CICERO: ORATIO PHILIPPICA SECUNDA (SECOND PHILIPPIC AGAINST ANTONY)

Introduction.

The speech translated below is the second in a series of fourteen speeches composed by Cicero between September 44 B.C. and April 43 B.C. to attack Marcus Antonius, who after the shock of Caesar's assassination on 15th March 44 had attempted, in his position as surviving consul,  to fill the power vacuum which the dictator had left behind him. They were called "Philippicae" (or "Philippics") by Cicero, firstly as a joke, in imitation of the speeches delivered by the celebrated Fourth Century Athenian orator Demosthenes against King Philip II of Macedon.

The political context for the Second Philippic is as follows. After Caesar's murder, at which Cicero had rejoiced, the political situation was highly volatile, but, when the public mood turned decisively against the so-called "Liberators", they left Rome, and Cicero himself contemplated a journey to Greece. However, in the late summer, sensing an improvement in the political climate, he returned to Rome on 31 August 44, amid widespread rejoicing. He was summoned to the Senate on the following day by Antonius, but he did not attend, ostensibly due to exhaustion following his journey but actually because Antonius was due to propose further extraordinary honours to the dead Caesar, of which he disapproved. Greatly angered by Cicero's failure to attend, Antonius criticised him sharply and even went so far as to threaten to have his house pulled down. On the day after that, 2nd September, Cicero himself appeared in the Senate and made a speech criticising the two consuls Antonius and Dolabella for not respecting the will of Caesar and demanding that they follow the interests of the Roman people, rather than their own. Despite these criticisms, however, the tone of the speech was moderate and relatively conciliatory, but Antonius' rage new no bounds. Giving notice of a meeting of the Senate on 19th September, Antonius used the interval to prepare a bitter attack on Cicero, which he duly delivered on the 19th in the Temple of Concord. Cicero had been persuaded by his friends not to attend, due to the threat of actual violence against him, and indeed Antonius was accompanied by a guard of armed men. At the meeting Antonius spoke with great fury against Cicero and openly accused him of inciting Caesar's murder, hoping perhaps to inflame the soldiers whom he had posted within hearing of his harangue. Soon after this, Cicero withdrew to a villa in Naples, where he worked on his response to Antonius' attack on him. 

The Second Philippic is the longest and the most celebrated of the fourteen Philippics, but unlike the others it was never delivered. Although conceived of as a speech to be made at a session of the Senate on 24th October, it was circulated initially to chosen friends such as Atticus, who proposed some changes, and to Brutus and Cassius, who were understandably delighted by it, and it was probably not published, if indeed it was ever published at all, until after Antonius had left Rome in November. The speech is undoubtedly one of Cicero's masterpieces, ranking with his speeches against Verres and Catiline, and his "Pro Milone", and as a political pamphlet and as an example of the genre of invective, it has, with its soaring oratory and scathing irony, scarcely, if ever, been surpassed. The peroration contained in its final chapter features Cicero's own political testament, in which he states his willingness to give his life to ensure the freedom of the Roman people and the republic. For the reader, who knows how the great orator will indeed shortly be struck down by an act of vengeance of the very man whom he attacks in this speech, this peroration is of course especially poignant.

The text of which has been used in this translation is "M. Tulli Ciceronis: Oratio Philippica Secunda", edited by A.G.Peskett, M.A. first published in the Pitt Press Series by the Cambridge University Press in 1887. The "Analysis" of the content of each section provided in this edition has been utilised below, and is featured in italics at the top of each of the 119 sections. In this translation, Sabidius has highlighted main verbs also by the use of italics. Instances of the ablative ablative construction, relatively rare in Cicero, are underlined. Where words have to be understood they are shown in parenthesis, as are the literal versions of certain words and phrases. As always Sabidius seeks in this translation to follow the actual structure of the Latin as closely as possible, in order to assist the reader to understand its exact meaning.

1.  The foes of the state have always been my foes; take care lest you meet with their fate. I attacked them because they were foes to the common weal, but I have never attacked you. Why then this rage against me? 

(I) By what fate of mine pray, conscript fathers, shall I say that it has happened that, in the course of these (past) twenty years, no one has been an enemy of the republic who has not at the same time declared war upon me as well? Nor indeed is it necessary that anyone should be named by me: (for) of your own accord you remember them  for yourselves. They have paid me graver (lit. more [severe]) penalties than I should have wished; I marvel that you, (Marcus) Antonius, do not dread the fate (lit. endings) of those whose actions you imitate. And yet I was less surprised at this in others. For none of those was an enemy to me on my own account; all (of them) (were) challenged by me for the sake of the republic. You, (who have) not (been) assailed (by me) even by a word, have provoked me with insults of your own accord, so that you appear more audacious than (Lucius Sergius) Catilina, (and) more frenzied than (Publius) Clodius (Pulcher), and you have considered that your alienation from me would be a recommendation of you in the sight of disreputable citizens.

2.  Is it due to contempt? or do you think that the Senate will sympathise with you? or do you want to enter the lists with me in rhetoric? Your motive is to ingratiate yourself with the foes of your country. 

What am I to think? That I have been despised? I do not see (anything) either in my life or in my influence or in my exploits (lit. the things having been done [by me]) or in this moderate ability of mine (lit. in this my moderateness of ability) which Antonius can despise. Or did he believe that he could most easily be disparaging about me in the Senate? This body has given its appreciation (lit. testimony) of the republic having been well served  to many most distinguished citizens, but of (it) having been preserved to me alone. Or did he wish to contend with me in a contest of oratory (lit. speaking)? This is a kindness indeed. For what (could be) a fuller or richer (theme) for me than to speak both on my own behalf and against Antonius? (He) clearly (thought) the following: he did not consider that he could prove to (those) like himself that he was an enemy of our country unless he was an enemy (of mine as well).  

3.  First of all I will reply to your charge of broken friendship. You say I once ran counter to your interests. How could I do otherwise in that particular case? You want to recommend yourself to the mob by this reference to your humble relations. You say you once came to me for instruction; no; better for you if you had.

Before I reply about the other matters, I shall say a few (words) concerning the friendship which he has complained has been violated by me, (something) which I declare (to be) a very grave charge.

(II) He has complained that at some time or other (lit. I know not when) I pleaded (in court) (lit. came) against his interest. Was I not to plead against someone unconnected to me (lit. a stranger) on behalf of an intimate and a close friend? Was I not to plead against an interest acquired not by the hope of virtue but by the blossom of youth? Was I not to plead against an injustice which that man maintained by the benefit of a most iniquitous (tribunician) intervention, and not by the law of the praetor? But I imagine that this (was) maintained by you for this reason, that you might ingratiate yourself with the lowest orders, since they would all  remember that you (were) the son-in-law of a freedman and that your children were the grandsons of Quintus Fadius (Gallus), a freed man. But, to be sure, you had entrusted yourself to my instruction - for so you said -; you had constantly visited my house. In truth, if you had done that, you would have taken better care of your reputation, (and) better (care of) your sense of shame. But you did not do (this), nor, (even) if you had wished (it), would you have been allowed (lit. would it have been permitted to you) by Gaius (Scribonius) Curio to do (so).

4.  You say it was through your giving way to me that I got the augurship: absurd, as you had no influence then. 

You have said that you resigned your candidature for the augurship to me. Oh the incredible audacity! Oh the impudence being declared! For at the time when (lit. in which) Gnaeus Pompeius (Magnus) and Quintus Hortensius (Hortalus) nominated me (as) augur, (who had been) desired by the whole college,  - for it was not permitted (for me) to be nominated by more (than two members) - , you were neither solvent (lit. fit for paying) nor did you think that you would be secure by any means other than (lit. except) the destruction of the republic (lit. the republic having been overthrown). But could you have stood for the office of augur at that time, since Gaius Curio was not in Italy? Or (even) at the time when you were elected, could you have secured the votes of (lit. carried) a single tribe without Curio? His intimate friends were even convicted of violence, because they had been too zealous on your behalf.


5.  You say you did not kill me at Brundisium and that I ought to be grateful. What merit is it to abstain from a crime? 

(III) But I have made use of your kindness. Of what kindness? And yet that very thing which you mention I have always openly professed. I preferred to confess that I was under an obligation to you (rather) than to be thought insufficiently grateful by someone not quite acquainted (with the circumstances). But what kindness (did you do me)? That you did not kill me at Brundisium. Would you (really) have slain the man, whom the conqueror himself (i.e. Gaius Julius Caesar), who, had conferred upon you, as you used to boast, the chief rank out of (all) his robbers, had enjoined that he wished (him) to be safe (and) to go to Italy? Grant (that) you could (have done so). Is this kindness of robbers, conscript fathers, anything other than to boast that they have granted life to those whom they have not deprived of (it)? If that were a kindness, (then those) who killed that man by whom they had been spared (lit. saved), (and) whom you yourself have been accustomed to call most illustrious men, would never have attained such great glory. But what sort of kindness is it, that you have refrained (lit. kept yourself) from a wicked crime? In this situation, it ought not to seem so delightful to me that I (was) not killed by you, as wretched that you could have done such a thing with impunity.

6.  But granting the truth of this, have I been ungrateful? Did I not speak of you the other day in the mildest and friendliest terms, far beyond your deserts? 

But let it be (granted as) a kindness, since in truth nothing greater could be received from a robber: in what respect can you call me ungrateful? Or perhaps I ought not to complain about the destruction of the republic, lest I might seem ungrateful to you? But with regard to that complaint, wretched and mournful (as ) indeed (it is), but (still) unavoidable for me by virtue of that rank in which the Senate and people of Rome have placed me, what was said by me with contumely? what (was said) immoderately? what (was said) in an unfriendly manner? Indeed, what (an instance) of moderation was it, that (I, when) complaining about Marcus Antonius, refrained from abusive expressions? especially, when you had scattered abroad the relics of the republic, when everything was for sale in your house in the most shameful trade; when you acknowledged that those laws, which had never been promulgated, (had been) passed both with reference to you and by you; when you, (as) augur, had done away with the auspices and, (as) consul, (had done away with) the (tribunician) veto; when you were escorted by armed men in the most shameful manner, (and) when, exhausted by wine and debauchery, you were indulging daily in all kinds of obscene practices in that pure house (of yours).

7.  You shall understand today how kind it was of me to abstain from reviewing your conduct. You read a letter purporting to come from me. What a breach of confidence!

But I, as if I had (lit. there was to me) an argument with Marcus (Licinius) Crassus, with whom I have had (lit. there has been [to me]) many great struggles, (and) not with this one most worthless gladiator, (while) complaining about (the) grave (state of)  the republic, said nothing personal (lit. about the man). So today I shall ensure that he understands what a great favour he received from me.

(IV) But he also read out, a letter which he said that I had sent him, (like) a man both devoid of good feeling and ignorant of the common (courtesies) of (daily) life. For what man, who was (but) only slightly acquainted with the habits of honourable men, ever produced in public and openly read out a letter sent to him by a friend, some quarrel having arisen (lit. been put) between (them)?  What else is this (but) to remove from our way of life the kindly fellowship of our existence, (and) to destroy the intercourse of absent friends? How many jests are wont to be (put) in letters, which, if they are publicly revealed, would appear foolish! How many serious (opinions are there which) yet ought not (lit. [are] not suitable) to be divulged in any way!

8.  And how foolish of you! What would you say, and how would you show off your eloquence to your armed satellites (by the way, I wonder whether your eloquence could defend them on a charge of homicide!) if I were to deny that I wrote it? How could you prove it, expert though you are in handwriting? 

Let this be (a mark) of your lack of courtesy: see (also) your incredible folly. What do you have which you can say in reply to me, (you) eloquent (man), as you now seem to be to (Numisius) Tiro and (Seius) Mustela? While such armed men (lit. men with swords) are standing at this very time in the sight of the Senate, I too shall think you eloquent, if you show how you would defend them on a charge of homicide (lit. among assassins). But what, pray, would you say in reply, if I were to deny that I had ever sent that letter to you? With what evidence could you convict me? By my handwriting? On this (subject) you have a profitable knowledge (i.e. He means that Antonius has been forging Caesar'a handwriting and signature.) How can you (prove it)? For they are in the hand of a secretary. At this time I envy your teacher, who for such a great payment as I shall reveal at another time, taught you to understand nothing.

9.  But I do not deny it. Fool though you are, you object to it because I wrote it in a friendly and respectful tone, as though I were addressing a good man. I will not read your letter in which you ask me to restore one of your friends from exile. Why should I interfere in your headlong course? 

For what is less (the mark), I do not say, of a speaker, but of a man, than to throw something in the way of an adversary which, if he denies (it) by a (single) word, he who has reproached (him) cannot progress any further? But I do not deny (it): and in that very (act) of yours I convict you not only of discourtesy but also of madness. For what word in that letter is not full of good feeling, courtesy and benevolence? But the whole of your charge is (this), that in this letter I do not think badly of you, that I write as though to a citizen, as though to an honourable man, not as though to a rascal and a bandit. But still I will not produce your letter, although, having been challenged by you, I could justly (do so): (a letter) in which you ask that through me you may bring back someone from exile (i.e. Sextus Clodius, the former henchman of Publius Clodius), and you swear that you would not do this without my agreement (lit. me [being] unwilling), and you obtain this (agreement) from me. For why should I put myself in the way of your audacity? (For you are someone) whom neither the authority of this body, nor the opinion of the Roman people, nor any laws can restrain.

10. As you had Caesar's permission to restore him, why ask for mine? I hope the Senate will give me a patient hearing when I speak against you and for myself. I can hardly treat you as a true consul.

But yet why was it that you were asking (me), if the man concerning whom you were asking, had (already) been restored by a law of Caesar's? But, no doubt, he wished it to be a favour of mine: (but this was a matter) in which not even any (favour) of his own could be (conferred), the law having already been passed.

