 Section 8 of the Fourteen Orations against Marcus Antonius, called Philippics. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Philippics by Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Eighth Philippic. The Argument. After the Embassy to Antonius had left Rome, the consuls zealously exerted themselves in preparing for war, in case he should reject the demands of the ambassador. Hershys, though in bad health, left Rome first, at the head of an army containing, among others, the Martial and the Fourth Legions, intending to join Octavius and hoping with his assistance to prevent his gaining any advantage over Brutus, Topanza could join them. And he gained some advantages over Antonius at once. Since the beginning of February, the two remaining ambassadors, for Servius Sopichius had died just as they arrived at Antonius' camp, returned, bringing word that Antonius would comply with none of the commands of the Senate, nor allow them to proceed to Decimus Brutus, and bringing also, contrary to their duty, demands from him, of which the principal were, that his troops were to be rewarded, all the acts of himself and Dullabella to be ratified, as also all that he had done respecting Caesar's papers, that no account was to be required of him of the money in the Temple of Ops, and that he should have the further gall with an army of six legions. Ponsa summoned the Senate to receive the report of the ambassador, when Cicero made a severe speech, proposing very vigorous measures against Antonius, which, however, Galenus and his party were still numerous enough to mitigate very greatly, and even Ponsa voted against him, and in favor of the milder measures, though they could not prevail against Cicero to have a second embassy sent to Antonius, and though Cicero carried his point of ordering the citizens to assume the sagum, or robe of war, which he also, waving his privilege as a man of consular rank, wore himself. The next day the Senate met again, to draw upon form the decrees on which they had resolved the day before, when Cicero addressed the following speech to them, expostulating with them for their wavering the day before. Matters were carried on yesterday, O Gaius Ponsa, in a more irregular manner than the beginning of your consulship required. You did not appear to me to make sufficient resistance to those men to whom you are not in the habit of yielding. For while the virtue of the Senate was such as it usually is, and while all men saw that there was war in reality, and some thought that the name ought to be kept back, on the division your inclination inclined to lenity. The course which we propose therefore was defeated, at your instigation, on account of the harshness of the word war. That urged by Lucius Caesar a most honorable man prevailed, which, taking away that one harsh expression, was gentler in its language than its real intention. Although he indeed, before he delivered his opinion at all, pleaded his relationship to Antonius an excuse for it. He had done the same in my consulship in respect of his sister's husband, as he did now in respect of his sister's son, so he was moved by the grief of his sister, and at the same time he wished to provide for the safety of the Republic. And yet Caesar himself in some degree recommended you, O Conscript Fathers, not to agree with him, when he said that he should have expressed quite different sentiments, worthy both of himself and of the Republic, if he had not been hampered by his relationship to Antonius. He then is his uncle. Are you his uncle's too, you who voted with him? But on what did the dispute turn? Some men, in delivering their opinion, did not choose to insert the word war. They preferred calling it tumult, being ignorant not only of the state of affairs, but also in the meaning of words, for there can be a war without a tumult, but there cannot be a tumult without a war. For what is a tumult, but such a violent disturbance that an unusual alarm is engendered by it? From which indeed the name tumult is derived. Therefore our ancestors spoke of the Italian tumult, which was a domestic one, of the Gallic tumult, which was on the frontier of Italy, but never spoke of any other, and that a tumult is a more serious thing in a war may be seen from this, that during a war exemptions from military service are valid, but in a tumult they are not, so that it is the fact, as I have said, that war can exist without a tumult, but tumult cannot exist without a war. In truth, as there is no medium between war and peace, it is quite plain that a tumult, if it be not a sort of war, must be a sort of peace, and what more absurd can be said or imagined. However, we have said too much about a word. Let us rather look to the facts, O Conscript Fathers, the appreciation of which I know is at times injured by too much attention being paid to words. We are unwilling that this should appear to be a war. What is the object, then, of our giving authority to the municipal towns and colonies to exclude Antonius, of our authorizing soldiers to be enlisted without any force, without the terror of any fine, of their own inclination and eagerness of permitting them to promise money for the assistance of the Republic? For if the name of war be taken away, the zeal of the municipal towns will be taken away too, and the unanimous feeling of the Roman people, which at present pours itself into our cause, if we cool upon it, must inevitably be damped. But why need I say more? Decimus Brutus is attacked. Is this not war? Mutina is besieged. Is not even that war? Gaul is laid waste. What peace can be more assured than this? Who can think of calling that war? We have sent forth a consul, a most gallant man with an army, who, though he is in a weak state from a long and serious illness, still thought that he ought not to make any excuse when he was summoned to the protection of the Republic. Gaius Caesar indeed did not wait for our decrees, especially as that conduct of his was not unsuited to his age. He undertook war against Antonius of his own accord, for there was not yet time to pass a decree, and he saw that if he let slip the opportunity of waging war when the Republic was crushed it would be impossible to pass any decrees at all. They, in their arms then, are now at peace. He is not an enemy whose garrison Hersheus has driven from Claterna. He is not an enemy who is in arms resisting a consul, and attacking a consul alike. And those are not the words of an enemy, nor is that unwarlike language which Ponsa read just now out of his own colleagues' letters. I drove out the garrison. I got possession of Claterna. The cavalry was routed. A battle was fought. A good many men were slain. What peace can be greater than this? Levies of troops are ordered throughout all Italy. All exemptions from service are suspended. The robe of war is to be assumed to-morrow. The consul has said that he should come down to the Senate House with an armed guard. Is not this war? Aye, it is such a war as has never been. For in all other wars, and most especially in civil wars, it was a difference as to the political state of the Republic which gave rise to the contest. Sulla contested against Sopichius about the force of laws which Sulla has said had been passed by violence. Sinna warred against Octavius because of the votes of the new citizens. Again Sulla was at variance with Sinna and Marius in order to prevent an unworthy man from obtaining power and to avenge the cruel death of the most illustrious men. The causes of all these wars arose from the zeal of different parties for what they considered the interest of the Republic. Of the last civil war, I cannot bear to speak. I do not understand the cause of it, and I detest the result. This is the fifth civil war, and all of them have fallen upon our times. The first which has not only not brought dissensions and discord among the citizens, but which has been signalized by extraordinary unanimity and incredible concord. All of them have the same wish. All defend the same objects. All are inspired with the same sentiments. When I say all, I accept those whom no one thinks worthy of being citizens at all. What then is the cause of war, and what is the object aimed at? We are defending the temples of the immortal gods. We are defending the walls of the city. We are defending the homes and habitations of the Roman people. The household gods, the altars, the hearths, and the sepulchres of our forefathers. We are defending our laws, our courts of justice, our freedom, our wives, our children, and our country. On the other hand, Marcus Antonius labors and fights in order to throw into confusion and overturn all these things, in hopes to have reason to think the plunder of the Republic sufficient cause for the war, while he squanders part of our fortunes and distributes the rest among his parasital followers. While then the modus for war so different, a most miserable circumstance, is what that fellow promises to his band of robbers. In the first place, our houses, for he declares that he will divide the city among them, and after that he will lead them out of whatever gate and settle them on whatever lands they