Fifth Philippic
Philippica V
Headnote
The first speech of the consular year of Pansa and Hirtius, delivered at the inaugural meeting of the Senate in the temple of Concord on the Kalends of January, 43 BC. The business of the day was the state of the war against Antony, who since the autumn had been besieging Decimus Brutus at Mutina; the question on the floor was a proposal — carried, it seems, by Quintus Fufius Calenus, the consular asked his opinion first — to send a legation to Antony rather than proceeding at once to war. Cicero’s speech is the great rebuttal of that proposal and, with it, of every counsel of delay. It is the longest speech in the cycle so far, and the most legislative in shape: not the popular indignation of Philippic 4 nor the formal motion of Philippic 3, but a sustained debate-speech that begins with the case against the legation, runs through Antony’s whole record of public violence, and closes with a series of drafted senatus consulta honouring those who have already taken the field against him.
The argument falls into two unequal halves. §1–34 are the case against the embassy and for war. §1–6 set the stake: a legation would soften both Roman opinion and the resolve of the legions and municipalities that are already in arms; it would also be incompatible with the honours the Senate has just decreed (thirteen days before, in Philippic 3) to those who took up arms against Antony — you cannot both reward the Martian and Fourth Legions for abandoning him and treat him as a citizen worth negotiating with. §7–16 turn to Antony’s record as consul: the agrarian law forced through with Lucius Antonius in defiance of Jove thundering and the lex Caecilia et Didia; the embezzlement of seven hundred million sesterces from the treasury of Ops; the sale of decrees, kingdoms, citizenships, immunities; the falsification of senatus consulta; and above all the third panel of judges — Greeks, gamblers, exiles, dancers, the chorus of his revels — which is held up at length for ridicule. §17–22 cover the armed gangs around the temple of Concord, the threat to demolish Cicero’s house on the Kalends of September, the speech of nineteenth September in his absence, the centurions cut down before Antony and his wife at Brundisium. §23–25 take the flight from Rome to the siege of Mutina, and set the Hannibal comparison (ergo Hannibal hostis, civis Antonius?, §25): an enemy at the gates of a Roman colony, and to such a man the proposal is to send legates. §26–34 are the practical case against the embassy — it will quench the fire, it will breed doubt, doubt will paralyse the levy — and close with Cicero’s own motion: tumultus decreed, iustitium edicted, saga taken up, a universal levy held throughout Italy except Gaul, the commonwealth committed to the consuls with the formula ne quid res publica detrimenti accipiat, and an amnesty for any of Antony’s soldiers who desert him before the Kalends of February.
§35–53 are the second half: the honours. Cicero proposes formal senatus consulta for Decimus Brutus (praise for holding Gaul against Antony, §36), for Lepidus (a gilded equestrian statue on the Rostra in return for restoring Sextus Pompey to the citizenship, §41), for Gaius Caesar — that is, Octavian, who is throughout this speech C.~Caesar — propraetorian imperium, a seat in the Senate with consular rank, and the right to stand for office as if he had held the quaestorship the year before (§46); for Lucius Egnatuleius, who brought the Fourth Legion across, the right to seek office three years before the legal age (§52); and finally for the veterans of the Martian and Fourth Legions a sweeping package of exemptions, land, and bonuses (§53). The Caesar passage (§42–51) is the longest single block: a defence of the unprecedented honours against the foreseeable objection that the young man is too young, with Alexander, Scipio Africanus, and Flamininus brought in as precedents, and a personal guarantee of Caesar’s future conduct (promitto, recipio, spondeo, §51) which the next eighteen months would expose. Almost all of this carried, except the demand for tumultus and saga sumi: the Senate compromised and did send the legation (Sulpicius, Piso, Philippus), which is the business of Philippic 6 and 7.
The register is the high deliberative one. There is no direct address to the people — this is throughout patres conscripti, and the rhythms are those of the consilium publicum rather than the contio. The polemic is sharper than in Philippic 3 (Antony is now scelerati gladiatoris amentia, §32, and the great extended caricature of the third panel of judges, with Cydas of Crete and Lysiades the Athenian named, is among the most savagely funny set- pieces in the cycle), but it is set within a thoroughly legislative argument: the speech ends not in a peroration but in the consul’s formula dixi ad ea omnia, consules, de quibus rettulistis, the senatorial equivalent of resting one’s case.
Never, senators, have these Kalends of January seemed longer in coming to me; and the same thing, I understood, seemed true to every one of you these last days. For those who wage war against the commonwealth were not waiting for this day; whereas we, just when most of all our counsel ought to come to the aid of the common safety, were not being called into the Senate. But the address of the consuls has lifted away that complaint of the days now past — for they have spoken in such a way that the Kalends seem rather long-wished-for than late in coming. And as the consuls’ address has lifted up my spirit and brought hope not only of preserving our safety but even of recovering our former dignity, so I should have been thrown into confusion by the proposal of the man who was asked his opinion first, had I not had confidence in your valour and your firmness.
nihil umquam longius his Kalendis Ianuariis mihi visum est, patres conscripti: quod idem intellegebam per hos dies uni cuique vestrum videri. qui enim bellum cum re publica gerunt, hunc diem non exspectabant; nos autem, tum cum maxime consilio nostro subvenire communi saluti oporteret, in senatum non vocabamur. sed querelam praeteritorum dierum sustulit oratio consulum, qui ita locuti sunt ut magis exoptatae Kalendae quam serae esse videantur. atque ut oratio consulum animum meum erexit spemque attulit non modo salutis conservandae verum etiam dignitatis pristinae recuperandae, sic me perturbasset eius sententia qui primus rogatus est, nisi vestrae virtuti constantiaeque confiderem.
For this day, senators, has dawned upon you, this power has been granted to you, that you may declare to the Roman people how much valour, how much firmness, how much weight there is in the counsel of this order. Recall what day it was thirteen days ago, what consent there was among you, what valour, what firmness; how great the praise, how great the glory, how great the gratitude you have won from the Roman people. And on that day, senators, you so resolved the matter that nothing now remains open to you except an honourable peace or a necessary war.
hic enim dies vobis, patres conscripti, inluxit, haec potestas data est ut quantum virtutis, quantum constantiae, quantum gravitatis in huius ordinis consilio esset, populo Romano declarare possetis. recordamini qui dies nudius tertius decimus fuerit, quantus consensus vestrum, quanta virtus, quanta constantia; quantam sitis a populo Romano laudem, quantam gloriam, quantam gratiam consecuti. atque illo die, patres conscripti, ea constituistis ut vobis iam nihil sit integrum nisi aut honesta pax aut bellum necessarium.
Does Marcus Antonius want peace? Let him lay down his arms, let him ask, let him sue for it. He will find no one more even-handed than me, with whom, while he was commending himself to impious citizens, he preferred to be an enemy than a friend. There is nothing, surely, that can be granted to a man waging war; there will perhaps be something that can be conceded to a man asking for it. But to send legates to one against whom you passed the gravest and severest judgment thirteen days ago is no longer mere fickleness, but, to speak my mind, derangement. First you praised the commanders who had undertaken war against him on their own initiative; then the veteran soldiers who, having been settled in colonies by Antony, set the liberty of the Roman people before his bounty.
pacem volt M. Antonius? arma deponat, roget, deprecetur. neminem aequiorem reperiet quam me cui, dum se civibus impiis commendat, inimicus quam amicus esse maluit. nihil est profecto quod possit dari bellum gerenti; erit fortasse aliquid quod concedi possit roganti; legatos vero ad eum mittere de quo gravissimum et severissimum iudicium nudius tertius decimus feceritis, non iam levitatis est, sed, ut quod sentio dicam, dementiae. primum duces eos laudavistis qui contra illum bellum privato consilio suscepissent; deinde milites veteranos qui, cum ab Antonio in colonias essent deducti, illius beneficio libertatem populi Romani anteposuerunt.
What of the Martian Legion? What of the Fourth? Why are they praised? For if they abandoned their own consul, they are to be reproached; if they abandoned an enemy of the commonwealth, they are rightly praised. And yet, when you did not yet have consuls, you decreed that the question of rewards for the soldiers and honours for the commanders should be brought up at the earliest opportunity. Does it please you, at one and the same time, to grant rewards to those who have taken up arms against Antony and to send legates to Antony? So that it will now be a thing to blush at, that the legions decreed more honourably than the Senate: for the legions decreed to defend the Senate against Antony, and the Senate decrees legates to Antony. Is this to confirm the spirit of our soldiers, or to weaken their valour?
quid? legio Martia: quid? quarta, cur laudantur? si enim consulem suum reliquerunt, vituperandae sunt; si inimicum rei publicae, iure laudantur. atqui cum consules nondum haberetis, decrevistis ut et de praemiis militum et de honoribus imperatorum primo quoque tempore referretur. placet eodem tempore praemia constituere eis qui contra Antonium arma ceperint et legatos ad Antonium mittere? ut iam pudendum sit honestiora decreta esse legionum quam senatus: si quidem legiones decreverunt senatum defendere contra Antonium, senatus decernit legatos ad Antonium. Vtrum hoc est confirmare militum animos an debilitare virtutem?