(V) But, since, conscript fathers, there are many things I should say (lit. needing to be said), both, to some extent, on my own behalf, and against Marcus Antonius, one thing I ask of you, that you will listen to me with kindness (while) speaking on my own behalf; another thing I shall ensure myself, that (you will listen) attentively when I am speaking against him. At the same time, I beg this (of you): if you know of my moderation and modesty both in my whole life and in my speech, (I ask) that, when I respond today to that man in the spirit in which (lit. as) he has provoked (me), you will not think that I have forgotten myself. I will not treat (him) as a consul: he (has) not even (treated) me as a man of consular rank. And yet he (is) in no way a consul: either because of the way in which he lives (lit. because he lives in such a manner), or because of the way in which he conducts the republic (lit. because he conducts the republic in such a manner), or because of the way in which he was elected (lit. because he was elected in such a manner): (on the other hand), I (am) a man of consular rank without any dispute.

11.  My consulship was devoted to the service of the Senate; you and Clodius (the bane of whose life is yours too) alone censured it.

So that you might understand what sort of consul he, of his own accord, professed himself (to be), he reproached me for my consulship. This consulship which (was) mine in name (lit. word), was in fact yours, conscript fathers. For what did I determine, what did I contrive, what did I do, other than (lit. except) in accordance with the counsel, the authority, (and) the opinion of this body? Have you, (you) man of wisdom, and not merely eloquent, dared to disparage these (actions) amongst those on whose advice and sagacity they were performed? But who has been found to criticise my consulship, except you and Publius Clodius? (And) indeed, his fate awaits you, just as (it awaited) Gaius Curio, since that thing is (now) in your house which was fatal to each of them (i.e. Fulvia, who had been the wife of Clodius and then of Curio, was now the wife of Antonius.)

12.  Many good and able men, now dead, warmly praised my consulship.

My consulship does not please Marcus Antonius. But it did please Publius Servilius (Vatia Isauricus), to name first, of the men of consular rank, that man who has most recently died: it did please Quintus (Lutatius) Catulus, whose authority will always be remembered in this republic: it pleased the two Luculli (i.e. Lucius Licinius Lucullus Ponticus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus), Marcus Crassus (Dives), Quintus Hortensius (Hortalus), Gaius (Scribonius) Curio, Gaius (Calpurnius) Piso, Manius (Acilius) Glabrio, Manius (Aemilius) Lepidus, Lucius Volcatius (Tullus), Gaius (Marcius) Figulus, (and also) Decimus (Junius) Silanus and Lucius (Licinius) Murena, who were at that time the consuls-elect: the same (consulship), which (was pleasing) to those consulars, pleased Marcus (Porcius) Cato, who exercised foresight in many things (by) departing from his life, and also in that he did not see you (as) consul. But above all Gnaeus Pompeius (Magnus) approved my consulship; he, when he first saw me (while) departing from Syria, embracing and congratulating (me), said that, owing to my services, he would be seeing his native-country (again). But why do I mention individuals? It was pleasing to the Senate, in a very full house, to such an extent that there was no one who did not give his thanks to me as (though I were) his parent; (and) who did not attribute as due to me (lit. who did not set down [as] received to my [credit]) his life, his possessions, his children and the republic.

13.  So does L. Cotta, who still lives, who decreed me a unique honour. 

(VI) But since the republic has been bereaved of those men whom I have named, so many and such men (as they were), let us come to the living, of whom two of the number of consulars are left. Lucius (Aurelius) Cotta, a man of the highest intellect and the greatest wisdom, proposed in the most fulsome words a public thanksgiviving (in my honour), those exploits having been performed which you denounce, and those men, those very consulars whom I have just mentioned, and the whole of the Senate adopted (it); this honour has been paid to no one in time of peace (lit. clad in a toga) before me since this city (has been) founded.

14.  So does your Uncle L. Caesar, whom you ought to have made your friend and adviser instead of the profligates whose society you frequent.  

With what eloquence, with what firmness, with what dignity did your uncle Lucius (Julius) Caesar pronounce his opinion against his sister's husband, your step-father (i.e. Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura)! (But) when you should have regarded him (as) your inspiration and guide in all your designs and in the whole of your (way of) life, you preferred (to be) like your step-father (rather) than your uncle. (Although) unconnected (to him) I, (as) consul, took (lit. employed) his advice at that time: did you, his sister's son, ever refer to him any (matter) concerning the republic? But to whom does he refer (such things)? (O) immortal gods! no doubt to those whose birthdays we still need to learn about (lit. are still needing to be learned about by us).

15.  Do you assert in this temple, hallowed by such memories, that your consulship is better than mine? 

Antonius is not attending the Senate (lit. coming down [to the Forum]) today. Why? He is giving a birthday feast in his grounds. For whom? I shall name no one. Suppose (it is) either for some Phormio or for a Gnatho or even for a Ballio (i.e. for some slave). Oh the disgraceful foulness of the man! Oh his impudence, his worthlessness, his debauchery (is) not to be endured. Would you, when you have a chief senator, such a singular citizen (as) so close a relative, refer nothing to him concerning the republic? Would you (rather) refer (such things) to those who have no property of their own and are draining yours?

(VII) Of course, your consulship (is) salutary (for the republic), (and) mine (was) most pernicious. Have you lost your sense of honour and your sense of shame to such an extent, that you would dare to assert this in that temple in which I used to consult that senate, which in its glory (lit. flourishing) at that time, was presiding over the world (lit. orbit of the earth), (and) have you placed around (it) the most desperate armed men (lit. the most desperate men with swords)?

16.  All the best men in Rome flocked to the Capitol to guard the Senate, not bands of slaves to force it, as you pretend. 

But you have even dared - but what is there that you would not dare? - to say that the Capitoline Hill, with me (as) consul, was full of armed slaves. I applied violence to the Senate, I suppose, in order that those heinous decrees of the Senate should be passed. O wretched man, whether those things are known to you - for you know nothing good - or whether they are, who (should dare) to speak so shamelessly among such men. For what Roman knight, what youth of noble birth, what (man) of any rank, who remembered that he was a citizen, was not on the Capitoline Hill, as the Senate was in this temple? Who (was there who) did not give his name? And yet neither could the clerks take down (lit. supply), nor (could) the writing-tablets contain, (all) their names.

17.  No one failed in that hour of peril. You assert falsely that I refused to let your step-father be buried.

And in fact when wicked men, having been compelled by the evidence of their accomplices, by their own hand(-writing), (and) almost by the voice of their letters, were confessing to their parricide, (and) that they had plotted that they would burn the city, massacre its citizens, devastate Italy and destroy the republic, who would there be who was not roused for the purpose of the common safety being defended? especially when
the Senate and the people of Rome had a leader of such a kind that, if he were there now, the same (fate) would befall you as happened to them. He denies that his step-father's body was given (up) by me for burial. In truth, not even Publius Clodius ever said this. Because I was rightly his enemy, I regret that he has been surpassed in all his vices by you.

18.  Why remind us of your connection with him? Your speech was contradictory in reference to your step-father's punishment. 

But how does it come into your mind to bring back to our recollection that you were brought up in the house of Publius Lentulus? Perhaps you were afraid that we might not think that you could have turned out so wicked by nature, if your education had not added (to this) also?

(VIII) Moreover, you were so confused that in the whole of your speech you yourself were at war with yourself, such that you were saying not only incoherent things in (lit. between) themselves, but very disjointed and contradictory things, (and) so that your argument was not much with me as with yourself. You admitted that your step-father had been (involved) in a great crime, (but) you complained that (he had been) afflicted with punishment. Thus, what you praised is my own (action): what you denounced is (the action) of the Senate. For the arrest of the guilty parties (was) my (responsibility); (but) their punishment was the Senate's. That man, eloquent (as he is), does not realise that he, against whom he is speaking, is being praised by him; (and) that those, among whom he is speaking, are being disparaged (by him).

19.  Again how can you talk about the armed force on the Capitol in my consulship when this temple is beset with your retainers? 

Now is (not) that (action) of his, I do not say (one) of audacity for he wishes that he is audacious - but (rather something) which he does not wish, (one of) stupidity, in which (quality) he conquers everyone, (namely) to make mention of the Capitoline Hill, when armed men are busy among our benches? when men stationed with (drawn) swords are standing  in this temple of Concord, in which, (O) immortal gods, with me (as) consul, salutary opinions were delivered, owing to which we have lived (on) to this day? Accuse the Senate, accuse the equestrian order, accuse every order, accuse every citizen, so long as you confess w that this body is surrounded at this very moment by your Ityraeans (i.e. archers from Ituraea in Coele-Syria near the Taurus Mountains). You say these things so shamelessly, not on account of your audacity, but because, inasmuch as you do not see the very great contradiction of things, you have really no sense at all. For what is more insane, when you yourself have taken up arms (which are) most damaging to the republic, than to denounce the salutary (actions) of another.

20.  You laughed at my verses, but you are not the person to judge either my verses or my conduct.

But again, at a certain point you even wanted to be humorous. (O ye) good gods, how that (attempt) did not become you! In this (failure) some (lit. not none) of the blame is yours. For you could have drawn some witticism from your actress mistress (lit. wife) (i.e. Volumnia, whose stage-name was Cytheris). "Let arms yield to the toga." (i.e. an extract from Cicero's poem about his consulship, which Antonius had derided.) Well? They did yield in those days, did they not? But afterwards the toga yielded to your arms. So let us enquire whether it was better that the arms of wicked men should yield to the freedom of  the Roman people, or that our freedom (should yield) to your arms. Nor indeed shall I reply to you any further with regard to my verses; only I shall say (this) briefly: that you neither understand those (verses) nor any (other) literature at all: (and) that I have not ever either failed the republic or my friends, but that in every sort of these compositions (lit. memorials) of mine, I have completed (them) such that the literature of my nightly vigils should contribute something both of use to our youth and of praise to the Roman name. But these things (are) not (a characteristic) of this time: let us consider more important things.

21.  You said that I instigated the murder of Clodius, or at all events rejoiced at it; you once tried to kill him yourself. 

(IX) You have said that Publius Clodius was slain at my instigation. (N.B. Clodius was murdered by Titus Annius Milo following a brawl on the Appian Way in January 52 B.C.) What would people be thinking if he had been killed, when you pursued him in the Forum with a (drawn) sword, with the Roman people looking on, and you would have finished the business, would you not, if he had not thrown himself into the staircase of a bookseller's shop, and, this having been closed, had checked your attack? (N.B. This incident occurred in 53 B.C. when Antonius was a candidate for the quaestorship) I, indeed, favoured this (action) of yours, (but) not even you say that I prompted you (to do it). But I could not even have favoured Milo's (attempt); for he completed the business before anyone could suspect that he was going to do it. But (you say) I urged (it). (Oh,) of course, Milo's disposition was such that he was not able to benefit the republic without an adviser! But I rejoiced (at it). So what? Should I (lit. did it behove me to) be the only sorrowful (person) in the whole city amidst such great joy?

22.  No one charged me with this at the enquiry.

And yet there was an enquiry concerning Clodius' death - that (was) not wisely constituted, it is true; for why was it of importance for there to be an investigation (lit. that it was investigated) under a new law concerning the man who had killed that man, when there was (already) a tribunal set up under the law? However there was an investigation (lit. it was investigated) - : so have you been found to say something after so many years, which, when these events were being discussed, no one said against me?

23.  You say I caused the war by severing Pompeius and Caesar; your dates are wrong; I once tried to do so long before the civil war. 

But you have dared to assert this, and that (too) in many words, that Pompeius was separated from his alliance with Caesar by my efforts, and that the civil war was originated (lit. born) through my fault: in that (charge) you have not in truth erred in the matter as a whole, but, (something) which is of the greatest (importance), in its timing (lit. times).

(X) I, with Marcus (Calpurnius) Bibulus, a most illustrious citizen, (being) consul (i.e. in 59 B.C.), omitted nothing which I could do and attempt (to do) to draw off Pompeius from his union with Caesar. In this, Caesar was more successful (than I); for he himself separated Pompeius from his intimacy with me. But after Pompeius had handed himself over to Caesar completely, how could I have attempted to detach the one from the other? It would have been (lit. was) (the part) of a fool to hope to do so, and (the mark) of an impudent man to urge (it).

24.  I twice urged Pompeius to thwart Caesar, but my advice was always disregarded. I wished they had either never formed or never broken their alliance. 

Yet two occasions did arise, in which I did give some advice to Pompeius against Caesar. Please (lit. I would [that] you should) blame (me) for these, if you can: one (was) that he should not renew Caesar's five-year command: the second (was) that he should not be allowed to stand for the consulship in his absence (lit. that he should not allow that it be moved that account should be taken of an absent person). If I had persuaded (him) of either one of these, we should never have fallen into these (present) miseries. Moreover, I also, when Pompeius had already conveyed all the resources both of his own and of the republic to Caesar, and had begun to perceive (too) late those things which I had foreseen long before, and (when) I saw that a nefarious war was to be waged against our country, did not cease to be the promoter of peace, harmony, and an amicable arrangement, and that voice of mine was well-known to many people. "Gnaeus Pompeius, would that you either never made a compact (lit. that you had never combined [in] an alliance) with Gaius Caesar, or that you had never broken it off! The one (course) would have been (a mark) of your dignity, the second (course would have been a mark) of your wisdom." These things, Marcus Antonius, were at all times my counsels with regard to Pompeius and to the republic; if these (counsels) had prevailed, the republic would (still) be standing, (and) you would have perished through your crimes, your indigence (and) your infamy.

25.  You say that I counselled the murder of Caesar. The suggestion is flattering but untrue.

(XI) But these (stories are) old: but the following (charge is) recent, that Caesar was killed at my instigation. Now I fear, conscript fathers, lest I should appear to have appointed a prosecutor in collusion with myself, (something) which is a most deplorable (thing to do), (someone) who would adorn me not only with due praises (lit. the praises belonging to myself) but also with undeserved (ones) (lit. with [those] foreign [to me]). For who has (ever) heard my name (mentioned) in that fellowship of that most glorious deed? Moreover, whose name has been concealed, who had been among that number? Concealed, did I say? Whose (name was there which was) not at once made public? I should sooner have said that some men had promoted themselves (lit. thrown themselves about), in order that they might be thought to have been in that fellowship, although they had (actually) not been aware (of it), (rather) than that anyone who had been (in it) should wish to be concealed.

