious. What? Did you not abandon him over a seat on the commission of seven as well? Someone else stepped in—you were afraid, I suppose, that you could not refuse him and keep your head. You loaded every insult on a man you ought to have honored as a father, if you had any sense of family duty. You drove out his daughter, your cousin, having sought another marriage and settled on it in advance. That was not enough: you accused a woman of the utmost chastity of sexual misconduct. What more could be added? You were not content with that. On the first of January, in a packed Senate, with your uncle sitting there, you dared to say that your reason for hating Dolabella was that you had discovered he had tried to seduce your cousin and wife. Who can judge whether you were more shameless in saying this in the Senate, more vicious in saying it against Dolabella, more filthy in saying it within her father’s hearing, or more cruel in speaking so foully, so heartlessly, against that unhappy woman?\n\n### Chapter 39\n\nSECTION 100\nBut let us return to the handwritten orders. What inquiry did you make into them? The Senate ratified Caesar’s acts for the sake of peace—the things Caesar had actually done, not the things Antony said Caesar had done. Where do these documents come pouring out from? On whose authority are they produced? If they are false, why are they approved? If genuine, why are they sold? The decision was that, beginning on the first of June, you should examine Caesar’s acts with an advisory council. What council was there? Whom did you ever summon? What first of June did you wait for? Was it the one when, after touring the veterans’ colonies, you returned surrounded by armed men?\n\nWhat a splendid whirlwind tour you made in April and May, when you even tried to plant a colony at Capua! How you escaped from there is known to us—or rather, how you almost did not escape.\n\nSECTION 101\nAnd that is the city you threaten! If only you would try, so that at last we could strike out that “almost”! But what a distinguished journey of yours! Why should I bring up your lavish luncheons, your raving drunkenness? Those are your losses; these are ours. The Campanian land—even when it was withdrawn from the revenue rolls to be given to soldiers, we thought a grievous wound was being dealt to the republic—you were dividing it among your table companions and gambling partners. I mean, senators, that actors and actresses in farces were settled on Campanian land. What complaint can I now make about the territory of Leontini? For those two tracts, Campanian and Leontine, were once reckoned the grain-bearing, fruitful farmlands in the Roman people’s inheritance. Three thousand iugera for your doctor: what if he had cured you? Two thousand for your teacher of rhetoric: what if he had been able to make you eloquent?\n\n### Chapter 40\n\nSECTION 102\nBut let us return to your journey through Italy. You planted a colony at Casilinum, where Caesar had already planted one. You consulted me by letter about Capua, admittedly, but I would have given the same answer about Casilinum: could you lawfully plant a new colony where a colony already existed? I said that where a colony had been founded under the auspices, no new colony could lawfully be planted so long as the first remained intact. New colonists could be enrolled: that was my written answer. But you, swollen with arrogance and overturning the entire law of the auspices, planted a colony at Casilinum, where one had been planted only a few years before, so that you could raise the standard and drive the plow around the boundary. Indeed, with its plowshare you almost scraped the gate of Capua, diminishing the territory of that flourishing colony.\n\nSECTION 103\nFrom this assault on religious law you swoop down on the estate at Casinum belonging to Marcus Varro, a man of the greatest integrity and honor. By what right? With what face? “By the same right,” you will say, “as I entered the estates of the heirs of Lucius Rubrius and Lucius Turselius, and countless other properties.” If you bought at auction, let the auction stand; let the accounts stand—Caesar’s, though, not yours: the accounts under which you owed money, not those by which you cleared your own debts. But who says that Varro’s estate at Casinum was sold? Who saw the auction spear for that sale? Who heard it proclaimed by the auctioneer? You claim you sent an agent to buy it from Caesar in Alexandria. It was too much, of course, to wait for Caesar himself.\n\n### Chapter 41\n\nSECTION 104\nBut who ever heard that anything at all had been taken from Varro’s property? And no one had more people concerned for his safety. What if Caesar even wrote to you, telling you to give it back? What words can do justice to such shamelessness? Put away for a moment those swords we see. You will soon understand that Caesar’s auction gives one sort of claim, your own brazenness and recklessness quite another. For it is not only the owner who will keep you out of that house: any friend, neighbor, guest-friend, or agent will do it. And how many days you spent in that villa in the most disgraceful revelry! From the third hour of the day there was drinking, gambling, vomiting. Poor house itself, held by so different a master—though how was he its master?—but still, held by one so different! Marcus Varro meant it to be a retreat for his studies, not his lusts.\n\nSECTION 105\nWhat conversations there used to be in that villa! What thoughts, what writings! The laws of the Roman people, the records of our ancestors, the whole range of wisdom and learning. But with you as tenant—for owner you were not—everything rang with drunken shouting, the floors swam with wine, the walls were soaked; freeborn boys mingled with boys for hire, prostitutes with married women. People came to pay their respects from Casinum, Aquinum, Interamna. No one was admitted. Quite rightly: in so disgraceful a man the insignia of high office were losing all distinction.\n\nSECTION 106\nAs he left there for Rome and approached Aquinum, a very large crowd came out to meet him, for it is a populous town. He, however, passed through the town borne like a dead man in a closed litter. What folly, people of Aquinum! At least your homes stood along his road. What of the people of Anagnia? They were off the road, yet came down to greet this fellow as if he were a consul. Incredible to relate, but everyone agreed that not one greeting was returned—especially remarkable since he had two men from Anagnia with him, Mustela and Laco, one the leader of the swords, the other of the drinking cups.\n\n### Chapter 42\n\nSECTION 107\nWhy should I recount those threats and insults with which he assailed the Sidicini and harassed the people of Puteoli because they had adopted Gaius Cassius and the Brutuses as their patrons? They did so with great enthusiasm, considered judgment, goodwill, and affection—not by force of arms, as people adopted you and Basilus, and others like you, whom no one would want as clients, much less want to be their client. Meanwhile, while you were away, what a day your colleague had when he tore down that funeral monument in the Forum which you used to worship! When the news reached you, you collapsed: everyone who was with you agreed on that. What happened afterward I do not know—fear and armed force prevailed, I suppose. At any rate, you dragged your colleague down from heaven and made him, not yet like yourself, but certainly unlike himself.\n\nSECTION 108\nAnd then, what a return to Rome! What turmoil throughout the city! We remembered Cinna’s excessive power, then Sulla’s domination; only recently we had seen Caesar reigning. There may have been swords, but they were concealed, and not so many. But this—what barbarism, and on what a scale! Men follow in a square battle formation with swords; we see litterloads of shields being carried. And by now, senators, these things are so entrenched that habit has hardened us to them. On the first of June, when we intended to come to the Senate as agreed, we were suddenly terrified into scattering.\n\nSECTION 109\nBut this man, who had no need of a Senate, missed no one. Indeed, he rejoiced at our departure, and at once accomplished those astonishing crimes. The man who had defended Caesar’s handwritten orders for his own profit overturned Caesar’s laws—and excellent laws they were—to shake the republic. He extended the number of years assigned to provincial commands. Though he ought to have been the defender of Caesar’s acts, this same man annulled those acts in both public and private affairs. In public affairs nothing has more authority than a law; in private affairs nothing is more binding than a will. Some laws he abolished without prior publication; for others he published proposals for their repeal. He invalidated a will, something that has always been upheld even for citizens of the lowest standing. The statues and paintings Caesar left to the people along with his gardens—this man carried some off to Pompey’s gardens, others to Scipio’s villa.\n\n### Chapter 43\n\nSECTION 110\nAnd you are devoted to Caesar’s memory? You love him now he is dead? What greater honor had he attained than a sacred couch, a cult image, a pediment, a priest? So, just as Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus have their priests, is Marcus Antony the priest of the divine Julius? Why, then, do you delay? Why are you not inaugurated? Choose a day; find someone to inaugurate you. We are colleagues: no one will refuse. Detestable man, whether because you are a tyrant’s priest or because you are a dead man’s! Next I ask: do you not know what day today is? Are you unaware that the Roman Games in the Circus reached their fourth day yesterday? And that your own proposal to the people granted a fifth day to Caesar? Why are we not wearing our purple-bordered togas? Why do we allow the honor granted Caesar by your law to be neglected? Or did you allow the rites of thanksgiving to be polluted by adding a day, but refuse to let the sacred couches be polluted? Either abolish the religious observance everywhere or uphold it in every particular.\n\nSECTION 111\nYou ask whether I approve of a sacred couch, a pediment, a priest. I approve of none of them. But you, who defend Caesar’s acts—what reason can you give for defending some and neglecting others? Unless, perhaps, you mean to admit that you measure everything by your own profit, not his dignity. Well, what is your answer? I am waiting for your eloquence. I knew your grandfather as a most eloquent man, but you are even more open in your speaking. He never addressed an assembly naked; we have seen your candid, simple-hearted breast. Will you answer these charges? Will you dare open your mouth at all? In this long speech of mine, can you find anything you are confident you can answer? But let us leave the past aside.\n\n### Chapter 44\n\nSECTION 112\nDefend this one day—this one day, I say, today—this instant in which I am speaking, if you can. Why is the Senate hemmed in by a ring of armed men? Why do your henchmen listen to me with swords in their hands? Why are the doors of Concord’s temple not open? Why do you bring into the Forum, with their arrows, men of the most barbarous of all peoples, the Ituraeans? He says he does it for his own protection. Then is it not better to die a thousand times than to be unable to live in one’s own country without an armed guard? But that is no protection, believe me. You ought to be surrounded by your fellow citizens’ affection and goodwill, not by weapons.\n\nSECTION 113\nThe Roman people will tear those weapons from you and wrench them away—may we survive to see it! But however you treat us, believe me, you cannot last long while you pursue those designs. Indeed, that wife of yours, so free from greed—I describe her without insult—has owed the Roman people a third installment for far too long. The Roman people have men to whom they can entrust the helm of state. Wherever in the world those men may be, there lies the republic’s entire defense—or rather, the republic itself, which so far has only avenged itself, not yet recovered itself. The republic certainly has young men of the highest birth ready to defend it. Let them withdraw as far as they please in the interests of peace: the republic will call them back. The name of peace is sweet, and peace itself brings safety; but there is all the difference in the world between peace and slavery. Peace is freedom undisturbed; slavery is the worst of all evils, to be repelled not only by war but even by death.\n\nSECTION 114\nAnd if those liberators of ours have removed themselves from our sight, they have still left us the example of their deed. They did what no one had done. Brutus pursued Tarquin in war, a man who had been king when kingship was lawful at Rome. For suspected designs on kingship, Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius and Marcus Manlius were put to death. These men were the first to attack with swords not someone aspiring to reign, but someone reigning. Their deed is in itself splendid and divine; it also stands before us to be imitated, especially since they have attained a glory that heaven itself seems scarcely able to contain. Though the consciousness of so noble a deed was reward enough in itself, I do not think a mortal should despise immortality.