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[-42-] "But I return to the point that he has none of the qualities of a great general or such as to bring victory, and does not possess many or formidable forces. The majority of the soldiers and the best ones have abandoned him to his fate, and also, by Jupiter, he has been deprived of the elephants. The remainder have perfected themselves rather in outraging and pillaging the possessions of the allies than in waging war, A proof of the sort of spirit that animates them lies in the fact that they still adhere to him, and of their lack of fortitude in that they have not taken Mutina, though they have now been besieging it for so long a time. Such is the condition of Antony and of his followers found to be. But Caesar and Brutus and those arrayed with them are firmly intrenched without outside aid; Caesar, in fact, has won over many of his rival's soldiers, and Brutus is keeping the same usurper out of Gaul: and if you come to their assistance, first by approving what they have done of their own motion, next by ratifying their acts, at the same time giving them legal authority for the future, and next by sending out both the consuls to take charge of the war, it is not possible that any of his present associates will continue to aid him. However, even if they should cling to him most tenaciously, they would not he able to resist all the rest at once, but he will either lay down his arms voluntarily, as soon as he ascertains that you have passed this vote, and place himself in your hands, or he will be captured involuntarily as the result of one battle.

"I give you this advice, and, if it had been my lot to be consul, I should have certainly carried it out, as I did in former days when I defended you against Catiline and Lentulus (a relative of this very man), who had formed a conspiracy. [-43-] Perhaps some one of you regards these statements as well put, but thinks we ought first to despatch envoys to him, then, after learning his decision, in case he will voluntarily give up his arms and submit himself to you, to take no action, but if he sticks to the same principles, then to declare war upon him: this is the advice which I hear some persons wish to give you. This policy is very attractive in theory, but in fact it is disgraceful and dangerous to the city. Is it not disgraceful that you should employ heralds and embassies to citizens? With foreign nations it is proper and necessary to treat by heralds in advance, but upon citizens who are at all guilty you should inflict punishment straightway, by trying them in court if you can get them under the power of your votes, and by warring against them if you find them in arms. All such are slaves of you and of the people and of the laws, whether they wish it or not; and it is not fitting either to coddle them or to put them on an equal footing with the highest class of free persons, but to pursue and chastise them like runaway servants, with a feeling of your own superiority. [-44-] Is it not a disgrace that he should not delay to wrong us, but we delay to defend ourselves? Or again, that he should for a long time, weapons in hand, have been carrying on the entire practice of war, while we waste time in decrees and embassies, and that we should retaliate only with letters and phrases upon the man whom we have long since discovered by his deeds to be a wrongdoer? What do we expect? That he will some day render us obedience and pay us respect? How can this prove true of a man who has come into such a condition that he would not be able, even should he wish it, to be an ordinary citizen with you under a democratic government? If he were willing to conduct his life on fair and equitable principles, he would never have entered in the first place upon such a career as his: and if he had done it under the influence of folly or recklessness, he would certainly have given it up speedily of his own accord. As the case stands, since he has once overstepped the limits imposed by the laws and the government and has acquired some power and authority by this action, it is not conceivable that he would change of his own free will or heed any one of our resolutions, but it is absolutely requisite that such a man should be chastised with those very weapons with which he has dared to wrong us. [-45-] And I beg you now to remember particularly a sentence which this man himself once uttered, that it is impossible for you to be saved, unless you conquer. Hence those who bid you send envoys are doing nothing else than planning how you may be dilatory and the body of your allies become as a consequence more feeble and dispirited; while he, on the other hand, will be doing whatever he pleases, will destroy Decimus, storm Mutina, and capture all of Gaul: the result will be that we can no longer find means to deal with him, but shall be under the necessity of trembling before him, paying court to him, worshiping him. This one thing more about the embassy and I am done:—that Antony also gave you no account of what business he had in hand, because he intended that you should do this.

