This speech was delivered against Marcus Antonius, in September 44 B.C.
The translation is by W.C.A. Ker (1926). Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. Click on ** to go to the translator's footnotes.
[1.] L [1] Before I make those remarks, conscript fathers, on public affairs which I think should be made at this time, I will explain briefly the reason both of my departure and of my return. While I hoped that the Commonwealth had at length again submitted itself to your judgment and authority, I determined that, as consular and as Senator, I was bound to remain as it were on guard. Indeed I neither departed anywhere nor diverted my eye from public affairs from the day when we were convened in the Temple of Tellus. In that temple I laid, to the best of my power, the foundations of peace, and recalled the old precedent of the Athenians ; I even adopted the Greek phrase ** which that State employed in mitigation of discord, and proposed that every memory of discord should be blotted out in everlasting oblivion. [2] The speech Marcus Antonius made that day was a noble one; his good will too was conspicuous; in a word, it was through him and his sons that peace was established with our most illustrious citizens.
And with these beginnings the sequel agreed. To the deliberations he held at his house on public affairs he invited the chief men of the State; to this our body he made the most favourable reports ; nothing then but what was known to all men was being found in Caius Caesar's note-books; with the greatest decision he replied to the questions put to him. [3] Were any exiles recalled? One, ** he said; beyond the one, nobody. Were any exemptions from taxation given? None, he replied. He even wished us to assent to the motion of Servius Sulpicius, a man of great distinction, that from the Ides of March no notice of any decree or grant of Caesar's should be posted. Much, and that excellent, I pass over, for there is one particular act of Marcus Antonius which I must mention at once. The dictatorship, which had already usurped the might of regal authority, he abolished utterly out of the State; about that we did not even debate. He brought in draft the decree he wished passed, and when this was read we followed his recommendation with the greatest enthusiasm, and passed him a vote of thanks in the most complimentary terms.
[2.] L [4] It seemed almost as if light had been shed upon us, now there had been removed, not merely despotism - that we had endured - but also the dread of despotism ; and a great assurance had been given by him to the State of his wish that it should be free, in that he had utterly abolished the title of dictator - an office often established by law - on account of men's recollection of the perpetual dictatorship. [5] A few days after, the Senate was relieved from the peril of proscription; the fugitive slave who had usurped the name of Marius was executed. And all these things were done jointly with his colleague; other things afterwards were Dolabella's own acts, yet I believe that, had not Dolabella's colleague been absent, they would have been the joint acts of the two. For when an illimitable evil was creeping into the State, and spreading day by day more widely, and when the same men were building an altar ** in the forum who had carried out that burial that was no burial ** and when daily more and more scoundrels, together with slaves like themselves, were threatening the dwellings and temples of the city, so signal was the punishment Dolabella inflicted not only on audacious and rascally slaves, but also on debauched and wicked freemen, and so prompt was his upsetting of that accursed column, that it seems to me marvellous how greatly the time that followed differed from that one day.
[6] For look you: on the Kalends of June, on which they had summoned us to sit, all was changed: nothing was done through the Senate, much - and that important - was done through the people, and in the absence of the people and against its will. The consuls elect said they dared not come into the Senate; the liberators of their country were exiles from the city from whose neck they had struck off the yoke of slavery, while none the less the consuls themselves, both in public meetings and in common talk, were passing eulogies upon them. Those that claimed the name of veterans, for whom this our body had been most carefully solicitous, were being incited, not to preserve what they already possessed, but to hope for new plunder. As I preferred to hear of these things rather than to see them, and held an honorary commission as legate, I departed with the intention of being at home on the Kalends of January, which seemed the first likely date for a meeting of the Senate.