please. All the caffons, all the saxes, and all the other plagues which attend Antonius, are marking out for themselves, in their own minds, most beautiful houses and gardens and villas at Tuscalem and Alba, and those clownish men, if indeed they are men, and not rather brute beasts, are born on in their empty hopes, as far as the waters and Putioli. So Antonius has something to promise his followers. What can we do? Have we anything of the sort? May the gods grant us a better fate. For our express object is to prevent anyone, at all, from hereafter making similar promises. I say this against my will. Still I must say it. The auction sanctioned by Caesar, O'Conscript Fathers, gives many wicked men both hope and audacity. For they saw some men become suddenly rich from having been beggars. Therefore those men who are hanging over our property, into whom Antonius promises everything, are always longing to see an auction. What can we do? What can we promise our soldiers? Things much better and more honorable. For promises to be earned by wicked actions are pernicious both to those who expect them and to those who promise them. We promise to our soldiers freedom, rights, laws, justice, the empire of the world, dignity, peace, tranquility. The promises that of Antonius are bloody, polluted, wicked, odious to gods and men, neither lasting nor salutary. Always on the other hand are honorable, upright, glorious, full of happiness and full of piety. Here also Quintus Fufius, a brave and energetic man and a friend of mine, reminds me to the advantages of peace. As if, if it were necessary to praise peace, I could not do it myself quite as well as he. For is it once only that I have defended peace? Have I not at all times labored for tranquility? Which is desirable for all good men, but especially for me. For what course could my industry pursue without forensic causes, without laws, without courts of justice? And these things can have no existence when civil peace is taken away. But I want to know what you mean, Ocalanus. Do you call slavery peace? Our ancestors used to take up arms not merely to secure their freedom, but also to acquire empire. You think we ought to throw away our arms in order to become slaves? What just or cause is there for waging war than the wish to repel slavery, in which, even if one's master be not tyrannical, yet it is the most miserable thing that he should be able to be so if he chooses? In truth, other causes are just. This is a necessary one. Unless perhaps you think that this does not apply to you because you expect that you will be a partner in the dominion of Antonius. For there you make a twofold mistake. First of all, in preferring your own to the general interest and in the next place in thinking that there is anything stable or pleasant in kingly power. Even if it has before now been advantageous to you, it will not always be so. Moreover, you used to complain of that former master who was a man. What do you think you will do when your master is a beast? And you say that you are a man who has always been desirous of peace and have always wished for the preservation of the citizens. Very honest language, that is. If you mean all citizens who are virtuous and useful and serviceable to the Republic. But if you wish those who are by nature citizens but by inclination enemies to be saved, what difference is there between you and them? Your father, indeed with whom I as a youth was acquainted when he was an old man, a man of rigid virtue and wisdom, used to give the greatest praise of all citizens who had ever lived to Publius Nasica who slew Tiberius Gracchus. By his valor and wisdom and magnanimity he thought that the Republic had been saved. What am I to say? Have we received any other doctrine from our fathers? Therefore that citizen, if you had lived in those times, would not have been approved of by you because he did not wish all the citizens to be safe. Because Lucius Opimus the consul has made a speech concerning the Republic, the Senators have thus decided on that matter that Opimus the consul shall defend the Republic. The Senate adopted these measures in words. Opimus followed them up by his arms. Shall you then, if you have lived in those times, have thought him a hasty or cruel citizen? Or should you have thought Quintus Metellus one, whose four sons were all men of consular rank, or Publius Lentulis, the chief of the Senate, and many other admirable men who, with Lucius Opimus the consul, took arms and pursued Gracchus to the Aventine? And in the battle which ensued Lentulis received a severe wound. Gracchus was plain, and so was Marcus Fulveus, a man of consular rank and his two youthful sons. Those men, therefore, are to be blamed, for they do not wish all the citizens to be safe. Let us come to instances nearer our own time. The Senate entrusted the defense of the Republic to Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius the consuls. Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people, and Gaius Glaucia the priter-reslane. On that day all the Scari, the Metelli, the Claudii, and Catulli, and Scivali, and Crassie took arms. Do you think either those consuls, or those other most illustrious men deserving of blame? I, myself, wished Cataline to perish. Did you, who wish everyone to be safe, wish Cataline to be safe? There is this difference, O callanus, between my opinion and yours. I wish no citizen commits such crimes in order to be punished with death. You think that, even if he has committed them, still he ought to be saved. If there is anything in our own body which is injurious to the rest of the body, we allow that to be burnt and cut out, in order that a limb may be lost in preference to the whole body. And so, in the body of the Republic, whatever is rotten must be cut off in order that the whole must be saved. Harsh language. This is much more harsh. Let the worthless and wicked and impious be saved. Let the innocent, the honorable, and the virtuous, and the whole Republic be destroyed. In the case of one individual, O Quintus Fulfius, I confess that you saw more than I did. I thought Publius Claudius, a mischievous, wicked, lustful, impious, audacious, criminal citizen. You, on the other hand, called him religious, temperate, innocent, modest, as citizen to be preserved and desired. In this one particular, I admit that you had great discernment and that I made a great mistake. For as for your saying that I am in the habit of arguing against you with ill temper, that is not the case. I confess that I argue with vehemence, but not with ill temper. I am not in the habit of getting angry with my friends every now and then, not even if they deserve it. Therefore I can differ with you without using any insulting language, though not without feeling the greatest grief of mind. For is the dissension between you and me a trifling one or on a trifling subject? Is it merely a case of my favoring this man and you that man? Yes, I indeed favor Decimus Brutus. You favor Marcus Antonius. I wish a colony of the Roman people to be preserved. You are anxious that it should be stormed and destroyed. Can you deny this when you oppose every sort of delay, calculated to weaken Brutus and to improve the position of Antonius? For how long will you keep on saying that you are desirous of peace? Matters are progressing rapidly. The works are being carried on. Severe battles are taking place. We sent three chief men of the city to interpose. Antonius has despised, rejected and repudiated them. And still you continue a persevering defender of Antonius and Calenius indeed in order that he may not appear a more conscientious senator says that he ought not to be a friend to him since though Antonius was under great obligation to him he still acted against him. See how great is his affection for his country though he is angry with the individual still he defends Antonius for the sake of his country. When you are so bitter O Quintus Fufius against the people of Marseille I cannot listen to you with calmness. For how long are you going to attack Marseille? Does not even a triumph put an end to the war? In which was carried out an image of that city without whose assistance our forefathers never triumphed over the trans-alpine nations. Then indeed did the Roman people groan although they had their own private griefs because of their own affairs still there was no citizen who thought the miseries of this most loyal city unconnected with himself. Caesar himself who had been the most angry of all men with them still on account of the unusually high character and loyalty of that city was every day relaxing something of his displeasure. Is there no extent of calamity by which so faithful a city can satiate you? Again perhaps you will say that I am losing my temper but I am speaking without passion as I always do though not without great indignation for I think that no man could be an enemy to that city who is a friend to this one. What your object is Oclanus I cannot imagine. Formally we are unable to deter you from devoting yourself to the gratification of the people. Now we are unable to prevail on you to show any regard for their interests. I have