Civil Wars

"We raised Cæsar to his high place, serving him in war in conjunction with you and holding commands under him. We continued his friends so long that no one could imagine that we conspired against him on account of any private grudge. It was in time of peace that he sinned, not against us, his friends (for we were honored before others by him), but against the laws, against the order of the commonwealth. There was no longer any law supreme, either aristocratic or plebeian, nor any of the institutions that our fathers established when they expelled the kings and swore never to tolerate royal government again. We, descendants of the men who thus swore, sustained that oath and warded off the curse from ourselves. We could no longer endure that one man, although he was our friend and benefactor, should take from the people and vest in himself the control of the public money, the armies, and the elections, and from the Senate the appointment of governors of the provinces; that his will should take the place of the laws, his rule should supplant that of the people, and his supremacy that of the Senate in everything.

"Perhaps you did not understand these matters particularly, but saw only his bravery in war. Yet you may easily learn about them now by observing only the part that concerns yourselves. You, of the common people, when you go to the wars, obey your generals as masters in everything. But in time of peace you resume the mastery over us. The Senate deliberates first, in order that you may not make a slip, but you decide for yourselves; you give your votes by tribes, or by centuries; you choose the consuls, the tribunes, the prætors. In the comitia you pass judgment on the weightiest questions, and you decide rewards and punishments when we have deserved rewards or punishments at your hands. This balance of powers, O citizens, has raised the empire to the summit of fortune and conferred honors upon those worthy of them, and the men thus honored have returned thanks to you. By virtue of this power you made Scipio consul when you bore testimony to his deeds in Africa, and you elected whom you pleased each year as tribunes, to oppose us in your interest if necessary. But why should I repeat so many things that you already know?

"From the time when Cæsar's domination began you no longer elected any magistrate, either prætor, or consul, or tribune. Nor did you bear testimony to anybody's deeds, nor, if you had done so, could you have rewarded them. In a word, nobody owed you any thanks either for a magistracy or a governorship, either for approving his accounts or acquitting him on a trial. Most lamentable of all, you could not defend your tribunes against insult, whom you had constituted your own peculiar and perpetual magistracy, and had made sacred and inviolable. Yet you saw these inviolable men despoiled with contumely of this inviolable office, and of their sacred vestments, without trial, at the order of one man, because in your behalf they saw fit to proceed against certain persons who wished to proclaim him as king. The senators were deeply grieved at this on your account, for the office of tribune is yours, not theirs. But they were not able to censure this man openly or to bring him to trial by reason of the strength of the armies, which, although heretofore belonging to the republic, he had made his own. So they adopted the only remaining method to ward off tyranny, and that was to conspire against the person of the tyrant.

"It was necessary that the decision should be that of the best men, but that the deed should be done by a few. When it was done the Senate voiced the general approval clearly by proposing rewards to the tyrannicides. Antony restrained them from doing so on the pretext that it would lead to disorder; nor was it our intention to confer this benefit upon Rome for the sake of reward, but solely for the sake of the country. Accordingly the senators refrained, not wishing to insult Cæsar, but only to get rid of the tyranny. So they voted amnesty for all, and it was more particularly decreed that there should be no prosecution for the murder. After a little, when Antony excited the mob against us, the Senate gave us command of the largest provinces and armies, and ordered all the countries between Syria and the Adriatic to obey us. In so doing did they punish us as monsters, or did they rather distinguish us as tyrannicides with the royal purple and with the rods and axes? For like reason the Senate recalled from exile the younger Pompeius (who was not concerned in this conspiracy), because he was the only son of Pompey the Great, who first took up arms to defend the republic, and because the young man had made some little opposition in a private way to the tyranny in Spain. It passed a decree also to pay back to him, out of the public funds, the value of his father's property, and it appointed him admiral in order that he also might hold a command because he was on the side of the republic. What more could you ask of the Senate by way of deed or of sign to show that everything was done with their approval, unless that they should declare it to you in so many words? But they will do and say this very thing, and saying it they will repay you with magnificent gifts, when they are able to speak and to requite your services.