This is what twelve days have achieved: that the man whom none was found to defend, save Cotyla, now has even consular patrons. I wish they were all asked their opinion before me! — though I suspect what some of them, who will be asked after me, are about to say — I could speak against them more easily if anything were apparent. For there is a notion that someone will decree to Marcus Antonius that further Gaul which Plancus now holds. What else is this than to lavish upon the enemy every weapon for civil war: first the sinews of war, money without limit, of which he now stands in need; then cavalry, as much as he wishes? Cavalry, do I say? He will hesitate, no doubt, to bring with him the barbarian nations! He who does not see this is brainless; he who, seeing, decrees it, is impious.
hoc dies duodecim profecerunt ut, quem nemo praeter Cotylonem inventus sit qui defenderet, is habeat iam patronos etiam consularis? qui utinam omnes ante me sententiam rogarentur!—quamquam suspicor quid dicturi sint quidam eorum, qui post me rogabuntur—facilius contra dicerem si quid videretur. est enim opinio decreturum aliquem M. Antonio illam ultimam Galliam quam Plancus obtinet. quid est aliud omnia ad bellum civile hosti arma largiri, primum nervos belli, pecuniam infinitam qua nunc eget, deinde equitatum quantum velit? equitatum dico? dubitabit, credo, gentis barbaras secum adducere. hoc qui non videt, excors, qui cum videt decernit, impius est.
Will you equip a wicked and abandoned citizen with the money, the infantry, the cavalry, the resources of the Gauls and the Germans? These excuses count for nothing: “he is my friend.” Let him be the country’s friend first. “He is my kinsman.” Can any kinship be closer than that of one’s country, in which parents themselves are also contained? “He gave me money.” I should like to see the man who would dare to say this. But when I have laid open what is at stake, it will be easy to settle what opinion you should pronounce, or which you should follow. What is at stake is whether the power shall be given to Marcus Antonius to crush the commonwealth, to butcher honest men, to make a present of the City and the lands to his brigands, to weigh down the Roman people with slavery — or whether he shall be permitted to do none of these things. Hesitate about what you should do! “But these charges do not apply to Antony.”
tu civem sceleratum et perditum Gallorum et Germanorum pecunia, peditatu, equitatu, copiis instrues? nullae istae excusationes sunt: ‘ meus amicus est.’ sit patriae prius. ‘ meus cognatus.’ an potest cognatio propior ulla esse quam patriae in qua parentes etiam continentur? ‘ mihi pecuniam tribuit.’ cupio videre qui id audeat dicere. quid autem agatur cum aperuero, facile erit statuere quam sententiam dicatis aut quam sequamini. agitur utrum M. Antonio facultas detur opprimendae rei publicae, caedis faciendae bonorum, urbis, agrorum suis latronibus condonandi, populum Romanum servitute opprimendi, an horum ei facere nihil liceat. dubitate quid agatis. ‘ at non cadunt haec in Antonium.’
Not even Cotyla would dare to say that. For what charge does not apply to the man who, while saying that he defends the acts of Caesar, has himself overturned those laws of his which we could most have praised? Caesar wished to drain the marshes; this man has handed over the whole of Italy to be divided up by a moderate fellow, Lucius Antonius. What? Did the Roman people accept this law? What? Could it be carried under the auspices? But our modest augur acts on the auspices without his colleagues. And yet those auspices do not need an augur’s interpretation: who does not know that, when Jupiter thunders, it is not lawful to transact business with the people? The tribunes of the plebs carried a law on the provinces against the acts of Gaius Caesar: Caesar’s term was two years, theirs was six. Did the Roman people accept this law too? What? Was it promulgated? What? Was it not passed before it was written down? What? Did we not see the deed done before anyone could suspect that it was about to be done? Where is the Lex Caecilia et Didia,
hoc ne Cotylo quidem dicere auderet. quid enim in eum non cadit qui, cuius acta se defendere dicit, eius eas leges pervertit quas maxime laudare poteramus? ille paludes siccare voluit; hic omnem Italiam moderato homini, L. Antonio, dividendam dedit. quid? hanc legem populus Romanus accepit? quid? per auspicia ferri potuit? sed augur verecundus sine conlegis de auspiciis. quamquam illa auspicia non egent interpretatione augurum; Iove enim tonante cum populo agi non esse fas quis ignorat? tribuni plebis tulerunt de provinciis contra acta C. Caesaris: ille biennium, hi sexennium. etiam hanc legem populus Romanus accepit? quid? promulgata fuit? quid? non ante lata quam scripta est? quid? non ante factum vidimus quam futurum quisquam est suspicatus? Vbi lex Caecilia et Didia,
where is the promulgation of three market-days, where is the penalty under the recent Lex Iunia et Licinia? Can these laws stand without the death of the rest of the laws? Was there a way for anyone to make his way into the Forum? And what thunderings further, what a tempest! So that, even if the auspices did not move Marcus Antonius, it would still seem strange that he could bear up under and sustain so great a force of storm, of rain, of whirlwinds. The law, then, which an augur says he carried not only with Jupiter thundering but with what was almost a heavenly outcry forbidding it — can he hesitate to admit that this was carried in defiance of the auspices?
ubi promulgatio trinum nundinum, ubi poena recenti lege Iunia et Licinia? possuntne hae leges esse ratae sine interitu legum reliquarum? eccui potestas in forum insinuandi fuit? quae porro illa tonitrua, quae tempestas! ut, si auspicia M. Antonium non moverent, sustinere tamen eum ac ferre posse tantam vim tempestatis, imbris, turbinum mirum videretur. quam legem igitur se augur dicit tulisse non modo tonante Iove sed prope caelesti clamore prohibente, hanc dubitabit contra auspicia latam confiteri?
What? When the colleague with whom he carried it was the very colleague whom he himself had made flawed by his own report — did our good augur think this had no bearing on the auspices? But of the auspices we, perhaps, shall be the interpreters, who are colleagues of his own: are we then to seek out interpreters of arms as well? In the first place, all the entrances to the Forum were so blocked that, even if no armed man stood in your way, you still could not have entered the Forum unless the barriers were torn down. So in fact were the guards posted: as the approaches of enemies are barred from a city by fortlets and earthworks, just so you could see the people and the tribunes of the plebs driven back from entering the Forum.
quid? quod cum eo conlega tulit quem ipse fecit sua nuntiatione vitiosum, nihilne ad auspicia bonus augur pertinere arbitratus est? sed auspiciorum nos fortasse erimus interpretes qui sumus eius conlegae: num ergo etiam armorum interpretes quaerimus? primum omnes fori aditus ita saepti ut, etiam si nemo obstaret armatus, tamen nisi saeptis revolsis introiri in forum nullo modo posset; sic vero erant disposita praesidia ut quo modo hostium aditus urbe prohibentur castellis et operibus, ita ab ingressione fori populum tribunosque plebis propulsari videres.
For these reasons I vote that all the laws which Marcus Antonius is said to have carried were carried by force and against the auspices, and that the people is not bound by these laws. If Marcus Antonius is said to have carried any law confirming the acts of Caesar, or abolishing the dictatorship in perpetuity, or settling colonies on lands, I vote that the same laws be carried afresh under the auspices, that they may bind the people. For however good the matter, he carried it improperly and by violence; nevertheless those laws are not to be held valid, and all the audacity of an insane gladiator must be repudiated by our authority.
quibus de causis eas leges quas M. Antonius tulisse dicitur omnis censeo per vim et contra auspicia latas eisque legibus populum non teneri. si quam legem de actis Caesaris confirmandis deve dictatura in perpetuum tollenda deve coloniis in agros deducendis tulisse M. Antonius dicitur, easdem leges de integro ut populum teneant salvis auspiciis ferri placet. quamvis enim res bonas vitiose per vimque tulerit, tamen eae leges non sunt habendae, omnisque audacia gladiatoris amentis auctoritate nostra repudianda est.
But that squandering of public money is on no account to be borne, by which he made off with seven hundred million sesterces in false entries and donations, so that it seems like a portent that so great a sum of the Roman people could vanish in so short a time. What of those countless monstrous gains which the house of Marcus Antonius drained dry? He sold forged decrees; kingdoms, citizenships, immunities — once the money was taken — he ordered to be incised in bronze. He used to say that he was conducting all this from the memoranda of Gaius Caesar, of which he himself was the author. Inside the house, the markets of the whole commonwealth were busy; a woman more fortunate for herself than for her husbands held an auction of provinces and kingdoms; exiles were restored as it were by law without a law. Unless these things are rescinded by the authority of the Senate, now that we have entered upon the hope of recovering the commonwealth, no image of a free state will be left.
illa vero dissipatio pecuniae publicae ferenda nullo modo est per quam sestertium septiens miliens falsis perscriptionibus donationibusque avertit, ut portenti simile videatur tantam pecuniam populi Romani tam brevi tempore perire potuisse. quid? illi tot immanes quaestus ferendine quos M. Antoni exhausit domus? decreta falsa vendebat, regna, civitates, immunitates in aes accepta pecunia iubebat incidi. haec se ex commentariis C. Caesaris, quorum ipse auctor erat, agere dicebat. calebant in interiore aedium parte totius rei publicae nundinae; mulier sibi felicior quam viris auctionem provinciarum regnorumque faciebat; restituebantur exsules quasi lege sine lege; quae nisi auctoritate senatus rescinduntur, quoniam ingressi in spem rei publicae recuperandae sumus, imago nulla liberae civitatis relinquetur.