[3.] L [7] I have set forth, conscript fathers, the reason for my departure: now I will briefly set forth the reason for my return - which has created more surprise. Having - not without cause - avoided Brundisium, ** and the ordinary route into Greece, I came on the Kalends of Sextilis {1 August} to Syracuse, since the passage from that city to Greece was well spoken of; and yet that city, though allied to me by the closest ties, could not, though it wished to do so, detain me longer than one night. I feared that my sudden arrival among my friends might cause some suspicion had I stayed. Now the wind having carried me from Sicily to Leucopetra, a promontory of the district of Rhegium, I embarked from that place to cross over; but I had not proceeded so very far when I was blown back to the very place from which I had embarked. [8] It was the dead of the night, and I stayed at the villa of Publius Valerius, an ally and friend of mine; and on the next day, while I remained in the same friend's house waiting for a wind, several townsmen of Rhegium came to me, among them some recently from Rome, from whom I first heard of Marcus Antonius' harangue ; and this so pleased me that, when I had read it, I first began to think of return. And not so long after, the edict of Brutus and Cassius arrived, which - perhaps because I esteem them even more on public grounds than because of private friendship - seemed indeed to me abounding in equity. The messengers added besides - for it often happens that those who wish to bring good news invent somewhat to make their message more welcome - that an agreement would be come to; that on the Kalends there would be a full sitting of the Senate: that Antonius would discard his evil advisers, would resign the Gallic provinces, and return to allegiance to the Senate.
[4.] L [9] Then truly I was fired with such eagerness to return that no oars, no winds were swift enough for me; not that I thought I should not arrive in time; but that my eagerness to congratulate the State might suffer no delay. And then, after a rapid passage to Velia, I saw Brutus - with what sorrow on my part I do not say. To me personally it seemed disgraceful that I should dare to return to that city whence Brutus was departing, and be willing to exist there in safety where he was unable to be. But indeed I did not find him disturbed as I was myself. For, uplifted by the consciousness of his supreme and most noble deed, ** he made no complaint of his own lot, but much of yours. [10] And from him I first learned what had been Lucius Piso's speech in the Senate on the Kalends of Sextilis. Although he had been little supported - this very fact I had heard from Brutus - by those from whom support was due, yet by the testimony of Brutus - and what can be more weighty than that ? - and according to the report of all whom I afterwards saw, he appeared to me to have achieved great glory. I hastened, therefore, to support him whom those present did not support - not that I could do any good: I did not expect that, nor was I able to do any - but in order, if anything that may befall humanity had happened to me - and much seems to be impending even beyond the course of nature and that of destiny ** - I might leave my voice this day as a witness to the State of my undying good will towards it.
[11] As I trust I have made good to you, conscript fathers, the reason for the two courses I took, I will now, before I begin to speak on public affairs, make a brief complaint of the wrong done me yesterday by Antonius, whose friend I am and, because of certain good offices ** I owe him, have ever so professed myself.
[5.] L What, I ask you, was the reason why I was in such bitter terms forced into the Senate yesterday ? Was I alone absent? or have you not often been in less number? or was the point at issue such that even sick men should have been carried here? Hannibal, I fancy, was at the gates, or a peace with Pyrrhus was at issue, and to that debate history informs us that even Appius was carried when both blind and old. [12] The question in debate was a public thanksgiving, and in such a kind of discussion there is as a rule no lack of Senators. For they are forced to attend, not by securities, ** but by good-will towards those whose honours are being discussed, and the same thing happens when a triumph is in question. The consuls are so relieved from anxiety that it is almost free to a Senator not to attend. As the practice was known to me, and since I was fatigued after my journey, and indisposed, I sent in a friendly way to inform him of this fact. But he, in your hearing, said he would come to my house with house-breakers - a very angry threat indeed and extremely intemperate. For what offence is there entailing a punishment so severe that he could dare to say in the presence of this body that he would demolish by State workmen a house built at public expense by a decree of the Senate? ** Who ever by so great a penalty put force upon a Senator? or what penalty is there beyond forfeiture of securities or a fine? But had he known what opinion I was likely to express he would assuredly have relaxed somewhat of the vigour of his enforcement.
[6.] L [13] Do you think, conscript fathers, that I would have supported the decree you unwillingly passed, that a sacrifice in honour of the dead should be confused with thanksgivings? that religious taints incapable of expiation should be introduced into the State? that thanksgivings should be decreed in honour of a dead man? I say not of whom. Let that man be the Brutus who in his own person delivered the State from regal despotism and who well-nigh for five hundred years has left descendants to show similar virtue and to achieve a similar deed ; yet I could not have been induced to associate any dead man with the religion of the Immortal Gods so that a public thanksgiving should be made for him while a tomb existed anywhere at which offerings could be made. ** No! I would have given such a vote as would enable me easily to justify myself to the Roman people if any more serious calamity had happened to the State, war, pestilence, famine - calamities which already exist in part, and in part are, I fear, impending. But for this I pray the Gods may grant their pardon, both to the people which disapproves and to this our body that decreed it unwillingly.
