Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Dio's Rome, Volume 3 / An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
45

VOL. 3.—1

The following is contained in the Forty-fifth of Dio's Rome:

About Gaius Octavius, who afterward was named Augustus (chapters 1-9).

About Sextus, the son of Pompey (chapter 10).

How Caesar and Antony entered upon a period of hostility (chapters 11-17).

How Cicero delivered a public harangue against Antony (chapters 18-47).

Duration of time, the remainder of the year of the 5th dictatorship of C. Iulius Caesar with M. Aemilius Lepidus, Master of the Horse, and of his 5th consulship with Marcus Antonius. (B.C. 44 = a. u. 710.)¹

(BOOK 45, BOSSEVAIN.)

[B.C. 44 (a. u.710)]

[-1-] This was Antony's course of procedure.—Gaius Octavius Copia,—this was the name of the son of Caesar's niece, Attia,—came from Velitrae in the Volscian country, and having been left without a protector by the death of his father Octavius he was brought up in the house of his mother and her husband, Lucius Philippus, but on attaining maturity spent his time with Caesar. The latter, who was childless, based great hopes upon him and was devoted to him, intending to leave him as successor to his name, authority, and supremacy. He was influenced largely by Attia's explicit affirmation that the youth had been engendered by Apollo. While sleeping once in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and through this circumstance at the end of the allotted time bore a son. Before he came to the light of day she saw in a dream her womb lifted to the heavens and spreading out over all the earth; and the same night Octavius thought the sun rose from her vagina. Hardly had the child been born when Nigidius Figulus, a senator, straightway prophesied for him sole command of the realm.²

He could distinguish most accurately of his contemporaries the order of the firmament and the mutations of the stars, what they accomplished by separation and what by conjunctions, in their associations and retirements, and for this reason had incurred the charge of practicing some kind of forbidden pursuits. He accordingly met on that occasion Octavius, who was somewhat tardy in reaching the senate on account of the birth of the child,—there happened to be a meeting of the senate that day,—and asked him why he was late. On learning the cause he cried out: "You have begotten a master over us."³ At that Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant, but Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible for it to suffer any such fate. [-2-] This was the conversation at that time. While the boy was growing up in the country an eagle snatched from his hands a loaf of bread, and after soaring aloft flew down and gave it back to him.⁴ When he was a lad and staying in Rome Cicero dreamed that the boy was let down by golden chains to the summit of the Capitol and received a whip from Jupiter.⁵ He did not know who the youth was, but meeting him the next day on the Capitol itself he recognized him, and told the vision to the bystanders. Catulus, who had likewise never seen Octavius, beheld in a vision all the noble children on the Capitol at the termination of a solemn procession to Jupiter, and in the course of the ceremony the god cast what looked like an image of Rome into that child's lap. Startled at this he went up into the Capitol to offer prayers to the god, and finding there Octavius, who had ascended the hill for some other reason, he compared his appearance with the dream and was satisfied of the truth of the vision. When later he had become a young man and was about to reach maturity, he was putting on the dress of an adult when his tunic was rent on both sides from his shoulders and fell to his feet. This event of itself not only had no significance as forecasting any good fortune, but displeased the spectators considerably because it had happened in his first putting on the garb of a man: it occurred to Octavius to say: "I shall put the whole senatorial dignity beneath my feet"; and the outcome proved in accordance with his words. Caesar founded great hopes upon him as a result of this, introduced him into the class of patricians and trained him for rulership. In everything that is proper to come to the notice of one destined to control so great a power well and worthily he educated him with care. The youth was trained in oratorical speeches, not only in the Latin but in this language [Greek], labored persistently in military campaigns, and received minute instruction in politics and the science of government.

[-3-] Now this Octavius chanced at the time that Caesar was murdered to be in Apollonia near the Ionic Gulf, pursuing his education. He had been sent thither in advance to look after his patron's intended campaign against the Parthians. When he learned of the event he was naturally grieved, but did not dare at once to take any radical measures. He had not yet heard that he had been made Caesar's son or heir, and moreover the first news he received was to the effect that the people were of one mind in the affair. When, however, he had crossed to Brundusium and had been informed about the will and the people's second thought, he made no delay, particularly because he had considerable money and numerous soldiers who had been sent on under his charge, but he immediately assumed the name of Caesar, succeeded to his estate, and began to busy himself with the situation. [-4-] At the time he seemed to some to have acted recklessly and daringly in this, but later as a result of his good fortune and the successes he achieved he acquired a reputation for bravery. In many instances in history men who were wrong in undertaking some project have been famed for wisdom because they proved fortunate in it: others who used the best possible judgment have had to stand a charge of folly because they did not attain their ends. He, too, acted in a blundering and dangerous way; he was only just past boyhood,—eighteen years of age,—and saw that the succession to the inheritance and the family was sure to provoke jealousy and censure: yet he started in pursuit of objects that had led to Caesar's murder, and no punishment befell him, and he feared neither the assassins nor Lepidus and Antony. Yet he was not thought to have planned poorly, because he became successful. Heaven, however, indicated not obscurely all the upheaval that would result from it. As he was entering Rome a great variegated iris surrounded the whole sun.

[-5-] In this way he that was formerly called Octavius, but already at this time Caesar, and subsequently Augustus, took charge of affairs and settled them and brought them to a successful close more vigourously than any mature man, more prudently than any graybeard. First he entered the city as if for the sole purpose of succeeding to the inheritance, and as a private citizen with only a few attendants, without any ostentation. Still later he did not utter any threat against any one nor show that he was displeased at what had occurred and would take vengeance for it. So far from demanding of Antony any of the money that he had previously plundered, he actually paid court to him although he was insulted and wronged by him. Among the other injuries that Antony did him by both word and deed was his action when the lex curiata was proposed, according to which the transfer of Octavius into Caesar's family was to take place: Antony himself, of course, was active to have it passed, but through some tribunes he secured its postponement in order that the young man being not yet Caesar's child according to law might not meddle with the property and might be weaker in all other ways. [-6-] Caesar was restive under this treatment, but as he was unable to speak his mind freely he bore it until he had won over the crowd, by whose members he understood his father had been raised to honor. He knew that they were angry at the latter's death and hoped they would be enthusiastic over him as his son and perceived that they hated Antony on account of his having been master of the horse and also for his failure to punish the murderers. Hence he undertook to become tribune as a starting point for popular leadership and to secure the power that would result from it; and he accordingly became a candidate for the place of Cinna, which was vacant. Though hindered by Antony's clique he did not desist and after using persuasion upon Tiberius Cannutius, a tribune, he was by him brought before the populace. He took as an excuse the gift bequeathed by Caesar and in his speech touched upon all the important points, promising that he would discharge this debt at once, and gave them cause to hope for much besides. After this came the festival appointed in honor of the completion of the temple of Venus, which some, while Caesar was alive, had promised to celebrate, but were now holding in, slight regard as they did the horse-race connected with the Parilia;⁶ and to win the favor of the populace he provided for it at his private expense on the ground that it concerned him because of his family. At this time out of fear of Antony he brought into the theatre neither Caesar's gilded chair nor his crown set with precious stones, though it was permitted by decree. [-7-] When, however, a certain star through all those days appeared in the north toward evening, some called it a comet, and said that it indicated the usual occurrences; but the majority, instead of believing this, ascribed it to Caesar, interpreting it to mean that he had become a god and had been included in the number of the stars. Then Octavius took courage and set up in the temple of Venus a bronze statue of him with a star above his head. Through fear of the populace no one prevented this, and then, at last, some of the earlier decrees in regard to honors to Caesar were put into effect. They called one of the months July after him and in the course of certain triumphal religious festivals they sacrificed during one special day in memory of his name. For these reasons the soldiers also, and particularly since some of them received largesses of money, readily took the side of Caesar.

Rumors accordingly went abroad, and it seemed likely that something unusual would take place. This idea gained most headway for the reason that when Octavius was somewhat anxious to show himself in court in an elevated and conspicuous place, as he had been wont to do in his father's lifetime, Antony would not allow it, but had his lictors drag him down and drive him out. [-8-] All were exceedingly vexed, and especially because Caesar with a view to casting odium upon his rival and arousing the multitude would no longer even frequent the Forum. So Antony became terrified, and in conversation with the bystanders one day remarked that he harbored no anger against Caesar, but on the contrary owed him affection, and felt inclined to dispel the entire cloud of suspicion. The statement was reported to the other, they held a conference, and some thought they had become reconciled. As a fact they understood each other's dispositions accurately, and, thinking it inopportune at that time to put them to the test, they came to terms by making a few mutual concessions. For some days they were quiet; then they began to suspect each other afresh as a result of either some really hostile action or some false report of hostility,—as regularly happens under such conditions,—and were again at variance. When men become reconciled after a great enmity they are suspicious of many acts that contain no malice and of many chance occurrences. In brief, they regard everything, in the light of their former hostility, as done on purpose and for an evil end. While they are in this condition those who stand on neutral ground aggravate the trouble, irritating them still more by bearing reports to and fro under the pretence of devotion. There is a very large element which is anxious to see all those who have power at variance with one another,—an element which consequently takes delight in their enmity and joins in plots against them. And the party which has previously suffered from calumny is very easy to deceive with words adapted to the purpose by a band of friends whose attachment is not under suspicion. This also accounts for the fact that these men, who did not trust each other previously, became now even more estranged.

[-9-] Antony seeing that Caesar was gaining ground attempted to attract the populace by various baits, to see if he could detach the people from his rival and number them among his own forces. Hence through Lucius Antonius, his brother, who was tribune, he introduced a measure that considerable land be opened for settlement, among the parcels being the region of the Pontine marshes, which he stated had already been filled and were capable of cultivation. The three Antonii, who were brothers, all held office at the same time. Marcus was consul, Lucius tribune, and Gaius praetor. Therefore they could very easily remove those who were temporarily rulers of their allies and subjects (except the majority of the assassins and some others whom they regarded as loyal) and choose others in place of them: they could also grant some the right to hold office for an unusually long term, contrary to the laws established by Caesar. Also Macedonia, which fell to Marcus by lot, was appropriated by his brother Gaius, but Marcus himself with the legions previously despatched into Apollonia laid claim to Gaul on this side of the Alps, to which Decimus Brutus had been assigned; the reason was that it seemed to be very strong in resources of soldiers and money. After these measures had been passed the immunity granted to Sextus Pompey by Caesar, as to all the rest, was confirmed: he had already considerable influence. It was further resolved that whatever moneys of silver or gold the public treasury had taken from his ancestral estate should be restored. As for the lands belonging to it Antony held the most of them and made no restoration.

[-10-] This was the business in which they were engaged. But I shall now go on to describe how Sextus had fared. When he had fled from Corduba, he first came to Lacetania and concealed himself there. He was pursued, to be sure, but eluded discovery through the fact that the natives were kindly disposed to him out of regard for his father's memory. Later, when Caesar had started for Italy and only a small army was left behind in Baetica, he was joined both by the native inhabitants and by those who escaped from the battle, and with them he came again into Baetica, because he thought it more suitable for the carrying on of war. There he gained possession of soldiers and cities, particularly after Caesar's death, some voluntarily and some by violence; the commandant in charge of them, Gaius Asinius Pollio, held a force that was far from strong. He next set out against Spanish Carthage, but since in his absence Pollio made an attack and did some damage, he returned with a large force, met his opponent, and routed him. After that the following accident enabled him to startle and conquer the rest, as well, who were contending fiercely. Pollio had cast off his general's cloak, in order to suffer less chance of detection in his flight, and another man of the same name, a brilliant horseman, had fallen. The soldiers, hearing the name of the latter, who was lying there, and seeing the garment which had been captured, were deceived, and thinking that their general had perished surrendered. In this way Sextus conquered and held possession of nearly that entire region. When he was now a powerful factor, Lepidus arrived to govern the adjoining portion of Spain, and persuaded him to enter into an agreement on condition that he should recover his father's estate. Antony, influenced by his friendship for Lepidus and by his hostility toward Caesar, caused such a decree to be passed.

