THE
ARGUMENT.
Soon after
this, Cicero removed to a villa near Naples for greater
safety, and here he composed this second Philippic, which he did not publish
immediately, but contented himself at first with sending a copy to Brutus and
Cassius, who were much pleased with it.
What am I to think? that I have been despised?
[2] I see nothing either in my life, or in
my influence in the city, or in my exploits, or even in the moderate abilities
with which I am endowed, which Antonius can despise. Did he think that it was
easiest to disparage me in the senate? a body which has borne its testimony in
favour of many most illustrious citizens that they governed the republic well,
but in favour of me alone, of all men, that I preserved it. Or did he wish to
contend with me in a rivalry of eloquence? This, indeed, is an act of
generosity; for what could be a more fertile or richer subject for me, than to
have to speak in defence of myself and against Antonius? This, in fact, is the
truth. He thought it impossible to prove to the satisfaction of those men who
resembled himself, that he was an enemy to his country, if he was not also an
enemy to me.
[3] And before I make him any reply on the
other topics of his speech, I will say a few words respecting the friendship
formerly subsisting between us, which he has accused me of violating, for that
I consider a most serious charge.
Ch.
2
He has complained that I pleaded once
against his interest. Was I not to plead against one with whom I was quite
unconnected, in behalf of an intimate acquaintance, of a dear friend? Was I not
to plead against interest acquired not by hopes of virtue, but by the disgrace
of youth? Was I not to react against an injustice which that man procured to be
done by the obsequiousness of a most iniquitous interposer of his veto, not by
any law regulating the privileges of the praetor? But I imagine that this was
mentioned by you, in order that you might recommend yourself to the citizens,
if they all recollected that you were the son-in-law of a freedman, and that
your children were the grandsons of Quintus Fadius a freedman.
But you had entirely devoted yourself to
my principles; (for this is what you said;) you had been in the habit of coming
to my house. In truth, if you had done so, you would more have consulted your
own character and your reputation for chastity. But you did not do so, nor, if
you had wished it, would Caius Curio have ever suffered you to do so.
[4] You have said, that you retired in my
favour from the contest for the augurship. Oh the incredible audacity! oh the
monstrous impudence of such an assertion! For, at the time when Cnaeus Pompeius
and Quintus Hortensius named me as augur, after I had been wished for as such
by the whole college, (for it was not lawful for me to be put in nomination by
more than two members of the college,) you were notoriously insolvent, nor did
you think it possible for your safety to be secured by any other means than by
the destruction of the republic. But was it possible for you to stand for the
augurship at a time when Curio was not in Italy ? or even at the time when you
were elected, could you have got the votes of one single tribe {The tribes
elected one of two nominated by the college; cf.note to Phil.XIII.5.} without
the aid of Curio? whose intimate friends even were convicted of violence for
having been too zealous in your favour.
Ch.
3
[5] But I availed myself of your friendly
assistance. Of what assistance? Although the instance which you cite I have
myself at all times openly admitted. I preferred confessing that I was under
obligations to you, to letting myself appear to any foolish person not
sufficiently grateful. However, what was the kindness that you did me? not
killing me at Brundusium? Would you then have slain the man whom the conqueror himself
who conferred on you, as you used to boast, the chief rank among all his
robbers, had desired to be safe, and had enjoined to go to
[6] I, however, grant that it was a
kindness, since no greater kindness could be received from a robber, still in
what point can you call me ungrateful? Ought I not to complain of the ruin of
the republic, lest I should appear ungrateful towards you? But in that
complaint {The first Philippic}, mournful indeed and miserable, but still
unavoidable for a man of that rank in which the senate and people of Rome have placed me, what
did I say that was insulting? that was otherwise than moderate? that was
otherwise than friendly? and what instance was it not of moderation to complain
of the conduct of Marcus Antonius, and yet to abstain from any abusive
expressions? especially when you had scattered abroad all relics of the
republic; when everything was on sale at your house by the most infamous
traffic; when you confessed that those laws which had never been promulgated {On
three market days according to law; cf.Phil.V, 8.}, had been passed with
reference to you, and by you {If the lex created an office or power, the
proposer and his kinsmen were by law excluded from benefits. The allusion is to
the Septemvirate (Phil,VI. 5)}; when you, being augur, had abolished the
auspices, being consul, had taken away the power of interposing the veto; when
you were escorted in the most shameful manner by armed guards; when, worn out
with drunkenness and debauchery, you were every day performing all sorts of
obscenities in that chaste house of yours.
[7] But I, as if I had to contend against
Marcus Crassus, with whom I have had many severe struggles, and not with a most
worthless gladiator, while complaining in dignified language of the state of
the republic did not say one word which could be called personal. Therefore,
today I will make him understand with what great kindness he was then treated
by me.
Ch.
4
But he also read letters which he said
that I had sent to him, like a man devoid of humanity and ignorant of the
common usages of life. For who ever, who was even but slightly acquainted with
the habits of polite men, produced in an assembly and openly read letters which
had been sent to him by a friend, just because some quarrel had arisen between
them? Is not this destroying all companionship in life, destroying the means by
which absent friends converse together? How many jests are frequently put in
letters, which if they were produced in public, would appear stupid! How many
serious opinions, which, for all that, ought not to be published!
[8] Let this be a proof of your utter
ignorance of courtesy. Now mark, also, his incredible folly. What have you to
oppose to me, O you eloquent man, as you seem at least to Mustela Tamisius, and
to Tiro Numisius? {Satellites of Antonius; the former is called “gladiatorum
princeps.”} And while these men are
standing at this very time in the sight of the senate with drawn swords, I too
will think you an eloquent man if you will show bow you would defend them if
they were charged with being assassins, However, what answer would you make if
I were to deny that I ever sent those letters to you? By what evidence could
you convict me? by my handwriting? Of handwriting indeed you have a lucrative
knowledge. {An allusion to Antonius’s forgeries of decrees, exemptions, etc, under pretence that
they were Caesar’s} How can you prove it in that manner? for the letters are
written by an amanuensis. By this time I envy your teacher, who for all that
payment, which I shall mention presently, has taught you to know nothing.
[9] For what can be less like, I do not
say an orator, but a man, than to reproach an adversary with a thing which if
be denies by one single word, he who has reproached him cannot advance one step
further? But I do not deny it; and in this very point I convict you not only of
inhumanity but also of madness. For what expression is there in those letters
which is not full of humanity and service and benevolence? and the whole of
your charge amounts to this, that I do not express a bad opinion of you in
those letters; that in them I wrote as to a citizen, and as to a virtuous man,
not as to a wicked man and a robber. But your letters I will not produce,
although I fairly might, now that I am thus challenged by you; letters {See:
Epp. Ad Att.14, 13. the man referred to is Sex.Clodius} in which you beg of me
that you may be enabled by my consent to procure the recall of some one from exile;
and you will not attempt it if I have any objection, and you prevail on me by
your entreaties. For why should I put myself in the way of your audacity? when
neither the authority of this body, nor the opinion of the Roman people, nor
any laws are able to restrain you.
[10] However, what was the object of your
addressing these entreaties to me, if the man for whom you were entreating was
already restored by a law of Caesar's? I suppose the truth was, that he wished
it to be done by me as a favour; in which matter there could not be any favour
done even by himself, if a law was already passed for the purpose.
Ch.
5
But as, O conscript fathers, I have many
things which I must say both in my own defence and against Marcus Antonius, one
thing I ask you, that you will listen to me with kindness while I am speaking
for myself; the other I will ensure myself, namely, that you shall listen to me
with attention while speaking against him. At the same time also, I beg this of
you; that if you have been acquainted with my moderation and modesty throughout
my whole life, and especially as a speaker, you will not, when today I answer
this man in the spirit in which he has attacked me, think that I have forgotten
my usual character. I will not treat him as a consul, for he did not treat me
as a man of consular rank; and although he in no respect deserves to be
considered a consul, whether we regard his way of life, or his principle of
governing the republic, or the manner in which he was elected, I am beyond all
dispute a man of consular rank.
[11] That, therefore, you might understand
what sort of a consul he professed to be himself, he reproached me with my
consulship;a consulship which, O conscript fathers, was in name, indeed, mine,
but in reality yours. For what did I determine, what did I contrive, what did I
do, that was not determined, contrived, or done, by the counsel and authority
and in accordance with the sentiments of this order I And have you, O wise man,
O man not merely eloquent dared to find fault with these actions before the
very men by whose counsel and wisdom they were performed? But who was ever
found before, except Publius Clodius, to find fault with my consulship? And his
fate indeed awaits you, as it also awaited Caius Curio; since that is now in
your house which was fatal to each of them. {Fulvia, successively wife of
Clodius, Curio, and Antonius}
[12] Marcus Antonius disapproves of my
consulship; but it was approved of by Publius Servilius to name that man first
of the men of consular rank who had died most recently. It was approved of by
Quintus Catulus, whose authority will always carry weight in this republic; it
was approved of by the two Luculli, by Marcus Crassus, by Quintus Hortensius,
by Caius Curio, by Caius Piso, by Marcus Glabrio, by Marcus Lepidus, by Lucius
Volcatius, by Caius Figulus, by Decimus Silanus and Lucius Murena, who at that
time were the consuls elect, the same consulship also which was approved of by
those men of consular rank, was approved of by Marcus Cato; who escaped many
evils by departing from this life, and especially the evil of seeing you
consul. But, above all, my consulship was approved of by Cnaeus Pompeius, who,
when he first saw me, as he was leaving Syria, embracing me and congratulating
me, said, that it was owing to my services that he was about to see his country
again. But why should I mention individuals? It was approved of by the senate,
in a very full house, so completely, that there was no one who did not thank me
as if I had been his parent, who did not attribute to me the salvation of his
life, of his fortunes, of his children, and of the republic.
Ch.
6
[13] But since the republic has been now
deprived of those men whom I have named, many and illustrious as they were, let
us come to the living, since two of the men of consular rank are still left to
us: Lucius Cotta, a man of the greatest genius and the most consummate
prudence, proposed a supplication in my honour for those very actions with
which you find fault, in the most complimentary language, and those very men of
consular rank whom I have named, and the whole senate, adopted his proposal; an
honour which has never been paid to any one else in the garb of peace from the
foundation of the city to my time.
[14] With what eloquence, with what firm
wisdom, with what a weight of authority did Lucius Caesar your uncle, pronounce
his opinion against the husband of his own sister, your stepfather. But you,
when you ought to have taken him as your adviser and tutor in all your designs,
and in the whole conduct of your life, preferred being like your stepfather to
resembling your uncle. I, Who had no connection with him, acted by his counsels
while I was consul. Did you, who were his sister's son, ever once consult him
on the affairs of the republic?
But who are they whom Antonius does
consult? O ye immortal gods, they are men whose birthdays we have still to
learn. Today Antonius is not coming down.
[15] Why? He is celebrating the birthday
feast at his villa. In whose honor? I will name no one. Suppose it is in honor
of some Phormio, or Gnatho, or even Ballio. {Phormio and Gnatho are parasites
in the “Phormio” and “Eunachus” of Terentius, respectively: Ballio is a pimp in
the “Beudolus” of Plautus}. Oh the abominable profligacy of the man! oh how
intolerable is his impudence, his debauchery, and his lust! Can you, when you
have one of the chiefs of the senate, a citizen of singular virtue, so nearly
related to you, abstain from ever consulting him on the affairs of the
republic, and consult men who have no property whatever of their own, and are
draining yours?
