The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero Part 12

X. Now what peace, O Marcus Lepidus, can exist with this man? when it does not seem that there is even any punishment which the Roman people can think adequate to his crimes?

But if any one has. .h.i.therto been able to doubt the fact, that there can be nothing whatever in common between this order and the Roman people and that most detestable beast, let him at least cease to entertain such a doubt, when he becomes acquainted with this letter which I have just received, it having been sent to me by Hirtius the consul. While I read it, and while I briefly discuss each paragraph, I beg, O conscript fathers, that you will listen to me most attentively, as you have hitherto done.

"Antonius to Hirtius and Caesar."

He does not call himself imperator, nor Hirtius consul, nor Caesar pro-praetor. This is cunningly done enough. He preferred laying aside a t.i.tle to which he had no right himself, to giving them their proper style.

"When I heard of the death of Caius Trebonius, I was not more rejoiced than grieved."

Take notice why he says he rejoiced, why he says that he was grieved; and then you will be more easily able to decide the question of peace.

"It was a matter of proper rejoicing that a wicked man had paid the penalty due to the bones and ashes of a most ill.u.s.trious man, and that the divine power of the G.o.ds had shown itself before the end of the current year, by showing the chastis.e.m.e.nt of that parricide already inflicted in some cases, and impending in others."

O you Spartacus! for what name is more fit for you? you whose abominable wickedness is such as to make even Catiline seem tolerable.

Have you dared to write that it is a matter of rejoicing that Trebonius has suffered punishment? that Trebonius was wicked? What was his crime, except that on the ides of March he withdrew you from the destruction which you had deserved? Come; you rejoice at this; let us see what it is that excites your indignation.

"That Dolabella should at this time have been p.r.o.nounced a public enemy because he has slain an a.s.sa.s.sin; and that the son of a buffoon should appear dearer to the Roman people than Caius Caesar, the father of his country, are circ.u.mstances to be lamented."

Why should you be sad because Dolabella has been p.r.o.nounced a public enemy? Why? Are you not aware that you yourself--by the fact of an enlistment having taken place all over Italy, and of the consuls being sent forth to war, and of Caesar having received great honours, and of the garb of war having been a.s.sumed--have also been p.r.o.nounced an enemy? And what reason is there, O you wicked man, for lamenting that Dolabella has been declared an enemy by the senate? a body which you indeed think of no consequence at all; but you make it your main object in waging war utterly to destroy the senate, and to make all the rest of those who are either virtuous or wealthy follow the fate of the highest order of all. But he calls him the son of a buffoon. As if that n.o.ble Roman knight the father of Trebonius were unknown to us.

And does he venture to look down on any one because of the meanness of his birth, when he has himself children by Fadia?

XL "But it is the bitterest thing of all that you, O Aulus Hirtius, who have been distinguished by Caesar's kindness, and who have been left by him in a condition which you yourself marvel at. [lacuna]"

I cannot indeed deny that Aulus Hirtius was distinguished by Caesar, but such distinctions are only of value when conferred on virtue and industry. But you, who cannot deny that you also were distinguished by Caesar, what would you have been if he had not showered so many kindnesses on you? Where would your own good qualities have borne you?

Where would your birth have conducted you? You would have spent the whole period of your manhood in brothels, and cookshops, and in gambling and drinking, as you used to do when you were always burying your brains and your beard in the laps of actresses.

"And you too, O boy--"

He calls him a boy whom he has not only experienced and shall again experience to be a man, but one of the bravest of men. It is indeed the name appropriate to his age; but he is the last man in the world who ought to use it, when it is his own madness that has opened to this boy the path to glory.

"You who owe everything to his name--"

He does indeed owe everything, and n.o.bly is he paying it. For if he was the father of his country, as you call him, (I will see hereafter what my opinion of that matter is,) why is not this youth still more truly our father, to whom it certainly is owing that we are now enjoying life, saved out of your most guilty hands!

"Are taking pains to have Dolabella legally condemned."

A base action, truly! by which the authority of this most honourable order is defended against the insanity of a most inhuman gladiator.

"And to effect the release of this poisoner from blockade."

Do you dare to call that man a poisoner who has found a remedy against your own poisoning tricks? and whom you are besieging in such a manner, O you new Hannibal, (or if there was ever any abler general than he,) as to blockade yourself, and to be unable to extricate yourself from your present position, should you be ever so desirous to do so? Suppose you retreat; they will all pursue you from all sides.

Suppose you stay where you are; you will be caught. You are very right, certainly, to call him a poisoner, by whom you see that your present disastrous condition has been brought about.

"In order that Ca.s.sius and Brutus may become as powerful as possible."

Would you suppose that he is speaking of Censorinus, or of Ventidius, or of the Antonii themselves. But why should they be unwilling that those men should become powerful, who are not only most excellent and n.o.bly born men, but who are also united with them in the defence of the republic?

"In fact, you look upon the existing circ.u.mstances as you did on the former ones."

What can he mean?

"You used to call the camp of Pompeius the senate."