26.  If I had, my name would have been talked of; besides our glorious regicides needed no urging from me. 

Moreover, how is it probable that among so many men, some obscure, some young men concealing no one, my name could have escaped notice? And in fact, if authorisers were longed for by those instigators for the purpose of our country being liberated, were I to be inciting the Bruti (i.e. Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus), each of whom would see the likeness of Lucius (Junius) Brutus on a daily basis, and one that of (Gaius Servilius Structus) Ahala as well (i.e. Marcus, the son of Servilia)? So, with ancestors such (as these), were these men to seek counsel from (the ancestors) of others rather than from their own? and from outside rather than from at home? Again (lit. What [more]?), Gaius Cassius (Longinus), having been born into that  family which could endure neither the sovereignty nor even the power of anyone, was in need of me, I suppose, (as) an authoriser: he, even without these most illustrious men, would have accomplished this (same) deed in Cilicia and at the mouth of the river Cydnus (i.e. when Caesar landed there in 47 B.C. prior to his campaign in Pontus), if that man (i.e. Caesar) had brought in his ships to that bank which he had appointed, (and) not to the opposite (one).

27.  Further regicides who needed no urging from me. 

Did not the death of his father, a most illustrious man (i.e. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus), (did) not the death  of his uncle (i.e. Marcus Porcius  Cato Uticensis), (did) not the deprivation of his dignity, incite Gnaeus Domitius (Ahenobarbus) to liberty being recovered, but my authority? Did I (really) persuade Gaius Trebonius? (a man) whom I should have ventured not even to advise: wherefore the republic owes an even greater (debt of) gratitude to the man who put the liberty of the Roman people before the friendship of one man, and who preferred to be a repeller of sovereignty (rather) than a partner (in it). Did Lucius Tillius Cimber (also) follow me (as) an instigator? (a man) whom I admired more (because) he performed that deed than (because) I thought he would do (it), and, moreover for this reason, that he had been forgetful of personal favours, (but) mindful of his country. And then (lit. What [more]?), do you consider that those two Servilii (i.e. Publius and Gaius Servilius Casca) - shall I speak of Cascae or Ahalae?  - were incited by my authority rather than by their affection for the republic? It is a protracted (process) to go through (lit. follow) the rest; and (it is) something splendid for the republic and glorious for themselves that there were so many (of them).

28.  You say that Brutus, while yet red-handed, called out my name; no doubt because he felt he had rivalled my former exploits.

(XII) But remember how that man, astute (as he is), convicted me (of being an accomplice). Caesar having been killed, says he, Marcus Brutus, at once lifting on high his bloody dagger, called aloud on Cicero by name and gave thanks to him that liberty had been recovered. Why to me especially? Because I knew (of it beforehand)? Consider whether the reason for me being called upon should not have been this, (namely) that, since he had performed an action precisely similar to those actions which I myself had performed, he called me especially to witness that he was a rival of my praiseworthy acts.

29.  Fool, do you not see that to rejoice at the deed is as criminal as to counsel it? In respect of their joy all good men are equally guilty with me.

But you, (O) most stupid of all men, do you not realise that, if (in your view) it is a crime to have wanted  Caesar to be killed, the thing which you accuse me of, (then) it is also a crime to have rejoiced at Caesar's death? For what is the difference between the advocate of an action and the approver (of it)? Or what does it matter whether I wished it to be done or I rejoice that it has been done. Is there anyone therefore, those who were pleased that he should be a king having been excepted, who would have been unwilling for that deed to be done or disapproved (of it)? Therefore, all men (are) at fault. In fact, all right-thinking (lit. good) men, as far as it depended on them (lit. as it was with regard to themselves), killed Caesar. A plan was wanting to some, the courage to others, and the opportunity to others still; (but) the desire (was wanting) to no one.

30.  You are so stupid as to compliment Brutus and abuse me! And your judgement is as faulty as your language. Decide whether these men were murderers or liberators. 

But note the stupidity of this man, or shall I say blockhead (lit. beast). For thus he spoke: "Brutus, whom I name for the sake of honour, (while) holding his bloody dagger, called aloud on Cicero: from this it ought to be understood that he was aware (of the action)." So I, whom you suspect was suspicious of something, am called wicked by you: is he, who openly displayed (lit. carried before him) his dripping dagger, named by you for the sake of honour? Be it (so): let this stupidity exist in your words: how much greater (it is) in your actions and opinions, (is it not)? In the end, decide on this, (as) consul: what you decide the case of the Bruti, Gaius Cassius, Gnaeus Domitius, Gaius Trebonius, (and) the rest to be. Sleep off your hangover, I say, and take a breath.  Must torches (lit. Are torches needing to) be applied to you to arouse you (while you are) sleeping over so great a cause? Will you never understand that you must determine (lit. that it is needing to be determined by you) whether those men who performed that action are murderers or champions of liberty?

31.  They must be either criminals or patriots; you always treat them with respect, as though you thought them patriots. 

(XIII) So pay attention for a little while and address yourself (lit. undertake) for a moment of time (to) the reflection of a sober man. I, who am an intimate friend of those men, (and), as I am accused by you, an associate (of theirs), deny that there is any middle (ground); I confess that they, unless they be liberators of the Roman people and saviours of the republic, are worse than assassins, worse than murderers, (and) worse even than parricides, since it is more atrocious to kill the father of one's country than one's own. You, wise and thoughtful man (that you are), what do you say (they are)? If (you say that [they] are) parricides, why have they been called (by name) by you for the sake of honour both in the Senate (lit. in this body) and in the Assembly (lit. among the Roman people)? Why, with you proposing (it), has Marcus Brutus been exempted from the law, if (indeed) he had been absent from the city for more than ten days (N.B. As Urban Praetor, Brutus was not permitted to be absent from the city more than ten days at a time)? Why (were) the games of Apollo celebrated with such honour to Marcus Brutus? Why were provinces assigned to Marcus Brutus and to Cassius? Why (were extra) quaestors added to them? Why (was) the number of their legates increased? And, moreover, these things (were) done through you; so (you do) not (consider them) murderers. It follows that, in your judgement, (they are) liberators, since in truth there can be no third (description).

32.  You acquit them of guilt and must therefore think them worthy of honour. I will tell them never to deny that I had a hand in this most glorious deed. 

What is (the matter)? Am I embarrassing you? So perhaps you do not quite understand more or less mutually exclusive statements (lit. [things] which are stated somewhat disjunctively). But still this is my ultimate conclusion (lit. the sum [total] of my conclusion): that, since they are acquitted by you of wickedness, they are, at the same (time) adjudged by you (to be) most worthy of the most splendid rewards. Therefore, I (must) now undo my speech. I shall write to them (to say) that, if anyone should, by chance, ask whether what has been imputed to me by you is true, they should not deny (it) to anyone. In fact, I fear that either it (may be considered) not honourable to them themselves that I (was) concealed, or that it may be (regarded)  as most discreditable to me that, having been invited, I shrunk (from it). For what greater deed, O holy Jupiter! has ever been performed, not only in this city, but in all the earth? What more glorious (deed has ever been done)? What deed (has ever been) more commended to the everlasting memory of mankind? Are you shutting me up with the leaders in the fellowship of this plan, as if (I were) in the Trojan horse?  

33.  The odium of the deed is nothing compared to the glory. Happy men worthy of honour in all times!

I do not object: I even give (you) thanks, with whatever intention you are doing (it). For that deed is so great that I cannot compare that unpopularity, which you wish to arouse against me, with the glory (of it). For who is more blessed than those whom you boast have been driven out and banished by you? What place is either so deserted or uncivilised that it does not seem to welcome and court those men whenever they have arrived? What men (are) so barbarous that, when they have beheld them, they do not think that they have reaped the greatest reward in life? Indeed, what posterity (will be) so unmindful, what literature will be found (to be) so ungrateful, as not to honour their glory in the recollection of immortality? So please do you enrol me in the number of such men.

34.  If I had been one of them I should not have spared you. But how do you defend your own conduct? You were notoriously implicated in the plot, though the deed required a truer man than you are.

(XIV) But I fear that you will not approve of one thing. For, if I had been (one of their number), I should have removed not only the king, but also the kingly power, from the republic: and, if that pen of mine had been as it is said, believe me, I should have finished not only one act but the whole story. And yet, if it is a crime to have wished Caesar to be killed, consider, I beg (you), Antonius, what will be your own (situation), (you) whom it is very well-known even formed that plan with Trebonius at Narbo, and, on account of the fellowship of that plan, we saw you called aside by Trebonius at the moment when Caesar was killed. But I  - see how I deal with you in a not unfriendly manner - praise (you) because you thought well for once; I give (you) thanks because you did not reveal (the plot); (and) I pardon you, in that you did not act. That deed required a man.

35.  If you were asked to whom the deed was profitable, you might well say to yourself.    

But, if anyone should involve you in (lit. draw you into) a prosecution, and make use of that (test) of (old)  Cassius (i.e. Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla), "to whose advantage will it be?", take care, I beg (you), lest you are implicated (by it) (lit. you stick fast [to it]). Although that (action) was, as indeed you used to say, of  
advantage to all men who did not wish to be in bondage, still (it was) especially (so) to you, who are (now) not merely not a slave, but are even a king; who freed yourself at the Temple of Ops from the greatest (burden of) debt (lit. others' money); who, by means of the same account books, have squandered a countless (sum of) money; to whom has been brought so much (treasure) from Caesar's house; at whose house there is a most lucrative factory of fake memoranda and handwriting, (and) a most iniquitous market of land, towns, tax-exemptions and stipends.

36.  It has saved you from ruin. However do not fear, no one is likely to accuse you of the deed. Now for your lesser charges against me. 

And in fact what event could have relieved your indigence and debt except the death of Caesar? You seem to be somewhat (lit. I know not in what way) disturbed: do you have any fear that this crime may appear to be connected (lit. to pertain) to you? I release you from such a fear: no one will ever believe (it); it is not (characteristic) of you to deserve well of the republic; our republic has its most illustrious men (as) the authors of that deed: I only say that you were glad, I do not accuse (you) of having done (it). I have replied to your heaviest accusations: now I must reply (lit. it is necessary for a reply to me made [by me]/ it is needing to be replied [by me]) to the other (accusations) also.

37.  You blame for my conduct in Pompeius' camp. I was despondent, not for my own life, but because I saw the coming disasters. Would that my counsels had been followed!

(XV) You have cast against me Pompeius' camp and all (my actions) at that time. At this time, indeed, if, as I have said, my advice and authority had prevailed, you should be in want today, we should be free, (and) the republic would not have lost so many of its generals and armies. For I confess that, when I foresaw that that those things would happen that have happened, I was in as great a (state of) grief as all other excellent citizens would have been (in), if they had foreseen the same thing. I was grieving, I was grieving, conscript fathers, that the republic, (which had) once (been) saved by your counsels and mine, was about to perish in a short (space of) time. But I was not so inexperienced and ignorant of affairs that I should be disturbed (lit. broken in mind) on account of a desire for life, which, (while) remaining, consumed me with anxieties, and,(once) having been abandoned, would free (me) from all my troubles. (But) I was desirous that those most magnificent men, the lights of the republic, should live, (that is) so many consulars, so many men of praetorian rank, so many most honourable senators, the whole flower of our nobility, of our youth, (and) then the armies of excellent citizens. If they were (still) alive, on however unfavourable terms of peace - for every kind of peace with one's (fellow-)citizens seemed better (lit. more profitable) to me than civil war - we should (still) be enjoying (lit. holding [on to]) the republic today.

38.  Then Rome would have seen no more of you. But you say I alienated Pompeius. We disagreed, but retained our friendship.  

If these opinions (of mine) had prevailed, and (if) those men whose lives I was concerned with, being elated by the expectation of victory, had not especially obstructed me, to omit other (advantages), you would certainly never have remained in this order or rather (you would) never (have remained) in this city. But indeed (according to you) my speeches alienated from me Pompeius' good-will. (But) did he esteem anyone (else) more? Did he share (lit. confer) either his conversations or his counsels with anyone (else) more frequently? Indeed, what a great thing it was that we, (though) differing concerning the highest public interest, should remain in the same habit of friendship. I (saw) what (he thought and felt), and he, in turn, saw what I thought and felt. I (was concerned for) the safety of citizens in the first place, in order that we could take care of their dignity later; he  was concerned rather for their current dignity. Yet, because each of us knew what he was pursuing, on that account our disagreement was more tolerable.

39.  Those who were with him in his flight know what he thought of me. You charge me with untimely joking, to which I need hardly reply. 

But what that singular and almost god-like man thought of me, they know who followed him in his flight from Pharsalus to Paphos. (There was) never any mention by him of me, except a complimentary (one) and (one) full of the most amicable longing; (he said) that, although I had shown greater foresight (lit. had seen further), he had had the better hopes. And do you (really) venture to taunt (lit. pursue) me with the name of that man, whose friend you confess I (was) and the purchaser of (whose) property you were?

(XVI) But let that war be passed over, in which you were too fortunate. I shall not even reply about those jokes, which you have said that I employed in that camp. That camp, it is true, was full of anxiety: but yet men, although they may be in troubled circumstances, still if they are only men, are sometimes cheered by their spirits.

40.  I must have hit the mean, if you charge me first with gloom and then with gaiety. You say that I have received no inheritance. Better for my friends if I had not! But I have, and to a great amount. 

But (the fact) that the same man denounces my gloominess (and) likewise my jocularity is great evidence that I was moderate in each (respect).

You have said that no inheritance has come to me. Would that accusation of yours were true! (If so), more of my friends and connections would be alive. But how did such (a charge) come into your mind? For I have recorded (lit. entered [as] received) more than twenty million sesterces in inheritances. And yet in this class (of things) I admit that you have been more successful (than I). No one has made me his heir unless (he was) a friend, with the result that some sort of grief of mind might be combined with that benefit, if it were (to be regarded as) such; (but) a man whom you never (even) saw, Lucius Rubrius of Casinum, made (you) his heir.

