Book: The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4

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The whole then of the contest, O Romans, which is now before the Roman
people, the conqueror of all nations, is with an assassin, a robber, a
Spartacus.[31] For as to his habitual boast of being like Catilina, he
is equal to him in wickedness, but inferior in energy. He, though he
had no army, rapidly levied one. This man has lost that very army
which he had. As, therefore, by my diligence, and the authority of the
senate, and your own zeal and valour, you crushed Catilina, so you
will very soon hear that this infamous piratical enterprise of
Antonius has been put down by your own perfect and unexampled harmony
with the senate, and by the good fortune and valour of your armies and
generals. I, for my part, as far as I am able to labour, and to effect
anything by my care, and exertions, and vigilance, and authority,
and counsel, will omit nothing which I may think serviceable to your
liberty. Nor could I omit it without wickedness after all your most
ample and honourable kindness to me. However, on this day, encouraged
by the motion of a most gallant man, and one most firmly attached to
you, Marcus Servilius, whom you see before you, and his colleagues
also, most distinguished men, and most virtuous citizens; and partly,
too, by my advice and my example, we have, for the first time after a
long interval, fired up again with a hope of liberty.




THE FIFTH ORATION OF M.T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS.

OTHERWISE CALLED THE FIFTH PHILIPPIC.

* * * * *

THE ARGUMENT.


The new consuls Hirtius and Pansa were much attached to Cicero, had
consulted him a great deal, and professed great respect for his
opinion; but they were also under great obligations to Julius Caesar
and, consequently, connected to some extent with his party and with
Antonius, on which account they wished, if possible, to employ
moderate measures only against him.

As soon as they had entered on their office, they convoked the senate
to meet for the purpose of deliberating on the general welfare of the
republic. They both spoke themselves with great firmness, promising to
be the leaders in defending the liberties of Rome, and exhorting the
senate to act with courage. And then they called on Quintus Fufius
Calenus, who had been consul A.U.C. 707, and who was Pansa's
father-in-law, to deliver his opinion first. He was known to be a firm
friend of Antonius. Cicero wished to declare Antonius a public enemy
at once, but Calenus proposed that before they proceeded to acts of
open hostility against him, they should send an embassy to him to
admonish him to desist from his attempts upon Gaul, and to submit to
the authority of the senate. Piso and others supported this motion,
on the ground that it was cruel and unjust to condemn a man without
giving him a fair chance of submitting, and without hearing what he
had to say. It was in opposition to Calenus's motion that Cicero made
the following speech, substituting for his proposition one to declare
Antonius an enemy, and to offer pardon to those of his army who
returned to their duty by the first of February, to thank Decimus
Brutus for his conduct in Gaul, to decree a statue to Marcus
Lepidus[32] for his services to the republic and his loyalty, to
thank Caius Caesar (Octavius) and to grant him a special commission
as general, to make him a senator and propraetor and to enable him to
stand for any subsequent magistracy as if he had been quaestor, to
thank Lucius Egnatuleius, and to vote thanks and promise rewards to
the Martial and the fourth legion.

I. Nothing, O conscript fathers, has ever seemed to me longer than
these calends of January, and I think that for the last few days you
have all been feeling the same thing. For those who are waging war
against the republic have not waited for this day. But we, while it
would have been most especially proper for us to come to the aid of
the general safety with our counsel, were not summoned to the senate.
However, the speech just addressed to us by the consuls has removed
our complaints as to what is past, for they have spoken in such a
manner that the calends of January seem to have been long wished for
rather than really to have arrived late.

And while the speeches of the consuls have encouraged my mind, and
have given me a hope, not only of preserving our safety, but even of
recovering our former dignity, on the other hand, the opinion of the
man who has been asked for his opinion first would have disturbed me,
if I had not confidence in your virtue and firmness. For this day, O
conscript fathers, has dawned upon you, and this opportunity has been
afforded you of proving to the Roman people how much virtue, how much
firmness and how much dignity exists in the counsels of this order.
Recollect what a day it was thirteen days ago, how great was then your
unanimity, and virtue, and firmness, and what great praise, what great
glory, and what great gratitude you gained from the Roman people.
And on that day, O conscript fathers, you resolved that no other
alternative was in your power, except either an honourable peace, or a
necessary war.