argued long enough with Fufius saying everything without hatred but not without indignation but I suppose that a man who will bear the complaint of his son in law with indifference will bear that of his friend with great equanimity. I come now to the rest of the men of Consular Rank of whom there is no one I say this on my own responsibility who was not connected with me in some way or other by kindness conferred or received some in a great some in a moderate degree but everyone to some extent or other what a disgraceful day was yesterday to us consulers I mean are we to send ambassadors again what? would he make a truce? before the very face and eyes of the ambassadors he battered Mutina with his engines he displayed his works and his defenses to the ambassadors the siege was not allowed one moment's breathing time not even while the ambassadors should be present send ambassadors to this man what for? in order to have greater fears for their return in truth though on the previous occasion I had voted against the ambassadors being decreed still I consul'd myself with this reflection that when they returned from Antonius despised and rejected and had reported to the senate not merely that he had not withdrawn from Gaul as we had voted that he should but that he had not even retired from before Mutina and that they had not been allowed to proceed on to Decimus Brutus all men would be inflamed with hatred and stimulated by indignation so that we should reinforce Decimus Brutus with arms and horses and men but we have become even more languid since we have become acquainted with not only the audacity and wickedness of Antonius but also with his indolence and pride would that Lucius Caesar were in health that Servius Opicius were alive this cause would be pleaded much better by these men than it is now by me single-handed what I am going to say I say with grief rather than by way of insult we have been deserted we have I say been deserted Oconscript Fathers by our chiefs but as I have often said before all those who in a time of such danger have proper and courageous sentiments shall be men of consular rank the ambassadors ought to have brought us back courage they have brought us back fear not indeed that they have caused me any fear let them have as high an opinion as they please of the man to whom they are sent from whom they have even brought back commands to us immortal gods where are the habits and virtues of our forefathers Gaius Popilius in the time of our ancestors when he had been sent as ambassador to Antiochus the king and had given him notice in the words of the senate and apart from Alexandria which he was besieging on the king seeking to delay giving his answer drew a line round him where he was standing with his rod and stated that he should report him to the senate if he did not answer him as to what he intended to do before he moved out of that line which surrounded him he did well for he brought with him the countenance of the senate and the authority of the roman people and if a man does not obey that he will receive commands from him in return but he is to be utterly rejected am I to receive commands from a man who despises the commands of the senate or am I to think that he has anything in common with the senate who besieges a general of the roman people despite the prohibition of the senate but what commands they are with what arrogance with what stupidity with what insolence are they conceived what made him charge our ambassadors with them when he was sending kautaila to us the ornament in bulwark of his friends a man of idyllatin rank if indeed he really wasn't an edile in the time when the public slaves flogged him with thongs at a banquet by command of antonius but what modest commands they are we must be non-hearted men o conscript fathers to deny to this man I give up both provinces says he I disband my army I am willing to become a private individual for these are his very words he seems to be coming to himself I am willing to forget everything to be reconciled to everybody but what does he add if you give booty and land to my six legions to my cavalry and to my praetorian cohort he even demands rewards for those men for whom if he were to demand pardon he would be thought the most impudent of men he adds further those men to whom the lands have been given which he himself and dolabela distributed are to retain them this is the companion and leontine district both of which our ancestors considered a certain resource in times of scarcity he is protecting the interest of his buffoons his ancestors and pimps he is protecting kafos and sasus interests too pugnacious and muscular centurions whom he placed among his troops of male and female buffoons besides all this he demands that the decrees of himself and his colleague concerning caesar's writings in memoranda are to stand why is he so anxious that everyone should have what he has bought if he has sold it all for it and that his accounts of the money in the temple of ops are not to be meddled with that is to say that those 700 millions of cisterces are not to be recovered from him that the centenary ought to be exempt from blame or from prosecution from what they have done it was nakula i imagine who put him in mind of that he was afraid perhaps of losing so many clients he also wishes to make stipulations of those men who are with him who may have done anything against the laws he is here taking care of mustela and tiro he is not anxious about himself for what has he done has he ever touched the public money or murdered a man or had armed men about him for what reason does he take so much trouble about them for he demands that his own judiciary law be not abrogated and if he obtains that what is there that he could fear can he be afraid that any one of his friends may be convicted by cedas or laiciatis or curious however he does not press us with many more demands i give up says he galia togata i demand galia comata he evidently wishes to be quite at ease with six legions and those made up of their full compliment out of the army of decimus brutus and the troops whom he has elisted himself and he has to keep possession of it as long as marcus brutus and gaius caches are consuls or as pro consuls keep possession of their provinces in the comitia held by him his brother gaius for it is his year has already been repulsed and i myself says he am to retain possession of my provinces for five years expressly forbidden by the law of caesar and you defend the acts of caesar were you o lucius pisso and you o lucius filipus you chiefs of the city abel i will not say to endure in your minds but even to listen with your ears to these commands of his but i suspect there was some alarm at work nor while in his power could you feel as ambassadors or as men of consular rank to maintain your own dignity or that of the republic and nevertheless somehow or other owing to some philosophy i suppose you did what i could not have done you returned without any very angry feelings marcus antonius paid you no respect though you are the most illustrious men ambassadors of the roman people as for us what concessions did not we make to cotila the ambassador of marcus antonius though it was against the law the gates of the city to be open to him yet even this temple was open to him he was allowed to enter the senate here yesterday he was taking down our opinions in every word we said in his notebooks and men who have been preferred to the highest honors sold themselves to him in utter disregard of their own dignity o ye immortal gods how great an enterprise is it to uphold the character of a leader in the republic for it requires one to be influenced not merely by the thoughts but also by the eyes of the citizens to take to one's house the ambassador of an enemy to admit him to one's chamber even to confer a part with him is the act of a man who thinks nothing of his dignity and too much of his danger but what is danger for if one is engaged in a contest where everything is at stake either liberty is assured to one if victorious or death have defeated the former of which alternatives is desirable and the latter some time or other inevitable but a base flight from death is worse than any imaginable death for I will never be induced to believe that there are men who envy the consistency or diligence of others and who are indignant at the unceasing desire to assist the republic being approved by the senate and people of Rome that is what we are all bound to do and that was not only in our time of our ancestors but even lately the highest praise of men of consular rank to be vigilant to be anxious to be always either thinking or doing or saying something to promote the interests of the republic O conscript fathers recollect that Quintus Scaevola the auger in the marsic war when he was a man of extreme old age and quite broken down in constitution every day as soon as it was daylight used to give everyone an opportunity of consulting him nor throughout all that war did anyone ever see him in bed though old and weak he was the first man to come into the senate house I wish above all things that those who ought to do so would imitate his