"I, therefore, for these and all other reasons advise you not to delay nor to lose time, but to make war upon him as quickly as possible. You must reflect that the majority of enterprises owe their success rather to an opportune occasion than to their strength; and you should by all means feel perfectly sure that I would never give up peace if it were really peace, in the midst of which I have most influence and have acquired wealth and reputation, nor have urged you to make war, did I not think it to your advantage.

[-46-] And I advise you, Calenus, and the rest who are of the same mind as you, to be quiet and allow the senate to vote the requisite measures and not for the sake of your private good-will toward Antony recklessly betray the common interests of all of us. Indeed, I am of the opinion, Conscript Fathers, that if you heed my counsel I may enjoy in your company and with thorough satisfaction freedom and preservation, but that if you vote anything different, I shall choose to die rather than to live. I have, in general, never been afraid of death as a consequence of my outspokenness, and now I fear it least of all. That accounts, indeed, for my overwhelming success, the proof of which lies in the fact that you decreed a sacrifice and festival in memory of the deeds done in my consulship,—an honor which had never before been granted to any one, even to one who had achieved some great end in war. Death, if it befell me, would not be at all unseasonable, especially when you consider that my consulship was so many years ago; yet remember that in that very consulship I uttered the same sentiment, to make you feel that in any and all business I despised death. To dread any one, however, that was against you, and in your company to be a slave to any one would prove exceedingly unseasonable to me. Wherefore I deem this last to be the ruin and destruction not only of the body, but of the soul and reputation, by which we become in a certain sense immortal. But to die speaking and acting in your behalf I regard as equivalent to immortality.

[-47-] "And if Antony, also, felt the force of this, he would never have entered upon such a career, but would have even preferred to die like his grandfather rather than to behave like Cinna who killed him. For, putting aside other considerations, Cinna was in turn slain not long afterward for this and the other sins that he had committed; so that I am surprised also at this feature in Antony's conduct, that, imitating his works as he does, he shows no fear of some day falling a victim to a similar disaster: the murdered man, however, left behind to this very descendant the reputation of greatness. But the latter has no longer any claim to be saved on account of his relatives, since he has neither emulated his grandfather nor inherited his father's property. Who is unaware of the fact that in restoring many who were exiled in Caesar's time and later, in accordance forsooth with directions in his patron's papers, he did not aid his uncle, but brought back his fellow-gambler Lenticulus, who was exiled for his unprincipal life, and cherishes Bambalio, who is notorious for his very name, while he has treated his nearest relatives as I have described and as if he were half angry at them because he was born into that family. Consequently he never inherited his father's goods, but has been the heir of very many others, some whom he never saw or heard of, and others who are still living. That is, he has so stripped and despoiled them that they differ in no way from dead men."

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
46

The following is contained in the Forty-sixth of Dio's Rome:

How Calenus replied to Cicero in defence of Antony (chapters 1-28).

How Antony was defeated at Mutina by Caesar and the consuls (chapters 29-38).

How Caesar came to Rome and was appointed consul (chapters 39-49).

How Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus formed a solemn pact of union (chapters 50-56).

Duration of time one year, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated:

C. Vibius C. filius Pansa Capronianus, Aulus Hirtius Auli filius (B.C. 43 = a. u. 711).

(BOOK 46, BOISSAVAIN)

[B.C. 43 (a. u. 711) ]

[-1-] When Cicero had finished speaking in this vein, Quintus Fufius Calenus arose and said:—"Ordinarily I should not have wished either to say anything in defence of Antony or to assail Cicero. I really do not think it proper in such discussions as is the present to do either of these things, but simply to make known what one's opinion is. The former method belongs to the courtroom, whereas this is a matter of deliberation. Since, however, he has undertaken to speak ill of Antony on account of the enmity that exists between them, instead of sending him a summons, as he ought, if Antony were guilty of any wrong, and since he has further mentioned me in a calumnious fashion, as if he could not have exhibited his cleverness without heedlessly insulting one or two persons, it behooves me also to set aside the imputation against Antony and to bring counter-charges against the speaker. I would not have his innate impudence fail of a response nor let my silence aid him by incurring the suspicion of a guilty conscience; nor would I have you, deceived by what he said, come to a less worthy decision by accepting his private spleen against Antony in exchange for the common advantage. [-2-] He wishes to effect nothing else than that we should abandon looking out for the safest course for the commonwealth and fall into discord again. It is not the first time that he has done this, but from the outset, ever since he had to do with politics, he has been continually causing disturbance one way or the other.