41.  You have money left by persons you have never seen, whose proper heirs you manage to oust. 

And indeed see how that man loved you, (he) whom you do not know whether he was white or black. He passed over the son of his brother, (and the son) of Quintus Fufius, a most honourable Roman knight and a very good friend of his, whom in public he had always declared (as) his heir, (but whom) he does not even name (in his will); he makes you his heir, (you) whom he had never seen or at any rate had never spoken to. Please (lit. I wish [that] you would) tell me, if it is not (too) troublesome (for you), what countenance, what height did Lucius Turselius have (lit. to what countenance, to what height was Lucius Turselius), (and) from which town, (and) from which tribe (was he). "I know nothing," you will say, "except what estates he had." So, disinheriting his brother, he made you his heir. Besides, he has seized upon many properties belonging to men wholly unconnected (to him), the legitimate heirs having been ejected by force, as though he were the heir.

42.  Yet you never took up your father's inheritance. And it was to bring such charges as these that you studied rhetoric! What a difference between you and your grandfather!
actise 
And yet, I was particularly surprised at this, that you should have ventured to make mention of inheritances when you yourself had not entered upon the inheritance of your father (i.e. Marcus Antonius Creticus).

(XVII) Did you declaim for so many days in another man's villa, so that you could gather together (all) these (arguments), (O) most senseless man (that you are)? And yet, indeed, you practise rhetoric, as your most intimate friends usually say, for the sake of wine being worked off (lit. being exhaled), not (for the sake of) your wit being sharpened. But in truth you employ, through your vote and (that) of your fellow-drinkers, (as) a teacher for the purpose of jokes, a rhetorician, whom you have allowed to say what he wishes against you, and a thoroughly witty man (no doubt): but it is an easy theme to utter witticisms (lit. sayings) against you and your (friends). But think what a difference there is between you and your grandfather (i.e. Marcus Antonius Orator). He used to say with deliberation (something) which was advantageous to his cause; you speak glibly (the words) of another.


43.  How absurdly you pay your teacher! But enough of your charges against me. Now let me examine your conduct. 

But how much of a payment has been given to the rhetorician! Listen, listen, conscript fathers, and learn of the republic's wounds. You have assigned to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, two thousand acres of land in Leontini (i.e. a town in Sicily between Catana and Syracuse), and that too exempt (from tax), in order that you may learn to have no sense at all at so great a cost to the Roman people. (Was) this (gift) too, (O you) most audacious man, (to be found) among Caesar's papers? But I shall speak in another place both about the Leontine and about the Campanian lands; that fellow has defiled these lands, (which have been) stolen from the republic, with the most infamous owners. For, since I have replied sufficiently to his charges, certain things must (lit. are needing to) be said about our corrector and reformer himself. On the other hand, I shall not squander (lit. pour forth) all (my arguments), in order that, if it is necessary (for me) to fight it out (lit. it is needing to be fought out [by me]) quite often, as it will be, I shall always come (to the battle-field) with fresh arguments (lit. fresh): what an opportunity the multitude of his vices and sins bestows upon me.

44.  To begin with your boyhood: even then you were notoriously in debt; soon you fell under Curio's influence. 

(XVIII) So, would you like (us) to (lit. do you wish that we) examine you from boyhood? Yes, I think so. Do you retain in your memory that you were bankrupt in your early adolescence (lit. when you were wearing the toga praetexta)? That is the fault of your father, you will say. In fact, that defence is full of (filial) piety. Yet it is a (mark of) your audacity that you sat in the fourteen rows, when, under the Roscian law (i.e. a law in 67 B.C. which reserved the front fourteen rows in the theatre for Roman knights) a fixed place had been appointed for bankrupts, even if (lit. however much) someone had become bankrupt by the fault of fortune, (and) not by his own. You assumed the manly toga, which you at once made a womanly (one). At first you are spread abroad (as) a prostitute; there was a regular price, nor (was) it a small (one), but soon Curio appeared on the scene (lit. intervened).

45.  Curio, in distress at his father's hostility towards you, asked me to intervene on your behalf.

No boy, bought for the purpose of lust, was ever so much in the power of his master as you (were) in Curio's. How often did his father eject you from his home? How often did he place guards in order that you should not enter his threshold? while you, nevertheless, with night (as) your accomplice, with lust encouraging (and) payment compelling (you), lowered yourself down through the roof. That house could not any longer endure these infamous acts. Do you (not) know that I am speaking about matters very well-known to me? Remember that time when Curio, the father, lay weeping in his bed; his son, prostrating himself at my feet, commended you to me; he begged that I should defend you against his father, if he should sue (you) for six million sesterces:  for he said that he had pledged his credit to you to so great an extent. Moreover, he himself, burning with love (for you), assured (me) that, because he could not bear the pain of separation from you (lit. the yearning for you [caused by] your being separated [from him]), he would go into exile.

46.  I intervened with some success, an unpleasant remembrance for you. 

At this time what great troubles of that most flourishing family did I allay or rather remove! I persuaded the father to discharge his son's debt (lit. money belonging to another); to redeem (from his bondage to you) that young man, endowed (as he was) with the highest expectations of spirit and character, by (drawing upon) the resources of his family's estate; (and) through his rights and authority as a father to prohibit him, not only from his intimacy, but even from meeting, with you. When you had recalled that these things (were) done by me, would you have dared to provoke me with such insults, if you were not relying upon those swords which we see.

47.  Enough of your youthful excesses; let us pass on to the rest of your life, and I hope the Senate will hear me patiently. 

(XIX) But let us pass over your acts of debauchery; there are some things which I cannot speak of decently: but you (are) (all) the more free in that you have admitted such things against yourself which you cannot hear from a modest enemy. But consider (now) the remaining course of his life: indeed I will touch upon (it) quickly. For my inclination hastens towards those things which he did in the civil war, amidst the greatest miseries of the republic, and towards those things which he is doing on a daily basis. I beg (of you) that, although these things are much better known to you than to me, you listen carefully, as you are doing. For in such cases not only the knowledge of these (actions), but also the recollection (of them), ought to excite your minds. And yet we should, I suppose, cut short the middle (parts), so that we do not come to the end too late.

48.  You became a friend of Clodius and encouraged his wicked designs. Then you went to Alexandria with Gabinius, a fitting associate. Thence to Gaul, neglecting your own home, which was in the hands of your creditors. 

He was most intimate with Clodius during his tribuneship, (he) who mentions his kindnesses towards me; (he was) the firebrand of all his acts of arson: at that time he even attempted something in his own house also. He himself understands very well what I am alluding to. Thence (he made) a journey to Alexandria, contrary to the authority of the Senate, and against the public interest and religious objections: but he had (Aulus) Gabinius (as) his leader, with whom he could do nothing wrong (lit. anything you like totally correctly). What return thence was there at that time or what kind of (return)? (He went) from Egypt to the furthest extremity of Gaul before (he came) home. But what home (was it)? For, at that time each man possessed his own house, but your (house) was not anywhere. House, do I say? What (place) was there in the (whole) world where you could place your foot in your own (property), except only Misenum, which you  possessed with your partners as though (it were) Sisapo (i.e. a place in Spain where there was a vermilion mine)?  

49.  You returned to stand for the quaestorship, in which I helped you. You tried to kill Clodius, professing a desire to gratify me, but I gave you no encouragement. 

(XX) You came from Gaul to stand for the quaestorship. Dare to say that you went to your parent (i.e. his mother Julia) before (you came) to me. I had already received beforehand a letter from Caesar, (asking) that I should allow satisfaction to be given (lit. that it should be rendered sufficiently) to me by you; and so I did not allow you even to speak of thanks. Afterwards I was treated with respect (lit. was cultivated) by you, (and) you were attended to by me in your candidature for the quaestorship. Indeed at that time you tried to kill Publius Clodius in the Forum with the Roman people approving (your attempt). And, while you attempted this deed of your own accord, (and) not at my instigation, still you declared as follows, that you did not think that you could ever give satisfaction (lit. render [it] sufficiently) to me for your injuries against me unless you were to have killed that man. In this (regard) I wonder why you should say that Milo did that deed at my instigation, when I never encouraged you (to do it), (when you were) offering, of your own accord, that same (service) to me. And yet, if you had persisted in that (attempt), I should have preferred that that deed should have been ascribed to your credit rather than to my influence.

50.  You were elected. Suddenly, setting all rules at defiance, you went off to Gaul, to glut yourself with rapine. Thence returning, a beggar, you stood for the tribuneship. Now I will relate your crimes against the state. 

You were elected quaestor. Then immediately without a decree of the Senate, without a lot (having been drawn), without any (special) enactment (being passed), you ran off to Caesar. For you considered that (camp) to be the only refuge on earth for indigence, debt (lit. money belonging to another), (and) profligacy, (all) means of livelihood having been squandered (lit. lost). There, when you had glutted yourself both on his largesses and your own plunderings, if that is glutting (yourself), (appropriating something) which you squander (lit. pour forth) immediately, you swooped down, a beggar (once more), upon the tribuneship, in order that in that magistracy, you might, if you could, be like your friend (lit. husband) (i.e. Curio).

(XXI) Listen now, I beseech (you, conscript fathers), not to those things which he has done against himself, and infamously and immoderately against the decency of private life, but (to those things) which (he has done) impiously and nefariously against us and our possessions, that is against the whole republic. For you will find that the beginning of all our disasters has originated (lit. has been born) from his wickedness.

51.  In that office you defied the Senate which had to declare you a public enemy.

For, when on the Kalends of January, Lucius (Cornelius) Lentulus (Crus) (and) Gaius (Claudius) Marcellus (being) consuls (i.e. 49 B.C), you were anxious to prop up the republic (which was) tottering and almost collapsing, and you were willing to consult the interests of Gaius Caesar, if he were in his right mind, then that fellow opposed to your counsels his tribuneship (which had been) sold and made over (to another), and subjected his own neck to that axe, by which many men have perished in relation to lesser crimes. The Senate, and that too (while still) undamaged, so many of its luminaries having not yet been extinguished, passed that (decree) against you, Marcus Antonius, which, in accordance with the usage of our ancestors, is accustomed to be passed against a citizen (lit. toga-clad) enemy. And have you (really) dared, among these conscript fathers, to speak against me, when I have been declared (to be) the saviour, (and) you the enemy of the republic? As long as the race of men, as long as the name of the Roman people shall exist, which indeed will be eternal, if you will allow it (lit. if it will be allowed by you), that pestilential veto of yours will be denounced.

52.  No other course was open to that body in the face of your opposition, and you had to fly to Caesar.

What was being done with party spirit (lit. ambitiously), what (was being done) rashly, by the Senate, when you, a single young man prevented, not once but frequently, the whole order deciding about the safety of the republic? Nor did you allow (anything) to be discussed (by anyone) with you concerning the authority of the Senate, (did you)? But what was at stake, except that you should not desire that the republic should be utterly destroyed and overthrown, when neither the chief men of the state by their entreaties, nor the elders (lit. those greater by birth) by their warnings, nor the Senate in a full house by its pleading (with you), could move you from your opinion (which had been) sold and surrendered (to Caesar)? Then, many things having been attempted beforehand, that blow (i.e. the 'senatus consultum ultimum') was, of  necessity, inflicted upon you, which (had been inflicted upon only) a few before you, of whom no one has survived (lit. was unharmed). Then this order granted arms to the consuls and the other military and civil powers: you would not have escaped these (arms), if you had not  assigned yourself to the arms of Caesar.

53.  You were the cause of his making war upon his country; he owned it himself. 

(XXII) You, you, I say, Marcus Antonius, first gave Gaius Caesar, desiring (as he was) to throw everything into confusion, the pretext for war being waged against his country. For what other (reason) did he allege? What reason did he offer for his most desperate resolution and action, except that the veto (had been) disregarded, the tribunician rights done away with, and Antonius thwarted? I pass over how false and how trivial these (pretexts were), especially when no one could have any legitimate reason at all (lit. when there could be no legitimate reason at all to anyone) for taking up arms against his country. But (I say) nothing of Caesar: (yet) you must surely confess (lit. it is surely needing to be confessed by you) that the cause of this most ruinous war rested in your own person.

54.   History will tell how Italy was devastated.

O miserable man that you (are), if you are aware of these things! (you are even) more miserable if you are not aware that this is entrusted to writing, that this is handed down to our memory, that not even the posterity of all the ages (to come) will ever be unmindful of this fact, that the consuls (were) expelled from Italy, and with them Gnaeus Pompeius, who was the glory and the light of the empire of the Roman people, (and) that all the men of consular rank, who had been able to undergo that disaster and flight, the praetors, the men of praetorian rank, the tribunes of the people, a large part of the Senate, all the offspring of our youth, and in a single word, the republic, (were) driven out and uprooted from their abode!

55.  And you were the cause of it all. But you did some deeds of special infamy.

As, therefore, there is in seeds the cause of trees and plants, so you were the seed of this most lamentable war. You (, O conscript fathers,) are grieving that three armies of the Roman people have been slain (i.e. at Pharsalus 48 B.C., at Thapsus 46.B.C. and at Munda 45 B.C): Antonius slew (them). You are missing our most distinguished citizens: Antonius tore them from you likewise. The authority of this order is ruined: Antonius ruined (it). In short, everything which we have seen since then (lit. afterwards) - and what misfortune have we not seen? - if we shall argue correctly, we shall attribute (lit. set down [as] received) to Antonius alone. As Helen was to the Trojans, so that man (was) to this republic, the cause of war, (and) the cause of  ruin and destruction. The remaining part of his tribuneship (was) like the beginning. He accomplished everything which the Senate, the republic (still being) intact, had ensured could not be done. Yet, note the crime within his crime.