industry and next to that I wish that they would not envy the exertions of another in truth O conscript fathers now we have begun to entertain hopes of liberty again after a period of six years during which we have been deprived of it having endured slavery longer than prudent and industrious prisoners usually do what watchfulness, what anxiety, what exertions ought we to shrink from for the sake of delivering the Roman people in truth O conscript fathers though men who have had the honors conferred on them that we have usually wear their gowns while the rest of the city is in the robe of war still I decided that in such a momentous crisis and when the whole republic was so disturbed a state we would not differ in our dress from you and the rest of the citizens for we men of consular rank are not in this war conducting ourselves in such a manner that the Roman people will be likely to look with equanimity on the ensigns of our honor when some of us are so cowardly as to cast away all recollection of the kindnesses which they have received from the Roman people some are so disaffected to the republic that they openly allege that they favor this enemy and easily bear having our ambassadors despised and insulted by Antonius while they wish to support the ambassador sent by Antonius for they said that he ought not to be prevented from returning to Antonius and they propose an amendment to my proposition of not receiving him well I will submit to them let Various return to his general but on condition that he never returns to Rome and as to the others if they abandon their ambassadors and return to their duty to the republic I think they may be pardoned and left unpunished therefore I give my vote that of those men who are with Marcus Antonius those who abandon his army and come either to Gaius Panza or Aulus Herschius the consuls or to Decimus Brutus Imperator and consul elect or to Gaius Caesar proprator before the first of March shall not be liable to prosecution for having been with Antonius that if any of those men who are now with Antonius shall do anything which appears entitled to honor or to reward Gaius Panza and Aulus Herschius the consuls one or both of them shall if they think fit make a motion to the senate respecting that man's honor or reward at the earliest opportunity that if after this resolution of the senate any shall go to Antonius except Lucius Varius the senate will consider that that man has acted as an enemy to the republic end of the 8th oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius called also the 8th Philippic section 9 of the 14 orations against Marcus Antonius this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the Philippics by Marcus Tullius Cicero the 9th Philippic the argument Servius Sopichius as has already been said had died on his embassy to Marcus Antonius before Mutina in the day after the delivery of the preceding speech Ponsa again called the senate together to deliberate on the honors to be paid to his memory he himself proposed a public funeral a sepulcher and a statue Servius opposed the statue as due only to those who had been slain by violence while in the discharge of their duties as ambassadors Cicero delivered the following oration in support of Ponsa's proposition which was carried I wish Oconscript Fathers that the immortal gods had granted to us to return thanks to Servius Sopichius while alive rather than thus to devise honors for him now that he is dead nor have I any doubt but that if that man had been able himself to give us report of the proceedings of his embassy his return would have been acceptable to you in salutary to the Republic not either Lucius Piso or Lucius Philippus have been deficient in either zeal or care in the performance of so important a duty and so grave a commission but as Servius Sopichius was superior in age to them and in wisdom to everyone he being suddenly taken from the business left the whole embassy crippled and enfeebled but if deserved honors had been paid to any ambassador after death there was no one by whom they can be found to have been ever more fully deserved than by Servius Sopichius the rest of those men who have died while engaged on an embassy have gone forth subject indeed to the usual uncertainties of life but without any special danger or fear of death Servius Sopichius set out with some hope indeed of reaching Antonius but with none of returning but though he was so very ill that if any exertion were added to his bad state of health he would have no hope of himself still he did not refuse to try even while at his last gasp to be of some service to the Republic therefore neither the severity of the winter nor the snow nor the length of the journey nor the badness of the roads nor his daily increasing illness delayed him and when he had arrived where he might meet and confer with the man to whom he had been sent to life in the midst of his care and consideration so as to how he might best discharge the duty which he had undertaken as therefore, O Gaius Ponsa you have done well in other respects so you have acted admirably in exhorting us this day to pay honor to Servius Sopichius and in yourself making an eloquent oration in his praise and after the speech which we have heard from you I should have been content to say nothing to vote if I did not think it necessary to reply to Publius Servilius who has declared his opinion that this honor of a statue ought to be granted to no one who had not actually been slain with a sword while performing the duties of his embassy but I, O Conscript Fathers consider that this was the feeling of our ancestors that they considered that it was the cause of the death not the manner of it which was a proper subject for inquiry in fact they thought it fit that a monument should be erected to any man whose death was caused by an embassy in order to tempt men in perilous wars to be more bold in undertaking the office of an ambassador what we ought to do therefore is not to scrutinize the precedence afforded by our ancestors but to explain their intentions from which the precedence themselves arose Lar Tulumnius the king of Veii slew four ambassadors of the Roman people at Fidani whose statues were standing in the rostra till within my recollection the honor was well deserved for our ancestors gave those men who had encountered death in the cause of the republic an imperishable memory in exchange for this transitory life we see in the rostra the statue of Neus Octavius an illustrious and great man the first man who brought the consulship into that family which afterwards abounded in illustrious men to him because he was a new man there was no one who did not honor his virtue but yet the embassy of Octavius was one in which there was no suspicion of danger for having been sent by the senate to investigate the dispositions of kings and of free nations and especially to forbid the grandson of King Antiochus the one who had carried on war against our forefathers to maintain fleets and to keep elephants he was slain at Laudekai by a man of the name of Leptanus on this statue was given to him by our ancestors as a recompense for this life which might ignoble his progeny for many years in which is now the only memorial left of so illustrious a family but in his case and in that of Tulus Cluvius and Lucius Roseius and Spurius Antius and Gaius Fokinius who were slain by the king of Veii who is not the blood that was shed at their death but the death itself which was encountered in the service of the Republic which was the cause of their being thus honored therefore, O conscript fathers if it had been chance which had caused the death of Servius Opicius I should sorrow indeed over such a loss to the Republic but I should consider him deserving of the honor not of a monument but of a public mourning but as it is who is there who doubts that it was the embassy itself which caused his death for he took death away with him though if he had remained among us his own care and the intention of his most excellent son and his most faithful wife might have warded it off but he as he saw that if he did not obey your authority he should not be acting like himself but that if he did obey then that duty undertaken for the welfare of the Republic would be the end of his life prefer dying at the most critical moment of the Republic to appearing to have done less service to the Republic than he might have done he had an opportunity of recruiting his strength and taking care of himself in many cities through which his journey lay he was met by the liberal invitation of many entertainers as his dignity deserved and the men too who went with him exhorted him to take rest and to think of his own health but he, refusing all delay hastening on eager to perform your commands persevered in this his constant purpose in spite of the hindrances of his illness and as Antonius was above all things disturbed by his arrival because the commands which were laid upon him by your orders had been drawn up by the authority and the wisdom of Sirvia Sopichius he showed plainly how he hated the Senate by the evident joy which he displayed at the death of the advisor of the Senate