[-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 them[9] 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 College[10]; yes, and Sextus Clodius had trained him to conduct himself so, upon receipt of two thousand plethra of the land of Leontini[11]. 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.