[14] But to resume. Am I permitted to speak of the remaining ills of the State? I permit, and shall always permit, myself to protect my reputation, to despise death. Only let me have the power of coming into this place, the peril of speaking I do not shrink from. And would I had been able, conscript fathers, to be present on the Kalends of Sextilis! Not that anything could have been effected, but in order that not one consular only - as happened then - might have been found worthy of the honour he held, worthy of the State. It is indeed from this circumstance springs my great grief, that men who had enjoyed the most ample favours of the Roman people did not support Lucius Piso, the mover of a most excellent proposal. Was it for that the Roman people made us consuls, that we, placed on the highest grade of rank, should regard the State as of no account? Not one single consular seconded Lucius Piso by his voice: no, not even by a look. [15] What, the plague upon it! is the meaning of this voluntary slavery? Inevitable I grant it sometimes may be; nor am I making this claim on all those that speak as consulars. The case of those whose silence I pardon is one thing: that of those whose voices I call for is another; and I do regret that these last fall under the suspicion of the Roman people, not only because of fear - which in itself would be base - but because they have fallen short - some for one reason, some for another - of what their rank requires.
[7.] L Accordingly, first of all I express and entertain the deepest gratitude to Piso, who did not think of what he could accomplish in the State, but of what he himself was bound to do. Next I ask of you, conscript fathers, even although you will not venture to support what I say and advise, yet to hear me with kindness, as hitherto you have done.
[16] First of all, then, I think the acts of Caesar should be recognised; not that I approve them - for who indeed can do that ? - but because I hold that special regard should be paid to peace and quiet. I would that Marcus Antonius were present, without his backers, however. But I suppose he is allowed to be unwell; a privilege he did not allow me yesterday. He would explain to me, or rather to you, conscript fathers, how he himself defended Caesar's acts. Is it as contained in small note-books and memoranda, and papers, produced on his single authority, and not even produced, but only quoted, that the acts of Caesar are to be ratified ; and those that Caesar engraved on brass, on which he wished the commands and permanent laws of the Roman people to be preserved - shall these go for nothing? [17] As for myself, I think that nothing can be so entirely part of the acts of Caesar as the laws of Caesar. If he made a promise to any man, shall that be unchangeable which that same Caesar had not the power to fulfil? He made many promises to many men and did not fulfil them; and yet, now that he is dead, promises have been discovered far more numerous than the benefits conferred and given by him during all the years he was alive.
But I am not changing, not disturbing these: with the greatest eagerness I defend his noble acts. Would that the money remained in the Temple of Ops! Blood-stained it was, no doubt, but to-day, as it cannot be restored to its owners, absolutely needed. However, let its squandering pass, if it was prescribed in the acts. [18] Is there anything that can be called so peculiarly the act of the man who, although a civilian in the State, was invested with power both military and civil, as a law? Enquire of the acts of Gracchus: the Sempronian laws will be brought forward; enquire of the acts of Sulla: the Cornelian. Again: the third consulship of Pompeius - of what acts was that made up? Of course of his laws. If you were to enquire of Caesar himself what were his acts in the city and as a civilian, he would reply that he had introduced many excellent laws; but his memoranda he would either alter, or would not produce, or if he had produced them he would not regard them as among his acts. But these points I concede: at some I even connive; but in respect of the most important things, that is, his laws, I think it intolerable the acts of Caesar should be rescinded.
[8.] L [19] What better law was there, what more useful, what more often demanded in the best period of the republic, than that the praetorian provinces should not be held longer than a year, nor consular longer than two years? If this law be done away with, do you imagine that Caesar's acts can be preserved? Again: are not all Caesar's judicature laws ** rescinded by the bill touching the third jury-panel which has been advertised? And do you defend the acts of Caesar, you that upset his laws? Unless perhaps if he put down anything in a note-book to assist his memory, that will be counted among his acts, and - however unfair and useless it may be - will be defended, but what he proposed to the people at the comitia centuriata will not be regarded as among the acts of Caesar.