So Sextus, in this way and on these conditions, held aloof from Spain proper. [-11-] Caesar and Antony in all their acts opposed each other, but had not fallen out openly, and whereas in reality they were alienated they tried to disguise the fact so far as appearances went. As a result all other interests in the city were in a most undecided state and condition of turmoil. People were still at peace and yet already at war. Liberty led but a shadow existence, and the deeds done were the deeds of royalty. To a casual observer Antony, since he held the consulship, seemed to be getting the best of it, but the enthusiasm of the masses was for Caesar. This was partly on his father's account, partly on account of the hopes he held out to them, but above all because they were displeased at the considerable power of Antony and were inclined to assist Caesar while he was yet devoid of strength. Neither man had their affection, but they were always eager for a change of administration, and it was their nature to try to overthrow every superior force and to help any party that was being oppressed. Consequently they made use of the two to suit their own desires. After they had at this period humbled Antony through the instrumentality of Caesar they next undertook to destroy the latter also. Their irritation toward the men temporarily in power and their liking for the weaker side made them attempt to overthrow the former. Later they became estranged from the weaker also. Thus they showed dislike for each of them in turn and the same men experienced their affection and their hatred, their support and their active opposition.

[-12-] While they were maintaining the above attitude toward Caesar and Antony, the war began as follows. Antony had set out for Brundusium to meet the soldiers who had crossed over from Macedonia. Caesar sent some persons to that city with money, who were to arrive there before Antony and win over the men, and himself went to Campania, where he collected a large crowd of men, chiefly from Capua because the people there had received their land and city from his father, whom he said he was avenging. He made them many promises and gave them on the spot five hundred denarii apiece. These men usually constituted the corps of evocati, whom one might term in Greek "the recalled", because having ended their service they have been recalled to it again. Caesar took charge of them, hastened to Rome before Antony could make his way back, and came before the people, who had been made ready for him by Cannutius. There he called to their minds in detail all the excellent works his father had done, made a considerable, though moderate, defence of himself, and brought accusations against Antony. He also praised the soldiers who had accompanied him, saying that they were present voluntarily to lend aid to the city, that they had elected him to preside over the State and that through his mouth they made known these facts to all. For this speech he received the approbation of his following and of the throng that stood by, after which he departed for Etruria with a view to obtaining an accession to his forces from that country.

[-13-] While he was doing this Antony had been at first kindly received in Brundusium by the soldiers, because they expected they would secure more from him than was offered them by Caesar. This belief was based on the idea that he had possession of much more than his rival. When, however, he promised to give each of them a hundred denarii, they raised an outcry, but he reduced them to submission by ordering centurions as well as others to be slain before the eyes of himself and his wife. For the time being the soldiers were quiet, but on the way toward Gaul when they arrived opposite the capital they revolted, and many of them, despising the lieutenants that had been set over them, arrayed themselves on Caesar's side. The so-called Martian and the fourth legion went over to him in a body. He took charge of them and won their attachment by giving money to all alike,—an act which added many more to his troops. He also captured all the elephants of Antony, by confronting the train suddenly as they were being conducted along. Antony stopped in Rome only long enough to arrange a few affairs and to bind by oath all the rest of the soldiers and the senators who were in their company; then he set out for Gaul, fearing that that country too might indulge in an uprising. Caesar without delay followed behind him.

[-14-] Decimus Brutus was at this time governor of that province, and Antony set great hopes upon him, because he had been a slayer of Caesar. But it turned out as follows. Decimus did not look askance particularly at Caesar, for the latter had uttered no threats against the assassins: on the other hand, he saw that Antony was no more formidable a foe than his rival, or, indeed, than himself or any of the rest who were in power as a result of natural acquisitiveness; therefore he refused to give ground before him. Caesar, when he heard this decision, was for some time at a loss what course to adopt. The young man hated both Decimus and Antony but saw no way in which he could contend against them both at once. He was by no means yet a match for either one of the two, and he was further afraid that if he risked such a move he should throw them into each other's arms and face the united opposition of the two. After stopping to reflect that the struggle with Antony was already begun and was urgent, but that it was not yet a fitting season for taking vengeance for his father, he decided to make a friend of Decimus. He understood well that he should find no great difficulty in fighting against the latter, if with his aid he could first overcome his adversaries, but that Antony would be a powerful antagonist on any subsequent occasion. So much did they differ from each other. [-15-] Accordingly he sent a messenger to Decimus, proposing friendship and promising alliance, if he would refuse to receive Antony. This proposal caused the people in the city likewise to join in expressing their gratitude to Caesar. Just at this time the year was drawing to a close and no consul was on the ground, Dolabella having been previously sent by Antony to Syria. Eulogies, however, were delivered in the senate by the members themselves and by the soldiers who had abandoned Antony,—with the concurrence also of the tribunes. When they entered upon the new year they decided, in order that they might discuss freely existing conditions, to employ a guard of soldiers at their meetings. This pleased nearly all who were in Rome at the time,—for they cordially detested Antony,—but particularly Cicero. He, on account of his bitter and long-standing hostility toward the man, paid court to Caesar, and so far as he could, by speech and action, strove to assist him in every way and to injure Antony. It was for this reason that, when he had left the city to escort his son to Athens for the benefit of his education, he had returned on ascertaining that the two were publicly estranged.

[-16-] Besides these events which took place that year Servilius Isauricus died at a very advanced age. I have mentioned him both for that fact and to show how the Romans of that period respected men who were prominent through merit and hated those who behaved insolently, even on the very slightest grounds. This Servilius while walking had once met on the road a man on horseback, who so far from dismounting on his approach spurned him violently aside. Later he recognized the fellow in a defendant of a case in court, and when he mentioned the affair to the judge, they paid no further attention to the man's plea, but unanimously condemned him.

[B.C. 43 (a u. 711)]

[-17-] In the consulship of Aldus Hirtius (who was now appointed consul in spite of the fact that his father's name had been posted on the tablets of Sulla), with his colleague Gaius Vibius, a meeting of the senate was held and votes were taken for three successive days, including the first of the month itself. As a result of the war which was upon them and the portents, very numerous and extremely unfavorable, which took place, they were so excited that they failed to pass over these dies nefasti on which they ought not to deliberate on any matter touching their interests. Ominous had been the falling of great numbers of thunderbolts, some of which descended on the shrine sacred to Capitoline Jupiter, that stood in the temple of Victory. Also a great wind arose which snapped and scattered the columns erected about the temple of Saturn and the shrine of Fides, and likewise knocked down and shattered the statue of Minerva the Protectress, which Cicero had set up on the Capitol before his exile. This portended, of course, the death of Cicero himself. Another thing that frightened the rest of the population was a great earthquake which occurred, and the fact that a bull which was sacrificed on account of it in the temple of Vesta leaped up after the ceremony. In addition to these clear indications of danger a flash darted across from the place of the rising sun to the place of its setting and a new star was seen for several days. Then the light of the sun seemed to be diminished and even extinguished, and at times to appear in three circles, one of which was surmounted by a fiery crown of sheaves. This, if anything, proved as clear a sign as possible to them. For three men were in power,—I mean Caesar and Lepidus and Antony,—and of them Caesar subsequently secured the victory. At the same time that these things occurred all sorts of oracles tending to the downfall of the democracy were recited. Crows, moreover, flew into the temple of the Dioscuri and pecked out the names of the consuls and of Antony and of Dolabella, which were inscribed there somewhere on a tablet. And by night dogs in large numbers gathered throughout the city and especially near the house of the high priest, Lepidus, and set up howls. Again, the Po, which had flooded a large portion of the surrounding territory, suddenly receded and left behind on the dry land a vast number of snakes. Countless fish were cast up from the sea on the shore near the mouth of the Tiber. Succeeding these terrors a plague spread over nearly the whole of Italy in a malignant form, and in view of this the senate voted that the Curia Hostilia⁷ should be rebuilt and the spot where the naval battle had taken place be filled up. However, the curse did not appear disposed to rest even at this point, especially when during Vibius's conduct of the initial sacrifices on the first of the month one of his lictors suddenly fell down and died. Because of these events many men in the course of those days took one side or the other in their speeches and advice, and among the deliverances was the following, of Cicero:—[-18-] "You have heard recently, Conscript Fathers, when I made a statement to you about the matter, why I made preparations for my departure as if I were going to be absent from the city a very long time and then returned rapidly with the idea that I could benefit you greatly. I would not endure an existence under a sovereignty or a tyranny, since under such forms of government I can not enjoy the rights of free⁸ citizenship nor speak my mind safely nor die in a way that is of service to you; and again, if opportunity is afforded to obey any of duty's calls, I would not shrink from action, though it involved danger. I deem it the task of an upright man equally to keep watch over himself for his country's interests (guarding himself that he may not perish uselessly), and in this course of action not to fail to say or do whatever is requisite, even if it be necessary to suffer some harm in preserving his native land.

[-19-] "These assumptions granted, a large degree of safety was afforded by Caesar both to you and to me for the discussion of pressing questions. And since you have further voted to assemble under guard, we must frame all our words and behavior this day in such a fashion as to establish the present state of affairs and provide for the future, that we may not again be compelled to decide in a similar way about it. That our condition is difficult and dangerous and requires much care and attention you yourselves have made evident, if in no other way, at least by this measure. For you would not have voted to keep the senate-house under guard, if it had been possible for you to deliberate at all with your accustomed orderliness, and in quiet, free from fear. It is necessary for us even on account of the presence of the soldiers to accomplish some measure of importance, that we may not incur the disgrace that would certainly follow from asking for them as if we feared somebody, and then neglecting affairs as if we were liable to no danger. We shall appear to have acquired them only nominally in behalf of the city against Antony, but to have given them in reality to him against our own selves, and it will look as if in addition to the other legions which he gathers against his country he needed to acquire these very men and so prevent your passing any vote against him even to-day.

[-20-] "Yet some have attained such a height of shamelessness as to dare to say that he is not warring against the State and have credited you with so great folly as to think that they will persuade you to attend to their words rather than to his acts. But who would choose to desist from regarding his performances and the campaign which he has made against our allies without any orders from the senate or the people, the countries which he is overrunning, the cities which he is besieging, and the hopes upon which he is building in his entire course,—who would distrust, I say, the evidence of his own eyes, and to his ruin yield credence to the words of these men and their false statements, by which they put you off with pretexts and excuses?

I myself am far from asserting that in doing this he is carrying out any legal act of administration. On the contrary, because he has abandoned the province of Macedonia, which was assigned to him by lot, and because he chose instead the province of Gaul, which in no way pertained to him, and because he assumed control of the legions which Caesar had sent ahead against the Parthians, keeping them about him though no danger threatens Italy, and because he has left the city during the period of his consulship to go about pillaging and injuring the country,—for all these reasons I declare that he has long been an enemy of us all. [-21-] If you did not perceive it immediately at the start or experience vexation at each of his actions, he deserves to be hated all the more on this account, in that he does not cease injuring you, who are so long-suffering. He might perchance have obtained pardon for the errors which he committed at first, but now by his perseverance in evil he has reached such a pitch of knavery that he ought to be brought to book for his former offences as well. And you ought to be especially careful in regard to the situation, noticing and considering this point,—that the man who has so often despised you in such weighty matters cannot submit to be corrected by the same gentleness and kindliness that you have shown, but must now against his will, even though never previously, be chastised by force of arms.

"And because he partly persuaded and partly compelled you to vote him some privileges, do not think that this makes him less guilty or deserving of less punishment. Quite the reverse,—for this very procedure in particular he merits the infliction of a penalty: he determined from the outset to commit many outrages, and after accomplishing some of them through you, he employed against your own selves the resources which came from you, which by deception, he forced you to vote to him, though you neither knew nor foresaw any such result. On what occasion did you voluntarily abolish the commands given by Caesar or by the lot to each man, and allow this person to distribute many appointments to his friends and companions, sending his brother Gaius to Macedonia, and assigning Gaul to himself with the aid of the legions which he was not by any means keeping to use in your defence? Do you not remember how, when he found you startled at Caesar's demise, he carried out all the plans that he chose, communicating some to you carefully dissimulated and at inopportune moments, and on his own responsibility executing others that inflicted injuries, while all his acts were characterized by violence? He used soldiers, and barbarians at that, against you. And need any one be surprised that in those days some vote was passed which should not have been, when even now we have not obtained a free hand to speak and do what is requisite in any other way than by the aid of a body-guard? If we had been formerly endued with this power, he would not have obtained what any one may say he has obtained, nor would he have risen to the prominence enabling him to do the deeds that were a natural sequence. Accordingly, let no one retort that the rights which we were seen to give him under command and compulsion and amid laments were legally and rightfully bestowed. For, even in private business, that is not considered binding which a man does under compulsion from another.

