Tenth Philippic
Philippica X
Headnote
Delivered in the Senate in February 43 BC, the Tenth Philippic is a speech of confirmation and of duel. A despatch had arrived from Marcus Brutus — styled in the formal decree by his adoptive name, Quintus Caepio Brutus — reporting that without authorisation he had taken Macedonia, Illyricum, and all Greece into the power of the Senate and the Roman people: he had drawn off the legions that Gaius Antonius (the proconsul’s brother) had meant to seize, won over the cavalry bound for Syria, and received the surrender of Dyrrachium from Publius Vatinius. The consul Pansa convened the Senate at once, read the letter, and praised Brutus. Cicero rises to second him — and to answer the one ex-consul who had spoken against confirming Brutus’s command, Quintus Fufius Calenus, the most persistent of Cicero’s senatorial adversaries through the whole Philippic season and, as Cicero needles him, father-in-law of the very consul presiding.
The argument turns on a single principle, stated flatly: all the legions, all the forces that exist anywhere, belong to the commonwealth, and a man forfeits every right to army and command the moment he turns them against the state. By that rule Brutus’s self-raised army is no more suspect than the consular armies of Hirtius, Pansa, Octavian, and Decimus Brutus, all praised for the same cause; and Antony, who uses Roman troops against Rome, has no claim on any of them. Cicero meets the objection that the veterans distrust the name of Brutus the tyrannicide by widening the ground beneath their feet: it is not the veterans alone who will fight for liberty, and an order that lets itself be steered “at the nod of the veterans” has already surrendered. From that comes the famous central passage (§19–20), the hardest statement in the series of the creed that death is preferable to slavery — “life does not consist in breath; rather, there is none at all for one who is a slave” — and that other nations may endure servitude but Rome, bred to refer everything to dignity and virtue, cannot.
The speech is laced with the running quarrel with Calenus: the mockery of his praise of Brutus’s letter as “well and properly written” (praise, Cicero says, of Brutus’s clerk, not Brutus), the appeal to his pride in a promising son, the advice to talk less with himself and more with his wise son-in-law. After a rapid muster of Brutus’s lieutenants — Quintus Hortensius, who held Macedonia for him; the younger Cicero, to whom Piso’s legion gave itself up; Gnaeus Domitius; Marcus Apuleius — and a contemptuous glance at Antony’s hangers-on (Lucius Antonius, Trebellius restored to favour by a cancellation of debts, Plancus Bursa, the squatters Saxa and Cafo with their mime-actor neighbours on the Campanian land), the speech closes, as the deliberative Philippics do, in a formal motion (§25–26): a vote of thanks to Brutus, a grant confirming him in command of Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece with power to raise money, contract loans, requisition grain, and keep his forces close to Italy, and a parallel commendation continuing Hortensius in the province until a successor is named.
We all owe you the greatest thanks, Pansa, both to feel and to render — you who, when we did not suppose you would be holding the Senate today, the moment you received the letter of Marcus Brutus, that most excellent citizen, allowed not the least delay before we could enjoy, as soon as could be, the greatest joy and rejoicing. Your act ought to be welcome to all; but even more so the speech you made once the letter had been read out. For you made plain the truth of what I have always felt: that no one who trusts in his own virtue envies the virtue of another.
maximas tibi, Pansa, gratias omnes et habere et agere debemus qui, cum hodierno die senatum te habiturum non arbitraremur, ut M. Bruti, praestantissimi civis, litteras accepisti, ne minimam quidem moram interposuisti quin quam primum maximo gaudio et gratulatione frueremur. cum factum tuum gratum omnibus debet esse, tum vero oratio qua recitatis litteris usus es. declarasti enim verum esse id quod ego semper sensi, neminem alterius qui suae confideret virtuti invidere.
And so I, who am bound to Brutus by the most numerous good offices and by the closest intimacy, have the less to say of him. For the part I had taken up for myself, your speech has forestalled. But upon me, senators, the opinion of the man who was asked before me has laid the necessity of saying a little more — a man from whom I so often dissent that I now fear that our perpetual disagreement may seem to lessen our friendship, which is the last thing that ought to happen.
itaque mihi qui plurimis officiis sum cum Bruto et maxima familiaritate coniunctus minus multa de illo dicenda sunt. quas enim ipse mihi partis sumpseram, eas praecepit oratio tua. sed mihi, patres conscripti, necessitatem attulit paulo plura dicendi sententia eius qui rogatus est ante me; a quo ita saepe dissentio ut iam verear ne, id quod fieri minime debet, minuere amicitiam nostram videatur perpetua dissensio.
For what is this reasoning of yours, Calenus, what is this cast of mind, that never since the Kalends of January have you been of the same opinion as the man who calls on you to speak first, and never has the Senate been so crowded that any single man has followed your motion? Why do you always defend causes unlike yourself? Why, when your own life and fortune invite you to peace, to dignity, do you approve, decree, and hold opinions hostile both to the common peace and to your own dignity?
quae est enim ista tua ratio, Calene, quae mens ut numquam post Kalendas Ianuarias idem senseris quod is qui te sententiam primum rogat, numquam tam frequens senatus fuerit cum unus aliquis sententiam tuam secutus sit? cur semper tui dissimilis defendis? cur cum te et vita et fortuna tua ad otium, ad dignitatem invitet, ea probas, ea decernis, ea sentis quae sint inimica et otio communi et dignitati tuae.
