 The 13th oration of Marcus Tullius, Cicero, against Marcus Antonius, called also the 13th Philippic. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The 13th Philippic. The Argument. Antonius wrote a long letter to Hercius and to Octavius to persuade them that they were acting against their true interest and dignity in combining with the slayers of Julius Caesar against him, but they, instead of answering this letter, sent it to Cicero at Rome. At the same time, Lepidus wrote a public letter to the Senate to exhort them to measures of peace and to a reconciliation with Antonius, and took no notice of the public honors which had been decreed to him in compliance with Cicero's motion. The Senate was much displeased at this. They agreed, however, to a proposal of Servilius to thank Lepidus for his love of peace, but to desire him to leave that to them, as there could be no peace till Antonius had laid down his arms. But Antonius's friends were encouraged by Lepidus's letter to renew their suggestions of a treaty which caused Cicero to deliver the following speech to the Senate for the purpose of counteracting the influence of their arguments. From the first beginning, O conscript fathers, of this war which we have undertaken against those impious and wicked citizens, I have been afraid lest the insidious proposals of peace might damp out our zeal for the recovery of our liberty. But the name of peace is sweet, in the thing itself not only pleasant but salutary. For a man seems to have no affection either for the private hearts of the citizens, nor for public laws, nor for the rights of freedom, who is delighted with discord and the slaughter of his fellow citizens, and with civil war. And such a man I think ought to be erased from the catalogue of men, and exterminated from all human society. Therefore, if Scylla, or Marius, or both of them, or Octavius, or Sina, or Scylla for the second time, or the other Marius, and Carbo, or if anyone else had ever wished for civil war, I think that man born for the detestation of the Republic. For why should I speak of the last man who stirred up such a war, a man whose acts indeed we defend, while we admit that the author of them was deservedly slain? Nothing then is more infamous than such a citizen or such a man if indeed he deserves to be considered either a citizen or a man who is desirous of civil war. But the first thing we have to consider, O conscript fathers, is whether peace can exist with all men, or whether there be any war incapable of reconciliation in which any agreement of peace is only a covenant of slavery. Whether Scylla was making peace with Scipio, or whether he was only pretending to do so, there was no reason to despair, if an agreement had been come to, that the city might have been in a tolerable state. If Scylla had been willing to agree with Octavius, the safety of the citizens might still have had an existence in the Republic. In the last war, if Pompeus had relaxed somewhat of his dignified firmness, and Caesar a good deal of his ambition, we might have had both a lasting peace, and some considerable remainder of the Republic. But what is the state of things now? Is it possible for there to be peace with Antonius, with Censorinus, with Ventidius, and Trebelius and Bestia and Nucleus and Munatius and Lento and Saxa? I have just mentioned a few names as a specimen. You yourselves see the countless numbers and savage nature of the rest of the host. And besides the wrecks of Caesar's party, the Barbae Cassii, the Barbatiii, and the Polios, and the companions and fellow gamblers of Antonius, Eurotropolis and Mela, and Coelius and Pontius, and Crassicaeus, and Tyro and Mustela, and Pesticius. I say nothing of the main body, I am only naming the leaders. To these are added the legionaries of the Alauda and the rest of the veterans, the seminary of the judges of the Third Decorary, who, having exhausted their own estates and squandered all the fruits of Caesar's kindness, have now set their hearts on our fortunes. Oh, that trustworthy right hand of Antonius, with whom he has murdered many citizens. Oh, that regularly ratified and solemn treaty which we made with the Antonii. Especially if Marcus shall attempt to violate it, the conscientious piety of Lucius will call him back from such wickedness. If there is any room allowed these men in this city, there will be no room for the city itself. Place before your eyes, O conscript fathers, the countenances of those men, and especially the countenances of the Antonii. Mark their gate, their look, their face, their arrogance. Mark those friends of theirs who walk by their side, who follow them, who proceed them. What breath, reeking of wine, what insolence, what threatening language do you not think there will be there? Unless indeed the mere fact of peace is to soften them, and unless you expect that, especially when they come into this assembly, they will salute every one of us kindly and address us courteously. Do you not recollect in the name of the immortal gods what resolutions you have given utter interference to against those men? You have repealed the acts of Marcus Antonius, you have taken down his laws, you have voted that they were carried by violence and with the disregard of the auspices. You have called out the levies throughout all Italy, you have pronounced that colleague and ally of all wickedness a public enemy. What peace can there be with this man? Even if he were a foreign enemy, still, after such actions as have taken place, it would be scarcely possible, by any means whatever, to have peace. Though seas and mountains and vast regions lay between you, still you would hate such a man without seeing him. But these men will stick to your eyes, and when they can, to your very throats, for what fences will be strong enough for us to restrain savage beasts? Oh, but the results of war is uncertain. It is at all events, in the power of brave men, such as you ought to be, to display your valor, for certainly brave men can do that, and not to fear the caprice of fortune. But since it is not only courage, but wisdom also which is expected from this order, although these qualities appear scarcely possible to be separated, still let us separate them here. Courage bids us to fight. Inflames are a just hatred, urges us to the conflict, summons us to danger. What says wisdom? She uses more cautious counsels. She is provident for the future. She is, in every respect, more on the defensive. And what, then, does she think? For we must obey her, and we are bound to consider that the best thing which is arranged in the most prudent manner. If she enjoins me to think nothing of more consequence than my life, not to fight at the risk of my life, but to avoid all danger, I will then ask her whether I am also to become a slave when I have obeyed all these injunctions. If she says yes, I for one will not listen to that wisdom. However learned she may be. But if the answer is preserve your life and your safety, preserve your fortune, preserve your estate, still, however, considering all these things of less value than liberty, therefore enjoy these things if you can do so consistently, with the freedom of the Republic, and do not abandon liberty for them, but sacrifice them for liberty as proofs of the injury you have sustained. Then I shall think I am really listening to the voice of wisdom, and I will obey her as a God. Therefore if, when we have received those men, we can still be free, let us subdue our hatred to them, and endure peace. But if there can be no tranquility while those men are in safety, then let us rejoice that an opportunity of fighting them is put in our power. For so, either, these men being conquered, we shall enjoy the Republic victorious, or if we are defeated, but may Jupiter have heard that disaster, we shall live, if not with an actual breath, at all events in the renown of our valour. But Marcus Lepidus, having been a second time in styled Imperator, Pontifix Maximus, a man who deserved excellently well of the Republic in the last civil war, exhorts us to peace. No one, O conscript fathers, has greater weight with me than Marcus Lepidus, both on account of his personal virtues, and by reason of the dignity of his family. There are also private reasons which influence me, such as great services he has done me, and some kindnesses which I have done him. But the greatest of his services I consider to be his being of such a disposition as he is towards the Republic, which has at all times been dearer to me than my life. For when, by his influence, he inclined Magnus Pompeius, a most admirable young man, the son of one of the greatest men, to peace, and without arms release the Republic from imminent danger of civil war, by doing so he laid me under as great obligations as it was in the power of any man to do. Therefore I propose to decree to him the most ample honours that were in my power, in which he agreed with me, nor have I ceased both to think and speak in the highest terms of him. The Republic has Marcus Lepidus bound to it by many pledges. He is a man of the highest rank, of the greatest honours. He has the most honourable priesthood, and has received numberless distinctions in the city. There are monuments of himself, and of his brother, and of his ancestors, and he has a most excellent wife, children such as any man might desire, an ample family estate, untainted with the blood of his fellow citizens. No citizen has been injured by him. Many have been delivered from misery by his kindness and pity. Such a man, and such a citizen, may indeed err in his opinion, but it is quite impossible for him in the inclination to be unfriendly to the Republic. Marcus Lepidus is desirous of peace. He does well especially if he can make such a peace as he made lately. Owing to which the Republic will behold the son of Nias Pompias, and will receive him in her bosom and embrace, and will think that not he alone, but that she also is restored to herself with him. This was the reason why you decreed to him a statue in the rostra, with an honourable inscription, and why you voted him a triumph in his absence. And although he had performed great exploits in war, and such as well deserved a triumph, still for that he might not had that given to him which was not given to Lucius Amelius, nor to Ameliana Scipio, nor to the former Africanus, nor to Marius, nor to Pompias, who had the conduct of greater wars than he had, but because he had put to the end to a civil war in perfect silence the first moment that it was in his power. On that account you conferred on him the greatest honours. Do you think then, O Marcus Lepidus, that the Antonii will be to the Republic such citizens as she will find Pompias? In the one there is modesty, gravity, moderation, integrity. In them, and when I speak of them, I do not mean to omit one of that band of pirates. There is lust, and wickedness, and savage audacity capable of every crime. I entreat of you, O conscript fathers, which of you fails to see, this which fortune herself, who is called blind, sees? For saving the acts of Caesar, which we maintain for the sake of harmony, his own house will be open to Pompias, and he will redeem it for the same sum by which Antonius bought it. Yes, I say the son of Pompias will buy back his house. Oh, melancholy circumstance! But these things have been already