Nor was it only by fictitious memoranda and saleable autographs that uncountable wealth was heaped up in that house — with Antony saying, of what he sold, that he was acting from the acts of Caesar; he was also entering as false decrees of the Senate matters for which money had been taken; bonds were sealed; decrees of the Senate which had never been made were filed in the treasury. To the disgrace of this even foreign nations were witness. Treaties meanwhile were being made, kingdoms granted, peoples and provinces declared free, and the false records of these very matters, with the Roman people groaning, were posted up all over the Capitol. By these means so great a sum of money was piled up in one house that, if money of this kind were called in by law, the commonwealth would never lack money. He also carried a law on the courts — the man of chaste and unimpaired life, the authority on courts and on law. In this he deceived us. He used to say that he had set up as judges centurions, legionaries, and “larks”: but in fact he chose gamblers, he chose exiles, he chose Greeks — O glorious bench of judges! O admirable dignity of council!
neque solum commentariis commenticiis chirographisque venalibus innumerabilis pecunia congesta in illam domum est, cum, quae vendebat Antonius, ea se ex actis Caesaris agere diceret, sed senatus etiam consulta pecunia accepta falsa referebat; syngraphae obsignabantur; senatus consulta numquam facta ad aerarium deferebantur. huius turpitudinis testes erant etiam exterae nationes. foedera interea facta, regna data, populi provinciaeque liberatae, ipsarumque rerum falsae tabulae gemente populo Romano toto Capitolio figebantur. quibus rebus tanta pecunia una in domo coacervata est ut, si hoc genus pecuniae iure redigatur, non sit pecunia rei publicae defutura. legem etiam iudiciariam tulit, homo castus atque integer, iudiciorum et iuris auctor. in quo nos fefellit. antesignanos et manipularis et alaudas iudices se constituisse dicebat: at ille legit aleatores, legit exsules, legit Graecos —o consessum iudicum praeclarum! o dignitatem consili admirandam!
My mind longs to plead the defence of an accused man before that council! I am fond of Cydas of Crete, the prodigy of his island, a man of the most reckless and abandoned sort. But suppose he were not so: does he know Latin? Is he of the type and form of a judge? Does he know — which is the greatest thing — our laws and customs? Does he, finally, know our men? For Crete, gentlemen, is better known to you than Rome is to Cydas. The selection and scrutiny of judges, even among our own citizens, used to be done. But who knows — or could know — one Cortynius as a judge? For Lysiades the Athenian most of us do know: he is the son of Phaedrus, the celebrated philosopher; and besides he is a witty fellow, so that he can fit in easily with Manius Curius, his bench-mate and gaming-mate.
avet animus apud consilium illud pro reo dicere! Cydam amo Cretensem, portentum insulae, hominem audacissimum et perditissimum. sed fac non esse: num Latine scit? num est ex iudicum genere et forma? num, quod maximum est, leges nostras moresve novit? num denique homines? est enim Creta vobis notior quam Roma Cydae. dilectus autem et notatio iudicum etiam in nostris civibus haberi solet; Cortynium vero iudicem quis novit aut quis nosse potuit? nam Lysiaden Atheniensem plerique novimus; est enim Phaedri, philosophi nobilis, filius; homo praeterea festivus, ut ei cum M’. Curio consessore eodemque conlusore facillime possit convenire.
I ask, then: if Lysiades, when summoned as a judge, does not answer, and pleads that he is a member of the Areopagus and ought not to be judging cases at Rome and Athens at the same time — will the man who presides over the court of a little Greek judge, sometimes in pallium and sometimes in toga, accept that excuse? Or will he disregard the most ancient laws of the Athenians? What a bench, again, good gods! A judge from Crete — and the most worthless of them. How is the accused to approach this man, how to come up to him? They are a hard people. “But the Athenians are compassionate.” I suppose Curius is not cruel either, who takes his chance with Fortune every day. There are likewise judges chosen who will perhaps be excused: they have a legal excuse, that they have changed their soil by reason of exile and have not afterwards been restored.
quaero igitur, si Lysiades citatus iudex non responderit excuseturque Areopagites esse nec debere eodem tempore Romae et Athenis res iudicare, accipietne excusationem is qui quaestioni praeerit Graeculi iudicis, modo palliati, modo togati? an Atheniensium antiquissimas leges negleget? qui porro ille consessus, di boni! Cretensis iudex isque nequissimus. quem ad modum ad hunc reus adleget, quo modo accedat? dura natio est. at Athenienses misericordes. puto ne Curium quidem esse crudelem qui periculum fortunae cotidie facit. sunt item lecti iudices qui fortasse excusabuntur; habent enim legitimam excusationem, exsili causa solum vertisse nec esse postea restitutos.
Would that madman have chosen these men as judges, filed their names with the treasury, entrusted to them a great part of the commonwealth, had he conceived of any appearance of a commonwealth? And I have spoken only of the better-known judges: those whom you know less I have not wished to name — dancers, lyre-players, the whole chorus, in short, of Antony’s revels, you must know, have been thrown into the third panel of judges. There is the reason why a law so excellent and so glorious was carried in the greatest downpour of rain, in storm, with winds, with squalls, with whirlwinds, amid lightning and thunder: that we might have for judges men whom no one would wish even as guests. The vastness of his crimes, the consciousness of his misdeeds, the plundering of that money whose account was made up in the temple of Ops — these devised the third panel; and shameful judges were not sought out until honourable judges had given up hope of saving the guilty.
hos ille demens iudices legisset, horum nomina ad aerarium detulisset, his magnam partem rei publicae credidisset, si ullam speciem rei publicae cogitavisset? atque ego de notis iudicibus dixi: quos minus nostis nolui nominare: saltatores, citharistas, totum denique comissationis Antonianae chorum in tertiam decuriam iudicum scitote esse coniectum. en causam cur lex tam egregia tamque praeclara maximo imbri, tempestate, ventis, procellis, turbinibus, inter fulmina et tonitrua ferretur, ut eos iudices haberemus quos hospites habere nemo velit. scelerum magnitudo, conscientia maleficiorum, direptio eius pecuniae cuius ratio in aede Opis confecta est hanc tertiam decuriam excogitavit; nec ante turpes iudices quaesiti quam honestis iudicibus nocentium salus desperata est.
But what brazenness, what filthiness of mire it took, to dare to choose these men as judges! By their selection a double disgrace was branded upon the commonwealth: one, that the judges were so shameful; the other, that it was laid open and made known how many shameful men we had in the citizen body. These laws, then, and the rest of the same kind, even if they had been carried without violence and under valid auspices, I should still vote to abrogate: but now why should I vote to abrogate laws which I judge were never carried at all?
sed illud os, illam impuritatem caeni fuisse ut hos iudices legere auderet! quorum lectione duplex imprimeretur rei publicae dedecus: unum, quod tam turpes iudices essent; alterum, quod patefactum cognitumque esset quam multos in civitate turpis haberemus. hanc ergo et reliquas eius modi leges, etiam si sine vi salvis auspiciis essent rogatae, censerem tamen abrogandas: nunc vero cur abrogandas censeam, quas iudico non rogatas?
Are not those things to be marked with the gravest disgraces and memorials of this order, for the memory of posterity: that one man, Marcus Antonius, in this city since the founding of the city, openly kept armed men with him? Which neither our kings did, nor those who, after the kings had been driven out, wished to seize the kingship. I remember Cinna; I saw Sulla; only the other day, Caesar: for these three, since the civil community was freed by Lucius Brutus, were more powerful than the whole commonwealth. I cannot affirm that they were surrounded by no weapons; but this I do say: not by many, and not in the open.
an illa non gravissimis ignominiis monumentisque huius ordinis ad posteritatis memoriam sunt notanda, quod unus M. Antonius in hac urbe post conditam urbem palam secum habuerit armatos? quod neque reges nostri fecerunt neque ei qui regibus exactis regnum occupare voluerunt. Cinnam memini; vidi Sullam; modo Caesarem: hi enim tres post civitatem a L. Bruto liberatam plus potuerunt quam universa res publica. non possum adfirmare nullis telis eos stipatos fuisse; hoc dico: nec multis et occultis.
But this plague was followed by a column of armed men. Crassicius, Mustela, Tiro — flaunting their swords — led troops like themselves through the Forum; barbarian archers held an assigned place in the column. And whenever the procession reached the temple of Concord, the steps would be filled, the litters set down — not that he wished his shields to be hidden, but lest his household, if they carried the shields themselves, should grow weary. But this was foulest of all, not in sight only but even in hearing: that armed men, brigands, cut-throats were stationed in the very cella of Concord; that a prison was made of the temple; that, with the doors of Concord shut and brigands moving about among the benches of the Senate, the senators should pronounce their opinions.
at hanc pestem agmen armatorum sequebatur; Crassicius, mustela, Tiro, gladios ostentantes, sui similis greges ducebant per forum; certum agminis locum tenebant barbari sagittarii. cum autem erat ventum ad aedem Concordiae, gradus complebantur, lecticae conlocabantur, non quo ille scuta occulta esse vellet, sed ne familiares, si scuta ipsi ferrent, laborarent. illud vero taeterrimum non modo aspectu sed etiam auditu, in cella Concordiae conlocari armatos, latrones, sicarios; de templo carcerem fieri; opertis valvis Concordiae, cum inter subsellia senatus versarentur latrones, patres conscriptos sententias dicere.
If I did not come to that place on the Kalends of September, he said he would send carpenters and pull down my house. A great matter, I suppose, was at stake: he was bringing up the question of a public thanksgiving. I came the next day: he himself did not come. I spoke on the commonwealth, less freely indeed than is my custom, yet more freely than the threats of danger demanded. But that vehement and violent man, who would shut out this practice of speaking freely — for Lucius Piso had done this same thing, with the greatest praise, thirty days before — proclaimed his enmity against me; he ordered me to be present in the Senate on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October. Meanwhile he himself, in Scipio’s villa at Tibur, declaimed against me for seventeen days, working up a thirst; for that is usually his motive for declaiming.
huc nisi venirem Kalendis Septembribus, etiam fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit. Magna res, credo, agebatur: de supplicatione referebat. veni postridie: ipse non venit. locutus sum de re publica, minus equidem libere quam mea consuetudo, liberius tamen quam periculi minae postulabant. at ille homo vehemens et violentus, qui hanc consuetudinem libere dicendi excluderet—fecerat enim hoc idem maxima cum laude L. Piso xxx diebus ante —inimicitias mihi denuntiavit; adesse in senatum iussit a. d. xiii. Kalendas Octobris. ipse interea xvii dies de me in Tiburtino Scipionis declamitavit, sitim quaerens; haec enim ei causa esse declamandi solet.
