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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
[9]
While, then, the motives for war are so different, a most miserable circumstance
is what that fellow promises to his band of robbers. In the first place our
houses; for he declares that he will divide the city among them; and after that
he will lead them out at whatever gate and settle them on whatever lands they
please. All the Caphons,1 all the Saxas, and the other plagues which
attend Antonius, are marking out for themselves in their own minds most
beautiful houses, and gardens, and villas, at Tusculum and Alba; and those clownish men—if indeed
they are men, and not rather brute beasts—are borne on in their empty
hopes as far as the waters and Puteoli. So Antonius has something to promise to his followers.
What can we do? Have we any thing of the sort? May the gods grant us a better
fate! for our express object is to prevent any one at all from hereafter making
similar promises. I say this against my will, still I must say it;—the
auction sanctioned by Caesar, O conscript fathers, gives many wicked men both
hope and audacity. For they saw some men become suddenly rich from having been
beggars. Therefore, those men who are hanging over our property, and to whom
Antonius promises everything, are always longing to see an auction.
1 These were the names of officers devoted to Antonius.
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