Leptonese then did not kill Octavius nor did the king of Vaeae slay those whom I have just named more clearly than Antonius killed Sirvia Sopichius surely he brought the man death who was the cause of his death wherefore I think it of consequence in order that posterity might recollect it that there should be a record of what the judgment of the Senate was concerning this war the statue itself will be a witness that the war was so serious in one that the death of an ambassador in it gained the honor of an imperishable memorial but if Oconscript Fathers you would only recollect the excuses alleged by Sirvia Sopichius why he should not be appointed to this embassy then no doubt will be left on your minds that we ought to repair by the honor paid to the dead the injury which we did to him while living it is you Oconscript Fathers it is a grave charge to make but it must be uttered it is you I say who have deprived Sirvia Sopichius of life for when you saw him pleading his illness as an excuse more by the truth of the fact than by any labored plea of words you were not indeed cruel for what can be more impossible for this order to be guilty of than that but as you hoped that there was nothing that could not be accomplished by his grand wisdom you opposed his excuse with great earnestness and compelled the man who always thought your decisions of the greatest weight to abandon his own opinion but when there was also added the exhortation of Panza the council delivered with more weight than the ears of Sirvia Sopichius had learned to resist then at last he led me and his own son aside and said that he was bound to prefer your authority to his own life and we admiring his virtue did not dare to oppose his determination his son was moved with extraordinary piety and affection and my own grief did not fall far short of his agitation but each of us was compelled to yield to the greatness of mind and to the dignity of his language when he indeed amid the loud praises and congratulations of you all promised to do whatever you wished and not to avoid the danger which might be inclined by the adoption of the opinion which he himself had been the author and we the next day escorted him early in the morning as he hastened forth to execute your commands and he, in truth when departing, spoke with me in such a manner that his language seemed like an omen of his fate restore then, O conscript fathers, life to him from whom you have taken it for the life of the dead consists in the recollection cherished of them by the living take ye care that he whom you without attending it sent to his death shall from you receive immortality and if you by your decree erect a statue to him in the rastia no forgetfulness of posterity will ever obscure the memory of his embassy for the remainder of the life of Servius Opicius will be recommended to the eternal recollections of all men by many and splendid memorials the praise of all mortals will forever celebrate his wisdom, his firmness his loyalty, his admirable diligence and prudence in upholding the interest of the public nor will that admirable and incredible and almost godlike skill of his in interpreting the laws and explaining the principles of equity be buried in silence if all the men of all ages who have ever had acquaintance with the law of this city were got together in one place they would not deserve to be compared to Servius Opicius nor was he more skillful in explaining the law than in laying down the principles of justice those maxims which were derived from laws and from the common law he constantly referred to the original principles of kindness and equity nor was he more fond of arranging the conduct of lawsuits than of preventing disputes altogether therefore he is not in want of this memorial which a statue will provide he has other and better ones will only be a witness of his honorable death those actions will be the memorial of his glorious life so that this will rather be a monument of the gratitude of the senate than of the glory of the man the affection of the son too will appear to have great influence in moving us to honor the father for although being overwhelmed with grief he is not present still you ought to be animated with the same feelings as if he were present but he is in such distress that no father ever sorrowed more over the loss of an only son than he grieves for the death of his father indeed I think that it concerns also the fame of Servius Opicius the son that he should appear to have paid all due respect to his father although Servius Opicius could leave no nobler monument behind him than his son the image of his own manners and virtues and wisdom and piety genius whose grief can either be alleviated by this honor paid to his father by you or by no consolation at all but when I recollect the many conversations which in the days of our intimacy on earth I have had with Servius Opicius it appears to me that if there be any feeling in the dead a brazen statue and that too a pedestrian one will be more acceptable to him than a guilt equestrian one who was first erected to Lucius Sulla for Servius was wonderfully attached to the moderation of our forefathers and was accustomed to reprove the insolence of this age as if therefore I were able to consult himself as to what he would wish so I give my vote for a pedestrian statue of brass as if I were speaking by his authority and inclination which by the honor of the memorial will diminish and mitigate the great grief of his fellow citizens and it is certain that this my opinion Oconscript Fathers will be approved of by the opinion of Publius Servilius who has given his vote that a sepulchre be publicly decreed to Servius Opicius but has voted against the statue for if the death of an ambassador happening without bloodshed and violence requires no honor why does he vote for the honor of a public funeral which is the greatest honor given to a dead man if he grants that to Servius Opicius which was not given to Neus Octavius why does he think that we ought not to give to the former what was given to the latter our ancestors indeed decreed statues to many men public sepulchres to few but statues perished by weather, by violence, by laughs of time but the sanctity of the sepulchres is in the soil itself which can neither be moved nor destroyed by any violence and while other things are extinguished so sepulchres become holier by age let then that man be distinguished by that honor also a man to whom no honor can be given which is not deserved let us be grateful in paying respect in death to him to whom we can now show no other gratitude and by that same step in a farious war be branded with infamy for when these honors have been paid to Servius Opicius the evidence of his embassy having been insulted and rejected by Antonius will remain everlasting on which account I give my vote for a decree in this form as Servius Opicius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lemonian tribe at a most critical period of the Republic with a very serious and dangerous disease preferred the authority of the Senate and the safety of the Republic to his own life and struggled against the violence and severity of his illness in order to arrive at the camp of Antonius to which the Senate had sent him and as when he had almost arrived at the camp being overwhelmed by the violence of the disease has lost his life in discharging a most important office of the Republic and as his death has been a correspondence to a life passed with the greatest integrity and honor during which he Servius Opicius has often been of great service to the Republic both as a private individual and in the discharge of various magistracies and as he being such a man has encountered death on behalf of the Republic while employed on an embassy the Senate decrees that a brazen pedestrian statue of Servius Opicius be erected in compliance with the resolution of this order and that his children and posterity shall have a place around this statue of five feet in every direction from which to behold the games and gladiatorial combats because he died in the cause of the Republic and that this reason be inscribed on the pedestal of the statue and that Gaius Ponsa and Ales Herschis the consuls one or both of them if it seemed good to them shall command the quisters of the city and the contract for making that pedestal and that statue and erecting them in the rostra and that whatever price they contract for they shall take care the amount is given and paid to the contractor and as in old times the Senate has exerted its authority with respect to the upsequies of and the honors paid to brave men it now decrees that he shall be carried to the tomb on the day of his funeral with the greatest possible solemnity and as Servius Opicius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lomonian tribe has deserved so well of the Republic as to be entitled to be complimented with all those distinctions the Senate is of opinion and thinks it for the advantage of the Republic that the consul Edile should suspend the edict which usually prevails with respect to funerals in the case of the funeral of Servius