When the day on which he had ordered me to be present came, then indeed in a hollow square he came to the temple of Concord and, against me in my absence, vomited up a speech out of his most impure mouth. On that day, had it been permitted to me by my friends to go into the Senate as I desired, he would have made the beginning of slaughter from me; for so he had resolved. And when once he had stained his sword with the crime, no consideration could have brought an end to the slaughter except weariness and satiety. For Lucius his brother was present, an Asiatic gladiator, who had fought as a murmillo at Mylasa: he was thirsting for our blood, having spilled much of his own in that gladiatorial fight. This man set a price upon your money; he marked down the holdings, both town and country; his beggary joined to greed was bearing down upon our fortunes; he divided up estates among whom and to whom he pleased; there was no recourse for the private citizen, no appeal to equity. Each possessor had only what Antony the partitioner had left him.
cum is dies quo me adesse iusserat, venisset, tum vero agmine quadrato in aedem Concordiae venit atque in me absentem orationem ex ore impurissimo evomuit. quo die, si per amicos mihi cupienti in senatum venire licuisset, caedis initium fecisset a me; sic enim statuerat; cum autem semel gladium scelere imbuisset, nulla res ei finem caedendi nisi defetigatio et satietas attulisset. etenim aderat Lucius frater, gladiator Asiaticus, qui myrmillo Mylasis depugnarat; sanguinem nostrum sitiebat, suum in illa gladiatoria pugna multum profuderat. hic pecunias vestras aestimabat; possessiones notabat et urbanas et rusticas; huius mendicitas aviditate coniuncta in fortunas nostras imminebat; dividebat agros quibus et quos volebat; nullus aditus erat privato, nulla aequitatis deprecatio. tantum quisque habebat possessor quantum reliquerat divisor Antonius.
Although these acts, if you render the laws void, cannot stand, I still vote that they be marked separately under their own heading, and that it be judged that there were no septemvirs, that nothing should stand which is said to have been done by them. As for Marcus Antonius, who can judge him a citizen rather than a most foul and most cruel enemy — who, sitting before the temple of Castor, said in the hearing of the Roman people that none should live save the victor? Do you suppose, senators, that he spoke more threateningly than he would have acted? And as for what he dared to say in public assembly — that, when he had left office, he would be at the gates of the City with an army, and would enter the City whenever he wished — what was that, but a proclamation of slavery to the Roman people?
quae quamquam, si leges inritas feceritis, rata esse non possunt, tamen separatim suo nomine notanda censeo, iudicandumque nullos vii viros fuisse, nihil placere ratum esse quod ab eis actum diceretur. M. vero Antonium quis est qui civem possit iudicare potius quam taeterrimum et crudelissimum hostem, qui pro aede Castoris sedens audiente populo Romano dixerit nisi victorem victurum neminem? num putatis, patres conscripti, dixisse eum minacius quam facturum fuisse? quid vero quod in contione dicere ausus est, se, cum magistratu abisset, ad urbem futurum cum exercitu, introiturum quotienscumque vellet, quid erat aliud nisi denuntiare populo Romano servitutem?
And his journey to Brundisium — what was the haste, what the hope, except that he might bring back a vast army to the City, or rather, into the City? And his selection of centurions: what unbridled rage of an ungoverned mind! When his bravest legions had shouted down his promises, he ordered to come to him at his lodging those centurions whom he had learned to be of right mind toward the commonwealth, and forced them to be cut down before his feet and his wife’s — the wife whom that grave commander had taken with him to the army. With what spirit, do you think, would this man have come against us, whom he hated, when he had been so cruel to those he had never seen? And how greedy for the moneys of the rich, when he had thirsted for the blood of the poor? Their own goods, such as they were, he at once distributed among his comrades and drinking-mates.
quod autem eius iter Brundisium, quae festinatio, quae spes, nisi ad urbem vel in urbem potius exercitum maximum adduceret? qui autem dilectus centurionum, quae effrenatio impotentis animi! cum eius promissis legiones fortissimae reclamassent, domum ad se venire iussit centuriones quos bene sentire de re publica cognoverat eosque ante pedes suos uxorisque suae, quam secum gravis imperator ad exercitum duxerat, iugulari coegit. quo animo hunc futurum fuisse censetis in nos quos oderat, cum in eos quos numquam viderat tam crudelis fuisset, et quam avidum in pecuniis locupletium qui pauperum sanguinem concupisset? quorum ipsorum bona, quantacumque erant, statim suis comitibus compotoribusque discripsit.
And while he was raging and was already advancing standards hostile to his country from Brundisium, Gaius Caesar, by the kindness of the immortal gods, by the divine greatness of his spirit, his genius, his counsel — though by his own initiative and his exceptional valour, yet with the approval of my authority — went to the colonies of his father, called together the veteran soldiers, in a few days made an army, and held back the headlong assault of the brigands. But afterwards, when the Martian Legion saw so excellent a leader, it did nothing else but make us at last be free; which the Fourth Legion imitated. On hearing this news, when he had called the Senate together and had brought in a consular to give an opinion judging Gaius Caesar an enemy, he suddenly collapsed.
atque ille furens infesta iam patriae signa a Brundisio inferebat; cum C. Caesar deorum immortalium beneficio, divina animi, ingeni, consili magnitudine, quamquam sua sponte eximiaque virtute, tamen approbatione auctoritatis meae colonias patris adiit, veteranos milites convocavit, paucis diebus exercitum fecit, incitatos latronum impetus retardavit. postea vero quam legio Martia ducem praestantissimum vidit, nihil egit aliud nisi ut aliquando liberi essemus; quam est imitata quarta legio. quo ille nuntio audito cum senatum vocasset adhibuissetque consularem qui sua sententia C. Caesarem hostem iudicaret, repente concidit.
Afterwards, with neither solemn sacrifices made nor vows pronounced, he did not set out — he fled, in his military cloak. But where? Into the province of citizens most steadfast and most brave, who could not have borne him even had he come in such a way as to bring no war: ungoverned, irascible, full of insults, arrogant, always demanding, always plundering, always drunk. But that man, whose worthlessness no one could bear even when at peace, has carried war into the province of Gaul; he hems in Mutina, the most steadfast and most splendid colony of the Roman people; he assaults Decimus Brutus, commander, consul-elect, a citizen born not for himself but for us and for the commonwealth.
post autem neque sacrificiis sollemnibus factis neque votis nuncupatis non profectus est, sed profugit paludatus. at quo? in provinciam firmissimorum et fortissimorum civium qui illum, ne si ita quidem venisset ut nullum bellum inferret, ferre potuissent, impotentem, iracundum, contumeliosum, superbum, semper poscentem, semper rapientem, semper ebrium. at ille cuius ne pacatam quidem nequitiam quisquam ferre posset bellum intulit provinciae Galliae; circumsedet Mutinam, firmissimam et splendidissimam populi Romani coloniam; oppugnat D. Brutum, imperatorem, consulem designatum, civem non sibi, sed nobis et rei publicae natum.
Is Hannibal then an enemy, and Antony a citizen? What did Hannibal do as an enemy that this man has not either done or is doing or is plotting and devising? What did the whole march of the Antonii consist in but devastations, lootings, slaughters, plunderings? Which Hannibal did not commit, because he was reserving much for his own use; whereas these men, who live for the hour, have thought neither of the fortunes and goods of the citizens nor even of their own advantage. To this man — good gods! — it pleases someone to send legates? These men know the form of the commonwealth, the laws of war, the precedents of our ancestors; they think what the majesty of the Roman people, what the severity of the Senate requires? You decree legates? If you decree them in order to plead, he will despise you; if in order to command, he will not listen. In short, however stern the instructions we give the legates, the very name of legates will quench the present fire of the Roman people, will break the spirit of the municipalities and of Italy. To omit these things, great as they are: certainly this legation will bring delay and slowness to the war.
ergo Hannibal hostis, civis Antonius? quid ille fecit hostiliter quod hic non aut fecerit aut faciat aut moliatur et cogitet? totum iter Antoniorum quid habuit nisi depopulationes, vastationes, caedis, rapinas? quas non faciebat Hannibal, quia multa ad usum suum reservabat: at hi, qui in horam viverent, non modo de fortunis et de bonis civium, sed ne de utilitate quidem sua cogitaverunt. ad hunc, di boni! legatos mitti placet? Norunt isti homines formam rei publicae, iura belli, exempla maiorum, cogitant quid populi Romani maiestas, quid senatus severitas postulet? legatos decernis? si, ut deprecere, contemnet; si, ut imperes, non audiet; denique quamvis severa legatis mandata dederimus, nomen ipsum legatorum hunc quem videmus populi Romani restinguet ardorem, municipiorum atque Italiae franget animos. Vt omittam haec quae magna sunt, certe ista legatio moram et tarditatem adferet bello.
Although some say — as I hear some are about to say — “Let the legates set out: the war shall none the less be prepared,” nevertheless the very name of legates will soften men’s spirits and delay the speed of the war. The greatest turnings of the times, senators, come about by the slightest causes, both in every contingency of the commonwealth and especially in war, and most of all in civil war, which is generally governed by opinion and rumour. No one will ask with what instructions we have sent the legates: the very name of a legation sent unprompted will look like a sign of fear. Let Antony withdraw from Mutina, let him cease to assault Brutus, let him depart from Gaul. He is not to be entreated with words: he must be compelled by arms.
quamvis dicant quod quosdam audio dicturos: ‘ legati proficiscantur: bellum nihilo minus paretur,’ tamen legatorum nomen ipsum et animos molliet et belli celeritatem morabitur. minimis momentis, patres conscripti, maximae inclinationes temporum fiunt, cum in omni casu rei publicae tum in bello et maxime civili quod opinione plerumque et fama gubernatur. nemo quaeret quibuscum mandatis legatos miserimus: nomen ipsum legationis ultro missae timoris esse signum videbitur. recedat a Mutina, desinat oppugnare Brutum, decedat ex Gallia; non est verbis rogandus, cogendus est armis.
