Antony exclaims,
“O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourished over us.”
But one more point in connection with Antony’s oration remains for discussion. Antony’s friendship for Caesar and his desire for vengeance on the latter’s murderers are matters just as readily derivable from Plutarch’s accounts as from the oration by Antony as recorded in Appian. Pescetti, following Appian’s account of the events immediately following the assassination, puts the following in the mouth of the Second Messenger:
“Antonio ...
Fuggito è a casa, e d’essere credendo
Anch’egli a morte destinato, or cinge
Di ripari fortissimi la casa,
E si prepara alla difesa contra