\n\n### Chapter 45\n\nSECTION 115\nRemember, then, Marcus Antony, the day you abolished the dictatorship. Set before your eyes the joy of the Senate and the Roman people. Compare it with this trafficking of yours and your people’s: then you will understand the distance between honor and profit. But just as some people, through illness and dulled senses, cannot taste the sweetness of food, so the lustful, the greedy, the criminal have no taste for true glory. Yet if glory cannot draw you to act rightly, cannot even fear turn you from the foulest acts? You do not fear the courts. If that is because you are innocent, I commend you; but if it is because you have force at your disposal, do you not understand what a man who has no fear of the courts on those terms ought to fear?\n\nSECTION 116\nIf you do not fear brave men and outstanding citizens because weapons keep them from your person, believe me, your own people will not bear with you much longer. And what sort of life is it to fear one’s own people day and night? Unless, of course, you have bound them to you by greater favors than Caesar bestowed on some of the men who killed him—or unless you are in any respect to be compared with him. He had talent, judgment, memory, learning, care, reflection, diligence. He had achieved great things in war, disastrous though they were for the republic. He had contemplated kingship for many years and, through immense labor and immense dangers, accomplished his design. With gladiatorial shows, monuments, public gifts, and banquets he had charmed the unthinking multitude. He had bound his own followers to him with rewards, his opponents with the appearance of mercy. Why say more? Partly through fear, partly through submission, he had already brought a free state into the habit of slavery.\n\n### Chapter 46\n\nSECTION 117\nI can compare you with him in your lust to rule; in everything else you cannot begin to compare. Yet out of the many evils he branded into the republic, this one good has come: the Roman people have now learned how much to trust each man, to whom to entrust themselves, and against whom to guard. Do you not think of this? Do you not understand that it is enough for brave men to have learned how noble it is in itself to kill a tyrant, how welcome for the service it renders, how glorious in reputation? Or will men who would not endure him endure you?\n\nSECTION 118\nFrom now on, believe me, men will race one another to this task; they will not wait for an opportunity that is slow to come.\n\nAt last, I beg you, Marcus Antony, look back toward the republic. Consider those from whom you were born, not those with whom you live. Treat me as you please; make your peace with the republic. But you must decide for yourself. For my own part, I will declare this: I defended the republic as a young man; I will not abandon it as an old man. I scorned Catiline’s swords; I will not tremble before yours.\n\nSECTION 119\nIndeed, I would gladly offer my own body if my death could bring our country its freedom now—if only the anguish of the Roman people would at last give birth to what it has so long carried! For if, nearly twenty years ago, in this very temple, I declared that death could not come too early for a man who had been consul, with how much more truth shall I now say the same of an old man? For me, senators, death is now even to be desired, after the honors I have attained and the deeds I have accomplished. I have only these two wishes: first, that as I die I may leave the Roman people free—the immortal gods can grant me nothing greater; second, that each person may meet the fate his conduct toward the republic deserves.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-philippic-2/translations/trn_cicero_philippic_2_mouseia.txt"},{"id":"trn_cicero_philippic_2_plain","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"plain","note":"Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation made independently and directly from the Latin in separate source-only tasks, not from the Musean edition or a historical English translation; all 46 chapters and 119 sections retained. Latin transcription: Perseus Project, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0; this adaptation uses the same license.","text":"### Chapter 1\n\nSECTION 1\nSenators, what twist of fate explains this? For twenty years, every enemy of the republic has also declared war on me. I don’t need to name anyone. You can remember them yourselves. They’ve paid for attacking me more heavily than I’d wanted. Antony, you copy what they did. I’m surprised their endings don’t terrify you. The others surprised me less. None chose to become my enemy without a reason. I challenged them all for the republic’s sake. But I hadn’t said one word against you. You attacked me with insults on your own initiative. You wanted to seem bolder than Catiline, crazier than Clodius. You thought breaking with me would win you support among disloyal citizens.\n\nSECTION 2\nWhat should I think? Did he look down on me? I don’t see what Antony could despise. My life? My standing? My achievements? Even my modest ability? Or did he think the Senate was the easiest place to tear me down? This body has honored many outstanding citizens for serving the republic well. It has honored only me for saving it. Or did he want a speaking contest against me? That really is a favor. What could give me more to say? What richer subject than defending myself and attacking Antony? Here’s the real answer. He thought people like him wouldn’t accept him as the country’s enemy unless he was also mine.\n\n### Chapter 2\n\nSECTION 3\nBefore answering his other charges, I’ll discuss friendship briefly. He accuses me of breaking ours. I consider that a very serious charge.\n\nHe complained that I once opposed his interests. Shouldn’t I have opposed an outsider for a close, dear friend? Shouldn’t I have opposed influence built on youthful looks, not on any promise of character? Shouldn’t I have opposed the injustice he secured? A thoroughly unfair man intervened for him. It wasn’t a lawful ruling by the praetor. But I think you mentioned this to win over the lowest social class. Everyone would remember you’d been a freedman’s son-in-law. Your children had been grandchildren of Quintus Fadius, a freedman. “But I’d placed myself under your instruction”—those were your words. You claimed you’d often visited my house. If you had, you’d have taken better care of your reputation and sexual decency. But you didn’t. Even if you’d wanted to, Gaius Curio wouldn’t have let you.\n\nSECTION 4\nYou said you’d stood aside for my election as augur. What unbelievable nerve! What shamelessness to boast about! The whole college wanted me as an augur. Gnaeus Pompey and Quintus Hortensius nominated me. No more than two men could nominate someone. At that time, you couldn’t pay your debts. You thought only overthrowing the republic could save you. Could you have run for augur then, when Curio wasn’t in Italy? And when you did get elected, could you have won a single tribe without him? Even his friends were convicted of violence because they’d supported you too eagerly.\n\n### Chapter 3\n\nSECTION 5\nYou say I received a favor from you. What favor? I’ve always openly acknowledged the very thing you mention. I’d rather admit I owed you something than seem ungrateful to someone less discerning. But what was the favor? That you didn’t kill me at Brundisium? The victor himself wanted me safe and ordered me into Italy. He’d made you leader of his gang of robbers. You used to boast about that yourself. Would you have killed someone he’d spared? Let’s suppose you could have. Senators, what favor can robbers offer except this? They can claim they gave life to people they didn’t kill. But suppose that counted as a favor. The men who killed their own savior would never have won such glory. You yourself regularly call them outstanding men. And what sort of favor is avoiding a wicked crime? Your not killing me should have brought me less pleasure than your power to do it unpunished brought distress.\n\nSECTION 6\nStill, let’s call it a favor. No one could receive a greater one from a robber. How can you say I’ve been ungrateful for it? Should I have kept quiet about the republic’s destruction, just to avoid seeming ungrateful to you? My complaint was sad and full of grief. But the Senate and Roman people had put me in this position. I had to make it. What did I say that was insulting? What wasn’t restrained? What wasn’t friendly? Think how much self-control that took. I was complaining about Marcus Antony without using insults. You’d scattered what remained of the republic. Everything was for sale in your house, in a disgraceful market. You admitted that laws had been passed by you and about you without ever being published as proposals. You were an augur, yet you’d abolished the taking of auspices. You were consul, yet you’d abolished the tribunes’ veto. Armed men crowded around you in the most disgraceful way. Every day you did every filthy thing in your shameless house, worn out by drink and brothels.\n\n### Chapter 4\n\nSECTION 7\nI acted as though my opponent were Marcus Crassus, not some utterly rotten gladiator. Crassus and I had clashed often and seriously. I made serious complaints about the republic, but said nothing about you personally. Today I’ll make him understand what a favor I did him then. He also read out a letter he said I’d sent him. The man has no manners and knows nothing about ordinary social life. Has anyone with even a little experience of decent society ever done that? A friend sends you letters. Then something goes wrong between you. Who brings those letters out and reads them publicly? Doesn’t that strip life of companionship? Doesn’t it end conversations between friends who are apart? Letters often contain jokes that would seem silly in public. They also contain plenty of serious things that must never be shared.\n\nSECTION 8\nLeave aside his lack of manners. Look at his unbelievable stupidity. What can you use against me, you great speaker? At least Seius Mustela and Numisius Tiro think you’re great. They’re standing right now with swords, in full view of the Senate. Show me how you’ll defend them on murder charges, and I’ll think you’re a great speaker too. But what could you use against me if I denied ever sending that letter? What witness could prove me wrong? The handwriting? You’ve made money from your expertise in that. But how could it help you here? A secretary wrote it. Now I envy your teacher. He gets paid an enormous sum—I’ll tell you how much shortly—to teach you to know nothing.\n\nSECTION 9\nWhat could be less fitting for a speaker—or even a person? You accuse your opponent of something he only needs to deny. Then you can’t take the charge any further. But I don’t deny it. The letter itself proves not just your lack of manners, but your madness. What word in it doesn’t show courtesy, consideration, and goodwill? Your whole charge is that I don’t speak badly of you there. I write as though addressing a fellow citizen, a decent man, not a criminal and robber. But I won’t produce your letter. Your attack gave me every right to do so. In it, you ask me to let you bring someone back from exile. You swear you won’t do it against my wishes. And I grant your request. Why should I have stood in the way of your recklessness? This body’s authority couldn’t control it. Neither could the Roman people’s opinion or any laws.\n\n### Chapter 5\n\nSECTION 10\nBut really, why ask me at all? Hadn’t Caesar’s law already recalled the man you were asking about? Apparently, he wanted it treated as a favor from me. Yet once the law passed, it couldn’t even be a favor from him.\n\nSenators, I have some things to say for myself, and much against Marcus Antony. I ask one thing of you. Please give me a friendly hearing when I defend myself. I’ll take care of the other thing myself: you’ll listen closely when I attack him. I also ask you this. You know the restraint and moderation I’ve shown throughout my life, including in my speeches. Today I’ll answer the challenge he gave me. Don’t think I’ve forgotten who I am. I won’t treat him as a consul. He didn’t treat me as a former consul. Anyway, he isn’t a consul in any real sense. His way of life rules that out. So does his handling of the republic. So does the way he got the office. There’s no dispute that I’m a former consul.\n\nSECTION 11\nHe wanted you to understand what kind of consul he claimed to be. So he attacked my consulship. Senators, it was mine in name, but yours in practice. What did I decide, carry out, or accomplish without this body’s advice, authority, and judgment? You’re supposedly wise as well as eloquent. Did you dare criticize those actions before the very men whose advice and wisdom guided them? Who besides you and Publius Clodius has ever attacked my consulship? His fate is waiting for you, just as it did for Gaius Curio. You have the same thing at home that doomed them both.