For we are not sending to a Hannibal that he withdraw from Saguntum, to whom the Senate once sent Publius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus Baebius Tampilus — who, if Hannibal did not obey, were ordered to go to Carthage. Where do we order our men to go, if Antony does not obey? We are sending to one of our own citizens, that he should not assault a commander, not assault a colony of the Roman people. Is it so? Is this to be asked of him through legates? What is the difference, by the immortal gods, whether he assaults this City, or the bulwark of this City, a colony of the Roman people stationed there as a defence? The cause of the Second Punic War, which Hannibal waged against our ancestors, was the siege of Saguntum. Rightly were legates sent to him: they were sent to a Carthaginian, they were sent on behalf of the enemies of Hannibal, our allies. What likeness, then, is here? We are sending to a citizen, that he may not invest a commander of the Roman people, not an army, not a colony, not assault them, not lay waste the fields, not be an enemy.
non enim ad Hannibalem mittimus ut a Sagunto recedat, ad quem miserat olim senatus P. Valerium Flaccum et Q. Baebium Tampilum —qui, si Hannibal non pareret, Carthaginem ire iussi sunt: nostros quo iubemus ire, si non paruerit Antonius?—ad nostrum civem mittimus, ne imperatorem, ne coloniam populi Romani oppugnet. itane vero? hoc per legatos rogandum est? quid interest, per deos immortalis, utrum hanc urbem oppugnet an huius urbis propugnaculum, coloniam populi Romani praesidi causa conlocatam? Belli Punici secundi quod contra maiores nostros Hannibal gessit causa fuit Sagunti oppugnatio. recte ad eum legati missi: mittebantur ad Poenum, mittebantur pro Hannibalis hostibus, nostris sociis. quid simile tandem? nos ad civem mittimus ne imperatorem populi Romani, ne exercitum, ne coloniam circumsedeat, ne oppugnet, ne agros depopuletur, ne sit hostis.
Come now, suppose he obeys: can we, or do we wish to, treat him as a citizen? On the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January you crushed him with your decrees; you appointed that on the Kalends of January these matters should be brought before you which you see are now brought, concerning the honours and rewards of those who have well deserved and now deserve well of the commonwealth: among whom you judged that Gaius Caesar was first — he who turned aside Marcus Antonius’s nefarious assaults from the City into Gaul. Then the veteran soldiers, who were the first to follow Caesar; then those heavenly and divine legions, the Martian and the Fourth, you commended; to them, when they had not only abandoned but were even waging war upon their consul, you have pledged honours and rewards. And on the same day, when the edict of Decimus Brutus, that most outstanding citizen, was brought in and posted, you praised his act, and the war which he had undertaken on his own initiative you confirmed by public authority.
age, si paruerit, hoc civi uti aut volumus aut possumus? ante diem xiii. Kalendas Ianuarias decretis vestris eum concidistis; constituistis ut haec ad vos Kalendis Ianuariis referrentur quae referri videtis, de honoribus et praemiis bene de re publica meritorum et merentium: quorum principem iudicastis eum qui fuit C. Caesarem, qui M. Antoni impetus nefarios ab urbe in Galliam avertit, tum milites veteranos qui primi Caesarem secuti sunt, tum illas caelestis divinasque legiones, Martiam et quartam comprobastis quibus, cum consulem suum non modo reliquissent, sed bello etiam persequerentur honores et praemia spopondistis; eodemque die D. Bruti, praestantissimi civis, edicto adlato atque proposito factum eius conlaudastis, quodque ille bellum privato consilio susceperat, id vos auctoritate publica comprobastis.
What else, then, did you do on that day, but judge Antony an enemy? After your decrees, either he will be able to look upon you with composure, or you upon him without the greatest pain? His own crime shut him out from the commonwealth, drew him apart, severed him — and not his crime alone but, as it seems to me, a certain fortune of the commonwealth. If he should obey the legates and return to Rome, do you suppose that a standard for abandoned citizens to rally to will ever be wanting? But this I fear less: there are other things which I fear more, and on which I dwell. He will never obey the legates. I know the man’s madness, his arrogance; I know the desperate counsels of his friends, to whom he is given over.
quid igitur illo die aliud egistis nisi ut hostem iudicaretis Antonium? his vestris decretis aut ille vos aequo animo aspicere poterit aut vos illum sine dolore summo videbitis? exclusit illum a re publica, distraxit, segregavit non solum scelus ipsius sed etiam, ut mihi videtur, fortuna quaedam rei publicae. qui si legatis paruerit Romamque redierit, num umquam perditis civibus vexillum quo concurrant defuturum putatis? sed hoc minus vereor: sunt alia quae magis timeam et cogitem. numquam parebit ille legatis. Novi hominis insaniam, adrogantiam; novi perdita consilia amicorum, quibus ille est deditus.
Lucius indeed, his brother, in his quality as a foreign gladiator, takes the lead of the household. Granted that the man himself were of sound mind — which he never will be — it will still not be allowed him to be so on their account. The time, meanwhile, will be worn away; the preparations for war will grow cold. Whence to this point has the war been drawn out, but from delay and procrastination? As soon as the Senate could be held freely, after the brigand’s departure — or rather, his desperate flight — I always pressed that we be called together. On the day on which we were first called together, I was present myself, though the consuls-elect were absent; with your fullest agreement I laid down by my motion the foundations of the commonwealth — later, to be sure, than was fitting (for I could not do it earlier), but yet, if from that time no day had been let pass, we should certainly have had no war at all.
Lucius quidem frater eius, utpote qui peregre depugnarit, familiam ducit. sit per se ipse sanus, quod numquam erit: per hos esse ei tamen non licebit. teretur interea tempus; belli apparatus refrigescent. Vnde est adhuc bellum tractum nisi ex retardatione et mora? Vt primum post discessum latronis vel potius desperatam fugam libere senatus haberi potuit, semper flagitavi ut convocaremur. quo die primum convocati sumus, adfui ipse, cum designati consules non adessent, ieci sententia mea maximo vestro consensu fundamenta rei publicae, serius omnino quam decuit—nec enim ante potui —sed tamen si ex eo tempore dies nullus intermissus esset, bellum profecto nullum haberemus.
Every evil, while it is being born, is easily crushed; once inveterate, it generally grows stronger. But then the Kalends of January were being waited for — not rightly, perhaps. Yet let us leave past things behind: even this delay, until the legates set out, until they return? The waiting for them brings doubt about the war. And in a doubtful war, what zeal can there be for the levy? Therefore, senators, I move that no mention of legates be made; I think the matter must be carried through without any delay, and at once; I say that a state of tumult must be decreed, the courts suspended, the military cloaks taken up, a levy held, exemptions revoked, throughout the City and throughout all Italy except Gaul.
omne malum nascens facile opprimitur: inveteratum fit plerumque robustius. sed tum exspectabantur Kalendae Ianuariae, fortasse non recte. verum praeterita omittamus: etiamne hanc moram, dum proficiscantur legati, dum revertantur? quorum exspectatio dubitationem belli adfert. bello autem dubio quod potest studium esse dilectus? quam ob rem, patres conscripti, legatorum mentionem nullam censeo faciendam; rem administrandam arbitror sine ulla mora et confestim gerendam; tumultum decerni, iustitium edici, saga sumi dico oportere, dilectum haberi sublatis vacationibus in urbe et in Italia praeter Galliam tota.
If these things are done, the mere opinion and rumour of our sternness will overwhelm the madness of the wicked gladiator. He will perceive that he has undertaken war against the commonwealth; he will experience the sinews and the strength of a unanimous Senate. For now he keeps saying that it is a contest of parties. What parties? One party has been beaten; the other is from the very heart of Gaius Caesar’s party — unless perhaps we suppose that Caesar’s party is being assaulted by the consuls Pansa and Hirtius and by the son of Gaius Caesar. But this war is not stirred up out of the dissension of parties, but out of the criminal hope of the most abandoned citizens, by whom our goods and fortunes have been marked down and already distributed according to each one’s choice.
quae si erunt facta, opinio ipsa et fama nostrae severitatis obruet scelerati gladiatoris amentiam. sentiet sibi bellum cum re publica esse susceptum; experietur consentientis senatus nervos atque viris; nam nunc quidem partium contentionem esse dictitat. quarum partium? alteri victi sunt, alteri sunt e mediis C. Caesaris partibus; nisi forte Caesaris partis a Pansa et Hirtio consulibus et a filio C. Caesaris oppugnari putamus. hoc vero bellum non est ex dissensione partium, sed ex nefaria spe perditissimorum civium excitatum, quibus bona fortunaeque nostrae notatae sunt et iam ad cuiusque optionem distributae.
I have read a letter of Antony’s which he had sent to a certain septemvir, a capital fellow, his colleague. “What you have set your heart on, you shall see to; what you have desired, you shall certainly have.” Behold the man to whom we are to send legates, to whom we are to put off making war: a man who has not even committed our fortunes to the lottery, but has so handed us over to each man’s caprice that he has left nothing untouched even for himself which has not already been promised to someone. With this man, senators — with this man, I say — it must be fought out, and at once; the slowness of legates is to be repudiated.
legi epistulam Antoni quam ad quendam vii virum, capitalem hominem, conlegam suum, miserat. ‘ quid concupiscas tu videris: quod concupiveris certe habebis.’ en ad quem legatos mittamus, cui bellum moremur inferre: qui ne sorti quidem fortunas nostras destinavit, sed libidini cuiusque nos ita addixit ut ne sibi quidem quicquam integrum quod non alicui promissum iam sit reliquerit. cum hoc, patres conscripti, bello, inquam, decertandum est, idque confestim; legatorum tarditas repudianda est.
