"You, by a resolution of the senate, have removed the colonies of the veterans which had been legally settled".
Have we removed them, or have we rather ratified a law which was passed in the comitia centunata? See, rather, whether it is not you who have ruined these veterans (those at least who are ruined,) and settled them in a place from which they themselves now feel that they shall never be able to make their escape.
"You are promising to restore to the people of Marseilles what has been taken from them by the laws of war."
I am not going to discuss the laws of war. It is a discussion far more easy to begin than necessary. But take notice of this, O conscript fathers, what a born enemy to the republic Antonius is, who is so violent in his hatred of that city which he knows to have been at all times most firmly attached to this republic.
XVI. "[Do you not know] that no one of the party of Pompeius, who is still alive, can, by the Hirtian law, possess any rank?"
What, I should like to know, is the object of now making mention of the Hirtian law?—a law of which I believe the framer himself repents no less than those against whom it was passed. According to my opinion, it is utterly wrong to call it a law at all; and, even if it be a law, we ought not to think it a law of Hirtius.
"You have furnished Brutus with money belonging to Apuleius."
Well? Suppose the republic had furnished that excellent man with all its treasures and resources, what good man would have disapproved of it? For without money he could not have supported an army, nor without an army could he have taken your brother prisoner.
"You have praised the execution of Paetus and Menedemus, men who had been presented with the freedom of the city, and who were united by ties of hospitality to Caesar."
We do not praise what we have never even heard of; we were very likely, in such a state of confusion, and such a critical period of the republic, to busy our minds about two worthless Greeklings!