lamented long and bitterly enough. You have voted a sum of money to Nius Pompias, equal to that which his conquering enemy had appropriated to himself of his father's property in the distribution of his booty. But I claim permission to manage this distribution myself, as due to my connection and intimacy with his father. He will buy back the villas, the houses, and some of the estates in the city which Antonius is in possession of. For, as for the silver plate, the garments, the furniture, and the wine, with which that glutton has made away with, those things he will lose without forfeiting his equanimity. The albin and fermion villas he will recover from Dolabela. The tuscalan villa he will also recover from Antonius. And these anzers, who are joining in the attack on Mutina and in the blockade of Decimus Brutus, will be driven from his fallarian villa. There are many others, perhaps, who will be made to disgorge their plunder, but their names escape my memory. I say, too, that those men who are not in the number of our enemies will be made to restore the possessions of Pompias to his son, for the price at which they bought them. It was the act of a sufficiently rash man, not to say an audacious one, to touch a single particle of that property. But who will have the face to endeavor to retain it, when its most illustrious owner is restored to his country? Will not that man restore his plunder, who in folding the patrimony of his master in his embrace, clinging to the treasure like a dragon, the slave of Pompias, the freedman of Caesar, has seized upon his estates in the Lacanian district? And as for those 700 millions of Cisterci's, which you, O Conscript Fathers, promise to the young man, they will be recovered in such a manner that the son of Nias Pompias will appear to have been established by you in his patrimony. This is what the Senate must do. The Roman people will do the rest, with respect to that family which was at one time one of the most honorable it ever saw. In the first place it will invest him with his father's honor as an augur, for which rank I will nominate him and promote his election, in order that I may restore to the son what I received from the father. Which of these men will the Roman people most willingly sanction as the augur of the most all-powerful and all-great Jupiter, whose interpreters and messengers we have been appointed, Pompias or Antonius? It seems indeed to me that fortune has managed this by the divine aid of the immortal gods, that, leaving the acts of Cesar firmly ratified, the son of Nias Pompias might still be able to recover the dignities and fortunes of his father. And I think, O Conscript Fathers, that we ought not to pass over that fact, either in silence, that those illustrious men who are acting as ambassadors, Lucius Paulus, Quintus Thermus, and Gaius Fanius, whose inclinations towards the Republic you are thoroughly acquainted with, and also with the constancy and firmness of that favorable inclination, report that they turned aside to Marseille for the purpose of conferring with Pompias, and that they found him in a disposition very much inclined to go with his troops to Mutana, if he had not been afraid of offending the minds of the veterans. But he is a true son of that father who did quite as many things wisely as he did bravely. For you will perceive that his courage was quite ready, and that prudence was not wanting to him. And this, too, is what Marcus Lepidus ought to take care of, not to appear to act in any respect with more arrogance than suits his character. For if he alarms us with his army, he is forgetting that that army belongs to the Senate, and to the Roman people, and to the whole Republic, not to himself. But he has the power to use it as if it were his own. But then, does it become virtuous men to do everything which it is in their power to do? Suppose it be a base thing. Suppose it be a mischievous thing. Suppose it be absolutely unlawful to do it. But what can be more base, or more shameful, or more utterly unbecoming, than to lead an army against the Senate, against one's fellow citizens, against one's country? Or what can deserve greater blame than doing that which is unlawful? But it is not lawful for anyone to lead an army against his country. If indeed we say that that is lawful which is permitted by the laws, or by the usages and established principles of our ancestors, for it does not follow that whatever a man has power to do is lawful for him to do. Nor, if he be not hindered, is he on that account permitted to do so? For to you, O Lepidus, as to your ancestors, your country has given an army to be employed in her cause. With this army you are to repel the enemy. You are to extend the boundaries of the empire. You are to obey the Senate and people of Rome. If by any chance they direct you to some other object. But if these are your thoughts, then are you really Marcus Lepidus, the Pontifix Maximus, the grandson of Marcus Lepidus, Pontifix Maximus? If you judge that everything is lawful for men to do, that they have the power to do, then beware lest you seem to prefer acting on precedents set by those who have no connection with you, and these too, modern precedents, to being guided by the ancient examples in your own family. But if you interpose your authority without having recourse to arms, in that case indeed I praise you more. But beware lest this thing itself be quite unnecessary. For although there is all the authority in you that there ought to be in a man of the highest rank, still the Senate itself does not despise itself. Nor was it ever more wise, more firm, more courageous. We are all hurried on with the most eager zeal to recover our freedom. Such a general ardour on the part of the Senate and people of Rome cannot be extinguished by the authority of any one. We hate a man who would distinguish it. We are angry with him, and we resist him. Our arms cannot be rested from our hands. We are deaf to all signals for retreat, to all recall from the combat. We hope for the happiest success. We will prefer enduring the bitterest disasters to being slaves. Caesar has collected an invincible army. Two perfectly brave consuls are present with their forces. The various and considerable reinforcements of Lucius Plancus, consul-elect, are not wanting. The contest is for the safety of Decimus Brutus. One furious gladiator with a band of the most infamous robbers is waging war against his country, against our household gods, against our altars and our hearths, against four consuls. Shall we yield to him? Shall we listen to the conditions which he proposes? Shall we believe it possible for peace to be made with him? But there is danger of our being overwhelmed. I have no fear that the man who cannot enjoy his own must abundant fortunes, unless all good men are saved, will betray his own safety. It is nature which first of all makes good citizens, and then fortune which exists them. For it is for the advantage of all good men that the Republic should be safe. But that advantage appears more clearly in the case of those who are fortunate. Who is more fortunate than Lentulus, as I said before, and who is more sensible? The Roman people saw his sorrow and his tears at the Lupercall Festival. They saw how miserable, how overwhelmed he was when Antonius placed a diadem on Caesar's head, and preferred being his slave to being his colleague. And even if he had been able to abstain from his other crimes and wickednesses, still on account of that one single action, I should think him worthy of all punishment. For even if he himself was calculated to be a slave, why should he impose a master on us? And if his childhood had borne the lusts of those men who were tyrants over him, was he on that account to prepare a master and a tyrant to lord it over our children? Therefore, since that man was slain, he himself has behaved to all others in the same manner as he wished him to behave to us. For in what country of barbarians was there ever so foul and so cruel a tyrant as Antonius, escorted by the arms of barbarians, has proved in this city? When Caesar was exercising the supreme power, we used to come into the Senate, if not with freedom, at all events with safety, but under this arch-pirate. For why should I say tyrant? These benches were occupied by Eterraeans. On a sudden he hastened to Brindisium in order to come against this city from thence with a regular army. He deluged Soesa, a most beautiful town, now of municipal citizens, formerly of the most honorable colonists, with the blood of the bravest soldiers. At Brindisium he massacred the chosen centurions of the Martial Legion in the lap of his wife, who was not only most avaricious but also most cruel. After that, with what fury, with what eagerness that he hurry on to the city, that is to say to the slaughter of every virtuous man. But at that time the immortal gods brought us a protector whom we have never seen or expected. For the incredible and godlike virtue of Caesar checked the cruel and frantic onslaught of that robber, whom then that madman believed that he was injuring with his edicts, ignorant that all the charges which he was falsely alleging against the most righteous young man were all very appropriate to the recollections of his own childhood. He entered the city, with what an escort, or rather with what a troop, when on the right hand and on the left, amid the groans of the Roman people, he was threatening the owners of property, taking notes of the houses, and openly promising to divide the city among his followers. He returned to his soldiers. Then came that mischievous assembly at Tibor. From thence he hurried to the city. The Senate was convened at the capital. A decree with the authority of the consuls was prepared for prescribing the young man, when, all of a sudden, for he was aware that the Martial Legion had accamped at Alba, news is brought him of the proceedings of the Fourth Legion. Alarmed at that, he abandoned his intention of submitting a motion to the Senate respecting Caesar. He departed, not by the regular roads, but by the bilanes, in the robe of a general, and on that very self-same day he trumped up a countless number of resolutions of the Senate, all of which he published even before they were drawn up. From thence it was not a journey, but a race and a flight into Gaul. He thought that Caesar was pursuing him with the Fourth Legion, with the Martial Legion, with the veterans, whose very name he could not endure for fright. Then as he was making his way into Gaul, Decimus Brutus opposed him, who preferred being himself surrounded by the waves of the whole war to allowing him either to retreat or to advance, and who put Mutna on him as a sort of bridle to his exultation. And when he had blockaded that city with its works and fortifications, and when the dignity of a most flourishing colony and the majesty of a consul-elect were both insufficient to deter him from his paracital treason, then, I call you, and the Roman people, and all the gods who preside over this city to witness, against my will, and in spite of my resistance and remonstrance, three ambassadors of consular rank were sent to that robber, to that leader of gladiators, Marcus Antonius. Who ever was such a barbarian? Who was ever so savage, so brutal? He would not listen to them. He gave them no answer, and he not only