THE SEVENTH PHILIPPIC
THE ARGUMENT.
[2] even already they are
inventing replies for Antonius and defending them. Some pretend that his demand
is that all the armies be disbanded. I suppose then we sent ambassadors to him,
not that he should submit and obey this our body, but that he should offer us
conditions, impose laws upon us, order us to open Italy to foreign nations;
especially while we were to leave him in safety from whom there is more danger
to be feared than from any nation whatever.
[3] Others say that he is
willing to give up the nearer (citerior)
Gaul to us, and that he will be satisfied with the farther
(ulterior) Gaul. Very kind of him! in
order that from thence be may endeavor to bring not merely legions, but even
nations against this city. Others say that he makes no demands now but such as
are quite moderate. Macedonia
he calls absolutely his own, since it was from thence that his brother Caius
was recalled {Caius had been illegally allotted Macedonia Cicero is alluding to the friends of Antonius in the
senate}
Ch.
[4] And these men speak in
this way, who on account of their trifling disposition used to be considered
friends of the people. From which it may be understood that they in their
hearts have at all times been disinclined to a good constitution of the state,
and they were not friends of the people from inclination. For how comes it to
pass that those men who were anxious to gratify the people in evil things, now,
on an occasion which above all others concerns the people's interests, because
the same thing would be also salutary for the republic, now prefer being wicked
to being friends of the people?
[5] This noble cause of
which I am the advocate has made me popular, a man who (as you know) has always
opposed the rashness of the people. And those men are called, or rather they
call themselves, consulars; though no man is worthy of that name except those
who can support so high an honor. Will you favor an enemy? Will you let him
send you letters about his hopes of success? Will you be glad to produce them?
to read them? Will you even give them to wicked citizens to take copies of?
Will you thus raise their courage? Will you thus damp the hopes and valor of
the good? And then will you think yourself a consular, or a senator, or even a
citizen! Caius Pansa, a most fearless and virtuous consul, will take what I say
in good part. For I will speak with a disposition most friendly to him; but I
should not consider him himself a consul, though a man with whom I am most
intimate, unless he was such a consul as to devote all his vigilance, and
cares, and thoughts to the safety of the republic.
[6] Although long
acquaintance, and habit, and a fellowship and resemblance in the most honorable
pursuits, has bound us together from his first entrance into life; and his
incredible diligence, proved at the time of the most formidable dangers of the
civil war, showed that he was a favorer not only of my safety, but also of my
dignity; still as I said before if he were not such a consul as I have
described, I should venture to deny that he was a consul at all. But now I call
him not only a consul but the most excellent and virtuous consul within my
recollection; not but that there have been others of equal virtue and equal
inclination, but still they have not had an equal opportunity of displaying the
virtue and inclination.
[7] But the opportunity of a
time of most formidable change has been afforded to his magnanimity and dignity
and wisdom. And that is the time when the consulship is displayed to the
greatest advantage when it governs the republic during a time which if not
desirable is at all events critical and momentous. And a more critical time
than the present, O conscript father, never was.
Ch.
Therefore I who have been at
all times an adviser of peace, and who, though all good men was considered
peace and especially internal peace, desirable, have considered it more than
all of them;for the whole of career of my industry has been passed in the forum
and in the senate-house and in warding off dangers from my friends. It is by
this course that I have arrived at the highest honors, at moderate wealth, and
at any dignity which we may be thought to have:
[8] I therefore, a nursling
of peace, as I may call myself, I who, whatever I am (for I arrogate nothing to
myself), should undoubtedly not have been such without internal peace: I am
speaking in peril: I shudder to think how you will receive it, O conscript
fathers; but still, out of regard for my unceasing desire to support and
increase your dignity, I beg and entreat you, O conscript fathers, although it
may be a bitter thing to hear, or an incredible thing that it should be said by
Marcus Cicero, still to receive at first, without offense, what I am going to
say, and not to reject it before I have fully explained what it is. I, who, I
will say so over and over again, have always been a panegyrist, have always
been an adviser of peace, do not wish to have peace with Marcus Antonius. I
approach the rest of my speech with great hope, O conscript fathers, since I
have now passed by that perilous point amid your silence.
[9] Why then do I not wish
for peace? Because it would be shameful; because it would be dangerous; because
it can not possibly be real. And while I explain these three points to you, I
beg of you, O conscript fathers, to listen to my words with the same kindness
which you usually show to me.
What is more shameful than
inconsistency, fickleness, and levity, both to individuals, and also to the
entire senate? Moreover, what can be more inconsistent than on a sudden to be
willing to be united in peace with a man whom you have lately adjudged to be an
enemy, not by words, but by actions and by many formal decrees?