Ch.
7
Yes, your consulship, forsooth, is a
salutary one for the state, mine a mischievous one. Have you so entirely lost
all shame as well as all chastity, that you could venture to say this in that
temple in which I was consulting that senate which formerly in the full
enjoyment of its honors presided over the world? And did you place around it
abandoned men armed with swords?
[16] But you have dared besides (what is
there which you would not dare?) to say that the Capitoline Hill, when I was
consul was full of armed slaves. I was offering violence to the senate, I
suppose, in order to compel the adoption of those infamous decrees of the
Senate
{Against the Catilinarian conspirators}.
O wretched man, whether those things are
not known to you (for you know nothing that is good), or whether they are, when
you dare to speak so shamelessly before such men! For what Roman knight was
there, what youth of noble birth except you, what man of any rank or class who
recollected that he was a citizen, who was not on the Capitoline Hill while the
senate was assembled in this temple? who was there, who did not give in his
name? Although there could not be provided checks enough, nor were the books
able to contain their names.
[17] In truth, when wicked men, being
compelled by the revelations of the accomplices, by their own handwriting, and
by what I may almost call the voices of their letters, were confessing that
they had planned the parricidal destruction of their country, and that they had
agreed to burn the city, to massacre the citizens, to devastate Italy, to
destroy the republic; who could have existed without being roused to defend the
common safety? especially when the senate and people of Rome had a leader {Cicero himself} then, and
if they had one now like he was then, the same fate would befall you which did
overtake them.
[18] He asserts that the body of his
stepfather was not allowed burial by me. But this is an assertion that was
never made by Publius Clodius, a man whom, as I was deservedly an enemy of his,
I grieve now to see surpassed by you in every sort of vice. But how could it
occur to you to recall to our recollection that you had been educated in the
house of Publius Lentulus? Were you afraid that we might think that you could
have turned out as infamous as you are by the mere force of nature, your
natural qualities had not been strengthened by education?
Ch.
8
But you are so senseless that throughout
the whole of your speech you were at variance with yourself; so that you said
things which had not only no coherence with each other, but which were most
inconsistent with and contradictory to one another; so that there was not so
much opposition between you and me as there was between you and yourself. You
confessed that your stepfather had been implicated in that enormous wickedness,
yet you complained that he had had punishment inflicted on him. And by doing so
you praised what was peculiarly my achievement, and blamed that which was
wholly the act of the senate. For the detection and arrest of the guilty
parties was my work, their punishment was the work of the senate. But that
eloquent man does not perceive that the man against whom he is speaking is
being praised by him, and that those before whom he is speaking are being
attacked by him.
[19] But now what an act, I will not say
of audacity, (for he is anxious to be audacious,) but (and that is what he is
not desirous of) what an act of folly, in which he surpasses all men, is it to
make mention of the Capitoline Hill, at a time when armed men are actually
between our benches when men, armed with swords, are now stationed in this same
temple of Concord, O ye immortal gods, in which, while I was consul, opinions
most salutary to the state were delivered, owing to which it is that we are all
alive at this day.
Accuse the senate; accuse the equestrian
body, which at that time was united with the senate; accuse every order or
society, and all the citizens, as long as you confess that this assembly at
this very moment is besieged by Ityrean {Itys, a companion of Aeneas, slain by
Turnus in Italy
( Verg. Aen.ix. 574)} soldiers. It is not so much a proof of audacity to
advance these statements so impudently, as of utter want of sense to be unable
to see their contradictory nature. For what is more insane than, after you
yourself have taken up arms to do mischief to the republic, to reproach another
with having taken them up to secure its safety? On one occasion you attempted
even to be witty. O ye good gods, how little did that attempt suit you!
[20] And yet you are a little to be blamed
for your failure in that instance, too. For you might have got some wit from
your wife, who was an actress {One Cytheris (The Lycoris of Virgilius, Ech.10,
2), formerly the mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus. “Uxor” is ironical}. “Arms
to the gown must yield.” {Cedant arms togae, concedat laurea laudi. This line
and another (O fortunatam natam me consuleRomam!) were two unfortunate lines
from Cicero ’s
Epic on his own times, which were often quoted against him: cf.Quint.XI.1, 24;
Juv.X.123. Antonius had probably sneered at the line} Well, have they not
yielded? But afterwards the gown yielded to your arms. Let us inquire then
whether it was better for the arms of wicked men to yield to the freedom of the
Roman people, or that our liberty should yield to your arms. Nor will I make
any further reply to you about the verses. I will only say briefly that you do
not understand them, nor any other literature whatever. That I have never at
any time been wanting to the claims that either the republic or my friends had
upon me; but nevertheless that in all the different sorts of composition on
which I have employed myself, during my leisure hours, I have always
endeavoured to make my labours among my writings such as to be some advantage
to our youth, and some credit to the Roman name. But, however, all this has
nothing to do with the present occasion. Let us consider more important
matters.
Ch.
9
[21] You have said that Publius Clodius
was slain by my contrivance. What would men have thought if he had been slain
at the time when you pursued him in the forum with a drawn sword, in the sight
of all the Roman people; and when you would have settled his business if he had
not thrown himself up the stairs of a bookseller's shop, and, shutting them
against you, checked your attack by that means? And I confess that at that time
I favoured you, but even you yourself do not say that I had advised your
attempt. But as for
[22] Although that inquiry into the death
of Publius Clodius was not instituted with any great wisdom. For what was the
reason for having a new law {The Lex Pompeia de vi of 52 B.C. it applied only
to Milo ’} to inquire into the conduct of the
man who had slain him, when there was a form of inquiry already established by
the laws? However, an inquiry was instituted.
[23] And have you now been found, so many
years afterwards, to say a thing which, at the time that the affair was under
discussion, no one ventured to say against me? But as to the assertion that you
have dared to make, and that at great length too, that it was by my means that
Pompeius was alienated from his friendship with Caesar, and that on that
account it was my fault that the civil war was originated; in that you have not
erred so much in the main facts, as (and that is of the greatest importance) in
the times.
Ch.
10
When Marcus Bibulus, a most illustrious
citizen, was consul, I omitted nothing which I could possibly do or attempt to
draw off Pompeius from his union with Caesar. In which, however, Caesar was
more fortunate than I, for he himself drew off Pompeius from his intimacy with
me. But afterwards, when Pompeius joined Caesar with all his heart, what could
have been my object in attempting to separate them then? It would have been the
part of a fool to hope to do so, and of an impudent man to advise it.
[24] However, two occasions did arise, on
which I gave Pompeius advice against Caesar. You are at liberty to find fault
with my conduct on those occasions if you can. One was when I advised him not
to continue Caesar's government for five years more. The other, when I advised
him not to permit him to be considered as a candidate for the consulship when
he was absent. And if I had been able to prevail on him in either of these
particulars, we should never have fallen into our present miseries.
Moreover, I also, when Pompeius had now
devoted to the service of Caesar all his own power, and all the power of the
Roman people, and had begun when it was too late to perceive all those things
which I had foreseen long before, and when I saw that a nefarious war was about
to be waged against our country, I never ceased to be the adviser of peace, and
concord, and some arrangement. And that language of mine was well known to many
people,I wish, O Cnaeus Pompeius, that you had either never joined in a
confederacy with Caius Caesar, or else that you had never broken it off. The one
conduct would have become your dignity, and the other would have been suited to
your prudence. This, O Marcus Antonius, was at all times my advice both
respecting Pompeius and concerning the republic. And if it had prevailed, the
republic would still be standing, and you would have perished through your own
crimes, and indigence, and infamy.
Ch.
11
[25] But these are all old stories now.
This charge, however, is quite a modern one, that Caesar was slain by my
contrivance. I am afraid, O conscript fathers, lest I should appear to you to
have brought up a sham accuser against myself (which is a most disgraceful
thing to do); a man not only to distinguish me by the praises which are my due,
but to load me also with those which do not belong to me {Sham or mock advisor=
A praevaricator(em) was an advocate, who, by collusion with the other side,
sets up a sham accusation or defence.
[26] Moreover, how likely it is, that
among such a number of men, some obscure, some young men who had not the wit to
conceal any one, my name could possibly have escaped notice? Indeed, if leaders
were wanted for the purpose of delivering the country, what need was there of
my instigating the Bruti, one of whom saw every day in his house the image of
Lucius Brutus {The founder of the republic}, and the other saw also the image
of Ahala? {Servilia, the mother of M.Brutus, the assassin of Caesar, claimed descent from C.Servilius
Ahala, who in 439 B.C. slew Sp.Maelius as an alleged conspirator to seize
kingly power}. Were these the men to seek counsel from the ancestors of =others
rather than from their own? and but of doors rather than at home? What? Caius
Cassius, a man of that family which could not endure, I will not say the
domination, but even the power of any individual,he, I suppose, was in need of
me to instigate him? a man who even without the assistance of these other most
illustrious men, would have accomplished this same deed in Cilicia ,
at the mouth of the river Cydnus, if Caesar had brought his ships to that bank
of the river which he had intended, and not to the opposite one. {Caesar in 47
B.C. marched from Egypt
towards Pontus through Cilicia . But nothing is known of the incident mentioned}
[27] Was Cnaeus Domitius spurred on to
seek to recover his dignity, not by the death of his father, a most illustrious
man, nor by the death of his (maternal) uncle {L.Domitius Ahenobarbus, slain at
Pharsalia, and M. Cato, who committed suicide at Utica, respectively}, nor by
the deprivation of his own dignity, but by my advice and authority? Did I
persuade Caius Trebonius? a man whom I should not have ventured even to advise.
On which account the republic owes him even a larger debt of gratitude, because
he preferred the liberty of the Roman people to the friendship of one man, and
because he preferred overthrowing arbitrary power to sharing it. Was I the
instigator whom Lucius Tillius Cimber followed? a man whom I admired for having
performed that action, rather than ever expected that he would perform it; and
I admired him on this account, that he was unmindful of the personal kindnesses
which he had received, but mindful of his country. What shall I say of the two
Servilii? Shall I call them Cascas, or Ahalas? {Publius and Caius Casca, the
assassins of Caesar, and Ahala, who slew Sp.Maelius, were named Servilius. They
might almost change names with him} and
do you think that those men were instigated by my authority rather than by
their affection for the republic? It would take a long time to go through all
the rest; and it is a glorious thing for the republic that they were so
numerous, and a most honourable thing also for themselves.
Ch.
12
[28] But recollect, I pray you, how that
clever man convicted me of being an accomplice in the business. When Caesar was
slain, says he, Marcus Brutus immediately lifted up on high his bloody dagger,
and called on
[29] But you, O stupidest of all men, do
you not perceive, that if it is a crime to have wished that Caesar should be
slainwhich you accuse me of having wished it is a crime also to have rejoiced
at his death? For what is the difference between a man who has advised an
action, and one who has approved of it? or what does it signify whether I
wished it to be done, or rejoice that it has been done? Is there any one then,
except you yourself and these men who wished him to become a king, who was
unwilling that that deed should be done, or who disapproved of it after it was
done? All men, therefore, are guilty as far as this goes. In truth, all good
men, as far as it depended on them, bore a part in the slaying of Caesar. Some
did not know how to contrive it, some had not courage for it, some had no
opportunity,every one had the inclination.
[30] However, remark the stupidity of this
fellow, I should rather say, of this brute beast. For thus he spoke:Marcus
Brutus, whom I name to do him honour, holding aloft his bloody dagger, called
upon Cicero, from which it must be understood that he was privy to the action.
