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: and Now Presented in English Form

Produced by Ted Garvin, Jayam Subramanian and PG Distributed Proofreaders
HERBERT BALDWIN FOSTER, A.B. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), Acting Professor of Greek in Lehigh University
THIRD VOLUME Extant Books 45-51 (B.C. 44-29) .
1906
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).
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.