Therefore, that we may not have to make many decrees daily, I move that the whole commonwealth be entrusted to the consuls, and that they be permitted to defend the commonwealth and to see to it that the commonwealth take no harm. I move also that it be no fault to those who are in the army of Marcus Antonius, if they leave him before the Kalends of February. If you decree these things, senators, in a short time you will recover the liberty of the Roman people and your own authority. But if you act more leniently, you will yet decree the same things — only, perhaps, more slowly. Concerning the commonwealth, on what you have referred to us, I seem to have decreed enough.
quapropter ne multa nobis cotidie decernenda sint, consulibus totam rem publicam commendandam censeo eisque permittendum ut rem publicam defendant provideantque ne quid res publica detrimenti accipiat, censeoque ut eis qui in exercitu M. Antoni sunt ne sit ea res fraudi, si ante Kalendas Februarias ab eo discesserint. haec si censueritis, patres conscripti, brevi tempore libertatem populi Romani auctoritatemque vestram recuperabitis. si autem lenius agetis, tamen eadem, sed fortasse serius decernetis. de re publica quoad rettulistis satis decrevisse videor.
The other matter is concerning honours: about which I understand I must speak next. But the order which is wont to be kept in asking for opinions, the same I shall keep in honouring brave men. From Brutus, then, the consul-elect, let us take our opening, after the custom of our forefathers. To omit his earlier deeds — which are very great, but have hitherto been praised more by men’s private judgments than publicly — with what words shall we be able to attain to the praises of this very moment? Such valour seeks no reward other than this glory of praise; though it lack even that, it will still be content with itself — although, set as it were in the memory of grateful citizens as in the light, it rejoices. Praise, then, the testimony of our judgment and witness, must be paid to Brutus.
altera res est de honoribus: de quibus deinceps intellego esse dicendum. sed qui ordo in sententiis rogandis servari solet, eundem tenebo in viris fortibus honorandis. A Bruto igitur, consule designato, more maiorum capiamus exordium. cuius ut superiora omittam, quae sunt maxima illa quidem sed adhuc hominum magis iudiciis quam publice laudata, quibusnam verbis eius laudes huius ipsius temporis consequi possumus? neque enim ullam mercedem tanta virtus praeter hanc laudis gloriaeque desiderat; qua etiam si careat, tamen sit se ipsa contenta: quamquam in memoria gratorum civium tamquam in luce posita laetetur. laus igitur iudici testimonique nostri tribuenda Bruto est.
Therefore, senators, I move that a decree of the Senate be drawn up in these words: “Whereas Decimus Brutus, commander, consul-elect, holds the province of Gaul in the power of the Senate and the Roman people, and whereas, in so short a time, with the highest zeal of the municipalities and colonies of the province of Gaul, which has well deserved and now deserves well of the commonwealth, he has enrolled and got together so great an army — that he has done this rightly and in due order and in accordance with the interest of the commonwealth; and that this most outstanding service of Decimus Brutus toward the commonwealth is and shall be gratifying to the Senate and the Roman people: accordingly the Senate and the Roman people judge that, by the labour, counsel, valour, and incredible zeal of Decimus Brutus, commander, consul-elect, and by the consensus of the province of Gaul, the commonwealth has been succoured in its most difficult time.”
quam ob rem his verbis, patres conscripti, senatus consultum faciendum censeo: ‘cum D. Brutus, imperator, consul designatus, provinciam Galliam in senatus populique Romani potestate teneat, cumque exercitum tantum tam brevi tempore summo studio municipiorum coloniarumque provinciae Galliae, optime de re publica meritae merentisque, conscripserit, compararit, id eum recte et ordine exque re publica fecisse, idque D. Bruti praestantissimum meritum in rem publicam senatui populoque Romano gratum esse et fore: itaque senatum populumque Romanum existimare, D. Bruti imperatoris, consulis designati, opera, consilio, virtute incredibilique studio et consensu provinciae Galliae rei publicae difficillimo tempore esse subventum.’
For so great a service of Brutus to the commonwealth, senators, and so great a benefit, what honour is great enough that is not owed to him? For if Gaul had lain open to Marcus Antonius, if, with the municipalities and colonies overwhelmed unprepared, he had been able to break into that further Gaul, what terror would have hung over the commonwealth? That most insane of men, headlong and devious in all his counsels, would no doubt have hesitated to make war on us not only with his own army but with all the savagery of the barbarian world, so that we could not have checked his fury even with the rampart of the Alps. This, then, is the gratitude that must be paid to Decimus Brutus, who — before your authority had intervened — by his own counsel and judgment, did not receive him as a consul but kept him off from Gaul as an enemy, and chose rather to be himself besieged than that this City should be. Let him therefore have, for this so great and so glorious deed, the everlasting witness of our decree; and let Gaul, which always has presided and presides over this empire and our common liberty, be deservedly and truly praised, that she did not surrender her own forces to Antony but set them against him.
huic tanto merito Bruti, patres conscripti, tantoque in rem publicam beneficio quis est tantus honos qui non debeatur? nam si M. Antonio patuisset Gallia, si oppressis municipiis et coloniis imparatis in illam ultimam Galliam penetrare potuisset, quantus rei publicae terror impenderet? dubitaret, credo, homo amentissimus atque in omnibus consiliis praeceps et devius non solum cum exercitu suo sed etiam cum omni immanitate barbariae bellum inferre nobis, ut eius furorem ne Alpium quidem muro cohibere possemus. haec igitur habenda gratia est D. Bruto qui illum, nondum interposita auctoritate vestra, suo consilio atque iudicio, non ut consulem recepit, sed ut hostem arcuit Gallia seque obsideri quam hanc urbem maluit. habeat ergo huius tanti facti tamque praeclari decreto nostro testimonium sempiternum; Galliaque quae semper praesidet atque praesedit huic imperio libertatique communi merito vereque laudetur, quod se suasque viris non tradidit, sed opposuit Antonio.
And I also move that the most ample honours be decreed to Marcus Lepidus for his outstanding services to the commonwealth. He has always wished the Roman people free, and he gave the greatest sign of his will and his judgment on that day when, while Antony was placing the diadem on Caesar, he turned aside and by his groans and his sadness made clear how great a hatred he had of slavery, how greatly he desired the Roman people free, how he had borne what he had borne more from the necessity of the times than by his own judgment. With what restraint he then used himself in that time of the civic body which followed the death of Caesar — who of us can forget? These are great things, but our speech hastens on to greater.
atque etiam M. Lepido pro eius egregiis in rem publicam meritis decernendos honores quam amplissimos censeo. semper ille populum Romanum liberum voluit maximumque signum illo die dedit voluntatis et iudici sui, cum Antonio diadema Caesari imponente se avertit gemituque et maestitia declaravit quantum haberet odium servitutis, quam populum Romanum liberum cuperet, quam illa quae tulerat temporum magis necessitate quam iudicio tulisset. quanta vero is moderatione usus sit in illo tempore civitatis quod post mortem Caesaris consecutum est, quis nostrum oblivisci potest? Magna haec, sed ad maiora properat oratio.
For what — O immortal gods! — could happen more admirable to all nations, what more to be wished for by the Roman people, than that, when the greatest civil war was on, the issue of which we all dreaded, it should be extinguished rather by wisdom and mercy than that the matter should be brought to a crisis by arms and the sword? And if Caesar had had the same way of acting in that foul and pitiable war, to leave aside the father, we should now have safe the two sons of Gnaeus Pompey, that supreme and singular man: to whom certainly filial duty ought not to have been a snare. Would that Marcus Lepidus could have saved them all! That he would have done so, he declared in what he was able to do, when he restored Sextus Pompey to the citizenship — the greatest ornament of the commonwealth, the most illustrious monument of his clemency. Heavy was that fortune of the Roman people, heavy was that fate. For when Pompey the father, who was the light of the Roman people’s empire, was extinguished, there was killed a son most like his father.
quid enim, o di immortales! admirabilius omnibus gentibus, quid optatius populo Romano accidere potuit quam, cum bellum civile maximum esset, cuius belli exitum omnes timeremus, sapientia et misericordia id potius exstingui quam armis et ferro rem in discrimen adducere? quod si eadem ratio Caesaris fuisset in illo taetro miseroque bello, ut omittam patrem, duos Cn. Pompei, summi et singularis viri, filios incolumis haberemus: quibus certe pietas fraudi esse non debuit. Vtinam omnis M. Lepidus servare potuisset! facturum fuisse declaravit in eo quod potuit, cum Sex. Pompeium restituit civitati, maximum ornamentum rei publicae, clarissimum monumentum clementiae suae. gravis illa fortuna populi Romani, grave fatum. Pompeio enim patre, quod imperi populi Romani lumen fuit, exstincto interfectus est patris simillimus filius.