"Is he not the one who embroiled Caesar with Pompey and prevented Pompey from becoming reconciled with Caesar? The one who persuaded you to pass that vote against Antony by which he irritated Caesar, and persuaded Pompey to leave Italy and transfer his quarters to Macedonìa? This proved the chief cause of all the evils which befell us subsequently. Is not he the one who killed Clodius by the hand of Milo, and slew Caesar by the hand of Brutus? The one who made Catiline hostile to us and despatched Lentulus without a trial? [-3-] Hence I should be very much surprised at you, seeing that you then changed your mind about his conduct just mentioned and made him pay the penalty for it, if you should now heed him again, when his talk and actions are similar. Do you not see, too, that after Caesar's death when our affairs were settled in a most tranquil way by Antony, as not even his accuser can deny, the latter left town because he deemed our life of harmony to be alien and dangerous to him? That when he perceived that turmoil had again arisen, he bade a long farewell to his son and to Athens, and returned? That he insults and abuses Antony, whom he was wont to say he loved, and coöperates with Caesar, whose father he killed? And if chance so favor, he will ere long attack Caesar also. For the fellow is naturally distrustful and turbulent and has no ballast in his soul, and he is always stirring things up and twisting about, turning more ways than the sea-passage to which he fled and got the title of deserter for it, asking all of you to take that man for friend or foe whom he bids.

[-4-] "For these reasons be on your guard against man. He is a juggler and imposter and grows rich and strong from the ills of others, blackmailing, dragging, tearing the innocent, as do dogs; but in the midst of public harmony he is embarrassed and withers away. It is not friendship or good-will among us that can support this kind of orator. From what other source do you think he has become rich or from what other source great? Certainly neither family nor wealth was bequeathed him by his father the fuller, who was always trading in grapes and olives, a man who was glad to make both ends meet by this and by his washing, and whose time was taken up every day and night with the vilest occupations. The son, having been brought up in them, not unnaturally tramples and dowses his superiors, using a species of abuse invented in the workshops and on the street corners.

[-5-] "Now being of such an origin yourself, and after growing up naked among your naked companions, picking up pig manure and sheep dung and human excrement, have you dared, O most accursed wretch, first to slander the youth of Antony who had the advantage of pedagogues and teachers as his rank demanded, and next to impugn him because in celebrating the Lupercalia, an ancestral festival, he came naked into the Forum? But I ask you, you that always used all the clothes of others on account of your father's business and were stripped by whoever met you and recognized them, what ought a man who was not only priest but also leader of his fellow priests to have done? Not to conduct the procession, not to celebrate the festival, not to sacrifice according to ancestral custom, not to appear naked, not to anoint himself? 'But it is not for that that I censure him,' he answers, 'but because he delivered a speech and that kind of speech naked in the Forum.' Of course this man has become acquainted in the fuller's shop with all minute matters of etiquette, that he should detect a real mistake and be able to rebuke it properly.

[-6-] "In regard to this matter I will say later all that needs to be said, but just now I want to ask the speaker a question or two. Is it not true that you for your part were nourished by the ills of others and educated in the misfortunes of your neighbors and for this reason are acquainted with no liberal branch of knowledge, that you have established a kind of association here and are always waiting, like the harlots, for a man who will give something, and that having many men in your pay to attract profit to you you pry into people's affairs to find out who has wronged (or seems to have wronged) whom, who hates whom, and who is plotting against whom? With these men you make common cause, and through these men you are supported, selling them the hopes that chance bestows, trading in the decisions of the jurors, deeming him alone a friend who gives more and more, and all those enemies who furnish you no business or employ some other advocate, while you pretend not even to know those who are already in your clutch and affect to be bored by them, but fawn upon and giggle at those just approaching, like the mistresses of inns?