Am I then called wicked by you because you suspect that I suspected something;
and is he who openly displayed his reeking dagger; named by you that you may do
him honour? Be it so. Let this stupidity exist in your language: how much
greater is it in your actions and opinions? Arrange matters in this way at
last, O consul; pronounce the cause of the Bruti, of Caius Cassius, of Cnaeus
Domitius, of Caius Trebonius and the rest to be whatever you please to call it:
sleep off that intoxication of yours, sleep it off and take breath. Must one
apply a torch to you to waken you while you are sleeping over such an important
affair? Will you never understand that you have to decide whether those men who
performed that action are homicides or assertors of freedom?
Ch.
13
[31] For just consider a little; and for a
moment think of the business like a sober man. I who, as I myself confess, am
an intimate friend of those men, and, as you accuse me, an accomplice of
theirs, deny that there is any medium between these alternatives. I confess
that they, if they be not deliverers of the Roman people and saviours of the
republic, are worse than assassins, worse than homicides, worse even than
parricides: since it is a more atrocious thing to murder the father of one's
country, than one's own father. You wise and considerate man, what do you say
to this? If they are parricides, why are they always named by you, both in this
assembly and before the Roman people, with a view to do them honour? Why has
Marcus Brutus been, on your motion, excused from obedience to the laws, and
allowed to be absent from the city more than ten days? {Brutus, as praetor
urbanus, could not by law absent from the city longer than ten nights}. Why
were the games of Apollo celebrated with incredible honour to Marcus Brutus?
why were provinces given to Brutus and Cassius? why were quaestors assigned to
them? why was the number of their lieutenants augmented? And all these measures
were owing to you. They are not homicides then. It follows that in your opinion
they are deliverers of their country, since there can be no other alternative.
[32] What is the matter? Am I embarrassing
you? For perhaps you do not quite understand propositions which are stated
disjunctively. Still this is the sum total of my conclusion; that since they
are acquitted by you of wickedness, they are at the same time pronounced most
worthy of the very most honourable rewards.
Therefore, I will now proceed again with
my oration. I will write to them, if any one by chance should ask whether what
you have imputed to me {That Cicero
was privy to Caesar’s death} be true, not to deny it to any one. In truth, I am
afraid that it must be considered either a not very creditable thing to them,
that they should have concealed the fact of my being an accomplice; or else a
most discreditable one to me that I was invited to be one, and that I shirked
it. For what greater exploit (I call you to witness, O august Jupiter!) was
ever achieved not only in this city, but in all the earth? What more glorious
action was ever done? What deed was ever more deservedly recommended to the
everlasting recollection of men? Do you, then, shut me up with the other
leaders in the partnership in this design, as in the Trojan horse? I have no
objection; I even thank you for doing so, with whatever intent you do it.
[33] For the deed is so great a one, that
I can not compare the unpopularity which you wish to excite against me on
account of it, with its real glory.
For who can be happier than those men whom
you boast of having now expelled and driven from the city? What place is there
either so deserted or so uncivilized, as not to seem to greet and to covet the
presence of those men wherever they have arrived? What men are so clownish as
not, when they have once beheld them, to think that they have reaped the
greatest enjoyment that life can give? And what posterity will be ever so
forgetful, what literature will ever be found so ungrateful, as not to cherish
their glory with undying recollection? Enroll me then, I beg, in the number of
those men.
Ch.
14
[34] But one thing I am afraid you may not
approve of. For if I had really been one of their number, I should have not
only got rid of the king, but of the kingly power also out of the republic; and
if I had been the author of the piece {The stilus, used for writing upon wax,
was a pointed instrument, something like a dagger, and Cicero thinks of it here
as something which could stab or kill: cf.Hor. Sat.11,1, 39, where Horatius
compares his pen (stilus) to a sword (ensis)}, as it is said, believe me, I
should not have been contented with one act {i.e. Antonius should have been
slain aswell as Caesar}, but should have finished the whole play. Although, if
it be a crime to have wished that Caesar might be put to death, beware, I pray
you, O Antonius, of what must be your own case, as it is notorious that you,
when at Narbo, formed a plan {An unjust charge. Antonius was merely sounded,
and did not consent} of the same sort with Caius Trebonius; and it was on
account of your participation in that design that, when Caesar was being
killed, we saw you called aside by Trebonius But I (see how far I am from any
horrible inclination toward,) praise you for having once in your life had a
righteous intention; I return you thanks for not having revealed the matter;
and I excuse you for not having accomplished your purpose.
[35] That exploit required a man. And if
any one should institute a prosecution against you, and employ that test of old
Cassius, who reaped any advantage from it? take care, I advise you, lest you
suit that description. Although, in truth, that action was, as you used to say,
an advantage to every one who was not willing to be a slave, still it was so to
you above all men, who are not merely not a slave, but are actually a king; who
delivered yourself from an enormous burden of debt at the temple of Ops; who,
by your dealings with the account-books, there squandered a countless sum of money;
who have had such vast treasures brought to you from Caesar's house; at whose
own house there is set up a most lucrative manufactory of false memoranda and
autographs, and a most iniquitous market of lands, and towns, and exemptions,
and revenues.
[36] In truth, what measure except the
death of Caesar could possibly have been any relief to your indigent and
insolvent condition? You appear to be somewhat agitated. Have you any secret
fear that you yourself may appear to have had some connection with that crime?
I will release you from all apprehension; no one will ever believe it; it is
not like you to deserve well of the republic; the most illustrious men in the
republic are the authors of that exploit; I only say that you are glad it was
done; I do not accuse you of having done it.
I have replied to your heaviest
accusations, I must now also reply to the rest of them.
Ch.
15
[37] You have thrown in my teeth the camp
of Pompeius and all my conduct at that time. At which time, indeed, if, as I
have said before, my counsels and my authority had prevailed, you would this
day be in indigence, we should be free and the republic would not have lost so
many generals and so many armies. For I confess that, when I saw that these
things certainly would happen, which now have happened, I was as greatly
grieved as all the other virtuous citizens would have been if they had foreseen
the same things. I did grieve, I did grieve, O conscript fathers, that the
republic which had once been saved by your counsels and mine, was fated to
perish in a short time. Nor was I so inexperienced in and ignorant of this
nature of things, as to be disheartened on account of a fondness for life,
which while it endured would wear me out with anguish, and when brought to an
end would release me from all trouble. But I was desirous that those most
illustrious men, the lights of the republic, should live: so many men of
consular rank, so many men of praetorian rank, so many most honorable senators;
and besides them all the flower of our nobility and of our youth; and the
armies of excellent citizens. And if they were still alive, under ever such
hard conditions of peace (for any sort of peace with our fellow-citizens
appeared to me more desirable than civil war), we should be still this day
enjoying the republic.
[38] And if my opinion had prevailed, and
if those men, the preservation of whose lives was my main object, elated with
the hope of victory, had not been my chief opposers, to say nothing of other
results, at all events you would never have continued in this order, or rather
in this city. But say you, my speech alienated from me the regard of Pompeius?
Was there any one to whom he was more attached? any one with whom he conversed
or shared his counsels more frequently? It was, indeed, a great thing that we,
differing as we did respecting the general interests of the republic, should
continue in uninterrupted friendship. But I saw clearly what his opinions and
views were, and he saw mine equally. I was for providing for the safety of the
citizens in the first place, in order that we might be able to consult their
dignity afterward. He thought more of consulting their existing dignity. But
because each of us had a definite object to pursue, our disagreement was the
more endurable.
[39] But what that extra ordinary and
almost godlike man thought of me is known to those men who pursued him to
Paphos from the battle of Pharsalia. No mention of me was ever made by him that
was not the most honorable that could be, that was not full of the most
friendly regret for me; while he confessed that I had had the most foresight,
but that he had had more sanguine hopes. And do you dare taunt me with the name
of that man whose friend you admit that I was, and whose assassin you confess
yourself?
Ch.
16
However, let us say no more of war in
which you were too fortunate. I will not reply even with those jests to which
you have said that I gave utterance in the camp. That camp was in truth full of
anxiety, but although men are in great difficulties, still, provided they are
men, they sometimes relax their minds.
[40] But the fact that the same man finds
fault with my melancholy, and also with my jokes, is a great proof that I was
very moderate in each particular.
You have said that no inheritances come to
me {it was considered derogatory by the Romans not to be considered in a friend’s will}. Would that
this accusation of yours were a true one; I should have more of my friends and
connections alive. But how could such a charge ever come into your head? For I
have received more than twenty millions of sesterces in inheritances. Although
in this particular I admit that you have been more fortunate than I. No one has
ever made me his heir except he was a friend of mine, in order that my grief of
mind for his loss might be accompanied also with some gain, if it was to be
considered as such. But a man whom you never even saw, Lucius Rubrius, of
Casinum, made you his heir.
[41] And see now how much he loved you,
who, though he did not know whether you were white or black {Proverbial of
complete ignorance. (W.Ker vertaald dit als: a man the very colour of whose
skin you do not know)}, passed over the son of his brother, Quintus Fufius, a
most honorable Roman knight, and most attached to him, whom he had on all
occasions openly declared his heir (he never even names him in his will), and
he makes you his heir whom he had never seen, or at all events had never spoken
to.
I wish you would tell me, if it is not too
much trouble, what sort of countenance Lucius Turselius was of; what sort of
height; from what municipal town he came; and of what tribe he was a member. “I
know nothing”, you will say, “about him, except what farms he had.” Therefore,
he, disinheriting his brother, made you his heir. And besides these instances,
this man has seized on much other property belonging to men wholly unconnected
with him, to the exclusion of the legitimate heirs, as if he himself were the
heir.
[42] Although the thing that struck me
with most astonishment of all was, that you should venture to make mention of
inheritances, when you yourself had not received the inheritance of your own
father.
{Antonius was not mentioned in his
father’s will; or (so Dr,Reid) that, the
estate being bankrupt, Antonius, though made heir, refused to take
possession, thus casting on his father the stigma of bankruptcy}And was it in order to collect all these arguments, O you most senseless of men, that you spent so many days in practicing declamation in another man's villa? Although, indeed (as your most intimate friends usually say), you are in the habit of declaiming, not for the purpose of whetting your genius, but of working off the effects of wine. And, indeed, you employ a master to teach you jokes, a man appointed by your own vote and that of your boon companions; a rhetorician, whom you have allowed to say whatever he pleased against you, a thoroughly facetious gentleman; but there are plenty of materials for speaking against you and against your friends. But just see now what a difference there is between you and your grandfather. He used with great deliberation to bring forth arguments advantageous for the cause he was advocating; you pour forth in a hurry the sentiments which you have been taught by another.
[43] And what wages have you paid this
rhetorician? Listen, listen, O conscript fathers, and learn the blows which are
inflicted on the republic. You have assigned, O Antonius, two thousand acres of
land, in the Leontine district, to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and those,
too, exempt from every kind of tax, for the sake of putting the Roman people to
such a vast expense that you might learn to be a fool. Was this gift, too, O
you most audacious of men, found among Caesar's papers? But I will take another
opportunity to speak about the Leontine and the Campanian district; where he
has stolen lands from the republic to pollute them with most infamous owners.
For now, since I have sufficiently replied to all his charges, I must say a
little about our corrector and censor himself. And yet I will not say all I
could, in order that if I have often to battle with him I may always come to
the contest with fresh arms; and the multitude of his vices and atrocities will
easily enable me to do so.
