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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
11.
[27]
You and your colleague, O Dolabella, ought not, indeed, to be angry with me for
speaking in defence of the republic. Although I do not think that you yourself
will be; I know your willingness to listen to reason. They say that your
colleague, in this fortune of his, which he himself thinks so good, but which
would seem to me more favourable if (not to use any harsh language) he were to
imitate the example set him by the consulship of his grandfathers and of his
uncle,—they say that he has been exceedingly offended. And I see what
a formidable thing it is to have the same man angry with me and also armed;
especially at a time when men can use their swords with such impunity. But I
will propose a condition which I myself think reasonable, and which I do not
imagine Marcus Antonius will reject. If I have said anything insulting against
his way of life or against his morals, I will not object to his being my
bitterest enemy. But if I have maintained the same habits that I have already
adopted in the republic,—that is, if I have spoken my opinions
concerning the affairs of the republic with freedom,—in the first
place, I beg that he will not be angry with me for that; but, in the next place,
if I cannot obtain my first request, I beg at least that he will show his anger
only as he legitimately may show it to a fellow-citizen.
Let him employ arms, if it is necessary, as he says it is, for his own defence:
only let not those arms injure those men who have declared their honest
sentiments in the affairs of the republic. Now, what can be more reasonable than
this demand?
[28]
But if, as has been said to me
by some of his intimate friends, every speech which is at all contrary to his
inclination is violently offensive, to him, even if there be no insult in it
whatever; then we will bear with the natural disposition of our friend. But
those men, at the same time, say to me, “You will not have the same
licence granted to you who are the adversary of Caesar as might be claimed by
Piso his father-in-law.”
And then they warn me of something which I must guard against; and certainly,
the excuse which sickness supplies me with, for not coming to the senate, will
not be a more valid one than that which is furnished by death.
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