For — to pass over earlier matters — this at least, which moves my greatest astonishment, I will not pass over in silence. What war have you with the Bruti? Why do you alone assail those whom nearly all of us are bound to revere? The one being besieged you bear without distress; the other you strip, by your motion, of those forces which he himself, by his own toil and peril, raised for the protection of the commonwealth and not of himself, by his own effort, with no one helping. What is this feeling of yours, this way of thinking — that you should not approve the Bruti but should approve the Antonii; that those whom all men hold most dear, you should hate, and those whom all others hate most bitterly, you should most steadfastly love? Yours are the most ample fortunes, the highest rank of honour, a son — born, as I both hear and hope, for glory; and I favour him both for the commonwealth’s sake, and also for yours.
nam ut superiora omittam, hoc certe quod mihi maximam admirationem movet non tacebo. quod est tibi cum Brutis bellum? cur eos quos omnes paene venerari debemus solus oppugnas? alterum circumsederi non moleste fers, alterum tua sententia spolias eis copiis quas ipse suo labore et periculo ad rei publicae non ad suum praesidium per se nullo adiuvante confecit. qui est iste tuus sensus, quae cogitatio, Brutos ut non probes, Antonios probes; quos omnes carissimos habent, tu oderis, quos acerbissime ceteri oderunt, tu constantissime diligas? amplissimae tibi fortunae sunt, summus honoris gradus, filius, ut et audio et spero, natus ad laudem, cui cum rei publicae causa faveo, tum etiam tua.
I ask, then: would you rather have him like Brutus or like Antony? — and I leave you free to choose which of the three Antonii you please. “The gods forbid!” you will say. Why, then, do you not favour those, do you not praise those, like whom you wish your son to be? For so you will at once take counsel for the commonwealth and set before him examples to imitate. But on this point, Quintus Fufius, I wish to make my complaint to you — without offence to our friendship — as a senator who dissents from you. For you said, and indeed from a written text (lest I should think you had slipped for want of a word), that the letter of Brutus seemed “well and properly written.” What is this but to praise Brutus’s clerk, and not Brutus?
quaero igitur, eum Brutine similem malis an Antoni, ac permitto ut de tribus Antoniis eligas quem velis. ‘ di meliora!’ inquies. cur igitur non eis faves, eos laudas quorum similem tuum filium esse vis? simul enim et rei publicae consules et propones illi exempla ad imitandum. hoc vero, Q. Fufi, cupio sine offensione nostrae amicitiae sic tecum ut a te dissentiens senator queri. ita enim dixisti et quidem de scripto, ne te inopia verbi lapsum putarem, litteras Bruti recte et ordine scriptas videri. quid est aliud librarium Bruti laudare, non Brutum?
Experience in public affairs, Calenus, you both ought to have, and can have, in large measure by now. When have you seen it so decreed — or by what decree of the Senate of this kind, and they are beyond counting, has the Senate ever pronounced a letter “well written”? This word did not slip from you by accident, as often happens: you brought it written down, pondered, thought out. If anyone could rid you of this habit of carping at most good causes, what that any man might wish for himself would not be left to you? Therefore collect yourself, and at last calm and soften that temper of yours: listen to good men, of whom you have many about you; talk with that wisest of men, your son-in-law, more often than with yourself — then at last you will hold the name of the highest honour worthily. Or do you count it as nothing — a thing for which, out of friendship, I am wont to grieve on your behalf — that it gets carried abroad and reaches the ears of the Roman people, that to the man who spoke his opinion first not one man assented? Which I think will be the case today as well. You are taking the legions away from Brutus. Which legions? Those, surely, which he turned aside from the crime of Gaius Antonius and brought over to the commonwealth by his own authority. So once again you wish him to be seen stripped bare and, alone, banished from the commonwealth.
Vsum in re publica, Calene, magnum iam habere et debes et potes. quando ita decerni vidisti aut quo senatus consulto huius generis—sunt enim innumerabilia—bene scriptas litteras decretum a senatu? quod verbum tibi non excidit, ut saepe fit, fortuito: scriptum, meditatum, cogitatum attulisti. hanc tibi consuetudinem plerisque in rebus bonis obtrectandi si qui detraxerit, quid tibi quod sibi quisque velit non relinquetur? quam ob rem conlige te placaque animum istum aliquando et mitiga: audi viros bonos, quibus multis uteris; loquere cum sapientissimo homine, genero tuo, saepius quam ipse tecum: tum denique amplissimi honoris nomen obtinebis. an vero hoc pro nihilo putas in quo quidem pro amicitia tuam vicem dolere soleo, efferri hoc foras et ad populi Romani auris pervenire, ei qui primus sententiam dixerit neminem adsensum? quod etiam hodie futurum arbitror. legiones abducis a Bruto. quas? nempe eas quas ille a C. Antoni scelere avertit et ad rem publicam sua auctoritate traduxit. rursus igitur vis nudatum illum atque solum a re publica relegatum videri.
