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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
7.
[20]
I come now to the rest of the men of consular rank, of whom there is no one (I
say this on my own responsibility), who is not connected with me in some way or
other by kindnesses conferred or received; some in a great, some in a moderate
degree, but every one to some extent or other. What a disgraceful day was
yesterday to us! to us consulars, I mean. Are we to send ambassadors again?
What? would he make a truce? Before the very face and eyes of the ambassadors he
battered Mutina with his engines. He
displayed his works and his defenses to the ambassadors. The siege was not
allowed one moment's breathing time, not even while the ambassadors should be
present. Send ambassadors to this man! What for? in order to have great fears
for their return?
[21]
In truth, though on the
previous occasion I had voted against the ambassadors being decreed, still I
consoled myself with this reflection, that, when they had returned from Antonius
despised and rejected, and had reported to the senate, not merely that he had
not withdrawn from Gaul, as we had
voted that he should, but that he had not even retired from before Mutina, and that they had not been allowed
to proceed on to Decimus Brutus, all men would be inflamed with hatred and
stimulated by indignation, so that we should reinforce Decimus Brutus with arms,
and horses, and men. But we have become even more languid since we have become
acquainted with, not only the audacity and wickedness of Antonius, but also with
his insolence and pride.
[22]
Would that Lucius
Caesar were in health; that Servius. Sulpicius were alive. This cause would be
pleaded much better by three men, than it is now by me single-handed. What I am
going to say I say with grief, rather than by way of insult. We have been
deserted—we have, I say, been deserted, O conscript fathers, by our
chiefs. But, as I have often said before, all those who in a time of such danger
have proper and courageous sentiments shall be men of consular rank. The
ambassadors ought to have brought us back courage, they have brought us back
fear. Not, indeed, that they have caused me any fear: let them have as high an
opinion as they please of the man to whom they were sent; from whom they have
even brought back commands to us.
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