[-23-] "And yet all these measures which you are seen to have voted you will find to be slight and varying but little from established custom. What was there dreadful in the fact that one man was destined to govern Macedonia or Gaul in place of another? Or what was the harm if a man obtained soldiers during his consulship? But these are the facts that are harmful and abominable,—that your land should be damaged, allied cities besieged, that our soldiers should be armed against us and our means expended to our detriment: this you neither voted nor intended. Do not, merely because you have granted him some privileges, allow him to usurp what was not granted him; and do not think that just as you have conceded some points he ought similarly to be permitted to do what has not been conceded. Quite the reverse: you should for this very reason both hate and punish him, because he has dared not only in this case but in all other cases to use the honor and kindness that you bestowed against you. Look at the matter. Through my influence you voted that there should be peace and harmony between individuals. This man was ordered to manage the business, and conducted it in such a way (taking Caesar's funeral as a pretext) that almost the whole city was burned down and great numbers were once more slaughtered. You ratified all the grants made to various persons and all the laws laid down by Caesar, not because they were all excellent—far from it! ,—but because our mutual and unsuspecting association, quite free from any disguise, was not furthered by changing any one of those enactments. This man, appointed to examine into them, has abolished many of his acts and has substituted many others in the documents. He has taken away lands and citizenship and exemption from taxes and many other honors from the possessors,—private individuals, kings, and cities,—and has given them to men who had not received any, altering the memoranda of Caesar; from those who were unwilling to give up anything to his grasp he took away even what had been given them, and sold this and everything else to such as wished to buy. Yet you, foreseeing this very possibility, had voted that no tablet should be set up after Caesar's death which might contain any article given by him to any person. Notwithstanding, it happened many times after that. He also said it was necessary for some provisions found in Caesar's papers to be specially noted and put into effect. You then assigned to him, in company with the foremost men, the task of making these excerpts; but he, paying no attention to his colleagues, carried out everything alone according to his wishes, in regard to the laws, the exiles, and other points which I enumerated a few moments since. This is the way in which he wishes to execute all your decrees.

[-24-] "Has he then shown himself such a character only in these affairs, while managing the rest rightly? In what instance? On what motive? He was ordered to search for and declare the public money left behind by Caesar, and did he not seize it, paying some of it to his creditors and spending some on high living so that he no longer has even any of this left? You hated the name of dictator on account of Caesar's sovereignty and rejected it entirely from the constitution: but is it not true that Antony, though he has avoided adopting it (as if the name in itself could do any harm), has exhibited the behavior belonging to it and the greed for gain, under the title of consulship? You assigned to him the duty of promoting harmony, and has he not on his own responsibility begun this great war, neither necessary nor sanctioned, against Caesar and Decimus, whom you approve? Innumerable cases might be mentioned, if one wished to go into details, in which you entrusted business to him to manage as consul, and he has not conducted a single bit of it as the circumstances demanded, but has done quite the opposite, using against you the authority that you imparted. Now will you assume to yourself also these errors that he has committed and say that you yourselves are responsible for all that has happened, because you assigned to him the management and investigation of the matters in question? It is ridiculous. If some general or envoy that had been chosen should fail in every way to do his duty, you who sent him would not incur the blame for this. It would be a sorry state of things, if all who are elected to perform some work should themselves receive the advantages and the honors, but lay upon you the complaints and the blame. [-25-] Accordingly, there is no sense in paying any heed to him when he says: 'It was you who permitted me to govern Gaul, you ordered me to administer the public finances, you gave me the legions from Macedonia.' Perhaps these measures were voted—yet ought you to put it that way, and not instead exact punishment from him for his action in compelling you to make that decision? At any rate, you never at any time gave him the right to restore the exiles, to add laws surreptitiously, to sell the privileges of citizenship and exemption from taxes, to steal the public funds, to plunder the possessions of allies, to abuse the cities, or to undertake to play the tyrant over his native country. And you never conceded to any one else all that was desired, though you have granted by your votes many things to many persons; on the contrary you have always punished such men so far as you could, as you will also punish him, if you take my advice. For it is not in these matters alone that he has shown himself to be such a man as you know and have seen him to be, but briefly in all undertakings which he has ever attempted to perform for the commonwealth.

[-26-] "His private life and his private examples of licentiousness and avarice I shall willingly pass over, not because one would fail to discover that he had committed many abominable outrages in the course of them, but because, by Hercules, I am ashamed to describe minutely and separately—especially to you who know it as well as I—how he conducted his youth among you who were boys at the time, how he auctioned off the vigor of his prime, his secret lapses from chastity, his open fornications, what he let be done to him as long as it was possible, what he did as early as he could, his revels, his periods of drunkenness, and all the rest that follows in their train. It is impossible for a person brought up in so great licentiousness and shamelessness to avoid defiling his entire life: and so from his private concerns he brought his lewdness and greed to bear upon public matters. On this I will refrain from dilating, and likewise by Jupiter on his visit to Gabinius in Egypt and his flight to Caesar in Gaul, that I may not be charged with going minutely into every detail; for I feel ashamed for you, that knowing him to be such a man you appointed him tribune and master of the horse and subsequently consul. I will at present recite only his drunken insolence and abuses in these very positions.

[-27-] "Well, then, when he was tribune he first of all prevented you from settling suitably the work you then had in hand by shouting and bawling and alone of all the people opposing the public peace of the State, until you became vexed and because of his conduct passed the vote that you did. Then, though by law he was not permitted to be absent from town a single night, he escaped from the city, abandoning the duties of his office, and, having gone as a deserter to Caesar's camp, guided the latter back as a foe to his country, drove you out of Rome and all the rest of Italy, and, in short, became the prime cause of all the civil disorders that have since taken place among you. Had he not at that time acted contrary to your wishes, Caesar would never have found an excuse for the war and could not, in spite of all his shamelessness, have gathered a competent force in defiance of your resolutions; but he would have either voluntarily laid down his arms, or been brought to his senses unwillingly. As it is, this fellow is the man who furnished him with the excuses, who destroyed the prestige of the senate, who increased the audacity of the soldiers. He it is who planted the seeds of evils which sprang up afterward: he it is who has proved the common bane not only of us, but also of practically the whole world, as, indeed, Heaven rather plainly indicated. When, that is to say, he proposed those astonishing laws, the whole air was filled with thunder and lightning. Yet this accursed wretch paid no attention to them, though he claims to be a soothsayer, but filled not only the city but the whole world with the evils and wars which I mentioned.

[-28-] "Now after this is there any need of mentioning that he served as master of the horse an entire year, something which had never before been done? Or that during this period also he was drunk and abusive and in the assemblies would frequently vomit the remains of yesterday's debauch on the rostra itself, in the midst of his harangues? Or that he went about Italy at the head of pimps and prostitutes and buffoons, women as well as men, in company with the lictors bearing festoons of laurel? Or that he alone of mankind dared to buy the property of Pompey, having no regard for his own dignity or the great man's memory, but grasping eagerly those possessions over which we even now as at that time shed a tear? He threw himself upon this and many other estates with the evident intention of making no recompense for them. Yet with all his insolence and violence the price was nevertheless collected, for Caesar took this way of discountenancing his act. And all that he has acquired, vast in extent and gathered from every source, he has consumed in dicing, consumed in harlotry, consumed in feasting, consumed in drinking, like a second Charybdis.

[-29-] "Of this behavior I shall make no chronicle. But on the subject of the insults which he offered to the State and the assassinations which he caused throughout the whole city alike how can any man be silent? Is memory lacking of how oppressive the very sight of him was to you, but most of all his deeds? He dared, O thou earth and ye gods, first in this place, within the wall, in the Forum, in the senate-house, on the Capitol, at one and the same time to array himself in the purple-bordered garb, to gird a sword on his thigh, to employ lictors, and to be escorted by armed soldiers. Next, whereas he might have checked the turmoil of the citizens, he not only failed to do so, but set you at variance when you were in concord, partly by his own acts and partly through the medium of others. Moreover he directed his attention in turn to the latter themselves, and by now assisting them and now abandoning them⁹ incurred full responsibility for great numbers of them being slain and for the fact that the entire region of Pontus and of the Parthians was not subdued at that time immediately after the victory over Pharnaces. Caesar, being called hither in haste to see what he was doing, did not finish entirely any of those projects, as he was surely intending.

[-30-] "Even this result did not sober him, but when he was consul he came naked, naked, Conscript Fathers, and anointed into the Forum, taking the Lupercalia as an excuse, then proceeded in company with his lictors to the rostra, and there harangued us from the elevation. From the day the city was founded no one can point to any one else, even a praetor or tribune or aedile, let alone a consul, who has done such a thing. To be sure it was the festival of the Lupercalia, and the Lupercalia had been put in charge of the Julian College¹⁰; yes, and Sextus Clodius had trained him to conduct himself so, upon receipt of two thousand plethra of the land of Leontini¹¹. But you were consul, respected sir (for I will address you as though you were present), and it was neither proper nor permissible for you as such to speak in such a way in the Forum, hard by the rostra, with all of us present, and to cause us both to behold your remarkable body, so corpulent and detestable, and to hear your accursed voice, choked with unguent, speaking those outrageous words; for I will preferably confine my comment to this point about your mouth. The Lupercalia would not have missed its proper reverence, but you disgraced the whole city at once,—not to speak a word yet about your remarks on that occasion. Who is unaware that the consulship is public, the property of the whole people, that its dignity must be preserved everywhere, and that its holder must nowhere strip naked or behave wantonly? [-31-] Did he perchance imitate the famous Horatius of old or Cloelia of bygone days? But the latter swam across the river with all her clothing, and the former cast himself with his armor into the flood. It would be fitting—would it not?—to set up also a statue of this consul, so that people might contrast the one man armed in the Tiber and the other naked in the Forum. It was by such conduct as has been cited that those heroes of yore were wont to preserve us and give us liberty, while he took away all our liberty from us, so far as was in his power, destroyed the whole democracy, set up a despot in place of a consul, a tyrant in place of a dictator over us. You remember the nature of his language when he approached the rostra, and the style of his behavior when he had ascended it. But when a man who is a Roman and a consul has dared to name any one King of the Romans in the Roman Forum, close to the rostra of liberty, in the presence of the entire people and the entire senate, and straightway to set the diadem upon his head and further to affirm falsely in the hearing of us all that we ourselves bade him say and do this, what most outrageous deed will that man not dare, and from what action, however revolting, will he refrain? [-32-] Did we lay this injunction upon you, Antony, we who expelled the Tarquins, who cherished Brutus, who hurled Capitolinus headlong, who put to death the Spurii?¹² Did we order you to salute any one as king, when we have laid a curse upon the very name of monarch and furthermore upon that of dictator as the most similar? Did we command you to appoint any one tyrant, we who repulsed Pyrrhus from Italy, who drove back Antiochus beyond the Taurus, who put an end to the tyranny even in Macedonia? No, by the rods of Valerius and the law of Porcius, no, by the leg of Horatius and the hand of Mucius, no, by the spear of Decius and the sword of Brutus! But you, unspeakable villain, begged and pleaded to be made a slave as Postumius pleaded to be delivered to the Samnites, as Regulus to be given back to the Carthaginians, as Curtius to be thrown into the chasm. And where did you find this recorded? In the same place where you discovered that the Cretans had been made free after Brutus was their governor, when we voted after Caesar's death that he should govern them.

[-33-] "So then, seeing that you have detected his baneful disposition in so many and so great enterprises, will you not take vengeance on him instead of waiting to learn by experience what the man who caused so much trouble naked will do to you when he is armed? Do you think that he is not eager for the tyrant's power, that he does not pray to obtain it some day, or that he will put the pursuit of it out of his thoughts, when he has once allowed it a resting-place in his mind, and that he will ever abandon the hope of sole rulership for which he has spoken and acted so impudently without punishment! What human being who, while master of his own voice, would undertake to help some one else secure an honor, would not appropriate it himself when he became powerful? Who that has dared to nominate another as tyrant over his country and himself at once would himself refuse to be monarch? [-34-] Hence, even if you spared him formerly, you must hate him now for these acts. Do not desire to learn what he will do when his success equals his wishes, but on the basis of his previous ventures plan beforehand to suffer no further outrages. What defence could any one make of what took place? That Caesar acted rightly at that time in accepting neither the name of king nor the diadem? If so, this man did wrong to offer something which pleased not even Caesar. Or, on the other hand, that the latter erred in enduring at all to look on at and listen to such proceedings? If so, and Caesar justly suffered death for this error, does not this man, admitted in a certain way that he desired a tyranny, most richly deserve to perish? That this is so is evident from what I have previously said, but is proved most clearly by what he did after that. What other end than supremacy had he in mind that he has undertaken to cause agitation and to meddle in private business, when he might have enjoyed quiet with safety? What other end, that he has entered upon campaigns and warfare, when it was in his power to remain at home without danger? For what reason, when many have disliked to go out and take charge even of the offices that belonged to them, does he not only lay claim to Gaul, which pertains to him in not the slightest degree, but use force upon it because of its unwillingness? For what reason, when Decimus Brutus is ready to surrender to us himself and his soldiers and the cities, has this man not imitated him, instead of besieging and shutting him up? The only interpretation to be put upon it is that he is strengthening himself in this and every other way against us, and to no other end.