[20] But what is that third panel? "Of centurions," he says. What? were not judicial functions open to that class by the Julian law, also before that by the Pompeian, by the Aurelian? "A property qualification was prescribed," he says. But not for a centurion alone, also for a Roman knight; accordingly men of the greatest valour and integrity who have been in command still act as judges and have hitherto acted. "Those are not the men I am looking for," he says: "let every one that has been in command act as judge." But if you were to propose that every one who had served as a knight - a higher qualification - should act as judge, you would convince nobody; for in the case of a judge both fortune and worth ought to be looked to. "I am not asking for such qualifications," he says; "I even add as judges privates of the legion of The Larks; ** for otherwise our adherents say they cannot be safe," What an insulting honour for those whom to their surprise you summon to the judgment seat! For the meaning of the law is this, that those should be judges on the third panel who dare not judge with independence. And here what a blunder, ye Immortal Gods! have the devisers of this law committed! For the more discreditable any man's reputation shall be, so the more readily will he wipe off his discredit by severity of decision, and will strive to appear to be worthy of inclusion in honest panels rather than as rightly flung into a disgraceful one.
[9.] L [21] A second law has been advertised, that persons convicted of riot and treason should appeal to the people if they will. I ask you, is this a law or a rescission of all laws? For who is there to-day concerned that that law should remain? There is no one now accused under those laws, ** no one we think is likely to be; for things done by men in arms wil doubtless never be brought into court. "But the proposal is a popular one." Would to Heaven you contemplated something that is popular! For all citizens are now agreed in mind and voice about the safety of the State. What means then that eagerness of yours to propose a law which involves the greatest disgrace and no gratitude? For what can be more disgraceful than that a man who has by violence committed treason against the Roman people, and been convicted, should then resort to that very violence for which he was by law convicted? [22] But why do I argue any more about the law ? As if forsooth its object were appeal! its object, and your proposal, is that no one at all should ever be accused under those laws. For who - if he be prosecutor - will be found so mad as to be willing by the conviction of an accused to expose himself to a hired crowd? or - if he be juryman - as to dare to convict an accused man at the price of being himself at once haled before a gang of suborned labourers?
No! it is not an appeal that is granted by that law: rather are two very salutary laws and courts abolished. What else is this than to urge young men to be turbulent, seditious, pernicious citizens? And to what ruinous lengths may not the frenzy of tribunes be impelled when these two courts as to riot and treason have been abolished? [23] And what of this, that those laws of Caesar's are in part altered which declare that he who is convicted of riot, and also he who is convicted of treason, shall be refused water and fire? when an appeal is given to such men, are not the acts of Caesar annulled? Those acts indeed, conscript fathers, though I never approved them, I have thought should be so carefully maintained for the sake of peace that I disagreed with the annulment of his laws, not only of those he had proposed in his lifetime, but even of those which you see brought forward and posted after Caesar's death.
