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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
6.
And I have been speaking of those judges who are known. Those whom you are less
acquainted with I have been unwilling to name. Know then that dancers,
harp-players, the whole troop, in fact, of Antonius's revelers, have all been
pitchforked into the third decury of judges. Now you see the object of passing
so splendid and admirable a law, amidst excessive rain, storm, wind, tempest,
and whirlwind, amidst thunder and lightning; it was that he might have those men
for our judges whom no one would like to have for guests. It is the enormity of
his wickedness, the consciousness of his crimes, the plunder of that money of
which the account was kept in the temple of Ops, which have been the real
inventors of this third decury. And infamous judges were not sought for, till
all hope of safety for the guilty was despaired of, if they came before
respectable ones.
[16]
But what must have been the
impudence, what must have been the iniquity of a man who dared to select those
men as judges, by the selection of whom a double disgrace was stamped on the
republic: one, because the judges were so infamous; the other, because by this
step it was revealed and published to the world how many infamous citizens we
had in the republic? These then, and all other similar laws, I should vote ought
to be annulled, even if they had been passed without violence, and with all
proper respect for the auspices. But now why need I vote that they ought to be
annulled, when I do not consider that they were ever legally passed?
[17]
Is not this, too, to be marked with the deepest ignominy, and with the severest
animadversion of this order, so as to be recollected by all posterity, that
Marcus Antonius. (the first man who has ever done so since the foundation of the
city) has openly taken armed men about with him in this city? A thing which the
kings never did, nor those men who, since the kings have been banished, have
endeavored to seize on kingly power. I can recollect Cinna; I have seen Sulla;
and lately Caesar. For these three men are the only ones since the city was
delivered by Lucius Brutus, who have had more power than the entire republic. I
can not assert that no man in their trains had weapons.
[18]
This I do say, that they had not many, and that they
concealed them. But this post was attended by an army of armed men. Classitius,
Mustela, and Tiro, openly displaying their swords, led troops of fellows like
themselves through the forum. Barbarian archers occupied their regular place in
the army. And when they armed at the temple of Concord, the steps were crowded,
the litters full of shields were arranged; not because he wished the shields to
be concealed, but that his friends might not be fatigued by carrying the shields
themselves.
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