56.  You restored a notorious criminal from exile, but overlooked your banished uncle.

(XXIII) He restored many ruined men. Among those (there was) no mention of his uncle (i.e. Gaius Antonius Hybrida). If (he was) harsh, why (was he) not (harsh) to everyone? If (he was) merciful, why (was he) not (merciful) to his own (relatives)? But I pass over the others. He restored his fellow-gambler, Licinius Denticula, who (had been) condemned for dicing: as if indeed he could not (it were not permitted [to him] to) play with a condemned man! but (he restored him) in order that he should discharge, thanks to (lit. through the benefit of) a (particular) law, what he had lost on dice. What reason did you give to the people of Rome why he should (lit. why it behoved [them] that) be restored? (It was) said, I suppose, that (he was) absent (when) among those accused; that the charge (against him) was determined without a hearing (lit. his case having not been heard); that there was no judicial procedure (established) by a (particular) law about dicing; that (he had been) overcome by violence and arms; lastly, as was said with regard to your uncle, that the tribunal had been bribed with money. None of these things (was) said at all. But (he was) a good man and (one) worthy of the republic. That indeed was irrelevant (lit. nothing to the purpose): still, since that (he had been) condemned is as nothing (to you), I should forgive (you) if that were true (lit. to that extent). (But) did he (not) restore in full (lit. to an unimpaired [position]) the most worthless man of all, (one) who would not hesitate even to play at dice in the Forum, (and) who (had been) condemned by a (particular) law, which is about dicing; (and) does he not declare, in the most open manner, his very own inclinations?

57.  Everyone knows how you oppressed Italy when left in charge by Caesar. 

Indeed, in that same tribuneship, when Caesar, (while) setting out for Spain, had handed Italy over to him to be trampled under foot, what was his (style of) travelling on his journeys! (what was his style of) roving around the municipal towns! I know that I am talking of matters very regularly raised in everyone's conversation, and that those things which I am saying, and am going to say are better known to everyone who was in Italy at that time; yet I mention some singular matters, although my speech will in no way be able  to add sufficiently to your knowledge. In fact, has it been heard (by us) that such wickedness has ever existed on the earth? Or such shamelessness? Or such disgrace?

58.  You displayed your luxury and your infamy throughout the land.

(XXIV) This tribune of the people was borne in a chariot; lictors crowned with laurel preceded (him); among whom an actress was carried in an open litter; respectable men of the municipalities coming out from their towns of necessity to meet (him), greeted her, not by that well-known stage name (of hers), but (as) Volumnia. A four-wheeled carriage full of (lit with) panders followed, and his debauched (lit. most worthless) companions (as well); his scorned mother followed, as if (she were) a mother-in-law, the mistress of her profligate son. O the disastrous fecundity of that wretched woman! With the marks of these crimes did that fellow brand every municipality, (every) prefecture, every colony, in short, the whole of Italy.

59.  In the civil war, a delicate subject to handle, you were successful. At Brundisium you were good enough to spare my life.

Criticism of his other actions, conscript fathers, is of course difficult and dangerous. He was engaged in war: he was saturated in the blood of citizens very unlike himself. He was successful, if there can be any success in crime. But, since we wish that the interests of the veterans be taken care of (lit. that it be taken care of in respect of the veterans), although the soldiers' cause and yours are dissimilar - they followed a leader, you sought (one) -, yet, in order that you cannot call me into ill-will among them, I shall say nothing about the nature of the war. Victorious, you returned with the legions from Thessaly to Brundisium. There you did not kill me. (It was) a great kindness ! For I admit that you could have (done so). And yet there was no one among those men who were with you at that time who did not think that I should be spared (lit. that it behoved (you) for me to be spared).

60.  Granting your service to me, your insolence has interfered with my gratitude; yet you knew what reply I had in store.

For their affection for their country is so great, that I was sacred even to your legions, because they had remembered that it had been saved by me. But grant that you did give me a thing which you did not take away (from me), and that I have my life because, (as you remind me,) it was not taken by you, can I, in the midst of (lit. during) your insults, regard this kindness of yours in the way that I regarded (it at first), especially when you saw that you would hear these things.

61.  You returned to your old ways at Brundisium.

(XXV) You came to Brundisium, to that actress of yours. What is (the matter)? Do I speak falsely? How wretched it is not to be able to deny something that it is most shameful to confess! If you did not feel shame before (lit. If it did not shame you in relation to) the municipalities, (did you not feel shame) (lit. did it not shame you) even before your veteran army? For what soldier was there (lit. Who was the soldier) who did not see her at Brundisium?  Who (was there) who did not know that she had come on a journey of so many days in order to congratulate you? Who (was there) who did not grieve to discover so late what a worthless man he had been following?

62.  Again you spread havoc over Italy. You were made Caesar's Master of Horse. You lived like a bandit.

Again (there was) that travelling through Italy with that same actress (as) your companion; cruel and miserable was your settling of soldiers into the towns; shameful (was) the pillaging of gold, silver, and especially wine. In addition (lit. it was added that), with Caesar (being) unaware, since he was in Alexandria,  he was, by the kindness of his friends, appointed Master of the Horse. Then he thought that he could live with Hippias by virtue of his office (lit. in his own right) and hand over the rent-producing horses to the actor Sergius. At that time he had chosen where he should live, not that (house) which he now keeps for himself with difficulty (i.e. Pompeius' house), but the house of Marcus (Pupius) Piso. Why should I mention that fellow's decrees, why his robberies, why his properties of inheritances given (to him), why (those) seized (by him)? Want was compelling (him): he did not know where to turn (lit. whither to turn himself). That great inheritance from Lucius Rubrius had not yet come, nor (the one) from Lucius Turselius; he had not yet succeeded (as) the sudden heir to the place of Gnaeus Pompeius, and (that) of many others who were absent. He had (lit. there was to him) the (style of) life of bandits (lit. a living in the manner of bandits), so that he only possessed (as much) as he had been able to plunder.

63.  Some of your actions were disgusting. 

But let us pass over these things which are (the mark) of a more robust (kind of) villainy; let us speak rather of the most worthless kind of frivolity. You, with those jaws (of yours), with those lungs (of yours), with that gladiatorial  strength of your whole body, drank off so much wine at Hippias' wedding (lit. nuptials) that it was necessary for you to vomit the next day in the sight of the Roman people. O action, foul not only to see, but even to hear! If this had happened to you at table among those enormous goblets of your very own, who would not think (it) disgraceful? But in an assembly of the Roman people, that man, (while) conducting public business, a master of the horse, to whom to would be shameful to belch, (by) vomiting, filled his own bosom and the whole tribunal with edible scraps reeking with wine. But this he himself confessed to be among his  (more) filthy acts: let us come to his more splendid (misdeeds).

64.  Caesar returned from the East victorious. Pompeius' estates were sold, but you alone had the face to bid for them.

(XXVI) Caesar withdrew (lit. took himself away) from Alexandria, successful, as it seemed to himself at least, but in my opinion no one who is hostile to the republic can be successful. A spear having been set up in front of the temple of Jupiter Stator, the property of Gnaeus Pompeius (was) subjected - miserable man that I (am)! for though my tears are exhausted (lit. my tears having been used up), yet the sorrow remains imprinted on my heart -, the property, I say, of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (was) subjected to the pitiless (lit. most bitter) voice of the auctioneer. On that one occasion the community, forgetting its slavery, groaned aloud, and, though (mens's) minds were enslaved (lit. with (men's) minds being enslaved), since everything was gripped by fear, still the groaning of the Roman people found free expression (lit. was free). With everyone waiting (to see) who would be so impious, so insane, so hostile to the gods and to men, as to dare to go to that criminal auction (lit. that crime of an auction), no one was found except Antonius, although there were so many men (clustered) around that spear who would have dared everything else. One man (alone) was found to dare (to do) such a thing as the audacity of everyone (else) had shrunk from and shuddered at.  

65.  Did you dread the wrath of gods and men? How you glutted yourself on that hero's wealth!

So, did such great stupidity, or as I shall say more truly, such great madness take hold of you, that you do not realise that, first, when you, born in such a position as yours, became a buyer at a public sale, (and) then when (you became) the buyer of Pompeius' estate, you (are) accursed in the sight of the Roman people, (do you) not (realise that you are) repulsive (to them), (do you) not (realise) that all the gods and all men are both hostile to you, (and) will continue to be (so)? But how insolently did that glutton at once fall upon the possessions of that man, by whose valour the Roman people were more terrible to foreign nations, (and) by (whose) justice (it was) dearer (to them)!

(XXVII) So, when he had suddenly gorged himself on that man's possessions, he was jumping with joy as a character in a farce, (having) just (been) needy (and now) suddenly rich. But, as it is (said) in the opinion of some (lit. I know not what) poet, ill-gotten gains will unfortunately dissolve.

66.  In a few days it was all squandered.

There is (something) incredible and like a miracle in the way in which he squandered as much as that in a few, I do not say months, but days. There was a very great quantity of wine, a very great weight of the finest silver, valuable robes, much elegant furniture, and (other) magnificent things in many places, such things as belong to a man, not indeed extravagant, yet wealthy. Of these things in a few days there was nothing (left).

67.  No words can express your wanton profusion.

What Charybdis (was ever) so voracious? Do I say Charybdis? If she existed, she was a single animal: the Ocean, (so help) me the god of faith, seems scarcely to be able to have swallowed so quickly so many things, so scattered, so distributed in distant places. (To his pillaging hands) nothing was barred, nothing sealed up, nothing written down (in lists). Whole warehouses were abandoned to the most worthless men. Actors grabbed hold of some things, actresses (grabbed hold of) other things: the house was crowded with gamblers (and) full of drunkards: there was drinking (lit. it was being drunk) all day (long) and that (too) in many places; gambling losses were also frequently added on - for that fellow (was) not always lucky. You might see in the slaves' garrets beds covered with the purple-dyed counterpanes of Gnaeus Pompeius. Therefore (lit. on account of which thing) stop wondering that (all) these things have been consumed so swiftly. Such great profligacy could have speedily devoured not just one man's patrimony, however ample (it might have been), as (indeed) it was, but cities and kingdoms (as well). And likewise (he took possession of) his houses and gardens.

68.  You entered his hallowed house; the thought of it must have haunted your dreams, madman though you are.

O monstrous presumptuousness! Did you dare even to go into that house? (Did) you (dare) to enter that most hallowed threshold? (Did) you (dare) to show your most impious countenance to the household gods of that abode? No one could behold this house for any (length of) time, no one (could) go past (it) without tears; are you not ashamed (lit. does it not shame you) to stay in this house for so long? (one) in which, although you have no sense at all, still it could not be pleasing to you.

(XXVIII) When you have beheld those (ships') beaks in the hall, do you imagine that you are entering your own house? It cannot be (the case). For, although you are without sense (and) without feeling, as (indeed) you are, still you aware of yourself, your (possessions) and your (people). But I do not believe that you could ever exist with a (quiet) mind either awake or in your sleep. It is necessary, however impetuous and demented you may be, as (indeed) you are, when the vision of that excellent man comes (lit. [is] set) before (you), that you, frightened (as you may be), should be roused from your sleep, (and) often even stirred to frenzy (when) awake.

69.  The purity of that household was once proverbial. But in a sudden fit of virtue, you got rid of your mistress, your only good deed. 

I pity (lit. it moves me to pity in respect of) even the very walls and the roof (of that house). For what had that house ever seen except temperate behaviour, except some (conduct arising) from the best habits and the most hallowed rules of life? For that man was, conscript fathers, as you know, both illustrious abroad and worthy to be admired at home, and not more worthy to be praised for his exploits in foreign lands than for his domestic habits; (now) in this house brothels have taken (lit. are in) the place of bedrooms and cookshops have taken (lit. [are] in) the place of dining-rooms. And yet he now denies (this). Do not enquire. He has become respectable (lit. frugal). He told that actress of his to keep her own belongings for herself, and he took away her keys in accordance with the Twelve Tables, and drove (her) out. What a worthy, what an excellent citizen (he became) forthwith! There is no (action) in any way more honourable in the whole of his life than this one, when he arranged a divorce from an actress.

70.  You call yourself "a consul and an Antonius"; but you bring discredit on your name. Now I return to the civil war. 

But how repeatedly does he employ (the phrase) (being) both consul and an Antonius! This is to say, (being) both consul and a debauched (lit. a most shameless) man, (being) both consul and a degenerate (lit. a most worthless) man. For what else is Antonius? For if any dignity were implied in the name, your grandfather would, I imagine, have, at sometime, called himself both consul and Antonius. (But) he never did call (himself that). My colleague, your uncle, would have called (himself that) too, were it not for the fact that (lit. unless if) you alone are an Antonius. But I pass over those offences which are not characteristic of that role in which you have harassed the republic; I return to your very own role, that is to the civil war: that (it was) originated, brought to a head (lit. inflamed), (and) carried on is your responsibility (lit. work).

71.  Bloodthirsty warrior though you were, you let your chief go alone to Africa. On his return he sued you for the purchase money for Pompeius' house. 

(XXIX) You were not present in this war both on account of your cowardice and your debauchery. You had tasted, or rather sucked up the blood of (fellow-)citizens; you had been a leader in the battle-line at Pharsalus; you had slain Lucius Domitius, that most illustrious and most high-born man, and many men as well, whom Caesar might perhaps have spared (lit. saved), (and whom) having pursued, you butchered most cruelly. These very great and very grand exploits having been performed, what reason was there why you did not follow Caesar into Africa, especially when so large a part of the war was remaining? And so what position did you hold around Caesar himself, after his return from Africa? In what rank were you? You were called upon (for payment) (by him), whose quaestor you had been (to him as) a general, (and whose) master of the horse (you had been to him as) dictator, (you, who had been) the chief (cause) of the war, the instigator of the cruelty, his partner in plunder, (and) his son, as you said yourself, by his will, in respect of the money which you owed (him) for the house, for the gardens, and for (the property which you had bought at) that sale.

72.  You remonstrated with him at the supposed injustice.

At first you replied quite fiercely: and, so that I should not seem to say everything against you, you said things (which were) almost fair and just. (Is) Gaius Caesar (really demanding) money from me? Why (should he do so) rather than I from him? Was he victorious without me? I brought to him a reason for civil war; I proposed those ruinous laws; I bore arms against the consuls and generals of the Roman people, against the Senate and people of Rome, against the gods of our country and its altars and hearths, (and) against our country (itself). Did he conquer for himself alone? Why should not the booty be shared of those, whose crime is shared? You were demanding justice: but to what purpose? He had more power.

