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30.
[75]
After some time he at last went into Spain; but, as he says, he could not arrive there in safety.
How then did Dolabella manage to arrive there? Either, O Antonius, that cause
ought never to have been undertaken, or when you had undertaken it, it should
have been maintained to the end. Thrice did Caesar fight against his
fellow-citizens; in Thessaly, in
Africa, and in Spain. Dolabella was present at all these
battles. In the battle in Spain he even
received a wound. If you ask my opinion, I wish he had not been there. But
still, if his design at first was blamable, his consistency and firmness were
praiseworthy. But what shall we say of you? In the first place, the children of
Cnaeus Pompeius sought to be restored to their country. Well, this concerned the
common interests of the whole party. Besides that, they sought to recover their
household gods, the gods of their country, their altars, their hearths, the
tutelar gods of their family; all of which you had seized upon. And when they
sought to recover those things by force of arms which belonged to them by the
laws, who was it most natural—(although in unjust and unnatural
proceedings what can there be that is natural?)—still, who was it most
natural to expect would fight against the children of Cnaeus Pompeius? Who? Why,
you who had bought their property.
[76]
Were you
at Narbo to be sick over the tables of
your entertainers while Dolabella was fighting your battles in Spain?
And what return was that of yours from Narbo? He even asked why I had returned so suddenly from my
expedition. I have just briefly explained to you, O conscript fathers, the
reason of my return. I was desirous, if I could, to be of service to the
republic even before the first of January. For, as to your question, how I had
returned in the first place, I returned by daylight, not in the dark, in the
second place, I returned in shoes, and in my Roman gown, not in any Gallic
slippers, or barbarian mantle. And even now you keep looking at me; and, as it
seems, with great anger. Surely you would be reconciled to me if you knew how
ashamed I am of your worthlessness, which you yourself are not ashamed of. Of
all the profligate conduct of all the world, I never saw, I never heard of any
more shameful than yours. You, who fancied yourself a master of the horse, when
you were standing for, or I should rather say begging for, the consulship for
the ensuing year, ran in Gallic slippers and a barbarian mantle about the
municipal towns and colonies of Gaul,
from which we used to demand the consulship when the consulship was stood for
and not begged for.
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