But you, senators, if you abandon and betray Marcus Brutus, what citizen will you ever honour, whom will you favour? Unless perhaps you think that those who set the diadem on a man’s head are to be preserved, and those who did away with the very name of kingship are to be cast off. And of that divine and immortal glory of Brutus I will say nothing — the glory which, enshrined in the most grateful memory of all citizens, has not yet been attested by public authority. Such forbearance, good gods! such restraint, such calm and modesty under injury! He, while he was urban praetor, kept away from the city, dispensed no justice — though he had recovered all justice for the commonwealth; and though he might have been hedged about by the daily concourse of all good men, which used to flock to him in wondrous number, and by the protection of all Italy, he chose rather to be defended in his absence by the judgment of good men than present by their armed hand: he who did not even put on in person the Games of Apollo, mounted in keeping with his own dignity and that of the Roman people, lest he should open any path to the audacity of the most criminal of men.
vos autem, patres conscripti, si M. Brutum deserueritis et prodideritis, quem tandem civem umquam ornabitis, cui favebitis? nisi forte eos qui diadema imposuerint conservandos, eos qui regni nomen sustulerint deserendos putatis. ac de hac quidem divina atque immortali laude Bruti silebo quae gratissima memoria omnium civium inclusa nondum publica auctoritate testata est. tantamne patientiam, di boni! tantam moderationem, tantam in iniuria tranquillitatem et modestiam! qui cum praetor urbanus esset, urbe caruit, ius non dixit, cum omne ius rei publicae recuperavisset, cumque concursu cotidiano bonorum omnium qui admirabilis ad eum fieri solebat praesidioque Italiae cunctae saeptus posset esse, absens iudicio bonorum defensus esse maluit quam praesens manu: qui ne Apollinaris quidem ludos pro sua populique Romani dignitate apparatos praesens fecit, ne quam viam patefaceret sceleratissimorum hominum audaciae.
And yet what games, what days, were ever more joyful than when, at every single verse, the Roman people pursued the memory of Brutus with the loudest shouting and applause? The body of the liberator was absent, the memory of liberty was present: and in it the image of Brutus seemed to be discerned. But I saw him myself, in those very days of the games, on the estate of that most distinguished young man Gnaeus Lucullus, his kinsman, thinking of nothing but the peace and concord of the citizens. And I saw the same man afterwards at Velia, withdrawing from Italy so that no occasion for civil war might arise on his account. O that sight, mournful not to men only but to the very waves and shores! that the saviour of his country should withdraw from it, while its destroyers remained within it! The fleet of Cassius followed a few days later, so that I was ashamed, senators, to return to that city from which those men were departing. But with what purpose I returned you heard at the outset, and afterwards you have learned by proof. And so Brutus bided his time.
quamquam qui umquam aut ludi aut dies laetiores fuerunt quam cum in singulis versibus populus Romanus maximo clamore et plausu Bruti memoriam prosequebatur? corpus aberat liberatoris, libertatis memoria aderat: in qua Bruti imago cerni videbatur. at hunc eis ipsis ludorum diebus videbam in insula clarissimi adulescentis, Cn. Luculli, propinqui sui nihil nisi de pace et concordia civium cogitantem. eundem vidi postea Veliae, cedentem Italia ne qua oreretur belli civilis causa propter se. O spectaculum illud non modo hominibus sed undis ipsis et litoribus luctuosum! cedere e patria servatorem eius, manere in patria perditores! Cassi classis paucis post diebus consequebatur, ut me puderet, patres conscripti, in eam urbem redire ex qua illi abirent. sed quo consilio redierim initio audistis, post estis experti. exspectatum igitur tempus a Bruto est.
For as long as he saw you enduring everything, he himself used an incredible patience: but once he perceived that you were roused toward liberty, he prepared defences for your liberty. And what a plague, and how great, he withstood! For if Gaius Antonius had been able to accomplish what he had set his mind upon — and he would have been able, had not the virtue of Marcus Brutus stood in the way of his crime — we should have lost Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece; Greece would have been either a refuge for Antony if he were driven out, or a rampart for the assault of Italy. Whereas now, under the command, the authority, and the forces of Marcus Brutus — not merely equipped but even adorned — Greece stretches out her right hand to Italy and pledges Italy her protection. Whoever takes the army away from him robs the commonwealth both of a most glorious recourse and of a most steadfast protection.
nam quoad vos omnia pati vidit, usus est ipse incredibili patientia: postea quam vos ad libertatem sensit erectos, praesidia vestrae libertati paravit. at cui pesti quantaeque restitit! si enim C. Antonius quod animo intenderat perficere potuisset—at potuisset nisi eius sceleri virtus M. Bruti obstitisset—Macedoniam, Illyricum, Graeciam perdidissemus; esset vel receptaculum pulso Antonio vel agger oppugnandae Italiae Graecia: quae quidem nunc M. Bruti imperio, auctoritate, copiis non instructa solum sed etiam ornata tendit dexteram Italiae suumque ei praesidium pollicetur. qui ab illo abducit exercitum, et respectum pulcherrimum et praesidium firmissimum adimit rei publicae.