[-35-] "Seeing this, do we delay and give way to weakness and train up so monstrous a tyrant against our own selves? Is it not disgraceful that our forefathers, brought up in slavery, felt the desire for liberty, but we who have lived under an independent government become slaves of our own free will? Or again, that we were glad to rid ourselves of the dominion of Caesar, though we had first received many favors from his hands, and accept in his stead this man, a self-elected despot, who is far worse than he; this allegation is proved by the fact that Caesar spared many after his victories in war, but this follower of his before attaining any power has slaughtered three hundred soldiers, among them some centurions, guilty of no wrong, at home, in his own quarters, before the face and eyes of his wife, so that she too was defiled with blood. What do you think that the man who treated them so cruelly, when he owed them care, will refrain from doing to all of you,—aye, down to the utmost outrage,—if he shall conquer? And how can you believe that the man who has lived so licentiously even to the present time will not proceed to all extremes of wantonness, if he shall further secure the authority given by arms?

[-36-] "Do not, then, wait until you have suffered some such treatment and begin to rue it, but guard yourselves before you are molested. It is out of the question to allow dangers to come upon you and then repent of it, when you might have anticipated them. And do not choose to neglect the seriousness of the present situation and then ask again for another Cassius or some more Brutuses. It is ridiculous, when we have the power of aiding ourselves in time, to seek later on men to set us free. Perhaps we should not even find them, especially if we handle in such a way the present situation. Who would privately choose to run risks for the democracy, when he sees that we are publicly resigned to slavery? It must be evident to every man that Antony will not rest contented with what he is now doing, but that in far off and small concerns even he is strengthening himself against us. He is warring against Decimus and besieging Mutina for no other purpose than to provide himself, by conquering and capturing them, with resources against us. He has not been wronged by them that he can appear to be defending himself, nor does he merely desire the property that they possess and with this in mind endure toils and dangers, while ready and willing to relinquish that belonging to us, who own their property and much beside. Shall we wait for him to secure the prize and still more, and so become a dangerous foe? Shall we trust his deception when he says that he is not warring against the City? [-37-] Who is so silly as to decide whether a man is making war on us or not by his words rather than by his deeds? I do not say that now for the first time is he unfriendly to us, when he has abandoned the City and made a campaign against allies and is assailing Brutus and besieging the cities; but on the basis of his former evil and licentious behavior, not only after Caesar's death but even in the latter's lifetime, I decide that he has shown himself an enemy of our government and liberty and a plotter against them. Who that loved his country or hated tyranny would have committed a single one of the many and manifold offences laid to this man's charge? From every point of view he is proved to have long been an enemy of ours, and the case stands as follows. If we now take measures against him with all speed, we shall get back all that has been lost: but if, neglecting to do this, we wait till he himself admits that he is plotting against us, we shall lose everything. This he will never do, not even if he should actually march upon the City, any more than Marius or Cinna or Sulla did. But if he gets control of affairs, he will not fail to act precisely as they did, or still worse. Men who are anxious to accomplish an object are wont to say one thing, and those who have succeeded in accomplishing it are wont to do quite a different thing. To gain their end they pretend anything, but having obtained it they deny themselves the gratification of no desire. Furthermore, the last born always desire to surpass what their predecessors have ventured: they think it a small thing to behave like them and do something that has been effected before, but determine that something original is the only thing worthy of them, because unexpected.

[-38-] "Seeing this, then, Conscript Fathers, let us no longer delay nor fall a prey to the indolence that the moment inspires, but let us take thought for the safety that concerns the future. Surely it is a shame when Caesar, who has just emerged from boyhood and was recently registered among those having attained years of discretion, shows such great interest in the State as to spend his money and gather soldiers for its preservation that we should neither ourselves perform our duty nor coöperate with him even after obtaining a tangible proof of his good-will. Who is unaware that if he had not reached here with the soldiers from Campania, Antony would certainly have come rushing from Brundusium instanter, just as he was, and would have burst into our city with all his armies like a winter torrent?¹³ There is, moreover, a striking inconsistency in our conduct. Men who have long been campaigning voluntarily have put themselves at your service for the present crisis, regarding neither their age nor the wounds which they received in past years while fighting for you, and you both refuse to ratify the war in which these very men elected to serve, and show yourselves inferior to them, who are ready to face dangers; for while you praise the soldiers that detected the defilement of Antony and withdrew from him, though he was consul, and attached themselves to Caesar, (that is, to you through him), you shrink from voting for that which you say they were right in doing. Also we are grateful to Brutus that he did not even at the start admit Antony to Gaul, and is trying to repel him now that Antony confronts him with a force. Why in the world do we not ourselves do the same? Why do we not imitate the rest whom we praise for their sound judgment? There are only two courses open to us. [-39-] One is to say that all these men,—Caesar, I mean, and Brutus, the old soldiers, the legions,—have decided wrongly and ought to submit to punishment, because without our sanction or that of the people they have dared to offer armed resistance to their consul, some having deserted his standard, and others having been gathered against him. The other is to say that Antony by reason of his deeds has in our judgment long since admitted that he is our enemy and by public consent ought to be chastised by us all. No one can be ignorant that the latter decision is not only more just but more expedient for us. The man neither understands how to handle business himself (how or by what means could a person that lives in drunkenness and dicing?) nor has he any companion who is of any account. He loves only such as are like himself and makes them the confidants of all his open and secret undertakings. Also he is most cowardly in extreme dangers and most treacherous even to his intimate friends, neither of which qualities is suited for generalship or war. [-40-] Who can be unaware that this very man caused all our internal troubles and then shared the dangers to the slightest possible degree? He tarried long in Brundusium through cowardice, so that Caesar was isolated and on account of him almost failed: likewise he held aloof from all succeeding wars,—that against the Egyptians, against Pharnaces, the African, and the Spanish. Who is unaware that he won the favor of Clodius, and after using the latter's tribuneship for the most outrageous ends would have killed him with his own hand, if I had accepted this promise from him? Again, in the matter of Caesar, he was first associated with him as quaestor, when Caesar was praetor in Spain, next attached himself to him during the tribuneship, contrary to the liking of us all, and later received from him countless money and excessive honors: in return for this he tried to inspire his patron with a desire for supremacy, which led to talk against him and was more than anything else responsible for Caesar's death.

[-41-] "Yet he once stated that it was I who directed the assassins to their work. He is so senseless as to venture to invent so great praise for me. And I for my part do not affirm that he was the actual slayer of Caesar,—not because he was not willing, but because in this, too, he was timid,—yet by the very course of his actions I say that Caesar perished at his hands. For this is the man who provided a motive, so that there seemed to be some justice in plotting against him, this is he who called him 'king', who gave him the diadem, who previously slandered him actually to his friends. Do I rejoice at the death of Caesar, I, who never enjoyed anything but liberty at his hands, and is Antony grieved, who has rapaciously seized his whole property and committed many injuries on the pretext of his letters, and is finally hastening to succeed to his position of ruler?

[-42-] "But I return to the point that he has none of the qualities of a great general or such as to bring victory, and does not possess many or formidable forces. The majority of the soldiers and the best ones have abandoned him to his fate, and also, by Jupiter, he has been deprived of the elephants. The remainder have perfected themselves rather in outraging and pillaging the possessions of the allies than in waging war, A proof of the sort of spirit that animates them lies in the fact that they still adhere to him, and of their lack of fortitude in that they have not taken Mutina, though they have now been besieging it for so long a time. Such is the condition of Antony and of his followers found to be. But Caesar and Brutus and those arrayed with them are firmly intrenched without outside aid; Caesar, in fact, has won over many of his rival's soldiers, and Brutus is keeping the same usurper out of Gaul: and if you come to their assistance, first by approving what they have done of their own motion, next by ratifying their acts, at the same time giving them legal authority for the future, and next by sending out both the consuls to take charge of the war, it is not possible that any of his present associates will continue to aid him. However, even if they should cling to him most tenaciously, they would not he able to resist all the rest at once, but he will either lay down his arms voluntarily, as soon as he ascertains that you have passed this vote, and place himself in your hands, or he will be captured involuntarily as the result of one battle.

"I give you this advice, and, if it had been my lot to be consul, I should have certainly carried it out, as I did in former days when I defended you against Catiline and Lentulus (a relative of this very man), who had formed a conspiracy. [-43-] Perhaps some one of you regards these statements as well put, but thinks we ought first to despatch envoys to him, then, after learning his decision, in case he will voluntarily give up his arms and submit himself to you, to take no action, but if he sticks to the same principles, then to declare war upon him: this is the advice which I hear some persons wish to give you. This policy is very attractive in theory, but in fact it is disgraceful and dangerous to the city. Is it not disgraceful that you should employ heralds and embassies to citizens? With foreign nations it is proper and necessary to treat by heralds in advance, but upon citizens who are at all guilty you should inflict punishment straightway, by trying them in court if you can get them under the power of your votes, and by warring against them if you find them in arms. All such are slaves of you and of the people and of the laws, whether they wish it or not; and it is not fitting either to coddle them or to put them on an equal footing with the highest class of free persons, but to pursue and chastise them like runaway servants, with a feeling of your own superiority. [-44-] Is it not a disgrace that he should not delay to wrong us, but we delay to defend ourselves? Or again, that he should for a long time, weapons in hand, have been carrying on the entire practice of war, while we waste time in decrees and embassies, and that we should retaliate only with letters and phrases upon the man whom we have long since discovered by his deeds to be a wrongdoer? What do we expect? That he will some day render us obedience and pay us respect? How can this prove true of a man who has come into such a condition that he would not be able, even should he wish it, to be an ordinary citizen with you under a democratic government? If he were willing to conduct his life on fair and equitable principles, he would never have entered in the first place upon such a career as his: and if he had done it under the influence of folly or recklessness, he would certainly have given it up speedily of his own accord. As the case stands, since he has once overstepped the limits imposed by the laws and the government and has acquired some power and authority by this action, it is not conceivable that he would change of his own free will or heed any one of our resolutions, but it is absolutely requisite that such a man should be chastised with those very weapons with which he has dared to wrong us. [-45-] And I beg you now to remember particularly a sentence which this man himself once uttered, that it is impossible for you to be saved, unless you conquer. Hence those who bid you send envoys are doing nothing else than planning how you may be dilatory and the body of your allies become as a consequence more feeble and dispirited; while he, on the other hand, will be doing whatever he pleases, will destroy Decimus, storm Mutina, and capture all of Gaul: the result will be that we can no longer find means to deal with him, but shall be under the necessity of trembling before him, paying court to him, worshiping him. This one thing more about the embassy and I am done:—that Antony also gave you no account of what business he had in hand, because he intended that you should do this.

"I, therefore, for these and all other reasons advise you not to delay nor to lose time, but to make war upon him as quickly as possible. You must reflect that the majority of enterprises owe their success rather to an opportune occasion than to their strength; and you should by all means feel perfectly sure that I would never give up peace if it were really peace, in the midst of which I have most influence and have acquired wealth and reputation, nor have urged you to make war, did I not think it to your advantage.

[-46-] And I advise you, Calenus, and the rest who are of the same mind as you, to be quiet and allow the senate to vote the requisite measures and not for the sake of your private good-will toward Antony recklessly betray the common interests of all of us. Indeed, I am of the opinion, Conscript Fathers, that if you heed my counsel I may enjoy in your company and with thorough satisfaction freedom and preservation, but that if you vote anything different, I shall choose to die rather than to live. I have, in general, never been afraid of death as a consequence of my outspokenness, and now I fear it least of all. That accounts, indeed, for my overwhelming success, the proof of which lies in the fact that you decreed a sacrifice and festival in memory of the deeds done in my consulship,—an honor which had never before been granted to any one, even to one who had achieved some great end in war. Death, if it befell me, would not be at all unseasonable, especially when you consider that my consulship was so many years ago; yet remember that in that very consulship I uttered the same sentiment, to make you feel that in any and all business I despised death. To dread any one, however, that was against you, and in your company to be a slave to any one would prove exceedingly unseasonable to me. Wherefore I deem this last to be the ruin and destruction not only of the body, but of the soul and reputation, by which we become in a certain sense immortal. But to die speaking and acting in your behalf I regard as equivalent to immortality.