Opicius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lomonian tribe the consul shall assign him a place for a tomb in the Esquiline Plain or in whatever place shall seem good to him extending 35 feet in every direction where Servius Opicius may be buried and that shall be his tomb and that of his children and posterity as having been a tomb most deservedly given to them by the public authority and of the ninth oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius called also the ninth Philippic section 10 of the 14 orations against Marcus Antonius called Philippics this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the Philippics by Marcus Tullius Cicero the 10th Philippic the argument soon after the delivery of the last speech dispatches were received from Brutus by the consuls giving an account of his success against Gaius Antonius in Macedonia stating that he had secured Macedonia Ilyricum and Greece with the armies in those countries and that Gaius Antonius had retired to Apollonia with seven cohorts that a legion under Lucius Piso had surrendered to young Cicero who was commanding his cavalry that Dolabela's cavalry had deserted to him and that Vatinius had surrendered Dyracium and its garrison to him he likewise praised Quintus Hortensius the proconsul of Macedonia as having assisted him in gaining over the Grecian provinces and the armies in those districts as soon as Ponsa received the dispatches he summoned the senate to have them read and in a set speech Brutus and moved a vote of thanks to him but Calenus who followed him declared his opinion that as Brutus had acted without any public commission or authority he should be required to give up his army to the proper governors of the provinces or to whoever the senate should appoint to receive it after he had sat down Cicero rose and delivered the following speech we all, Oponza would feel and show the greatest gratitude to you who though we did not expect you to hold any senate today the moment that you received the letters of Marcus Brutus, that most excellent citizen did not interpose even the slightest delay to our enjoying the most excessive delight and mutual congratulation at the earliest opportunity and not only this action of yours to be grateful to us all but also the speech which you addressed to us after the letters had been read for you showed plainly that it was true which I have always felt to be so that no one envied the virtue of another who was confident of his own therefore I who have been connected with Brutus on many mutual good offices and by the greatest intimacy need not say so much concerning him for the part that I had marked out for myself your speech has anticipated me in but, Oponza fathers, the opinion delivered by the man who was asked for his vote before me has imposed upon me the necessity of saying rather more than I otherwise should have said and I differ from him so repeatedly at present that I'm afraid what certainly ought not to be the case that our continual disagreement may appear to diminish our friendship what can be the meaning of this argument of yours, Ocalanus? what can be your intention? how is it that you have never once since the first of January been of the same opinion with him who asked you your opinion first? how is it that the senate has never yet been so full as to enable you to find one single person to agree with your sentiments? why are you always defending men? who at no point resemble you? why when both your life and your fortune invite you to tranquility and dignity do you approve of those measures and defend those measures and declare those sentiments which are adverse both to the general tranquility and to your own individual dignity? for to say nothing of former speeches of yours at all events I cannot pass over in silence this which excites my most special wonder what war is there between you and the Brutai? why do you alone attack those men whom we are all bound almost to worship? why are you not indignant at one of them being besieged? why do you, as far as your vote goes strip the other of those troops which by his own exertions and by his own danger he has gotten together by himself without anyone to assist him for the protection of the republic not for himself? what is your meaning in this? what are your intentions? is it possible that you should not approve of the Brutai and should approve that you should hate those men whom everyone else considers most dear and that you should love with the greatest constancy those whom everyone else hates most bitterly you have a most ample fortune you are in the highest rank of honor your son as I both here and hope is born to glory a youth whom I favor not only for the sake of the republic but for your sake also however would you rather have him like Brutus or like Antonius and I will let you choose whichever of the three Antonii you please God forbid you will say why then do you not favor those men and praise those men whom you wish your own son to resemble for by so doing you will both be consulting the interests of the republic and proposing him an example for his imitation but in this instance O Quintus Fufius to be allowed to expotstulate with you as a senator who greatly differs from you without any prejudice to our friendship for you spoke in this matter and that too with a written paper for I should think you had made a slip from want of some appropriate expression if I were not acquainted with your ability in speaking you said that the letters of Brutus appeared properly and regularly expressed what else is this then praising Brutus's secretary not Brutus you both ought to have great experience in the affairs of the republic and you have when did you ever see a decree framed in this manner or in what resolution of the senate passed on such occasions and they are innumerable did you ever hear of it being decreed that the letters had been well drawn up and that expression did not as is often the case with other men fall from you by chance but you brought it with you written down, deliberated on and carefully meditated on if anyone could take from you this habit of disparaging good men on almost every occasion then what qualities would not be left to you which everyone else would desire for himself do then recollect yourself do at last soften and quiet that disposition of yours would be the advice of good men with many of whom you are intimate do converse with that wisest of men your own son-in-law oftener than with yourself and then you will obtain the name of a man of the very highest character do you think it is a matter of no consequence it is a matter in which I out of the friendship which I feel you constantly grieve in your stead that this should be commonly said out of doors and should be a common topic of conversation among the Roman people that the man who delivered his opinion first did not find a single person to agree with him and that I think will be the case today you propose to take legions away from Brutus which legions why those which he gained over from the wickedness of Gaius Antonius and has by his own authority gained over to the Republic do you wish then that he should again appear to be the only person left of his authority as if it were banished by the senate and you Oconscript Fathers if you abandon and betray Marcus Brutus what citizen in the world will you ever distinguish whom will you ever favor unless indeed you think that those men who put a diadem on a man's head deserve to be preserved and those who have abolished the very name of kingly power deserve to be abandoned and of this divine and immortal glory of Marcus Brutus I will say no more it is already embalmed in the grateful recollection of all the citizens but it has not yet been sanctioned by any formal act of public authority such patience oh ye good gods such moderation such tranquility and submission under injury a man who while he was praetor of the city was driven from the city as judge in legal proceedings when it was he who had restored all law to the republic and though he might have been hedged round by the daily concourse of all virtuous men who were constantly flooding round him in marvelous numbers he preferred to be defended in his absence by the judgment of the good to be present and protected by their force who was not even present to celebrate the games to Apollo which had been prepared in a manner suitable for the dignity and to that of the Roman people lest he should open any road to the audacity of most wicked men although what games or what days were ever more joyful than those on which at every verse that the actor uttered the Roman people did honor to the memory of Brutus with loud shouts of applause the person of their liberator was absent the recollection of their liberty was present in which the appearance of Brutus himself seemed to be visible but the man himself I beheld on those very days of the games in the country house of a most illustrious young man Lucullus, his relation thinking of nothing but the peace and concord of the citizens I saw him again afterwards at Veja departing from Italy in order that there might be no pretext for civil war on his account oh what a sight that was grievous not