Ch.
18
[44] Shall we then examine your conduct
from the time when you were a boy? I think so. Let us begin at the beginning.
Do you recollect that, while you were still clad in the praetexta,{Praetexta or Praetextta (sc. fabula). A class of Roman tragedies, which found its materials not in the Greek myths, but, in the absence of native legendary heroes, in ancient and contemporary Roman history. The name was derived from the fact that the heroes wore the national dress, the toga praetexta, the official garb, edged with purple, of the Roman magistrates. Naevius introduced them, and, following his example, the chief representatives of tragic art under the Republic, Ennius, Pacuvius, and Attius, composed, in addition to tragedies imitated from Greek originals, independent plays of this kind, which were, however, cast in the form they had borrowed from the Greeks. We also hear of some plays of this class written by poets of imperial times. The solitary example preserved to us is the tragedy of Octavia, wrongly ascribed to Seneca (q.v.), which, perhaps, may date from A.D. 1.} you became a bankrupt? That was the fault of your father, you will say. I admit that. In truth such a defense is full of filial affection. But it is peculiarly suited to your own audacity, that you sat among the fourteen rows of the knights, though by the Roscian law {The law of L.Roscius Otho, the tribune, passed in 67 B.C., and assigning to knights the 14 rows in the theatre behind the orchestra where senators sat} there was a place appointed for bankrupts, even if any one had become such by the fault of fortune and not by his own. You assumed the manly gown, which your soon made a womanly one: at first a public prostitute, with a regular price for your wickedness, and that not a low one. But very soon Curio stepped in, who carried you off from your public trade, and, as if he had bestowed a matron's robe upon you, settled you in a steady and durable wedlock.
[45] No boy bought for the gratification
of passion was ever so wholly in the power of his master as you were in
Curio's. How often has his father turned you out of his house? How often has he
placed guards to prevent you from entering? while you, with night for your
accomplice, lust for your encourager, and wages for your compeller, were let
down through the roof. That house could no longer endure your wickedness. Do
you not know that I am speaking of matters with which I am thoroughly
acquainted? Remember that time when Curio, the father, lay weeping in his bed;
his son throwing himself at my feet with tears recommended to me you; he entreated
me to defend you against his own father, if he demanded six millions of
sesterces of you; for that he had been bail for you to that amount. And he
himself, burning with love, declared positively that because he was unable to
bear the misery of being separated from you, he should go into banishment.
[46] And at that time what misery of that
most flourishing family did I allay, or rather did I remove! I persuaded the
father to pay the son's debts; to release the young man, endowed as he was with
great promise of courage and ability, by the sacrifice of part of his family
estate; and to use his privileges and authority as a father to prohibit him not
only from all intimacy with, but from every opportunity of meeting you. When
you recollected that all this was done by me, would you have dared to provoke
me by abuse if you had not been trusting to those swords which we behold?
Ch.
19
[47] But let us say no more of your profligacy and debauchery. There
are things which it is not possible for me to mention with honor; but you are
all the more free for that, inasmuch as you have not scrupled to be an actor in
scenes which a modest enemy can not bring himself to mention.
Mark now, O conscript fathers, the rest of
his life, which I will touch upon rapidly. For my inclination hastens to arrive
at those things which he did in the time of the civil war, amid the greatest
miseries of the republic and at those things which he does every day. And I beg
of you, though they are far better known to you than they are to me, still to
listen attentively, as you are doing to my relation of them. For in such cases
as this, it is not the mere knowledge of such actions that ought to excite the
mind, but the recollection of them also. Although we must at once go into the
middle of them, lest otherwise we should be too long in coming to the end.
[48] He was very intimate with Clodius at
the time of his tribuneship; he, who now enumerates the kindnesses which he did
me. He was the firebrand to handle all conflagrations; and even in his house he
attempted something. He himself well knows what I allude to. From thence he
made a journey to Alexandria, in defiance of the authority of the senator and
against the interests of the republic, and in spite of religious obstacles {The
Sibylline books had forbidden the restoration of Ptolemaeus Auletes by force of
arms to the throne of Egypt, and the senate had refused to do so. Cicero explains the
religio in Epp.Ad Fam.11, 1 and 2}; but
he had Gabinius for his lender, with whom whatever he did was sure to be right.
What were the circumstances of his return from thence? what sort of return was
it? He went from Egypt to
the farthest extremity of Gaul before he
returned home. And what was his home! For at that time {Before the
confiscations} every man had possession of his own house; and you had no house
any where, O Antonius. House, do you say? what place was there in the whole
world where you could set your foot on any thing that belonged to you, except
Mienum, which you farmed with your partners, as if it had been Sisapo?
{i.e. held in partnership with his
creditors. Sisapo was a town in Hispania Baetica, in the Valle de Alcudia,
where were cinnabar mines worked by a company}.[49] You came from
[50] You were elected quaestor. On this, immediately, without any resolution of the senate authorizing such a step, without drawing lots, without procuring any law to be passed, you hastened to Caesar. For you thought the camp the only refuge on earth for indigence, and debt, and profligacy,for all men, in short, who were in a state of utter ruin. Then, when you had recruited your resources again by his largesses and your own robberies (if, indeed, a person can be said to recruit, who only acquires something which he may immediately squander), you hastened, being again a beggar, to the tribuneship, in order that in that magistracy you might, if possible, behave like your friend {Curio, in his tribuneship in 50 B.C., he had deserted the interests of the senate for those of Caesar, and was also under suspicion of bribery}.
Listen now, I beseech you, O conscript fathers, not to those things which he did indecently and profligately to his own injury and to his own disgrace as a private individual; but to the actions which he did impiously and wickedly against us and our fortunes,that is to say, against the whole republic. For it is from his wickedness that you will find that the beginning of all these evils has arisen.
[51] For when, in the consulship of Lucius
Lentulus and Marcus Marcellus, you, on the first of January, were anxious to
prop up the republic, which was tottering and almost falling, and were willing
to consult the interests of Caius Caesar himself, if he would have acted like a
man in his senses, then this fellow opposed to your counsels his tribuneship,
which he had sold and handed over to the purchaser, and exposed his own neck to
that ax under which many have suffered for smaller crimes. It was against you,
O Marcus Antonius, that the senate, while still in the possession of its
rights, before so many of its luminaries were extinguished, passed that decree
{Dent operam consules ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat. (Let the consuls
see to it that the State suffer no harm). This emergency decree gave the
consuls a dictator’s powers, including that of life and death, over an enemy
(Hostis), and citizen within the walls (Togatus)} which, in accordance with the
usage of our ancestors, is at times passed against an enemy who is a citizen.
And have you dared, before these conscript fathers, to say any thing against
me, when I have been pronounced by this order to be the savior of my country,
and when you have been declared by it to be an enemy of the republic? The
mention of that wickedness of yours has been interrupted, but the recollection
of it has not been effaced. As long as the race of men, as long as the name of
the Roman people shall exist (and that, unless it is prevented from being so by
your means, will be everlasting), so long will that most mischievous
interposition of your veto {Antonius as tribune vetoed the proceedings of the senate
which had made a decree that Caesar should disband his army} be spoken of.
[52] What was there that was being done by
the, senate either ambitiously or rashly, when you, one single young man,
forbade the whole order to pass decrees concerning the safety of the republic?
and when you did so, not once only, but repeatedly? nor would you allow any one
to plead with you in behalf of the authority of the senate; and yet, what did
any one entreat of you, except that you would not desire the republic to be
entirely overthrown and destroyed; when neither the chief men of the state by
their entreaties, nor the elders by their warnings, nor the senate in a full
house by pleading with you, could move you from the determination which you had
already sold and as it were delivered to the purchaser? {to Caesar}.Then it
was, after having tried many other expedients previously, that a blow was of
necessity struck at you which had been struck at only few men before you, and
which none of them had ever survived.
[53] Then it was that this order armed the
consuls, and the rest of the magistrates who were invested with either military
or civil command, against you, and you never would have escaped them, if you
had not taken refuge in the camp of Caesar.
Ch.
22
It was you, you, I say, O Marcus Antonius,
who gave Caius Caesar, desirous as he already was to throw every thing into
confusion, the principal pretext for waging war against his country. For what
other pretense did he allege? what cause did he give for his own most frantic
resolution and action, except that the power of interposition by the veto had
been disregarded, the privileges of the tribunes taken away, and Antonius's rights
abridged by the senate? I say nothing of how false, how trivial these pretenses
were; especially when there could not possibly be any reasonable cause whatever
to justify any one in taking up arms against his country. But I have nothing to
do with Caesar. You must unquestionably allow that the cause of that ruinous
war existed in your person.
[54] O miserable man if you are aware,
more miserable still if you are not aware, that this is recorded in writings,
is handed down to men's recollection, that our very latest posterity in the
most distant ages will never forget this fact, that the consuls were expelled
from Italy, and with them Cnaeus Pompeius, who was the glory and light of the
empire of the Roman people; that all the men of consular rank, whose health
would allow them to share in that disaster and that flight, and the praetors,
and men of praetorian rank, and the tribunes of the people, and a great part of
the senate, and all the flower of the youth of the city, and, in a word, the
republic itself was driven out and expelled from its abode.
[55] As, then, there is in seeds the cause
which produces trees and plants, so of this most lamentable war you were the
seed. Do you, O conscript fathers, grieve that these armies {At Pharsalia, Thapsus , and Munda.
Respectively in Greece ,
Africa, Spain }
of the Roman people have been slain? It is Antonius who slew them. Do you
regret your most illustrious citizens? It is Antonius, again, who has deprived
you of them. The authority of this order is overthrown; it is Antonius who has
overthrown it. Everything, in short, which we have seen since that time (and
what misfortune is there that we have not seen?) we shall, if we argue rightly,
attribute wholly to Antonius. As Helen was to the Trojans, so has that man been
to this republic,the cause of war the cause of mischief the cause of ruin The
rest of his tribuneship was like the beginning. He did every thing which the
senate had labored to prevent, as being impossible to be done consistently with
the safety of the republic. And see, now, how gratuitously wicked he was even
in accomplishing his wickedness.
Ch.
23
[56] He restored many men who had fallen
under misfortune. Among them no mention was made of his uncle. If he was
severe, why was he not so to every one? If he was merciful, why was he not
merciful to his own relations? But I say nothing of the rest. He restored
Licinius. Lenticula, a man who had been condemned for gambling, and who was a
fellow-gamester of his own. As if he could not play with a condemned man; but
in reality, in order to pay by a straining of the law in his favor, what he had
lost by the dice. What reason did you allege to the Roman people why it was
desirable that he should be restored? I suppose you said that he was absent
when the prosecution was instituted against him; that the cause was decided
without his having been heard in his defense; that there was not by a law any judicial
proceeding established with reference to gambling; that he had been put down by
violence or by arms; or lastly, as was said in the case of your uncle, that the
tribunal had been bribed with money. Nothing of this sort was said. Then he was
a good man, and one worthy of the republic. That, indeed, would have been
nothing to the purpose, but still, since being condemned does not go for much,
I would forgive you if that were the truth. Does not he restore to the full
possession of his former privileges the most worthless man possible,one who
would not hesitate to play at dice even in the forum, and who had been
convicted under the law which exists respecting gambling,does not he declare in
the most open manner his own propensities?