[-47-] "And if Antony, also, felt the force of this, he would never have entered upon such a career, but would have even preferred to die like his grandfather rather than to behave like Cinna who killed him. For, putting aside other considerations, Cinna was in turn slain not long afterward for this and the other sins that he had committed; so that I am surprised also at this feature in Antony's conduct, that, imitating his works as he does, he shows no fear of some day falling a victim to a similar disaster: the murdered man, however, left behind to this very descendant the reputation of greatness. But the latter has no longer any claim to be saved on account of his relatives, since he has neither emulated his grandfather nor inherited his father's property. Who is unaware of the fact that in restoring many who were exiled in Caesar's time and later, in accordance forsooth with directions in his patron's papers, he did not aid his uncle, but brought back his fellow-gambler Lenticulus, who was exiled for his unprincipal life, and cherishes Bambalio, who is notorious for his very name, while he has treated his nearest relatives as I have described and as if he were half angry at them because he was born into that family. Consequently he never inherited his father's goods, but has been the heir of very many others, some whom he never saw or heard of, and others who are still living. That is, he has so stripped and despoiled them that they differ in no way from dead men."

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
46

The following is contained in the Forty-sixth of Dio's Rome:

How Calenus replied to Cicero in defence of Antony (chapters 1-28).

How Antony was defeated at Mutina by Caesar and the consuls (chapters 29-38).

How Caesar came to Rome and was appointed consul (chapters 39-49).

How Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus formed a solemn pact of union (chapters 50-56).

Duration of time one year, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated:

C. Vibius C. filius Pansa Capronianus, Aulus Hirtius Auli filius (B.C. 43 = a. u. 711).

(BOOK 46, BOISSAVAIN)

[B.C. 43 (a. u. 711) ]

[-1-] When Cicero had finished speaking in this vein, Quintus Fufius Calenus arose and said:—"Ordinarily I should not have wished either to say anything in defence of Antony or to assail Cicero. I really do not think it proper in such discussions as is the present to do either of these things, but simply to make known what one's opinion is. The former method belongs to the courtroom, whereas this is a matter of deliberation. Since, however, he has undertaken to speak ill of Antony on account of the enmity that exists between them, instead of sending him a summons, as he ought, if Antony were guilty of any wrong, and since he has further mentioned me in a calumnious fashion, as if he could not have exhibited his cleverness without heedlessly insulting one or two persons, it behooves me also to set aside the imputation against Antony and to bring counter-charges against the speaker. I would not have his innate impudence fail of a response nor let my silence aid him by incurring the suspicion of a guilty conscience; nor would I have you, deceived by what he said, come to a less worthy decision by accepting his private spleen against Antony in exchange for the common advantage. [-2-] He wishes to effect nothing else than that we should abandon looking out for the safest course for the commonwealth and fall into discord again. It is not the first time that he has done this, but from the outset, ever since he had to do with politics, he has been continually causing disturbance one way or the other.

"Is he not the one who embroiled Caesar with Pompey and prevented Pompey from becoming reconciled with Caesar? The one who persuaded you to pass that vote against Antony by which he irritated Caesar, and persuaded Pompey to leave Italy and transfer his quarters to Macedonìa? This proved the chief cause of all the evils which befell us subsequently. Is not he the one who killed Clodius by the hand of Milo, and slew Caesar by the hand of Brutus? The one who made Catiline hostile to us and despatched Lentulus without a trial? [-3-] Hence I should be very much surprised at you, seeing that you then changed your mind about his conduct just mentioned and made him pay the penalty for it, if you should now heed him again, when his talk and actions are similar. Do you not see, too, that after Caesar's death when our affairs were settled in a most tranquil way by Antony, as not even his accuser can deny, the latter left town because he deemed our life of harmony to be alien and dangerous to him? That when he perceived that turmoil had again arisen, he bade a long farewell to his son and to Athens, and returned? That he insults and abuses Antony, whom he was wont to say he loved, and coöperates with Caesar, whose father he killed? And if chance so favor, he will ere long attack Caesar also. For the fellow is naturally distrustful and turbulent and has no ballast in his soul, and he is always stirring things up and twisting about, turning more ways than the sea-passage to which he fled and got the title of deserter for it, asking all of you to take that man for friend or foe whom he bids.

[-4-] "For these reasons be on your guard against man. He is a juggler and imposter and grows rich and strong from the ills of others, blackmailing, dragging, tearing the innocent, as do dogs; but in the midst of public harmony he is embarrassed and withers away. It is not friendship or good-will among us that can support this kind of orator. From what other source do you think he has become rich or from what other source great? Certainly neither family nor wealth was bequeathed him by his father the fuller, who was always trading in grapes and olives, a man who was glad to make both ends meet by this and by his washing, and whose time was taken up every day and night with the vilest occupations. The son, having been brought up in them, not unnaturally tramples and dowses his superiors, using a species of abuse invented in the workshops and on the street corners.

[-5-] "Now being of such an origin yourself, and after growing up naked among your naked companions, picking up pig manure and sheep dung and human excrement, have you dared, O most accursed wretch, first to slander the youth of Antony who had the advantage of pedagogues and teachers as his rank demanded, and next to impugn him because in celebrating the Lupercalia, an ancestral festival, he came naked into the Forum? But I ask you, you that always used all the clothes of others on account of your father's business and were stripped by whoever met you and recognized them, what ought a man who was not only priest but also leader of his fellow priests to have done? Not to conduct the procession, not to celebrate the festival, not to sacrifice according to ancestral custom, not to appear naked, not to anoint himself? 'But it is not for that that I censure him,' he answers, 'but because he delivered a speech and that kind of speech naked in the Forum.' Of course this man has become acquainted in the fuller's shop with all minute matters of etiquette, that he should detect a real mistake and be able to rebuke it properly.

[-6-] "In regard to this matter I will say later all that needs to be said, but just now I want to ask the speaker a question or two. Is it not true that you for your part were nourished by the ills of others and educated in the misfortunes of your neighbors and for this reason are acquainted with no liberal branch of knowledge, that you have established a kind of association here and are always waiting, like the harlots, for a man who will give something, and that having many men in your pay to attract profit to you you pry into people's affairs to find out who has wronged (or seems to have wronged) whom, who hates whom, and who is plotting against whom? With these men you make common cause, and through these men you are supported, selling them the hopes that chance bestows, trading in the decisions of the jurors, deeming him alone a friend who gives more and more, and all those enemies who furnish you no business or employ some other advocate, while you pretend not even to know those who are already in your clutch and affect to be bored by them, but fawn upon and giggle at those just approaching, like the mistresses of inns?

[-7-] How much better it were that you too should have been born Bambalio,—if this Bambalio really exists,—than to have taken up such a livelihood, in which it is absolutely inevitable that you should either sell your speech in behalf of the innocent, or else preserve the guilty. Yet you can not do even this effectively, though you wasted three years in Athens. On what occasion? By what help? Why, you always come trembling up to court as if you were going to fight in armor and after speaking a few words in a low and half-dead voice you go away, not remembering a word of the speech you practiced at home before you came, and without finding anything to say on the spur of the moment. In making affirmations and promises you surpass all mankind in audacity, but in the contests themselves beyond uttering some words of abuse and defamation you are most weak and cowardly. Do you think any one is ignorant of the fact that you never delivered one of those wonderful speeches of yours that you have published, but wrote them all up afterward, like persons who form generals and masters-of-horse out of day? If you feel doubtful of this point, remember how you accused Verres,—though, to be sure, you only gave him an example of your father's trade, when you made water.

[-8-] "But I hesitate, for fear that in saying precisely what fits your case I may seem to be uttering words that are unfitting for myself. ¹⁴ This I will pass over; and further, by Jupiter, also the affairs of Gabinius, against whom, you prepared accusers and then pled his cause in such a way that he was condemned; and the pamphlets which you compose against your friends, in regard to which you feel yourself so guilty that you do not dare to make them public. Yet it is a most miserable and pitiable state to be in, not to be able to deny these charges which are the most disgraceful conceivable to admit. But I will leave these to one side and bring forward the rest. Well, though we did grant the trainer, as you say, two thousand plethra of the ager Leontinus, we still learned nothing adequate from it.¹⁵ But who should not admire your system of instruction? And what is it? You are ever jealous of your superiors, you always toady to the prominent man, you slander him who has attained distinction, you inform against the powerful and you hate equally all the excellent, and you pretend love only for those through whom you may do some mischief. This is why you are always inciting the younger against their elders and lead those who trust you even in the slightest into dangers, where you desert them. [-9-] A proof of this is, that you have never accomplished any achievement worthy of a distinguished man either in war or in peace. How many wars have we won under you as praetor and what kind of territory did we acquire with you as consul? Your private activity all these years has consisted in continually deceiving some of the foremost men and winning them to your side and managing everything you like, while publicly you have been shouting and bawling out at random those detestable phrases,—'I am the only one that loves you,' or, if it should so chance, 'And what's-his-name, all the rest, hate you,' and 'I alone am friendly to you, all the rest are engaged in plots,' and other such stuff by which you fill some with elation and conceit, only to betray them, and scare the rest so that you gain their attachment. If any service is rendered by any one whomsoever of the whole people, you lay claim to it and write your own name upon it, repeating: 'I moved it, I proposed it, it was through me that this was done so.' But if anything happens that ought not to have occurred, you take yourself out of the way and censure all the rest, saying: 'You see I wasn't praetor, you see I wasn't envoy, you see I wasn't consul.' And you abuse everybody everywhere all the time, setting more store by the influence which comes from appearing to speak your mind boldly than by saying what duty demands: and you exhibit no important quality of an orator. [-10-] What public advantage has been preserved or established by you? Who that was really harming the city have you indicted, and who that was really plotting against us have you brought to light? To neglect the other cases,—these very charges which you now bring against Antony are of such a nature and so many that no one could ever suffer any adequate penalty for them. Why, then, if you saw us being wronged by him at the start, as you assert, did you never attack or accuse him at the time, instead of telling us now all the transgressions he committed when tribune, all his irregularities when master of horse, all his villanies when consul? You might at once, at the time, in each specific instance, have inflicted the appropriate penalty upon him, if you had wanted to show yourself in very deed a patriot, and we could have imposed the punishment in security and safety during the course of the offences themselves. One of two conclusions is inevitable,—either that you believed this to be so at the time and renounced the idea of a struggle in our behalf, or else that you could not prove any of your charges and are now engaged in a reckless course of blackmail.

[-11-] "That this is so I will show you clearly, Conscript Fathers, by going over each point in detail. Antony did say some words during his tribuneship in Caesar's behalf: Cicero and some others spoke in behalf of Pompey. Why now does he accuse him of preferring one man's friendship, but acquit himself and the rest who warmly embraced the opposite cause? Antony, to be sure, hindered at that time some measures adverse to Caesar from being passed: and Cicero hindered practically everything that was known to be favorable to Caesar. 'But Antony obstructed,' he replies, 'the public judgment of the senate.' Well, now, in the first place, how could one man have had so much power? Second, if he had been condemned for this, as is said, how could he have escaped punishment? 'Oh, he fled, he fled to Caesar and got out of the way.' Of course you, Cicero, did not 'leave town' just now, but you fled, as in your former exile.¹⁶ Don't be so ready to apply your own shame to all of us. To flee is what you did, in fear of the court, and pronouncing condemnation on yourself beforehand. Yes, to be sure, an ordinance was passed for your recall; how and for what reasons I do not say, but at any rate it was passed, and you did not set foot in Italy before the recall was granted. But Antony both went away to Caesar to inform him what had been done and returned, without asking for any decree, and finally effected peace and friendship with him for all those that were found in Italy. And the rest, too, would have had a share in it, if they had not taken your advice and fled. [-12-] Now in view of those circumstances do you dare to say he led Caesar against his country and stirred up the civil war and became more than any one else responsible for the subsequent evils that befell us? Not so, but you, who gave Pompey legions that belonged to others and the command, and undertook to deprive Caesar even of those that had been given him: it was you, who agreed with Pompey and the consuls not to accept the offers made by Caesar, but to abandon the city and the whole of Italy: you, who did not see Caesar even when he entered Rome, but had run off to Pompey and into Macedonia. Not even to him, however, did you prove of any assistance, but you neglected what was going on, and then, when he met with misfortune, you abandoned him. Therefore you did not aid him at the outset on the ground that he had the juster cause, but after setting in motion the dispute and embroiling affairs you lay in wait at a safe distance for a favorable turn; you at once deserted the man who failed, as if that somehow proved him guilty, and went over to the victor, as if you deemed him more just. And in addition to your other defects you are so ungrateful that not only are you not satisfied to have been preserved by him, but you are actually displeased that you were not made master of the horse.