despised and showed that he considered of no importance those men who were with him, but still more us, by whom these men had been sent. And afterwards what wickedness or what crime was there, which that traitor abstained from? He blockaded your colonists, and the army of the Roman people, and your general, and your consul-elect. He lays waste the lands of a nation of most excellent citizens. Like a most inhuman enemy he threatens all virtuous men with crosses and tortures. Now what peace, O Marcus Lepidus, can exist with this man, when it does not seem that there is even any punishment which the Roman people can think adequate to his crimes? But if anyone has hitherto been able to doubt the fact, that there can be nothing whatever in common between this order and the Roman people, and that most detestable beast, let him at least cease to entertain such a doubt, when he becomes acquainted with this letter which I have just received, it having been sent to me by Hersheus the consul. While I read it, and while I briefly discuss each paragraph, I beg O conscript fathers that you will listen to me most attentively as you have hitherto done. Antonius to Hersheus and Caesar. He does not call himself imperator, nor Hersheus consul, nor Caesar proprator. This is cunningly done enough. He preferred laying aside a title, to which he had no right himself to giving them their proper style. When I heard of the death of Gaius Trebonius, I was not more rejoiced than grieved. Take notice why he says we're joiced, why he says that he was grieved, and then you will more easily be able to decide the question of peace. It was a matter of proper rejoicing that a wicked man had paid the penalty due to the bones and ashes of a most illustrious man, and that the divine power of the gods had shown itself before the end of the current year, by showing the chastisement of that parasite already inflicted in some cases, and impending in others. Oh, you Spartacus! For what name is more fit for you? You, whose abominable wickedness is such as to make even Catalan seem tolerable. Have you dared to write that it is a matter of rejoicing that Trebonius has suffered punishment? That Trebonius was wicked? What was his crime, except that, on the Ides of March, he withdrew you from destruction which you had deserved? Come, you rejoice at this? Let us see what it is that excites your indignation. That Dola Bella should at this time have been pronounced a public enemy, because he is slain an assassin, and that the son of a buffoon should appear dearer to the Roman people than Gaius Caesar, the father of his country, are circumstances to be lamented. Why should you be sad, because Dola Bella has been pronounced a public enemy? Why? Are you not aware that you yourself, by the fact of an enlistment having taken place all over Italy, and of the consuls being sent forth to war, and of Caesar having received great honors, and of the garb of war having been assumed, have also been pronounced an enemy? And what reason is there, O you wicked man, for lamenting that Dola Bella has been declared an enemy by the Senate? A body which you indeed think of no consequence at all, but you make it your main object in waging war utterly to destroy the Senate, and to make all the rest of those who are either virtuous or wealthy follow the fate of the highest order of all. But he calls him the son of a buffoon, as if that noble Roman knight, the father of Trebonius, were unknown to us. And does he venture to look down, on anyone because of the meanness of his birth, when he has himself, children, by Fadia? But it is the bitterest thing of all that you, O Aulus Herschus, who have been distinguished by Caesar's kindness, and who have been left by him in a condition which you yourself marvel at. I cannot indeed deny that Aulus Herschus was distinguished by Caesar, but such distinctions are only a value when conferred on virtue and industry. But you, who cannot deny that you are also distinguished by Caesar, what would you have been if he had not showered so many kindnesses on you? Where would your own good qualities have borne you? Where would your birth have conducted you? You would have spent the whole period of your manhood in brothels, in cook-shops, and in gambling and drinking, as you used to do when you were always burying your brains and your beard in the laps of actresses. And you, too, O boy? He calls him O boy, whom he has not only experienced, and shall again experience to be a man, but one of the bravest of men. It is indeed the name appropriate to his age, but he is the last man in the world who ought to use it, when it is his own madness which has opened to this boy the path to glory. You who owe everything to his name. He does indeed owe everything, and nobly is he paying for it, for if he was the father of his country, as you call him, and I will see hereafter what my opinion of that matter is. Why is it not this youth still more truly our father, to whom it is certainly is owing that we are now enjoying life, saved out of your most guilty hands? You are taking pains to have Dola Bella legally condemned. A base action, truly, by which the authority of this most honorable order is defended against the insanity of a most inhuman gladiator. And to affect the release of this prisoner from blockade. Do you dare to call that man a Poisoner, who has found a steady remedy against your own poisoning tricks? Or whom you are besieging in such a manner, oh, you knew Hannibal, if there was ever any abler general than he, as to blockade yourself and to be unable to extricate yourself from your present position, should you be ever so desirous to do so? Suppose you retreat, they will all pursue you from all sides. As you stay where you are, you will be caught. You are very right, certainly, to call him a Poisoner, by whom you see that your present disastrous condition has been brought about. In order that Cassius and Brutus may become as powerful as possible. Would you suppose that he is speaking of censorinas, or Vintidius, or of the Antonii themselves? But why should they be unwilling that those men should become powerful, who are not only the most excellent and nobly born men, but are also united with them in the defense of the Republic? In fact, you look upon the existing circumstances as you did on the former ones. What can he mean? You used to call the camp of Pompeius the Senate. Shall we rather call your camp the Senate, in which you are the only man of consular rank, you whose whole consulship was effaced from every moment and register, and two praetors who are afraid that they will lose something by us, a groundless fear, for we are maintaining all the grants made by Caesar, and men of praetorian rank, Philadelphius Aeneus, and that innocent Galleus, and men of idolitean rank, he on whom I have spent so much of my lungs and voice, bestia, and that patron of good faith in cheater of his creditors, Trebellius, and that bankrupt and ruin man, Quintus Caelius, and that support of the friends of Antonius, Cazalavarius, whom Antonius for his amusement caused at a banquet to be flogged with thongs by the public slaves, men of septembrial rank, Lento and Nucola, and then that delight and darling of the Roman people, Lucius Antonius, and for tribunes, first of all, two tribunes elect, Tullius Hastilius, who was so full of his privileges as to write up his name on the gate of Rome, and who, when he found himself unable to betray his general, deserted him. The other tribune elect is a man of the name of Visaceus, I know nothing about him, but I hear that he is, as they say, a bold robber, who, however, they say was once a bathing man at Pissariam, and a very good hand at mixing the water. Then there are others, too, of tribunician rank, in the first place, Titus Ploncus, a man who, if he had any affection for the Senate, would never have burnt the Senate house. Having been condemned for which wickedness, he returned to that city by force of arms, from which he was driven by the power of the law. But, however, this is a case common to him, and to many others who are very unlike him, but this is quite true which men are in the habit of saying of this Ploncus, in a proverbial way, that it is quite impossible for him to die unless his legs are broken. They are broken, and still he lives, but this, like many others, is a service that has been done us by Aquila. There is also in that camp Decius, descended, as I believe, from the great Decius Mus, accordingly he gained the gifts of Caesar. And so, after a long interval, the recollection of the Decius is renewed by this illustrious man. And how can I pass over Saxa Decius, a man imported from the most distant nations, in order that we might see that man-tribune of the people whom we have never beheld as a citizen. There is also one of the Cessunai, but all of them have such a resemblance to one another that I may make a mistake as to their first names. Nor must I omit Exodus, the brother of Philadelphius the Quyster, lest, if I were to be silent about that most illustrious young man, I should seem to be envying Antonius. There is also a gentleman of the name of Asinius, a voluntary senator, having been elected by himself. He saw the Senate House open after the death of Caesar. He changed his shoes, and in a moment became a conscript father. Sextus albedius, I do not know, but still I have not fallen in with anyone so fond of evil speaking as to deny that he is worthy of a place in the Senate of Antonius. I daresay that I have passed over some names, but still I could not refrain from mentioning those who did occur to me. Lying then on this Senate, he looks down on the Senate which supported Pompeius, in which ten of us were men of consular rank. If they were all alive now this war would never have arisen at all. Audacity would have succumbed to authority. But what great protection there would have been in the rest may be understood from this, that I, when left alone of all that band, with your assistance, crushed and broke the audacity of that triumphant robber. But if fortune had not taken from us not only Servius Sopichius, and before him his colleague Marcus Marcellus. What citizens? What men? If the Republic had been able to retain the two consuls, men most devoted to their country, who were driven together out of Italy, and Lucius Afranius, that consument general, and Publius Lentulus, a citizen who displayed his extraordinary virtue on other occasions, and especially in securing my safe return, and Bibulus, whose constant and firm attachment to the Republic has at all times been deservedly praised, and Lucius Domitius, that most excellent citizen, and Appius Claudius, a man equally distinguished for nobleness of birth, and for attachment to the Senate, and Publius Scipio, a most illustrious man, closely resembling his ancestors. Certainly, with these men of consular rank, the Senate, which supported Pompeius, was not to be despised, which then was more just, which was more advantageous for the Republic, that Neus Pompeius, or that Antonius, the brother, who bought all Pompeius's property, should live. And then, what men of praetorian rank were there with us, the chief of whom was Marcus Cato, being indeed the chief men of any nation, in the world for virtue? Why need I speak of the other most illustrious men? You know them all. I am more afraid lest you