But all things seem to me to have been expiated, by the judgment of the immortal gods, with Sextus Pompey preserved for the commonwealth. For this just and great cause, and because Marcus Lepidus has turned the most dangerous civil war, and the greatest, to peace and concord by his humanity and wisdom, I move that a decree of the Senate be drawn up in these words: “Whereas the commonwealth has been administered by Marcus Lepidus, commander, pontifex maximus, time and again both well and prosperously, and the Roman people has perceived that kingly domination is most displeasing to him; and whereas by his labour, valour, counsel, and singular clemency and gentleness a most bitter civil war has been extinguished,
sed omnia mihi videntur deorum immortalium iudicio expiata sex. Pompeio rei publicae conservato. quam ob causam iustam atque magnam et quod periculosissimum civile bellum maximumque humanitate et sapientia sua M. Lepidus ad pacem concordiamque convertit, senatus consultum his verbis censeo perscribendum: ‘cum a M. Lepido imperatore, pontifice maximo, saepe numero res publica et bene et feliciter gesta sit, populusque Romanus intellexerit ei dominatum regium maxime displicere, cumque eius opera, virtute, consilio singularique clementia et mansuetudine bellum acerbissimum civile sit restinctum,
and Sextus Pompey, son of Gnaeus, Magnus, has by the authority of this order laid down his arms, and by Marcus Lepidus, commander, pontifex maximus, with the highest goodwill of the Senate and the Roman people has been restored to the citizenship: the Senate and the Roman people, in return for the very many and very great services of Marcus Lepidus to the commonwealth, place great hope in his valour, his authority, his good fortune, of peace, quiet, concord, and liberty; and the Senate and the Roman people will be mindful of his services to the commonwealth; and it pleases them, by the resolution of this order, that a gilded equestrian statue be set up to him on the Rostra, or in whatever other place in the Forum he himself shall choose.” This honour, senators, seems to me the greatest — first, because it is just; for it is not bestowed only on the prospect of times to come, but is rendered for the fullest services already given. Nor can we point to anyone else as having had this honour bestowed by the Senate on the Senate’s own free and unconstrained judgment.
Sextusque Pompeius, Gnaei filius, Magnus, huius ordinis auctoritate ab armis discesserit et a M. Lepido imperatore, pontifice maximo, summa senatus populique Romani voluntate civitati restitutus sit, senatum populumque Romanum pro maximis plurimisque in rem publicam M. Lepidi meritis magnam spem in eius virtute, auctoritate, felicitate reponere oti, pacis, concordiae, libertatis, eiusque in rem publicam meritorum senatum populumque Romanum memorem fore, eique statuam equestrem inauratam in rostris aut quo alio loco in foro vellet ex huius ordinis sententia statui placere.’ qui honos, patres conscripti, mihi maximus videtur, primum quia iustus est; non enim solum datur propter spem temporum reliquorum sed pro amplissimis meritis redditur; nec vero cuiquam possumus commemorare hunc honorem a senatu tributum iudicio senatus soluto et libero.
I come to Gaius Caesar, senators: who, if he had not been, who of us could have remained? Antony was flying to the City from Brundisium, a man most ungovernable, ablaze with hatred, with hostile spirit against all honest men, with an army. What could be set against his audacity and his crime? We had as yet no commanders, no troops; there was no public counsel, no liberty; necks had to be given over to his nefarious cruelty; we were all seeking flight, which itself had no way out.
venio ad C. Caesarem, patres conscripti, qui nisi fuisset, quis nostrum esse potuisset? advolabat ad urbem a Brundisio homo impotentissimus, ardens odio, animo hostili in omnis bonos cum exercitu Antonius. quid huius audaciae et sceleri poterat opponi? nondum ullos duces habebamus, non copias; nullum erat consilium publicum, nulla libertas; dandae cervices erant crudelitati nefariae; fugam quaerebamus omnes, quae ipsa exitum non habebat.
Who at that moment, what god, brought to us, brought to the Roman people, this divine young man? Who, when all things lay open to that pestilential citizen for our destruction, suddenly, beyond all hope, arose and got together an army to be set against the fury of Marcus Antonius, before anyone suspected that he was even thinking of it. Great honours were paid to Gnaeus Pompey, when he was a young man, and rightly; for he came to the aid of the commonwealth — but he was much more robust in age, and more prepared by the eagerness of soldiers seeking a leader, and in a different kind of war. For Sulla’s cause was not pleasing to all. The multitude of the proscribed declares it — the very great calamities of so many municipalities.
quis tum nobis, quis populo Romano obtulit hunc divinum adulescentem deus? qui, cum omnia ad perniciem nostram pestifero illi civi paterent, subito praeter spem omnium exortus prius confecit exercitum quem furori M. Antoni opponeret quam quisquam hoc eum cogitare suspicaretur. Magni honores habiti Cn. Pompeio, cum esset adulescens, et quidem iure. subvenit enim rei publicae, sed aetate multo robustior et militum ducem quaerentium studio paratior et in alio genere belli. non enim omnibus Sullae causa grata. declarat multitudo proscriptorum, tot municipiorum maximae calamitates.
But Caesar, many years younger, armed veterans now eager for rest; he embraced that cause which was most welcome to the Senate, most welcome to the people, most welcome to all Italy, most welcome to gods and men. And Pompey came to the great command and the victorious army of Lucius Sulla: Caesar attached himself to no one; he was himself the prince in making an army and getting together a guard. Pompey had the territory of Picenum hostile to the party of his adversaries; this man, out of Antony’s own friends but better friends to liberty, made up an army against Antony. By Pompey’s resources Sulla ruled; by this man’s protection Antony’s domination was crushed.
Caesar autem annis multis minor veteranos cupientis iam requiescere armavit; eam complexus est causam quae esset senatui, quae populo, quae cunctae Italiae, quae dis hominibusque gratissima. et Pompeius ad L. Sullae maximum imperium victoremque exercitum accessit: Caesar se ad neminem adiunxit, ipse princeps exercitus faciendi et praesidi comparandi fuit. ille adversariorum partibus agrum Picenum habuit inimicum: hic ex Antoni amicis sed amicioribus libertatis contra Antonium confecit exercitum. illius opibus Sulla regnavit: huius praesidio Antoni dominatus oppressus est.
Let us therefore give command to Caesar, without which the business of the army cannot be conducted, the army held together, the war waged: let him be propraetor, with the fullest right that any man could enjoy. This honour, though it is great for his age, yet bears upon the necessity of carrying through what is to be done, not only upon his dignity. Therefore let us seek that which we shall scarcely attain to this day. But often, I hope, the opportunity of distinguishing this young man will fall to us and to the Roman people;
demus igitur imperium Caesari sine quo res militaris administrari, teneri exercitus, bellum geri non potest: sit pro praetore eo iure quo qui optimo. qui honos quamquam est magnus illi aetati, tamen ad necessitatem rerum gerendarum, non solum ad dignitatem valet. itaque illa quaeramus quae vix hodierno die consequemur. sed saepe spero fore huius adulescentis ornandi et nobis et populo Romano potestatem;
for the present time, however, I vote that the decree be passed thus: “Whereas Gaius Caesar, son of Gaius, pontifex, propraetor, at a most critical moment for the commonwealth, has urged the veteran soldiers to defend the liberty of the Roman people and has enrolled them; and whereas the Martian and the Fourth Legions, with the greatest zeal and with the most excellent consent for the commonwealth, with Gaius Caesar as their leader and author, are defending and have defended the commonwealth and the liberty of the Roman people; and whereas Gaius Caesar, propraetor, has set out to the help of the province of Gaul with his army, has brought cavalry, archers, and elephants under his own power and that of the Roman people, and at the most difficult time for the commonwealth has come to the aid of the safety and dignity of the Roman people — for these causes it pleases the Senate that Gaius Caesar, son of Gaius, pontifex, propraetor, be a senator, and give his opinion in the place of an ex-praetor; and that his standing, in whatever magistracy he shall seek, be so reckoned as it would be allowed to be reckoned under the laws, if in the preceding year he had been quaestor.” For what reason is there,
hoc autem tempore ita censeo decernendum: ‘quod C. Caesar, Gai filius, pontifex, pro praetore, summo rei publicae tempore milites veteranos ad libertatem populi Romani cohortatus sit eosque conscripserit, quodque legio Martia quartaque summo studio optimoque in rem publicam consensu C. Caesare duce et auctore rem publicam, libertatem populi Romani defendant, defenderint, et quod C. Caesar pro praetore Galliae provinciae cum exercitu subsidio profectus sit, equites, sagittarios, elephantos in suam populique Romani potestatem redegerit, difficillimoque rei publicae tempore saluti dignitatique populi Romani subvenerit, ob eas causas senatui placere, C. Caesarem, Gai filium, pontificem, pro praetore, senatorem esse sententiamque loco praetorio dicere, eiusque rationem, quemcumque magistratum petet, ita haberi ut haberi per leges liceret, si anno superiore quaestor fuisset.’ quid est enim,
senators, why we should not wish him to attain the most ample honours as soon as possible? For when by the leges annales they used to set a riper age for the consulship, they were guarding against the rashness of youth: Gaius Caesar at the outset of his life has taught us that we ought not to wait, when valour is excellent and exceptional, for the advance of age. And so our ancestors, of that truly ancient stock, had no leges annales; these were brought in many years later by ambition, that there might be set stages of canvassing between equals. Thus often a great natural endowment of valour, before it could profit the commonwealth, has been extinguished.
patres conscripti, cur eum non quam primum amplissimos honores capere cupiamus? legibus enim annalibus cum grandiorem aetatem ad consulatum constituebant, adulescentiae temeritatem verebantur: C. Caesar ineunte aetate docuit ab excellenti eximiaque virtute progressum aetatis exspectari non oportere. itaque maiores nostri veteres illi admodum antiqui leges annalis non habebant, quas multis post annis attulit ambitio, ut gradus essent petitionis inter aequalis. ita saepe magna indoles virtutis, prius quam rei publicae prodesse potuisset, exstincta est.