Is Marcus Antonius desirous of peace? Let him lay down his arms, let
him implore our pardon, let him deprecate our vengeance; he will find
no one more reasonable than me, though, while seeking to recommend
himself to impious citizens, he has chosen to be an enemy instead of
a friend to me. There is, in truth, nothing which can be given to him
while waging war, there will perhaps be something which may be granted
to him if he comes before us as a suppliant.

II. But to send ambassadors to a man respecting whom you passed a most
dignified and severe decision only thirteen days ago, is not an act of
lenity, but, if I am to speak my real opinion, of downright madness.
In the first place, you praised those generals who, of their own head,
had undertaken war against him, in the next place, you praised the
veterans who, though they had been settled in those colonies by
Antonius, preferred the liberty of the Roman people to the obligations
which they were under to him. Is it not so? Why was the Martial
legion? why was the fourth legion praised? For if they have deserted
the consul, they ought to be blamed; if they have abandoned an enemy
to the republic, then they are deservedly praised.

But as at that time you had not yet got any consuls, you passed a
decree that a motion concerning the rewards for the soldiers and the
honours to be conferred on the generals should be submitted to you at
the earliest opportunity. Are you then going now to arrange rewards
for those men who have taken arms against Antonius, and to send
ambassadors to Antonius? so as to deserve to be ashamed that the
legions should have come to more honourable resolutions than the
senate if, indeed, the legions have resolved to defend the senate
against Antonius, but the senate decrees to send ambassadors to
Antonius. Is this encouraging the spirit of the soldiers, or damping
their virtue?

This is what we have gained in the last twelve days, that the man
whom no single person except Cotyla was then found to defend, has now
advocates even of consular rank. Would that they had all been asked
their opinion before me, (although I have my suspicions as to what
some of those men who will be asked after me, are intending to say) I
should find it easier to speak against them if any argument appeared
to have been advanced.

For there is an opinion in some quarters that some one intends to
propose to decree Antonius that further Gaul, which Plancus is at
present in possession of. What else is that but supplying an enemy
with all the arms necessary for civil war; first of all with the
sinews of war, money in abundance, of which he is at present
destitute, and secondly, with as much cavalry as he pleases? Cavalry
do I say? He is a likely man to hesitate, I suppose, to bring with him
the barbarian nations,--a man who does not see this is senseless, he
who does see it, and still advocates such a measure, is impious. Will
you furnish a wicked and desperate citizen with an army of Gauls and
Germans, with money, and infantry, and cavalry, and all sorts of
resources? All these excuses are no excuse at all.--"He is a friend of
mine." Let him first be a friend of his country.--"He is a relation of
mine." Can any relationship be nearer than that of one's country, in
which even one's parents are comprised? "He has given me money:"--I
should like to see the man who will dare to say that. But when I have
explained what is the real object aimed at, it will be easy for you to
decide which opinion you ought to agree with and adopt.

III. The matter at issue is, whether power is to be given to Marcus
Antonius of oppressing the republic, of massacring the virtuous
citizens, of plundering the city, of distributing the lands among his
robbers, of overwhelming the Roman people in slavery; or, whether he
is not to be allowed to do all this. Do you doubt what you are to do?
"Oh, but all this does not apply to Antonius." Even Cotyla would not
venture to say that. For what does not apply to him? A man who, while
he says that he is defending the acts of another, perverts all those
laws of his which we might most properly praise. Caesar wished to drain
the marshes: this man has given all Italy to that moderate man Lucius
Antonius to distribute.--What? has the Roman people adopted this
law?--What? could it be passed with a proper regard for the auspices?
But this conscientious augur acts in reference to the auspices
without his colleagues. Although those auspices do not require any
interpretation;--for who is there who is ignorant that it is impious
to submit any motion to the people while it is thundering? The
tribunes of the people carried laws respecting the provinces in
opposition to the acts of Caesar; Caesar had extended the provisions of
his law over two years; Antonius over six years. Has then the Roman
people adopted this law? What? was it ever regularly promulgated?
What? was it not passed before it was even drawn up? Did we not see
the deed done before we even suspected that it was going to be done?
Where is the Caecilian and Didian law? What is become of the law that
such bills should be published on three market days? What is become of
the penalty appointed by the recent Junian and Licinian law? Can these
laws be ratified without the destruction of all other laws? Has any
one had a right of entering the forum? Moreover, what thunder, and
what a storm that was! so that even if the consideration of the
auspices had no weight with Marcus Antonius, it would seem strange
that he could endure and bear such exceeding violence of tempest, and
rain, and whirlwind. When therefore he, as augur, says that he carried
a law while Jupiter was not only thundering, but almost uttering an
express prohibition of it by his clamour from heaven, will he hesitate
to confess that it was carried in violation of the auspices? What?
does the virtuous augur think that it has nothing to do with the
auspices, that he carried the law with the aid of that colleague whose
election he himself vitiated by giving notice of the auspices?