think me tedious for enumerating so many than ungrateful for having passed over anyone. And what men of idyllitean rank, and of tribunitean rank, and of quistorian rank? Why need I make a long story of it? So great was the dignity of the senators of our party. So great, too, were their numbers, that those men have need of some very valid excuse who would not join that camp. Now listen to the rest of the letter. You have defeated Cicero for your general. I am the more glad to hear that word general because he certainly uses it against his will. For, as for his saying, defeated, I do not mind that, for it is my fate that I can either be victorious nor defeated without the Republic being so at the same time. You are fortifying Macedonia with armies. Yes, indeed, and we have rested one from your brother who does not, in the least, degenerate from you. You have entrusted Africa to Varys who has been twice taken prisoner. Here he thinks that he is making out a case against his own brother, Lucius. You have sent Kepius into Syria. Do you not see, then, O Antonius, that the whole world is open to our party but that you have no spot out of your own fortifications where you can set your foot? You have allowed Casca to discharge the office of Tribune. What, then, were we to remove a man as if he had been Marullus or Cicentius, to whom we own it, that this and many other things like this can never happen for the future? You have taken away from the Luperche, the revenues which Julius Caesar assigned to them. Does he dare to make mention of the Luperche? Does he not shudder at the recollection of that day on which, smelling of wine, reeking with perfumes and naked, he dared to exhort the indignant Roman people to embrace slavery? You, by a resolution of the Senate, have removed the colonies of the veterans which have been legally settled. Have we removed them or have we rather ratified a law which was passed in the Commitia Centunata? See, rather, whether it is not you who have ruined these veterans, those at least who are ruined, and settled them in a place from which they themselves now feel that they shall never be able to make their escape. You are promising to restore to the people of Marseille what has been taken from them by the laws of war. I am not going to discuss the laws of war. It is a discussion far more easy to begin than necessary. But take notice of this, O Conscript Fathers, what a born enemy to the Republic Antonius is, who is so violent in his hatred of that city, which he knows to have been at times most firmly attached to this Republic. Do you not know that no one of the party of Pompeius who is still alive can, by the Herschel Law, possess any rank? What, I should like to know, is the object of now making mention of the Herschel Law, a law of which I believe the framer himself repents no less than those against whom it was passed. According to my opinion, it is utterly wrong to call it a law at all. And even if it be a law, we ought not to think it a law of Hertius. You have furnished Brutus with money belonging to Apuleius. Well, suppose the Republic had furnished that excellent man with all its treasures and resources. What good man would have disapproved of it? For without money, he could not have supported an army, nor without an army could he have taken your brother prisoner. You have praised the execution of Pytus and Mendemnus, man who had been presented with the freedom of the city and who were united by ties of hospitality to Caesar. We do not praise what we have never even heard of. We were very likely in such a state of confusion in such a critical period of the Republic to busy our minds about two worthless Greeklings. You took no notice of Theopumpus, having been stripped and driven out by Trebonius and compelled to flee to Alexandria. The Senate has indeed been very guilty. We have taken no notice of that great man Theopumpus. Why, who on earth knows or cares where he is or what he is doing or indeed whether he is alive or dead? You endure the sight of Sergia's Galba in your camp, armed with the same dagger with which he slew Caesar. I shall make you no reply at all about Galba, a most gallant and courageous citizen. He will meet you face to face and he bring present and that dagger which you reproach him with shall give you your answer. You have enlisted my soldiers and many veterans under the pretense of intending the destruction of those men who slew Caesar. And then when they expected no such step, you have led them on to the attack their quister, their general and their former comrades. No doubt we deceive them. We humbug to them completely. No doubt the Martial Legion, the Fourth Legion and the veterans had no idea what was going on. They were not following the authority of the Senate or the liberty of the Roman people. They were anxious to avenge the death of Caesar which they had all regarded as an act of destiny. No doubt you were the person who they were anxious to see safe and happy and flourishing. Oh, miserable man, not only in fact, but also in the circumstances of not perceiving yourself how miserable you are. But listen to the most serious charge of all. In fact, what you have not sanctioned, what have you not done? What would have been done if you were to come to life again by whom? For I suppose he means to bring forward some instances of a very wicked man. Neus Pompeius himself. Oh, how based must we be if indeed we have been imitating Gaius Pompeius or his son if he could be at home? He soon will be at home, believe me, for in a few days he will enter on his home and on his father's villas. Lastly, you declare that peace cannot be made unless I either allow Brutus to quit Mutuna or supply him with corn. It is others who say that. I say that even if you were to do so, there can never be peace between this city and you. What? Is it the opinion of those veteran soldiers to whom as yet either course is open? I do not see that there is any course so open to them as now to begin and attack that general whom they previously were so zealous and unanimous in defending. Since you yourselves have sold yourselves for flatteries and poisoned gifts, are those men depraved and corrupted who had been persuaded to pursue a most detestable enemy with most righteous war? But you say you are bringing assistance to troops who are hemmed in. I have no objection to their being saved and departing wherever you wish if they only allow that man to be put to death who has deserved it. Oh, how very kind of him the soldiers availing themselves of the liberality of Antonius have deserted their general and have fled in alarm to his enemy if it had not been for them. Dolabella in offering the sacrifice which he did to the shade of his general would not have been beforehand with Antonius in propitiating the spirit of his colleague by a similar offering. You write me word that there has been mention of peace made in the Senate and that five ambassadors of consular rank have been appointed. It is hard to believe that those men who drove me in haste from the city when I offered the fair, when I offered the fairest conditions and when I was even thinking of relaxing somewhat of them should now think of acting with moderation or humanity. And it is hardly probable that those men who have pronounced Dolabella public enemy for a most righteous action should bring themselves to spare us who are influenced by the same sentiments as he. Does it appear a trifling manner that he confesses himself a partner with Dolabella in all his atrocities? Do you not see that all these crimes flow from one source? He himself confesses shrewdly and correctly enough that those who have pronounced Dolabella a public enemy for a most righteous action for it so it appears to Antonius cannot possibly spare him who agrees with Dolabella in opinion. But what can you do with a man who puts on paper and records the fact that his agreement with Dolabella is so complete that he would kill Trebonius and if he could, Brutus and Cassius too, with every circumstance of torture and inflict the same punishment on us also? Certainly a man who makes so pious and fair a treaty as a citizen to be taken care of. He also complains that the conditions which he offered, those reasonable and modest conditions were rejected, namely that he was to have the further gall, the province the most suitable of all for renewing and carrying on the war, that the legionaries of Alauda should be judges in the third decree. That is to say that there should be an asylum for all crimes to the indelible disgrace of the Republic, that his own acts should be ratified, his when not one trace of his consulship had been allowed to remain. He showed his regard also for the interests of Lucius Antonius, who had been a most equitable surveyor of public and private domains with Nicola and Lento for his colleagues. Consider then, both of you, whether it is more becoming and more advantageous for your party, for you to seek to avenge the death of Trebonius or that of Caesar, and whether it is more reasonable for you and me to meet in battle in order that the cause of the Pompeians, which has so frequently had its throat cut, may the more easily revive or to agree together, so as not to be the laughing stock to our enemies. If that throat had been cut, it never could revive, which says he is more becoming. In this war, he talks of what is becoming and what more advantageous for your party. Parties, you senseless man, is a suitable expression for the forum or the Senate House. You have declared a wicked war against your country. You are attacking Mutina. You are besieging the consul-elect. Two consuls are carrying on war against you and with them Caesar, the proprietor. All Italy is armed against you and then you call yours a party instead of a revolt from the Republic? You seek to avenge the death of Trebonius or that of Caesar. We have avenged Trebonius sufficiently by pronouncing D'Ola Bela a public enemy. The death of Caesar is best defended by oblivion and silence. But take notice of what his object is. When he thinks that the death of Caesar ought to be revenged, he is threatening with death, not those only who perpetrated that action, but those also who were not indignant at it. Men who will count the destruction of either you or me gain to them, a spectacle which, as yet, fortune herself has taken care to avoid. Unwilling to see two armies which belong to one body fighting, with Cicero acting as master of the show, a fellow who is so far happy that he has cajoled you both with the same compliments as those with which he boasted that he had deceived Caesar. He proceeds in his abuse of me, as if he had been very fortunate in all his former reproaches of me. But I will brand him with the most thoroughly deserved marks of infamy and pillory him for the most everlasting recollection of posterity. I, a master of the show of gladiators. Indeed, he is not wholly wrong, for I do wish to see the worst party slain and the best victorious. He writes that, whichever of them are destroyed, we shall count as so much gain. Admirable gain, when, if you, O Antonius, are victorious, may the gods avert such a disaster, the death of those men who depart from life untortured will be accounted happy. He says that Hrishius and Caesar have been cajoled by me by the same compliments. I should like to know what compliment has been