"What their present situation is you know. They have been proscribed without trial, and their property confiscated. Without being condemned, they have been put to death in their houses, in the streets, in temples, by soldiers, by slaves, by personal enemies. They have been dragged out of their hiding-places and pursued everywhere, although the laws allow anybody to go into voluntary exile. In the forum, where the head of an enemy was never carried, but only captured arms and the beaks of ships, the heads of those who were lately consuls, prætors, tribunes, ædiles, and knights have been exhibited. Rewards have been assigned for these horrors. This is a breaking out of all the wounds that had been previously healed over, -- sudden seizures of men, and all kinds of infamy perpetrated by wives and sons, freedmen and slaves. Into so desperate a plight and such conditions has the city now been plunged. At the head of all these villains are the triumvirs, who proscribe their own brothers and uncles and tutors first of all. It is said that the city was once captured by the most savage barbarians, but the Gauls never cut off any heads, they never insulted the dead, they never begrudged their enemies a chance to hide or fly. Nor did we ever treat in this way any city that we had captured in war, nor did we ever hear of others doing so. Moreover, it is no ordinary city, but the mistress of the world, that is thus wronged by those who have been chosen to set in order and regulate the republic. What did Tarquin ever do like this, -- Tarquin, whom our ancestors hurled from the throne for an outrage committed upon one woman under the influence of the amatory passion, and then, for that one act, they resolved to be ruled by kings no longer?

"While the triumvirs are committing these outrages, O citizens, they call us infamous wretches. They say they are avenging Cæsar when they proscribe men who were not in Rome when he was killed. Very many of these are here, as you see, who have been proscribed on account of their wealth, their family, or their preferences for republican government. For this reason Pompeius was proscribed with us, although he was far away in Spain when we did the deed. Because he was the son of a republican father (for which reason also he was recalled by the Senate and made commander of the sea), he was proscribed by the triumvirs. What part have those women had in the conspiracy against Cæsar, who have been condemned to pay tribute? What part have those plebeians had, whose property is worth 100,000 drachmas each, upon whom new taxes and contributions have been imposed, which they have been ordered to pay under penalty of being informed against and fined? And even while levying these exactions the triumvirs have not fully paid the sums promised to their troops, while we, who have done nothing contrary to justice, have given you all that we promised and have other funds ready for still larger rewards. So it comes about that the gods favor us because we do what is just.

"Besides the favor of the gods you can see that we have that of mankind by looking at these, your fellow-citizens, whom you have often beheld as your generals and your consuls, and who have won your praises as such. You see that they have had recourse to us as to men doing right and defending the republic. They espouse our cause, they offer up their prayers, and they coöperate with us for what still remains to be done. Far more just are the rewards we have offered to those who rescue them than those which the triumvirs offer for killing them. The triumvirs know that we, who killed Cæsar because he assumed the monarchy, would not tolerate them in assuming his power and that we would not assume it ourselves, but that we would restore to the people in common the government as we received it from our ancestors. So you see the two sides have not taken up arms for the same reason, -- the enemy aiming at monarchy and despotism, as their proscription already proves, while we seek nothing but the mere privilege of living as private citizens under the laws of our country made once more free. Naturally the men before you espouse our side as the gods had done previously. In war the greatest hope lies in the justice of one's cause.

"Let it give no one any concern that he has been one of Cæsar's soldiers. We were not his soldiers then, but our country's. The pay and the rewards given were not Cæsar's, but the republic's. For the same reason you are not now the soldiers of Cassius, or of Brutus, but of Rome. We, Roman generals, are your fellow-soldiers. If our enemies were of the same spirit with ourselves it would be possible for all to lay down their arms without danger, and give back all the armies to the commonwealth, and let it choose its own destiny. If they will accept such terms, we challenge them to do so. Since they will not (for they could not, on account of the proscription and the other things they have done), let us go forward, fellow-soldiers, with unwavering confidence and honest zeal, fighting only for the freedom of the Senate and people of Rome."