Orations |
Translator: C. D. Yonge
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Philippicae Orationes in M . Antonium IN M . ANTONIVM ORATIO PHILIPPICA PRIMA Ante quam de re publica , patres conscripti , dicam ea quae dicenda hoc tempore arbitror , exponam vobis breviter consilium et profectionis et reversionis meae . Ego cum sperarem aliquando ad vestrum consilium auctoritatemque rem publicam esse revocatam , manendum mihi statuebam quasi in vigilia quadam consulari ac senatoria . Nec vero usquam discedebam nec a re publica deiciebam oculos ex eo die quo in aedem Telluris convocati sumus . In quo templo , quantum in me fuit , ieci fundamenta pacis Atheniensiumque renovavi vetus exemplum ; Graecum etiam verbum usurpavi quo tum in sedandis discordiis usa erat civitas illa , atque omnem memoriam discordiarum oblivione sempiterna delendam censui .
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THE FOURTEEN ORATIONS OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS, CALLED PHILIPPICS. THE FIRST PHILIPPIC. Before, O conscript fathers, I say those things concerning the republic which I think myself bound to say at the present time, I will explain to you briefly the cause of my departure from, and of my return to the city. When I hoped that the republic was at last recalled to a proper respect for your wisdom and for your authority, I thought that it became me to remain in a sort of sentinelship, which was imposed upon me by my position as a senator and a man of consular rank. Nor did I depart anywhere, nor did I ever take my eyes off from the republic, from the day on which we were summoned to meet in the temple of Tellus; in which temple, I, as far as was in my power, laid the foundations of peace, and renewed the ancient precedent set by the Athenians; I even used the Greek word,which that city employed in those times in allaying discords, and gave my vote that all recollection of the existing dissensions ought to be effaced by everlasting oblivion. |
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Praeclara tum oratio M . Antoni , egregia etiam voluntas ; pax denique per eum et per liberos eius cum praestantissimis civibus confirmata est . Atque his principiis reliqua consentiebant . Ad deliberationes eas quas habebat domi de re publica principes civitatis adhibebat ; ad hunc ordinem res optimas deferebat ; nihil tum nisi quod erat notum omnibus in C . Caesaris commentariis reperiebatur ; summa constantia ad ea quae quaesita erant respondebat .
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The oration then made by Marcus Antonius was an admirable one; his disposition, too, appeared excellent; and lastly, by his means and by his sons', peace was ratified with the most illustrious of the citizens; and everything else was consistent with this beginning. He invited the chief men of the state to those deliberations which he held at his own house concerning the state of the republic; he referred all the most important matters to this order. Nothing was at that time found among the papers of Caius Caesar except what was already well known to everybody; and he gave answers to every question that was asked of him with the greatest consistency. |
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Num qui exsules restituti ? Vnum aiebat , praeterea neminem . Num immunitates datae ? ‘Nullae ’ respondebat . Adsentiri etiam nos Ser . Sulpicio , clarissimo viro , voluit , ne qua tabula post Idus Martias ullius decreti Caesaris aut benefici figeretur . Multa praetereo eaque praeclara ; ad singulare enim M . Antoni factum festinat oratio . Dictaturam , quae iam vim regiae potestatis obsederat , funditus ex re publica sustulit ; de qua ne sententias quidem diximus . Scriptum senatus consultum quod fieri vellet attulit , quo recitato auctoritatem eius summo studio secuti sumus eique amplissimis verbis per senatus consultum gratias egimus .
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Were any exiles restored? He said that one was, and only one. Were any immunities granted? He answered, None. He wished us even to adopt the proposition of Servius Sulpicius, that most illustrious man, that no tablet purporting to contain any decree or grant of Caesar's should be published after the Ides of March were expired. I pass over many other things, all excellent—for I am hastening to come to a very extraordinary act of virtue of Marcus Antonius. He utterly abolished from the constitution of the republic the Dictatorship, which had by this time attained to the authority of regal power. And that measure was not even offered to us for discussion. He brought with him a decree of the senate, ready drawn up, ordering what he chose to have done: and when it had been read, we all submitted to his authority in the matter with the greatest eagerness; and, by another resolution of the senate, we returned him thanks in the most honourable and complimentary language. |
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Lux quaedam videbatur oblata non modo regno , quod pertuleramus , sed etiam regni timore sublato , magnumque pignus ab eo rei publicae datum , se liberam civitatem esse velle , cum dictatoris nomen , quod saepe iustum fuisset , propter perpetuae dictaturae recentem memoriam funditus ex re publica sustulisset .