as yet paid to Hrishius by me, for still more and greater ones than have been paid them already are due to Caesar. But to you, O Antonius, dare to say that Caesar, the father was deceived by me? You, it was you, I say, who really slew him at the looper called games. Why, almost ungrateful of men, have you abandoned your office of priests to him? But remark, now the admirable wisdom and constancy of this great and illustrious man. I am quite resolved to brook no insult either to myself or to my friends, nor to desert that party which Pompeii has hated, nor to allow the veterans to be removed from their abodes, nor to allow individuals to be dragged out to torture, nor to violate the faith which I pledged to Dolabela. I say nothing of the rest of this sentence, the faith pledged to Dolabela, to that most holy man, this pious gentleman, will by no means violate. What faith? Was it a pledge to murder every virtuous citizen, to partition the city and Italy, to distribute the provinces among and to hand them over to be plundered by their followers? For what else was there, which could have been ratified by treaty and mutual pleasures between Antonius and Dolabela, those foul and parasitle traitors? Nor to violate my treaty of alliance with Lepidus, the most conscientious of men. You have any alliances with Lepidus? Or with any? I will not say virtuous citizen as he is, but with any man in his senses. Your object is to make Lepidus appear either an impious man or a madman. But you are doing no good, although it is a hard matter to speak positively of another, especially with a man like Lepidus, whom I will never fear, but I shall hope good things of him, unless I am prevented from doing so. Lepidus wished to recall you from your frenzy, not to be the assistant in your insanity, but you seek your friends not only among the conscientious men, but among most conscientious men. You, actually, so godlike, is your piety, invent a new word to express it, which has no existence in the Latin language. Nor to betray Plancas, the partner of my councils. Plancas, the partner of your councils? He, who's ever memorable and divine virtue brings a light to the Republic. Unless may have you think that it is a reinforcement to you that he has come with those most gallant legions and with a numerous Gallic force of both cavalry and infantry. And who, if before his arrival, you have not by your punishment made atonement to the Republic for your wickedness, will be the chief leader in this war. For, although the first succors that arrive are more useful to the Republic, yet the last are the more acceptable. However, at last he recollects himself and begins to philosophize. If the immortal gods assist me, as I trust that they will, going on my way with proper feelings, I shall live happily. But if another fate awaits me, I have already a foretaste of joy in the certainty of your punishment. For if the Pompeians, when defeated, are so insolent, you will be sure to experience what they will be when victorious. You are very welcome to your foretaste of joy, for you are at war not only with the Pompeians, but with the entire Republic. Everyone, gods and men, the highest rank, the middle class, the lowest dregs of the people, citizens and foreigners, men and women, free men and slaves, all hate you. We saw this the other day on some false news that came, but we shall soon see it from the way in which true news is received. And if you ponder these things with yourself a little, you will die with more equanimity and greater comfort. Lastly, this is the sum of my opinion and determination. I will bear with the insults offered me by my friends, if they themselves are willing to forget that they have offered them, or if they are prepared to unite with me in avenging Caesar's death. Now that they know this resolution of Antonius, do you think that Alish Hershius and Gaius Ponsa, the consuls, can hesitate to pass over to Antonius and to besiege Brutus and to be eager to attack Mutena? Why do I say Hershius and Ponsa will Caesar, that young man of singular piety, that young man of singular piety, will be able to restrain himself from seeking to avenge the injuries of his father in the blood of Decimus Brutus. Therefore, as soon as they have read this letter, the course which they adopted was to approach nearer to the fortifications. And on this account, we ought to consider Caesar, a still more admirable young man, and that a still greater kindness of the immortal gods which gave him to the Republic, as he has never been misled by the specious use of his father's name, nor by any false idea of piety and affection. He sees clearly that the greatest piety consists in the salvation of one's country. But if it were a contest between parties, the name of which is utterly extinct, then would Antonius and Ventidius be the proper persons to uphold the party of Caesar, rather than in the first place, Caesar, a young man full of the greatest piety in the most affectionate recollection of his parent, and next to him, Ponsa and Hershius, who held, if I may use such an expression, the two horns of Caesar, at the time when that deserved to be called a party. But what parties are these when the one proposes to itself to uphold the authority of the Senate, the liberty of the Roman people, and the safety of the Republic, while the other fixes its eyes on the slaughter of all good men, and on the partition of the city, and of Italy? That has come at last to the end. I do not believe that ambassadors are coming. He knows me well, to a place where war exists, especially with the example of Dolabella before our eyes. Ambassadors, I should think, will have privileges more respected than two consuls against whom he is bearing arms, or then Caesar, whose father's priest he is, or then the consul-elect whom he is attacking, or then Mutina, which he is besieging, or then his country, which he is threatening with fire and sword. When they do come, I shall see what they demand. Plagues and torture seize you, will anyone come to you unless he be a man like Vintidius? We sent men of that very highest character to extinguish the rising conflagration. You rejected them. Shall we now send men when the fire has become so large and has risen to such a height, and when you have left yourself no possible room, not only for peace, but not even for a surrender? I have read you this letter, O Conscript Fathers, not because I thought it worth reading, but in order to let you see all his parasital treasons revealed by his own confessions. Would Marcus Lepidus, that man so richly endowed with all the gifts of virtue and fortune, if he saw this letter, either wish for peace with this man, or even think it possible that peace should be made? Sooner shall fire and water mingle, as some poet or other says. Sooner shall anything in the world happen than either the Republic become reconciled to the Antony-E or the Antony-E to the Republic. Those men are monsters, prodigies, portentious pests of the Republic. It is better for this city to be uplifted from its foundations and be transported, if such a thing were possible, into other regions where it should never hear of the actions or the name of the Antony-E than it is to see those men, driven out by the valor of Caesar and hemmed in by the courage of Brutus, inside these walls. The most desirable thing is victory. The next best thing is to think no disaster too great to bear in defense of the dignity and freedom of one's country. The remaining alternative, I will not call it the third, but the lowest of all is to undergo the greatest disgrace from a desire of life. Since then, this is the case, as to the letters and messages of Marcus Lepidus, that most illustrious man, I agree with Servilius, and I further give my vote that Magnus Pompeius, the son of Neus, has acted as might have been expected from the affection and zeal of his father and forefathers towards the Republic and from his own previous virtue and industry and loyal principles and promising to the Senate and people of Rome his own assistance and that of those men whom he had with him and that that conduct of his is grateful and acceptable to the Senate and people of Rome and that it shall tend to his own honor and dignity. This may either be added to the resolution of the Senate, which is before us, or it may be separated from it and drawn up by itself. So as to let Pompeius be seen to be extolled in a distinct resolution of the Senate. End of the 13th oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius, called also the 13th Philippic. The 14th and last oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius, called also the 14th Philippic. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The 14th Philippic, the argument. After the last speech was delivered, Brutus gained great advantages in Macedonia over Gaius Antonius and took him prisoner. He treated him with great lenity, so much so as to displease Cicero, who remonstrated with him strongly on his design of setting him at liberty. He was also under some apprehensions as to the steadiness of Plancus' loyalty to the Senate. But on his writing to that body to assure them of his obedience, Cicero procured a vote of some extraordinary honors to him. Cacius, also, about the same time was very successful in Syria, of which he wrote Cicero a full account. Meantime, reports were being spread in the city by the partisans of Antonius, of his success before Mutinah, and even of his having gained over the consuls. Cicero, too, was personally much annoyed at a report which was spreading of his, having formed the design of making himself master of the city and assuming the title of dictator. But when Apuleius, one of his friends and a tribute of the people, proceeded to make a speech to the people in Cicero's justification, the people all cried out that he had never done anything which was not for the advantage of the Republic. About the same time news arrived of a victory gained over Antonius at Mutinah. Ponsa was now on the point of joining Herschis with four new legions, and Antonius endeavored to surprise him on the road before he could affect that junction. A severe battle ensued, in which Herschis came to Ponsa's aid, and Antonius was defeated with great loss. On the receipt of the news, the populace assembled about Cicero's house and carried him in triumph to the capital. The next day, Marcus Cornutus, the praetor, summoned the Senate to deliberate on the letters received from the consuls and Octavius, giving an account of the victory. Civilius declared his opinion that the citizens should relinquish the sagum or robe of war, and that a supplication should be decreed in honor of the consuls and Octavius. Cicero rose next and delivered the following speech, objecting to the relinquishment of the robe of war and blaming Civilius for not calling Antonius an enemy. The measures which he himself proposed were carried. If, O conscript fathers, while I learned from the letters which have been read that the army of our most wicked enemies had been defeated and routed, I had also learned what we all wish for above all things, in which we do suppose has resulted from that victory, which has been achieved, namely that Decimus Brutus had already quitted Mutuna, then I should, without any hesitation, give my vote for our returning to our usual dress, out of joy at the safety