73.  But you remonstrated in vain. You had to put up for sale everything you could scrape together. 

And so, your expostulations having been ignored (lit. flung aside), he sent his soldiers both to you and to your guarantors, whereupon all of a sudden that splendid inventory was brought forth by you. How men laughed (lit. what laughter among men)! that there should be so vast a catalogue, (that there should be) so various and so many possessions, out of which, except for a share of Misenum, there was nothing which the man who was holding the auction could say (was) his own. But the sight of the sale (was) a miserable (one): a little (lit. not much) of Pompeius' apparel, and that stained; some battered silver vessels belonging to the same man; some shabbily-clad slaves: with the result that we grieved that there was anything out of those relics which we could see.

74.  The auction was stopped. Report says that you tried to murder Caesar. He gave you a few days' grace, and went to Spain. 

However, the heirs of Lucius Rubrius prevented the auction with a decree of Caesar's. The wastrel was at a loss: he did not know where to turn (lit. whither to turn himself). Nay rather, at this very moment an assassin sent by that fellow was said to have been apprehended with a dagger in Caesar's house. Caesar complained about this in the Senate, inveighing openly against you. Caesar sets out for Spain, a few days having been extended to you for making the payment (lit. for the purpose of paying) on account of your poverty. You do not follow (him) even then. (Did you), so good a gladiator, (accept) the wooden foil (i.e. take early retirement) so quickly? Would anyone therefore fear such a man very much who was so timid with regard to his own side, that is, with regard to his own fortunes?

75.  Dolabella was at Caesar's side in his three great battles, while you got no farther than Narbo. Meanwhile Pompeius' heirs were trying to recover their property. 

(XXX) At last, after some time, he set out for Spain, but, as he says, he could not reach (it) in safety. So how (lit. by what means) did (Publius Cornelius) Dolabella arrive (there)? Either, Antonius, that cause should not have been (lit. was not needing to be undertaken) (by you), or, when you had undertaken (it), it should have been (lit. it was needing to be) maintained right up to the end. Caesar fought with his (fellow)-citizens three times, in Thessaly, Africa (and) Spain. Dolabella was present at all these battles: in the Spanish (one) he even received a wound. If you ask for my opinion, I did not wish (he had been there). But, still, (though) his intention was blameworthy (worthy to be criticised) at the outset, his constancy was praiseworthy (lit. worthy to be praised) But what is to be said of you (lit. what are you)? At that time the children of Gnaeus Pompeius were trying, for the first time, to go back to their country. Well (lit. let it be): this was the common cause of that party. Moreover, they were trying to recover their household gods, their altars, their hearths, their own familial tutelary deity, upon (all of) which you had seized hold. When they sought (to recover) by (force of) arms, those things which were theirs by law - although in such most unjust proceedings, what can be natural? - yet who was the most natural (person) to be fighting against the children of Gnaeus Pompeius. Who? (Why,) you, the buyer (of their property).

76.  What did you do on your return, you who criticise my return? You went about begging for the consulship, instead of canvassing like your forefathers. 

When you were vomiting over the tables of your hosts at Narbo, was it for Dolabella to have been fighting in Spain on your behalf?

But what of your return from Narbo? He even asked why I had returned so early from my own expedition. I have just explained, conscript fathers, the reason for my return. I wished, if I could, to be of service to the republic even before the Kalends of January (i.e. 1st January 43 B.C.). For, as you were asking how (lit. by what means) I had returned: in the first place (it was) in the daylight, not in the dark: secondly, (I was) in my boots and my toga, not in any Gallic (sandals) or in a light mantle. And you are looking at me even (now), and indeed in anger, as you seem (to me). Indeed, you would now be reconciled to (lit. return to friendship with) me, if you knew how ashamed I am (lit. how it shames me in respect) of your profligacy, which you yourself are not ashamed of (lit. in respect of which it does not shame you yourself). Out of all the offences of all people, I have seen nothing, I have heard nothing more shameful. (You) who seemed to yourself to have been master of the horse, when you were standing for, or rather begging for, the consulship in the next year, ran in Gallic (sandals) and a light mantle through the municipal towns and the colonies of Gaul, from which we used to solicit the consulship at that time when the consulship was solicited, not begged for.

77.  After drinking at Saxa Rubra you concocted a surprise for your wife.

(XXXI) But note the frivolous nature of the man. When at about the seventh hour of the day he had come to Saxa Rubra (i.e. Red Rocks, a place on the Flaminian Way, nine miles north of Rome), he dived into some (wretched) little tavern, and, hiding himself there, he kept on drinking till evening; having been driven speedily thence to the city in a two-wheeled carriage, he came home, his head having been muffled up. The door-keeper (says), "Who (are) you?" "A courier from Marcus," (he replies). (He is taken) at once to the woman for whose sake he had come (i.e. his wife Fulvia); he handed over the letter to her. When she was reading this in tears - for it had been written in an amorous style; but the main point of the letter was that he would have (lit. that there would be to him) nothing (to do) with that actress in the future: that he had discarded all his love from that quarter and transferred (lit. decanted) (it) on to her -; when the woman wept more copiously, that soft-hearted man could bear (it) no (longer); he uncovered his head; (and) he fell upon her neck. O the abandoned man! for what else shall I call (him)? I can say nothing more appropriate: so, did you disturb the city with nocturnal alarm, (and) Italy with a panic of many days (duration) for this reason, so that a woman might suddenly (lit. beyond hope) see you, when, not having been expected, you had shown yourself.

78.  People laughed when you said you had come to look after your property. You met Caesar on his return from Spain and curried favour with him again. 

And indeed you did have at home a cause for love; (but) outdoors (you had a cause) even more shameful, (that is) that Lucius (Munatius) Plancus (i.e. one of the eight praefecti urbis, appointed by Caesar in 45 B.C. to administer Rome during his absence in Spain) should not sell (the property of) your guarantors. But, when you, having been brought forward into the assembly by a tribune of the people, had replied that you had come for the sake of your property, you made even the people sarcastic towards you. But (we have said) too many things about trifles. Let us come to more important (matters).

(XXXII) You went a very long way to meet Gaius Caesar returning from Spain. You went rapidly, (and) you returned (rapidly), so that he might learn that you (were), if not brave, but active all the same. You became intimate with him again, I know not how (lit. by what means). Caesar had this general (characteristic): whomsoever (was) completely ruined by debt (lit. another person's money) and needy, if he knew that the same man (was) profligate and audacious, he received this man into his intimate friendship very gladly.

79.  You secured the consulship and tried to oust Dolabella.

So, having been very clearly recommended (to him) by these circumstances, you were ordered to be appointed consul, and indeed as his colleague (lit. with himself). I do not complain at all about Dolabella, who was, at that time, urged on, brought forward (and) let down. Who does not know with what great perfidy each of you treated Dolabella? He (i.e. Caesar) diverted and transferred to himself what he had promised and guaranteed: you added your willingness to his treachery. The Kalends of January arrives; we are summoned to assemble (lit. gathered) in the Senate; Dolabella inveighed against that man much more fully and with more preparation than I (am doing) now.


80.  Though Caesar had promised the office to Dolabella, you said that as augur you would vitiate the election.

But what things did he say, (O you) good gods! Firstly, when Caesar had made known that, before he were to set out, he would order that Dollabella should be consul - (and) they deny that he (was) a king, who was always both doing and saying things of this sort -; but, when Caesar had spoken to this effect, then this good augur said that he had been invested in that priestly office such that he could either hinder or vitiate the election assembly, and he asserted strongly that he would do that. In this, note, firstly, the unbelievable stupidity of the man.  

81.  You could have done it equally well as consul, but you as ignorant as you are shameless. 

For what (do you mean)? Could you not have done that thing which you said you could do through your priestly power, if you were not an augur and you were a consul? Consider, indeed, (whether you could have done it) more easily? For we (augurs) have only (the power of) reporting (the omens): and the consuls and the other magistrates (have the power of) observance also. Let it be (so): You said this in your ignorance (lit. [being] ignorant); for knowledge (of sacred law) cannot (lit. is not fit to) be demanded from a man (who is) never sober: but note his impudence. Many months before he said in the Senate that he would either prevent the election of Dolabella or that he would do the thing which he (actually) did do. Can anyone divine what defect there will be in the auspices, except (the man) who has (already) decided to keep watch with regard to the heavens? (But) by law it is not permitted to anyone (to do) this at (the time of) elections, and, if anyone has been observing (the heavens), he is bound to announce (this) not with the elections being held, but when they are held. But his ignorance is closely connected to his impudence; neither does he know what it is right for an augur to know, nor does he do what (it is right) for a modest man (to do).

82.  How abject you were when in office! When the day for Dolabella's election came, the proceedings went on as usual. 

And so remember his (conduct of the) consulship from that day (i.e. the Kalends of January) up to the Ides (i.e. the 15th) of March. What attendant was ever so humble, so abject? He himself had no power at all; he begged everything; inserting his head into the hind part of his litter, he sought favours from his colleague to sell (them to others).

Behold the day of Dolabella's election (comes); the drawing of lots for the prerogative (century) takes place (lit. ceases). (The result) is announced: he is silent. The first class is called; (the result) is announced; then the votes (are announced) in such a way as is customary; then the second class is called: all these things are done faster than I have said (it).


83.  Then suddenly you interposed, feigning some unfavourable sign.

The business having been completed, that excellent augur - you would say that (he was) Gaius Laelius (Sapiens) - says that (the meeting has been adjourned) until another day. O the monstrous impudence! What had you seen? What had you perceived? What had you heard?  For neither did you say that you had been keeping watch with regard to the heavens, nor do you say (so) on this day. So, that defect occurred on that day, which you had already foreseen there would be on the Kalends of January, and (which) you had predicted so long before. Therefore, it is clear (lit. by great Hercules) you fabricated the auspices with great misfortune to yourself, as I hope, rather than to the republic; you hampered the Roman people by means of a religious procedure; (as) an augur you announced an adverse omen to an augur, (as) a consul (you announced an adverse omen) to a consul. I do not wish (to say) more, lest I should seem to invalidate (lit. pull into pieces) the actions of Dolabella: which it is necessary, at some time, to be brought before our college (i.e. the college of augurs).

84.  Confess that you were drunk, or explain the meaning of your interposition. But now for the Lupercalia, the very mention of which makes you start.  

(XXXIV) But, lest by any chance my speech should pass over one out of the many exploits (lit. things having been undertaken) of Antonius (which is) very  fine, let us come to the Lupercalia. He is not pretending, conscript fathers: it is clear that he agitated; that he is sweating, that he is turning pale. Let him do whatever he likes, only let him not vomit, as he did in the Minucian colonnade. What defence can there be for such shameful behaviour? I wish to hear, so that I may see the fruit of (lit. I may see where is) that (high) payment of the rhetorician (i.e. Sextus Clodius),(and) how (lit. where) that land in Leontini makes (itself) felt (lit. shows [itself]).

85.  You offered Caesar a diadem which he refused.

Your colleague was sitting on a golden chair on the rostra, clad in a purple toga, (and) wearing a laurel wreath. You ascend the rostra, you approach his chair - you were a Lupercus in such a way that you ought to have remembered that you were a consul - (and) you display a diadem. (There is) a groan across the whole forum. Whence that diadem? For you had not picked (it) up, (as it was) lying on the ground, but you had brought (it) from home, a premeditated and planned crime. You placed the diadem on (his head) amidst the lamentations of the people: he rejected (it) amidst (great) applause. So you alone, (you) wicked man, were found, since you were the agent of kingly power, to wish to have the man whom you had (as) your colleague (as) your master; (and) at the same time (to) try out what the Roman people were able to bear and endure.

86.  You begged him to take it and so make you a slave. He is killed and yet you survive!

Moreover, you even tried to win his pity: you threw yourself at his feet (as) a suppliant. Begging for what? To be a slave? You might beg (this) for yourself alone, (you) who had lived from your boyhood in such a way that you could endure any indignity (lit. everything), and so that you could easily be a slave. (But) assuredly you did not have that (office) (i.e. offering Caesar a crown) entrusted (to you) by ourselves and the Roman people. O (how) glorious (was) that eloquence of yours, when you made that harangue stark naked! What (was) more shameful than this? What more foul? What more deserving of every punishment? Surely you are not waiting, while I prick you with goads? This speech must be (lit. is) lashing you, this (speech) must be (lit. is) wounding (you), if you possess any particle of feeling. I fear that I may be detracting from (lit. lessening) the glory of those most eminent men. Still, I shall speak, (though) excited by regret. What (is) more shameful than that the man who placed a diadem on (his head) (still) lives, when everyone admits that (he) who was rightly slain rejected (it)?

87.  You had your action entered in the public records; no wonder there is no rest for such a traitor to our liberties. 

Moreover, he even ordered that it be appended to (the heading) of Lupercalia in the state calendar that the consul Marcus Antonius had, by order of the people, offered the kingship to Gaius Caesar, dictator for life (lit. perpetual dictator), (but) that Caesar had been unwilling to accept (lit. enjoy) (it). Righnow I am very little surprised that you are disturbing the (general) tranquillity; that you hate not only the city but also the light (of day); (and) that you live in the company of (lit. with) the most abandoned robbers. For where can (lit. will) you exist in peace? What place can there be for you in the sphere of the law and the law-courts, which things you have tried to destroy by kingly domination. (Was) Lucius Tarquinius (Superbus) driven out, (and were) Spurius Cassius (Vecellinus) (and) Spurius Maelius killed for this reason, that after many centuries a king could be established at Rome by Marcus Antonius, (something) which is not lawful.

88.  Caesar was going to discuss Dolabella's case on the Ides, but was murdered first. This reminds me how precipitously you fled that day.

(XXXV) But let us return to the auspices, about which Caesar was about to speak in the Senate on the Ides of March. I am asking (this): what would you then have said? Indeed I have heard that you had come prepared, because (as I was told) you thought that I was intending to speak about the fabricated auspices, which it is still necessary to obey. The fortune of the republic eliminated (the business of) that day. Did Caesar's death also put an end to your opinion about the auspices? But I have alighted (lit. fallen) upon that occasion which it is necessary (for me) to address first (lit. turn [myself] towards first) before those matters upon which my speech had embarked. What a flight (that was) of yours! What an alarm you had (lit. there was [to you]) on that memorable day! What despair of life (you had) (lit. [there was to you]) on account of your awareness of your wickedness! When in that flight (you were saved) by the kindness of those who wanted you to be safe, if (only) you would be sane, you retired (lit. betook yourself) secretly to your home.