\n\nSECTION 12\nMarcus Antony doesn’t approve of my consulship. But Publius Servilius did. I’ll name him first among that period’s former consuls, since he died most recently. Quintus Catulus approved. His authority will always live on in this republic. Both Luculluses approved, as did Marcus Crassus, Quintus Hortensius, Gaius Curio, Gaius Piso, Manius Glabrio, Manius Lepidus, Lucius Volcatius, and Gaius Figulus. So did Decimus Silanus and Lucius Murena, the consuls-elect then. Marcus Cato agreed with those former consuls. He showed foresight in many ways as he left life. Above all, he never saw you as consul. Gnaeus Pompey approved of my consulship most strongly of all. When he first saw me on his return from Syria, he hugged and congratulated me. He said he’d see his country thanks to me. But why name people one by one? A packed Senate approved so strongly that every member thanked me like a father. Every member credited me with saving his life, property, children, and the republic.\n\n### Chapter 6\n\nSECTION 13\nBut the republic has lost all those outstanding men I’ve named. Let’s turn to the living. Two of that group of former consuls remain. Lucius Cotta has outstanding ability and judgment. He proposed a public thanksgiving for the very actions you attack, using the highest terms of praise. The former consuls I just named agreed with him. So did the entire Senate. Since this city’s founding, no man in a civilian toga had received that honor before me.\n\nSECTION 14\nYour uncle Lucius Caesar gave his verdict against his sister’s husband, your stepfather. What a speech he gave! What firmness! What seriousness! He should have been your guide and teacher in every decision, throughout your life. You preferred to take after your stepfather, not your uncle. I wasn’t related to him, but I followed his advice as consul. You’re his sister’s son. Did you ever ask him about the republic? But who does he consult? Immortal gods! Why, the men whose birthdays we even have to hear about! Antony hasn’t come down today.\n\n### Chapter 7\n\nSECTION 15\nWhy? He’s giving a birthday dinner in his gardens. For whom? I won’t name anyone. Think of some Phormio, some Gnatho, even some Ballio. What filthy, disgraceful behavior! What shamelessness, wickedness, and unbearable lust! A leading senator is your close relative, an outstanding citizen. Yet you never ask his advice about public affairs. Instead, you ask men who have nothing themselves. They’re draining everything you have. Your consulship saves the country, apparently. Mine ruins it. Have you lost your shame along with your sexual decency? How could you dare say that in that temple? There I consulted the Senate, which once flourished and governed the world. There you stationed the worst criminals with swords.\n\nSECTION 16\nYou even dared say something else—but what wouldn’t you dare? You said the Capitoline slope was full of armed slaves during my consulship. Apparently I was forcing the Senate to pass those wicked decrees! You miserable man! Perhaps you don’t know what happened. You know nothing good, after all. Or perhaps you do know. Either way, how can you speak so shamelessly before these men? What Roman knight wasn’t on the Capitoline slope? What young nobleman, apart from you? What man of any rank who remembered his citizenship? The Senate was meeting in this temple. Who wasn’t there? Who didn’t put his name down? In fact, there weren’t enough clerks for the job. The lists couldn’t hold all their names.\n\nSECTION 17\nThose criminals admitted they’d plotted to murder their country. Their accomplices’ evidence and their own handwriting forced their confession. Their letters almost spoke aloud against them. They’d agreed to burn the city and slaughter its citizens. They’d agreed to wreck Italy and destroy the republic. Who wouldn’t have rushed to protect everyone’s safety? Besides, the Senate and Roman people had a leader. If they had someone like him now, you’d have met the same fate as those men. He says I wouldn’t release his stepfather’s body for burial. Even Publius Clodius never said that. I had good reason to be Clodius’s enemy. Still, I’m sorry you’ve now outdone him in every vice.\n\n### Chapter 8\n\nSECTION 18\nWhy did you think of reminding us of that? You grew up in Publius Lentulus’s house. Were you afraid we’d think nature alone could make you this wicked? Did we need to know you’d had training too? You were so mindless that you contradicted yourself throughout your speech. Your statements didn’t just fail to fit together. They were completely opposed and directly contradictory. Your quarrel with yourself was bigger than your quarrel with me. You admitted your stepfather’s part in that terrible crime. Then you complained that he was punished. So you praised the part that was mine alone. You criticized the part that belonged entirely to the Senate. I arrested the guilty men. The Senate imposed their punishment. This gifted speaker doesn’t understand what he’s doing. He’s praising the man he’s speaking against. He’s insulting the men he’s speaking before.\n\nSECTION 19\nThen there’s your mention of the Capitoline slope. What does that show? Not boldness, though you want to seem bold. It shows stupidity, where you beat everyone—something you don’t want. Armed men are moving among our benches right now. Immortal gods! Here in Concord’s very sanctuary, men stand posted with swords. Here, during my consulship, senators gave the advice that saved us. We’ve survived to this day because of it. Accuse the Senate. Accuse the knights, who joined the Senate then. Accuse every rank, every citizen. Just admit that Ituraeans surround this body right now. Your boldness doesn’t explain these shameless statements. You simply can’t see how completely the situations clash. You really have no sense. What could be crazier? You’ve taken up weapons to destroy the republic. Yet you attack someone else for weapons that saved it.\n\nSECTION 20\nAt one point, you even tried to be funny. Good gods, how badly that suited you! You deserve some blame for that too. You could’ve picked up some wit from your mime-actress wife. “Let weapons give way to the toga.” Well? Didn’t they give way then? Later, though, the toga gave way to your weapons. So let’s ask which was better. Was it better for criminals’ weapons to yield to the Roman people’s freedom? Or for our freedom to yield to your weapons? I won’t give you a longer answer about my verses. I’ll just say this briefly. You don’t understand them, or any literature at all. I’ve never let down the republic or my friends. Still, I’ve used my spare working hours for writing of every kind. My late nights and my books have achieved something. They’ve helped young people and brought honor to Rome’s name. But this isn’t the time for that. Let’s look at bigger matters.\n\n### Chapter 9\n\nSECTION 21\nYou said Publius Clodius was killed on my advice. What would people think if he’d been killed that day? You chased him with a sword through the Forum. The Roman people watched. You would’ve finished him off, but he escaped up a bookseller’s stairs. He blocked them and stopped your attack. I admit I supported what you were doing. Even you don’t say I suggested it. But I couldn’t even support Milo beforehand. He finished the business before anyone suspected he would do it. Yet I advised him, you say. Apparently Milo lacked the spirit to help the republic without someone prompting him! But I was glad, you say. Well, then? The whole city was celebrating. Was I alone supposed to be sad?\n\nSECTION 22\nThere was, after all, an inquiry into Clodius’s death. It wasn’t set up very sensibly. Why investigate a killing under a new law? Existing laws already provided for an inquiry. Still, there was an inquiry. No one brought this charge against me during the hearing. Now, after all these years, you’ve turned up to do it?\n\n### Chapter 10\n\nSECTION 23\nYou also dared make another claim, at great length. You said I broke up Pompey’s friendship with Caesar. That made the civil war my fault, you said. Your mistake wasn’t about the whole story. But you got the most important thing wrong: the timing. During Marcus Bibulus’s consulship—he was an outstanding citizen—I left nothing untried. I did everything I could to pull Pompey away from his alliance with Caesar. Caesar had more success. He himself broke up Pompey’s friendship with me. But once Pompey had given himself completely to Caesar, why would I try to separate them? Hoping for that would’ve been foolish. Urging it would’ve been shameless.\n\nSECTION 24\nStill, there were two occasions when I advised Pompey against Caesar. Criticize those, if you can. First, I told him not to extend Caesar’s command for five years. Second, I told him not to let a proposal pass allowing Caesar to stand for office while away. If I’d persuaded him on either point, we’d never have fallen into this misery. Later, Pompey handed Caesar all his own power and the Roman people’s too. He began, too late, to understand what I’d foreseen long before. I saw a wicked war being brought against our country. Even then, I kept urging peace, agreement, and a settlement. Many people know what I said: “Gnaeus Pompey, I wish you’d either never joined Caesar or never broken with him!” Staying apart would’ve shown your firmness. Staying together would’ve shown your good judgment. Antony, that was always my advice about Pompey and the republic. If it had prevailed, the republic would still stand. You would’ve collapsed under your own disgraceful behavior, poverty, and shame.\n\n### Chapter 11\n\nSECTION 25\nBut that’s old history. Here’s something recent: Caesar was killed on my advice. Senators, I’m beginning to fear something deeply shameful. People may think I’ve planted a prosecutor secretly working for me. He doesn’t just decorate me with credit for my own achievements. He piles other people’s achievements onto me too. Who ever heard my name among the partners in that glorious deed? And whose name, among those involved, was kept hidden? Kept hidden? Whose name wasn’t immediately spread everywhere? I’d sooner say some people boasted about involvement although they hadn’t been in on it. That’s more likely than anyone involved wanting to stay hidden.\n\nSECTION 26\nBesides, how could my name possibly have stayed hidden? There were so many people involved. Some were little known, some were young. None kept anyone’s identity secret. Did those who acted need someone to urge them to free their country? Would I have had to push the two Brutuses? Both saw Lucius Brutus’s portrait every day. One saw Ahala’s too. With ancestors like those, would they look to outsiders for advice rather than their own family? Would they look outside rather than at home? And what about Gaius Cassius? His family couldn’t tolerate anyone’s tyranny, or even anyone’s excessive power. Apparently he needed me to prompt him! He would’ve done the job without these distinguished men. He would’ve done it in Cilicia, at the Cydnus River’s mouth. But Caesar landed on the opposite bank, not the one he’d planned to use.\n\nSECTION 27\nWhat stirred Gnaeus Domitius to recover freedom? Wasn’t it the loss of his father, that outstanding man? Wasn’t it his uncle’s death? Wasn’t it being stripped of his standing? Or was my influence what moved him? Or did I persuade Gaius Trebonius? I wouldn’t even have dared suggest it to him. The republic owes him all the more thanks for that. He put the Roman people’s freedom before one man’s friendship. He chose to drive tyranny out rather than share it. Or did Lucius Tillius Cimber follow my lead? I was more surprised that he’d done it than convinced beforehand that he would. Here’s why I was surprised: he’d forgotten the favors he’d received and remembered his country. And the two Serviliuses—should I call them Cascas or Ahalas? Do you think my influence moved them too, rather than love for the republic? Listing the others would take too long. There were so many of them. That was splendid for the republic, and glorious for them.\n\n### Chapter 12\n\nSECTION 28\nNow remember how this sharp-minded man proved his case against me. He said, “Right after Caesar was killed, Brutus raised his bloody dagger high. He called out Cicero’s name and congratulated him on freedom’s recovery.” Why single me out? Because I knew? Consider another reason why he called my name. He’d done something like what I’d done myself. He called on me above all as his witness: he’d matched the deeds that brought me honor.\n\nSECTION 29\nYou’re the stupidest man alive. Can’t you understand this? You accuse me of wanting Caesar killed. If that’s a crime, being glad he died is a crime too. What’s the difference between urging a deed and approving it? What difference does it make whether I wanted it done or am glad it happened? So who didn’t want it to happen? Who disapproved once it was done? Only those who were happy to have him as king. Everyone else is guilty, then. Every decent man killed Caesar, as far as he could. Some lacked a plan, others courage, others the chance. No one lacked the wish.\n\nSECTION 30\nBut notice this man’s stupidity—or should I say this animal’s? Here’s what he said: “Brutus, whom I name with respect, held a bloody dagger and called out Cicero’s name. That must mean Cicero knew about the plot.” So you call me a criminal? You only suspect that I suspected something. But the man who carried a dripping dagger out in front of him—you name him with respect? All right. Let that stupidity in your words pass. How much greater is your stupidity in actions and judgments? Make up your mind at last, consul. Decide how you want to judge the two Brutuses, Gaius Cassius, Gnaeus Domitius, Gaius Trebonius, and the rest. Sleep off your hangover, I tell you. Breathe out those wine fumes. Must we bring torches close to wake you? You’re sleeping through a case this important. Will you never understand that you have to decide? Are the men who did this murderers, or did they defend freedom?