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A new light, as it were, seemed to be brought over us, now that not only the kingly power which we had endured, but all fear of such power for the future, was taken away from us; and a great pledge appeared to have been given by him to the republic that he did wish the city to be free, when he utterly abolished out of the republic the name of dictator, which had often been a legitimate title, on account of our late recollection of a perpetual dictatorship. |
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Liberatus periculo caedis paucis post diebus senatus ; uncus impactus est fugitivo illi qui in Mari nomen invaserat . Atque haec omnia communiter cum conlega ; alia porro propria Dolabellae quae , nisi conlega afuisset , credo eis futura fuisse communia . Nam cum serperet in urbe infinitum malum idque manaret in dies latius , idemque bustum in foro facerent qui illam insepultam sepulturam effecerant , et cotidie magis magisque perditi homines cum sui similibus servis tectis ac templis urbis minarentur , talis animadversio fuit Dolabellae cum in audacis sceleratosque servos , tum in impuros et nefarios liberos , talisque eversio illius exsecratae columnae ut mihi mirum videatur tam valde reliquum tempus ab illo uno die dissensisse .
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A few days afterwards the senate was delivered from the danger of bloodshed, and a hookwas fixed into that runaway slave who had usurped the name of Caius Marius. And all these things he did in concert with his colleague. Some other things that were done were the acts of Dolabella alone; but if his colleague had not been absent, would, I believe, have been done by both of them in concert. For when enormous evil was insinuating itself into the republic, and was gaining more strength day by day; and when the same men were erecting a tombin the forum, who had performed that irregular funeral; and when abandoned men, with slaves like themselves, were every day threatening with more and more vehemence all the houses and temples of the city; so severe was the rigour of Dolabella, not only towards the audacious and wicked slaves, but also towards the profligate and unprincipled freemen, and so prompt was his overthrow of that accursed pillar; that it seems marvellous to me that the subsequent time has been so different from that one day. |
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Ecce enim Kalendis Iuniis , quibus ut adessemus edixerant , mutata omnia : nihil per senatum , multa et magna per populum et absente populo et invito . Consules designati negabant se audere in senatum venire ; patriae liberatores urbe carebant ea cuius a cervicibus iugum servile deiecerant , quos tamen ipsi consules in contionibus et in omni sermone laudabant . Veterani qui appellabantur , quibus hic ordo diligentissime caverat , non ad conservationem earum rerum quas habebant , sed ad spem novarum praedarum incitabantur . Quae cum audire mallem quam videre haberemque ius legationis liberum , ea mente discessi ut adessem Kalendis Ianuariis , quod initium senatus cogendi fore videbatur .
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For behold, on the first of June, on which day they had given notice that we were all to attend the senate, everything was changed. Nothing was done by the senate, but many and important measures were transacted by the agency of the people, though that people was both absent and disapproving. The consuls elect said, that they did not dare to come into the senate. The liberators of their country were absent from that city from the neck of which they had removed the yoke of slavery; though the very consuls themselves professed to praise them in their public harangues and in all their conversation. Those who were called Veterans, men of whose safety this order had been most particularly careful, were instigated not to the preservation of those things which they had, but to cherish hopes of new booty. And as I preferred hearing of those things to seeing them, and as I had an honorary commission as lieutenant, I went away, intending to be present on the first of January, which appeared likely to be the first day of assembling the senate. |
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Exposui , patres conscripti , profectionis consilium : nunc reversionis , quae plus admirationis habet , breviter exponam . Cum Brundisium iterque illud quod tritum in Graeciam est non sine causa vitavissem , Kalendis Sextilibus veni Syracusas , quod ab ea urbe transmissio in Graeciam laudabatur : quae tamen urbs mihi coniunctissima plus una me nocte cupiens retinere non potuit . Veritus sum ne meus repentinus ad meos necessarios adventus suspicionis aliquid adferret , si essem commoratus . Cum autem me ex Sicilia ad Leucopetram , quod est promunturium agri Regini , venti detulissent , ab eo loco conscendi ut transmitterem ; nec ita multum provectus reiectus Austro sum in eum ipsum locum unde conscenderam .