89.  I always said what your conduct would be. I saw nothing of you till the 17th.

O (how) in vain (have) my very accurate prophecies of future events always (been)! I told those liberators of ours on the Capitol, as they wanted me to go to you to urge (you) to defend the republic (lit. with the purpose of the republic being defended), that, as long as you were in fear, you would promise everything, (but) that, as soon as you had ceased to be afraid, you would be like yourself (again). Therefore, although the other men of consular rank were going to and fro (lit. were going and returning), I remained in my opinion. I saw you neither on that day nor on the next; and I did not believe that any alliance between virtuous citizens and that unprincipled foe could be confirmed by any treaty. After the third day (i.e. on 17th March) I came into the Temple of Tellus, and indeed against my will, since armed men were blockading all the entrances.

90.  On that day you behaved well, but only through fear. Then you presided over the funeral.

What a day was that for you, Antonius! Although you suddenly appeared to me (as) an enemy, still I pitied you (lit. it moved me to pity in respect of you) because you envied yourself.

(XXXVI) What a man you (are), (O) immortal gods! and how great a man you might have been, if you could have preserved your attitude on that day! We should (still) have peace, which was made (then) by means of a hostage, a boy of noble birth, the grandson of Marcus (Fulvius) Bambalio (i.e. Antonius' son). And yet (it was) fear, no lasting teacher of duty, (that) made you good: that audacity (of yours), which does not depart from you as long as fear is absent, made (you) wicked. And yet even at that time, when they thought you an excellent (man), with me indeed dissenting (from that opinion), you presided very wickedly at the funeral of the tyrant.

91.  It was you who roused the mob to fury. Yet directly afterwards you proposed some sensible resolutions. 

That fine panegyric (was) yours, that burst of pathos (lit. commiseration) (was) yours, that exhortation (was) yours: you, you, I say, lit those fire-brands, both those by which that man (i.e. Caesar's body) was half-burned, and those by which the house of Lucius Bellienus, having been set on fire, was burned down. You let loose those attacks of desperate men, and slaves for the most part, upon our houses, which we repelled by force and by hand(-to-handfighting). Yet, at the same time, as though with the soot having been washed off (your face), in the subsequent days on the Capitol, you passed those excellent resolutions in the Senate, to the effect that after the Ides of March no (lit. not any) document (lit. tablet) (granting) an exemption (from public service) nor any favour of such a kind (i.e. grants of citizenship) should be published (lit. affixed [in a public place]). You remember yourself what you said about the exiles: you know what you said about the exemption. But the best thing (was) that you abolished the name of dictator from the (constitution of the) republic forever. Indeed, by this act it seemed that you had conceived so great a hatred of kingly power that you removed for all time the fear of it on account of the name of the last dictator (lit. on account of the last name of a dictator).

92.  People thought the republic was reviving, but I knew better. You started a shameless traffic in grants and privileges, doing your best to ruin the state.

To others the republic (now) seemed established, by by no means to me, as I feared every kind of shipwreck with you steering (it). So, did he deceive me? or could he be unlike himself for a longer time? With you looking on, documents (lit. tablets) were being affixed all over the Capitol; exemptions were being sold, not only to individuals, but even to whole peoples; citizenship was being given, no longer (lit. not now) on an individual basis, but to entire provinces. Therefore, if these (acts) are to continue, and they (lit. which) cannot continue with the republic (still) standing, (then), conscript fathers, you have lost whole provinces; and not only tax-income, but even the empire of the Roman people, has been diminished by this man's domestic market.

93.  You seized the public treasure and paid your debts with it. You and your friends sold decrees, one in particular about Deiotarus. 

(XXXVII) Where is the seven hundred million sesterces which is in the account-books (lit. tablets) at (the Temple) of Ops? (a sum of) money lamentable indeed, but still (one) which might be able to release us from taxes. Moreover, how (lit. by what means) did you cease to owe before the Kalends of April the forty million sesterces which you owed on the Ides of March? Those things are quite countless which were purchased from your (friends), with you not being unaware (of it). But one excellent decree (was) affixed on the Capitol: this (decree) having been posted up, there was no one, who, amidst his own indignation, could contain his  laughter.

94.  Deiotarus was a bitter foe to Caesar, yet now receives from you a grant purporting to have been made him by Caesar. 

For who (was) more of an enemy to anyone than Caesar to Deiotarus? (He was) equally (hostile to him) as (he was) to this order, as (he was) to the equestrian (order), as (he was) to the inhabitants of Massilia, as (he was) to all men to whom he thought that the republic of the Roman people was dear. So, he who, neither (when he was) present nor (when he was) absent, obtained anything equitable (or) favourable from him (while he was) alive, became influential (with him) in the presence of his dead (body). (When) present (in his house), he had summoned his host to account, he had made a reckoning (of his resources), he had exacted money (from him), he had established one of his Greek retainers in his tetrarchy, (and) he took from (him) Armenia, (which had been) given (to him) by the Senate. (While) alive, he deprived (him) of these things: (when) dead, he returned (them).

95.  The wording of it betrays the fact.

And in what words (did he do this)? (He says) at one point that it appears to him (to be) just, at another point (that it appears to him) not to be unjust. A strange mixture of words! But he (i.e. Caesar) - for I always supported Deiotarus in his absence - never said that anything which we were asking for on his behalf seemed to him (to be) just. A bond for ten million sesterces was taken out in the women's quarters, in which place very many things have been sold and are being sold, by his ambassadors, well-meaning men, but timid and inexperienced (in business), without my (lit. our) advice and without (the advice) of the king's other guest-friends. I do advise (that) you should consider carefully what you are going to do with regard to this bond. For the king himself of his own accord, without any (lit. with none) of Caesar's memoranda, as soon as he heard of his death, recovered his possessions by his own exertions.

96.  You and Fulvia drew up the bond, which even your lawyer tells you is of little avail, for Deiotarus recovered his possessions for himself after Caesar's death, instead of waiting to purchase them from you. 

Wise man (that he was), he knew that this was always the law, that those men from whom the things which
tyrants had taken away had been taken, might recover (them), the tyrants having been slain. Therefore, no lawyer (lit. skilled man in the law), not even that man who is your lawyer alone, through whom you do (all) these things, will say that (anything) is due (to you) in accordance with that bond in relation to those things which had been recovered before that bond (had been taken out). For he did not purchase (them) from you, but, before you might sell him his own (property), he had taken possession (of it) himself. (What) a man he was! (But) we indeed (are) despicable (lit. worthy to be despised), who hate the author, (yet) uphold his actions.

97.  You forged innumerable documents, one, both mischievous and absurd, about Crete. 

(XXXVIII) Why do I speak of of the countless memoranda, why (do I speak) of the innumerable handwritten notes? There are forgers of these things, who even sell them openly like the handbills of gladiatorial shows. Therefore, such piles of coins are (now) heaped up in that man's house, that money is now weighed out, not counted. But how blind is this avarice! A document (lit. tablet) has recently been posted up (lit. affixed), by which the most wealthy cities of the Cretans are released (from tribute), and (by which) it is established that that after Marcus (Junius) Brutus' proconsulship (lit. after Marcus Brutus [being] on behalf of a consul) Crete would not be a province. Are you in possession of your mind? Should you not (lit. are you not needing to) be fettered (as a lunatic)? Could Crete have been exempted after Marcus Brutus' departure by a decree of Caesar's, when Crete was of no concern at all to Brutus, when Caesar was alive (lit. Caesar [being] alive). But by the sale of this decree, so that you may not think that nothing (was) achieved (as a result of it), you have lost Crete (as) a province. There was absolutely no buyer of anything to whom he was lacking (as) a vendor.

98.  You restored exiles, excluding only two or three from your compassion, as you did your uncle, whom you once urged to stand for the censorship to the general amusement. 

And did Caesar pass that law about exiles which you have posted up (lit. affixed)? I am not criticising the condemnation of anyone: I am only complaining: firstly, that the recall of those whose cause Caesar judged (to be) different (from the others) (is) tarnished; (and) secondly I do not know why you not bestow the same (treatment) upon the others. For not more than more than three or four are left over. Why do they, who are in similar misfortune not enjoy a similar degree of your compassion? Why do you keep them in the position of your uncle? You were unwilling to pass a law about him, although you were passing (one) about the rest; (and) you even urged him to stand for the censorship (lit. urged him towards the censorship being sought), and you got up that canvassing, which excited both people's laughter and their complaints.

99.  When the time came, you left him in the lurch, as you did in the case of the land commission. His daughter too you divorced with public insult.  

But why did you not hold that election? (Was it really) because a tribune of the people reported an ill-omened flash of lightning? When something matters to you, auspices are of no account (lit. nothing); when (it concerns) your (relatives), you become scrupulous. What (more is there to say)? Did you not forsake the same person with regard to the septemvirate (i.e. the board of seven commissioners appointed by Antonius to parcel out certain lands in Italy among his partisans)? (Yes, you will say), for (someone) intervened, whom, I suppose, you were afraid that you could not refuse without your person (being) unsafe. You loaded with every insult the man who, if there was any piety in you, you ought to have respected in the place of a father. You threw out his daughter and your cousin (i.e. his second wife, Antonia), another arrangement having been looked for and investigated beforehand (i.e his third wife, Fulvia). It is (still) not enough. You accused a most chaste woman of misconduct. What is there that you could have added? (But) you were not content with that. At a very fully attended (meeting of the) Senate on the Kalends of January, with your uncle in his seat (lit. sitting), you dared to say that this was the reason for your hatred of Dolabella, that you had learned that adultery had been committed by him with your cousin and your wife. Who can determine whether it was more shameful of you to have spoken so impiously in the Senate, or more wicked of you to (have spoken) against Dolabella, or more foul of you to (have spoken) with your uncle listening, or more cruel of you to (have spoken) so obscenely against that wretched (woman).

100.  The written behests said to have been left by Caesar, which were to have been submitted to the consideration of the Senate on the first of June, were published and sold by you long before. How shameful that journey of yours through Italy in April and may when you were almost killed at Capua.

(XXXVIII) But let us return to the handwritten notes. What was your method of enquiry? For Caesar's acts had been confirmed by the Senate for the sake of peace, (that is to say) those things which Caesar had in fact done, not the things which Antonius had said that Caesar had done. From where do they (all) burst out from? By which author are they produced? If they are forgeries (lit. false), why are they being approved? If genuine, why are they being sold? Moreover, it had been resolved (lit. it had seemed good) thus, that on the Kalends of June, you should make an examination of Caesar's acts with the help of a council (i.e. a bench of assessors chosen by the Senate)? What council was there? Whom did you ever call together? Which Kalends of June did you wait for? (Was it) that (day), on which, the colonies of veterans having been traversed (by you), you returned (lit. brought yourself back), accompanied by a pack of troops?

O that splendid progress of yours in the month of April and of May, at that time when you even attempted to conduct a colony to Capua! How (lit. by what means) you escaped, or rather (how) you almost did not escape, from there, we (all) know.

101.  Would you could be quite! You settled your minions in those rich domains, to the great loss of the state. 

(And) you are (still) threatening this city. Would that you would try (once more to conduct a colony thither), so that that (word) almost might then be removed! But how magnificent was that progress of yours! Why should I reveal the elaborateness of your luncheons, why (should I reveal) your frantic wine-drinking? Those losses are yours; these (are) ours. We thought that the Campanian land, when it was exempted from (land) taxes in order that it should be given to soldiers, (was) nevertheless a great blow to be inflicted on the republic: (but) you divided this (land) among your drinking partners and fellow-gamblers. I am saying, conscript fathers, that actors and actresses (have been) settled on the Campanian land. Why should I now complain about the Leontine land? Since indeed these domain lands of Campania and Leontini (were) once in the patrimony of the Roman people, they were reputed (to be) fertile and profitable. (You gave) three thousand acres to your doctor: what (would you have given him), if he had cured you? (You gave) two (thousand acres) to your rhetorician: what (would you have given him), if he had been able to make you eloquent? But let us return to your journey and to Italy.

102.  You conducted a colony to Casilinum where one existed already.  

(XL) You conducted a colony to Casilinum, whither Caesar had conducted (one) previously. You did indeed consult me by letter about Capua; I should have replied in the same way about Casilinum: whether you could legally conduct a new colony to a place where there was a colony (already). I said that a new colony could not legally be conducted to that colony which had been conducted under the proper auspices (lit. the auspices having been [properly] conducted), while it was flourishing (lit. safe and sound): (but) I replied that new colonists could be enrolled. But you, puffed up with insolence, every due observance of the auspices having been disturbed, conducted a colony to Casilinum, whither (one) had been conducted a few years previously, in order that you could raise your standard (there), and that you could lead a plough around (its boundaries): indeed by its ploughshare you almost grazed the gate of Capua, such that the territory of that flourishing colony was diminished.

103.  Then you took possession of Varro's villa pretending that you had bought it from Caesar. 

From this violation of religious observances you swoop down upon the farm of Marcus (Terentius) Varro, that most devout and highly principled man at Casinum. By what right? With what face (did you do this)? In the same way, you will say, by which (you entered) upon the estates of the heirs of Lucius Rubrius, by which (you entered) upon (the estates) of the heirs of Lucius Turselius, (and) by which (you entered) upon countless other properties. And if (you came into possession of it) by (purchase at) an auction, may the auction hold good (lit. prevail), may the bills of sale hold good (lit. prevail), so long as (they are) Caesar's, not yours: (bills,) by which you have been bound, not by which you have freed yourself. Who indeed says that Varro's farm was (ever) sold? Who (ever) saw the notice of that sale? Who (ever) heard the auctioneer's voice? You say that you sent (a man) to Alexandria to buy (it) from Caesar. For it was (of course) too great (a trouble for you) to wait for (Caesar) himself.

104.  This was false; in fact Caesar requested you to give it up. No one would permit you to retain it. How you disgraced the house during your occupation of it!