\n\n### Chapter 13\n\nSECTION 31\nPay attention for a moment. Try thinking like a sober man, just briefly. I admit I’m their friend. You accuse me of being their partner. And I say there’s no middle ground. Unless they freed the Roman people and saved the republic, they’re worse than assassins. They’re worse than murderers, even worse than men who kill their fathers. That’s if killing your country’s father is worse than killing your own. You’re such a wise, thoughtful man. What’s your answer? If you call them father-killers, why have you always spoken of them with honor? You’ve done that here in the Senate and before the Roman people. Why did you propose exempting Marcus Brutus from the laws if he stayed outside Rome for over ten days? Why were the Games of Apollo held with such extraordinary honors for Marcus Brutus? Why did Brutus and Cassius get provinces? Why were they given quaestors? Why were their staffs of deputies increased? You brought all this about. So they’re not murderers. That means you judge them to be liberators. There’s no third choice.\n\nSECTION 32\nWhat’s wrong? Am I confusing you? Perhaps you don’t quite understand arguments that set out separate alternatives. Still, here’s what my argument comes down to. You cleared them of a crime. You also judged them worthy of the greatest rewards. So now I’ll take back my earlier words. I’ll write to them about your accusation against me. If anyone asks whether it’s true, they shouldn’t deny it. I’m afraid it would reflect badly on them to have kept me in the dark. And I’d be utterly ashamed to have turned down an invitation. Holy Jupiter! What greater deed has ever been done, not just in this city, but anywhere on earth? What deed was more glorious? What deed has a better claim to be remembered forever? Are you putting me inside this plot with its leading men, as though inside the Trojan horse?\n\nSECTION 33\nI don’t object. I even thank you, whatever your purpose is. The deed is so great that the hatred you want to stir up against me counts for nothing beside the praise. Who could be happier than these men? You boast that you drove them out and banished them. But what place is so empty or uncivilized that it wouldn’t seem to greet them and reach out as they approached? What people are so uncultured that seeing them wouldn’t seem life’s greatest reward? What future generations could be so forgetful? What histories could be so ungrateful that they wouldn’t keep their glory alive forever? Go ahead and put me among men like that.\n\n### Chapter 14\n\nSECTION 34\nBut there’s one thing I’m afraid you won’t like. If I’d been involved, I’d have removed more than the king from the republic. I’d have ended the kingship too. If I’d written that script, as people say, believe me, I wouldn’t have finished just one act. I’d have finished the whole play. Still, suppose wanting Caesar killed is a crime. Please consider what that means for you, Antony. Everyone knows you discussed this plan with Gaius Trebonius at Narbo. And because you shared in that plan, we saw Trebonius call you aside while Caesar was being killed. Now see how little hostility I’m showing you. I praise you for once having a good idea. I thank you for not exposing it. I forgive you for not carrying it out.\n\nSECTION 35\nThat business needed a man. But suppose someone brings you to trial. Suppose he asks that old question of Cassius’s: “Who benefited?” Please make sure you won’t be stuck for an answer. True, as you said, it benefited everyone who didn’t want to be a slave. But it benefited you most of all. You’re not just free from slavery. You’re ruling. You freed yourself from enormous debts at the Temple of Ops. Through those same accounts, you squandered vast amounts of money. So much was brought to you from Caesar’s house. Your home runs a hugely profitable workshop for forged records and handwritten documents. It’s a thoroughly disgraceful marketplace for land, towns, tax exemptions, and tax revenues.\n\nSECTION 36\nWhat besides Caesar’s death could have relieved your poverty and debts? You seem a little upset. Are you afraid people might think this accusation applies to you? I’ll put your fears to rest. Nobody will ever believe it. Doing the republic a good turn isn’t your way. The republic has outstanding men to thank for that splendid deed. I’m only saying you’re glad it happened. I’m not accusing you of doing it. I’ve answered the most serious charges. Now I must answer the rest.\n\n### Chapter 15\n\nSECTION 37\nYou attacked me over Pompey’s camp and that whole period. As I’ve said, if my advice and influence had prevailed then, you’d be broke today. We’d be free. The republic wouldn’t have lost so many commanders and armies. I admit I saw what was coming. That made me deeply unhappy, as it would have made every other good citizen who foresaw it. I grieved, I grieved, senators. Your decisions and mine had once saved the republic. Now it would soon be destroyed. I wasn’t so ignorant or so clueless about events that wanting to stay alive broke my spirit. Staying alive would wear me down with grief. Letting life go would free me from every trouble. I wanted those outstanding men to live, those shining lights of the republic. So many former consuls, so many former praetors, so many highly respected senators! And all the finest nobles and young men, along with armies of excellent citizens! Had they lived, we’d still control the republic today, however unfair the peace terms. To me, any peace with fellow citizens seemed better than civil war.\n\nSECTION 38\nSuppose my view had prevailed. Suppose the very men whose lives I was trying to save hadn’t opposed me, carried away by hopes of victory. Leave everything else aside. You certainly wouldn’t have stayed in this Senate—or rather, in this city. But you say my speeches turned Pompey against me. Did he love anyone more? Did he talk with anyone or share his plans more often? That really was something: we disagreed over the republic’s most important issue, yet kept the same close friendship. I understood what he thought and aimed at. He understood the same about me. I put citizens’ safety first, so we could protect their standing afterward. He cared more about protecting their standing right then. Each of us had a goal he was pursuing. That made our disagreement easier to bear.\n\n### Chapter 16\n\nSECTION 39\nThat remarkable, almost godlike man had his own opinion of me. The men who followed him to Paphos after his flight from Pharsalus know it. He never mentioned me without respect. He always spoke with the deepest longing for a close friend. He admitted I’d seen further ahead, while he’d hoped for better things. Yet you dare use his name to attack me? You must admit I was his friend. You bought up his auctioned property. But let’s leave that war aside. You had far too much luck in it. I won’t even answer your claims about my jokes in camp. That camp certainly had plenty of worries. Still, even in troubled times, people sometimes relax—if they’re human at all.\n\nSECTION 40\nThe same man attacks both my sadness and my jokes. That’s strong evidence I went too far in neither.\n\nYou said I don’t receive inheritances. I wish that accusation of yours were true! More of my friends and loved ones would still be alive. But how did that idea enter your head? I’ve recorded more than twenty million sesterces received through inheritances. Still, I admit you’ve had better luck here. Only friends have made me their heir. So any gain I got came with some grief. But Lucius Rubrius of Casinum made you his heir. You’d never even seen him.\n\nSECTION 41\nAnd just look how much he loved you! You don’t even know whether he was light or dark. He passed over his brother’s son. He didn’t even mention the son of Quintus Fufius, a highly respected Roman knight and his very close friend. He’d always publicly named that son as his heir. Instead, he made you his heir. He’d never seen you, or certainly never greeted you. Please tell me, if you don’t mind: what did Lucius Turselius look like? How tall was he? What town was he from? What voting tribe? “I know nothing,” you’ll say, “except which estates he owned.” So he disinherited his brother to make you his heir. This man also seized many fortunes belonging to complete strangers. The rightful heirs were driven out by force. He took over as though he were the heir.\n\n### Chapter 17\n\nSECTION 42\nStill, what surprised me most was your daring to mention inheritances. You didn’t even accept your own father’s estate.\n\nYou complete madman! Did you spend all those days practicing speeches in someone else’s country house just to put this together? Your closest friends keep saying why you practice. It’s to blow off wine fumes, not sharpen your mind. Still, you bring in a teacher for laughs. He’s a public-speaking teacher because you and your drinking buddies say so. You’ve let him say whatever he likes about you. He’s certainly witty. But you and your friends make easy targets for jokes. Now look at the difference between you and your grandfather. He spoke slowly and helped his case. You race through things that have nothing to do with yours.\n\nSECTION 43\nBut what a fee that teacher got! Listen, listen, senators! See how the republic has been wounded. You gave Sextus Clodius, the public-speaking teacher, two thousand iugera on the plain of Leontini. And you made them tax-free. The Roman people paid all that for you to learn to be a fool. Is this also in Caesar’s records, you utterly shameless man? I’ll discuss the land at Leontini elsewhere, along with the land in Campania. This man stole those lands from the republic. He polluted them with the most disgraceful occupants. I’ve now answered his accusations well enough. It’s time to say something about this man who’s correcting and reforming us. I won’t pour everything out. If we have to fight again—as we will—I’ll always come with something fresh. His countless faults and misdeeds give me that freedom.\n\n### Chapter 18\n\nSECTION 44\nSo, shall we look at you from boyhood? I think so. Let’s start at the beginning. Do you remember going bankrupt in your boyhood toga? “That was my father’s fault,” you’ll say. Fair enough. That’s certainly a loving son’s defense. But you were responsible for daring to sit in the fourteen rows. The Roscian law set aside a particular place for bankrupts. That applied even when bad luck caused their bankruptcy, not their own fault. You put on a man’s toga. You immediately turned it into a woman’s toga. At first, you were a common whore. Your disgraceful services had a set price, and no small one. But Curio soon stepped in. He took you away from earning money through prostitution. As though he’d given you a married woman’s dress, he settled you in a lasting, dependable marriage.\n\nSECTION 45\nNo boy bought for sex was ever so completely under his owner’s control as you were under Curio’s. How often did his father throw you out of his house? How often did he post guards to keep you from crossing the threshold? Yet you still let yourself down through the roof tiles. Night was your accomplice. Lust urged you on. Your fee left you no choice. That house couldn’t put up with your disgraceful acts any longer. Do you know I’m talking about things I know very well? Remember when Curio’s father lay grieving on his bed. His son threw himself at my feet in tears. He begged me to look after you. He asked me to defend him against his father if his father demanded six million sesterces. He said he’d guaranteed that much for you. He was burning with love. He insisted he’d go into exile, because he couldn’t bear the pain of being parted from you.\n\nSECTION 46\nWhat terrible troubles I calmed in that thriving family then—or rather, removed altogether! I persuaded the father to pay his son’s debts. He should use the family’s resources to buy back that young man, whose character and talent showed such promise. He should use his authority and power as a father to stop more than your close friendship. He should prevent you from even meeting. You remembered that I’d done all this. Without your faith in those swords we can see, you’d never have dared to provoke me with insults.\n\n### Chapter 19\n\nSECTION 47\nBut let’s leave the sex scandals and disgrace behind. Some things I can’t say without losing my decency. That gives you more freedom. You’ve done things a decent enemy couldn’t mention. Now look at the rest of his life. I’ll go through it quickly. I want to reach his actions in the civil war, during the republic’s worst suffering. And I want to reach what he does every day. You know these things far better than I do. Still, please keep listening closely, as you’re doing now. With things like these, knowledge alone should stir us. Remembering them should stir us too. But let’s cut out the middle, I think. Otherwise we’ll reach the end too late.\n\nSECTION 48\nThis man keeps mentioning his favors to me. Yet he was Clodius’s closest friend during Clodius’s tribunate. He lit the torch for every fire Clodius started. Even then, he tried something in Clodius’s own house. He knows perfectly well what I mean. Then came his trip to Alexandria. It defied the senate, the republic, and religious rules. But Gabinius was his commander. With him, anything he did would surely be right! And how did he return from there? What route did he take? From Egypt, he reached the farthest part of Gaul before going home. But what home? Everyone still held their own home then. You didn’t have one anywhere. Why say “home”? Where on earth could you set foot on anything you owned? There was just one place at Misenum. You held that with partners, like the mines at Sisapo.