For my part, I desire that Antony hear this as soon as may be, so that he may understand that it is not Decimus Brutus, whom he besieges with his rampart, but he himself who is besieged. He holds three towns in the whole world; he has Gaul most hostile to him; even those in whom he trusted, the Transpadanes, utterly estranged; all Italy is set against him; the foreign nations, from the first shore of Greece all the way to Egypt, are held by the commands and garrisons of the best and bravest citizens. He had one hope, in Gaius Antonius — who, set in age midway between his two brothers, vied with each of them in vices. He ran off to Macedonia as though he were being thrust out by the Senate, and not, on the contrary, forbidden to set out.
equidem cupio haec quam primum Antonium audire, ut intellegat non D. Brutum quem vallo circumsedeat, sed se ipsum obsideri. tria tenet oppida toto in orbe terrarum; habet inimicissimam Galliam; eos etiam quibus confidebat alienissimos, Transpadanos; Italia omnis infesta est; exterae nationes a prima ora Graeciae usque ad Aegyptum optimorum et fortissimorum civium imperiis et praesidiis tenentur. erat ei spes una in C. Antonio qui duorum fratrum aetatibus medius interiectus vitiis cum utroque certabat. is tamquam extruderetur a senatu in Macedoniam et non contra prohiberetur proficisci, ita cucurrit.
What a storm, immortal gods, what a blaze, what devastation, what a plague for Greece, had not the incredible and divine virtue of Brutus crushed the attempt and audacity of that raving man! What speed was his, what care, what virtue! — though not even the speed of Gaius Antonius is to be despised: had not windfall inheritances delayed him on the road, you would say he had flown, not made a journey. When we wish other men to go to public business, we can scarcely thrust them out: this one we thrust out in the very act of holding him back. But what had he to do with Apollonia, what with Dyrrachium, what with Illyricum, what with the army of the commander Publius Vatinius? He was succeeding Hortensius, as he himself said. The bounds of Macedonia were fixed, his terms fixed, his army fixed — if indeed he had any at all: but with Illyricum, and with the legions of Vatinius, what had Antonius to do?
quae tempestas, di immortales, quae flamma, quae vastitas, quae pestis Graeciae, nisi incredibilis ac divina virtus furentis hominis conatum atque audaciam compressisset! quae celeritas illa Bruti, quae cura, quae virtus! etsi ne C. quidem Antoni celeritas contemnenda est, quam nisi in via caducae hereditates retardassent, volasse eum, non iter fecisse diceres. Alios ad negotium publicum ire cum cupimus, vix solemus extrudere: hunc retinentes extrusimus. at quid ei cum Apollonia, quid cum Dyrrachio, quid cum Illyrico, quid cum P. Vatini imperatoris exercitu? succedebat, ut ipse dicebat, Hortensio. certi fines Macedoniae, certa condicio, certus, si modo erat ullus, exercitus: cum Illyrico vero et cum Vatini legionibus quid erat Antonio?
“But neither had Brutus” — for so perhaps some unprincipled man might say. All the legions, all the forces that are anywhere, belong to the commonwealth: nor will those legions which abandoned Marcus Antonius be said to have belonged to Antony rather than to the commonwealth. For every right both to an army and to command is forfeited by the man who uses that command and army to assail the commonwealth. And if the commonwealth herself were to judge, or if all right were settled by her decrees, would she adjudge the legions of the Roman people to Antony, or to Brutus? The one had flown down suddenly to the plunder and ruin of the allies, so that wherever he went he laid all waste, plundered, carried off, and used the army of the Roman people against the Roman people itself; the other had set himself this rule: that wherever he came, a kind of light and hope of deliverance should seem to have come. In short, the one sought forces to overthrow the commonwealth, the other to preserve it. Nor indeed did we see this more clearly than the soldiers themselves, of whom so great a prudence in judging was not to be demanded.
’ at ne Bruto quidem’: id enim fortasse quispiam improbus dixerit. omnes legiones, omnes copiae quae ubique sunt rei publicae sunt: nec enim eae legiones quae M. Antonium reliquerunt Antoni potius quam rei publicae fuisse dicentur. omne enim et exercitus et imperi ius amittit is qui eo imperio et exercitu rem publicam oppugnat. quod si ipsa res publica iudicaret aut si omne ius decretis eius statueretur, Antonione an Bruto legiones populi Romani adiudicaret? alter advolarat subito ad direptionem pestemque sociorum ut, quacumque iret, omnia vastaret, diriperet, auferret, exercitu populi Romani contra ipsum populum Romanum uteretur; alter eam legem sibi statuerat, ut, quocumque venisset, lux venisse quaedam et spes salutis videretur. denique alter ad evertendam rem publicam praesidia quaerebat, alter ad conservandam. nec vero nos hoc magis videbamus quam ipsi milites a quibus tanta in iudicando prudentia non erat postulanda.
