"Now in whatever way these charges have been fabricated, let us examine the order in which they stand. He said that numerous attempts had been made against his life, and he has brought all the methods employed within the limits of a single day. [2] I wanted, he says, to kill him in broad daylight after the lustration when we were engaged in the mimic battle, actually, good heavens! on the very day of the lustration! Then I wanted to take him, forsooth, by poison, after inviting him to supper. [3] Then I wanted to go with a band of revellers armed with hidden swords and kill him with cold steel. You notice what occasions he has selected for the murder-sports, a banquet, a wine party? Why, what was the character of the day? A day on which the army was purified, on which they marched between the two halves of the victim, with the royal arms of all the kings of Macedonia borne before them, we two alone in front by the side of you, my father, and the Macedonian phalanx following. [4] Even though I had previously committed some sin which required expiation, could I, after being purified and absolved in this solemn rite, especially whilst gazing upon the victim which lay on either side our path-could I then be revolving in my mind thoughts of murder, poison, swords? With what other rites could I then have cleansed a mind steeped in uttermost guilt? [5] But in his blind eagerness to launch accusations and throw suspicion on everything I did, he has made one thing contradict another. [6] For if I intended to take you off by poison during the banquet, what could have less served my purpose than to rouse your anger by an obstinately contested fight so as to give you just cause for refusing my invitation? After your angry refusal what should I have done? [7] Was I to make it my business to appease your wrath so as to have another opportunity, now that I had prepared the poison, or should I have, so to speak, leaped from that [8??] plan to another, and in the guise of a boon companion killed you with the sword, and all on the same day? [9] If I had supposed that you kept clear of my supper party for fear of your life, how could I possibly have failed to suppose that the same fear would keep you from the drinking bout which followed?
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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