\n\n### Chapter 20\n\nSECTION 49\nYou came back from Gaul to run for quaestor. Dare to say you visited your mother before me! Caesar had already written to me. He asked me to accept your apology. So I didn’t even let you discuss making peace. After that, you treated me with respect. I supported you during your campaign for quaestor. During that time, you tried to kill Publius Clodius in the forum. The Roman people approved. You tried it on your own, without my urging. Still, you kept telling people this: you could never make up for your wrongs against me unless you killed him. So why claim I pushed Milo to do it? That really puzzles me. You offered to do the same thing yourself. I never encouraged you. Still, if you’d kept at it, I’d have preferred it to count as your achievement, not a favor to me.\n\n### Chapter 21\n\nSECTION 50\nYou became quaestor. Then you immediately rushed off to Caesar. You had no senate decree, no assignment by lot, no law. Your life was wrecked by poverty, debt, and bad behavior. You thought Caesar was your one refuge on earth. There you filled your pockets with his gifts and your own thefts. If you can call it filling your pockets, when you stole only to pour it straight out! Then you came flying back, broke, to seek the tribunate. In that office, you hoped to resemble your husband, if you could.\n\nNow please listen to what he did next. I don’t mean his filthy, reckless attacks on himself and his family’s good name. I mean his godless crimes against us and our property—against the whole republic, in other words. You’ll find that his crime started all our troubles.\n\nSECTION 51\nIt was January 1, when Lucius Lentulus and Gaius Marcellus were consuls. You wanted to prop up the republic. It was slipping and almost falling. You also wanted to help Caesar himself, if he was in his right mind. Then this man blocked your plans with his tribunate. He’d sold that office and signed it away. He put his own neck under the ax. Many had died under it for smaller offenses. Antony, the senate passed a decree against you. The senate was still intact then. So many of its leading lights hadn’t yet gone out. Following our ancestors’ practice, it passed the decree used against an enemy who was still a citizen. And you dared attack me before the senators? This body had judged me the republic’s savior. It had judged you its enemy. People stopped bringing up that crime of yours. They haven’t forgotten it. As long as human beings exist, as long as the Roman people’s name survives, people will mention that disastrous veto of yours. And that name will last forever, if you’ll let it.\n\nSECTION 52\nWhat selfish or reckless thing was the senate doing? You, one young man, stopped the whole body from deciding how to save the republic. You did it not once, but repeatedly. You wouldn’t even discuss the senate’s authority with anyone. What were they asking of you? Only that you stop trying to destroy the republic and tear it down completely. The state’s leading men pleaded with you. Older men warned you. A crowded senate pressed you. None could shift the position you’d sold and handed over. They tried many other things first. Then they had to inflict that wound on you. Few before you had suffered it. Not one had come through unharmed:\n\n### Chapter 22\n\nSECTION 53\nThen this body gave the consuls weapons against you. It gave them to the other military commanders and public officials too. You wouldn’t have escaped those weapons without joining Caesar’s army. You, you, Antony—I mean you—first gave Caesar his excuse to wage war on his country. He wanted to throw everything into chaos. What else did he say? What reason did he give for his utterly insane plan and actions? Only that Antony’s veto had been ignored, his rights as tribune abolished, and the senate had restricted his powers. I’ll leave aside how false and flimsy these claims were. Above all, nobody can ever have a good reason to take up arms against their country. But no more about Caesar. You, at least, must admit this: you yourself supplied the excuse for that devastating war.\n\nSECTION 54\nYou’re miserable if you understand all this. You’re more miserable if you don’t. It’s being written down. It’s being passed on to memory. No future generation, in any age, will ever forget it. The consuls were driven out of Italy. Pompey went with them, the glory and shining light of Roman power. Every former consul whose health allowed it joined that disaster and flight. So did praetors, former praetors, and the people’s tribunes. So did a large part of the senate and the whole rising generation of young men. In short, the republic itself was driven out and uprooted from its home!\n\nSECTION 55\nSeeds produce trees and plants. You were the seed that produced this most sorrowful war. You grieve for three Roman armies destroyed. Antony destroyed them. You miss our most distinguished citizens. Antony took them from you too. This body’s authority has been crushed. Antony crushed it. Think it through properly. We’ll charge Antony alone with everything we’ve seen since. And what evil haven’t we seen? Helen caused the Trojans’ war. This man caused our republic’s war, its ruin, its destruction. The rest of his tribunate matched its beginning. The senate had kept those things from happening while the republic was safe. He brought them all about. But look at this further crime within his crimes.\n\n### Chapter 23\n\nSECTION 56\nHe restored the rights of many convicted men. There was no mention of his uncle among them. If he was strict, why not with everyone? If he was merciful, why not with his family? But I’ll leave the others aside. He restored his gambling partner, Licinius Lenticula, who’d been convicted of gambling. As though playing with a convicted man were forbidden! No, he used the law to pay off his gambling losses. What reason did you give the Roman people for restoring him? I suppose he’d been charged while he was away? His case had been decided without hearing his defense? There’d been no trial under the gambling law? Violence and weapons had crushed him? Or finally, had bribes corrupted the trial, as people said about your uncle’s? None of those things. But he was a good man, worthy of the republic. That’s beside the point. Still, since a conviction counts for nothing, I’d forgive it if that were true. Here was the worst of men. He wouldn’t hesitate to gamble even in the forum. He’d been convicted under the law against gambling. Doesn’t the man who fully restored his rights openly declare his own taste for gambling?\n\nSECTION 57\nDuring that same tribunate, Caesar set off for Spain. He left Italy to this man to trample on. What a trip he made along the roads! What a tour of the towns! I know everyone has talked about these things. Everyone who was in Italy then knows more than I do about what I’m saying and will say. I wasn’t here. Still, I’ll mention each thing, though nothing I say can match your knowledge. Has anyone ever heard of such an outrage anywhere on earth? Such filth? Such disgrace?\n\n### Chapter 24\n\nSECTION 58\nThe people’s tribune rode in a chariot. His lictors went ahead, decorated with laurel. Among them, a mime actress traveled in an open litter. Respectable townsmen had to come out to meet them. They greeted her, not by her familiar stage name, but as Volumnia. A carriage full of pimps followed. What worthless companions! His mother had been pushed to the rear. She followed her filthy son’s mistress as though this were her daughter-in-law. Poor woman! Having children brought her such misery! He stamped the tracks of these scandals on every town, prefecture, and colony—in short, on all Italy.\n\nSECTION 59\nSenators, criticizing his other actions is certainly difficult and tricky. He took part in the war. He gorged on the blood of citizens nothing like himself. He was successful, if there can be success in crime. But we want the veterans’ interests protected. Their case is very different from yours. They followed a leader. You went looking for one. Still, I won’t discuss the kind of war it was. I don’t want you stirring up their hatred against me. You returned victorious from Thessaly to Brundisium with your legions. You didn’t kill me there. What a great favor! I admit you could have. Yet everyone who was with you then thought I should be spared.\n\nSECTION 60\nPeople love their country so much that even your legions treated me as untouchable. They remembered that I’d saved it. But let’s say you gave me what you didn’t take away. Let’s say I owe you my life because you didn’t take it. Did your insults let me keep honoring this favor as I had before? Especially when you knew you’d hear all this?\n\n### Chapter 25\n\nSECTION 61\nYou came to Brundisium, straight into your little mime actress’s lap and arms. Well? Am I lying? What a miserable position! You can’t deny something that’s utterly shameful to admit. Maybe you felt no shame before the towns. But didn’t you feel any before that veteran army? Which soldier at Brundisium hadn’t seen her? Which didn’t know she’d traveled so many days to congratulate you? Which didn’t grieve at learning so late what a worthless man he’d followed?\n\nSECTION 62\nHe raced across Italy again, with the same actress. Soldiers were settled in the towns. It was cruel and pitiful. In Rome, he shamelessly looted gold, silver, and especially wine. On top of that, Caesar’s friends did him a favor. They got him made master of the cavalry. Caesar was in Alexandria and knew nothing about it. Antony then thought he had every right to live with Hippias. He could give Sergius the mime the horses used to raise revenue, too. Back then, he chose Marcus Piso’s house to live in. It wasn’t the house he now struggles to hold on to. Why list his decrees? Why his robberies? Why the inherited estates he handed out? Why those he took away? Poverty drove him. He had nowhere to turn. He hadn’t yet received that great inheritance from Lucius Rubrius, or the one from Lucius Turselius. He hadn’t yet stepped in as sudden heir to Gnaeus Pompey and many other men who were away. He had to live like a bandit. He could only have as much as he could steal.\n\nSECTION 63\nBut let’s skip these more hard-edged crimes. Let’s talk instead about the worst sort of reckless foolishness. You have that throat and those sides. Your whole body is as solid as a gladiator’s. Yet you drained so much wine at Hippias’s wedding that you had to vomit the next day, before the Roman people. What a horrible thing to see, and even to hear about! Suppose it had happened at dinner, over those enormous cups of yours. Who wouldn’t have called it disgraceful? But you were master of the cavalry, doing public business before the assembled Roman people. Even burping would have been shameful for you. Instead, you vomited food chunks that reeked of wine. You filled your lap and the whole platform with them. But he himself admits these belong among his dirty deeds. Let’s move on to the bright spots.\n\n### Chapter 26\n\nSECTION 64\nCaesar returned from Alexandria. He thought he was fortunate. But I don’t think anyone can be fortunate if he brings disaster on the republic. They set up an auction spear outside Jupiter Stator’s temple. They offered Gnaeus Pompey’s property for sale—how it hurts me! I’ve used up all my tears. But the pain still sticks deep inside me. Gnaeus Pompey the Great’s property, I mean. The auctioneer’s terribly cruel voice called out its sale. At that one event, Rome forgot its slavery and groaned. People’s spirits were enslaved. Fear held everything in its grip. Yet the Roman people’s groan was free. Everyone waited to see who would dare buy that confiscated property. Who could be so godless, so mad, so hostile to gods and humans? Nobody came forward except Antony. Plenty of people stood around that auction spear. They’d have dared anything else. But only one man dared this. Even the most reckless people had shrunk from it in fear.\n\n### Chapter 27\n\nSECTION 65\nHas such complete stupidity overwhelmed you? Or, more accurately, such complete madness? You come from a family like yours, yet you buy confiscated property. And you buy Pompey’s property, at that. Don’t you know the Roman people curse and detest you? Don’t you know every god and human hates you now and will hate you afterward? That glutton immediately pounced on the man’s wealth with such arrogance! That man’s courage had made foreign nations fear the Roman people more. His fairness had made them love the Roman people more. Antony suddenly gorged himself on that man’s riches. Then he jumped for joy, like someone in a comic play. A moment ago he’d been poor. Suddenly he was rich. But some poet or other says, “Wrongly gained wealth gets badly squandered.”\n\nSECTION 66\nIt’s unbelievable, almost a freak of nature. How did he pour away so much in so little time? I’m not talking about months, but days. There was an enormous supply of wine. There was a huge weight of the finest silver. There were expensive clothes and lots of fine furniture, magnificent furnishings spread among many places. These weren’t the belongings of a man given to luxury. But they were a wealthy man’s belongings. Within a few days, none of them remained. Could any Charybdis swallow that much?