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I have now explained to you, O conscript fathers, my design in leaving the city. Now I will briefly set before you; also, my intention in returning, which may perhaps appear more unaccountable. As I had avoided Brundusium, and the ordinary route into Greece, not without good reason, on the first of August I arrived at Syracuse, because the passage from that city into Greece was said to be a good one. And that city, with which I had so intimate a connection, could not, though it was very eager to do so, detain me more than one night. I was afraid that my sudden arrival among my friends might cause some suspicion if I remained there at all. But after the winds had driven me, on my departure from Sicily, to Leucopetra, which is a promontory of the Rhegian district, I went up the gulf from that point, with the view of crossing over. And I had not advanced far before I was driven back by a foul wind to the very place which I had just quitted. |
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Cumque intempesta nox esset mansissemque in villa P . Valeri , comitis et familiaris mei , postridieque apud eundem ventum exspectans manerem , municipes Regini complures ad me venerunt , ex eis quidam Roma recentes : a quibus primum accipio M . Antoni contionem , quae mihi ita placuit ut ea lecta de reversione primum coeperim cogitare . Nec ita multo post edictum Bruti adfertur et Cassi , quod quidem mihi , fortasse quod eos plus etiam rei publicae quam familiaritatis gratia diligo , plenum aequitatis videbatur . Addebant praeterea —fit enim plerumque ut ei qui boni quid volunt adferre adfingant aliquid quo faciant id quod nuntiant laetius —rem conventuram : Kalendis senatum frequentem fore ; Antonium , repudiatis malis suasoribus , remissis provinciis Galliis , ad auctoritatem senatus esse rediturum .
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And as the night was stormy, and as I had lodged that night in the villa of Publius Valerius, my companion and intimate friend, and as I remained all the next day at his house waiting for a fair wind, many of the citizens of the municipality of Rhegium came to me. And of them there were some who had lately arrived from Rome; from them I first heard of the harangue of Marcus Antonius, with which I was so much pleased that, after I had read it, I began for the first time to think of returning. And not long afterwards the edict of Brutus and Cassius is brought to me; which (perhaps because I love those men, even more for the sake of the republic than of my own friendship for them) appeared to me, indeed, to be full of equity. They added besides, (for it is a very common thing for those who are desirous of bringing good news to invent something to make the news which they bring seem more joyful,) that parties were coming to an agreement; that the senate was to meet on the first of August; that Antonius having discarded all evil counselors, and having given up the provinces of Gaul, was about to return to submission to the authority of the senate. |
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Tum vero tanta sum cupiditate incensus ad reditum ut mihi nulli neque remi neque venti satis facerent , non quo me ad tempus occursurum non putarem , sed ne tardius quam cuperem rei publicae gratularer . Atque ego celeriter Veliam devectus Brutum vidi : quanto meo dolore non dico . Turpe mihi ipsi videbatur in eam urbem me audere reverti ex qua Brutus cederet , et ibi velle tuto esse ubi ille non posset . Neque vero illum similiter atque ipse eram commotum esse vidi . Erectus enim maximi ac pulcherrimi facti sui conscientia nihil de suo casu , multa de vestro querebatur .
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But on this I was inflamed with such eagerness to return, that no oars or winds could be fast enough for me; not that I thought that I should not arrive in time, but lest I should be later than I wished in congratulating the republic; and I quickly arrived at Velia, where I saw Brutus; how grieved I was, I cannot express. For it seemed to be a discreditable thing for me myself, that I should venture to return into that city from which Brutus was departing, and that I should be willing to live safely in a place where he could not. But he himself was not agitated in the same manner that I was; for, being elevated with the consciousness of his great and glorious exploit, he had no complaints to make of what had befallen him, though he lamented your fate exceedingly. |
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Exque eo primum cognovi quae Kalendis Sextilibus in senatu fuisset L . Pisonis oratio : qui quamquam parum erat —id enim ipsum a Bruto audieram —a quibus debuerat adiutus , tamen et Bruti testimonio —quo quid potest esse gravius ?—et omnium praedicatione quos postea vidi magnam mihi videbatur gloriam consecutus . Hunc igitur ut sequerer properavi quem praesentes non sunt secuti , non ut proficerem aliquid —nec enim sperabam id nec praestare poteram —sed ut , si quid mihi humanitus accidisset —multa autem impendere videntur praeter naturam etiam praeterque fatum —huius tamen diei vocem testem rei publicae relinquerem meae perpetuae erga se voluntatis .