[10] Unless, indeed, when
you were decreeing honors to Caius Caesar, well deserved indeed by and fairly
due to him, but still unprecedented and never to be forgotten, for one single
reason,because he had levied an army against Marcus Antonius,you were not
judging Marcus Antonius to be an enemy; and unless. Antonius was not pronounced
an enemy by you, when the veteran soldiers were praised by your authority, for
having followed Caesar; and unless you did not declare Antonius an enemy when
you promised exemptions and money and lands to those brave legions, because
they had deserted him who was consul while he was an enemy.
Ch.
[11] What? when you distinguished
with the highest praises Brutus, a man born under some omen, as it were, of his
race and name, for the deliverance of the republic, and his army which was
waging war against Antonius on behalf of the liberty of the Roman people, and
the most loyal and admirable province of Gaul, did you not then pronounce
Antonius an enemy? What? when you decreed that the consuls, one or both of
them, should go to the war, what war was there if Antonius was not an enemy?
[12] Why then was it that
most gallant man, my own colleague and intimate friend, Aulus Hirtius the
consul, has set out? And in what delicate health he is; how wasted away! But
the weak state of his body could not repress the vigor of his mind. He thought
it fair, I suppose, to expose to danger in defense of the Roman people that
life which had been preserved to him by their prayers.
[13] What? when you ordered
levies of troops to be made throughout all Italy
[14] “Oh, but we have sent
ambassadors to him” . Alas, wretched that I am! why am I compelled to find
fault with the senate whom I have always praised? Why? Do you think, O
conscript fathers that you have induced the Roman people to approve of the
sending ambassadors? Do you not perceive, do you not hear that the adoption of
my opinion is demanded by them? that opinion which you, in a full house, agreed
to the day before, though the day after {January 4, the last day of the debate,
when the 5th Philippic was delivered. The senate had previously
supported Cicero
Ch.
You must, therefore, preserve
your consistency, your wisdom, your firmness, your perseverance. You must go
back to the old-fashioned severity, if at least the authority of the senate is
anxious to establish its credit, its honor, its renown, and its dignity, things
which this order has been too long deprived of. But there was some time ago
some excuse for it, as being oppressed; a miserable excuse indeed, but still a
fair one; now there is none. We appeared to have been delivered from kingly
tyranny {By the death of Caesar}; and afterward we were oppressed much more
severely by domestic enemies {By Antonius’s presence in
[15] For how just will be
the shame, how great will be the disgrace, how great the infamy to the
republic, if Marcus Antonius can deliver his opinion in this assembly from the
consular bench. For, to say nothing of the countless acts of wickedness
committed by him while consul in the city, during which time he has squandered
a vast amount of public money, restored exiles without any law, sold our
revenues to all sorts of people, removed provinces from the empire of the Roman
people, given men kingdoms for bribes, imposed laws on the city by violence,
besieged the senate, and, at other times, excluded it from the senate-house by
force of arms;to say nothing, I say, of all this, do you not consider this,
that he who has attacked Mutina, a most powerful colony of the Roman peoplewho
has besieged a general of the Roman people, who is consul electwho has laid
waste the lands,do you not consider, I say, how shameful and iniquitous a thing
it would be for that man to be received into this order, by which he has been
so repeatedly pronounced an enemy for these very reasons?
[16] I have said enough of
the shamefulness of such a proceeding; I will now speak next, as I proposed, of
the danger of it; which, although it is not so important to avoid as shame,
still offends the minds of the greater part of mankind even more.
Ch.
Will it then be possible for
you to rely on the certainty of any peace, when you see Antonius, or rather the
Antonii, in the city? Unless, indeed, you despise Lucius: I do not despise even
Caius. But, as I think, Lucius will be the dominant spirit,for he is the patron
of the five-and-thirty tribes, whose votes he took away by his law {Giving
Julius Caesar the right of nominating the magistrates}, by which he divided the
magistracies in conjunction with Caius Caesar. He is the patron of the
centuries of the Roman knights, which also he thought fit to deprive of the
suffrages: he is the patron of the men who have been military tribunes; he is
the patron of the middle of Janus. {cf.Phil.VI.5.}
[17] O ye gods! who will he able to
support this man's power? especially when he has brought all his dependents
into the lands. Who ever was the patron of all the tribes? and of the Roman
knights? and of the military tribunes? Do you think that the power of even the
Gracchi was greater than that of this gladiator will be? whom I have called
gladiator, not in the sense in which sometimes Marcus. Antonius too is called
gladiator, but as men call him who are speaking plain Latin. He has fought in Asia as a mirmillo. After having equipped his own
companion and intimate friend in the armor of a Thracian {A Thrax was a kind of
light armed gladiator generally matched with a mirmillo}, he slew the miserable
man as he was flying; but he himself received a palpable wound, as the scar
proves.
