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[23]
Why then should we be displeased that the army of Marcus Brutus is thrown into
the scale to assist us in overwhelming these pests of the commonwealth? It is
the army, I suppose, of an intemperate and turbulent man. I am more afraid of
his being too patient; although in all the counsels and actions of that man
there never has been any thing either too much or too little. The whole
inclinations of Marcus Brutus, O conscript fathers, the whole of his thoughts,
the whole of his ideas, are directed toward the authority of the senate and the
freedom of the Roman people. These are the objects which he proposes to himself;
these are what he desires to uphold. He has tried what he could do by patience;
as he did nothing, he has thought it necessary to encounter force by force. And,
O conscript fathers, you ought at this time to grant him the same honors which
on the nineteenth of December you conferred by my advice on Decimus Brutus and
Caius Caesar, whose designs and conduct in regard to the republic, while they
also were but private individuals, was approved of and praised by your
authority.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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