IV. But perhaps we, who are his colleagues, may be the interpreters
of the auspices? Do we also want interpreters of arms? In the first
place, all the approaches to the forum were so fenced round, that even
if no armed men were standing in the way, still it would have been
impossible to enter the forum except by tearing down the barricades.
But the guards were arranged in such a manner, that, as the access of
an enemy to a city is prevented, so you might in this instance see the
burgesses and the tribunes of the people cut off by forts and works
from all entrance to the forum. On which account I give my vote that
those laws which Marcus Antonius is said to have carried were all
carried by violence, and in violation of the auspices; and that the
people is not bound by them. If Marcus Antonius is said to have
carried any law about confirming the acts of Caesar and abolishing the
dictatorship for ever, and of leading colonies into any lands, then I
vote that those laws be passed over again, with a due regard to the
auspices, so that they may bind the people. For although they may be
good measures which he passed irregularly and by violence, still they
are not to be accounted laws, and the whole audacity of this frantic
gladiator must be repudiated by our authority. But that squandering
of the public money cannot possibly be endured by which he got rid of
seven hundred millions of sesterces by forged entries and deeds of
gifts, so that it seems an absolute miracle that so vast a sum of
money belonging to the Roman people can have disappeared in so short
a time. What? are those enormous profits to be endured which the
household of Marcus Antonius has swallowed up? He was continually
selling forged decrees; ordering the names of kingdoms and states, and
grants of exemptions to be engraved on brass, having received bribes
for such orders. And his statement always was, that he was doing these
things in obedience to the memoranda of Caesar, of which he himself was
the author. In the interior of his house there was going on a brisk
market of the whole republic. His wife, more fortunate for herself
than for her husband, was holding an auction of kingdoms and
provinces: exiles were restored without any law, as if by law: and
unless all these acts are rescinded by the authority of the senate,
now that we have again arrived at a hope of recovering the republic,
there will be no likeness of a free city left to us.

Nor is it only by the sale of forged memoranda and autographs that a
countless sum of money was collected together in that house, while
Antonius, whatever he sold, said that he was acting in obedience to
the papers of Caesar; but he even took bribes to make false entries
of the resolutions of the senate; to seal forged contracts; and
resolutions of the senate that had never been passed were entered
on the records of that treasury. Of all this baseness even foreign
nations were witnesses. In the meantime treaties were made; kingdoms
given away; nations and provinces released from the burdens of the
state; and false memorials of all these transactions were fixed up
all over the Capitol, amid the groans of the Roman people. And by all
these proceedings so vast a sum of money was collected in one house,
that if it were all made available, the Roman people would never want
money again.