of that citizen, on account of whose danger it was that we adopted the robe of war. But before any news of that event, which the city looks for, with the greatest eagerness arrives, we have sufficient reason indeed for joy at this most important and most illustrious battle. But reserve, I beg you, your return to your usual dress for the time of complete victory. But the completion of this war is the safety of Decimus Brutus. But what is the meaning of this proposal that our dress shall be changed just for today, and that tomorrow we shall again come forth in the garb of war? Rather, when we have once returned to that dress which we wish and desire to assume, let us strive to retain it forever. For this is not only discreditable, but it is also displeasing to the immortal gods to leave their altars which we have approached in the attire of peace for the purpose of assuming the garb of war. And I notice, O conscript fathers, that there are some who favor this proposal, whose intention and design is, as they see, that that will be a most glorious day for Decimus Brutus on which we return to our usual dress out of joy for his safety, to deprive him of this great reward so that it may not be handed down to the recollection of posterity that the Roman people had recourse to the garb of war on account of the danger of one single citizen, and then returned to their gowns of peace on account of his safety. Take away this reason, and you will find no other for so absurd a proposal. But do you, O conscript fathers, preserve your authority, adhere to your own opinions, preserve in your recollection what you have often declared, that the whole result of this entire war depends on the life of one most brave and excellent man. For the purpose of effecting the liberation of Decimus Brutus, the chief men of the state were sent as ambassadors to give notice to that enemy, and pericidal traitor, to retire from Mutina for the sake of preserving that same Decimus Brutus. All is harsher, the consul went by lot to conduct the war. A man, the weakness of whose bodily health was made up for by the strength of his courage, and encouraged by the hope of victory. Caesar, too, after he, with an army levied by his own resources, and on his own authority, had delivered the Republic from the first dangers that assailed it, in order to prevent any subsequent wicked attempts for being originated, departed to assist in the deliverance of the same Brutus, and subdued some family vexation, which he may have felt by his attachment to his country. What other object had gaius panza in holding the levies which he did, and in collecting money, and in carrying the most severe resolutions of the Senate against Antonius, and in exhorting us, and in inviting the Senate against Antonius, and in inviting the Roman people to embrace the cause of liberty, except to ensure the deliverance of Decimus Brutus? For the Roman people, in crowds, demanded at his hands the safety of Decimus Brutus with such unanimous outcries that he was compelled to prefer it not only to any consideration of his own personal advantage, but even to his own necessities. And that end, we now, O conscript fathers, are entitled to hope, is either at the point of being achieved, or is actually gained, but it is right for the reward of our hopes to be reserved for the issue in event of the business. Lest we should appear either to have anticipated the kindness of the gods by our over-precipitation or to have despised the bounty of fortune through our own folly. But since the matter of your behavior shows cleanly enough what you think of this matter, I will come to the letters which have arrived from the consuls and the proprator after I have said a few words relating to the letters themselves. The swords, O conscript fathers, of our legions and armies have been stained with, or rather I should say, dipped deep in blood in two battles which have taken place under the consuls and a third which have been fought under the command of Caesar. If it was the blood of enemies, then great is the piety of the soldiers, but it is nefarious wickedness if it was the blood of citizens. How long then is that man who has surpassed all enemies in wickedness to be spared the name of enemy? Unless you wish to see the very swords of our soldiers trembling in their hands while they doubt whether they are piercing a citizen or an enemy. You vote a supplication. You do not call Antonius an enemy. Very pleasing indeed to the immortal gods will be our thanksgivings. Very pleasing to the victims after a multitude of our citizens has been slain. For the victory, says the proposer of the supplication, over wicked and audacious men. For that is what that most illustrious man calls them. Expressions of blame suited to lawsuits carried out in the city, not denunciations of searing infamy such as deserved by internecine war. I suppose they are forging wills or trespassing on their neighbors or cheating some young men. For it is men implicated in these and similar practices that we are all in the habit of terming wicked and audacious. One man, the foulest of all banditi, is waging an irreconcilable war against four consuls. He is at the same time carrying on war against the Senate and people of Rome. He is, although he is himself hastening to destruction through the disasters which he has met with, threatening all of us with destruction and devastation and torments and tortures. He declares that inhuman and savage act of Dolabela's, which no nation of barbarians would have owned, was done by his advice. And what he himself would do in this city, if this very Jupiter, who now looks down upon us, assembled in his temple, had not repelled him from this temple and from these walls, he showed in the miseries of those inhabitants of Parma, whom victorious and honorable men as they were, and most intimately connected with the authority of this order and with the dignity of the Roman people, that villain and monster Lucius Antonius, that object of the extraordinary detestation of all men, and, if the gods hate those whom they ought, of all the gods also, and murdered with every circumstance of cruelty. My mind shudders at the recollection, O conscript fathers, and shrinks from relating the cruelties which Lucius Antonius perpetrated on the children and wives of the citizens of Parma. For whatever infamy the Antonii have willingly undergone in their own persons to their own infamy, they triumph in the fact of having inflicted on others by violence, but it is a miserable violence which they offer to them, most unholy lust, such as the whole life of the Antonii is polluted with. Is there then anyone who is afraid to call these men enemies, whose wickedness he admits to have surpassed even the inhumanity of the Carthaginians? For in what city, when taken by storm, did Hannibal even behave with such ferocity as Antonius did in Parma, which he filched by surprise? Unless, may have, Antonius is not to be considered the enemy of this colony and of the others towards which he is animated with the same feelings. But if he is beyond all question the enemy of the colonies and municipal towns, then what do you consider him with respect to this city, which he is so eager for, to satiate the indigence of his band of robbers, which that skillful and experienced surveyor of his, Saxa, has already marked out with his rule? Recollect, I entreat you in the name of the immortal gods, O conscript fathers, what we have been fearing for the last two days in consequence of infamous rumors, carefully disseminated by enemies within the walls? Who has been able to look upon his children or upon his wife without weeping? Who has been able to bear the sight of his home, of his house, of his household gods? Already, all of us were expecting a most ignominious death or meditating a miserable flight. And shall we hesitate to call the man at whose hands we feared all these things enemies? If anyone should propose a more severe designation, I will willingly agree to it. I am hardly content with this ordinary one and will certainly not employ a more moderate one. Therefore, as we are bound to vote, and as Servilius has already proposed a must just supplication for those letters which have been read to you, I will propose altogether to increase the number of the days which it is to last, especially as it is to be decreed in honor of three generals conjointly. But first of all, I will insist on styling those men imperator by whose valor and wisdom and good fortune we have been released from the most imminent danger of slavery and death. Indeed, who is there within the last 20 years who has had a supplication decreed to him without being himself styled imperator, although he may have performed the most insignificant exploits, or even almost none at all? Wherefore, the senator who spoke before me ought either not to have moved for supplication at all, or he ought to have paid the usual and established compliment to those men to whom even now extraordinary honors are justly due. Shall the Senate, according to this custom which has now obtained, style a man imperator if he has slain a thousand or two of Spaniards, or Gauls, or Thracians, and now that so many legions have been routed, now that such a multitude of enemies has been slain, I enemies, I say, although our enemies within the city do not fancy this expression? Shall we pay to our most illustrious generals the honor of a supplication and refuse them the name of imperator? For with what great honor and joy and exaltation ought the deliverers of this city themselves to enter into this temple, when, yesterday, on account of the exploits which they have performed, the Roman people carried me in an ovation almost in a triumph from my house to the capital, and back again from the capital to my own house. That is, indeed, in my opinion, a just and genuine triumph when men who have deserved well of the republic receive public testimony to their merits from the unanimous consent of the Senate. If indeed, at a time of general rejoicing on the part of the Roman people, they addressed their congratulations to one individual, that is a great proof of their opinion of him. If they give him thanks, that is greater still. If they did both, then nothing more honorable to him can possibly be imagined. Are you saying all this of yourself? Someone will ask. It is indeed against my will that I do so, but my indignation and injustice makes me boastful, contrary to my usual habit. Is it not sufficient that thanks should not be given to men who have well earned them by men who are ignorant of the very nature of virtue? And shall accusations and odium be attempted to be excited against those men who devote all their thoughts to ensuring the safety of the republic? For you well know that there has been a common report for the last few days that the day before the wine feast, that is to say on this very day, I was intending to come forth with the facies as dictator. One would think that this story was invented against some gladiator or robber or Catalan and not against a man who has prevented any such step from ever being taken in the republic. Was I, who defeated and overthrew and crushed Catalan, when he was attempting such wickedness, a likely man myself on all of a sudden to turn out Catalan? Under what auspices could I and auger take those facies? How long should I