[10.] L [24] Men have been brought back from exile by a dead man; citizenship has been given, not only to individuals, but to whole tribes and provinces by a dead man ; ** by boundless exemptions revenues have been done away with by a dead man. So then these proposals, produced from his house on the authority - excellent no doubt - of a single man, we defend ; those laws which Caesar himself in our presence read, published and proposed, and in the proposal of which he exulted, and in which he thought the safety of the State was involved, laws concerning provinces, concerning courts - those laws of Caesar, I say, do we, who defend Caesar's acts, think should be upset? [25] And yet of those which were published we can at least complain: concerning those that are said to have been already passed we have not had even that power; for they were passed without any publication before they were drafted. **
But I ask why should I or any of you, conscript fathers, fear bad laws while we have good tribunes of the people ? We have men ready to interpose their veto; men ready to defend the State by the sanctity of their office: we ought to be free from fear. ** "What vetoes," he says, "what sanctities are you telling me of?" Those of course in which the safety of the State is involved. "We disregard all that, and think it quite out of date aud foolish ; the forum will be fenced in: all approaches will be closed: armed men will be stationed on guard at many points." [26] What then? What is transacted in this manner will be law, and you, I suppose, will order to be engraved on brass those legal formulae "The consuls rightfully put the question to the people'' - is this the right of putting the question we have received from our ancestors? - "and the people rightfully assented." What people? That which was shut out? By what right? By that which was wholly abolished by armed violence? And here I speak of the future - -it is the part of friends to say beforehand what can be avoided; if this does not occur my speech will be refuted. I speak of the laws that have been advertised : concerning these you have a free hand; I show you their faults: remove them; I denounce armed violence: prevent it. **
[11.] L [27] You consuls, Dolabella, must not be angry with me, as I speak on behalf of the State. You yourself, however, I do not think will be so: I know your easy temper; but they say that your colleague, ** with his present fortune which he himself thinks good (to me - not to put it more harshly - he would appear more fortunate if he copied the consulships of his grandfather and of his maternal uncle) - he, however, I hear, is angry. And I see how uncomfortable it is to have a man angry and also armed, especially when swordsmen enjoy such great impunity. But I will make a proposal, a fair one, I think: I do not imagine Marcus Antonius will reject it. For myself, if I say anything insulting against his life or his character, I will not object to his becoming my most bitter enemy; but if I hold by my constant practice, that is, if I speak freely my opinions on public affairs, first of all I deprecate his anger; secondly, if I fail here, I beg him to be angry with me as with a fellow-citizen. Let him employ an armed guard if it be necessary, as he says, for self-defence; but do not let that guard hurt those who express their own opinions on behalf of the State. What can be said fairer than this demand? [28] But if, as has been told me by some of his intimates, every speech made in contravention of his wishes gravely offends him, even though there is no insult in it, then we will put up with the idiosyncrasy of a friend. But those same gentlemen of his say this to me, "You, as an opponent of Caesar, will not be allowed the same licence as Piso, his father-in-law"; and at the same time they give me a word of caution, which I shall attend to; nor will indisposition afford a more legitimate excuse for absence from the Senate than death. **
[12.] L [29] But in Heaven's name! For as I look at you, Dolabella, who are my very dear friend, I cannot be silent as to the mistake you both are making. I believe that you both, men of honour, with great aspirations, have not, as some too credulous persons suspect, craved for money, which has always been despised by every man of the highest station and reputation, not for wealth obtained by violence, and power unendurable by the Roman people, but for the affection of your fellow-citizens and for glory. Now glory is praise won by honourable deeds, and great services towards the State, a thing that is approved alike by the testimony of every honest man, and also by that of the multitude. [30] I would tell you, Dolabella, what was the reward of honourable deeds, did I not see that you above all other men had for a time realized it.
What day can you recall in life that shone upon you more joyously than that in which, when the forum had been purged, ** the concourse of impious wretches scattered, the ringleaders of the crime punished, the city delivered from burning and the fear of massacre, you betook yourself home? What rank was there, what family, in short what fortune, whose enthusiasm did not thrust itself forward to praise and congratulate you? Nay, more: to me too, whose prompting they thought you had followed in these affairs, good men returned their thanks and congratulated me in your name. Recall, I ask you, Dolabella, that unanimous applause in the theatre when all men, forgetting those things for which they had been hostile to you, made it plain that, because of your late services, they had cast away the memory of their ancient pain. [31] And with such a title to fame, to think that you, P. Dolabella - I say it with great pain - that you, I say, had been able to lay it aside without emotion!
