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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
4.
[11]
What? when you distinguished with the highest praises Brutus, a man born under
some omen, as it were, of his race and name, for the deliverance of the
republic, and his army which was waging war against Antonius on behalf of the
liberty of the Roman people, and the most loyal and admirable province of
Gaul, did you not then pronounce
Antonius an enemy? What? when you decreed that the consuls, one or both of them,
should go to the war, what war was there if Antonius was not an enemy?
[12]
Why then was it that most gallant man, my
own colleague and intimate friend, Aulus Hirtius the consul, has set out? And in
what delicate health he is; how wasted away! But the weak state of his body
could not repress the vigor of his mind. He thought it fair, I suppose, to
expose to danger in defense of the Roman people that life which had been
preserved to him by their prayers.
[13]
What? when
you ordered levies of troops to be made throughout all Italy, when you suspended all exemptions from
service, was he not by those steps declared to be an enemy? You see
manufactories of arms in the city; soldiers, sword in hand, are following the
consul; they are in appearance a guard to the consul, but in fact and reality to
us; all men are giving in their names, not only without any shirking, but with
the greatest eagerness; they are acting in obedience to your authority. Has not
Antonius been declared an enemy by such acts?
[14]
“Oh, but we have sent ambassadors to him.” Alas, wretched
that I am! why am I compelled to find fault with the senate whom I have always
praised? Why? Do you think, O conscript fathers that you have induced the Roman
people to approve of the sending ambassadors? Do you not perceive, do you not
hear that the adoption of my opinion is demanded by them? that opinion which
you, in a full house, agreed to the day before, though the day after you allowed
yourselves to be brought down to a groundless hope of peace. Moreover, how
shameful it is for the legions to send out ambassadors to the senate, and the
senate to Antonius! Although that is not an embassy; it is a denunciation that
destruction is prepared for him if he does not submit to this order. What is the
difference? At all events, men's opinions are unfavorable to the measure; for
all men see that ambassadors have been sent, but it is not all who are
acquainted with the terms of your decree.
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