\n\nSECTION 67\nWhy am I talking about Charybdis? If she existed, she was just one creature. Even the Ocean, I swear, could hardly have swallowed so much so fast. The things were so scattered, in places so far apart. Nothing was locked up, sealed, or listed. Whole storerooms were given away to complete scoundrels. Actors snatched some things; actresses snatched others. The house was packed with gamblers and full of drunks. People drank all day, in several places at once. They often had to cover gambling losses, too. His luck wasn’t always good. You could see beds in the slaves’ rooms covered with Gnaeus Pompey’s bedspreads, dyed purple from shellfish. So stop wondering how everything disappeared so quickly. Such wicked behavior could soon have swallowed more than one man’s fortune, however large—and that one was large. It could have swallowed cities and kingdoms. And this same man had the house and gardens, too.\n\n### Chapter 28\n\nSECTION 68\nWhat monstrous nerve! You dared go into that house? You crossed that most sacred doorstep? You showed your filthy face to that home’s household gods? For a time, nobody could look at that house. Nobody could pass it without tears. Aren’t you ashamed to have stayed there so long? As stupid as you are, nothing there can please you. When you saw those ships’ prows in the entrance, did you think you were entering your own home? That’s impossible. You have no brain or feelings, yes. But you still know yourself, your belongings, and your people. I don’t believe your mind can ever rest, awake or asleep. You’re violent and mad, yes. But when that extraordinary man’s image appears before you, you must wake up terrified. You must often go mad even while awake.\n\nSECTION 69\nI feel sorry for the walls and roof themselves. What had that house ever seen but decent behavior? What had it seen but the best traditions and the strictest moral standards? Senators, you know what sort of man he was. He won fame abroad and admiration at home. His home life deserved just as much praise as his achievements abroad. Now his bedrooms are stables. His private rooms are taverns. Though Antony denies that now. Don’t ask questions. He’s become respectable. He told that woman of his to keep her belongings. He took away her keys under the Twelve Tables and threw her out. What a respected citizen! What a fine reputation! In his whole life, his most honorable act was divorcing an actress.\n\nSECTION 70\nBut how often he says, “I’m a consul, and I’m an Antony!” That means, “I’m a consul, and I’m utterly shameless!” Or, “I’m a consul, and I’m a complete scoundrel!” What else does “Antony” mean? Suppose the name stood for distinction. Your grandfather would surely have said at some point, “I’m a consul, and I’m an Antony.” He never did. My fellow consul, your uncle, would have said it too. Unless, of course, you’re the only Antony. But I’ll leave aside those offenses. They aren’t specific to the political side you used to batter the republic. I’ll return to your side itself. I mean the civil war. Your work gave it birth, fanned it, and set it going.\n\n### Chapter 29\n\nSECTION 71\nYou failed to do your part in that war. Both cowardice and your sexual appetites kept you away. You’d tasted your fellow citizens’ blood—or rather, gulped it down. You’d fought on the front line at Pharsalus. You’d killed Lucius Domitius, a man of the highest standing and birth. You’d also hunted down and brutally butchered many men who escaped the battle. Caesar might have spared them, as he spared some others. After so many great deeds of that sort, why didn’t you follow Caesar to Africa? So much of the war still remained. Then where did you stand with Caesar after he returned from Africa? How much did you count? You served as his quaestor when he commanded the army. As dictator, he’d had you as master of the cavalry. You’d led the push for war, urged cruelty, and shared the plunder. You even claimed he’d named you his son in his will. Yet he demanded the money you owed for the house, gardens, and confiscated property.\n\nSECTION 72\nAt first, you answered with outright defiance. And I don’t want everything I say to go against you. Your arguments were almost fair and reasonable. “Gaius Caesar wants money from me? Why not me from him instead? Did he win without me? He couldn’t possibly have done it. I gave him his reason for civil war. I proposed the destructive laws. I took up arms against the consuls and the Roman people’s commanders. I fought the Senate and the Roman people. I fought our ancestral gods, our altars and hearths. I fought our country. Did he win just for himself? If people share the crime, why shouldn’t they share the loot?” Your demand was fair. But what good did that do?\n\nSECTION 73\nHe had more power. So he brushed aside what you said. He sent soldiers to you and your guarantors. Suddenly you produced that wonderful auction notice. How people laughed! What a huge list! So many properties, of so many different kinds! But the man holding the auction owned none of them, except a share at Misenum. The auction itself was a sorry sight. There weren’t many clothes of Pompey’s, and those were stained. Some of his silver dishes were battered. The slaves were filthy. It hurt us that any of those remnants survived for us to see.\n\nSECTION 74\nStill, Lucius Rubrius’s heirs blocked that auction under Caesar’s order. That crook was stuck. He had nowhere to turn. At that very time, people were even reporting that an assassin you’d sent had been caught in Caesar’s house with a dagger. Caesar complained about it in the Senate, openly attacking you. Caesar left for Spain. Because you were broke, he’d given you a few more days to pay. You didn’t follow him even then. Such a good gladiator—and you take your wooden retirement sword so soon? So should anyone be scared of this man? He was so timid about his own side—his own fortunes, I mean.\n\n### Chapter 30\n\nSECTION 75\nHe finally left for Spain, at long last. But he says he couldn’t get there safely. Then how did Dolabella get there? Antony, you shouldn’t have taken that side at all. Or, once you took it, you should have fought for it to the end. Caesar fought his fellow citizens three times: in Thessaly, Africa, and Spain. Dolabella was at all three battles. He was even wounded in Spain. You ask what I think? I wish he hadn’t done it. Still, his original choice deserves blame, but his persistence deserves praise. But what about you? Gnaeus Pompey’s children were then making their first attempt to reclaim their country. All right, let’s say that was a cause their whole Pompeian side shared. But they were also reclaiming their ancestral gods, altars, hearths, and their family’s household god. You’d seized all of those. They were fighting to recover what belonged to them by law. Yes, in such deeply unjust circumstances, what justice was possible? Still, who had the clearest duty to fight Gnaeus Pompey’s children? Who? You, the buyer of the confiscated property.\n\nSECTION 76\nOr was Dolabella supposed to fight for you in Spain so you could puke over your hosts’ tables in Narbo?\n\nAnd what a trip back from Narbo! He even asked why I’d suddenly turned back in the middle of my journey. Senators, I recently explained why I came back. I wanted to help the republic even before January 1, if possible. As for how I came back—you asked about that—first, I came in daylight, not darkness. Second, I wore shoes and a toga. No Gallic sandals, no traveling cloak. You’re even staring at me, apparently angry. You’d make peace with me at once if you knew how ashamed I am of your disgusting behavior. You yourself aren’t ashamed of it. Of all the disgraceful acts of all people, I’ve never seen anything uglier. I’ve never heard of anything uglier. You considered yourself a former master of the cavalry. You were running for consul for the following year—or rather, begging for it. Yet you raced through Gaul’s towns and colonies in Gallic sandals and a traveling cloak. We used to seek the consulship from Gaul, back when people ran for it, not begged for it.\n\n### Chapter 31\n\nSECTION 77\nBut look how flighty this man is. He reached Saxa Rubra around the tenth daylight hour. He hid in a little tavern. He stayed hidden there and drank heavily until evening. Then a two-wheeled carriage rushed him into Rome. He came home with his head wrapped up. The doorkeeper asked, “Who are you?” “A messenger from Marcus.” He was taken straight to the woman he’d come for. He handed her a letter. She read it and cried. It was a love letter. Its main point was this: he’d have nothing more to do with that actress. He’d dropped all his love for her. He’d poured it all into this woman instead. The woman started crying even harder. Our softhearted man couldn’t take it. He uncovered his head and threw his arms around her neck. What a worthless man! What else can I say? I can’t find a word that fits better. So you frightened Rome that night. You kept Italy scared for days. Was it all so that woman could see you, a boy-whore, suddenly appear when she least expected you?\n\n### Chapter 32\n\nSECTION 78\nAt home, love was your reason. In public, you had an even uglier reason. You didn’t want Lucius Plancus selling your guarantors’ property. A tribune of the people brought you before a public meeting. You said you’d come to handle your own affairs. That even got the people making jokes about you. But that’s too much about this nonsense. Let’s move to bigger things.\n\nYou went a very long way to meet Caesar. He was coming back from Spain. You hurried out and hurried back. You wanted him to see you had energy, if not courage. Somehow you became close to him again. Caesar certainly had this habit. A man’s debts had utterly ruined him. He was penniless. If Caesar knew he was also a reckless scoundrel, he was especially eager to make him a close friend.\n\nSECTION 79\nAll that gave you a glowing recommendation. Orders went out to declare you consul—with Caesar himself. I’m not complaining about what happened to Dolabella. He was pushed into it, led on, and tricked. Who doesn’t know how badly you both betrayed Dolabella? Caesar encouraged him to run. Then he took back what he’d promised and guaranteed. He claimed the position for himself. You added your support to his betrayal. January 1 came. We were forced into a Senate meeting. Dolabella attacked you at much greater length than I’m doing now. He was much better prepared too.\n\nSECTION 80\nAnd what did this angry man say? Good gods! First, Caesar announced his plan. Before leaving, he would order Dolabella’s appointment as consul. People say Caesar wasn’t a king! Yet he kept doing and saying things like that. Anyway, when Caesar said this, our fine augur spoke up. His priestly office, he said, gave him certain powers. He could use the omens to stop an election or invalidate it. He firmly declared he would do that. First, notice the man’s incredible stupidity here.\n\nSECTION 81\nWhat’s this? You said your priestly office let you do it. Suppose you weren’t an augur, but you were consul. Would you have had any less power to do it? You might even have found it easier. We augurs can only report omens. Consuls and other officials can also watch for them. Fine: that was ignorance. We can’t expect good sense from a man who’s never sober. But look at his nerve. Months beforehand, he told the Senate what he’d do. He’d either use the omens to stop Dolabella’s election, or do what he actually did. Can anyone predict a flaw in the omens? Only someone who’s decided to watch the sky. The laws don’t allow that during elections. And anyone who has watched must report beforehand, not after the election. His ignorance and shamelessness are tangled together. He doesn’t know what an augur should know. He doesn’t act as a decent man should.\n\n### Chapter 33\n\nSECTION 82\nNow remember his consulship from that day through the Ides of March. Has any clerk ever been so servile, so groveling? He could do nothing himself. He had to ask for everything. He stuck his head into the back of his colleague’s litter. He begged his colleague for favors he could sell. Now comes the day of Dolabella’s election. They draw lots for the voting group that goes first. He does nothing. Its vote is announced. He says nothing. The first voting class is called. Then the votes follow their usual course. Then comes the second class. It all happened faster than I’ve described it.\n\nSECTION 83\nThe business was finished. Then our fine augur—you’d think he was Gaius Laelius—said, “Another day.” What unbelievable nerve! What had you seen? What had you noticed? What had you heard? You didn’t claim you’d been watching the sky. You don’t claim that today either. So the flaw you foresaw on January 1 turned up! You’d predicted it all that time before! By Hercules, you made up those omens. I hope the great disaster falls on you, not the republic. You bound the Roman people with a religious obligation. You, an augur, reported bad omens against an augur. You, a consul, reported them against a consul. I won’t say more. I don’t want to seem to undermine Dolabella’s official acts. Our body of augurs must consider them eventually. But see how arrogant and overbearing this man is.