He writes that Antonius is at Apollonia with seven cohorts — a man who by now either has been captured (which may the gods grant!) or, at the least, modest fellow that he is, does not enter Macedonia, lest he seem to have acted against the decree of the Senate. A levy has been held in Macedonia by the utmost zeal and industry of Quintus Hortensius, whose excellent spirit, worthy of himself and of his ancestors, you have been able to discern from the letter of Brutus. The legion which Lucius Piso, a legate of Antony, was leading gave itself up to my son Cicero. The cavalry that was being led into Syria, divided in two, the one part abandoned in Thessaly the quaestor by whom it was being led and took itself off to Brutus; the other, in Macedonia, the young Gnaeus Domitius — a man of the highest virtue, gravity, and constancy — led away from the Syrian legate. And Publius Vatinius, who was both rightly praised by you before and now deserves praise as well, opened the gates of Dyrrachium to Brutus and handed over his army.
cum vii cohortibus esse Apolloniae scribit Antonium, qui iam aut captus est—quod di duint!—aut certe homo verecundus in Macedoniam non accedit ne contra senatus consultum fecisse videatur. dilectus habitus in Macedonia est summo Q. Hortensi studio et industria; cuius animum egregium dignumque ipso et maioribus eius ex Bruti litteris perspicere potuistis. legio quam L. Piso ducebat, legatus Antoni, Ciceroni se filio meo tradidit. equitatus qui in Syriam ducebatur bipertito alter eum quaestorem a quo ducebatur reliquit in Thessalia seseque ad Brutum contulit; alterum in Macedonia Cn. Domitius adulescens summa virtute, gravitate, constantia a legato Syriaco abduxit. P. autem Vatinius qui et antea iure laudatus a vobis et hoc tempore merito laudandus est aperuit Dyrrachi portas Bruto et exercitum tradidit.
The commonwealth, then, holds Macedonia, holds Illyricum, guards Greece: ours are the legions, ours the light-armed troops, ours the cavalry, and most of all Brutus is ours, and ever ours — born for the commonwealth both by his own most excellent virtue and by a kind of destiny of his line and name on his father’s side and his mother’s. Does anyone, then, fear war from this man — who, before we were forced to take it up, preferred to lie idle in peace rather than to flourish in war? And yet he never lay idle, nor can that word fall upon so great an excellence of virtue. For he was in the longing of the state, on its lips, in the talk of all; yet so far was he from war that, when Italy was ablaze with desire for liberty, he failed the zeal of the citizens rather than lead them into the hazard of arms. And so those very men, if there are any, who blame the slowness of Brutus nonetheless admire his restraint and forbearance.
tenet igitur res publica Macedoniam, tenet Illyricum, tuetur Graeciam: nostrae sunt legiones, nostra levis armatura, noster equitatus, maximeque noster est Brutus semperque noster, cum sua excellentissima virtute rei publicae natus tum fato quodam paterni maternique generis et nominis. ab hoc igitur viro quisquam bellum timet qui, ante quam nos id coacti suscepimus, in pace iacere quam in bello vigere maluit? quamquam ille quidem numquam iacuit neque hoc cadere verbum in tantam virtutis praestantiam potest. erat enim in desiderio civitatis, in ore, in sermone omnium; tantum autem aberat a bello ut, cum cupiditate libertatis Italia arderet, defuerit civium studiis potius quam eos in armorum discrimen adduceret. itaque illi ipsi si qui sunt qui tarditatem Bruti reprehendant tamen idem moderationem patientiamque mirantur.
But by now I see what they are saying; for they do not do it in secret. They say they are afraid how the veterans will take it that Brutus has an army. As though, indeed, there were any difference between the army of Aulus Hirtius, of Gaius Pansa, of Decimus Brutus, of Gaius Caesar, and this army of Marcus Brutus. For if the four armies I have named are praised because they took up arms for the liberty of the Roman people, what reason is there why this army of Marcus Brutus should not be placed in the same cause? “But the name of Marcus Brutus is suspect to the veterans.” More so than that of Decimus? I, for one, do not think it. For although the deed of the Bruti is shared, and the partnership in glory equal, yet those who grieved at that deed were the angrier with Decimus, the more they said that the thing ought least to have been done by him. What, then, are so many armies doing now, except that Brutus may be freed from the siege? And who lead these armies? Those, I suppose, who wish the acts of Gaius Caesar overthrown, who wish the cause of the veterans betrayed.
sed iam video quae loquantur; neque enim id occulte faciunt. timere se dicunt quo modo ferant veterani exercitum Brutum habere. quasi vero quicquam intersit inter A. Hirti, C. Pansae, D. Bruti, C. Caesaris et hunc exercitum M. Bruti. nam si quattuor exercitus ei de quibus dixi propterea laudantur quod pro populi Romani libertate arma ceperunt, quid est cur hic M. Bruti exercitus non in eadem causa reponatur? at enim veteranis suspectum nomen est M. Bruti. magisne quam Decimi? equidem non arbitror. etsi est enim Brutorum commune factum et laudis societas aequa, Decimo tamen eo iratiores erant ei qui id factum dolebant quo minus ab eo rem illam dicebant fieri debuisse. quid ergo agunt nunc tot exercitus nisi ut obsidione Brutus liberetur? qui autem hos exercitus ducunt? ei, credo, qui C. Caesaris res actas everti, qui causam veteranorum prodi volunt.