[18] What will
the man who murdered his friend in this way, when he has an opportunity, do to
an enemy? and if he did such a thing as this for the fun of the thing, what do
you think he will do when tempted by the hope of plunder? Will he not again
meet wicked men in the decuries? will he not again tamper with those men who
have received lands? will he not again seek those who have been banished? will
he not, in short, be Marcus Antonius; to whom, on the occasion of every
commotion, there will be a rush of all profligate citizens? Even if there be no
one else except those who are with him now, and these who in this body now
openly speak in his favor, will they be too small in number? especially when
all the protection which we might have had from good men is lost, and when
those men are prepared to obey his nod? But I am afraid, if at this time we
fail to adopt wise counsels, that that party will in a short time appear too
numerous for us.
[19] Nor have I any dislike
to peace; only I do dread war disguised under the name of peace. Wherefore, if
we wish to enjoy peace we must first wage war. If we shrink from war, peace we
shall never have.
Ch.
But it becomes your
prudence, O conscript fathers, to provide as far forward as possible for
posterity. That is the object for which we were placed in this garrison, and as
it were on this watch-tower; that by our vigilance and foresight we might keep
the Roman people free from fear. It would be a shameful thing, especially in so
clear a case as this, for it to be notorious that wisdom was wanting to the
chief council of the whole world.
[20] We have such consuls,
there is such eagerness on the part of the Roman people, we have such a
unanimous feeling of all Italy
I have spoken about danger.
I will now proceed to prove to you that it is not possible for peace to be
firmly cemented; for of the propositions which I promised to establish this is
the last.
Ch.
[21] What peace can there be
between Marcus Antonius and (in the first, place) the senate? with what face
will he be able to look upon you, and with what eyes will you, in turn, look
upon him? Which of you does not hate him? which of you does not he hate? Come,
are you the only people who hate him, and whom he hates? What? what do you think
of those men who are besieging Mutina, who are levying troops in
[22] For why should I speak
of the whole Roman people? which, in a full and crowded forum, twice, with one
heart and one voice, summoned me into the assembly, and plainly showed their
excessive eagerness for the recovery of their liberty. So, desirable as it was
before to have the Roman people for our comrade, we now have it for our leader.
What hope then is there that
there ever can be peace between the Roman people and the men who are besieging
Mutina and attacking a general and army of the Roman people?
[23] Will there be peace
with the municipal towns, whose great zeal is shown by the decrees which they
pass, by the soldiers whom they furnish, by the sums which they promise, so
that in each town there is such a spirit as leaves no one room to wish for a
senate of the Roman people? The men of Firmium deserve to be praised by a
resolution of our order, who set the first example of promising money; we ought
to return a complimentary answer to the Marrucini, who have passed a vote that
all who evade military service are to be branded with infamy. These measures
are adopted all over Italy
[24] To say nothing of the
mob, look at Lucius Visidius, a Roman knight, a man of the very highest
accomplishments and honor, a citizen always eminent, whose watchfulness and
exertions for the protection of my life I felt in my consulship; who not only
exhorted his neighbors to become soldiers, but also assisted them from his own
resources; will it be possible ever to reconcile Antonius to such a man as
this, a man whom we ought to praise by a formal resolution of the senate? What?
will it be possible to reconcile him to Caius Caesar, who prevented him from
entering the city, or to Decimus Brutus, who has refused him entrance into Gaul ?
[25] Moreover, will he
reconcile himself to, or look mercifully on the province of Gaul
Ch.
[26] What now is the object
of this oration? For we do not yet know what the ambassadors have done. But
still we ought to be awake, erect, prepared, armed in our minds, so as not to
be deceived by any civil or supplicatory language, or by any pretense of
justice. He must have complied with all the prohibitions and all the commands
which we have sent him, before he can demand any thing. He must have desisted
from attacking Brutus and his army, and from plundering the cities and lands of
the
[27] But I warn you, O
conscript fathers, the liberty of the Roman people, which is entrusted to you,
is at stake. The life and fortune of every virtuous man is at stake, against
which Antonius has long been directing his insatiable covetousness, united to
his savage cruelty. Your authority is at stake, which you will wholly lose if
you do not maintain it now. Beware how you let that foul and deadly beast
escape now that you have got him confined and chained. You too, Pansa, I warn
(although you do not need counsel, for you have plenty of wisdom yourself: but
still, even the most skillful pilots receive often warnings from the passengers
in terrible storms.), not to allow this vast and noble preparation which you
have made to fall away to nothing. You have such an opportunity as no one ever
had. It is in your power so to avail yourself of this wise firmness of the
senate, of this zeal of the equestrian order, of this ardor of the Roman
people, as to release the Roman people from fear and danger forever. As to the
matters to which your motion before the senate refers, I agree with Publius
Servilius.
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