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And it was from him that I first heard what had been the language of Lucius Piso, in the senate of August; who, although he was but little assisted (for that I heard from Brutus himself) by those who ought to have seconded him, still according to the testimony of Brutus, (and what evidence can be more trustworthy?) and to the avowal of every one whom I saw afterwards, appeared to me to have gained great credit. I hastened hither, therefore, in order that as those who were present had not seconded him, I might do so; not with the hope of doing any good, for I neither hoped for that, nor did I well see how it was possible; but in order that if anything happened to me, (and many things appeared to be threatening me out of the regular course of nature, and even of destiny,) I might still leave my speech on this day as a witness to the republic of my everlasting attachment to its interests. |
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Quoniam utriusque consili causam , patres conscripti , probatam vobis esse confido , prius quam de re publica dicere incipio , pauca querar de hesterna M . Antoni iniuria : cui sum amicus , idque me non nullo eius officio debere esse prae me semper tuli .
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Since, then, O conscript fathers, I trust that the reason of my adopting each determination appears praiseworthy to you, before I begin to speak of the republic, I will make a brief complaint of the injury which Marcus Antonius did me yesterday; to whom I am friendly, and I have at all times admitted having received some services from him which make it my duty to be so. |
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Quid tandem erat causae cur die hesterno in senatum tam acerbe cogerer ? Solusne aberam , an non saepe minus frequentes fuistis , an ea res agebatur ut etiam aegrotos deferri oporteret ? Hannibal , credo , erat ad portas aut de Pyrrhi pace agebatur , ad quam causam etiam Appium illum et caecum et senem delatum esse memoriae proditum est . De supplicationibus referebatur , quo in genere senatores deesse non solent . Coguntur enim non pignoribus , sed eorum de quorum honore agitur gratia ; quod idem fit , cum de triumpho refertur . Ita sine cura consules sunt ut paene liberum sit senatori non adesse . Qui cum mihi mos notus esset cumque e via languerem et mihimet displicerem , misi pro amicitia qui hoc ei diceret . At ille vobis audientibus cum fabris se domum meam venturum esse dixit . Nimis iracunde hoc quidem et valde intemperanter . Cuius enim malefici tanta ista poena est ut dicere in hoc ordine auderet se publicis operis disturbaturum publice ex senatus sententia aedificatam domum ? Quis autem umquam tanto damno senatorem coegit ? aut quid est ultra pignus aut multam ? Quod si scisset quam sententiam dicturus essem , remisisset aliquid profecto de severitate cogendi .
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What reason had he then for endeavouring, with such bitter hostility, to force me into the senate yesterday? Was I the only person who was absent? Have you not repeatedly had thinner houses than yesterday? Or was a matter of such importance under discussion, that it was desirable for even sick men to be brought down? Hannibal, I suppose, was at the gates, or there was to be a debate about peace with Pyrrhus, on which occasion it is related that even the great Appius, old and blind as he was, was brought down to the senate-house. There was a motion being made about some supplications; a kind of measure when senators are not usually wanting; for they are under the compulsion, not of pledges, but of the influence of those men whose honour is being complimented; and the case is the same when the motion has reference to a triumph. The consuls are so free from anxiety at these times, that it is almost entirely free for a senator to absent himself if he pleases. And as the general custom of our body was well known to me, and as I was hardly recovered from the fatigue of my journey, and was vexed with myself, I sent a man to him, out of regard for my friendship to him, to tell him that I should not be there. But he, in the hearing of you all, declared that he would come with masons to my house; this was said with too much passion and very intemperately. For, for what crime is there such a heavy punishment appointed as that, that any one should venture to say in this assembly that he, with the assistance of a lot of common operatives, would pull down a house which had been built at the public expense in accordance with a vote of the senate. And who ever employed such compulsion as the threat of such an injury as that to a senator? or what severer punishment has ever been imposed for absence than the forfeiture of a pledge, or a fine? But if he had known what opinion I should have delivered on the subject, he would have remitted somewhat of the rigour of his compulsion. |
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An me censetis , patres conscripti , quod vos inviti secuti estis , decreturum fuisse , ut parentalia cum supplicationibus miscerentur , ut inexpiabiles religiones in rem publicam inducerentur , ut decernerentur supplicationes mortuo ? Nihil dico cui . Fuerit ille L . Brutus qui et ipse dominatu regio rem publicam liberavit et ad similem virtutem et simile factum stirpem iam prope in quingentesimum annum propagavit : adduci tamen non possem ut quemquam mortuum coniungerem cum deorum immortalium religione ; ut , cuius sepulcrum usquam exstet ubi parentetur , ei publice supplicetur . Ego vero eam sententiam dixissem ut me adversus populum Romanum , si qui accidisset gravior rei publicae casus , si bellum , si morbus , si fames , facile possem defendere ; quae partim iam sunt , partim timeo ne impendeant . Sed hoc ignoscant di immortales velim et populo Romano qui id non probat , et huic ordini qui decrevit invitus .