[13.] L And you, Marcus Antonius - for I appeal to you though you are not here - do you not set that one day, in which the Senate met in the Temple of Tellus, ** higher than all these months during which some - much disagreeing with me - account you fortunate? What a speech you made on unity! from what dread of past evils, from what anxiety was the State then freed by you, when, laying aside animosities, forgetting the auspices ** announced by you yourself, as augur of the Roman people, you first consented that your colleague should be your colleague, when your little son was sent by you into the Capitol as a hostage of peace! ** [32] On what day was the Senate more joyful? on what day was the Roman people? which was never at any public assembly gathered in greater numbers. Then at last it did seem we had achieved liberty through most heroic men, ** for, even as they had wished, in the train of liberty came peace. On the next day, on the second, on the third, finally on all the remaining days - you let none pass without conferring daily some boon as it were on the State; and, beyond them all, your abolishing the title of dictator. That was the mark with which you, you, I say, branded the name of dead Caesar to his everlasting infamy. For, as on account of the crime of one Marcus Manlius it is by the decree of the Manlian clan unlawful for any patrician Manlius to be called Marcus, so you, on account of the hatred felt for one dictator, have utterly abolished the title of dictator. [33] Did you, after these great achievements for the safety of the State, regret your fortune, your distinction, your renown, your glory? Whence therefore came suddenly that great change? I cannot be brought to suspect you had been seduced by greed. Every man may say what he likes: we need not believe him. For I have never recognised in you anything sordid, anything mean. Sometimes, no doubt, those of his own household ** corrupt a man; but I know your strength of will And would that, with guilt, you had been able also to avoid suspicion !
[14.] L What I more fear is this - that, blind to glory's true path, you may think it glorious to possess in your single self more power than all, and to be feared by your fellow-citizens. If you think so, you are totally blind to the true way of glory. To be a citizen dear to all, to deserve well of the State, to be praised, courted, loved, is glorious; but to be feared and an object of hatred is invidious, detestable, a proof of weakness and decay. We see this even in the play: the very man who said "Let them hate, so that they fear," found that it was fatal. ** [34] Would, Marcus Antonius, you had remembered your grandfather! though of him you have heard much from me, and that very often. Do you think that he would have wished to earn immortality by being feared for his ability to keep an armed guard? To him life, to him prosperous fortune, was equality in liberty with the rest, the first place in honour. Accordingly, to say nothing of your grandfather's good fortunes, I would prefer that last most bitter day of his life to the domination of Lucius Cinna, by whom he was most cruelly slain.
[35] But how shall I turn you by what I say? For if the end of Caius Caesar cannot induce you to prefer affection to fear, no words of any man will either profit or prevail. Those that think he was happy are themselves wretched. No one is happy who holds his life on such terms that he may be slain, not only with impunity, but even to the greatest glory of his slayer. Wherefore turn, I pray you, and look back on your ancestors, and so direct the State that your fellow-citizens may rejoice that you were born: without that it is wholly impossible for any man to be happy, or illustrious, or safe.
[15.] L [36] As to the Roman people you both have before you many judgments: that you are not sufficiently influenced by them I am much concerned. For what mean the shouts of numberless citizens at the gladiatorial shows? what mean the popular broadsheets? what the unbounded applause bestowed on the statue of Pompeius? on the two tribunes of the commons who oppose you? are these only a slight indication of the wondrous unanimity of the attitude of the whole Roman people? Again: did the applause bestowed on the Apollinarian games, or rather the testimony and judgment of the Roman people, ** appear to you an insignificant thing? Oh, how happy were they who, ** unable through force of arms to be present in person, yet were present, seated in the hearts and inmost affections of the Roman people ! But perhaps you thought it was Accius ** that was applauded and sixty years afterwards awarded the prize, and not Brutus - not the man to whom, though not present at the games he himself exhibited, the Roman people in that most elaborate spectacle were yet paying the tribute of their zeal in his absence, and soothing their regret for their liberator with continued applause and shouts.
[37] I indeed am one that always despised such applause when awarded to popularity-hunting citizens: at the same time, when it comes from the highest, from the middle, from the lowest grade, when in a word it comes universally, and when those, that before were wont to follow the popular verdict, stand aside, I do not regard it as applause, but as a judgment. But if this seem to you trifling - it is very important - do you also count it as petty to have learned how dear to the Roman people was the life of Aulus Hirtius? ** For it were enough to be, as he is, esteemed by the Roman people; to be, beyond all others, the delight of his friends; to be dear, as he is very dear to his kinsfolk; but in the case of what man do we recall such anxiety among the good, such universal apprehension? Certainly in none. [38] What then? By the Immortal Gods! do you not decipher the meaning of this? Again: think you they do not reflect on the doings of your lives, when lives which they hope will serve the State are so dear to them?
