Orations |
Translator: C. D. Yonge
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| 109 |
Cui bello cum propter timiditatem tuam tum propter libidines defuisti . Gustaras civilem sanguinem vel potius exsorbueras ; fueras in acie Pharsalica antesignanus ; L . Domitium , clarissimum et nobilissimum virum , occideras multosque praeterea qui e proelio effugerant , quos Caesar , ut non nullos , fortasse servasset , crudelissime persecutus trucidaras . Quibus rebus tantis talibus gestis quid fuit causae cur in Africam Caesarem non sequerere , cum praesertim belli pars tanta restaret ? Itaque quem locum apud ipsum Caesarem post eius ex Africa reditum obtinuisti ? quo numero fuisti ? Cuius tu imperatoris quaestor fueras , dictatoris magister equitum , belli princeps , crudelitatis auctor , praedae socius , testamento , ut dicebas ipse , filius , appellatus es de pecunia quam pro domo , pro hortis , pro sectione debebas .
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Though you yourself took no personal share in it, partly through timidity, partly through profligacy, you had tasted, or rather had sucked in, the blood of fellow-citizens: you had been in the battle of Pharsalia as a leader; you had slain Lucius Domitius, a most illustrious and high-born man; you had pursued and put to death in the most barbarous manner many men who had escaped from the battle, and whom Caesar would perhaps have saved, as he did some others. And after having performed these exploits, what was the reason why you did not follow Caesar into Africa; especially when so large a portion of the war was still remaining? And accordingly, what place did you obtain about Caesar's person after his return from Africa? What was your rank? He whose quaestor you had been when general, whose master of the horse when he was dictator, to whom you had been the chief cause of war, the chief instigator of cruelty, the sharer of his plunder, his son, as you yourself said, by inheritance, proceeded against you for the money which you owed for the house and gardens, and for the other property which you had bought at that sale. |
| 110 |
Primo respondisti plane ferociter et , ne omnia videar contra te , prope modum aequa et iusta dicebas : ‘A me C . Caesar pecuniam ? cur potius quam ego ab illo ? an sine me ille vicit ? At ne potuit quidem . Ego ad illum belli civilis causam attuli ; ego leges perniciosas rogavi ; ego arma contra consules imperatoresque populi Romani , contra senatum populumque Romanum , contra deos patrios arasque et focos , contra patriam tuli . Num sibi soli vicit ? Quorum facinus est commune , cur non sit eorum praeda communis ?’ Ius postulabas , sed quid ad rem ?
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At first you answered fiercely enough; and that I may not appear prejudiced against you in every particular, you used a tolerably just and reasonable argument. “What does Caius Caesar demand money of me? why should he do so, any more than I should claim it of him? Was he victorious without my assistance? No; and he never could have been. It was I who supplied him with a pretext for civil war; it was I who proposed mischievous laws; it was I who took up arms against the consuls and generals of the Roman people, against the senate and people of Rome, against the gods of the country, against its altars and hearths, against the country itself. Has he conquered for himself alone? Why should not those men whose common work the achievement is, have the booty also in common?” You were only claiming your right, but what had that to do with it? He was the more powerful of the two. |
| 111 |
Plus ille poterat . Itaque excussis tuis vocibus et ad te et ad praedes tuos milites misit , cum repente a te praeclara illa tabula prolata est . Qui risus hominum , tantam esse tabulam , tam varias , tam multas possessiones , ex quibus praeter partem Miseni nihil erat quod is qui auctionaretur posset suum dicere . Auctionis vero miserabilis aspectus : vestis Pompei non multa eaque maculosa ; eiusdem quaedam argentea vasa conlisa , sordidata mancipia , ut doleremus quicquam esse ex illis reliquiis quod videre possemus .
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Therefore, stopping all your expostulations, he sent his soldiers to you, and to your sureties; when all on a sudden out came that splendid catalogue of yours. How men did laugh! That there should be so vast a catalogue, that there should be such a numerous and various list of possessions, of all of which, with the exception of a portion of Misenum, there was nothing which the man who was putting them up to sale could call his own. And what a miserable sight was the auction. A little apparel of Pompeius's, and that stained; a few silver vessels belonging to the same man, all battered, some slaves in wretched condition; so that we grieved that there was any thing remaining to be seen of these miserable relies. |
| 112 |
Hanc tamen auctionem heredes L . Rubri decreto Caesaris prohibuerunt . Haerebat nebulo : quo se verteret non habebat . Quin his ipsis temporibus domi Caesaris percussor ab isto missus deprehensus dicebatur esse cum sica : de quo Caesar in senatu aperte in te invehens questus est . Proficiscitur in Hispaniam Caesar paucis tibi ad solvendum propter inopiam tuam prorogatis diebus . Ne tum quidem sequeris . Tam bonus gladiator rudem tam cito ? Hunc igitur quisquam qui in suis partibus , id est in suis fortunis , tam timidus fuerit pertimescat .