V. Moreover, he passed a law to regulate judicial proceedings, this
chaste and upright man, this upholder of the tribunals and the law.
And in this he deceived us. He used to say that he appointed men from
the front ranks of the army, common soldiers, men of the Alauda,[33]
as judges. But he has in reality selected gamesters; he has selected
exiles; he has selected Greeks. Oh the fine bench of judges! Oh the
admirable dignity of that council! I do long to plead in behalf of
some defendant before that tribunal--Cyda of Crete; a prodigy even in
that island; the most audacious and abandoned of men. But even suppose
he were not so. Does he understand Latin? Is he qualified by birth and
station to be a judge? Does he--which is most important--does he know
anything about our laws and manners? Is he even acquainted with any of
the citizens? Why, Crete is better known to you than Rome is to Cyda.
In fact, the selection and appointment of the judges has usually been
confined to our own citizens. But who ever knew, or could possibly
have known this Gortynian judge? For Lysiades, the Athenian, we most
of us do know. For he is the son of Phaedrus, an eminent philosopher.
And, besides, he is a witty man, so that he will be able to get on
very well with Marcus Curius, who will be one of his colleagues, and
with whom he is in the habit of playing. I ask if Lysiades, when
summoned as a judge, should not answer to his name, and should have an
excuse alleged for him that he is an Areopagite, and that he is not
bound to act as a judge at both Rome and Athens at the same time, will
the man who presides over the investigation admit the excuse of this
Greekling judge, at one time a Greek, and at another a Roman? Or will
he disregard the most ancient laws of the Athenians?

And what a bench will it be, O ye good gods! A Cretan judge, and he
the most worthless of men. Whom can a defendant employ to propitiate
him? How is he to get at him? He comes of a hard nation. But the
Athenians are merciful. I dare say that Curius, too, is not cruel,
inasmuch as he is a man who is himself at the mercy of fortune every
day. There are besides other chosen judges who will perhaps be
excused. For they have a legitimate excuse, that they have left their
country in banishment, and that they have not been restored since.
And would that madman have chosen these men as judges, would he have
entered their names as such in the treasury, would he have trusted a
great portion of the republic to them, if he had intended to leave the
least semblance of a republic?

VI. And I have been speaking of those judges who are known. Those whom
you are less acquainted with I have been unwilling to name. Know then
that dancers, harp-players, the whole troop, in fact, of Antonius's
revellers, have all been pitchforked into the third decury of judges.
Now you see the object of passing so splendid and admirable a law,
amid excessive rain, storm, wind, tempest, and whirlwind, amid thunder
and lightning; it was that we might have those men for our judges
whom no one would like to have for guests. It is the enormity of his
wickedness, the consciousness of his crimes, the plunder of that money
of which the account was kept in the temple of Ops, which have been
the real inventors of this third decury. And infamous judges were not
sought for, till all hope of safety for the guilty was despaired of,
if they came before respectable ones. But what must have been the
impudence, what must have been the iniquity of a man who dared to
select those men as judges, by the selection of whom a double disgrace
was stamped on the republic: one, because the judges were so infamous;
the other, because by this step it was revealed and published to the
world how many infamous citizens we had in the republic? These then,
and all other similar laws, I should vote ought to be annulled, even
if they had been passed without violence, and with all proper respect
for the auspices. But now why need I vote that they ought to be
annulled, when I do not consider that they were ever legally passed?

Is not this, too, to be marked with the deepest ignominy, and with the
severest animadversion of this order, so as to be recollected by all
posterity, that Marcus Antonius (the first man who has ever done so
since the foundation of the city) has openly taken armed men about
with him in this city? A thing which the kings never did, nor those
men who, since the kings have been banished, have endeavoured to seize
on kingly power. I can recollect Cinna; I have seen Sylla; and lately
Caesar. For these three men are the only ones since the city was
delivered by Lucius Brutus, who have had more power than the entire
republic. I cannot assert that no man in their trains had weapons.
This I do say, that they had not many, and that they concealed them.
But this pest was attended by an army of armed men. Classitius,
Mustela, and Tiro, openly displaying their swords, led troops of
fellows like themselves through the forum. Barbarian archers occupied
their regular place in the army. And when they arrived at the temple
of Concord, the steps were crowded, the litters full of shields were
arranged; not because he wished the shields to be concealed, but that
his friends might not be fatigued by carrying the shields themselves.