only to men but to the very waves and shores that its saviour should be departing from his country that its destroyers should be remaining in their country the fleet of Cassius followed a few days afterwards so that I was ashamed oh conscript fathers to return into the city from which those men were departing but the design with which I returned you heard at the beginning and since that you have known by experience Brutus therefore bided his time for long as he saw you endure everything he himself behaved with incredible patience after that he saw you roused to a desire of liberty he prepared the means to protect you in your liberty but what a pest and how great a pest was it which he resisted for if Gaius Antonius had been able to accomplish what he had tended in mind he would have been able to do so if the virtue of Marcus Brutus had not opposed his wickedness we should have lost Macedonia, Illyricum and Greece Greece would have been a refuge for Antonius if defeated or support to him if attacking Italy which at present being not only arrayed in arms but embellished by the military command and authority and troops of Marcus Brutus stretches out her right hand to Italy and promises it her protection and the man who proposes to deprive him of his army is taking away a most illustrious honour a most trustworthy guard from the Republic I wish indeed that Antonius may hear this news as speedily as possible that he may understand that it is not Decimus Brutus whom he is surrounding with his ramparts but he himself who is really hemmed in he possesses three towns only on the whole face of the earth all most bitterly hostile to him he has even those men the people beyond the pole in whom he placed the greatest reliance entirely alienated from him all Italy is his enemy foreign nations from the nearest coast of Greece to Egypt are occupied by the military command in armies of most virtuous and intrepid citizens his only hope was in Gaius Antonius who being in age the middle one between the two brothers rivaled them both in vices he hastened away as if he were being driven away by the senate into Macedonia not as if he were prohibited from proceeding thither what a storm, oh ye immortal gods what a conflagration what a devastation what a pestilence to Greece would that man have been if incredible and god-like virtue had not checked the rise and audacity of that frantic man what promptness was there in Brutus's conduct what prudence what valor although the rapidity of the movements of Gaius Antonius also is not despicable for if some vacant inheritance had not delayed him on his march you might have seen that he had flown rather than traveled when we desire other men to go forth to undertake any public business we are scarcely able to get them out of the city but we have driven this man out by the mere fact of our desire to retain him but what business had he with Apollonia what business had he with Daraquium or with Illyricum what had he to do with the army of Publius Vettinius, our general he, as he said himself was the successor of Hortensius the boundaries of Macedonia are well defined the condition of the proconsul is well known the amount of his army if he has any at all is fixed but what had Antonius to do at all with Illyricum and the legions of Vettinius but Brutus had nothing to do with them either for that perhaps is what some worthless man may say all the legions all the forces which exist anywhere belong to the Roman people he acquitted Marcus Antonius be called legions of Antonius rather than of the Republic for he loses all power over his army and all the privileges of military command who uses that command and that army to attack the Republic but if the Republic itself could give a decision or if all rights were established by its decrees what had judged the legions of the Roman people to Antonius or to Brutus the one has flown with precipitation to the plunder and destruction of the allies in order wherever he went to lay waste and pillage and plunder everything and to employ the army of the Roman people against the Roman people itself the other had laid down this law for himself that whatever he came he should appear to come as a sort of light and hope of safety lastly the one who was seeking aids to overturn the Republic the other to preserve it nor indeed did we see this more clearly than the soldiers themselves from whom so much discernment in judging was not to have been expected he writes that Antonius is at Apollonia with seven cohorts and he is either by this time taken prisoner may the gods grant it or at all events like a modest man he does not come near Macedonia lest he should seem to act in opposition to the resolution of the Senate a levy of troops has been held in Macedonia by the great zeal and diligence of Quintus Hortensius whose admirable courage worthy both of himself and of his ancestors you may clearly perceive from the letters of Brutus the legion which Luchius Piso the lieutenant of Antonius commanded has surrendered itself to Cicero the son of the cavalry which was being led into Syria in two divisions one division has left the Quistor who is commanding it in Thessaly and has joined Brutus and Nias Domitius a young man of the greatest virtue and wisdom and firmness has carried off the other from the Syrian lieutenant in Macedonia but Publius Vettinius who has before this been deservedly praised by us and who is justly entitled to further praise and time has opened the gates of Diraculum to Brutus and has given him up his army the Roman people then is now in possession of Macedonia and Elyricum in Greece the legions there are all devoted to us the light-armed troops are ours the cavalry is ours and above all Brutus is ours and will always be ours a man born for the Republic both by his own excellent virtues and also by some special destiny of name and family both on his father's and on his mother's side does anyone then fear war from this man who, until we commence the war being compelled to do so preferred lying unknown in peace to flourishing in war although he in truth never did lie unknown nor can this expression possibly be applied to such great eminence in virtue for he was the object of regret to the state he was in everyone's mouth the subject of everyone's conversation but he was so far removed from an inclination to war that though he was burning with a desire to see Italy free he preferred being wanting to the zeal of the citizens to leading them to put everything to the issue of war therefore those very men if there be any such who find fault with the slowness of Brutus' movements nevertheless at the same time admire his moderation and his patience but I see now what it is they mean nor in truth do they use much disguise they say that they were afraid how the veterans may endure the idea of Brutus having an army as if there were any difference between the troops of Aulus Herschis of Gaius Panza of Decimus Brutus and this army of Marcus Brutus for if these four armies which I had mentioned are praised because they have taken up arms for the sake of the liberty of the Roman people what reason is there why this army of Marcus Brutus should not be classed under the same head oh, but the very name of Marcus Brutus is unpopular among the veterans more than that of Decimus Brutus I think not for although the action is common and although their share in the glory is equal still those men who are indignant at that deed were more angry with Decimus Brutus because they said that it was more improper for it to be executed by him what now are all those armies laboring at except to affect the release of Decimus Brutus from a siege and who are the commanders of those armies those men I suppose who wish the acts of Gaius Caesar to be overturned and the cause of the veterans to be betrayed if Caesar himself were alive could he do you imagine defend his own acts more vigorously than that most gallant man Herschus defends them or is it possible that anyone should be found more friendly to the cause than his own son but one of these though not long recovered from a very long attack of a most severe disease has applied all the energy and influence which he had to defending the liberty of those men by whose prayers he considered that he himself had been recalled from death the other stronger in the strength of his virtue than in that of his age has set out with those very veterans to deliver Decimus Brutus therefore those men who are both the most certain and at the same time the most energetic defenders of the acts of Caesar are waging war for the safety and they are followed by the veterans for they see that they must fight to the uttermost for the freedom of the Roman people not for their own advantages what reason then is there why the army of Marcus Brutus should be an object of suspicion to those men who with the whole of their energies desire the preservation of Decimus Brutus but moreover if there were anything which were to be feared from Marcus Brutus would not panza perceive it or if he did perceive it would he not too be anxious about it who is either more acute in his conjectures of the future or more diligent in warding off danger but you