[39] I have reaped the reward, conscript fathers, of my return in that I have both made these remarks, so that, whatever might hereafter befall, there might survive some evidence of my constancy, and in that I have been kindly and attentively heard. This opportunity, if it be further given to me without peril to myself and to you, I will use; if not, I will, to the best of my power, hold myself at call, not so much for my own sake as for the State's. For myself, the time past of my life is well-nigh enough, whether for years or for fame: should that life be lengthened, it will be lengthened not so much for myself, but for you, and for the commonwealth.
1. 'amnestia' or 'adeia' (amnesty).
2. S. Clodius. the brother of the tribune: cf. A.'s letter to C. in Epp. ad Att. 14. 13.
3. An altar fronting a column twenty feet high of Numidian marble, built on the site of Julius Caesar's pyre by the mob, with the inscription, "To the father of his country": cf. Suet. Jul. 85; Dio 44. 51.
4. Probably an allusion to the illegality of Caesar's cremation within the walls, and to the riots attending it.
5. Antonius had four legions there.
6. The assassination of Caesar.
7. Gell (13. 1) takes "praeter naturam" as referring to a violent and unexpected death, and, with regard to ''praeter fatum," suggests that the words are the Homeric 'huper moron' (e.g. in Il. 2. 155; Od. 1. 34), the idea being that the ordinary course of fate may be influenced by human conduct, or other event: see Hayman's n. to Od. 5, 436 ; cf. also Suet. Jul. 89 (of each of Caesar's murderers) ''nec sua morte defunctus est," where "sua" means ordinary.
8. A. had spared C.'s life at Brundisium after the battle of Pharsalia.
9. When a Senator was summoned to the Senate and neglected or refused to attend, something was taken out of his house and retained till he obeyed; or he could be Fined.
10. On C.'s exile his house on the Palatine was destroyed by his enemy, the tribune Clodius, and the site dedicated to the Goddess Liberty. On his return the State rebuilt it: cf. Epp. ad Att. 4, 9.
11. The Parentalia was a public festival in honour of dead relatives, whose spirits (Di Manes) needed propitiation. Offerings were taken to their tombs, and sacrifices made, and the days of the festival were 'religiosi'. C.'s argument is that to confuse such a festival addressed to the dead with a thanksgiving for a general's success addressed directly to the Gods involved impiety.
12. C. confined the jury-panel to the Senators and the knights. The third panel proposed was to consist of centurions, and even of privates of the Legio Alauda. Cf. note on § 20.
13. A legion raised in Transalpine Gaul by J. Caesar, and called by the Gaulish name of Alauda (lark) from a plume on the helmet like a lark's crest.
14. The Leges Juliae of the dictator Caesar against riot and treason respectively.
15. Persons benefited in this way gained the sarcastic nick-name of Orcini (liegemen of Death), or Charonitae (Charon's crew).
16. Proposed legislation can at least be complained of ; not so laws stated by A. to have been already passed by Caesar.
17. Here follows a supposed argument between A., or his partisans, and the Senate.
18. C. warns A. and Dol. (though the event may prove his warning unnecessary) against violence and illegality in passing future legislation,
19. Antonius.
20. i.e., if C.'s life is threatened he may with good excuse be absent from the Senate.
21. By the destruction of the column raised to Caesar's memory.
22. On March 17.
23. By which, as augur, he declared Dolabella's election to the consulship invalid: Phil. ii. 32.
24. With Caesar's assassins.
25. Caesar's assassins.
26. A covert allusion to Fulvia, his wife.
27. The quotation (a favourite one of the Emperor Caligula: Suet. Cal. 30), is from the Atreus of Accius.
28. Yet C. says ( Epp. ad Att. xvi. 2) he would have preferred that the Romans used their hands in defending the State than in applause.
29. Brutus, who as Urban Praetor should have presided ; Cassius, and the other opponents of Caesar.
30. The play was the Tereus of Accius ; Cic. Epp. ad Att. xvi. 2. 3.
31. The consul elect for the next year, 43 B.C.
Attalus' home page | 16.12.23 | Any comments?