[-7-] How much better it were that you too should have been born Bambalio,—if this Bambalio really exists,—than to have taken up such a livelihood, in which it is absolutely inevitable that you should either sell your speech in behalf of the innocent, or else preserve the guilty. Yet you can not do even this effectively, though you wasted three years in Athens. On what occasion? By what help? Why, you always come trembling up to court as if you were going to fight in armor and after speaking a few words in a low and half-dead voice you go away, not remembering a word of the speech you practiced at home before you came, and without finding anything to say on the spur of the moment. In making affirmations and promises you surpass all mankind in audacity, but in the contests themselves beyond uttering some words of abuse and defamation you are most weak and cowardly. Do you think any one is ignorant of the fact that you never delivered one of those wonderful speeches of yours that you have published, but wrote them all up afterward, like persons who form generals and masters-of-horse out of day? If you feel doubtful of this point, remember how you accused Verres,—though, to be sure, you only gave him an example of your father's trade, when you made water.

[-8-] "But I hesitate, for fear that in saying precisely what fits your case I may seem to be uttering words that are unfitting for myself. ¹⁴ This I will pass over; and further, by Jupiter, also the affairs of Gabinius, against whom, you prepared accusers and then pled his cause in such a way that he was condemned; and the pamphlets which you compose against your friends, in regard to which you feel yourself so guilty that you do not dare to make them public. Yet it is a most miserable and pitiable state to be in, not to be able to deny these charges which are the most disgraceful conceivable to admit. But I will leave these to one side and bring forward the rest. Well, though we did grant the trainer, as you say, two thousand plethra of the ager Leontinus, we still learned nothing adequate from it.¹⁵ But who should not admire your system of instruction? And what is it? You are ever jealous of your superiors, you always toady to the prominent man, you slander him who has attained distinction, you inform against the powerful and you hate equally all the excellent, and you pretend love only for those through whom you may do some mischief. This is why you are always inciting the younger against their elders and lead those who trust you even in the slightest into dangers, where you desert them. [-9-] A proof of this is, that you have never accomplished any achievement worthy of a distinguished man either in war or in peace. How many wars have we won under you as praetor and what kind of territory did we acquire with you as consul? Your private activity all these years has consisted in continually deceiving some of the foremost men and winning them to your side and managing everything you like, while publicly you have been shouting and bawling out at random those detestable phrases,—'I am the only one that loves you,' or, if it should so chance, 'And what's-his-name, all the rest, hate you,' and 'I alone am friendly to you, all the rest are engaged in plots,' and other such stuff by which you fill some with elation and conceit, only to betray them, and scare the rest so that you gain their attachment. If any service is rendered by any one whomsoever of the whole people, you lay claim to it and write your own name upon it, repeating: 'I moved it, I proposed it, it was through me that this was done so.' But if anything happens that ought not to have occurred, you take yourself out of the way and censure all the rest, saying: 'You see I wasn't praetor, you see I wasn't envoy, you see I wasn't consul.' And you abuse everybody everywhere all the time, setting more store by the influence which comes from appearing to speak your mind boldly than by saying what duty demands: and you exhibit no important quality of an orator. [-10-] What public advantage has been preserved or established by you? Who that was really harming the city have you indicted, and who that was really plotting against us have you brought to light? To neglect the other cases,—these very charges which you now bring against Antony are of such a nature and so many that no one could ever suffer any adequate penalty for them. Why, then, if you saw us being wronged by him at the start, as you assert, did you never attack or accuse him at the time, instead of telling us now all the transgressions he committed when tribune, all his irregularities when master of horse, all his villanies when consul? You might at once, at the time, in each specific instance, have inflicted the appropriate penalty upon him, if you had wanted to show yourself in very deed a patriot, and we could have imposed the punishment in security and safety during the course of the offences themselves. One of two conclusions is inevitable,—either that you believed this to be so at the time and renounced the idea of a struggle in our behalf, or else that you could not prove any of your charges and are now engaged in a reckless course of blackmail.