[57] Then in this same tribuneship, when
Caesar while on his way into Spain
had given him Italy
to trample on, what journeys did he make in every direction! how did he visit
the municipal towns! I know that I am only speaking of matters which have been
discussed in every one's conversation, and that the things which I am saying
and am going to say are better known to every one who was in Italy at that
time, than to me, who was not {This assertion is false: Cicero was at Cumae (Ad
Att.X,10)}. Still I mention the particulars of his conduct, although my speech
can not possibly come up to your own personal knowledge. When was such
wickedness ever heard of as existing upon earth? or shamelessness? or such open
infamy?
Ch.
24
[58] The tribune of the people was borne
along in a chariot {This assertion is false: {As for a victory. According to Plut.(Q.R.81) a tribune could not have lictors, or use a horse or carriage, or wear a praetexta, or indulge in any display} with laurel preceded him; among whom, on an open litter, was carried an actress; whom honorable men, citizens of the different municipalities, coming out from their towns under compulsion to meet him, saluted not by the name by which she was well known on the stage, but by that of Volumnia. A car followed full of pimps; then a lot of debauched companions; and then his mother, utterly neglected, followed the mistress of her profligate son, as if she had been her daughter-in-law. O the disastrous fecundity of that miserable woman! With the marks of such wickedness as this did that fellow stamp every municipality, and prefecture, and colony, and, in short, the whole of
[59] To find fault with the rest of his
actions, O conscript fathers, is difficult, and somewhat unsafe. He was
occupied in war; he glutted himself with the slaughter of citizens who bore no
resemblance to himself He was fortunateif at least there can be any good
fortune in wickedness. But since we wish to show a regard for the veterans,
although the cause of the soldiers is very different from yours; they followed
their chief; you went to seek for a leader; still (that I may not give you any
pretense for stirring up odium against me among them), I will say nothing of
the nature of the war.
When victorious, you returned with the
legions from Thessaly to Brundusium. There you
did not put me to death. It was a great kindness! For I confess that you could
have done it. Although there was no one of those men who were with you at that
time, who did not think that I ought to be spared.
[60] For so great is men's affection for
their country; that I was sacred even in the eyes of your legions, because they
recollected that the country had been saved by me. However, grant that you did give
me what you did not take away from me; and that I have my life as a present
from you, since it was not taken from me by you; was it possible for me, after
all your insults, to regard that kindness of yours as I regarded it at first,
especially after you saw that you must hear this reply from me?
Ch.
25
[61] You came to Brundusium, to the bosom
and embraces of your actress. What is the matter? Am I speaking falsely? How
miserable is it not to be able to deny a fact which it is disgraceful to
confess! If you had no shame before the municipal towns, had you none even
before your veteran army? For what soldier was there who did not see her at
Brundusium? who was there who did not know that she had come so many days'
journey to congratulate you? who was there who did not grieve that he was so
late in finding out how worthless a man he had been following?
[62] Again you made a tour through Italy , with
that same actress for your companion. Cruel and miserable was the way in which
you led your soldiers into the towns; shameful was the pillager in every city,
of gold and silver, and above all, of wine. And besides all this, while Caesar
knew nothing about it, as he was at Alexandria ,
Antonius, by the kindness of Caesar's friends, was appointed his master of the
horse. Then he thought that you could live with Hippia {As being himself
magister equitum} by
virtue of his office, and that he might give horses {The meaning of equivectigales is
uncertain. The meaning may be horses for public games (Mayor); or delivered by
tributary states (Corelli). Hippias and Sergius were actors. Juv.(6, 82)
strangely takes “Hippia” as feminine} which were the property of the state to
Sergius the buffoon. At that time he had elected for himself to live in, not
the house {The house of Pompeius. This is “held with difficulty”, as Sextus
Pompeius, the son, claims it} which he now dishonors, but that of Marcus Piso.
Why need I mention his decrees, his robberies, the possessions of inheritances
which were given him, and those too which were seized by him? Want compelled
him; he did not know where to turn. That great inheritance from Lucius Rubrius,
and that other from Lucius Turselius, had not yet come to him. He had not yet
succeeded as an unexpected heir to the place of Cnaeus Pompeius, and of many
others who were absent. He was forced to live like a robber, having nothing
beyond what he could plunder from others.
[63] However, we will say nothing of these
things, which are acts of a more hardy sort of villainy. Let us speak rather of
his meaner descriptions of worthlessness. You, with those jaws of yours, and
those sides of yours, and that strength of body suited to a gladiator, drank
such quantities of wine at the marriage of Hippia, that you were forced to
vomit the next day in the sight of the Roman people. O action disgraceful not merely
to see, but even to hear of! If this had happened to you at supper amid those
vast drinking-cups of yours, who would not have thought it scandalous? But in
an assembly of the Roman people, a man holding a public office, a master of the
horse, to whom it would have been disgraceful even to belch, vomiting filled
his own bosom and the whole tribunal with fragments of what he had been eating
reeking with wine. But he himself confesses this among his other disgraceful
acts. Let us proceed to his more splendid offenses.
Ch.
26
[64] Caesar came back from
[65] One man alone {This is not true, as Cicero himself shows:
cf.Phil.XIII, 5. (Sunt alii plures fortasse)} was found to dare to do that
which the audacity of every one else had shrunk from and shuddered at. Were
you, then, seized with such stupidity, or, I should rather say, with such
insanity, as not to see that if you, being of the rank in which you were born,
acted as a broker at all {Of confiscated goods at auction}, and above all as a
broker in the case of Pompeius property, you would be execrated and hated by
the Roman people, and that all gods and all men must at once become and for
ever continue hostile to you? But with what violence did that glutton
immediately proceed to take possession of the property of that man, to whose
valor it had been owing that the Roman people had been more terrible to foreign
nations, while his justice had made it dearer to them.
Ch.
27
When, therefore, this fellow had begun to
wallow in the treasures of that great man, he began to exult like a buffoon in
a play, who has lately been a beggar, and has become suddenly rich.
[66] But, as some poet {Gn.Naevius (Poet):
“Male parta male dilabuntur” (Evil gains come to an evil end)} or other says,
Ill-gotten gains come quickly to an end.
Ill-gotten gains come quickly to an end.
It is an incredible thing, and almost a
miracle, how he in a few, not months, but days, squandered all that vast
wealth. There was an immense quantity of wine, an excessive abundance of very
valuable plate, much precious apparel, great quantities of splendid furniture,
and other magnificent things in many places, such as one was likely to see
belonging to a man who was not indeed luxurious but who was very wealthy. Of
all this in a few days there was nothing left.
[67] What Charybdis was ever so voracious?
Charybdis, do I say? Charybdis, if she existed at all, was only one animal. The
ocean I swear most solemnly, appears scarcely capable of having swallowed up
such numbers of things so widely scattered and distributed in such different
places with such rapidity. No thing was shut up, nothing sealed up, no list was
made of any thing. Whole storehouses were abandoned to the most worthless of
men Actors seized on this, actresses on that; the house was crowded with
gamblers, and full of drunken men; people were drinking all day, and that too
in many places; there were added to all this expense (for this fellow was not
invariably fortunate) heavy gambling losses. You might see in the cellars of
the slaves, couches covered with the most richly embroidered counterpanes of Cnaeus
Pompeius. Wonder not, then, that all these things were so soon consumed. Such
profligacy as that could have devoured not only the patrimony of one
individual, however ample it might have been (as indeed his was), but whole
cities and kingdoms. And then his houses and gardens!
[68] Oh the cruel audacity! Did you dare
to enter into that house? Did you dare to cross that most sacred threshold? and
to show your most profligate countenance to the household gods who protect that
abode? A house which for a long time no one could behold, no one could pass by
without tears! Are you not ashamed to dwell so long in that house? one in
which, stupid and ignorant as you are, still you can see nothing which is not
painful to you.
Ch.
28
When you behold those beaks of ships in
the vestibule, and those warlike trophies, do you fancy that you are entering
into a house which belongs to you? It is impossible. Although you are devoid of
all sense and all feeling,a in truth you are, still you are acquainted with
yourself, and with your trophies, and with your friends. Nor do I believe that
you, either waking or sleeping, can ever act with quiet sense. It is impossible
but that, were you ever so drunk an frantic,as in truth you are,when the
recollection of the appearance of that illustrious man comes across you, you
should be roused from sleep by your fears, and often stirred up to madness if
awake.
[69] I pity even the walls and the room.
For what had that house ever beheld except what was modest, except what
proceeded from the purest principles and from the most virtuous practice? For
that man was, O conscript fathers, as you yourselves know, not only illustrious
abroad, but also admirable at home; and not more praiseworthy for his exploits
in foreign countries, than for his domestic arrangements. Now in his house
every bedchamber is a brothel, and every diningroom a cookshop. Although he
denies this: Do not, do not make inquiries.
He is become economic. He desired that
mistress of his to take possession of whatever belonged to her, according to
the laws of the Twelve Tables. He has taken his keys from her, and turned her
out of doors. What a well-tried citizen! of what proved virtue is he! the most
honorable passage in whose life is the one when he divorced himself from this
actress. {The weords “Keep your own property”, and the taking away of keys,
constituted a divorce. As Cytheris was not uxor, this is of course sarcasm.}
[70] But how constantly does he harp on
the expression the consul Antonius! This amounts to say that most debauched
consul, that most worthless of men, the consul. For what else is. Antonius? For
if any dignity were implied the name, then, I imagine, your grandfather would
sometime have called himself the consul Antonius. But he never did. My
colleague too, your own uncle, would have call himself so. Unless you are the
only Antonius. But I pass over those offenses which have no peculiar connection
with the part you took in harassing the republic; I return to that in which you
bore so principal a share,that is, to the civil war; and it is mainly owing to
you that that was originated, and brought to a head, and carried on.
Ch.
29
[71] Though you yourself took no personal
share in it, partly through timidity {
And after having performed these exploits,
what was the reason why you did not follow Caesar into Africa ;
especially when so large a portion of the war was still remaining? And
accordingly, what place did you obtain about Caesar's person after his return
from Africa ? What was your rank? He whose
quaestor you had been when general, whose master of the horse when he was
dictator, to whom you had been the chief cause of war, the chief instigator of
cruelty, the sharer of his plunder, his son, as you yourself said, by
inheritance, proceeded against you for the money which you owed for the house
and gardens, and for the other property which you had bought at that sale.
[72] At first you answered fiercely
enough; and that I may not appear prejudiced against you in every particular,
you used a tolerably just and reasonable argument. What does Caius Caesar
demand money of me? why should he do so, any more than I should claim it of
him? Was he victorious without my assistance? No; and he never could have been.
It was I who supplied him with a pretext for civil war; it was I who proposed
mischievous laws; it was I who took up arms against the consuls and generals of
the Roman people, against the senate and people of Rome , against the gods of the country,
against its altars and hearths, against the country itself. Has he conquered
for himself alone? Why should not those men whose common work the achievement
is, have the booty also in common? You were only claiming your right, but what
had that to do with it? He was the more powerful of the two.
[73] Therefore, stopping all your
expostulations, he sent his soldiers to you, and to your sureties; when all on
a sudden out came that splendid catalogue of yours. How men did laugh! That
there should be so vast a catalogue, that there should be such a numerous and
various list of possessions, of all of which, with the exception of a portion
of Misenum, there was nothing which the man who was putting them up to sale
could call his own. And what a miserable sight {Antonius had dissipated all the
rest of Pompeius’ property: cf.chapter 27} was the auction. A little apparel of
Pompeius's, and that stained; a few silver vessels belonging to the same man,
all battered, some slaves in wretched condition; so that we grieved that there
was any thing remaining to be seen of these miserable relies.