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Do you think, O conscript fathers, that I would have voted for the resolution which you adopted against your own wills, of mingling funeral obsequies with supplications? of introducing inexplicable impiety into the republic? of decreeing supplications in honour of a dead man? I say nothing about who the man was. Even had he been that great Lucius Brutus who himself also delivered the republic from kingly power, and who has produced posterity nearly five hundred years after himself of similar virtue, and equal to similar achievements—even then I could not have been induced to join any dead man in a religious observance paid to the immortal gods; so that a supplication should be addressed by public authority to a man who has nowhere a sepulcher at which funeral obsequies may be celebrated. I, O conscript fathers, should have delivered my opinion, which I could easily have defended against the Roman people, if any heavy misfortune had happened to the republic, such as war, or pestilence, or famine; some of which, indeed, do exist already, and I have my fears lest others are impending. But I pray that the immortal gods may pardon this act, both to the Roman people, which does not approve of it, and to this order, which voted it with great unwillingness. |
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Quid ? de reliquis rei publicae malis licetne dicere ? Mihi vero licet et semper licebit dignitatem tueri , mortem contemnere . Potestas modo veniendi in hunc locum sit : dicendi periculum non recuso . Atque utinam , patres conscripti , Kalendis Sextilibus adesse potuissem ! non quo profici potuerit aliquid , sed ne unus modo consularis , quod tum accidit , dignus illo honore , dignus re publica inveniretur . Qua quidem ex re magnum accipio dolorem , homines amplissimis populi Romani beneficiis usos L . Pisonem ducem optimae sententiae non secutos . Idcircone nos populus Romanus consules fecit ut in altissimo gradu dignitatis locati rem publicam pro nihilo haberemus ? Non modo voce nemo L . Pisoni consulari sed ne voltu quidem adsensus est .
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What? may I not speak of the other misfortunes of the republic?—At all events it is in my power, and it always will be in my power, to uphold my own dignity and to despise death. Let me have only the power to come into this house, and I will never shrink from the danger or declaring my opinion! And, O conscript fathers, would that I had been able to be present on the first of August; not that I should have been able to do any good, but to prevent any one saying that not no senator of consular rank (as was the case then) was found worthy of that honour and worthy of the republic. And this circumstance indeed gives me great pain, that men who have enjoyed the most honourable distinctions which the Roman people can confer; did not second Lucius Piso, the proposer of an excellent opinion. Is it for this that the Roman people made us consuls, that, being placed on the loftiest and most honourable step of dignity, we should consider the republic of no importance? Not only did no single man of consular dignity indicate his agreement with Lucius Piso by his voice, but they did not venture even to look as if they agreed with him. |
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Quae , malum , est ista voluntaria servitus ? Fuerit quaedam necessaria ; neque ego hoc ab omnibus eis desidero qui sententiam consulari loco dicunt . Alia causa est eorum quorum silentio ignosco ; alia eorum , quorum vocem requiro . Quos quidem doleo in suspicionem populo Romano venire non metu , quod ipsum esset turpe , sed alium alia de causa deesse dignitati suae .
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What, in the name of all that is horrible, is the meaning of this voluntary slavery?—Some submission may have been unavoidable: nor do I require this from every one of the men who deliver their opinions from the consular bench; the case of those men whose silence I pardon is different from that of those whose expression of their sentiments I require; and I do grieve that those men have fallen under the suspicion of the Roman people, not only as being afraid,—which of itself would be shameful enough,—but as having different private causes for being wanting to their proper dignity. |
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Qua re primum maximas gratias et ago et habeo Pisoni , qui non quid efficere posset in re publica cogitavit , sed quid facere ipse deberet . Deinde a vobis , patres conscripti , peto ut , etiam si sequi minus audebitis orationem atque auctoritatem meam , benigne me tamen , ut fecistis adhuc , audiatis . Primum igitur acta Caesaris servanda censeo , non quo probem —quis enim id quidem potest ?—sed quia rationem habendam maxime arbitror pacis atque oti . Vellem adesset M . Antonius , modo sine advocatis —sed , ut opinor , licet ei minus valere , quod mihi heri per illum non licuit —doceret me vel potius vos , patres conscripti , quem ad modum ipse Caesaris acta defenderet . An in commentariolis et chirographis et libellis se uno auctore prolatis , ne prolatis quidem sed tantum modo dictis , acta Caesaris firma erunt : quae ille in aes incidit , in quo populi iussa perpetuasque leges esse voluit , pro nihilo habebuntur ?