have been likely to keep them? To whom was I to deliver them as my successor? The idea of anyone having been so wicked is to event such a tale or so mad is to believe it. In what could such a suspicion or rather such gossip have originated? When, as you know during the last three or four days, a report of bad news from Mutuna had been creeping abroad, the disloyal part of the citizens, inflated with exaltation and insolence, began to collect in one place at that senate house, which has been more fatal to their party than to the republic. There, while they were reforming a plan to massacre us and were distributing the different duties among one another and settling who was to seize on the capital, who on the rostra, who on the gates of the city, they thought that all the citizens would flock to me. And in order to bring me into unpopularity and even into danger of my life, they spread abroad this report about the facies. They themselves had some idea of bringing the facies to my house. And then, on the pretense of that having been done on my wish, they had prepared a band of hired ruffians to make an attack on me as a tyrant. And a massacre of all of you was intended to follow. The fact is really notorious, or conscript fathers, but the origin of all this wickedness will be revealed in its fitting time. Therefore, Publius Apuleius, a tribune of the people, who ever since my consulship has been the witness and partaker of, and my assistant, in all my designs and all my dangers, could not endure the grief of witnessing my indignation. He convened a numerous assembly, and as the whole Roman people were animated with one feeling on the subject, and when in the harangue which he then made, he was, as was natural from our great intimacy and friendship, was going to exculpate me from all suspicion in the matter of the facies. The whole assembly cried out with one voice, that I never had any intentions with regard to the republic, which were not excellent. After this assembly was over, within two or three hours, these most welcome messengers and letters arrived, so that the same day not only delivered me from most unjust odium, but increased my credit by that most extraordinary act with which the Roman people distinguished me. I have made this digression, O conscript fathers, not so much for the sake of speaking of myself, for I should be in a sorry plight if I were not sufficiently acquitted in your eyes without the necessity of making a formal defense, as with the view of warning some men of too groveling and narrow minds to adopt the line of conduct which I myself have always pursued and to think the virtue of excellent citizens worthy of imitation, not of envy. There is a great field in the republic, as Crassus used very wisely to say. The road to glory is open to many, but would that these great men were still alive, who, after my consulship, when I myself was willing to yield to them, were themselves desirous to see me in the post of leader. But at the present moment, when there is such a dearth of wise and fearless men of consular rank, how great you not suppose must be my grief and indignation, when I see some men absolutely disaffected to the republic, others wholly indifferent to everything, others incapable of persevering with any firmness in the cause which they have espoused, and regulating their opinions, not always by the advantage of the republic, but sometimes by hope and sometimes by fear. But if anyone is anxious and inclined to struggle for the leadership, although struggle there ought to be none, he acts very foolishly, if he proposes to combat virtue with vices. Forest speed is not only outstripped by speed, as so among brave men, virtue is not surpassed by virtue. Will you, if I am full of excellent sentiments with respect to the republic, adopt the worst possible sentiments yourself for the purpose of excelling me? Or if you see a race taking place for the acquisition of honors, will you summon all the wicked men you can find to your banner? I should be very sorry for you to do so. First of all, for the sake of the republic, and secondly for that of your own dignity. But if the leadership of the state were at stake, which I have never coveted, what could be more desirable for me than such conduct on your part? For it is impossible that I should be defeated by wicked sentiments and measures. By good ones, perhaps I might be, and I willingly would be. Some people are vexed that the Roman people should see and take notice of and form their opinion on these matters. Was it possible for men not to form their opinion of each individual as he deserved? For as the Roman people forms a most correct judgment of the entire Senate, thinking that no period in the history of the republic was this order ever more firm or more courageous. So also they all inquire diligently concerning every individual among us, and especially in the case of those among us who deliver our sentiments at length in this place. They are anxious to know what these sentiments are, and in that way they judge of each one of us as they think that he deserves. They recollect that on the 19th of December, I was the main cause of recovering our freedom. That from the 1st of January to this hour, I have never ceased watching over the republic. That day and night my house and my ears have been open to the instruction and admonition of everyone. That it has been my letters and my messengers and my exhortations that all men in every part of the republic have been roused to the protection of our country. That it is owing to the open declaration of my opinion ever since the 1st of January that no ambassadors have ever been sent to Antonius, that I have always called him a public enemy, and this a war, so that I, who on every occasion has been the advisor of genuine peace, have been a determined enemy to this pretense of fatal peace. Have I not also at all times pronounced vintidious an enemy when others wish to call him a tribute of the people? If the consuls had chosen to divide the senate on my opinion, their arms would long since have been rested from the hands of all those robbers by the positive authority of the senate. But what could not be done then, O conscript fathers, at present? Not only can be, but even must be done. I mean, those men who are in reality enemies must be branded in plain language, must be declared enemies by our formal resolution. Formally, when I used the words war or enemy, men more than once objected to record my proposition among the other propositions, but that cannot be done on the present occasion. For in consequence of the letters of Gaius Ponsa and Aulus Herschis, the consuls, and Gaius Caesar, Proprator, we have all voted the honors to be paid to the immortal gods, the very man who lately proposed and carried a vote for a supplication without intending it pronounced these men enemies. For a supplication has never been decreed for success in civil war. Decreed, do I say, is never been asked for in the letters of the conqueror. Sulla, his consul, carried on a civil war. He led his legions into the city and expelled whomsoever he chose. He slew those whom he had in his power. There was no mention made of any supplication. The violent war with Octavius followed. Sulla, the conqueror, had no supplication voted to him. Sulla, as imperator, revenge the victory of Sulla. Still no supplication was decreed by the Senate. I ask you yourself, O Publius Sevilius, did your colleague send you any letters concerning that most lamentable battle of Farsalia? Did he wish you to make any mention about a supplication? Certainly not. But he did afterwards when he took Alexandria, when he defeated Farnassis. But for the battle of Farsalia, he did not even celebrate a triumph. For that battle had destroyed those citizens who, I will not say lives, but even whose victory might have been quite compatible with the safety and prosperity of the state. And the same thing had happened in the previous civil wars. For though a supplication was decreed in my honor when I was consul, though no arms had been had recourse to at all, still that was voted by a new and wholly unprecedented kind of decree. Not for the slaughter of enemies, but for the preservation of the Republic, having been successfully conducted must, O conscript fathers, be refused by you, even though your generals demand it. A stigma which has never been affixed on anyone, except Cabinius, or else, by the mere fact of decreeing a supplication, it is quite inevitable that you must pronounce those men for whose defeat you do decree it, enemies of the state. What then, Servilius did in effect, I do in express terms, when I style those men imperators. By using this name, I pronounce those who have been already defeated and those who still remain enemies in calling their conquerors imperators. For what title can I more suitably bestow on panza, though he has indeed the title of the highest honor in the Republic? What too shall I call hurchus? He indeed is consul, but this latter title is indicative of the kindness of the Roman people, the other of valor and victory. What shall I hesitate to call Caesar Imperator, a man born for the Republic by the express kindness of the gods? He was the first man who turned aside the savage and disgraceful cruelty of Antonius, not only from our throats, but from our limbs and bowels. What numerous and what important virtues, O ye mortal gods, were displayed on that single day. For panza was the leader of all in engaging in battle and in combating with Antonius, O general worthy of the Martial Legion, Legion worthy of its general. Indeed, if he had been able to restrain its irresistible impetuosity, the whole war would have terminated by that one battle. But as the Legion, eager for liberty, had rushed with too much precipitation against the enemy's line of battle, and as panza himself was fighting in the front ranks, he received two dangerous wounds and was born out of the battle to preserve his life for the Republic. But I pronounce him not only Imperator, but a most illustrious Imperator, who, as he had pledged himself to discharge his duty to the Republic, either by death or by victory, has fulfilled one half of his promise. May the immortal gods prevent the fulfillment of the other half. Why need I speak of Herschis, who, the moment he heard of what was going on, with incredible promptness and courage, led forth two legions out of the camp, that noble fourth legion, which, having deserted Antonius, formally united itself to the Martial Legion, and the seventh, which, consisting wholly of veterans, gave proof in that battle that the name of the Senate and people of Rome was dear to those soldiers who preserved the recollection of the kindness of Caesar. With these 20 cohorts, with no cavalry, while Herschis himself was bearing the eagle of the fourth legion, and we never heard of a more noble office being assumed by any general, he fought with the three legions of Antonius and with his cavalry and overthrew and routed and put to the sword those impious men who were the real enemies of this temple, of the all-good and all-powerful Jupiter, and to the rest of the temples of the immortal gods and the houses of the city and the freedom of the Roman people and our lives in actual existence. So that that chief and leader of robbers fled away with a very few followers, concealed by the