have already seen his zeal for and inclination towards Marcus Brutus he has already told us in his speech what we ought to decree and how we ought to feel with respect to Marcus Brutus and he was so far from thinking the army of Marcus Brutus dangerous to the Republic that he considered it the most important and the most trusty bulwark of the Republic either then panza does not perceive this no doubt he is a man of dull intellect or he disregards it for he is clearly not anxious that the acts of Caesar which executed should be ratified he who in compliance with our recommendation is going to bring forth a bill to the cometia centuriata for sanctioning and confirming them let those then who have no fear cease to pretend to be alarmed and to be exercising their foresight in the cause of the Republic and let those who are really afraid of everything cease to be too fearful lest the pretense of the one party in the inactivity of the other be injurious to us what in the name of mischief is the object of always opposing the name of the veterans to every good cause for even if I were attached to their virtue as indeed I am still if they were arrogant I should not be able to tolerate their errors while we are endeavouring to break the bonds of slavery shall anyone hinder us by saying that the veterans do not approve of it for they are not I suppose beyond all counting who are ready to take up arms of the common freedom there is no man except the veteran soldiers who is stimulated by the indignation of a freedman to repel slavery can the Republic then stand rely wholly on veterans without a great reinforcement of the youth of the state whom indeed you ought to be attached to if they be assistants to you in the assertion of your freedom but whom you ought not to follow if they be the advisors of slavery let me say one true word one word worthy of myself if the inclinations of this order are governed by the nod of the veterans and if all our words and actions are to be referred to their will death is what we should wish for which has always in the minds of Roman citizens been preferable to slavery all slavery is miserable but some may have been unavoidable do you think then that there is never to be a beginning to our endeavors to recover our freedom or when would we not bear that fortune which was unavoidable and which seemed almost as if appointed by destiny shall we tolerate the voluntary bondage all Italy is burning with a desire for freedom the city cannot endorse slavery any longer we have given this warlike attire and these arms to the Roman people much later than they have been demanded of us by them we have indeed undertaken our present course of action with a great and almost certain hope of liberty but even if I allow the events of war are uncertain and the chances of Mars are common to both sides still it is worthwhile to fight for freedom at the peril of one's life for life does not consist wholly in breathing there is literally no life at all for one who is a slave all nations can endorse slavery our state cannot nor is there any other reason for this except that those nations shrink from toil and pain and are willing to endure anything so long as they may be free from those evils but we have been trained and bred up by our forefathers in such a manner as to measure all our designs and our actions by the standard of dignity and virtue the recovery of freedom is so splendid a thing that we must not shun even death when seeking to recover it but if immortality were to be the result of our avoidance of present danger still slavery would appear still more worthy of being avoided in proportion as it is of longer duration but as all sorts of deaths surround us on all sides night and day it does not become a man and least of all a Roman hesitate to give up to his country that breath which he owes to nature men flock together from all quarters to extinguish a general conflagration the veterans were the first to allow the authority of Caesar and to repel the attempts of Antonius afterwards the martial legion checked his frenzy the fourth legion crushed it being thus condemned by his own legions he burst into gall which he knew to be adverse both in word and deed the armies of Alish Herschus and Gaius Caesar pursued him and afterwards the levies of Panza roused the city and all Italy he is the one enemy of all men although he has with him Lucius his brother a citizen very much beloved by the Roman people the regret for whose absence the city is unable to endure any longer what can be more foul than that beast what more savage who appears born for the express purpose of preventing Marcus Antonius from being the basest of all mortals they have with them Trebellius who now that all debts are cancelled is become reconciled to them and Titus Plancus and others like him who are striving with all their hearts and whose sole object is been restored against the will of the Republic Saxa and Caffo themselves rustic and clownish men, men who have never seen and who never wish to see this Republic firmly established are tampering with their ignorant classes men who are not upholding the acts of Caesar but those of Antonius who are being led away by the unlimited occupation of the companion district are not somewhat ashamed when they see that they have actors and actresses for their neighbors why then should we be displeased that the army of Marcus Brutus is thrown into the scale to assist us in overwhelming these pests of the commonwealth it is the army I suppose of an intemperate and turbulent man I am more afraid of his being too patient although in all the councils and actions of that man anything either too much or too little the whole inclinations of Marcus Brutus oh conscript fathers the whole of his thoughts the whole of his ideas are directed towards the authority of the senate and the freedom of the roman people these are the objects which he proposes to himself these are what he desires to uphold he has tried what he could do by patience as he did nothing he has thought it necessary to encounter force by force and oh conscript fathers you ought at this time to grant him the same honors which on the 19th of December you conferred by my advice on Decimus Brutus and Gaius Caesar whose designs and conduct in regard to the republic while also they were but private individuals was approved of and praised by your authority but you ought to do the same now with respect to Marcus Brutus by whom an unhoped for and sudden reinforcement of legions and cavalry and numerous and trusty bands of allies have been provided for the republic Quintus Hortensius also ought to have a share of your praise who, being governor of Macedonia joined Brutus as a most faithful and untiring assistant in collecting that army for I think that a separate motion ought to be made respecting Marcus Apulielus to whom Brutus bears witness in his letters that he has been a prime assistant to him in his endeavors to get together and equip his army and since this is the case as Gaius Ponsa the consul has addressed to us a speech concerning the letters which have been received from Quintus Caipio Brutus pro consul and have been read in this assembly I give my vote in this manner thus since by the exertions and wisdom and industry and valor of Quintus Caipio Brutus pro consul at a most critical period of the republic the province of Macedonia and Illyricum and all Greece and the legions and armies and cavalry have been preserved in obedience to the consuls and senate and people of Rome Quintus Caipius Brutus pro consul has acted well and in a manner advantageous to the republic and suitable to his own dignity and to that of his ancestors and to the principles according to which alone the affairs of the republic can be properly managed and that conduct is and will be grateful to the senate and people of Rome moreover as Quintus Caipio Brutus pro consul is occupying and defending and protecting the province of Macedonia and Illyricum and all Greece and is preserving them in safety and as he is in command of an army which he himself has levied and collected he has a liberty if he has need of any to exact money for the use of the military service which belongs to the public and can lawfully be exacted and to use it and to borrow money for the exigencies of the war from whomsoever he thinks fit and to exact coin and to endeavor to approach Italy as he can with his forces and as it has been understood from the letters of Quintus Caipio Brutus pro consul that the republic has been greatly benefited by the energy and valor of Quintus Hortensius pro consul and that all his councils have been in harmony with those of Quintus Caipius Brutus pro consul and that that harmony has been of the greatest service to the republic Quintus Hortensius has acted well and becomingly and in a manner advantageous to the republic and the senate decrees that Quintus Hortensius pro consul shall occupy the province of Macedonia with his quistores or proquistores and lieutenants until he shall have a successor regularly appointed by resolution of the senate and of the 10th oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius and also the 10th Philippic