[-11-] "That this is so I will show you clearly, Conscript Fathers, by going over each point in detail. Antony did say some words during his tribuneship in Caesar's behalf: Cicero and some others spoke in behalf of Pompey. Why now does he accuse him of preferring one man's friendship, but acquit himself and the rest who warmly embraced the opposite cause? Antony, to be sure, hindered at that time some measures adverse to Caesar from being passed: and Cicero hindered practically everything that was known to be favorable to Caesar. 'But Antony obstructed,' he replies, 'the public judgment of the senate.' Well, now, in the first place, how could one man have had so much power? Second, if he had been condemned for this, as is said, how could he have escaped punishment? 'Oh, he fled, he fled to Caesar and got out of the way.' Of course you, Cicero, did not 'leave town' just now, but you fled, as in your former exile.¹⁶ Don't be so ready to apply your own shame to all of us. To flee is what you did, in fear of the court, and pronouncing condemnation on yourself beforehand. Yes, to be sure, an ordinance was passed for your recall; how and for what reasons I do not say, but at any rate it was passed, and you did not set foot in Italy before the recall was granted. But Antony both went away to Caesar to inform him what had been done and returned, without asking for any decree, and finally effected peace and friendship with him for all those that were found in Italy. And the rest, too, would have had a share in it, if they had not taken your advice and fled. [-12-] Now in view of those circumstances do you dare to say he led Caesar against his country and stirred up the civil war and became more than any one else responsible for the subsequent evils that befell us? Not so, but you, who gave Pompey legions that belonged to others and the command, and undertook to deprive Caesar even of those that had been given him: it was you, who agreed with Pompey and the consuls not to accept the offers made by Caesar, but to abandon the city and the whole of Italy: you, who did not see Caesar even when he entered Rome, but had run off to Pompey and into Macedonia. Not even to him, however, did you prove of any assistance, but you neglected what was going on, and then, when he met with misfortune, you abandoned him. Therefore you did not aid him at the outset on the ground that he had the juster cause, but after setting in motion the dispute and embroiling affairs you lay in wait at a safe distance for a favorable turn; you at once deserted the man who failed, as if that somehow proved him guilty, and went over to the victor, as if you deemed him more just. And in addition to your other defects you are so ungrateful that not only are you not satisfied to have been preserved by him, but you are actually displeased that you were not made master of the horse.

[-13-] "Then with this on your conscience do you dare to say that Antony ought not to have held the office of master of the horse for a year, and that Caesar ought not to have remained dictator for a year? But whether it was wise or necessary for these measures to be framed, at any rate they were both passed, and they suited us and the people. Censure these men, Cicero, if they have transgressed in any particular, but not, by Jupiter, those whom they have chosen to honor for showing themselves worthy of so great a reward. For if we were forced by the circumstances that then surrounded us to act in this way and contrary to good policy, why do you now lay this upon Antony's shoulders, and why did you not oppose it then if you were able? Because, by Jupiter, you were afraid. Then shall you, who were at that time silent, obtain pardon for your cowardice, and shall he, because he was preferred before you, submit to penalties for his excellence? Where did you learn that this was just, or where did you read that this was lawful?

[-14-] "'But he did not rightly use his position as master of horse.' Why? 'Because,' he answers, 'he bought Pompey's possessions.' How many others are there who purchased numberless articles, no one of whom is blamed? That was the purpose in confiscating certain articles and exposing them in the market and proclaiming them by the voice of the public crier, to have somebody buy them. 'But Pompey's goods ought not to have been sold.' Then it was we who erred and did wrong in confiscating them; or (to clear your skirts and ours) it was at least Caesar who acted irregularly, he who ordered this to be done: yet you did not censure him at all. I maintain that in this charge he is proven to be absolutely beside himself. He has brought against Antony two quite opposite accusations,—one, that after helping Caesar in very many ways and receiving in return vast gifts from him he was then required under compulsion to surrender the price of them, and the second, that he inherited naught from his father, spent all that he had like Charybdis (the speaker is always bringing in some comparison from Sicily, as if we had forgotten that he had been exiled there), and paid the price of all that he purchased.