[74] This auction, however, the heirs of
Lucius Rubrius {Who had made Antonius his heir to the exclusion of his nephew:
cf.Ch.16. the natural heirs appear to have objected to the sale} prevented from
proceeding, being armed with a decree of Caesar to that effect. The spendthrift
was embarrassed. He did not know which way to turn. It was at this very time
that an assassin sent by him was said to have been detected with a dagger in
the house of Caesar. And of this Caesar himself complained in the senate,
inveighing openly against you. Caesar departs to Spain , having granted you a few
days delay for making the payment, on account of your poverty. Even then you do
not follow him. Had so good a gladiator as you retired from business so early?
{The rudis was a wooden sword given to a gladiator on his discharge from
service} (rudem tam cito? Rudis so quick?) Can any one then fear a man who was
as timid as this man in upholding his party, that is, in upholding his own
fortunes?
Ch.
30
[75] After some time he at last went into
[76] Were you at Narbo to be sick over the
tables of your entertainers while Dolabella was fighting your battles in Spain ?
And what return was that of yours from
Narbo? He even asked why I had returned so suddenly from my expedition. I have
just briefly explained to you, O conscript fathers, the reason of my return. I
was desirous, if I could, to be of service to the republic even before the
first of January. For, as to your question, how I had returned in the first
place, I returned by daylight, not in the dark, in the second place, I returned
in shoes, and in my Roman gown, not in any Gallic slippers, or barbarian
mantle. And even now you keep looking at me; and, as it seems, with great
anger. Surely you would be reconciled to me if you knew how ashamed I am of
your worthlessness, which you yourself are not ashamed of. Of all the
profligate conduct of all the world, I never saw, I never heard of any more
shameful than yours. You, who fancied yourself a master of the horse, when you
were standing for, or I should rather say begging for, the consulship for the
ensuing year, ran in Gallic slippers and a barbarian mantle about the municipal
towns and colonies of Gaul, from which we used to demand the consulship when
the consulship was stood for and not begged for.
Ch.
31
[77] But mark now the trifling character
of the fellow. When about the tenth hour of the day he had arrived at Red
Rocks, he skulked into a little petty wine-shop, and, hidden there, kept on
drinking till evening. And from thence getting into a gig and being driven
rapidly to the city, he came to his own house with his head veiled. Who are
you? says the porter. An express from Marcus. He is at once taken to the woman
for whose sake he had come; and he delivered the letter to her. And when she
had read it with tears (for it was written in a very amorous style, but the
main subject of the letter was that he would have nothing to do with that
actress for the future; that he had discarded all his love for her, and
transferred it to his correspondent), when she, I say, wept plentifully, this
soft-hearted man could bear it no longer; he uncovered his head and threw
himself on her neck. Oh the worthless man (for what else can I call him? there
is no more suitable expression for me to use)! was it for this that you
disturbed the city by nocturnal alarms, and
[78] And he had at home a pretense of
love; but out of doors a cause more discreditable still, namely, lest Lucius
Plancus should sell up his sureties, But after you had been produced in the
assembly by one of the tribunes of the people, and had replied that you had
come on your own private business, you made even the people full of jokes
against you. But, however, we have said too much about trifles. Let us come to
more important subjects.
Ch.
32
You went a great distance to meet Caesar
on his return from
[79] I do not make any complaint against
Dolabella, who was at that time acting under compulsion, and was cajoled and
deceived, But who is there who does not know with what great perfidy both of
you treated Dolabella in that business? Caesar induced him to stand for the
consulship. After having promised it to him, and pledged himself to aid him, he
prevented his getting it, and transferred it to himself. And you endorsed his
treachery with your own eagerness.
The first of January arrives. We are
convened in the senate. Dolabella inveighed against him with much more fluency
and premeditation than I am doing now.
[80] And what things were they which he
said in his anger, O ye good gods! First of all, after Caesar had declared that
before he departed he would order Dolabella to be made consul (and they deny
that he was a king who was always doing and saying something of this sort).but
after Caesar had said this, then this virtuous augur said that he was invested
with a pontificate of that sort that he was able, by means of the auspices,
either to hinder or to vitiate the comitia, just as he pleased; and he declared
that he would do so.
[81] And here, in the first place, remark
the incredible stupidity of the man. For what do you mean? Could you not just
as well have done what you said you had now the power to do by the privileges
with which that pontificate had invested you, even if you were not an augur, if
you were consul? Perhaps you could even do it more easily. For we augurs have
only the power of announcing that the auspices are being observed, but the
consuls and other magistrates have the right also of observing them whenever
they choose {An augur as such, had no
right of taking the auspices unless he was called in by a magistrate, to
whom he made a report (Nuntiatio, or, if unfavourable, Abnuntiatio). A
magistrate had the right of observing the heavens (Spectio), and also – at any
rate if he were a superior magistrate, such as a consul – the right of obnuntiatio to another
magistrate presiding. The obnuntiatio was abolished by the lex Clodia in 58
BC., but the law was frequently disregarded and is here ignored by Cicero, who,
however, afterwards recognises it. (Neque licet per leges)}. Be it so. You said
this out of ignorance. For one must not demand prudence from a man who is never
sober. But still remark his impudence. Many months before, he said in the
senate that he would either prevent the comitia from assembling for the
election of Dolabella by means of the auspices, or that he would do what he
actually did do. Can any one divine beforehand what defect there will be in the
auspices, except the man who has already determined to observe the heavens?
which in the first place it is forbidden by law to do at the time of the
comitia. And if any one has; been observing the heavens, he is bound to give
notice of it, not after the comitia are assembled, but before they are held.
But this man's ignorance is joined to impudence, nor does he know what an augur
ought to know, nor do what a modest man ought to do.
[82] And just recollect the whole of his
conduct during his consulship from that day up to the ides of March. What
lictor was ever so humble, so abject? He himself had no power at all; he begged
every thing of others; and thrusting his head into the hind part of his litter,
he begged favors of his colleagues, to sell them himself afterward.
Ch.
33
Behold, the day of the comitia for the
election of Dolabella arrives The prerogative century draws its lot. He is
quiet. The vote is declared; he is still silent. The first class is called, Its
vote is declared. Then, as is the usual course, the votes are announced. Then
the second class. And all this is done faster than I have told it. When the
business is over, that excellent augur (you would say he must be Caius Laelius
{C.Laelius: called the Wise or Sapiens. Friend of Scipio the younger}) says, We
adjourn it to another day. {“Alio Die”,
the regular formula for “the omens are unfavourable”}.
[83] Oh the monstrous impudence of such a
proceeding! What had you seen? what had you perceived? what had you heard? For
you did not say that you had been observing the heavens, and indeed you do not
say so this day. That defect then has arisen, which you on the first of January
had already foreseen would arise, and which you had predicted so long before.
Therefore, in truth, you have made a false declaration respecting the auspices,
to your own great misfortune, I hope, rather than to that of the republic. You
laid the Roman people under the obligations of religion; you as augurs
interrupted an augur; you as consul interrupted a consul by a false declaration
concerning the auspices.
I will say no more, lest I should seem to
be pulling to pieces the acts of Dolabella; which must inevitably sometime or
other be brought before our college {i.e.of augurs}.
[84] But take notice of the arrogance and
insolence of the fellow. As long as you please, Dolabella is a consul
irregularly elected; again, while you please, he is a consul elected with all
proper regard to the auspices. If it means nothing when an augur gives this
notice in those words in which you gave notice, then confess that you, when you
said,We adjourn this to another day,were not sober. But if those words have any
meaning, then I, an augur, demand of my colleague to know what that meaning is.
{ i.e. if they don’t mean what they say, viz. that Dolabella’s election was
void. But now you acknowledge his consulship}.
But, lest by any chance, while enumerating
his numerous exploits, our speech should pass over the finest action of Marcus
Antonius, let us come to the Lupercalia.
Ch.
34
He does not dissemble, O conscript
fathers; it is plain that he is agitated; he perspires; he turns pale. Let him
do what he pleases, provided he is not sick, and does not behave as be did in
the Minucian colonnade (Portico) {Chapter 25 ante}. What defence can be made
for such beastly behaviour? I wish to hear, that I may see the fruit of those
high wages of that rhetorician, of that land given in Leontini. {Chapter 27
ante}
[85] Your colleague was sitting in the
rostra, clothed in purple robe, on a golden chair, wearing a crown. You mount
the steps; you approach his chair, (if you were a priest of Pan, you ought to
have recollected that you were consul too;) you display a diadem; There is a
groan over the whole forum. Where did the diadem come from? For you had not
picked it up when lying on the ground, but you had brought it from home with
you, a premeditated and deliberately planned wickedness. You placed the diadem
on his head amid the groans of the people; he rejected it amid great applause.
You then alone, O wicked man, were found both to advise the assumption of
kingly power, and to wish to have him for your master who was your colleague
and also to try what the Roman people might be able to bear and to endure.
[86] Moreover, you even sought to move his
pity; you threw yourself at his feet as a suppliant; begging for what? to be a
slave? You might beg it for yourself, when you had lived in such a way from the
time that you were a boy that you could bear everything, and would find no
difficulty in being a slave {An allusion to
his relations with Curio}; but certainly you had no commission from the
Roman people to try for such a thing for them.
Oh how splendid was that eloquence of
yours, when you harangued the people stark naked! what could be more foul than
this? more shameful than this? more deserving of every sort of punishment? Are
you waiting for me to prick you more? This that I am saying must tear you and
bring blood enough if you have any feeling at all. I am afraid that I may be
detracting from the glory of some most eminent men {Brutus; Cassius, and the
other conspirators}. Still my indignation shall find a voice. What can be more
scandalous than for that man to live who placed a diadem on a man's head, when
every one confesses that that man was deservedly slain who rejected it?
[87] And, moreover, he caused it to be
recorded in the annals, under the head of Lupercalia, That Marcus Antonius, the
consul, by command of the people, had offered the kingdom to Caius Caesar,
perpetual dictator; and that Caesar had refused to accept it. I now am not much
surprised at your seeking to disturb the general tranquillity; at your hating
not only the city but the light of day; and at your living with a pack of
abandoned robbers, disregarding the day, and yet regarding nothing beyond the
day. For where can you be safe in peace? What place can there be for you where
laws and courts of justice have sway, both of which you, as far as in you lay,
destroyed by the substitution of kingly power? Was it for this that Lucius
Tarquinius was driven out; that Spurius Cassius, and Spurius Maelius, and
Marcus Manlius were slain; that many years afterwards a king might be
established at Rome by Marcus Antonius though the bare idea was impiety? How
ever, let us return to the auspices.
Ch.
35
[88] With respect to all the things which
Caesar was intending to do in the senate on the ides of March, I ask whether
you have done any thing? {i.e.would Antonius have opposed Caesar, or would he have declared Dolabella
duly elected?} I heard, indeed, that you had come down prepared, because you
thought that I intended to speak about your having made a false statement
respecting the auspices, though it was still necessary for us to respect them {i.e.until
they had been declared invalid}. The fortune of the Roman people saved us from
that day {The death of Caesar prevented discussion}. Did the death of Caesar
also put an end to your opinion respecting the auspices? But I have come to
mention that occasion which must be allowed to precede those matters which I
had begun to discuss. What a flight was that of yours! What alarm was yours on
that memorable day! How, from the consciousness of your wickedness, did you
despair of your life! How, while flying, were you enabled secretly to get home
by the kindness of those men who wished to save you, thinking you would show
more sense than you do!