\n\n### Chapter 34\n\nSECTION 84\nAs long as you choose, Dolabella’s consulship is invalid. Then, when you choose, his election has no fault in the omens. Suppose an augur’s report means nothing when he uses your words. Then admit you weren’t sober when you said, “Another day.” But suppose those words have some force. What is it? I’m asking you as one augur to another.\n\nBut my speech mustn’t skip the finest of Antony’s many deeds. Let’s come to the Lupercalia. He’s not hiding it, senators. He’s clearly upset. He’s sweating. He’s pale. He can do anything else. Just don’t let him vomit like he did in the Minucian Portico. How can anyone defend something so shameful? I want to hear it. Let’s see his speaking teacher’s huge fee at work. Let’s see the land at Leontini earn its keep.\n\nSECTION 85\nYour colleague sat on the speakers’ platform. He wore a purple toga and a wreath. His chair was gold. You climbed up and went over to his chair. You were a Lupercal priest, but you should still have remembered you were consul. You held out a royal headband. Groans came from the whole Forum. Where did the headband come from? You hadn’t picked it up after someone threw it away. You’d brought it from home. You’d thought out and planned this crime. You kept putting the headband on him. The people cried out in grief. He kept refusing it, and they applauded. So you alone turned out to be willing, you criminal. You pushed for kingship. You wanted your fellow consul to be your master. You also tested what the Roman people could bear and put up with.\n\nSECTION 86\nYou even tried to make people feel sorry for you. You threw yourself at his feet like a beggar. What were you asking for? To be a slave? You should have asked that just for yourself. Ever since boyhood, you’d let people do anything to you. Being a slave would come easily to you. We certainly hadn’t authorized you to ask for that. Neither had the Roman people. Your speech was really brilliant, wasn’t it? You addressed the crowd naked! What could be more shameful? More disgusting? More deserving of every punishment? Are you waiting for us to jab you with sharp goads? If you have any feeling at all, this speech rips into you. This speech makes you bleed. I’m afraid I may lessen those great men’s glory. Still, the pain makes me say it. What could be more outrageous? The man who put the headband on Caesar still lives. Yet everyone agrees Caesar was rightly killed, though he refused it.\n\nSECTION 87\nHe even ordered this entry in the calendar under the Lupercalia: “At the people’s orders, Antony, the consul, offered kingship to Caesar, dictator for life. Caesar refused to accept it.” Now, now I’m not surprised at all that you disrupt the peace. You hate not just Rome, but daylight itself. You drink with the worst bandits, not just during daylight but right through till morning. Where will you fit in when there’s peace? What place can you have under laws and in courts? You did all you could to destroy them through royal rule. Was this why Lucius Tarquinius was driven out? Was this why Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were killed? So Antony could put a king in Rome centuries later, against the gods’ law?\n\n### Chapter 35\n\nSECTION 88\nBut let’s return to the omens. Caesar was going to raise them in the Senate on the Ides of March. I ask you: what were you going to do then? I heard you’d come prepared. You thought I’d discuss your made-up omens. We still had to obey them, though. The republic’s good luck canceled that day’s business. Did Caesar’s death also cancel your ruling on the omens? But I’ve reached a time I must discuss first. It takes priority over the topics I’d begun. How you ran on that wonderful day! How scared you were! You knew your crimes and despaired of staying alive. After running away, you slipped home in secret. You owed this to the kindness of those men. They wanted you safe, provided you came to your senses.\n\nSECTION 89\nOh, my predictions always came true, and always did no good! I told our liberators this on the Capitol. They wanted me to come to you. They wanted me to urge you to defend the republic. I said you’d promise anything while you were scared. Once you stopped being afraid, you’d be yourself again. The other former consuls went back and forth. I stuck to my judgment. I didn’t see you that day or the next. I never believed any agreement could seal a partnership between our best citizens and their most vicious enemy. On the third day, I came to the Temple of Tellus. I came unwillingly. Armed men blocked every way in.\n\n### Chapter 36\n\nSECTION 90\nWhat a day that was for you, Antony! You suddenly turned against me. Still, I pity you for cheating yourself. Immortal gods, what a man you could have been! How great, if you’d kept that day’s outlook! We’d have peace now. A noble boy secured that peace as a hostage—Marcus Bambalio’s grandson. Fear made you behave well. But fear doesn’t teach duty for long. Your recklessness made you turn bad. It never leaves you when fear is gone. Even then, people thought you were doing wonderfully. I disagreed. You ran the tyrant’s funeral like a criminal—if you can call that a funeral.\n\nSECTION 91\nThat fine funeral speech was yours. You stirred their pity. You urged them on. You, yes, you lit those torches! Some half-burned his body. Others set Lucius Bellienus’s house ablaze and burned it down. You sent those gangs against our homes. They were desperate men, mostly slaves. We fought them off by force. Yet afterward, you seemed to wipe off the soot. In the following days, you secured excellent Senate decrees on the Capitol. No notice granting tax exemptions or other favors could be posted after March 15. You remember what you said about exiles. You know what you said about tax exemptions. Your best move abolished the very title of dictator forever. You seemed to hate kingship so much that you removed every fear of it. The latest dictator had caused that fear. Other people thought the republic was secure.\n\nSECTION 92\nI didn’t think so at all. With you steering, I feared shipwreck of every kind. So was I wrong? Could he keep acting unlike himself much longer? You all watched notices go up across the Capitol. Tax exemptions went on sale, not just for individuals, but for whole peoples. Citizenship wasn’t handed out to individuals anymore. Entire provinces got it. Senators, these measures can’t survive if the republic survives. If they stand, you’ve lost whole provinces. This man’s private market has cut down more than our revenues. It’s cut down the Roman people’s power too.\n\n### Chapter 37\n\nSECTION 93\nWhere are the 700 million sesterces recorded in the accounts at Ops’s temple? Yes, that money was bloodstained. Still, it could have spared us taxes, unless we returned it to its owners. And you owed 40 million sesterces on March 15. How had that debt vanished before April 1? Countless things were bought from your people. You knew about it. But one outstanding decree was posted on the Capitol. It concerned King Deiotarus, a very close friend of the Roman people. Once it appeared, nobody could hold back their laughter, even in their grief.\n\nSECTION 94\nDid Caesar hate anyone more than Deiotarus? He hated him as he hated this Senate, the knights, and the people of Massilia. He hated everyone who cared about the Roman republic. While Caesar lived, King Deiotarus got no fair or decent treatment from him. It made no difference whether he was there or away. Now Caesar’s dead, and the king has his favor. Caesar had attacked his host to his face. He’d added up the money he demanded. He’d put one of his Greek companions in the king’s tetrarchy. He’d taken away Armenia, which the Senate had given him. He took these things away while alive. Now he’s dead, he gives them back.\n\nSECTION 95\nAnd what wording does he use? Sometimes, “It seems fair to me.” Sometimes, “It doesn’t seem unfair.” What a wonderful choice of words! He never said any request we made for Deiotarus seemed fair. I know: I always represented Deiotarus when he was away. A contract for 10 million sesterces was drawn up through his ambassadors. They were decent men, but timid and inexperienced. Neither I nor the king’s other friends were consulted. It happened in the women’s quarters. Plenty of things have been sold there, and still are. I suggest you think about enforcing that contract. The king didn’t wait for any notes from Caesar. As soon as he heard Caesar was dead, he acted on his own. He recovered his property through his own efforts.\n\nSECTION 96\nHe’s a sensible man. He knew the rule had always been this: when tyrants are killed, people recover what those tyrants took from them. So no legal expert will say this contract creates a debt for property recovered before the contract existed. Not even that man you use for these dealings—he’s a legal expert for you alone. The king didn’t buy from you. He already held his property before you tried selling it back to him. He acted like a man. We’re the contemptible ones. We hate the man responsible, but defend his acts.\n\n### Chapter 38\n\nSECTION 97\nWhy discuss the endless notes and countless handwritten documents? They even have sales agents. They hawk them openly like ads for gladiatorial shows. The coins pile up around this man in such heaps that money is weighed now, not counted. But how blind greed is! A notice recently went up freeing Crete’s richest communities from taxes. It also says Crete will stop being a province after Marcus Brutus’s term as governor. Are you sane? Shouldn’t you be tied up? Could Caesar’s decree free Crete after Brutus left? While Caesar lived, Brutus had nothing to do with Crete. Still, don’t think this sale achieved nothing. Selling that decree cost you the province of Crete. Nobody ever wanted to buy anything without finding this man ready to sell.\n\nSECTION 98\nAnd that law you posted about exiles—did Caesar introduce it? I’m not attacking anyone over their misfortune. I only have these complaints. First, you’ve tainted the return of men whose cases Caesar treated differently. Second, why don’t you give the others the same treatment? Only three or four are left. Their misfortune is the same. Why isn’t your mercy the same? Why treat them like your uncle? You refused to propose his return when you proposed the others’. You even pushed him to run for censor. Then you arranged a campaign that made people laugh and complain. But why didn’t you hold that election?\n\nSECTION 99\nWas it because a people’s tribune reported lightning on the left? When your interests are involved, omens don’t exist. When your relatives’ interests are involved, you get religious. And didn’t you abandon that same uncle over the seven-man commission? Someone else stepped in. I suppose you feared you couldn’t say no and keep your head. You piled every insult on your uncle. If you had any family loyalty, you’d honor him like a father. You threw out his daughter, your cousin. You’d found another marriage match and already looked it over. That wasn’t enough. You accused this completely faithful woman of sexual misconduct. What more could you add? Even that didn’t satisfy you. On January 1, the Senate was packed, and your uncle sat there. You dared to say why you hated Dolabella: you’d learned he’d tried to seduce your cousin and wife. Who can decide which was worse? Your shamelessness in saying it in the Senate? Your malice in attacking Dolabella? Your filth in speaking before her father? Or your cruelty toward that poor woman, speaking so foully, with no family feeling?\n\n### Chapter 39\n\nSECTION 100\nBut let’s return to the handwritten documents. What did you do to check them? The Senate confirmed Caesar’s acts to keep the peace. That meant things Caesar actually did—not things Antony said Caesar had done. Where are these documents pouring out from? Who vouches for them? If they’re fake, why approve them? If they’re real, why sell them? The agreement was that you’d review Caesar’s acts with a council, starting June 1. What council was there? Whom did you ever call together? What June 1 were you waiting for? The one when you returned surrounded by armed men, after touring the veterans’ colonies?\n\nWhat a wonderful tour you made in April and May! That’s when you even tried to settle a colony at Capua. We know how you got away from there—or rather, how you nearly didn’t.\n\nSECTION 101\nNow you’re threatening that city. I wish you’d try! Then we could finally drop the “nearly.” What a distinguished trip that was! Why mention your lavish lunches or your wild drunkenness? Those things hurt you. These things hurt us: you divided Campania’s public land among your lunch companions and gaming partners. Even when that land stopped bringing in revenue so soldiers could receive it, we thought the republic had suffered a serious wound. Senators, I’m talking about male and female mime actors settled on Campania’s land. Why complain now about the land at Leontini? These two farming districts, Campania and Leontini, once counted among the Roman people’s assets. They brought in grain and income. Three thousand iugera went to a doctor. What would he have got if he’d cured you? Two thousand went to a speech teacher. What if he’d managed to teach you to speak well?