[-13-] "Then with this on your conscience do you dare to say that Antony ought not to have held the office of master of the horse for a year, and that Caesar ought not to have remained dictator for a year? But whether it was wise or necessary for these measures to be framed, at any rate they were both passed, and they suited us and the people. Censure these men, Cicero, if they have transgressed in any particular, but not, by Jupiter, those whom they have chosen to honor for showing themselves worthy of so great a reward. For if we were forced by the circumstances that then surrounded us to act in this way and contrary to good policy, why do you now lay this upon Antony's shoulders, and why did you not oppose it then if you were able? Because, by Jupiter, you were afraid. Then shall you, who were at that time silent, obtain pardon for your cowardice, and shall he, because he was preferred before you, submit to penalties for his excellence? Where did you learn that this was just, or where did you read that this was lawful?

[-14-] "'But he did not rightly use his position as master of horse.' Why? 'Because,' he answers, 'he bought Pompey's possessions.' How many others are there who purchased numberless articles, no one of whom is blamed? That was the purpose in confiscating certain articles and exposing them in the market and proclaiming them by the voice of the public crier, to have somebody buy them. 'But Pompey's goods ought not to have been sold.' Then it was we who erred and did wrong in confiscating them; or (to clear your skirts and ours) it was at least Caesar who acted irregularly, he who ordered this to be done: yet you did not censure him at all. I maintain that in this charge he is proven to be absolutely beside himself. He has brought against Antony two quite opposite accusations,—one, that after helping Caesar in very many ways and receiving in return vast gifts from him he was then required under compulsion to surrender the price of them, and the second, that he inherited naught from his father, spent all that he had like Charybdis (the speaker is always bringing in some comparison from Sicily, as if we had forgotten that he had been exiled there), and paid the price of all that he purchased.

[-15-] "So in these charges this remarkable orator is convicted of violently contradicting himself and, by Jupiter, again in the following statements. At one time he says that Antony took part in everything that was done by Caesar and by this means became more than any one else responsible for all our internal evils, and again he charges him with cowardice, reproaching him with not having shared in any other exploits than those performed in Thessaly. And he makes a complaint against him to the effect that he restored some of the exiles and finds fault with him because he did not secure the recall of his uncle; as if any one believes that he would not have restored him first of all, if he had been able to recall whomsoever he pleased, since there was no grievance on either side between them, as this speaker himself knows. Indeed, though he told many wretched lies about Antony, he did not dare to say anything of that kind. But he is utterly reckless about letting slip anything that comes to his tongue's end, as if it were mere breath.

[-16-] "Why should one follow this line of refutation further? Turning now to the fact that he goes about with such a tragic air, and has but this moment said in the course of his remarks that Antony rendered the sight of the master of the horse most oppressive by using everywhere and under all circumstances the sword, the purple, the lictors, and the soldiers at once, let him tell me clearly how and in what respect we have been wronged by this. He will have no statement to make; for if he had had, he would have sputtered it out before anything else. Quite the reverse of his charge is true. Those who were quarreling at that time and causing all the trouble were Trebellius and Dolabella: Antony did no wrong and was active in every way in our behalf, so much so that he was entrusted by us with guarding the city against those very men, and not only did this remarkable orator not oppose it (he was there) but even approved it. Else let him show what syllable he uttered on seeing the licentious and accursed fellow (to quote from his abuse), besides doing nothing that the occasion required, securing also so great authority from you. He will have nothing to show. So it looks as if not a word of what he now shouts aloud was ventured at that time by this great and patriotic orator, who is everywhere and always saying and repeating: 'I alone am contending for freedom, I alone speak freely for the democracy; I cannot be restrained by favor of friends or fear of enemies from looking out for your advantage; I, even if it should be my lot to die in speaking in your behalf, will perish very gladly.' And his silence was very natural, for it occurred to him to reflect that Antony possessed the lictors and the purple-bordered vesture in accordance with the customs of our ancestors in regard to masters of horse, and that he was using the sword and the soldiers perforce against the rebels. For what most excessive outrages would they not have committed but for his being hedged about with these protections, when some of them so despised him as it was?

[-17-] "That these and all his other acts were correct and most thoroughly in accord with Caesar's intention the facts themselves show. The rebellion went no further, and Antony, far from paying a penalty for his course, was subsequently appointed consul. Notice, I beg of you, how he administered this office of his. You will find, if you scrutinize the matter minutely, that its tenure proved of great value to the city. His traducer, knowing this, could not endure his jealousy but dared to slander him for those deeds which he would have longed to do himself. That is why he introduced the matter of his stripping and anointing and those ancient fables, not because there was any pertinence in them now, but in order to obscure by external noise his opponent's consummate skill and success. Yet this same Antony, O thou earth, and ye gods (I shall call louder than you and invoke them with greater justice), saw that the city was already in reality under a tyranny through the fact that all the legions obeyed Caesar and all the people together with the senate submitted to him to such an extent that they voted among other measures that he should be dictator for life and use the appurtenances of a king. Then he showed Caesar his error most convincingly and restrained him most prudently, until the latter, abashed and afraid, would not accept either the name of king or the diadem, which he had in mind to bestow upon himself even against our will. Any other man would have declared that he had been ordered to do it by his master, and putting forward the compulsion as an excuse would have obtained pardon for it,—yes, indeed, he would, when you think of what kind of votes we had passed at that time and what power the soldiers had secured. Antony, however, because he was thoroughly acquainted with Caesar's disposition and accurately aware of all he was preparing to do, by great good judgment succeeded in turning him aside from his course and retarding his ambitions. The proof of it is that afterward he no longer behaved in any way like a monarch, but mingled publicly and unprotected with us all; and that accounts most of all for the possibility of his meeting the fate that he did.

[-18-] "This is what was done, O Cicero or Cicerulus or Ciceracius or Ciceriscus or Graeculus¹⁷ or whatever you like to be called, by the uneducated, the naked, the anointed man: and none of it was done by you, the clever, the wise, the user of much more olive oil than wine, you who let your clothing drag about your ankles not, by Jupiter, as the dancers do, who teach you intricacies of reasoning by their poses, but in order to hide the ugliness of your legs. Oh no, it's not through modesty that you do this, you who delivered that long screed about Antony's habits. Who is there that does not see these soft clothes of yours? Who does not scent your carefully combed gray locks? Who is there unaware that you put away your first wife who had borne you two children, and at an advanced age married another, a mere girl, in order that you might pay your debts out of her property? And you did not even retain her, to the end that you might keep Caerellia fearlessly, whom you debauched when she was as much older than yourself as the maiden you married was younger, and to whom you write such letters as a jester at no loss for words would write if he were trying to get up an amour with a woman seventy years old. This, which is not altogether to my taste, I have been induced to say, Conscript Fathers, in the hope that he should not go away without getting as good as he sent in the discussion. Again, he has ventured to reproach Antony for a little kind of banquet, because he, as he says, drinks water, his purpose being to sit up at night and compose speeches against us,—though he brings up his son in such drunkenness that the latter is sober neither night nor day. Furthermore he undertook to make derogatory remarks about Antony's mouth, this man who has shown so great licentiousness and impurity throughout his entire life that he would not keep his hands off even his closest kin, but let out his wife for hire and deflowered his daughter.

[-18-] "These particulars I shall leave as they stand and return to the point where I started. That Antony against whom he has inveighed, seeing Caesar exalted over our government, caused him by granting what seemed personal favors to a friend not to put into effect any of the projects that he had in mind. Nothing so diverts persons from objects which they may attain without caring to secure them righteously, as for those who fear such results to appear to endure the former's conduct willingly. These persons in authority have no regard for their own consciousness of guilt, but if they think they have been detected, they are ashamed and afraid: thereafter they usually take what is said to them as flattery and believe the opposite, and any action which may result from the words as a plot, being suspicious in the midst of their shame. Antony knew this thoroughly, and first of all he selected the Lupercalia and that procession in order that Caesar in the relaxation of his spirit and the fun of the affair might be rebuked with immunity, and next he selected the Forum and the rostra that his patron might be shamed by the very places. And he fabricated the commands from the populace, in order that hearing them Caesar might reflect not on what Antony was saying at the time, but on what the Roman people would order a man to say. How could he have believed that this injunction had really been laid upon any one, when he knew that the people had not voted anything of the kind and did not hear them shouting out. But it was right for him to hear this in the Roman Forum, where we had often joined in many deliberations for freedom, and beside the rostra from which we had sent forth thousands and thousands of measures in behalf of the democracy, and at the festival of the Lupercalia, in order that he should remember Romulus, and from the mouth of the consul that he might call to mind the deeds of the early consuls, and in the name of the people, that he might ponder the fact that he was undertaking to be tyrant not over Africans or Gauls or Egyptians, but over very Romans. These words made him turn about; they humiliated him. And whereas if any one else had offered him the diadem, he might have taken it, he was then stopped short by that speech and felt a shudder of alarm.

"These, then are the deeds of Antony: he did not uselessly break a leg, in order himself to escape, nor burn off a hand, in order to frighten Porsenna, but by his cleverness and consummate skill he put an end to the tyranny of Caesar better than any spear of Decius and better than the sword of Brutus. [-20-] But you, Cicero, what did you effect in your consulship, not to mention wise and good things, that was not deserving of the greatest punishment? Did you not throw our city into uproar and party strife when it was quiet and harmonious, and fill the Forum and Capitol with slaves, among others, that you had called to your aid? Did you not ruin miserably Catiline, who was overanxious for office, but otherwise guilty of no violence? Did you not pitiably destroy Lentulus and his followers, who were not guilty, not tried, and not convicted, in spite of the fact that you are always and everywhere prating interminably about the laws and about the courts? If any one should take these phrases from your speeches, there is nothing left. You censured Pompey because he conducted the trial of Milo contrary to legalized precedent: yet you afforded Lentulus no privilege great or small that is enjoined in these cases, but without a speech or trial you cast him into prison, a man respectable, aged, whose ancestors had given many great pledges that he would be friendly to his country, and who by reason of his age and his character had no power to do anything revolutionary. What trouble did he have that would have been cured by the change of condition? What blessing did he possess that would not certainly be jeopardized by rebellion? What arms had he collected, what allies had he equipped, that a man who had been consul and was praetor should be so pitilessly and impiously cast into a cell without being allowed to say a word of defence or hear a single charge, and die there like the basest criminals? For this is what this excellent Tullius most of all desired,—that in [the Tullianum,] the place that bears his name, he might put to death the grandson of that Lentulus once became the head of the senate. [-21-] What would he have done if he had obtained authority to bear arms, seeing that he accomplished so many things of such a nature by his words alone? These are your brilliant achievements, these are your great exhibitions of generalship; and not only were you condemned for them by the rest, but you were so ready to vote against your own self in the matter that you fled before your trial came on. Yet what greater demonstration of your bloodguiltiness could there be than that you came in danger of perishing at the hands of those very persons in whose behalf you pretended you had done this, that you were afraid of the very ones whom you said you had benefited by these acts, and that you did not wait to hear from them or say a word to them, you clever, you extraordinary man, you aider of other people, but secured your safety by flight as if from a battle? And you are so shameless that you have undertaken to write a history of these events that I have related, whereas you ought to have prayed that no other man even should give an account of any of them: then you might at least derive this advantage, that your doings should die with you and no memory of them be transmitted to posterity. Now, gentlemen, if you want to laugh, listen to his clever device. He set himself the task of writing a history of the entire existence of the city (for he pretends to be a sophist and poet and philosopher and orator and historian), and he began not from the founding of it, like the rest are similarly busied, but from his own consulship, so that he might proceed backwards, making that the beginning of his account, and the kingdom of Romulus the end.

