[11]
When he heard that men had taken arms by the authority of the senate, acting
with great unanimity; that the defence of the republic had been entrusted to
the consuls, the praetors, the tribunes of the people, and to all of us who
had received the title of Imperator, he was
agitated in his mind, and being a man most deeply attached to this empire,
he became alarmed for the safety of the Roman people, in which also he
considered that his own was bound up. And being in a state of the greatest
alarm, he thought it best to remain quiet himself. But he was beyond measure
agitated when he heard that the consuls had fled from Italy, and all the men
of consular rank (for so it was reported) with them, and all the senate, and
that the whole of Italy was emptied. For the road was wide open for all such
messengers and reports to travel to the East, and no true accounts followed.
He never heard a word of the conditions which you offered, nor of your
eagerness for concord and peace, nor of the way in which certain men
conspired against your dignity. And though this was the state of things,
still he continued quiet until ambassadors and letters came to him from
Cnaeus Pompeius.
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