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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
8.
[21]
What peace can there be between Marcus Antonius and (in the first, place) the
senate? with what face will he be able to look upon you, and with what eyes will
you, in turn, look upon him? Which of you does not hate him? which of you does
not he hate? Come, are you the only people who hate him, and whom he hates?
What? what do you think of those men who are besieging Mutina, who are levying
troops in Gaul, who are threatening
your fortunes? will they ever be friends to you, or you to them? will he embrace
the Roman knights? For, suppose their inclinations respecting, and their
opinions of Antonius were very much concealed, when they stood in crowds on the
steps of the temple of Concord, when they stimulated you to endeavor to recover
your liberty, when they demanded arms, the robe of war, and war, and who, with
the Roman people, invited me to meet in the assembly of the people, will these
men ever become friends to Antonius? will Antonius ever maintain peace with
them?
[22]
For why should I speak of the whole
Roman people? which, in a full and crowded forum, twice, with one heart and one
voice, summoned me into the assembly, and plainly showed their excessive
eagerness for the recovery of their liberty. So, desirable as it was before to
have the Roman people for our comrade, we now have it for our leader.
What hope then is there that there ever can be peace between the Roman people and
the men who are besieging Mutina and
attacking a general and army of the Roman people?
[23]
Will there be peace with the municipal towns, whose great
zeal is shown by the decrees which they pass, by the soldiers whom they furnish,
by the sums which they promise, so that in each town there is such a spirit as
leaves no one room to wish for a senate of the Roman people? The men of Firmium
deserve to be praised by a resolution of our order, who set the first example of
promising money; we ought to return a complimentary answer to the Marrucini, who
have passed a vote that all who evade military service are to be branded with
infamy. These measures are adopted all over Italy. There is great peace between Antonius and these men, and
between them and him! What greater discord can there possibly be? And in discord
civil peace can not by any possibility exist.
[24]
To say nothing of the mob, look at Lucius Visidius, a Roman knight, a man of the
very highest accomplishments and honor, a citizen always eminent, whose
watchfulness and exertions for the protection of my life I felt in my
consulship; who not only exhorted his neighbors to become soldiers, but also
assisted them from his own resources; will it be possible ever to reconcile
Antonius to such a man as this, a man whom we ought to praise by a formal
resolution of the senate? What? will it be possible to reconcile him to Caius
Caesar, who prevented him from entering the city, or to Decimus Brutus, who has
refused him entrance into Gaul?
[25]
Moreover, will he reconcile himself to,
or look mercifully on the province of Gaul, by which he has been excluded and rejected? You will see
every thing, O conscript fathers, if you do not take care, full of hatred and
full of discord, from which civil wars arise. Do not then desire that which is
impossible; and beware, I entreat you by the immortal gods, O conscript fathers,
that out of hope of present peace you do not lose perpetual peace.
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