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Wherefore, in the first place, I both feel and acknowledge great obligations to Lucius Piso, who considered not what he was able to effect in the republic, but what it was his own duty to do; and, in the next place, I entreat of you, O conscript fathers, even if you have not quite the courage to agree with my speech and to adopt my advice, at all events to listen to me with kindness as you have always hitherto done. In the first place, then, I declare my opinion that the acts of Caesar ought to be maintained: not that I approve of them; (for who indeed can do that?) but because I think that we ought above all things to have regard to peace and tranquillity. I wish that Antonius himself were present, provided he had no advocates with him. But I suppose he may be allowed to feel unwell, a privilege which he refused to allow me yesterday. He would then explain to me, or rather to you, O conscript fathers, to what extent he himself defended the acts of Caesar. Are all the acts of Caesar which may exist in the bits of note-books, and memoranda, and loose papers, produced on his single authority, and indeed not even produced, but only recited, to be ratified? And shall the acts which he caused to be engraved on brass, in which he declared that the edicts and laws passed by the people were valid for ever, be considered as of no power? |
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Equidem existimo nihil tam esse in actis Caesaris quam leges Caesaris . An , si cui quid ille promisit , id erit fixum quod idem facere non potuit ? ut multis multa promissa non fecit : quae tamen multo plura illo mortuo reperta sunt quam a vivo beneficia per omnis annos tributa et data . Sed ea non muto , non moveo : summo studio illius praeclara acta defendo . Pecunia utinam ad Opis maneret ! cruenta illa quidem , sed his temporibus , quoniam eis quorum est non redditur , necessaria . Quamquam ea quoque sit effusa , si ita in actis fuit .
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I think, indeed, that there is nothing so well entitled to be called the acts of Caesar as Caesar's laws. Suppose he gave any one a promise, is that to be ratified, even if it were a promise that he himself was unable to perform? As, in fact, he has failed to perform many promises made to many people. And a great many more of those promises have been found since his death, than the number of all the services which he conferred on and did to people during all the years that he was alive would amount to. But all those things I do not change, I do not meddle with. Nay, I defend all his good acts with the greatest earnestness. Would that the money remained in the temple of Ops! Bloodstained, indeed, it may be, but still needful at these times, since it is not restored to those to whom it really belongs.Let that, however, be squandered too, if it is so written in his acts. |
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Ecquid est quod tam proprie dici possit actum eius qui togatus in re publica cum potestate imperioque versatus sit quam lex ? Quaere acta Gracchi : leges Semproniae proferentur ; quaere Sullae : Corneliae . Quid ? Pompei tertius consulatus in quibus actis constitit ? Nempe in legibus . De Caesare ipso si quaereres quidnam egisset in urbe et in toga , leges multas responderet se et praeclaras tulisse , chirographa vero aut mutaret aut non daret aut , si dedisset , non istas res in actis suis duceret . Sed haec ipsa concedo ; quibusdam etiam in rebus coniveo ; in maximis vero rebus , id est in legibus , acta Caesaris dissolvi ferendum non puto .
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Is there anything whatever that can be called so peculiarly the act of that man who; while clad in the robe of peace, was yet invested with both civil and military command in the republic, as a law of his? Ask for the acts of Gracchus, the Sempronian laws will be brought forward; ask for those of Sulla, you will have the Cornelian laws. What more? In what acts did the third consulship of Cnaeus Pompeius consist? Why, in his laws. And if you could ask Caesar himself what he had done in the city and in the garb of peace, he would reply that he had passed many excellent laws; but his memoranda he would either alter or not produce at all; or, if he did produce them, he would not class them among his acts. But, however, I allow even these things to pass for acts; at some things I am content to wink; but I think it intolerable that the acts of Caesar in the most important instances, that is to say, in his laws, are to he annulled for their sake. |