[89] O how vain have at all times been my
too true predictions of the future! I told those deliverers of ours in the
Capitol, when they wished me to go to you to exhort you to defend the republic,
that as long as you were in fear you would promise every thing, but that as
soon as you had emancipated yourself from alarm you would be yourself again.
Therefore, while the rest of the men of consular rank were going backward and
forward to you, I adhered to my opinion, nor did I see you at all that day, or
the next; nor did I think it possible for an alliance between virtuous citizens
and a most unprincipled enemy to be made, so as to last, by any treaty or
engagement whatever. The third day I came into the temple of Tellus ,
even then very much against my will, as armed men were blockading all the
approaches.
[90] What a day was that for you, O Marcus
Antonius! Although you showed yourself all on a sudden an enemy to me; still I
pity you for having envied yourself. {By abandoning the patriotic role he
had at first adopted. Cf.Phil.I, 1}
Ch.
36
What a man, O ye immortal gods! and how
great a man might you have been, if you had been able to preserve the
inclination you displayed that day;we should still have peace which was made
then by the pledge of a hostage, a boy of noble birth, the grandson of Marcus
Bamballo. {Antonius’ son by Fulvia. He and Lepidus sent their sons to the conspirators in the Capitol as pledges for their security: cf.introduction to Phil.1. Bambalio is described in Phil.3, 6 as “homo nullo numera.”}.
Although it was fear that was then making you a good citizen, which is never a lasting teacher of duty; your own audacity, which never departs from you as long as you are free from fear, has made you a worthless one. Although even at that time, when they thought you an excellent man, though I indeed differed from that opinion, you behaved with the greatest wickedness while presiding at the funeral of the tyrant, if that ought to be called a funeral.
[91] All that fine panegyric was yours,
that commiseration was yours, that exhortation was yours. It was you, you, I
say who hurled those firebrands, both those with which your friend himself was
nearly burned {An unworthy sneer, and untrue. Cicero himself says (Ad
Att.XIV.X, 1) that Caesar was “in foro
combustus.” (an other translation says: half cremated.)}, and those by which
the house of Lucius Bellienus was set on fire and destroyed. It was you who let
loose those attacks of abandoned men, slaves for the most part, which we
repelled by violence and our own personal exertions; it was you who set them on
to attack our houses. And yet you, as if you had wiped off all the soot {The
soot of Caesar’s cremation, with the second sense of ill deeds} and smoke in
the ensuing days, carried those excellent resolutions in the Capitol, that no
document conferring any exemption, or granting any favor, should he published
after the ides of March. You recollect yourself, what you said about the
exiles; you know what you said about the exemption; but the best thing of all
was, that you forever abolished the name of the dictatorship in the republic.
Which act appeared to show that you had conceived such a hatred of kingly power
that you took away all fear of it for the future, on account of him who had been
the last dictator.
[92] To other men the republic now seemed
established, but it did not appear so at all to me, as I was afraid of every
sort of shipwreck, as long as you were at the helm. Have I been deceived? or,
was it possible for that man long to continue unlike himself? While you were
all looking on, documents were fixed up over the whole Capitol, and exemptions
were being sold, not merely to individuals, but to entire states. The freedom
of the city was also being given now not to single persons only, but to whole
provinces. Therefore, if these acts are to stand,and stand they can not if the
republic stands too,then, O conscript fathers, you have lost whole provinces;
and not the revenues only, but the actual empire of the Roman people has been
diminished by a market this man held in his own house.
Ch.
37
[93] Where are the seven hundred millions
of sesterces which were entered in the account-books which are in the
[94] For who ever was a more bitter enemy
to another than Caesar was to Deiotarus? He was as hostile to him as he was to
this order, to the equestrian order, to the people of Massilia, and to all men
whom he knew to look on the republic of the Roman people with attachment. But
this man, who neither present nor absent could ever obtain from him any favor
or justice while he was alive, became quite an influential man with him when he
was dead. When present with him in his house, he had called for him though he
was his host, he had made him give in his accounts of his revenue, he had
exacted money from him; he had established one of his Greek retainers in his tetrarchy,
and he had taken Armenia from him, which had been given to him by the senate.
While he was alive he deprived him of all these things; now that he is dead, he
gives them back again.
[95] And in what words? {Cicero quotes from
Caesar’s supposed lex Julia de Deiotaro}. At
one time he says, that it appears to him to be just,... at another, that it
appears not to be unjust... What a strange combination of words! But while
alive (I know this, for I always supported Deiotarus, who was at a distance),
he never said that anything which we were asking for, for him, appeared just to
him. A bond for ten millions of sesterces was entered into in the women's
apartment {Fulvia’s. Cicero
says (Ad Att.XIV.12) that Deiotarus was
“omni regno dignus, sed non per Fulviam.”} (where many things have been sold,
and are still being sold), by his ambassadors, well-meaning men, but timid and
inexperienced in business, without my advice or that of the rest of the
hereditary friends of the monarch. And I advise you to consider carefully what
you intend to do with reference to this bond. For the king himself, of his own
accord, without waiting for any of Caesar's memoranda, the moment that her
heard of his death, recovered his own rights by his own courage and energy.
[96] He, like a wise man, knew that this
was always the law, that those men from whom the things which tyrants had taken
away had been taken, might recover them when the tyrants were slain. No lawyer,
therefore, not even he who is your lawyer and yours alone, and by whose advice
you do all these things, will say that any thing is due to you by virtue of
that bond for those things which had been recovered before that bond was
executed. For he did not purchase them of you; but, before you undertook to
sell him his own property, be had taken possession of it. He was a man we,
indeed, deserve to be despised, who hate the author of the actions, but uphold
the actions themselves.
Ch.
38
[97] Why need I mention the countless mass
of papers, the innumerable autographs which have been brought forward? writings
of which there are imitators who sell their forgeries as openly as if they were
gladiators playbills. Therefore, there are now such heaps of money piled up in
that man's house, that it is weighed out instead of being counted. But bow
blind is avarice! Lately, too, a document has been posted up by which the most
wealthy cities of the Cretans are released from tribute; and by which it is
ordained that after the expiration of the consulship of Marcus Brutus,
[98] Caesar too, I suppose, made the law
about the exiles which you have posted up. I do not wish to press upon any one
in misfortune; I only complain, in the first place, that the return of those
men has had discredit thrown upon it, whose cause Caesar judged to be different
{As not being reprobates: Chapter 23} from
that of the rest; and in the second place, I do not know why you do not mete
out the same measure to all. For there can not be more than three or four left.
Why do not they who are in similar misfortune enjoy a similar degree of your
mercy? Why do you treat them as you treated your uncle? about whom you refused
to pass a law when you were passing one about all the rest; and whom at the
same time you encouraged to stand for the censorship, and instigated him to a
canvass, which excited the ridicule and the complaint of every one. {Because
the uncle had been convicted of
extortion, and expelled by the censor from the senate}
[99] But why did you not hold that
comitia? Was it because a tribune of the people announced that there had been
an ill-omened flash of lightning seen? When you have any interest of your own
to serve, then auspices are all nothing; but when it is only your friends who
are concerned, then you become scrupulous. What more? Did you not also desert
him in the matter of the septemvirate? {See Phil.VI.5 and XI.6} Yes, for he
interfered with me. What were you afraid of? I suppose you were afraid that you
would be able to refuse him nothing if he were restored to the full possession
of his rights. You loaded him with every species of insult, a man whom you
ought to have considered in the place of a father to you, if you had had any
piety or natural affection at all, You put away his daughter, your own cousin {Antonia,
his second wife}, having already looked out and provided yourself beforehand
with another {Fulvia}. That was not enough. You accused a most chaste woman of
misconduct. What can go beyond this? Yet you were not content with this. In a
very full senate held on the first of January, while your uncle was present,
you dared to say that this was your reason for hatred of Dolabella, that you
had ascertained that he had committed adultery with your cousin and your wife,
Who can decide whether it was more shameless of you to make such profligate and
such impious statements against that unhappy woman in the senate, or more
wicked to make them against Dolabella, or more scandalous to make them in the
presence of her father, or more cruel to make them at all?
Ch.
39
[100] However, let us return to the
subject of Caesar's written papers. How were they verified by you? For the acts
of Caesar were for peace's sake confirmed by the senate; that is to say, the
acts which Caesar had really done, not those which Antonius said that Caesar
had done. Where do all these come from? By whom are they produced and vouched
for? If they are false, why are they ratified? If they are true, why are they
sold? But the vote which was come to enjoined you, after the first of June, to
make an examination of Caesar's “acts” with the assistance of a council. What
council did you {“You” is here Antonius}
consult? whom did you ever invite to help you? what was the first of June that
you waited for? Was it that day on which you, having traveled all through the
colonies where the veterans were settled, returned escorted by a band of armed
men?
Oh what a splendid progress of yours was
that in the months of April and May, when you attempted even to lead a colony
to Capua ! How
you made your escape from thence, or rather how you barely made your escape {Antonius
was roughly handled by the Capuans. Cf. Phil.XII.7.}, we all know.
[101] And now you are still threatening
that city. I wish you would try, and we should not then be forced to say
barely. However, what a splendid progress of yours that was! Why need I mention
your preparations for banquets, why your frantic hard drinking? Those things
are only an injury to yourself; these are injuries to us. We thought that a
great blow was inflicted on the republic when the Campanian district was
released from the payment of taxes, in order to be given to the soldiery; but
you have divided it among your partners in drunkenness and gambling. I tell
you, O conscript fathers, that a lot of buffoons and actresses have been
settled in the district of Campania. Why should I now complain of what has been
done in the district of Leontini? Although formerly these lands of Campania and Leontini
were considered part of the patrimony of the Roman people, and were productive
of great revenue, and very fertile. You gave your physician three thousand
acres; what would you have done if he had cured you? and two thousand to your
master of oratory; what would you have done if he had been able to make you
eloquent? However, let us return to your progress, and to Italy .
Ch.
40
[102] You led a colony to Casilinum, a
place to which Caesar had previously led one. You did indeed consult me by
letter about the colony of
[103] After this violation of all
religious observances, you hasten off to the estate of Marcus Varro, a most
conscientious and upright man, at Casinum. By what right? with what face do you
do this? By just the same, you will say, as that by which you entered on the
estates of the heirs of Lucius Rubrius, or of the heirs of Lucius Turselius, or
of other innumerable possessions. If you got the right from any auction, let
the auction have all the force to which it is entitled; let writings be of
force, provided they are the writings of Caesar, and not your own; writings by
which you are bound, not those by which you have released yourself from
obligation.
[104] But who says that the estate of
Varro at Casinum was ever sold at all? who ever saw any notice of that auction?
who ever heard the voice of the auctioneer? You say that you sent a man to Alexandria to buy it of
Caesar. It was too long to wait for Caesar himself to come! But who ever heard
(and there was no man about whose safety more people were anxious) that any
part whatever of Varro's property had been confiscated? What? what shall we say
if Caesar even wrote you that you were to give it up? What can be said strong
enough for such enormous impudence? Remove for a while those swords which we
see around us. You shall now see that the cause of Caesar's auctions is one
thing and that of your confidence and rashness is another. For not only shall
the owner drive you from that estate, but any one of his friends, or neighbors,
or hereditary connections, and any agent, will have the right to do so.
Ch.