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This auction, however, the heirs of Lucius Rubrius prevented from proceeding, being armed with a decree of Caesar to that effect. The spendthrift was embarrassed. He did not know which way to turn. It was at this very time that an assassin sent by him was said to have been detected with a dagger in the house of Caesar. And of this Caesar himself complained in the senate, inveighing openly against you. Caesar departs to Spain, having granted you a few days delay for making the payment, on account of your poverty. Even then you do not follow him. Had so good a gladiator as you retired from business so early? Can any one then fear a man who was as timid as this man in upholding his party, that is, in upholding his own fortunes? |
| 113 |
Profectus est aliquando tandem in Hispaniam ; sed tuto , ut ait , pervenire non potuit . Quonam modo igitur Dolabella pervenit ? Aut non suscipienda fuit ista causa , Antoni , aut , cum suscepisses , defendenda usque ad extremum . Ter depugnavit Caesar cum civibus , in Thessalia , Africa , Hispania . Omnibus adfuit his pugnis Dolabella ; in Hispaniensi etiam volnus accepit . Si de meo iudicio quaeris , nollem ; sed tamen consilium a primo reprehendendum , laudanda constantia . Tu vero quid es ? Cn . Pompei liberi tum primum patriam repetebant . Esto , fuerit haec partium causa communis . Repetebant praeterea deos patrios , aras , focos , larem suum familiarem , in quae tu invaseras . Haec cum peterent armis ei quorum erant legibus —etsi in rebus iniquissimis quid potest esse aequi ?—tamen quem erat aequissimum contra Cn . Pompei liberos pugnare ? quem ? te sectorem .
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After some time he at last went into Spain; but, as he says, he could not arrive there in safety. How then did Dolabella manage to arrive there? Either, O Antonius, that cause ought never to have been undertaken, or when you had undertaken it, it should have been maintained to the end. Thrice did Caesar fight against his fellow-citizens; in Thessaly, in Africa, and in Spain. Dolabella was present at all these battles. In the battle in Spain he even received a wound. If you ask my opinion, I wish he had not been there. But still, if his design at first was blamable, his consistency and firmness were praiseworthy. But what shall we say of you? In the first place, the children of Cnaeus Pompeius sought to be restored to their country. Well, this concerned the common interests of the whole party. Besides that, they sought to recover their household gods, the gods of their country, their altars, their hearths, the tutelar gods of their family; all of which you had seized upon. And when they sought to recover those things by force of arms which belonged to them by the laws, who was it most natural—(although in unjust and unnatural proceedings what can there be that is natural?)—still, who was it most natural to expect would fight against the children of Cnaeus Pompeius? Who? Why, you who had bought their property. |
| 114 |
An ut tu Narbone mensas hospitum convomeres Dolabella pro te in Hispania dimicaret ? Qui vero Narbone reditus ! Etiam quaerebat cur ego ex ipso cursu tam subito revertissem . Exposui nuper , patres conscripti , causam reditus mei . Volui , si possem , etiam ante Kalendas Ianuarias prodesse rei publicae . Nam , quod quaerebas quo modo redissem , primum luce , non tenebris ; deinde cum calceis et toga , nullis nec Gallicis nec lacerna . At etiam aspicis me et quidem , ut videris , iratus . Ne tu iam mecum in gratiam redeas , si scias quam me pudeat nequitiae tuae , cuius te ipsum non pudet . Ex omnium omnibus flagitiis nullum turpius vidi , nullum audivi . Qui magister equitum fuisse tibi viderere , in proximum annum consulatum peteres vel potius rogares , per municipia coloniasque Galliae , a qua nos tum cum consulatus petebatur , non rogabatur , petere consulatum solebamus , cum Gallicis et lacerna cucurristi .