[-22-] "Tell me now, you who write such things and do such things, what the excellent man ought to say in popular address and do in action: for you are better at advising others about any matter whatsoever than at doing your own duty, and better at rebuking others than at reforming yourself. Yet how much better it were for you instead of reproaching Antony with cowardice to lay aside yourself that effeminacy both of spirit and of body, instead of bringing a charge of disloyalty against him to cease yourself from doing anything disloyal or playing the deserter, instead of accusing him of ingratitude to cease yourself from wronging your benefactors! For this, I must tell you, is one of his inherent defects, that he hates above all those who have done him any favor, and is always fawning upon somebody else but plotting against these persons. To leave aside other instances, he was pitied and preserved by Caesar and enrolled among the patricians, after which he killed him,—no, not with his own hand (he is too cowardly and womanish), but by persuading and making ready others who should do it. The men themselves showed that I speak the truth in this. When they ran out into the Forum with their naked blades, they invoked him by name, saying 'Cicero!' repeatedly, as you all heard. His benefactor, Caesar, then, he slew, and as for Antony from whom he obtained personally safety and a priesthood when he was in danger of perishing at the hands of the soldiers in Brundusium, he repays him with this sort of thanks, by accusing him for deeds with which neither he himself nor any one else ever found any fault and attacking him for conduct which he praises in others. Yet he sees this Caesar, who has not attained the age yet to hold office or have any part in politics and has not been chosen by you, sees him equipped with power and standing as the author of a war without our vote or orders, and not only has no blame to bestow, but pronounces laudations. So you perceive that he investigates neither what is just with reference to the laws nor what is useful with reference to the public weal, but simply manages everything to suit his own will, censuring in some what he extols in others, spreads false reports against you, and calumniates you gratuitously.[-23-] For you will find that all of Antony's acts after Caesar's demise were ordered by you. To speak about the disposition of the funds and the examination of the letters I deem to be superfluous. Why so? Because first it would be the business of the one who inherited his property to look into the matter, and second, if there was any truth in the charge of malfeasance, it ought to have been stopped then on the moment. For none of the transactions was carried on underhandedly, Cicero, but they were all recorded on tablets, as you yourself affirm. If Antony committed his many wrongs so openly and shamelessly as you say, and plundered the whole of Crete on the pretext that in accord with Caesar's letters it had been left free after the governorship of Brutus, though the latter was later given charge of it by us, how could you have kept silent and how could any one else have borne it? But these matters, as I said, I shall pass over; for the majority of them have not been mentioned individually, and Antony is not present, who could inform you exactly of what he has done in each instance. As to Macedonia and Gaul and the remaining provinces and legions, yours are the decrees, Conscript Fathers, according to which you assigned to the various governors their separate charges and delivered to Antony Gaul, together with the soldiers. This is known also to Cicero. He was there and helped vote for all of them just like you. Yet how much better it would have been for him then to speak in opposition, if any item of business was not going as it should, and to instruct you in these matters that are now brought forward, than to be silent at the time and allow you to make mistakes, and now nominally to censure Antony but really to accuse the senate!

[-24-] "Any sensible person could not assert, either, that Antony forced you to vote these measures. He himself had no band of soldiers so as to compel you to do anything contrary to your inclinations, and further the business was done for the good of the city. For since the legions had been sent ahead and united, there was fear that when they heard of Caesar's assassination they might revolt, put some inferior man at their head, and begin to wage war again: so it seemed good to you, taking a proper and excellent course, to place in command of them Antony the consul, who was charged with the promotion of harmony, who had rejected the dictatorship entirely from the system of government. And that is the reason that you gave him Gaul in place of Macedonia, that he should stay here in Italy, committing no harm, and do at once whatever errand was assigned him by you.

[-25-] "This I have said to you that you may know that you decided rightly. For Cicero that other point of mine was sufficient,—namely, that he was present during all these proceedings and helped us to pass the measures, though Antony had not a soldier at the time and could not have brought to bear on us pressure in the shape of any terror that would have made us neglect a single point of our interest. But even if you were then silent, tell us now at least: what ought we to have done under the circumstances? Leave the legions leaderless? Would they have failed to fill both Macedonia and Italy with countless evils? Commit them to another? And whom could we have found more closely related and suited to the business than Antony, the consul, the director of all the city's affairs, the one who had taken such good care of harmony among us, the one who had given countless examples of his affection for the State? Some one of the assassins, perhaps? Why, it wasn't even safe for them to live in the city. Some one of the party opposed to them? Everybody suspected those people. What other man was there surpassing him in esteem, excelling him in experience? Or are you vexed that we did not choose you? What kind of administration would you have given? What would you not have done when you got arms and soldiers, considering that you occasioned so many and so great instances of turmoil in your consulship as a result of these elaborate antitheses, which you have made your specialty, of which alone you were master. [-26-] But I return to my point that you were present when it was being voted and said nothing against it, but assented to all the measures as being obviously excellent and necessary. You did not lack opportunity to speak; indeed you roared out considerable that was beside the purpose. Nor were you afraid of anybody. How could you, who did not fear the armed warrior, have quailed before the defenceless man? Or how have feared him alone when you do not dread him in the possession of many soldiers! Yes, you also give yourself airs for absolutely despising death, as you affirm.

"Since these facts are so, which of the two, senators, seems to be in the wrong, Antony, who is managing the forces granted him by us, or Caesar, who is surrounded with such a large band of his own? Antony, who has departed to take up the office committed to him by us, or Brutus, who prevents him from setting foot in the country? Antony, who wishes to compel our allies to obey our decrees, or they, who have not received the ruler sent them by us but have attached themselves to the man who was voted against? Antony, who keeps our soldiers together, or the soldiers, who have abandoned their commander? Antony, who has introduced not one of these soldiers granted him by us into the city, or Caesar, who by money persuaded those who had long ago been in service to come here? I think there is no further need of argument to answer the imputation that he does not seem to be managing correctly all the duties laid upon him by us, and to show that these men ought to suffer punishment for what they have ventured on their own responsibility. Therefore you also secured the guard of soldiers that you might discuss in safety the present situation, not on account of Antony, who had caused no trouble privately nor intimidated you in any way, but on account of his rival, who both had gathered a force against him and has often kept many soldiers in the city itself.

[-27-] "I have said so much for Cicero's benefit, since it was he who began unfair argument against us. I am not generally quarrelsome, as he is, nor do I care to pry into others' misdeeds, as he continually gives himself airs for doing. Now I will tell you what advice I have to give, not favoring Antony at all nor calumniating Caesar or Brutus, but planning for the common advantage, as is proper. I declare that we ought not yet to make an enemy of either of these men in arms nor to enquire exactly what they have been doing or in what way. The present crisis is not suitable for this action, and as they are all alike our fellow-citizens, if any one of them fails the loss will be ours, or if any one of them succeeds his aggrandizement will be a menace to us. Wherefore I believe that we ought to treat them as friends and citizens and send messengers to all of them alike, bidding them lay down their arms and put themselves and their legions in our hands, and that we ought not yet to wage war on any one of them, but after their replies have come back approve those who are willing to obey us and fight against the disobedient. This course is just and expedient for us,—not to be in a hurry or do anything rashly, but to wait and after giving the leaders themselves and their soldiers an opportunity to change their minds, then, if in such case there be need of war, to give the consuls charge of it.

[-28-] "And you, Cicero, I advise not to show a womanish sauciness nor to imitate Bambalio even in making war¹⁸ nor because of your private enmity toward Antony to plunge the whole city publicly again into danger. You will do well if you even become reconciled to him, with whom you have often enjoyed friendly intercourse. But even if you continue embittered against him, at least spare us, and do not after acting as the promoter of friendship among us then destroy it. Remember that day and the speech which you delivered in the precinct of Tellus, and yield a little to this goddess of Concord under whose guidance we are now deliberating, and avoid discrediting those statements and making them appear as if not uttered from a sincere heart, or by somebody else on that occasion. This is to the advantage of the State and will bring you most renown. Do not think that audacity is either glorious or safe, and do not feel sure of being praised just for saying that you despise death. Such men all suspect and hate as being likely to venture some deed of evil through desperation. Those whom they see, however, paying greatest attention to their own safety they praise and laud, because such would not willingly do anything that merited death. Do you, therefore, if you honestly wish your country to be safe, speak and act in such a way as will both preserve yourself and not, by Jupiter, involve us in your destruction!"

[-29-] Such language from Calenus Cicero would not endure. He himself always spoke his mind intemperately and immoderately to all alike, but he never thought he ought to get a similar treatment from others. On this occasion, too, he gave up considering the public interest and set himself to abusing his opponent until that day was spent, and naturally for the most part uselessly. On the following day and the third many other arguments were adduced on both sides, but the party of Caesar prevailed. So they voted first a statue to the man himself and the right to deliberate among the ex-quaestors as well as of being a candidate for the other offices ten years sooner than custom allowed, and that he should receive from the City the money which he had spent for his soldiers, because he had equipped them at his own cost for her defence: second, that both his soldiers and those that had abandoned Antony should have the privilege of not fighting in any other war and that land should be given them at once. To Antony they sent an embassy which should order him to give up the legions, leave Gaul, and withdraw into Macedonia—and to his followers they issued a proclamation to return home before a given day or to know that they would occupy the position of enemies. Moreover they removed the senators who had received from him governorships over the provinces and resolved that others should be sent in their place. These measures were ratified at that time. Not long after, before learning his decision, they voted that a state of rebellion existed, changed their senatorial garb, gave charge of the war against him to the consuls and Caesar (a kind of pretorian office), and ordered Lepidus and Lucius Munatius Plancus, who was governing a portion of Transalpine Gaul, to render assistance.

[-30-] In this way did they themselves furnish an excuse for hostility to Antony, who was without this anxious to make war. He was pleased to receive news of the decrees and forthwith violently reproached the envoys with not treating him rightly or fairly as compared with the youth (meaning Caesar). He also sent others in his turn, so as to put the blame of the war upon the senators, and make some counter-propositions which saved his face but were impossible of performance by Caesar and those who sided with him. He intended not to fulfill one of their demands, well aware that they too would not take up with anything that he submitted. He promised, however, that he would do all that they had determined, that he himself might have a refuge in saying that he would have done it, while at the same time his opponent's party would be before him in becoming responsible for the war, by refusing the terms he laid before them. In fine, he said that he would abandon Gaul and disband his legions, if they would grant these soldiers the same rewards as they had voted to Caesar's and would elect Cassius and Marcus Brutus consuls. He brought in the names of these men in his request with the purpose that they should not harbor any ill-will toward him for his operations against their fellow-conspirator Decimus.

[-31-] Antony made these offers knowing well that neither of them would be acted upon. Caesar would never have endured that the murderers of his father should become consuls or that Antony's soldiers by receiving the same as his own should feel still more kindly toward his rival. Nor, as a matter of fact, were his offers ratified, but they again declared war on Antony and gave notice to his associates to leave him, appointing a different day. All, even such as were not to take the field, arrayed themselves in military cloaks, and they committed to the consuls the care of the city, attaching to the decree the customary clause "to the end that it suffer no harm." And since there was need of large funds for the war, they all contributed the twenty-fifth part of the property they owned and the senators also four asses¹⁹ per tile of all the houses in the city that they themselves owned or dwelt in belonging to others. The very wealthy besides donated no little more, while many cities and many individuals manufactured gratuitously weapons and other necessary accoutrements for a campaign. The public treasury was at that time so empty that not even the festivals which were due to fall during that season were celebrated, except some small ones out of religious scruple. [-32-] These subscriptions were given readily by those who favored Caesar and hated Antony. The majority, however, being oppressed by the campaigns and the taxes at once were irritated, particularly because it was doubtful which of the two would conquer but quite evident that they would be slaves of the conqueror. Many of those, therefore, that wished Antony well, went straight to him, among them tribunes and a few praetors: others remained in their places, one of whom was Calenus, but did all that they could for him, some things secretly and other things with an open defence of their conduct. Hence they did not change their costume immediately, and persuaded the senate to send envoys again to Antony, among them Cicero: in doing this they pretended that the latter might persuade him to make terms, but their real purpose was that he should be removed from their path. He too reflected on this possibility and becoming alarmed would not venture to expose himself in the camp of Antony. As a result none of the other envoys set out either.