\n\n### Chapter 40\n\nSECTION 102\nBut let’s return to your journey through Italy. You settled a colony at Casilinum, where Caesar had already settled one. You wrote asking my advice. Your question concerned Capua, admittedly, but I’d have given the same answer about Casilinum. Could you legally establish a new colony where one already existed? I said no. If a colony had been founded with the proper omens and remained intact, another couldn’t legally be founded there. I wrote that new settlers could be added. But arrogance carried you away. You overturned every rule about the omens and founded a colony at Casilinum. A colony had been founded there only a few years earlier. You wanted to raise the flag and plow the boundary. Your plowshare nearly scraped Capua’s gate. You were cutting into a flourishing colony’s territory.\n\nSECTION 103\nAfter wrecking these religious rules, you swoop onto Marcus Varro’s estate at Casinum. He’s an exceptionally upright, honest man. What right did you have? How could you show your face? You’ll say, “The same right I had to the estates of Lucius Rubrius’s heirs and Lucius Turselius’s heirs, and countless other properties.” If they came through an auction, let the auction stand. Let the accounts stand too—but Caesar’s, not yours. His showed what you owed. Yours wiped out your debt. But who says Varro’s estate at Casinum was sold? Who saw an auction spear marking that sale? Who heard the auctioneer’s voice? You say you sent someone to Alexandria to buy it from Caesar. Apparently, waiting for Caesar himself was too much.\n\n### Chapter 41\n\nSECTION 104\nWho ever heard that any of Varro’s property had been confiscated? Nobody’s safety mattered to more people. And what if Caesar even wrote telling you to give it back? What words could do justice to such shamelessness? Put away those swords we can see, just briefly. You’ll soon understand the difference between Caesar’s auction and your own brazen recklessness. The owner won’t be the only one to keep you out of that house. Any friend, neighbor, guest, or agent will do it. But how many days you spent partying there so disgracefully! Drinking, gambling, and vomiting started at the third daylight hour. That poor house! What a different master it had—though how was he its master? Still, what a different man held it! Marcus Varro wanted a retreat for his studies, not for sexual pleasures.\n\nSECTION 105\nWhat discussions that house once heard! What thoughts took shape there! What works were written there! They covered the Roman people’s laws, records of our ancestors, and every branch of wisdom and learning. But with you as lodger—not owner—the whole place rang with drunks shouting. Wine flooded the floors and soaked the walls. Freeborn boys mixed with boys for hire. Prostitutes mingled with married women. People came from Casinum, Aquinum, and Interamna to pay their respects. Nobody got in. Quite right, too. On such a disgraceful man, the badges of official rank were losing their meaning.\n\nSECTION 106\nHe left there for Rome and approached Aquinum. It’s a well-populated town, so a very large crowd came out to meet him. But they carried him through town in a covered litter, like a corpse. Foolish people of Aquinum! Still, they lived along his route. What about the people of Anagnia? They lived off the route, but came down to greet him as though he were a consul. It’s hard to believe, but everyone agreed: he didn’t greet a single person back. And he even had two men from Anagnia with him, Mustela and Laco. One led the armed men; the other led the drinking.\n\n### Chapter 42\n\nSECTION 107\nWhy mention his threats and insults against the Sidicini? Why mention how he harassed the people of Puteoli? They’d chosen Gaius Cassius and the Brutuses as patrons. They chose with real enthusiasm, judgment, goodwill, and love. They weren’t forced by armed violence, as with you, Basilus, and your kind. Nobody would want such men as clients, much less become their client. Meanwhile, what a day your fellow consul had while you were away! He tore down that funeral monument in the Forum you used to worship. The news reached you, and you collapsed. The people who were there agreed about that. I don’t know what happened afterward. I suppose fear and weapons did their work. You certainly dragged your colleague down from heaven. You haven’t yet made him like yourself. But you’ve certainly made him unlike himself.\n\nSECTION 108\nAnd then you came back to Rome! What an upheaval you caused throughout the city! We remembered Cinna having far too much power. After him, we’d seen Sulla as our master. Recently, we’d seen Caesar ruling as king. There may have been swords, but they were hidden. And there weren’t so many. But this—what tremendous savagery! Men follow you with swords in square battle formation. We see shields being carried in litters. By now, Senators, this has become an old story. We’ve grown numb through habit. On June 1, we wanted to enter the Senate as arranged. Instead, terror suddenly sent us running in every direction.\n\nSECTION 109\nBut this man didn’t need a senate. He didn’t miss anyone. In fact, he was delighted we’d left. He immediately pulled off those amazing crimes. He’d defended Caesar’s handwritten papers for his own profit. Now he overturned Caesar’s laws, excellent laws at that. He wanted to shake the republic to its foundations. He lengthened the terms of provincial commands. He was supposed to defend Caesar’s acts. Instead, he canceled them in public and private matters alike. In public affairs, nothing carries more weight than law. In private affairs, nothing stands firmer than a will. He abolished some laws without public notice. For others, he announced proposals to repeal them. He invalidated a will, something always upheld even for the humblest citizens. Caesar left statues and paintings to the people, along with his gardens. This man moved some to Pompey’s gardens. He moved others to Scipio’s villa.\n\n### Chapter 43\n\nSECTION 110\nAnd you take such care of Caesar’s memory? You love him now he’s dead? What greater honor had he ever received? He had a sacred couch, a statue, a temple-style gable, and a priest. So Antony is priest to the divine Julius? Just as Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus have theirs? Then why are you hanging back? Why haven’t you been installed? Pick a day. Find someone to perform your installation. We’re fellow augurs. No one will refuse. What a disgusting man you are, whether you’re a tyrant’s priest or a dead man’s! Now I’ll ask whether you know what day today is. Don’t you know yesterday was the fourth day of the Roman Games in the Circus? You yourself asked the people to add a fifth day for Caesar. Why aren’t we wearing our purple-bordered togas? Why are we neglecting the honor your law gave Caesar? Or were you willing to pollute our thanksgiving rites by adding a day? But not the gods’ couches? Either abolish these religious rites altogether, or keep them all.\n\nSECTION 111\nYou ask whether I approve of the sacred couch, temple-style gable, and priest. I don’t approve of any of them. But you defend Caesar’s acts. What reason can you give for defending some and ignoring others? Unless you’re willing to admit how you measure everything. You look to your own profit, not his standing. What do you say to that, then? I’m waiting to hear your skill with words. I knew your grandfather as a truly gifted speaker. But you’re even more open when you speak. He never addressed a public meeting naked. We’ve seen your bare chest, you straightforward fellow. Will you answer these charges? Will you even dare open your mouth? Can you find anything in my long speech you feel able to answer? But let’s leave the past aside.\n\n### Chapter 44\n\nSECTION 112\nDefend this one day, if you can. Just one, I say—this very day. This moment, as I’m talking. Why does a ring of armed men surround the Senate? Why do your henchmen listen to me with swords? Why aren’t the Temple of Concord’s doors open? Why do you bring Ituraeans with arrows into the Forum? They’re the most savage people of all. He says he’s doing it for his protection. Isn’t dying a thousand times better than that? Better than needing armed guards to live in your own city? But believe me, that isn’t real protection. You need your fellow citizens’ love and goodwill around you, not weapons.\n\nSECTION 113\nRome’s people will rip those weapons away from you. They’ll wrench them from your hands. I hope we come through unharmed! But whatever you do to us, you can’t last long. Believe me, not while you follow these plans. Your wife isn’t greedy at all. I say that without any insult. She owes Rome’s people a third installment. And it’s far past due. Rome’s people have men they can hand the state’s helm to. Wherever those men are in the world, all the republic’s protection is there. Better still, the republic itself is there. So far, it has only avenged itself. It hasn’t won itself back. The republic certainly has young nobles ready to defend it. They can give way as much as they like for peace. The republic will still call them back. The word “peace” sounds sweet. Peace itself brings safety. But peace and slavery are very different things. Peace means freedom without disturbance. Slavery is the worst evil of all. We must fight it off with war, even with death.\n\nSECTION 114\nOur liberators may have removed themselves from our sight. But their deed remains an example. They did something nobody had done before. Brutus fought a war against Tarquin. Tarquin was king when Rome still allowed kings. Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were killed on suspicion of seeking kingship. These men were the first to attack with swords, not someone seeking kingship, but someone already ruling as king. The deed itself is magnificent and godlike. And it’s there for others to copy. Besides, those men have won such glory! Heaven itself hardly seems big enough to hold it. Knowing they’d done something so wonderful was reward enough. Still, I don’t think a mortal should dismiss immortality.\n\n### Chapter 45\n\nSECTION 115\nRemember the day you abolished the dictatorship, Antony. Picture the Senate and Rome’s people rejoicing. Compare that with the buying and selling you and your people do now. Then you’ll understand how praise differs from profit. Some people are sick, and their senses grow numb. They can’t taste how good food is. It’s the same with lustful, greedy, criminal men. They can’t taste real praise. But suppose praise can’t draw you toward doing right. Can’t fear at least turn you away from the most disgusting deeds? You aren’t afraid of trials. If that’s because you’re innocent, I applaud you. But what if you rely on force instead? Don’t you understand what that leaves you to fear?\n\nSECTION 116\nPerhaps you don’t fear brave men and outstanding citizens. Your armed guards keep them away from you. But your own people won’t put up with you much longer. Believe me. What kind of life is that? Fearing your own men day and night? Unless you’ve bound them with greater favors than Caesar gave some of his killers. Or unless you’re in any way his equal. He had talent, judgment, memory, and learning. He took care, thought things through, and worked hard. He’d done great things in war, though they brought disaster to the republic. He’d spent many years planning to be king. He achieved his plan through huge effort and great risks. He won over the unthinking crowd with gladiatorial shows, monuments, cash handouts, and banquets. He tied his men to him with rewards. He tied his enemies to him by seeming merciful. Why go on? He’d already got a free state used to slavery. Fear helped, and so did tolerance.\n\n### Chapter 46\n\nSECTION 117\nI can compare your hunger to rule with his. But otherwise, you don’t compare at all. He burned so many evils into the republic. Still, this one good thing has come of it. Rome’s people have learned how far to trust each man. They know whom to put themselves in the hands of. They know whom to watch out for. You don’t think about these things. Don’t you see that brave men only need to learn this? Killing a tyrant is a truly fine deed. It earns gratitude for the service and a glorious reputation. Or will people put up with you when they wouldn’t put up with him?\n\nSECTION 118\nBelieve me, from now on men will race to do it. They won’t wait for a chance that’s slow in coming.\n\nPlease look at the republic sometime, Antony. Think about your ancestors, not the people you live with. Treat me however you like. Make peace with the republic again. But you must decide about yourself. I’ll speak for myself. I defended the republic when I was young. I won’t abandon it now I’m old. I scorned Catiline’s swords. I won’t be scared of yours.\n\nSECTION 119\nI’d gladly offer even my own body, if my death could bring our citizens freedom now. Let the pain of Rome’s people finally give birth to what it’s been laboring over so long! Nearly twenty years ago, I spoke in this very temple. I said death was never premature for a former consul. How much truer that is now for an old man! Senators, I should even welcome death now. I’ve had my successes and carried out my work. I only have these two wishes. First, may I leave Rome’s people free when I die. The immortal gods can give me no greater gift. Second, may everyone get what their conduct toward the republic deserves.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-philippic-2/translations/trn_cicero_philippic_2_plain.txt"}],"retex_markdown_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-philippic-2/retex.md"}}