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Were you at Narbo to be sick over the tables of your entertainers while Dolabella was fighting your battles in Spain? And what return was that of yours from Narbo? He even asked why I had returned so suddenly from my expedition. I have just briefly explained to you, O conscript fathers, the reason of my return. I was desirous, if I could, to be of service to the republic even before the first of January. For, as to your question, how I had returned in the first place, I returned by daylight, not in the dark, in the second place, I returned in shoes, and in my Roman gown, not in any Gallic slippers, or barbarian mantle. And even now you keep looking at me; and, as it seems, with great anger. Surely you would be reconciled to me if you knew how ashamed I am of your worthlessness, which you yourself are not ashamed of. Of all the profligate conduct of all the world, I never saw, I never heard of any more shameful than yours. You, who fancied yourself a master of the horse, when you were standing for, or I should rather say begging for, the consulship for the ensuing year, ran in Gallic slippers and a barbarian mantle about the municipal towns and colonies of Gaul, from which we used to demand the consulship when the consulship was stood for and not begged for. |
| 115 |
At videte levitatem hominis . Cum hora diei decima fere ad Saxa rubra venisset , delituit in quadam cauponula atque ibi se occultans perpotavit ad vesperum ; inde cisio celeriter ad urbem advectus domum venit capite involuto . Ianitor , ‘Quis tu ?’ ‘A Marco tabellarius .’ Confestim ad eam deducitur cuius causa venerat , eique epistulam tradidit . Quam cum illa legeret flens —erat enim scripta amatorie ; caput autem litterarum sibi cum illa mima posthac nihil futurum ; omnem se amorem abiecisse illim atque in hanc transfudisse —cum mulier fleret uberius , homo misericors ferre non potuit , caput aperuit , in collum invasit . O hominem nequam ! Quid enim aliud dicam ? magis proprie nihil possum dicere . Ergo , ut te catamitum , nec opinato cum te ostendisses , praeter spem mulier aspiceret , idcirco urbem terrore nocturno , Italiam multorum dierum metu perturbasti ?
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But mark now the trifling character of the fellow. When about the tenth hour of the day he had arrived at Red Rocks, he skulked into a little petty wine-shop, and, hidden there, kept on drinking till evening. And from thence getting into a gig and being driven rapidly to the city, he came to his own house with his head veiled. “Who are you?” says the porter. “An express from Marcus.” He is at once taken to the woman for whose sake he had come; and he delivered the letter to her. And when she had read it with tears (for it was written in a very amorous style, but the main subject of the letter was that he would have nothing to do with that actress for the future; that he had discarded all his love for her, and transferred it to his correspondent), when she, I say, wept plentifully, this soft-hearted man could bear it no longer; he uncovered his head and threw himself on her neck. Oh the worthless man (for what else can I call him? there is no more suitable expression for me to use)! was it for this that you disturbed the city by nocturnal alarms, and Italy with fears of many days' duration, in order that you might show yourself unexpectedly, and that a woman might see you before she hoped to do so? |
| 116 |
Et domi quidem causam amoris habuisti , foris etiam turpiorem ne L . Plancus praedes tuos venderet . Productus autem in contionem a tribuno plebis cum respondisses te rei tuae causa venisse , populum etiam dicacem in te reddidisti . Sed nimis multa de nugis : ad maiora veniamus .
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And he had at home a pretense of love; but out of doors a cause more discreditable still, namely, lest Lucius Plancus should sell up his sureties, But after you had been produced in the assembly by one of the tribunes of the people, and had replied that you had come on your own private business, you made even the people full of jokes against you. But, however, we have said too much about trifles. Let us come to more important subjects. |
| 117 |
C . Caesari ex Hispania redeunti obviam longissime processisti . Celeriter isti , redisti , ut cognosceret te si minus fortem , at tamen strenuum . Factus es ei rursus nescio quo modo familiaris . Habebat hoc omnino Caesar : quem plane perditum aere alieno egentemque , si eundem nequam hominem audacemque cognorat , hunc in familiaritatem libentissime recipiebat . His igitur rebus praeclare commendatus iussus es renuntiari consul et quidem cum ipso . Nihil queror de Dolabella qui tum est impulsus , inductus , elusus . Qua in re quanta fuerit uterque vestrum perfidia in Dolabellam quis ignorat ? ille induxit ut peteret , promissum et receptum intervertit ad seque transtulit ; tu eius perfidiae voluntatem tuam ascripsisti . Veniunt Kalendae Ianuariae ; cogimur in senatum : invectus est copiosius multo in istum et paratius Dolabella quam nunc ego .