XII. Should we rather call your camp the senate? In which you are the only man of consular rank, you whose whole consulship is effaced from every monument and register; and two praetors, who are afraid that they will lose something by us,--a groundless fear. For we are maintaining all the grants made by Caesar; and men of praetorian rank, Philadelphus Annius, and that innocent Gallius; and men of aedilitian rank, he on whom I have spent so much of my lungs and voice, Bestia, and that patron of good faith and cheater of his creditors, Trebellius, and that bankrupt and ruined man Quintus Caelius, and that support of the friends of Antonius Cotyla Varius, whom Antonius for his amus.e.m.e.nt caused at a banquet to be flogged with thongs by the public slaves. Men of septemviral rank, Lento and Nucula, and then that delight and darling of the Roman people, Lucius Antonius. And for tribunes, first of all two tribunes elect, Tullus Hostilius, who was so full of his privileges as to write up his name on the gate of Rome; and who, when he found himself unable to betray his general, deserted him. The other tribune elect is a man of the name of Viseius; I know nothing about him; but I hear that he is (as they say) a bold robber; who, however, they say was once a bathing man at Pisaurum, and a very good hand at mixing the water. Then there are others too, of tribunitian rank: in the first place, t.i.tus Plancus; a man who, if he had had any affection for the senate, would never have burnt the senate-house. Having been condemned for which wickedness, he returned to that city by force of arms from which he was driven by the power of the law. But, however, this is a case common to him and to many others who are very unlike him. But this is quite true which men are in the habit of saying of this Plancus in a proverbial way, that it is quite impossible for him to die unless his legs are broken.[50] They are broken, and still he lives. But this, like many others, is a service that has been done us by Aquila.

XIII. There is also in that camp Decius, descended, as I believe, from the great Decius Mus; accordingly he gained[51] the gifts of Caesar.

And so after a long interval the recollection of the Decii is renewed by this ill.u.s.trious man. And how can I pa.s.s over Saxa Decidius, a fellow imported from the most distant nations, in order that we might see that man tribune of the people whom we had never beheld as a citizen? There is also one of the Sasernae; but all of them have such a resemblance to one another, that I may make a mistake as to their first names. Nor must I omit Exitius, the brother of Philadelphus the quaestor; lest, if I were to be silent about that most ill.u.s.trious young man, I should seem to be envying Antonius. There is also a gentleman of the name of Asinius, a voluntary senator, having been elected by himself. He saw the senate-house open after the death of Caesar, he changed his shoes, and in a moment became a conscript father. s.e.xtus Albedius I do not know, but still I have not fallen in with any one so fond of evil-speaking, as to deny that he is worthy of a place in the senate of Antonius.

I dare say that I have pa.s.sed over some names; but still I could not refrain from mentioning those who did occur to me. Relying then on this senate, he looks down on the senate which supported Pompeius, in which ten of us were men of consular rank; and if they were all alive now this war would never have arisen at all. Audacity would have succ.u.mbed to authority. But what great protection there would have been in the rest may be understood from this, that I, when left alone of all that band, with your a.s.sistance crushed and broke the audacity of that triumphant robber.

XIV. But if Fortune had not taken from us not only Servius Sulpicius, and before him, his colleague Marcus Marcellus,--what citizens! What men! If the republic had been able to retain the two consuls, men most devoted to their country, who were driven together out of Italy; and Lucius Afranius, that consummate general; and Publius Lentulus, a citizen who displayed his extraordinary virtue on other occasions, and especially in the securing my safe return; and Bibulus, whose constant and firm attachment to the republic has at all times been deservedly praised; and Lucius Domitius, that most excellent citizen; and Appius Claudius, a man equally distinguished for n.o.bleness of birth and for attachment to the state; and Publius Scipio, a most ill.u.s.trious man, closely resembling his ancestors. Certainly with these men of consular rank,[52] the senate which supported Pompeius was not to be despised.

Which, then, was more just, which was more advantageous for the republic, that Cnaeus Pompeius, or that Antonius the brother who bought all Pompeius's property, should live? And then what men of praetorian rank were there with us! the chief of whom was Marcus Cato, being indeed the chief man of any nation in the world for virtue. Why need I speak of the other most ill.u.s.trious men? you know them all. I am more afraid lest you should think me tedious for enumerating so many, than ungrateful for pa.s.sing over any one. And what men of aedilitian rank! and of tribunitian rank! and of quaestorian rank!

Why need I make a long story of it, so great was the dignity of the senators of our party, so great too were their numbers, that those men have need of some very valid excuse who did not join that camp. Now listen to the rest of the letter.

XV. "You have the defeated Cicero for your general."

I am the more glad to hear that word "general," because he certainly uses it against his will, for as for his saying "defeated," I do not mind that, for it is my fate that I can neither be victorious nor defeated without the republic being so at the same time.

"You are fortifying Macedonia with armies".

Yes, indeed, and we have wrested one from your brother, who does not in the least degenerate from you.

"You have entrusted Africa to Varus, who has been twice taken prisoner".

Here he thinks that he is making out a case against his own brother Lucius.

"You have sent Capius into Syria".

Do you not see then, O Antonius, that the whole world is open to our party, but that you have no spot out of your own fortifications, where you can set your foot?

"You have allowed Casca to discharge the office of tribune".

What then? Were we to remove a man, as if he had been Marullus,[53]

or Caesetius, to whom we own it, that this and many other things like this can never happen for the future?

"You have taken away from the Luperci the revenues which Julius Caesar a.s.signed to them."

Does he dare to make mention of the Luperci? Does he not shudder at the recollection of that day on which, smelling of wine, reeking with perfumes, and naked, he dared to exhort the indignant Roman people to embrace slavery?

"You, by a resolution of the senate, have removed the colonies of the veterans which had been legally settled".

Have we removed them, or have we rather ratified a law which was pa.s.sed in the comitia centunata? See, rather, whether it is not you who have ruined these veterans (those at least who are ruined,) and settled them in a place from which they themselves now feel that they shall never be able to make their escape.

"You are promising to restore to the people of Ma.r.s.eilles what has been taken from them by the laws of war."

I am not going to discuss the laws of war. It is a discussion far more easy to begin than necessary. But take notice of this, O conscript fathers, what a born enemy to the republic Antonius is, who is so violent in his hatred of that city which he knows to have been at all times most firmly attached to this republic.

XVI. "[Do you not know] that no one of the party of Pompeius, who is still alive, can, by the Hirtian law, possess any rank?"