If Gaius Caesar himself were alive, would he, I suppose, defend his own acts more keenly than that most valiant man Hirtius defends them? or can anyone be found more friendly to the cause than his son? Yet of these two, the one, not yet recovered from the long course of a most grave illness, brought all the strength he had to the defence of the liberty of those by whose prayers he judged he had been called back from death; the other, stronger in the sturdiness of his virtue than of his years, set out with those very veterans to free Decimus Brutus. So those most certain and most ardent champions of Caesar’s acts are waging war for the safety of Decimus Brutus, and the veterans follow them; for they see that what must be decided by arms is the liberty of the Roman people, not their own advantages.
si ipse viveret C. Caesar, acrius, credo, acta sua defenderet quam vir fortissimus defendit Hirtius, aut amicior causae quisquam inveniri potest quam filius? at horum alter nondum ex longinquitate gravissimi morbi recreatus quicquid habuit virium, id in eorum libertatem defendendam contulit quorum votis iudicavit se a morte revocatum; alter virtutis robore firmior quam aetatis cum istis ipsis veteranis ad D. Brutum liberandum est profectus. ergo illi certissimi idemque acerrimi Caesaris actorum patroni pro D. Bruti salute bellum gerunt, quos veterani sequuntur; de libertate enim populi Romani, non de suis commodis armis decernendum vident.
What reason is there, then, why the army of Marcus Brutus should be suspect to those who wish Decimus Brutus preserved by every means? Or, indeed, if there were anything that seemed to be feared from Marcus Brutus, would Pansa not see it? or, if he saw it, not be troubled? Who is either wiser in conjecturing things to come, or more diligent in warding off fear? And yet you have seen his disposition toward Marcus Brutus and his zeal. He laid down in his speech what we ought to decree concerning Marcus Brutus and what we ought to think; and so far was he from holding the army of Marcus Brutus dangerous to the commonwealth that in it he placed the firmest and weightiest protection of the commonwealth. No doubt Pansa either does not see this — for he is of dull wit — or neglects it: for he does not care that what Caesar did should stand — he who, on our authority, is about to bring a law before the centuriate assembly to confirm and ratify those acts! Let them cease, then — either those who feel no fear, from feigning fear and a care for the commonwealth, or those who fear everything, from being too timid — lest the pretence of the one and the cowardice of the other do us harm. What, confound it —
quid est igitur cur eis qui D. Brutum omnibus opibus conservatum velint M. Bruti sit suspectus exercitus? an vero, si quid esset quod a M. Bruto timendum videretur, Pansa id non videret, aut, si videret, non laboraret? quis aut sapientior ad coniecturam rerum futurarum aut ad propulsandum metum diligentior? atqui huius animum erga M. Brutum studiumque vidistis. praecepit oratione sua quid decernere nos de M. Bruto, quid sentire oporteret, tantumque afuit ut periculosum rei publicae M. Bruti putaret exercitum ut in eo firmissimum rei publicae praesidium et gravissimum poneret. scilicet hoc Pansa aut non videt—hebeti enim ingenio est—aut neglegit: quae enim Caesar egit, ea rata esse non curat: de quibus confirmandis et sanciendis legem comitiis centuriatis ex auctoritate nostra laturus est. desinant igitur aut ei qui non timent simulare se timere et prospicere rei publicae, aut ei qui omnia verentur nimium esse timidi, ne illorum simulatio, horum obsit ignavia. quae, malum!
is this the method, always to set the name of the veterans against the best of causes? Even though I embrace their virtue, as I do, yet if they were arrogant I could not endure their disdain. But shall it hinder us, as we try to break the chains of slavery, if someone says the veterans are unwilling? For there are not, I suppose, countless men who would take up arms for the common liberty; there is no man, except the veteran soldiers, who is roused by a freeborn indignation to drive off slavery; the commonwealth, then, can stand relying on the veterans without a great reinforcement of the youth! These, indeed — the helpers of liberty — you ought to embrace: the authors of slavery you ought not to follow.
est ista ratio semper optimis causis veteranorum nomen opponere? quorum etiam si amplecterer virtutem, ut facio, tamen, si essent adrogantes, non possem ferre fastidium. at nos conantis servitutis vincla rumpere impediet si quis veteranos nolle dixerit? non sunt enim, credo, innumerabiles qui pro communi libertate arma capiant; nemo est praeter veteranos milites vir qui ad servitutem propulsandam ingenuo dolore excitetur; potest igitur stare res publica freta veteranis sine magno subsidio iuventutis. quos quidem vos libertatis adiutores complecti debetis: servitutis auctores sequi non debetis.
Finally — for let a true word, and one worthy of me, burst out at last! — if the minds of this order are to be steered at the nod of the veterans, and all our words and deeds are to be referred to their will, then death is to be wished for, which to Roman citizens has always been preferable to slavery. All slavery is wretched; but grant that some slavery was unavoidable: what beginning of laying hold of liberty could be more to be desired? Or, when we did not endure that necessary and almost fated misfortune, shall we endure this voluntary one? All Italy has blazed up with longing for liberty; the state can be a slave no longer; later did we give the Roman people this war-garb and these arms than they were demanded of us by the people.
postremo —erumpat enim aliquando vera et me digna vox!—si veteranorum nutu mentes huius ordinis gubernabuntur omniaque ad eorum voluntatem nostra dicta facta referentur, optanda mors est, quae civibus Romanis semper fuit servitute potior. omnis est misera servitus; sed fuerit quaedam necessaria: ecquodnam principium optatius libertatis capessendae? an, cum illum necessarium et fatalem paene casum non tulerimus, hunc feremus voluntarium? tota Italia desiderio libertatis exarsit; servire diutius non potest civitas; serius populo Romano hunc vestitum atque arma dedimus quam ab eo flagitati sumus.