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You went a great distance to meet Caesar on his return from Spain. You went rapidly, you returned rapidly, in order that we might see that, if you were not brave, you were at least active. You again became intimate with him; I am sure I do not know how. Caesar had this peculiar characteristic; whoever he knew to be utterly ruined by debt, and needy, even if he knew him also to be an audacious and worthless man, he willingly admitted him to his intimacy. You then, being admirably recommended to him by these circumstances, were ordered to be appointed consul, and that too as his own colleague. I do not make any complaint against Dolabella, who was at that time acting under compulsion, and was cajoled and deceived, But who is there who does not know with what great perfidy both of you treated Dolabella in that business? Caesar induced him to stand for the consulship. After having promised it to him, and pledged himself to aid him, he prevented his getting it, and transferred it to himself. And you endorsed his treachery with your own eagerness. The first of January arrives. We are convened in the senate. Dolabella inveighed against him with much more fluency and premeditation than I am doing now. |
| 118 |
Hic autem iratus quae dixit , di boni ! Primum cum Caesar ostendisset se , prius quam proficisceretur , Dolabellam consulem esse iussurum —quem negant regem , qui et faceret semper eius modi aliquid et diceret —sed cum Caesar ita dixisset , tum hic bonus augur eo se sacerdotio praeditum esse dixit ut comitia auspiciis vel impedire vel vitiare posset , idque se facturum esse adseveravit . In quo primum incredibilem stupiditatem hominis cognoscite .
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And what things were they which he said in his anger, O ye good gods! First of all, after Caesar had declared that before he departed he would order Dolabella to be made consul (and they deny that he was a king who was always doing and saying something of this sort).—but after Caesar had said this, then this virtuous augur said that he was invested with a pontificate of that sort that he was able, by means of the auspices, either to hinder or to vitiate the comitia, just as he pleased; and he declared that he would do so. |
| 119 |
Quid enim ? istud quod te sacerdoti iure facere posse dixisti , si augur non esses et consul esses , minus facere potuisses ? Vide ne etiam facilius . Nos enim nuntiationem solum habemus , consules et reliqui magistratus etiam spectionem . Esto : hoc imperite ; nec enim est ab homine numquam sobrio postulanda prudentia , sed videte impudentiam . Multis ante mensibus in senatu dixit se Dolabellae comitia aut prohibiturum auspiciis aut id facturum esse quod fecit . Quisquamne divinare potest quid viti in auspiciis futurum sit , nisi qui de caelo servare constituit ? quod neque licet comitiis per leges et si qui servavit non comitiis habitis , sed prius quam habeantur , debet nuntiare . Verum implicata inscientia impudentia est : nec scit quod augurem nec facit quod pudentem decet .
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And here, in the first place, remark the incredible stupidity of the man. For what do you mean? Could you not just as well have done what you said you had now the power to do by the privileges with which that pontificate had invested you, even if you were not an augur, if you were consul? Perhaps you could even do it more easily. For we augurs have only the power of announcing that the auspices are being observed, but the consuls and other magistrates have the right also of observing them whenever they choose. Be it so. You said this out of ignorance. For one must not demand prudence from a man who is never sober. But still remark his impudence. Many months before, he said in the senate that he would either prevent the comitia from assembling for the election of Dolabella by means of the auspices, or that he would do what he actually did do. Can any one divine beforehand what defect there will be in the auspices, except the man who has already determined to observe the heavens? which in the first place it is forbidden by law to do at the time of the comitia. And if any one has; been observing the heavens, he is bound to give notice of it, not after the comitia are assembled, but before they are held. But this man's ignorance is joined to impudence, nor does he know what an augur ought to know, nor do what a modest man ought to do. |
| 120 |
Atque ex illo die recordamini eius usque ad Idus Martias consulatum . Quis umquam apparitor tam humilis , tam abiectus ? Nihil ipse poterat ; omnia rogabat ; caput in aversam lecticam inserens , beneficia quae venderet a conlega petebat .
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And just recollect the whole of his conduct during his consulship from that day up to the ides of March. What lictor was ever so humble, so abject? He himself had no power at all; he begged every thing of others; and thrusting his head into the hind part of his litter, he begged favors of his colleagues, to sell them himself afterward. |
| 121 |
Ecce Dolabellae comitiorum dies . Sortitio praerogativae ; quiescit . Renuntiatur : tacet . Prima classis vocatur , deinde ita ut adsolet suffragia , tum secunda classis , quae omnia sunt citius facta quam dixi . Confecto negotio bonus augur —C . Laelium diceres — ' Alio die ’ inquit . O impudentiam singularem ! Quid videras , quid senseras , quid audieras ? Neque enim te de caelo servasse dixisti nec hodie dicis . Id igitur obvenit vitium quod tu iam Kalendis Ianuariis futurum esse provideras et tanto ante praedixeras . Ergo hercule magna , ut spero , tua potius quam rei publicae calamitate ementitus es auspicia ; obstrinxisti religione populum Romanum ; augur auguri , consul consuli obnuntiasti . Nolo plura , ne acta Dolabellae videar convellere , quae necesse est aliquando ad nostrum conlegium deferantur . Sed adrogantiam hominis insolentiamque cognoscite .