darkness of night and frightened out of all his senses. Oh, what a most blessed day was that, which, while the carcasses of those parasital traders were strewed about everywhere, beheld Antonius flying with a few followers before he reached his place of concealment. But will anyone hesitate to call Caesar imperator? Most certainly his age will not deter anyone from agreeing to this proposition since he has gone beyond his age in virtue. And to me, indeed, the services of Gaius Caesar have always appeared the more thankworthy, in proportion as they were less to have been expected from a man of his age. For when we conferred military command on him, we were in fact encouraging the hope with which his name inspired us. And now that he has fulfilled those hopes, he has sanctioned the authority of our decree by his exploits. This young man of great mind, as Herschus most truly calls him in his letters, with a few cohorts defended the camp of many legions and fought a successful battle. And in this manner, the Republic has on one day been preserved in many places by the valor and wisdom and good fortune of three imperators of the Roman people. I therefore propose supplications of 50 days in the joint names of the three. The reasons I will embrace in the words of resolution, using the most honorable language that I can devise. But it becomes our good faith and our piety to show plainly to our most gallant soldiers how mindful of their services and how grateful for them we are. And accordingly, I give my vote that our promises and those pledges too which we promised to bestow on the legions when the war was finished, be repeated in the resolution which we are going to pass this day. For it is quite fair that the honor of the soldiers, especially of such soldiers as those, should be united with that of their commanders. And I wish, O conscript fathers, that it was lawful for us to dispense rewards to all the citizens. Although we will give those which we had promised with our most careful usury. But that remains, as I well hope, to the conquerors to whom the faith of the Senate is pledged and as they have adhered to it at a most critical period of the Republic. We are bound to take care that they never have caused or repent of their conduct. But it is easy for us to deal fairly by those men whose very services, though mute, appear to demand our liberality. This is a much more praiseworthy and more important duty to pay a proper tribute of grateful recollection to the valor of those men who have shed their blood in the cause of their country. And I wish more suggestions could occur to me in the way of doing honor to those men. The two ideas which principally do occur to me, I will at all events not pass over. The one of which has reference to the everlasting glory of those bravest of men. The other may tend to mitigate the sorrow and mourning of their relations. I therefore give my vote, O conscript fathers, that the most honorable monument possible be erected to the soldiers of the Martial Legion and to those soldiers also who died fighting by their side. Great and incredible are the services done by this Legion to the Republic. This was the first Legion to tear itself from the piratical band of Antonius. This was the Legion which encamped in Alba. This was the Legion that went over to Caesar, and it was an imitation of the conduct of this Legion that the fourth Legion has earned almost equal glory for its virtue. The fourth is victorious without having lost a man. Some of the Martial Legion fell in the very moment of victory. Oh, happy death, which, due to nature, has been paid in the cause of one's country. But I consider you men born for your country, you whose very name is derived from Mars, so that the very same God who begot this city for the advantage of the nations appears to have begotten you for the advantage of this city. Death in flight is infamous and victory glorious. In truth, Mars himself seems to select all the bravest men for the battle array. Those impious men whom you slew shall, even in the shades below, pay the penalty for their paracital treason. But you who have poured forth your latest breath and victory have earned an abode in a place among the pious. A brief life has been allocated to us by nature, but the memory of a well-spent life is imperishable, and if that memory were no longer than this life, who would be so senseless as to strive to attain even the highest praise and glory by the most enormous labors and dangers? You then have fared most admirably, being the bravest of soldiers while you lived, and now the most holy of warriors, because it will be impossible for your virtue to be buried, either through the forgetfulness of the man of the present age or the silence of posterity. Since the Senate and Roman people will have raised to you an imperishable monument, I may almost say with their own hands. Many armies at various times have been great and illustrious in the Punic and Gallic and Italian wars, but to none of them have honors been paid to the description which are now conferred on you, and I wish that we could pay you even greater honors since we have received from you the greatest possible services. You it was who turned aside the furious Antonius from this city, you it was who repelled him when endeavoring to return. There shall therefore be a vast monument erected with the most sumptuous work and an inscription engraved upon it as the everlasting witness of your godlike virtue, and never shall the most grateful language of all who either see or hear of your monument cease to be heard, and in this manner you, in exchange for your mortal condition of life, have obtained immortality. But since, O conscript fathers, the gift of glory is conferred on those most excellent and gallant citizens by the honor of a monument, let us comfort their relations to whom this indeed is the best consolation. The greatest comfort for their parents is the reflection that they have produced sons who have been such bulwarks of the Republic. For their children that they will have such examples of virtue in their family. For their wives that the husbands whom they have lost are men whom it is a credit to praise and to have a right to mourn for. And for their brothers that they may trust that as they resemble them in their persons, they do also in their virtues. Would that they were able by the expression of our sentiments and by our votes to wipe away the tears of all these persons, or that any such oration as this could be publicly addressed to them, to cause them to lay aside their grief and mourning, and to rejoice rather that, while many various kinds of death and penned over men, the most honorable kind of all has fallen to the lot of their friends, and that they were not unburied nor deserted. Though even that fate when incurred for one's country is not accounted miserable, nor burnt with equitable obsequies in scattered graves, but entombed in honorable sepulchres, and honored with public offerings, and with such a building which will be an altar of their valor to ensure the recollection of internal ages. Wherefore, it will be the greatest possible comfort to their relations that by the same monument are clearly displayed the valor of their kinsmen and also their piety, and the good faith of the Senate and the memory of this most inhuman war, in which, if the valor of the soldiers had been less conspicuous, the very name of the Roman people would have perished by the parasital treason of Marcus Antonius. I think also, O'Conscript Fathers, that those rewards which we promised to bestow on the soldiers when we had recovered the Republic, we should give with abundant usury to those who are alive and victorious when the time comes, and that in the case of the men to whom those rewards were promised, but who have died in the defense of their country, I think those same rewards should be given to their parents or children or wives or brothers. But that I may reduce my sentiments into a formal motion, I give my vote that. As Gaius Panza, consul, imperator, set the example of fighting with the enemy in a battle, in which the Martial Legion defended the freedom of the Roman people with admirable and incredible valor, and the legions of the recruits behaved equally well, and as Gaius Panza, consul, imperator, while engaged in the middle of the ranks of the enemy received wounds, and as Alus Herschus, consul, imperator, the moment that he heard of the battle and knew what was going on with a most gallant and loyal soul led his army out of his camp and attacked Marcus Antonius and his army and put his troops to the sword with so little injury to his own army that he did not lose one single man. And as Gaius Caesar, proprator, imperator, with great prudence and energy, defended the camp successfully and routed and put to the sword the forces of the enemy which came near the camp. On these accounts, the Senate thinks and declares that the Roman people has been released from the most disgraceful and cruel slavery by the valor and military skill and prudence and firmness and perseverance and greatness of mind and good fortune of these their generals, and decrees that as they have preserved the Republic, the city, the temples of the immortal gods, the property and fortunes and families of all the citizens by their own exertions and battle and at the risk of their own lives. On account of these virtuous and gallant and successful achievements, Gaius Panza and Alas Herschis, the consuls, imperators, one or both of them or in their absence, Marcus Cornutus, the city praetor, shall appoint a supplication at all the altars for 50 days. And as the valor of the legions has shown itself worthy of their most illustrious generals, the Senate will, with great eagerness, now that the Republic is recovered, bestow on our legions and armies all the rewards which it formally promised them. And as the Martial Legion was the first to engage with the enemy and fought in such a manner against superior numbers as to slay many and take some prisoners. And as they shed their blood for their country without any shrinking. And as the soldiers of the other legions encountered death with similar valor in defense of the safety and freedom of the Roman people, the Senate does decree that Gaius Panza and Alas Herschis, the consuls, imperators, one or both of them if it seems good to them, shall see to the issuing of a contract for and to the erecting the most honorable possible monument to those men who shed their blood for the lives and liberties and fortunes of the Roman people. And for the city and temples of the immortal gods, that for that purpose they shall order the city Quistors to furnish and pay money in order that it may be a witness for the everlasting recollection of posterity of the wickedness of our most cruel enemies and the godlike valor of our soldiers. And that the rewards which the Senate previously appointed for the soldiers be paid to the parents or children or wives or brothers of those men who in this war have fallen in defense of their country. And that all honors be bestowed on them which should be bestowed on the soldiers themselves if those men had lived who gained the victory by their death. And of the 14th and last oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Marcus Antonius called also the 14th Philippic. And end of the Philippics.