[-15-] "So in these charges this remarkable orator is convicted of violently contradicting himself and, by Jupiter, again in the following statements. At one time he says that Antony took part in everything that was done by Caesar and by this means became more than any one else responsible for all our internal evils, and again he charges him with cowardice, reproaching him with not having shared in any other exploits than those performed in Thessaly. And he makes a complaint against him to the effect that he restored some of the exiles and finds fault with him because he did not secure the recall of his uncle; as if any one believes that he would not have restored him first of all, if he had been able to recall whomsoever he pleased, since there was no grievance on either side between them, as this speaker himself knows. Indeed, though he told many wretched lies about Antony, he did not dare to say anything of that kind. But he is utterly reckless about letting slip anything that comes to his tongue's end, as if it were mere breath.

[-16-] "Why should one follow this line of refutation further? Turning now to the fact that he goes about with such a tragic air, and has but this moment said in the course of his remarks that Antony rendered the sight of the master of the horse most oppressive by using everywhere and under all circumstances the sword, the purple, the lictors, and the soldiers at once, let him tell me clearly how and in what respect we have been wronged by this. He will have no statement to make; for if he had had, he would have sputtered it out before anything else. Quite the reverse of his charge is true. Those who were quarreling at that time and causing all the trouble were Trebellius and Dolabella: Antony did no wrong and was active in every way in our behalf, so much so that he was entrusted by us with guarding the city against those very men, and not only did this remarkable orator not oppose it (he was there) but even approved it. Else let him show what syllable he uttered on seeing the licentious and accursed fellow (to quote from his abuse), besides doing nothing that the occasion required, securing also so great authority from you. He will have nothing to show. So it looks as if not a word of what he now shouts aloud was ventured at that time by this great and patriotic orator, who is everywhere and always saying and repeating: 'I alone am contending for freedom, I alone speak freely for the democracy; I cannot be restrained by favor of friends or fear of enemies from looking out for your advantage; I, even if it should be my lot to die in speaking in your behalf, will perish very gladly.' And his silence was very natural, for it occurred to him to reflect that Antony possessed the lictors and the purple-bordered vesture in accordance with the customs of our ancestors in regard to masters of horse, and that he was using the sword and the soldiers perforce against the rebels. For what most excessive outrages would they not have committed but for his being hedged about with these protections, when some of them so despised him as it was?

[-17-] "That these and all his other acts were correct and most thoroughly in accord with Caesar's intention the facts themselves show. The rebellion went no further, and Antony, far from paying a penalty for his course, was subsequently appointed consul. Notice, I beg of you, how he administered this office of his. You will find, if you scrutinize the matter minutely, that its tenure proved of great value to the city. His traducer, knowing this, could not endure his jealousy but dared to slander him for those deeds which he would have longed to do himself. That is why he introduced the matter of his stripping and anointing and those ancient fables, not because there was any pertinence in them now, but in order to obscure by external noise his opponent's consummate skill and success. Yet this same Antony, O thou earth, and ye gods (I shall call louder than you and invoke them with greater justice), saw that the city was already in reality under a tyranny through the fact that all the legions obeyed Caesar and all the people together with the senate submitted to him to such an extent that they voted among other measures that he should be dictator for life and use the appurtenances of a king. Then he showed Caesar his error most convincingly and restrained him most prudently, until the latter, abashed and afraid, would not accept either the name of king or the diadem, which he had in mind to bestow upon himself even against our will. Any other man would have declared that he had been ordered to do it by his master, and putting forward the compulsion as an excuse would have obtained pardon for it,—yes, indeed, he would, when you think of what kind of votes we had passed at that time and what power the soldiers had secured. Antony, however, because he was thoroughly acquainted with Caesar's disposition and accurately aware of all he was preparing to do, by great good judgment succeeded in turning him aside from his course and retarding his ambitions. The proof of it is that afterward he no longer behaved in any way like a monarch, but mingled publicly and unprotected with us all; and that accounts most of all for the possibility of his meeting the fate that he did.