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Behold, the day of the comitia for the election of Dolabella arrives The prerogative century draws its lot. He is quiet. The vote is declared; he is still silent. The first class is called. Its vote is declared. Then, as is the usual course, the votes are announced. Then the second class. And all this is done faster than I have told it. When the business is over, that excellent augur (you would say he must be Caius Laelius) says,—“We adjourn it to another day.” Oh the monstrous impudence of such a proceeding! What had you seen? what had you perceived? what had you heard? For you did not say that you had been observing the heavens, and indeed you do not say so this day. That defect then has arisen, which you on the first of January had already foreseen would arise, and which you had predicted so long before. Therefore, in truth, you have made a false declaration respecting the auspices, to your own great misfortune, I hope, rather than to that of the republic. You laid the Roman people under the obligations of religion; you as augurs interrupted an augur; you as consul interrupted a consul by a false declaration concerning the auspices. I will say no more, lest I should seem to be pulling to pieces the acts of Dolabella; which must inevitably sometime or other be brought before our college. |
| 122 |
Quam diu tu voles , vitiosus consul Dolabella ; rursus , cum voles , salvis auspiciis creatus . Si nihil est , cum augur eis verbis nuntiat , quibus tu nuntiasti , confitere te , cum ‘Alio die ’ dixeris , sobrium non fuisse ; sin est aliqua vis in istis verbis , ea quae sit augur a conlega requiro . Sed ne forte ex multis rebus gestis M . Antoni rem unam pulcherrimam transiliat oratio , ad Lupercalia veniamus .
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But take notice of the arrogance and insolence of the fellow. As long as you please, Dolabella is a consul irregularly elected; again, while you please, he is a consul elected with all proper regard to the auspices. If it means nothing when an augur gives this notice in those words in which you gave notice, then confess that you, when you said,—“We adjourn this to another day,”—were not sober. But if those words have any meaning, then I, an augur, demand of my colleague to know what that meaning is. But, lest by any chance, while enumerating his numerous exploits, our speech should pass over the finest action of Marcus Antonius, let us come to the Lupercalia. |
| 123 |
Non dissimulat , patres conscripti : apparet esse commotum ; sudat , pallet . Quidlibet , modo ne nauseet , faciat quod in porticu Minucia fecit . Quae potest esse turpitudinis tantae defensio ? Cupio audire , ut videam ubi rhetoris sit tanta merces , ubi campus Leontinus appareat . Sedebat in rostris conlega tuus amictus toga purpurea , in sella aurea , coronatus . Escendis , accedis ad sellam —ita eras Lupercus ut te consulem esse meminisse deberes —diadema ostendis . Gemitus toto foro . Vnde diadema ? Non enim abiectum sustuleras , sed attuleras domo meditatum et cogitatum scelus . Tu diadema imponebas cum plangore populi ; ille cum plausu reiciebat . Tu ergo unus , scelerate , inventus es qui cum auctor regni esses , eumque quem conlegam habebas dominum habere velles , idem temptares quid populus Romanus ferre et pati posset .
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He does not dissemble, O conscript fathers; it is plain that he is agitated; he perspires; he turns pale. Let him do what he pleases, provided he is not sick, and does not behave as be did in the Minucian colonnade. What defence can be made for such beastly behaviour? I wish to hear, that I may see the fruit of those high wages of that rhetorician, of that land given in Leontini. Your colleague was sitting in the rostra, clothed in purple robe, on a golden chair, wearing a crown. You mount the steps; you approach his chair, (if you were a priest of Pan, you ought to have recollected that you were consul too;) you display a diadem; There is a groan over the whole forum. Where did the diadem come from? For you had not picked it up when lying on the ground, but you had brought it from home with you, a premeditated and deliberately planned wickedness. You placed the diadem on his head amid the groans of the people; he rejected it amid great applause. You then alone, O wicked man, were found both to advise the assumption of kingly power, and to wish to have him for your master who was your colleague and also to try what the Roman people might be able to bear and to endure. |
| 124 |
At etiam misericordiam captabas : supplex te ad pedes abiciebas . Quid petens ? ut servires ? Tibi uni peteres qui ita a puero vixeras ut omnia paterere , ut facile servires ; a nobis populoque Romano mandatum id certe non habebas . O praeclaram illam eloquentiam tuam , cum es nudus contionatus ! Quid hoc turpius , quid foedius , quid suppliciis omnibus dignius ? Num exspectas dum te stimulis fodiamus ? Haec te , si ullam partem habes sensus , lacerat , haec cruentat oratio . Vereor ne imminuam summorum virorum gloriam ; dicam tamen dolore commotus . Quid indignius quam vivere eum qui imposuerit diadema , cum omnes fateantur iure interfectum esse qui abiecerit ?