Yet truly among the ancients the Rulli, the Decii, the Corvini, and many others, and in more recent memory Africanus the elder, Titus Flamininus, made consuls while still very young, performed such deeds that they increased the empire of the Roman people and adorned its name. What of Alexander the Macedonian, who, when from his early youth he had begun to do the greatest deeds, did he not die in his thirty-third year? An age which is, by our laws, ten years younger than the consular. From which it can be judged that the race of valour is swifter than the race of age. For as for what those who envy Caesar feign to fear — that he may not be able to hold himself in, may not moderate himself, may not, lifted up by our honours, use his resources too intemperately —
at vero apud antiquos Rulli, Decii, Corvini multique alii, recentiore autem memoria superior Africanus, T. Flamininus admodum adulescentes consules facti tantas res gesserunt ut populi Romani imperium auxerint, nomen ornarint. quid? Macedo Alexander, cum ab ineunte aetate res maximas gerere coepisset, nonne tertio et tricesimo anno mortem obiit? quae est aetas nostris legibus decem annis minor quam consularis. ex quo iudicari potest virtutis esse quam aetatis cursum celeriorem. nam quod ei qui Caesari invident simulant se timere, ne verendum quidem est ut tenere se possit, ut moderari, ne honoribus nostris elatus intemperantius suis opibus utatur.
the nature of things is such, senators, that whoever has caught the sense of true glory, and whoever has felt himself held a dear citizen and a saving one of the commonwealth by the Senate, by the Roman knights, and by the whole Roman people, judges that nothing is to be set beside this glory. Would that Gaius Caesar — the father, I mean — as a young man had had the fortune to be most dear to the Senate and to all the best men! When he had neglected to attain to this, he wasted all the force of his genius (which was the highest) in popular shallowness. And so, since he had no regard either for the Senate or for honest men, he opened up for himself that path to enlarging his power which the virtue of a free people could not bear. But his son’s reasoning is the furthest possible thing from his own: he is dear to all, and most of all dearest to the best. In him the hope of liberty is set; from him safety has already been received; for him the highest honours are both sought out and ready.
ea natura rerum est, patres conscripti, ut qui sensum verae gloriae ceperit quique se ab senatu, ab equitibus Romanis populoque Romano universo senserit civem carum haberi salutaremque rei publicae, nihil cum hac gloria comparandum putet. Vtinam C. Caesari, patri dico, contigisset adulescenti ut esset senatui atque optimo cuique carissimus! quod cum consequi neglexisset, omnem vim ingeni, quae summa fuit in illo, in populari levitate consumpsit. itaque cum respectum ad senatum et ad bonos non haberet, eam sibi viam ipse patefecit ad opes suas amplificandas quam virtus liberi populi ferre non posset. eius autem fili longissime diversa ratio est: qui cum omnibus carus est, tum optimo cuique carissimus. in hoc spes libertatis posita est; ab hoc accepta iam salus; huic summi honores et exquiruntur et parati sunt.
Whose singular prudence, then, do we admire, while of his folly we are afraid? For what is more foolish than to prefer power useless, resources envied, headlong and slippery desire of domination, to true, weighty, solid glory? Has he seen this as a boy — and shall he not see it when he has advanced in age? “But he is hostile to certain most illustrious and excellent citizens.” No fear of this need exist. Caesar has remitted all his enmities to the commonwealth; he has set up the commonwealth as the judge over himself, the moderator of all his counsels and acts. For he has come to the commonwealth in such a spirit that he should strengthen, not overthrow it. I have all the feelings of the young man known to me. Nothing is dearer to him than the commonwealth, nothing weightier than your authority, nothing more to be wished than the judgment of honest men, nothing sweeter than true glory.
cuius igitur singularem prudentiam admiramur, eius stultitiam timemus? quid enim stultius quam inutilem potentiam, invidiosas opes, cupiditatem dominandi praecipitem et lubricam anteferre verae, gravi, solidae gloriae? an hoc vidit puer: si aetate processerit, non videbit? ‘ at est quibusdam inimicus clarissimis atque optimis civibus.’ nullus iste timor esse debet. omnis Caesar inimicitias rei publicae condonavit; hanc sibi iudicem constituit, hanc moderatricem omnium consiliorum atque factorum. ita enim ad rem publicam accessit ut eam confirmaret, non ut everteret. omnis habeo cognitos sensus adulescentis. nihil est illi re publica carius, nihil vestra auctoritate gravius, nihil bonorum virorum iudicio optatius, nihil vera gloria dulcius.
Therefore from him you should not only fear nothing but expect greater and better things; nor in him, who has set out to free Decimus Brutus from siege, should you fear that the memory of a private grief may linger which could be more potent with him than the safety of the civic body. I dare even to bind my faith, senators, to you, to the Roman people, to the commonwealth — which, indeed, when no force was constraining me, I should not dare to do; for I should be afraid of the dangerous opinion of rashness in so great a matter. I promise, I undertake, I pledge, senators, that Gaius Caesar will always be such a citizen as he is today, and as we ought most to wish and to pray that he be.
quam ob rem ab eo non modo nihil timere sed maiora et meliora exspectare debetis, neque in eo qui ad D. Brutum obsidione liberandum profectus sit timere ne memoria maneat domestici doloris quae plus apud eum possit quam salus civitatis. audeo etiam obligare fidem meam, patres conscripti, vobis populoque Romano reique publicae; quod profecto, cum me nulla vis cogeret, facere non auderem pertimesceremque in maxima re periculosam opinionem temeritatis. promitto, recipio, spondeo, patres conscripti, C. Caesarem talem semper fore civem qualis hodie sit qualemque eum maxime velle esse et optare debemus.
Since this is so, of Caesar at this time enough will have been said. Nor do I think that I should be silent about Lucius Egnatuleius, a most steadfast and most resolute citizen and most friendly to the commonwealth; but a testimony to his exceptional valour must be paid, in that he brought the Fourth Legion to Caesar, to be a guard for the consuls, the Senate, the Roman people, and the commonwealth. For this cause it pleases me that Lucius Egnatuleius be permitted to seek, to take, and to hold magistracies three years before the legal time. In which, senators, not so much an advantage is granted to Lucius Egnatuleius as an honour: for in such a matter it is enough to be named.
quae cum ita sint, de Caesare satis hoc tempore dictum habebo. nec vero de L. Egnatuleio, fortissimo et constantissimo civi amicissimoque rei publicae, silendum arbitror; sed tribuendum testimonium virtutis egregiae, quod is legionem quartam ad Caesarem adduxerit, quae praesidio consulibus, senatui populoque Romano reique publicae esset: ob eam causam placere uti L. Egnatuleio triennio ante legitimum tempus magistratus petere, capere, gerere liceat. in quo, patres conscripti, non tantum commodum tribuitur L. Egnatuleio quantus honos: in tali enim re satis est nominari.
Concerning the army of Gaius Caesar, I move that the decree be passed thus: “It pleases the Senate that the veteran soldiers who, having followed the authority of Caesar, pontifex, propraetor, have defended and are defending the liberty of the Roman people and the authority of this order, shall themselves and their children have exemption from military service; and that Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, either or both, if it should seem good to them, take cognisance of what land in those colonies into which the veteran soldiers were settled is being held contrary to the Lex Iulia, so that it may be distributed to the veteran soldiers; and that they take cognisance separately of the Campanian land, and consider the matter of enlarging the rewards of the veteran soldiers; and that to the Martian Legion and the Fourth Legion, and to those soldiers who from the Second and the Thirty-fifth Legions have come over to Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius the consuls and have given in their names, because to them the authority of the Senate and the liberty of the Roman people is and has been most dear, exemption from military service, for themselves and their children, be granted, save in the Gallic or Italic tumult; and that those legions, the war being concluded, be discharged; and that whatever sum of money Gaius Caesar, pontifex, propraetor, has promised to the soldiers of those legions individually, the same be paid; and that Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, either or both, if it should seem good to them, take account of land which can be divided without injury to private parties, and so give and assign it to those soldiers, to the Martian Legion and to the Fourth Legion, as land has been most amply given and assigned to any soldiers.” I have spoken, consuls, on all those matters concerning which you have referred to us; which, if they shall be decreed without delay and in good time, you will more easily make ready those things which the moment and necessity demand. There is need of speed: of which, had we made use, we should — as I have often said — have no war at all.
de exercitu autem C. Caesaris ita censeo decernendum: ‘senatui placere, militibus veteranis qui Caesaris pontificis pro praetore auctoritatem secuti libertatem populi Romani auctoritatemque huius ordinis defenderint atque defendant ipsis liberisque eorum militiae vacationem esse, utique C. Pansa A. Hirtius consules, alter ambove, si eis videretur, cognoscerent qui ager eis coloniis esset quo milites veterani deducti essent, qui contra legem Iuliam possideretur, ut is militibus veteranis divideretur; de agro Campano separatim cognoscerent inirentque rationem de commodis militum veteranorum augendis, legionique Martiae et legioni quartae et eis militibus qui de legione secunda, tricesima quinta ad C. Pansam A. Hirtium consules venissent suaque nomina edidissent, quod eis auctoritas senatus populique Romani libertas carissima sit et fuerit, vacationem militiae ipsis liberisque eorum esse placere extra tumultum Gallicum Italicumque: easque legiones bello confecto missas fieri placere; quantamque pecuniam militibus earum legionum in singulos C. Caesar, pontifex, pro praetore pollicitus sit, tantam dari placere; utique C. Pansa A. Hirtius consules, alter ambove, si eis videretur, rationem agri haberent qui sine iniuria privatorum dividi posset, eisque militibus, legioni Martiae et legioni quartae ita darent, adsignarent ut quibus militibus amplissime dati, adsignati essent.’ dixi ad ea omnia, consules, de quibus rettulistis: quae si erunt sine mora matureque decreta, facilius apparabitis ea quae tempus et necessitas flagitat. celeritate autem opus est: qua si essemus usi, bellum, ut saepe dixi, nullum haberemus.