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[30]
However, remark the stupidity of this fellow,—I should rather say, of
this brute beast. For thus he spoke:—“Marcus Brutus, whom I
name to do him honour, holding aloft his bloody dagger, called upon Cicero, from
which it must be understood that he was privy to the action.” Am I
then called wicked by you because you suspect that I suspected something; and is
he who openly displayed his reeking dagger; named by you that you may do him
honour? Be it so. Let this stupidity exist in your language: how much greater is
it in your actions and opinions? Arrange matters in this way at last, O consul;
pronounce the cause of the Bruti, of Caius Cassius, of Cnaeus Domitius, of Caius
Trebonius and the rest to be whatever you please to call it: sleep off that
intoxication of yours, sleep it off and take breath. Must one apply a torch to
you to waken you while you are sleeping over such an important affair? Will you
never understand that you have to decide whether those men who performed that
action are homicides or assertors of freedom?
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