With great hope, indeed, and one almost assured, we have taken up the cause of liberty; but, granting that the outcomes of war are uncertain and that Mars belongs to both sides alike, yet for liberty we must fight it out at the hazard of life. For life does not consist in breath; rather, there is none at all for one who is a slave. All other nations can bear slavery: our state cannot, and for no other reason than this — that they flee toil and pain, and to be rid of these can endure all things, whereas we have been so trained and steeped by our ancestors that we refer all our counsels and deeds to dignity and to virtue. So glorious is the recovery of liberty that not even death is to be shunned in the reclaiming of liberty. And if immortality were to follow upon escape from the present danger, even so that escape would seem the more to be shunned, the longer the slavery it bought. But since, day and night, the fates on every side beset us, it is not the part of a man, and least of all a Roman, to hesitate to render back to his country the breath he owes to nature.
Magna quidem nos spe et prope explorata libertatis causam suscepimus; sed ut concedam incertos exitus esse belli Martemque communem, tamen pro libertate vitae periculo decertandum est. non enim in spiritu vita est, sed ea nulla est omnino servienti. omnes nationes servitutem ferre possunt: nostra civitas non potest, nec ullam aliam ob causam nisi quod illae laborem doloremque fugiunt, quibus ut careant omnia perpeti possunt, nos ita a maioribus instituti atque imbuti sumus ut omnia consilia atque facta ad dignitatem et ad virtutem referremus. ita praeclara est recuperatio libertatis ut ne mors quidem sit in repetenda libertate fugienda. quod si immortalitas consequeretur praesentis periculi fugam, tamen eo magis ea fugienda videretur quo diuturnior servitus esset. cum vero dies et noctes omnia nos undique fata circumstent, non est viri minimeque Romani dubitare eum spiritum quem naturae debeat patriae reddere.
From every side men rush together to put out the common conflagration; the veterans first, following the authority of Caesar, drove back the attempt of Antony; then the Martian legion broke his fury, the Fourth crushed it. Thus, condemned by his own legions, he burst into Gaul, which he found hostile and unfriendly to him in arms and in spirit. The armies of Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Caesar pursued him; afterwards the levy of Pansa roused the city and all Italy; he alone of all men is the enemy. Though he has with him, to be sure, his brother Lucius — a citizen most dear to the Roman people, whose absence the state can no longer bear.
concurritur undique ad commune incendium restinguendum; veterani quidem primi Caesaris auctoritatem secuti conatum Antoni reppulerunt; post eiusdem furorem Martia legio fregit, quarta adflixit. sic a suis legionibus condemnatus inrupit in Galliam, quam sibi armis animisque infestam inimicamque cognovit. hunc A. Hirti, C. Caesaris exercitus insecuti sunt; post Pansae dilectus urbem totamque Italiam erexit; unus omnium est hostis. quamquam habet secum L. fratrem, carissimum populo Romano civem, cuius desiderium ferre diutius civitas non potest.
What is more foul than that beast, what more monstrous? — a man who seems to have been born for this very reason, that Marcus Antonius might not be the basest of all mortals. There is, besides, Trebellius, who now, with a cancellation of debts, comes back into favour; Titus Plancus and the rest, his peers: men who fight for this, who labour for this, to be seen restored in defiance of the commonwealth. And the Saxas and the Cafos stir up ignorant men — themselves boors and rustics, who have never seen this commonwealth and do not wish to see it set in order, who defend not the acts of Caesar but of Antony; whom the boundless possession of the Campanian land has led astray — and I marvel that they feel no shame at that possession, when they see that they have actors and actresses for their neighbours.
quid illa taetrius belua, quid immanius? qui ob eam causam natus videtur ne omnium mortalium turpissimus esset M. Antonius. est una Trebellius, qui iam cum tabulis novis redit in gratiam; T. Plancus et ceteri pares: qui id pugnant, id agunt ut contra rem publicam restituti esse videantur. et sollicitant homines imperitos Saxae et Cafones, ipsi rustici atque agrestes, qui hanc rem publicam nec viderunt umquam nec videre constitutam volunt, qui non Caesaris, sed Antoni acta defendunt, quos avertit agri Campani infinita possessio, cuius eos non pudere demiror, cum videant se mimos et mimas habere vicinos.