[-33-] While this was being done portents of no small moment again occurred, significant for the City, and for the consul Vibius himself. In the last assembly before they set out for the war a man with the so-called sacred disease²⁰ fell down while Vibius was speaking. Also a bronze statue of him which stood at the porch of his house turned around of itself on the day and at the hour that he started on the campaign, and the sacrifices customary before war could not be interpreted by the seers by reason of the quantity of blood. Likewise a man who was just then bringing him a palm slipped in the blood which had been shed, fell, and defiled the palm. These were the portents in his case. Now if they had befallen him when a private citizen, they would have pertained to him alone, but since he was consul they had a bearing on all alike. They included the following incidents: the figure of the Mother of the Gods on the Palatine formerly facing the east turned around of its own accord to the west; that of Minerva held in honor near Mutina, where the most fighting was going on, sent forth after this a quantity of blood and milk; furthermore the consuls took their departure just before the Feriae Latinae; and there is no case where this happened that the forces fared well. So at this time, too, both the consuls and a vast multitude of the people perished, some immediately and some later, and also many of the knights and senators, including the most prominent. For in the first place the battles, and in the second place the assassinations at home which occurred again as in the Sullan régime, destroyed all the flower of them except those actually concerned in the murders.

[-34-] Responsibility for these evils rested on the senators themselves. For whereas they ought to have set at their head some one man of superior judgment and to have coöperated with him continuously, they failed to do this, but made protégés of a few whom they strengthened against the rest, and later undertook to overthrow these favorites as well, and consequently they found no one a friend but all hostile. The comparative attitude of men toward those who have injured them and toward their benefactors is different, for they remember a grudge even against their wills but willingly forget to be thankful. This is partly because they disdain to appear to have been kindly treated by any persons, since they will seem to be the weaker of the two, and partly because they are irritated at the idea that they will be thought to have been injured by anybody with impunity, since that will imply cowardice on their part. So those senators by not taking up with some one person, but attaching themselves to one and another in turn, and voting and doing now something for them, now something against them, suffered much because of them and much also at their hands. All the leaders had one purpose in the war,—the abolition of the popular power and the setting up of a sovereignty. Some were fighting to see whose slaves they should be, and others to see who should be their master; and so both of them equally wrought havoc, and each of them won glory according to fortune, which varied. The successful warriors were deemed shrewd and patriotic, and the defeated ones were called both enemies of their country and pestilential fellows.

[-35-] This was the state that the Roman affairs had at that time reached: I shall now go on to describe the separate events. There seems to me to be a very large amount of self-instruction possible, when one takes facts as the basis of his reasoning, investigates the nature of the former by the latter, and then proves his reasoning true by its correspondence with the facts.

The precise reason for Antony's besieging Decimus in Mutina was that the latter would not give up Gaul to him, but he pretended that it was because Decimus had been one of Caesar's assassins. For since the true cause of the war brought him no credit, and at the same time he saw the popular party flocking to Caesar to avenge his father, he put forward this excuse for the conflict. That it was a mere pretext for getting control of Gaul he himself made plain in demanding that Cassius and Marcus Brutus be appointed consuls. Each of these two utterances, of the most opposite character as they were, he made with an eye to his own advantage. Caesar had begun a campaign against his rival before the war was granted him by the vote, but had done nothing worthy of importance. When he learned of the decrees passed he accepted the honors and was glad, especially because when he was sacrificing at the time of receiving the distinction and authority of praetor the livers of all the victims, twelve in number, were found to be double. He was impatient, to be sure, at the fact that envoys and proposals had been sent also to Antony, instead of unrelenting war being declared against him at once, and most of all because he ascertained that the consuls had forwarded some private despatch to his rival about harmony, that when some letters sent by the latter to certain senators had been captured these officials had handed them to the persons addressed, concealing the transaction from him, and that they were not carrying on the war zealously or promptly, making the winter their excuse. However, as he had no means of making known these facts,—for he did not wish to alienate them, and on the other hand he was unable to use any persuasion or force,—he stayed quiet himself in winter quarters in Forum Cornelium, until he became frightened about Decimus. [-36-] The latter had previously been vigorously fighting Antony off. On one occasion, suspecting that some men had been sent into the city by him to corrupt the soldiers, he called all those present together and after giving them a few hints proclaimed by herald that all the men under arms should go to one side of a certain place that he pointed out and the private citizens to the other side of it: in this way he detected and arrested Antony's followers, who were isolated and did not know which way to turn. Later he was entirely shut in by a wall; and Caesar, fearing he might be captured by storm or capitulate through lack of provisions, compelled Hirtius to join a relief party. Vibius was still in Rome raising levies and abolishing the laws of Antony. Accordingly, they started out and without a blow took possession of Bononia, which had been abandoned by the garrisons, and routed the cavalry who later confronted them: by reason of the river, however, near Mutina and the guard beside it they found themselves unable to proceed farther. They wished, notwithstanding, even so to make known their presence to Decimus, that he might not in undue season make terms, and at first they tried sending signals from the tallest trees. But since he did not understand, they scratched a few words on a thin sheet of lead, and rolling it up like a piece of paper gave it to a diver to carry across under water by night. Thus Decimus learned at the same time of their presence and their promise of assistance, and sent them a reply in the same fashion, after which they continued uninterruptedly to communicate all their plans to each other.

[-37-] Antony, therefore, seeing that Decimus was not inclined to yield, left him to the charge of his brother Lucius, and himself proceeded against Caesar and Hirtius. The two armies faced each other for a number of days and a few insignificant cavalry battles occurred, with honors even. Finally the Celtic cavalry, of whom Caesar had gained possession along with the elephants, withdrew to Antony's side again. They had started from the camp with the rest and had gone on ahead as if intending to engage separately those of the enemy who came to meet them; but after a little they turned about and unexpectedly attacked those following behind (who did not stand their ground), killing many of them. After this some foraging parties on both sides fell to blows and when the remainder of each party came to the rescue a sharp battle ensued between the two forces, in which Antony was victorious. Elated by his success and in the knowledge that Vibius was approaching he assailed the antagonists' fortification, thinking possibly to destroy it beforehand and make the rest of the conflict easier. They, in consideration of their disaster and the hope which Vibius inspired, kept guard but would not come out for battle. Hence Antony left behind there a certain portion of his army with orders to come to close quarters with them and so make it appear as much as possible that he himself was there and at the same time to take good care that no one should fall upon his rear. After issuing these injunctions he set out secretly by night against Vibius, who was approaching from Bononia. By an ambush he succeeded in wounding the latter severely, in killing the majority of his soldiers and confining the rest within their ramparts. He would have annihilated them, had he proceeded to besiege them for any time at all. As it was, after accomplishing nothing at the first assault he began to be alarmed lest while he was delaying he should receive some setback from Caesar and the rest; so he again turned against them. Wearied by the journey both ways and by the battle he was also in doubt whether he should find that his opponents had conquered the force hostile to them; and in this condition he was confronted by Hirtius and suffered a decisive defeat. For when Hirtius and Caesar perceived what was going on, the latter remained to keep watch over the camp while the former set out against Antony. [-38-] Upon the latter's defeat not only Hirtius was saluted as imperator by the soldiers and by the senate, but likewise Vibius, though he had fared badly, and Caesar who had done no fighting even. To those who had participated in the conflict and had perished there was voted a public burial, and it was resolved that the prizes of war which they had taken while alive should be restored to their fathers and sons.

Following this official action Pontius Aquila, one of the assassins and a lieutenant of Decimus, conquered in battle Titus Munatius Plancus, who opposed him; and Decimus, when a certain senator deserted to Antony, so far from displaying anger toward him sent back all his baggage and whatever else he had left behind in Mutina, the result being that the affection of many of Antony's soldiers grew cool, and some of the nations which had previously sympathized with him proceeded to rebel: Caesar and Hirtius, however, were elated at this, and approaching the fortifications of Antony challenged him to combat; he for a time was alarmed and remained quiet, but later when some reinforcements sent by Lepidus came to him he took courage. Lepidus himself did not make it clear to which of the two sides he sent the army: he thought well of Antony, who was a relative, but had been summoned against him by the senate; and for these reasons he made plans to have a refuge in store with both parties, by not giving to Marcus Silanus, the commander, orders that were in the least clear. But he, doubtless knowing well his master's frame of mind, went on his own responsibility to Antony. [-39-] So when the latter had been thus assisted he became bold and made a sudden sally from the gates: there was great slaughter on both sides, but at last he turned and fled.

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1

The events, however, run over into the following year.

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2

Interesting to compare are three citations from an unknown Byzantine writer (in Excerpta cod. Paris, suppl. Gr. 607 A, edited by M.

Treu, Ohlau, 1880, p. 29 ff.), who seems to have used Dio as a source:

a) The mother of Augustus just one day previous to her travail beheld in a dream how her womb was snatched away and carried up into heaven.

b) And in the same night as Octavius was born his father thought that the sun rose from his wife's entrails.

c) And a certain senator, Nigidius Figulus, who was an astrologer, asked Octavius, the father of Augustus, why he was so slow in leaving his house. The latter replied that a son had been born to him. Nigidius thereupon exclaimed: "Ah, what hast thou done? Thou hast begotten a master for us!" The other believing it and being disturbed wished to make away with the child. But Nigidius said to him: "Thou hast not the power. For it hath not been granted thee to do this."

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3

Suetonius in relating this anecdote (Life of Augustus, chapter 5) says that the senate-meeting in question was called to consider the conspiracy of Catiline. Since, however, Augustus is on all hands admitted to have been born a. d. IX. Kal. Octobr. and mention of Catiline's conspiracy was first made in the senate a. d. XII. Kal. Nov. (Cicero, Against Catiline, I, 3, 7), the claim of coincidence is evidently based on error.

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4

Compare again the same Byzantine writer quoted in footnote to chapter 1,—two excerpts:

d) Again, while he was growing up in the country, an eagle swooping down snatched from his hands the loaf of bread and again returning replaced it in his hands.

e) Again, during his boyhood, Cicero saw in a dream Octavius himself fastened to a golden chain and wielding a whip being let down from the sky to the summit of the Capitol.

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5

Compare Súetonius, Life of Augustus, chapter 94

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6

See footnote to Book Forty-three, chapter 42.

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7

The senate-house already mentioned in Book Forty, chapter 50.

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8

This word is inserted by Boissevain on the authority of a symbol in the manuscript's margin, indicating a gap.

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9

Inserting with Reimar [Greek: proihemenos], to complete the sense.

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10

See Roscher I, col. 1458, on the Puperci Iulii. And compare Suetonius, Life of Caesar, chapter 76.

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11

For further particulars about Sex. Clodius and the ager Leontinus (held to be the best in Sicily, Cicero, Against Verres, III, 46) see Suetonius, On Rhetoric, 5; Arnobuis, V, 18; Cicero, Philippics, II, 4, 8; II, 17; II, 34, 84; II, 39, 101; III, 9, 22.

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12

Compare here (and particularly with, reference to the plural Spurii) the passage in Cicero, Philippics, III, 44, 114:

Quod si se ipsos illi nostri liberatores e conspectu nostro abstulerunt, at exemplum facti reliquerunt: illi, quod nemo fecerat, fecerunt: Tarquinium Brutus bello est persecutus, qui tum rex fuit, cum esse Romae licebat; Sp. Cassius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius propter suspitionem regni appetendi sunt necati; hi primum cum gladiis non in regnum appetentem, sed in regnum impetum fecerunt.

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13

For the figure, compare Aristophanes, The Acharnians, vv. 380-381 (about Cleon):

[Greek: dieballe chai pseudae chateglottise mou chachychloborei chaplunen.]

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14

Dio has in this sentence imitated almost word for word the utterance of Demosthenes, inveighing against Aischines, in the speech on the crown (Demosthenes XVIII, 129).

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15

Compare Book Forty-five, chapter 30.

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16

There is a play on words here which can not be exactly rendered. The Greek verb [Greek: pheaegein] means either "to flee" or "to be exiled."

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17

Various diminutive endings, expressing contempt.

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18

The MS. reading is not wholly satisfactory here. Bekker, by a slight change, would produce (after "Bambalio"): "nor by declaring war because of," etc.

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19

The Greek word is [Greek: obolos] a coin which in the fifth century B.C. would have amounted to considerably more than the Roman as; but as time went on the value of the [Greek: obolos] diminished indefinitely, so that glossaries eventually translate it as as in Latin.

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20

I. e., epilepsy.

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