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15.
‘“You have the defeated Cicero for your
general.”’
I am the more glad to hear that word “general,” because he
certainly uses it against his will; for as for his saying
“defeated,” I do not mind that; for it is my fate that I can
neither be victorious nor defeated without the republic being so at the same
time.
‘“You are fortifying Macedonia with armies.”’
Yes, indeed, and we have wrested one from your brother, who does not in the least
degenerate from you.
‘“You have entrusted Africa to Varus, who has been twice taken
prisoner.”’
Here he thinks that he is making out a case against his own brother Lucius.
[31]
‘“You have sent Capius into Syria.”’
Do you not see then, O Antonius, that the whole would is open to our party, but
that you have no spot, out of your own fortifications, where you can set your
foot?
‘“You have allowed Casca to discharge the office
of tribune.”’ What then? Were we to remove a man, as if he had
been Marallus1 or Caesetius, to
whom we own it, that this and many other things like this can never happen for
the future? ‘“You have taken away from the
Luperci the revenues which Julius Caesar assigned to them.”’
Does he dare to make mention of the Luperci? Does her not shudder at the
recollection of that day on which, smelling of wine, reeking with perfumes, and
naked, he dared to exhort the indignant Roman people to embrace slavery?
‘“You, by a resolution of the senate, have
removed the colonies of the veterans which had been legally
settled.”’
Have we removed them, or have we rather ratified a law which was passed in the
comitia centuriata? See, rather, whether it is
not you who have ruined these veterans (those at least who are ruined), and
settled them in a place from which they themselves now feel that they shall
never he able to make their escape.
[32]
‘“You are promising to restore to the people of
Marseilles what has been taken
from them by the laws of war.”’
I am not going to discuss the laws of war. It is a discussion far more easy to
begin than necessary. But take notice of this, O conscript fathers, what a born
enemy to the republic Antonius is, who is so violent in his hatred of that city
which he knows to have been at all times most firmly attached to this republic.
1 These two were tribunes of the people, who had been dispossessed of their offices by Julius Caesar.
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