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Moreover, you even sought to move his pity; you threw yourself at his feet as a suppliant; begging for what? to be a slave? You might beg it for yourself, when you had lived in such a way from the time that you were a boy that you could bear everything, and would find no difficulty in being a slave; but certainly you had no commission from the Roman people to try for such a thing for them. Oh how splendid was that eloquence of yours, when you harangued the people stark naked! what could be more foul than this? more shameful than this? more deserving of every sort of punishment? Are you waiting for me to prick you more? This that I am saying must tear you and bring blood enough if you have any feeling at all. I am afraid that I may be detracting from the glory of some most eminent men. Still my indignation shall find a voice. What can be more scandalous than for that man to live who placed a diadem on a man's head, when every one confesses that that man was deservedly slain who rejected it? |
| 125 |
At etiam ascribi iussit in fastis ad Lupercalia : C . Caesari , dictatori perpetuo , M . Antonium consulem populi iussu regnum detulisse ; Caesarem uti noluisse . Iam iam minime miror te otium perturbare ; non modo urbem odisse sed etiam lucem ; cum perditissimis latronibus non solum de die sed etiam in diem bibere . Vbi enim tu in pace consistes ? qui locus tibi in legibus et in iudiciis esse potest , quae tu , quantum in te fuit , dominatu regio sustulisti ? Ideone L . Tarquinius exactus , Sp . Cassius , Sp . Maelius , M . Manlius necati ut multis post saeculis a M . Antonio , quod fas non est , rex Romae constitueretur ?
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And, moreover, he caused it to be recorded in the annals, under the head of Lupercalia, “That Marcus Antonius, the consul, by command of the people, had offered the kingdom to Caius Caesar, perpetual dictator; and that Caesar had refused to accept it.” I now am not much surprised at your seeking to disturb the general tranquillity; at your hating not only the city but the light of day; and at your living with a pack of abandoned robbers, disregarding the day, and yet regarding nothing beyond the day. For where can you be safe in peace? What place can there be for you where laws and courts of justice have sway, both of which you, as far as in you lay, destroyed by the substitution of kingly power? Was it for this that Lucius Tarquinius was driven out; that Spurius Cassius, and Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were slain; that many years afterwards a king might be established at Rome by Marcus Antonius though the bare idea was impiety? How ever, let us return to the auspices. |
| 126 |
Sed ad auspicia redeamus , de quibus Idibus Martiis fuit in senatu Caesar acturus . Quaero : tum tu quid egisses ? Audiebam equidem te paratum venisse , quod me de ementitis auspiciis , quibus tamen parere necesse erat , putares esse dicturum . Sustulit illum diem fortuna rei publicae . Num etiam tuum de auspiciis iudicium interitus Caesaris sustulit ? Sed incidi in id tempus quod eis rebus in quas ingressa erat oratio praevertendum est . Quae tua fuga , quae formido praeclaro illo die , quae propter conscientiam scelerum desperatio vitae , cum ex illa fuga beneficio eorum qui te , si sanus esses , salvum esse voluerunt , clam te domum recepisti !
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With respect to all the things which Caesar was intending to do in the senate on the ides of March, I ask whether you have done any thing? I heard, indeed, that you had come down prepared, because you thought that I intended to speak about your having made a false statement respecting the auspices, though it was still necessary for us to respect them. The fortune of the Roman people saved us from that day. Did the death of Caesar also put an end to your opinion respecting the auspices? But I have come to mention that occasion which must be allowed to precede those matters which I had begun to discuss. What a flight was that of yours! What alarm was yours on that memorable day! How, from the consciousness of your wickedness, did you despair of your life! How, while flying, were you enabled secretly to get home by the kindness of those men who wished to save you, thinking you would show more sense than you do! |