But who ever heard - and the welfare of nobody was of concern to more people  - that any part of Varro's property had been confiscated? What (more can be said)? If Caesar even wrote to you (to say) that you should restore (Varro's property), what could be sufficiently said about your shamelessness? Remove for a while those swords which we see. You will now understand that the case of Caesar's auction is one thing, (and) your impudence and temerity (is) another. For not only will the owner keep you off that estate, but any of his friends, neighbours, guests or stewards (will do so too).

105.  That seat of learning was befouled by your orgies.

What things were discussed in that villa previously! What things were pondered (there)! What (matters) were committed into writing! The laws of the Roman people, the memorials of ancestors, the basis of all wisdom and all learning. But now with you (being) the tenant - for (I will) not (say) (with you being) the master - everywhere resounded with the voices of drunken men; the pavements swam with wine; the walls dripped (with it). Free-born boys consorted with hirelings, harlots (busied themselves) among the mothers of families. (Men) came from Casinum, Aquinum and Interamna to salute (him). No one was admitted. That was indeed proper (lit. by right): for the insignia of office were sullied by this most shameful of men.

106.  On your return to Rome, people left their villages to greet you, but you treated them with contempt.

When, proceeding thence to Rome, he came to Aquinum, quite a large crowd came out to meet him, as it is a populous town. But he was conveyed through the town by a closed litter, as a dead man. The people of Aquinum (no doubt acted) foolishly, but still they remained in the road. What (did) the people of Anagnia (do)? They, although they were out of his way, came down to pay their respects to him (as) consul, as if he were (a consul). It is incredible to relate, yet it was agreed among every bystander, that he returned the salutation to no one: (it was incredible) especially since he had with him two men of Anagnia, Mustela and Laco, of whom the one was in charge of his swords and the second in charge of his drinking-cups.

107.  Other towns you worried for their loyalty to our patriots. In your absence Dolabella behaved nobly at Rome, but your return corrupted him.

Why should I mention those threats and insults of his, by which he inveighed against the inhabitants of Teanum Sidicinum (and) harassed the people of Puteoli, because they had adopted Gaius Cassius and the Bruti (as) their patrons? Indeed (they treated them) with great zeal, discernment, benevolence and affection, not (as they did) you and (Minucius Basilus), with violence and with (force of) arms, (you) and others like you, whom no one would wish to have (as) clients, much less (lit. not only [would no one wish] to be their client.

(XLII) In the meantime, while you yourself were absent, what a day was that for your colleague, when he overturned that tomb in the forum which you were accustomed to venerate! That event having been reported to you, you collapsed, as was agreed among those who were together (with you). What happened afterwards, I do not know - I suppose that terror and arms prevailed - indeed you pulled your colleague down from the heaven (of his renown) and in fact you made (him) (i.e. by bribery), not even now to be like yourself, but, at any rate, (to be) unlike himself.

108.  Your approach to Rome reminded us of the worst days of Cinna, Sulla and Caesar.

But what a return from there (was that of yours) to Rome! What (a great) disturbance of the whole city! We recalled (Lucius Cornelius) Cinna being too powerful, and afterwards (Lucius Cornelius) Sulla (Felix) being in absolute authority; (and) we had just beheld Caesar acting as a king. There were perhaps swords, but (they were) sheathed (lit. concealed) and not so many (after all). But how (great) and how barbaric is that (procession) of yours! (Men) follow (you) in battle array (lit. in a square column) with (drawn) swords: we see litters (full) of shields being borne along. Moreover these things indeed having now become established, conscript fathers, we have become inured (to them) through habit. On the Kalends of June, when we wanted to go to the Senate, as had been determined, having suddenly been struck with panic (lit. thoroughly frightened by anxiety), we dispersed.

109.  The Senate was deserted, but you nevertheless set to work to rescind all Caesar's acts and set aside his bequests.

But he, as he was not in need of the Senate, not (only) did he not miss any (of us) but rather he rejoiced at our departure, and immediately performed those marvellous exploits of his. Although he had defended Caesar's memoranda for the sake of his own gain, he overturned Caesar's laws, and these (were) good (ones), in order that he might impair the republic. He extended the number of years for (the tenure of) provinces: and also, although he ought to have been the defender of Caesar's acts, he rescinded Caesar's acts both in relation to public, and in relation to private, transactions. In the sphere of public (transactions) nothing is more weighty than law: in the sphere of private (transactions) the will is the most valid (of deeds). Some laws he annulled without promulgation:  he promulgated others in order that he might annul (laws of Caesar's). He made wills null and void: these have always been observed, even in the case of the meanest citizens. The statues (and) the pictures which Caesar bequeathed to the people together with his gardens, those he carried off, some to the gardens of Pompeius, (and) others to (Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius) Scipio (Nasica)'s villa.

110.  Your office as Caesar's flamen binds you to do him reverence, yet you now neglect the religious ceremonies held in his honour. 

(XLIII) And (are) you diligent in Caesar's memory? Do you love him, (though he is) dead? To what greater honour had he attained than that he had a sacred couch, a pediment, and a priest? Therefore, as Jupiter has a priest (lit. there is a priest to Jupiter), as Mars (has a priest) (lit. [there is a priest] to Mars), (and) as Quirinus (has a priest) (lit. [there is a priest] to Quirinus), so the deified Julius has Marcus Antonius as his priest (lit. Marcus Antonius [is the priest] to the deified Julius). So why do you delay? Why are you not installed? Choose the day: look for (someone) to instal you: we are colleagues; no one will refuse. O (you) detestable man, whether because you are the priest of a tyrant, or because (you are the priest) of a dead man! I ask (you) (these questions) in turn: whether you are unaware of what day it is today (lit. what is today's day)? Do you not know that yesterday was the fourth day of the Roman Games in the Circus (Maximus)? and that you yourself had proposed to the people that a fifth day should be assigned henceforth to Caesar? Why are we not (all) wearing the (toga) praetexta? Why are we allowing the honour belonging to Caesar bestowed by your law to be disregarded? Did you permit this day to be polluted by adding a thanksgiving, (and) were you (then) unwilling that (it be polluted by adding) a sacred couch ceremony? Either abolish religious observance completely or preserve (it) everywhere.

111.  You ask whether I approve of them: of course not, but you ought to do so. What answer have you? Lay bare your thoughts as you once did your person. 

You ask whether I am happy (lit. it is pleasing to me) that he has (lit. that there is to him) a sacred couch, a pediment (and) a priest. In truth I am happy about none of these things (lit. none of these things are pleasing to me). But you, who are defending Caesar's acts, what (reason) can you offer (lit. pronounce) why you defend some and do not bother about others? Unless, perchance, you choose to admit that you measure everything by your own advantage (and) not by his dignity. What, pray, (will you say) to these (arguments)? - for I await your eloquence: I knew your grandfather (as) a most eloquent man, but (I know) you (to be) even more open in speaking; he never harangued the people naked, (but) in your case we have seen the breast of the simple-minded man (that you are) -: will you (ever) reply to these (statements of mine) or venture to open your mouth at all? Will you find any single thing in (lit. from) this very long speech of mine to which you can be sure that you can respond?

112.  Enough of the past. Defend your conduct this day. Why is the forum thronged with your mercenaries? 

(XLIV) But let us pass over the past. This single day, this one (day), I say, defend, if you can, (your conduct on) this very day (lit. today's day) at this (very) moment of time, when (lit. in which) I am speaking. Why is the Senate surrounded by a ring of armed men? Why are your followers listening to me with (drawn) swords? Why are the folding-doors of the (temple of) Concord not open? Why do you bring men of every nation, especially those barbarians, the Ityraeans, with their arrows, into the forum? He says that does (so) for the sake of a guard for himself. So is it not better to die a thousand times than not to be able to live in one's own city without a guard of armed men? But, believe me, that is no protection at all. You should (lit. it behoves you to) be protected by the affection and good-will of your (fellow-)citizens, not by arms.

113.  Your power must fall soon, perhaps your wife will aid us. The state has its patriots whose chief desire is to preserve peace, but even peace must not be bought at the price of liberty.

The Roman people will seize and wrest away those (arms) of yours, (and) would that (they may do so) with us (being) safe. But howsoever (lit. by whatever means) you deal with us, while you employ those measures, you will not, believe me, last long (lit. be long lasting). In fact that wife of yours, (being) not in the least avaricious, whom I speak of (lit. characterise) without insult, is (already) owing her third payment to the Roman people for too long (i.e. Fulvia had been the widow of both Clodius and Curio before she married Antonius). The Roman people has (those) to whom it can offer the helm of state: wherever in the world they are, all the defence of the republic is there, or rather (there is) the republic itself, which still has only just avenged itself, (and) has not yet recovered. Assuredly indeed the republic has the most highly-born young men ready (as) its defenders. However much they, in the interests of (lit. taking thought of) tranquillity, shall wish (to) keep in the background (lit. to withdraw), yet they will be recalled by the republic (at any time). Both the name of peace is sweet and the thing itself (is) wholesome. But between peace and slavery there is a very considerable difference. Peace is liberty in tranquil circumstances (lit. tranquil liberty), slavery (is) the worst of all evils, needing to be repelled not only by war but even by death.

114.  They have set a glorious example of tyrannicide, and their example is easy of imitation.

But if those liberators of ours have taken themselves away from out of our sight, yet they have left (us) the example of their action. They have done what no one (else) has done. Brutus pursued Tarquinius with war, (Tarquinius) who was king at a time when it was lawful to be a king in Rome. Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius (and) Marcus Manlius were (all) slain on account of the suspicion of aiming at the kingship (lit. the kingship being sought). But these men made an attack with (drawn swords) for the first time not on (a man) aiming at the kingship, but on (a man) (actually) reigning. This very action is both glorious and godlike by itself, and it is (also) open (lit. set before [us]) for the purpose of our imitation; especially since they have attained such glory as it appears that it can scarcely be bounded by the heavens. For, although in the very consciousness of such a glorious deed, there was reward enough (lit. enough of a reward), still I do not consider that immortality should (lit. is needing to) be despised by a mortal man.

115.  Remember the day when you abolished the dictatorship. How different your conduct now! Sunk in vice, you have lost all taste for true glory; you are insensible even to fear.

(XLV) So remember, Marcus Antonius, the day on which you abolished the dictatorship; set before your eyes the joy of the Senate and people of Rome; compare (it) with this monstrous market of yours and of your (friends): then you will appreciate how great is the difference between greed and glory. But, of course, just as some people, through some disease and dullness of sense do not perceive the pleasantness of food; so (those who are) lustful, avaricious (and) criminal do not have a taste for true glory. But, if praise cannot attract you towards acting properly, cannot even fear divert (you) from the most shameful of actions? You do not fear the courts of justice. If (this is), on account of your innocence, I praise (you): but, if (it is) on account of your (use of) force, do you not realise what should (lit. is needing to) be feared by the man who by those means does not fear the courts of justice?

116.  If you do not fear your foes, fear your friends. Even Caesar fell a victim to the righteous indignation of his friends. 

But if you are not afraid of brave men and illustrious citizens, because they are kept away from your person by your armed men, (still) believe me, your (friends) will not endure you much longer. But what (sort of) a life is it to have fears day and night from one's own (followers)? Unless indeed either you have (persons) bound (to you) by greater obligations (lit. kindnesses) than certain persons (bound to him, whom) he had among those by whom he was slain; or you are worthy to be compared in any respect with him. In that man there was genius, reasoning power, memory, literary taste, attention to detail, thoughtfulness (and) thoroughness; he had performed exploits in war, however much (they were) a disaster to the republic, yet for all that (they were) great (ones); having worked to be king for many years, with great toil (and) with many dangers he had accomplished what he had planned; he had won over the ignorant multitude through gladiatorial show, public buildings, food distributions and feasts; he had bound his own (followers) by rewards, (and) his adversaries by the appearance of clemency.  What more (need I say)? Partly through fear, partly through forbearance, he had now brought the habit of servitude to a free community.  

117.  You resemble him in ambition only. Rome has learnt a lesson, and perhaps one of our patriots has taken it to heart. 

(XLVI) I can compare you with him in your desire for domination, but in (all) other respects you are in no way worthy to be compared (to him). But out of the very many evils which were burnt into the republic by him, there is still this good, that the Roman people has now learned how much it should trust each person, to whom it should entrust itself, (and) against whom it should be on its guard. Do you not (ever) think of these things? Do you not realise that it is enough for brave men to have learned  how noble a thing it is as to the act, how welcome as to the benefit (conferred), how glorious as to the fame (acquired), to slay a tyrant? When men could not bear him, will they bear you?

118.  Your punishment will not linger. Reconcile yourself to the republic before it is too late. I have always served the state and will not desert it now; I would even die for it.

Believe me, in the future, there will be a race (lit. it will be run) to this work with eagerness, nor will any delay in the opportunity be awaited.

Consider, I beg (you), Marcus Antonius, at some time or other the republic; think of (those) from whom you originated, not (those) with whom you are living. (Be reconciled) with me as you please, (but at any rate) be reconciled (lit. return to friendship) with the republic. But as to your own conduct (lit. with regard to yourself) you will see (to that): I shall speak for myself. I defended the republic (as) a young man, (and) I shall not desert (it) (as) an old man. I scorned the swords of  Catilina, I shall not quake at yours. Rather I should even have offered my body cheerfully, if by my death the freedom of our community can be hastened, such that the indignation of the Roman people can at last give birth to what it has been in labour over for so long.

119.  Twenty years ago I declared my readiness to die, and death would now be a happy crowning point to all my services. If I die, may I leave Rome free, and may each member of our state meet the destiny he deserves. 

And in truth, if almost twenty years ago in this very temple (i.e. in 63 B.C. when Cicero made his fourth speech against Catiline at a meeting of the Senate in the Temple of Concord) I denied that death could be untimely in the case of a man of consular rank, how much more truly shall I now deny (it) in the case of an old man! But to me, conscript fathers, death is now even to be wished for, it having been fulfilled in respect of those things which I have obtained (i.e. honours) and which I have performed (i.e. services). I pray only for these two things: one, that, dying, I may leave the Roman people free - nothing greater can be granted to me by the immortal gods than this -: the other, that it may befall everyone accordingly as each man may deserve of the republic