DCCCXXIV (F X, 27)
TO MARCUS AEMILIUS LEPIDUS (IN
NARBONENSIS)
ROME, 20 MARCH
SINCE from my extreme goodwill to you it is a
matter of much concern to me that you should enjoy
the most splendid political position possible, I
was much vexed that you did not thank the senate,
though you had been complimented by that body with
its highest honours. 1 I am rejoiced that you are desirous of
promoting peace between fellow citizens; but if
you keep it free from servitude you will be acting
in the interests both of the state and of your own
position. But if the peace of which you speak is
to put an unprincipled person once more in
possession of unrestricted tyranny, let me assure
you that all sound-feeling men are resolved to
prefer death to slavery. So in my opinion you will
be acting with more wisdom if you do not commit
yourself to promoting a pacification, which has
the approval of neither senate, nor people, nor
any loyalist. But you will be told this by others
or will be informed of it by letter. Your own good
sense will shew you what is best to be done.
DCCCXXIV A (13 PHIL. §§ 22-46)
M. ANTONIUS TO HIRTIUS AND CAESAR 2 THE
CAMP AT MUTINA (MARCH) THE news of the death of
Gaius Trebonius caused me as much regret as joy.
One cannot help being glad that a
wicked wretch has given satisfaction to the ashes
and bones of a most illustrious man, and that
Divine Providence has manifested its power before
the end of one revolving year in the punishment,
or immediate prospect of the punishment, of
parricide. On the other hand, one cannot repress a
sigh that Dolabella at such a time as this should
be adjudged a public enemy for having killed a
murderer; and that the Roman people should care
more for the son of a mere man-about-town than for
Gaius Caesar. But the most painful thing of all,
Aulus Hirtius, is that you who were ennobled by
the favours of Caesar and left by him in a
position which surprises yourself—and
that you, young sir, who owe everything to his
name—are acting in a way to sanction
Dolabella's condemnation and to release this
pestilent fellow from his state of siege. In
order, I suppose, that Brutus and Cassius may be
all-powerful! The fact is, you regard the present
situation as you did the former, when you used to
speak of Pompey's camp as "the senate." You have
taken Cicero as your leader, who was beaten then;
you are strengthening Macedonia with troops; you
have intrusted Africa to Varus, who had been twice
made a prisoner; you have sent Cassius to Syria;
you have allowed Casca to be tribune; you have
withdrawn the revenue given by Iulius to the
Luperci; 3 you have by decree of the
senate abolished colonies of veterans which were
established by law; you are promising the
Massilians to refund what was taken from them by
the right of war; 4 you give out that no living Pompeian
comes under the lex Hirtia; 5 you have supplied M. Brutus with money
sent by Appuleius; 6 you have commended the executions of
Petrus had a copy of it which he read in the
senate on the 20th of March, when there was a
proposal made to send a second embassy to Antony.
Cicero accompanied it with a running comment of
abuse, meant to shew that it was hopeless to deal
with Antony. It puts forcibly Antony's case, and
therefore I have thought it well to insert it
here. It is extracted from the thirteenth
Philippic. and Menedemus, 7 who were presented with the
citizenship and were beloved by Caesar. You have
taken no notice of the expulsion of Theopompus by
Trebonius and of his flying stripped of everything
to Alexandria; you have Servius Galba in your camp
armed with the self-same dagger. 8 You have got together an army of
soldiers who are either legally mine, or who have
served their time, on the pretext of destroying
the murderers of Caesar, and yet have forced them
contrary to their expectations to assist in
endangering the lives of their own quaestor or
commander or fellow soldiers. In fact what have
you not consented to or done which Gnaeus Pompeius
would do, if he could come to life again, or his
son if he could regain his home? Lastly, you say
that there can be no peace, unless I either allow
Decimus Brutus to march out or supply him with
corn. Do you mean to tell me that this is the
opinion of the veterans who have not yet committed
themselves, even though you have been corrupted by
flattery and insidious gifts to come here? But,
you will say, it is besieged soldiers that you are
attempting to relieve. Them I have no objection to
spare and to allow to go wherever you order them,
on the one condition that they give him 9 up to the death he has
so richly deserved. You say in your letter that
mention has been made in the senate of a
pacification, and that five consulars have been
appointed as legates. It is difficult to believe
that the men who violently repelled me, though I
offered the most equitable terms, and was thinking
nevertheless of mitigating even them, should be
entertaining any thoughts of moderation or be
likely to act with common charity. It is scarcely
likely even that men who have declared Dolabella a
public enemy for a most righteous act should be
capable of sparing us who are at one with him in
heart. Wherefore I would
have you consider which of the two courses is in
the better taste and the more advantageous to your
party—to punish the death of Trebonius
or that of Caesar: and whether it is more right
that we should meet as foes and so allow the
Pompeian cause so often defeated to revive, or
that we should come to terms and so avoid being a
laughing-stock to our enemies, who
will be the gainers whichever of us perishes? Such
a spectacle as this Fortune herself as yet has
shunned. She has not seen, that is, two armies of
the same body politic fighting like gladiators
with Cicero for a trainer, who has been so far
successful as to deceive you both by the same
formal honours by which he has boasted of having
deceived Caesar. 10 For my part I am
resolved not to submit to the degradation of
myself or my friends, nor to desert the party
which Pompey hated, nor to allow the veterans to
be turned out of their homes, nor to be dragged
off one by one to punishment, nor to break the
faith which I pledged to Dolabella, nor to violate
my compact with that devoted patriot Lepidus, nor
to betray Plancus who is a sharer in my policy.
If the immortal gods, as I
hope they will, aid me in my plain and honest
course, I shall survive with satisfaction to
myself; but if a different fate awaits me, I feel
an anticipatory pleasure in the punishment which
will befall you. For if the Pompeians are so
arrogant in defeat, I would rather you than I
should experience what they will be in victory. In
fact the upshot of my decision is this: I am ready
to put up with the injuries done to my party, if
they will either consent to forget that they are
Caesar's assassins, or are prepared to join us in
avenging his death. I cannot believe in legates
approaching a place which is being at the same
time menaced by war. When they have arrived I
shall learn their demands.
ROME, 20 MARCH
