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12.
[30]
What will he do in his passion, if ever he has the power, who, when he is not
able to show his anger against any one, has been the enemy of all good men? What
will he not dare to do when victorious, who, without having gained any victory,
has committed such crimes as these since the death of Caesar? has emptied his
well-filled house? has pillaged his gardens? has transferred to his own mansion
all their ornaments? has sought to make his death a pretext for slaughter and
conflagration? who, while he has carried two or three resolutions of the senate
which have been advantageous to the republic, has made every thing else
subservient to his own acquisition of gain and plunder? who has put up
exemptions and annuities to sale? who has released cities from obligations? who
has removed whole provinces from subjection to the Roman empire? who has
restored exiles? who has passed forged laws in the name of Caesar, and has
continued to have forged decrees engraved on brass and fixed up in the Capitol,
and has set up in his own house a domestic market for all things of that sort?
who has imposed laws on the Roman people? and who, with armed troops and guards,
has excluded both the people and the magistrates from the forum? who has filled
the senate with armed men? and has introduced armed men into the temple of
Concord when he was holding a senate there? who ran down to Brundusium to meet the legions, and
then murdered all the centurions in them who were well affected to the republic?
who endeavored to come to Rome with
his army to accomplish our massacre and the utter destruction of the city?
[31]
And he, now that he has been prevented from
succeeding in this attempt by the wisdom and forces of Caesar, and the unanimity
of the veterans, and the valor of the legions, even now that his fortunes are
desperate, does not diminish his audacity, nor, mad that he is, does he cease
proceeding in his headlong career of fury. He is leading his mutilated army into
Gaul; with one legion, and that too
wavering in its fidelity to him, he is waiting for his brother Lucius, as he can
not find any one more nearly like himself than him. But now what slaughter is
this man, who has thus become a captain instead of a matador, a general instead
of a gladiator, making, wherever he sets his foot! He destroys stores, he slays
the flocks and herds, and all the cattle, wherever he finds them; his soldiers
revel in their spoil; and he himself, in order to irritate his brother, drowns
himself in wine. Fields are laid waste; villas are plundered; matrons, virgins,
well-horn boys are carried off and given up to the soldiery; and Marcus Antonius
has done exactly the same wherever he has led his army.
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