To crush these plagues, why should we take it amiss that the army of Marcus Brutus has been added? Of an immoderate and turbulent man, I suppose: take care, rather, lest he be one almost too forbearing. And yet in that man’s counsels and deeds there was never anything either too much or too little. The whole will of Marcus Brutus, senators, his whole thought, his entire mind, looks to the authority of the Senate and the liberty of the Roman people: these he holds before him, these he wishes to guard. He tried what forbearance could accomplish: when it availed nothing, he judged that force must be met with force. And to him, senators, you ought now to grant the same that, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January, on my motion, you granted to Decimus Brutus and Gaius Caesar — men whose private resolve and action on behalf of the commonwealth was approved and praised by your authority.
ad has pestis opprimendas cur moleste feramus quod M. Bruti accessit exercitus? immoderati, credo, hominis et turbulenti: videte ne nimium paene patientis. etsi in illius viri consiliis atque factis nihil nec nimium nec parum umquam fuit. omnis voluntas M. Bruti, patres conscripti, omnis cogitatio, tota mens auctoritatem senatus, libertatem populi Romani intuetur: haec habet proposita, haec tueri volt. temptavit quid patientia perficere posset: nihil cum proficeret, vi contra vim experiendum putavit. cui quidem, patres conscripti, vos idem hoc tempore tribuere debetis quod a. d. xiii. Kalendas Ian. D. Bruto C. Caesari me auctore tribuistis: quorum privatum de re publica consilium et factum auctoritate vestra est comprobatum atque laudatum.
The same you ought to do in the case of Marcus Brutus, by whom an unhoped-for and sudden protection for the commonwealth — great and firm forces of legions, of cavalry, of auxiliaries — has been provided. To him must be joined Quintus Hortensius, who, while he held Macedonia, showed himself a most faithful and most steadfast helper to Brutus in raising the army. For concerning Marcus Apuleius I hold that a separate motion should be brought, to whom Marcus Brutus bears witness by letter that he was foremost in the effort of raising the army. Since these things are so, on the matter that Gaius
quod idem in M. Bruto facere debetis, a quo insperatum et repentinum rei publicae praesidium legionum, equitatus, auxiliorum magnae et firmae copiae comparatae sunt. adiungendus est Q. Hortensius qui, cum Macedoniam obtineret, adiutorem se Bruto ad comparandum exercitum fidissimum et constantissimum praebuit. nam de M. Apuleio separatim censeo referendum, cui testis est per litteras M. Brutus, eum principem fuisse ad conatum exercitus comparandi. quae cum ita sint, quod C.
Pansa the consul has raised concerning the letter that was brought from Quintus Caepio Brutus, proconsul, and read out before this order, on that matter I move thus: “Whereas, by the effort, the counsel, the industry, and the virtue of Quintus Caepio Brutus, proconsul, at a most difficult time for the commonwealth, the province of Macedonia and Illyricum and all Greece, and the legions, the army, the cavalry, are in the power of the consuls, the Senate, and the Roman people, Quintus Caepio Brutus, proconsul, has acted well and for the good of the commonwealth, in keeping with his own dignity and that of his ancestors and with the tradition of governing the commonwealth well; and this is, and shall be, welcome to the Senate and the Roman people; and that Quintus
Pansa consul verba fecit de litteris quae a Q. Caepione Bruto pro consule adlatae et in hoc ordine recitatae sunt, de ea re ita censeo: ‘cum Q. Caepionis Bruti pro consule opera, consilio, industria, virtute difficillimo rei publicae tempore provincia Macedonia et Illyricum et cuncta Graecia et legiones, exercitus, equitatus in consulum, senatus populique Romani potestate sint, id Q. Caepionem Brutum pro consule bene et e re publica pro sua maiorumque suorum dignitate consuetudineque rei publicae bene gerendae fecisse; eam rem senatui populoque Romano gratam esse et fore; utique Q.
Caepio Brutus, proconsul, shall guard, defend, watch over, and keep safe the province of Macedonia, Illyricum, and all Greece, and shall command the army which he himself has established and raised; and shall levy and use, for military purposes, if any be needed, such money as is public and can be exacted; and shall take loans of money for military purposes from whomever shall seem good; and shall requisition grain; and shall see to it that, with his forces, he be as near to Italy as possible; and whereas it has been understood from the letter of Quintus Caepio Brutus, proconsul, that the commonwealth has been vigorously aided by the effort and virtue of Quintus Hortensius, proconsul, and that all his counsels were joined with the counsels of Quintus Caepio Brutus, proconsul, and that this has been of great service to the commonwealth, Quintus Hortensius, proconsul, has acted rightly and in due order and for the good of the commonwealth; and it is the pleasure of the Senate that Quintus Hortensius, proconsul, with his quaestor or proquaestor and his own legates, shall hold the province of Macedonia until a successor be appointed to him by decree of the Senate.”
Caepio Brutus pro consule provinciam Macedoniam, Illyricum cunctamque Graeciam tueatur, defendat, custodiat incolumemque conservet, eique exercitui quem ipse constituit, comparavit, praesit, pecuniamque ad rem militarem, si qua opus sit, quae publica sit et exigi possit, exigat, utatur, pecuniasque a quibus videatur ad rem militarem mutuas sumat, frumentumque imperet operamque det ut cum suis copiis quam proxime Italiam sit; cumque ex litteris Q. Caepionis Bruti pro consule intellectum sit, Q. Hortensi pro consule opera et virtute vehementer rem publicam adiutam omniaque eius consilia cum consiliis Q. Caepionis Bruti pro consule coniuncta fuisse, eamque rem magno usui rei publicae fuisse, Q. Hortensium pro consule recte et ordine exque re publica fecisse, senatuique placere Q. Hortensium pro consule cum quaestore prove quaestore et legatis suis provinciam Macedoniam obtinere quoad ei ex senatus consulto successum sit.’