41
But how many days did he spend reveling in
the most scandalous manner in that villa! From the third hour there was one
scene of drinking, gambling, and vomiting. Alas for the unhappy house itself!
how different a master from its former one has it fallen to the share of!
Although, how is he the master at all? but still by how different a person has
it been occupied! For Marcus Varro used it as a place of retirement for his
studies, not as a theatre for his lusts.
[105] What noble discussions used to take
place in that villa! what ideas were originated there! what writings were
composed there! The laws of the Roman people, the memorials of our ancestors,
the consideration of all wisdom and all learning, were the topics that used to
be dwelt on then; but now, while you were the intruder there (for I will not
call you the master), every place was resounding with the voices of drunken
men; the pavements were floating with wine; the walls were dripping; nobly-born
boys were mixing with the basest hirelings; prostitutes with mothers of
families. Men came from Casinum, from Aquinum, from Interamna to salute him. No
one was admitted. That, indeed, was proper. For the ordinary marks of respect
were unsuited to the most profligate of men.
[106] When going from thence to Rome he approached
Aquinum, a pretty numerous company (for it is a populous municipality) came out
to meet him. But he was carried through the town in a covered litter, as if he
had been dead. The people of Aquinum acted foolishly, no doubt; but still they
were in his road. What did the people of Anagnia do? who, although they were
out of his line of road, came down to meet him, in order to pay him their
respects, as if he were consul. It is an incredible thing to say, but still it
was only too notorious at the time, that he returned nobody's salutation;
especially as he had two men of Anagnia with him, Mustela and Laco; one of whom
had the care of his swords, and the other of his drinking-cups.
[107] Why should I mention the threats and
insults with which he inveighed against the people of Teanum Sidicinum, with
which he harassed the men of Puteoli, because they had adopted Caius Cassius
and the Bruti as their patrons? a choice dictated, in truth, by great wisdom,
and great zeal, benevolence, and affection for them; not by violence and force
of arms, by which men have been compelled to choose you, and Basilus, and
others like you both,men whom no one would choose to have for his own clients,
much less to be their client himself.
Ch.
42
In the mean time, while you yourself were
absent, what a day was that for your colleague when he overturned that tomb in
the forum, which you were accustomed to regard with veneration! And when that
action was announced to you, you as is agreed upon by all who were with you at
the timefainted away. What happened afterward I know not. I imagine that terror
and arms got the mastery. At all events, you dragged your colleague down from
his heaven; and you rendered him, not even now like yourself, at all events
very unlike his own former self.
[108] After that what a return was that of
yours to Rome !
How great was the agitation of the whole city! We recollected Cinna being too
powerful; after him we had seen Sulla with absolute authority, and we had
lately beheld Caesar acting as king. There were perhaps swords, but they were
sheathed, and they were not very numerous. But how great and how barbaric a
procession is yours! Men follow you in battle array with drawn swords; we see
whole litters full of shields borne along. And yet by custom, O conscript
fathers, we have become inured and callous to these things, When on the first
of June we wished to come to the senate, as it had been ordained, we were
suddenly frightened and forced to flee.
[109] But he, as having no need of a
senate, did not miss any of us, and rather rejoiced at our departure, and
immediately proceeded to those marvelous exploits of his. He who had defended
the memoranda of Caesar for the sake of his own profit, overturned the laws of
Caesar and good laws too for the sake of being able to agitate the republic. He
increased the number of years that magistrates were to enjoy their provinces;
moreover, though he was bound to be the defender of the acts of Caesar, he
rescinded them both with reference to public and private transactions.
In public transactions nothing is more
authoritative than law; in private affairs the most valid of all deeds is a
will. Of the laws, some he abolished without giving the least notice {On three
market-days, as required by law. (Another translation: “ Some laws of Caesar’s
he abolished by laws never advertised, in order to abolish others he advertised
new laws.”}; others he gave notice of bills to abolish. Wills he annulled;
though they have been at all times held sacred even in the case of the very
meanest of the citizens. As for the statues and pictures which Caesar
bequeathed to the people, together with his gardens, those he carried away,
some to the house which belonged to Pompeius, and some to Scipio's villa.
Ch.
43
[110] And are you then diligent in doing
honor to Caesar's memory? Do you love him even now that he is dead? What
greater honor had he obtained than that of having a holy cushion, an image, a
temple, and a priest? {Pulvinar = a couch at the lectisternium (feast of
couches), on which the image of a God was set with sacrificial viands placed
before it; Fastigium = a pediment resembling that of a temple; Flamen = a
special priest; all signs of divine honours paid to Caesar. (Another translation: What greater honour had
he obtained than to have a couch, an image, a pediment to his house, a flamen?)}
As then Jupiter, and Mars, and Quirinus have priests, so Marcus Antonius is the
priest of the god Julius. Why then do you delay? why are not you inaugurated?
Choose a day; select some one to inaugurate you; we are colleagues; no one will
refuse. O you detestable man, whether you are the priest of a tyrant, or of a
dead man! I ask you then, whether you are ignorant what day this is? Are you
ignorant that yesterday was the fourth day of the Roman games in the Circus?
and that you yourself submitted a motion to the people, that a fifth day {Which
would be September 19, the day on which this speech purported to be delivered} should
be added besides, in honor of Caesar? Why are we not all clad in the praetexta?
Why are we permitting the honor which by your law was appointed for Caesar to
be deserted? Had you no objection to so holy a day being polluted by the
addition of supplications, while you did not choose it to be so by the addition
of ceremonies connected with a sacred cushion? {Antonius on September 1
proposed that in all public thanksgivings (Supplicationes) to the gods a
special day should be added for offerings to the deified Caesar (Dio XLIII.44;
Phil.I.5, 6). He had thus allowed the impiety of blending honour paid to the
gods with honour paid to a mortal. Yet,
although he was Caesar’s priest, he shrank from placing his bust on a couch at
the lectisternium} Either take away religion in every case, or preserve it in
every case.
[111] You will ask whether I approve of
his having a sacred cushion, a temple and a priest? I approve of none of those
things. But you, who are defending the acts of Caesar, what reason can you give
for defending some, and disregarding others? unless, indeed, you choose to
admit that you measure every thing by your own gain, and not by his dignity.
What will you now reply to these arguments (for I am waiting to witness your
eloquence; I knew your grandfather, who was a most eloquent man, but I know you
to be a more undisguised speaker {Cicero
plays on the meaning of “apertus”, i.e.”frank”, or “open to view”, or “naked.”
Antonius harangued nudus (naked) at the lupercalia; cf.Phil.III.5.} than he
was; he never harangued the people naked; but we have seen your breast, man,
without disguise as you are)? Will you make any reply to these statements? will
you dare to open your mouth at all? Can you find one single article in this
long speech of mine, to which you trust that you can make any answer? However,
we will say no more of what is past.
Ch.
44
[112] But this single day, this very day
that now is, this very moment while I am speaking, defend your conduct during
this very moment, if you can. Why has the senate been surrounded with a belt of
armed men? Why are your satellites listening to me sword in hand? Why are not
the folding-doors of the
[113] The Roman people will take them from
you, will wrest them from) our hands. I wish that they may do so while we are
still safe. But however you treat us, as long as you adopt those counsels it is
impossible for you, believe me, to last long. In truth, that wife of yours, who
is so far removed from covetousness, and whom I mention without intending any
slight {A sarcastic use of the polite formula customary when a living person is
ceremonially mentioned: cf.Phil.II, 12-30.} to her, has been too long owing her
third payment {The death of a third husband. I.e.Antonius} to the state. The
Roman people has men to whom it can entrust the helm of the state; and wherever
they are, there is all the defense of the republic, or rather, there is the
republic itself; which as yet has only avenged {By Caesar’s death}, but has not reestablished itself.
Truly and surely has the republic most high-born youths {Brutus, Cassius etc.}
ready to defend it,though they may for a time keep in the background from a
desire for tranquillity, still they can be recalled by the republic at any
time.
The name of peace is sweet, the thing
itself is most salutary. But between peace and slavery there is a wide
difference. Peace is liberty in tranquillity; slavery is the worst of all
evils,to be repelled, if need be, not only by war, but even by death.
[114] But if those deliverers of ours have
taken themselves away out of our sight, still they have left behind the example
of their conduct. They have done what no one else had done. Brutus pursued
Tarquinius with war; who was a king when it was lawful for a king to exist in Rome . Spurius Cassius,
Spurius. Maelius, and Marcus. Manlius were all slain because they were
suspected of aiming at regal power. These are the first men who have ever
ventured to attack, sword in hand, a man who was not aiming at regal power, but
actually reigning. And their action is not only of itself a glorious and
godlike exploit, but it is also one put forth for our imitation; especially
since by it they have acquired such glory as appears hardly to be bounded by
heaven itself. For although in the very consciousness of a glorious action
there is a certain reward, still I do not consider immortality of glory a thing
to be despised by one who is himself mortal.
Ch.
45
[115] Recollect then, O Marcus Antonius,
that day on which you abolished the dictatorship. Set before you the joy of the
senate and people of
[116] But if you are not afraid of brave
men and illustrious citizens, because they are prevented from attacking you by
your armed retinue, still, believe me, your own fellows will not long endure
you. And what a life is it, day and night to be fearing danger from one's own
people! Unless, indeed, you have men who are bound to you by greater kindnesses
than some of those men by whom he was slain were bound to Caesar; or unless
there are points in which you can be compared with him.
In that man were combined genius, method,
memory, literature, prudence, deliberation, and industry. He had performed
exploits in war which, though calamitous for the republic, were nevertheless
mighty deeds. Having for many years aimed at being a king, he had with great
labor, and much personal danger, accomplished what he intended. He had
conciliated the ignorant multitude by presents, by monuments, by largesses of
food, and by banquets; he had bound his own party to him by rewards, his
adversaries by the appearances of clemency. Why need I say much on such a
subject? He had already brought a free city, partly by fear, partly by
patience, into a habit of slavery.
Ch.
46
[117] With him I can, indeed, compare you
as to your desire to reign; but in all other respects you are in no degree to
be compared to him. But from the many evils which by him have been burned into
the republic, there is still this good, that the Roman people has now learned
how much to believe every one, to whom to trust itself, and against whom to
guard. Do you never think on these things? And do you not understand that it is
enough for brave men to have learned how noble a thing it is as to the act, how
grateful it is as to the benefit done, how glorious as to the fame acquired, to
slay a tyrant?
[118] When men could not bear him, do you
think they will bear you? Believe me, the time will come when men will race
with one another to do this deed, and when no one will wait for the tardy
arrival of an opportunity.
Consider, I beg you, Marcus Antonius, do
some time or other consider the republic: think of the family of which you are
born, not of the men with whom you are living. Be reconciled to the republic.
However, do you decide on your conduct. As to mine, I myself will declare what
that shall be. I defended the republic as a young man, I will not abandon it
now that I am old. I scorned the sword of Catiline, I will not quail before
yours. No, I will rather cheerfully expose my own person, if the liberty of the
city can her restored by my death.
May the indignation of the Roman people at
last bring forth what it has been so long laboring with. In truth, if twenty
years ago in this very temple I asserted that death could not come prematurely
upon a man of consular rank, with how much more truth must I now say the same
of an old man? To me, indeed, O conscript fathers, death is now even desirable,
after all the honors which I have gained, and the deeds which I have done. I
only pray for these two things: one, that dying I may leave the Roman people
free. No greater boon than this can be granted me by the immortal gods. The
other, that every one may meet with a fate suitable to his deserts and conduct
toward the republic.
.
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