VII. And what was most infamous not only to see, but even to hear of,
armed men, robbers, assassins were stationed in the temple of Concord;
the temple was turned into a prison; the doors of the temple were
closed, and the conscript fathers delivered their opinions while
robbers were standing among the benches of the senators. And if I
did not come to a senate-house in this state, he, on the first of
September, said that he would send carpenters and pull down my house.
It was an important affair, I suppose, that was to be discussed. He
made some motion about a supplication. I attended the day after. He
himself did not come. I delivered my opinion about the republic, not
indeed with quite so much freedom as usual, but still with more than
the threats of personal danger to myself made perhaps advisable. But
that violent and furious man (for Lucius Piso had done the same thing
with great credit thirty days before) threatened me with his enmity,
and ordered me to attend the senate on the nineteenth of September. In
the meantime he spent the whole of the intervening seventeen days in
the villa of Scipio, at Tibur, declaiming against me to make himself
thirsty. For this is his usual object in declaiming. When the day
arrived on which he had ordered me to attend, then he came with a
regular army in battle array to the temple of Concord, and out of his
impure mouth vomited forth an oration against me in my absence. On
which day, if my friends had not prevented me from attending the
senate as I was anxious to do, he would have begun a massacre by the
slaughter of me. For that was what he had resolved to do. And when
once he had dyed his sword in blood, nothing would have made him
leave off but pure fatigue and satiety. In truth, his brother, Lucius
Antonius, was present, an Asiatic gladiator, who had fought as a
Mirmillo,[34] at Mylasa; he was thirsting for my blood, and had shed
much of his own in that gladiatorial combat. He was now valuing our
property in his mind, taking notice of our possessions in the city
and in the country; his indigence united with his covetousness was
threatening all our fortunes; he was distributing our lands to
whomsoever and in whatever shares he pleased; no private individual
could get access to him, or find any means to propitiate him, and
induce him to act with justice. Every former proprietor had just so
much property as Antonius left him after the division of his estate.
And although all these proceedings cannot be ratified, if you annul
his laws, still I think that they ought all to be separately taken
note of, article by article; and that we ought formally to decide that
the appointment of septemvirs was null and void; and that nothing is
ratified which is said to have been done by them.

VIII. But who is there who can consider Marcus Antonius a citizen,
rather than a most foul and barbarous enemy, who, while sitting in
front of the temple of Castor, in the hearing of the Roman people,
said that no one should survive except those who were victorious? Do
you suppose, O conscript fathers, that he spoke with more violence
than he would act? And what are we to think of his having ventured to
say that, after he had given up his magistracy, he should still be at
the city with his army? that he should enter the city as often as he
pleased? What else was this but threatening the Roman people with
slavery? And what was the object of his journey to Brundusium? and of
that great haste? What was his hope, except to lead that vast army
to the city, or rather into the city? What a proceeding was that
selection of the centurions! What unbridled fury of an intemperate
mind! For when those gallant legions had raised an outcry against his
promises, he ordered those centurions to come to him to his house,
whom he perceived to be loyally attached to the republic, and then he
had them all murdered before his own eyes and those of his wife, whom
this noble commander had taken with him to the army. What disposition
do you suppose that this man will display towards us whom he hates,
when he was so cruel to those men whom he had never seen? And how
covetous will he be with respect to the money of rich men, when he
thirsted for even the blood of poor men? whose property, such as it
was, he immediately divided among his satellites and boon companions.

And he in a fury was now moving his hostile standards against his
country from Brundusium, when Caius Caesar, by the kind inspiration of
the immortal gods, by the greatness of his own heavenly courage, and
wisdom, and genius, of his own accord, indeed, and prompted by his own
admirable virtue, but still with the approbation of my authority, went
down to the colonies which had been founded by his father; convoked
the veteran soldiery; in a few days raised an army; and checked the
furious advance of this bandit. But after the Martial legion saw this
admirable leader, it had no other thoughts but those of securing our
liberty. And the fourth legion followed its example.

IX. And Antonius, on hearing of this news, after he had summoned the
senate, and provided a man of consular rank to declare his opinion
that Caius Caesar was an enemy of his country, immediately fainted
away. And afterwards, without either performing the usual sacrifices,
or offering the customary vows, he, I will not say went forth, but
took to flight in his robe as a general. But which way did he flee? To
the province of our most resolute and bravest citizens; men who could
never have endured him if he had not come bringing war in his train,
an intemperate, passionate, insolent, proud man, always making
demands, always plundering, always drunk. But he, whose worthlessness
even when quiet was more than any one could endure, has declared war
upon the province of Gaul; he is besieging Mutina, a valiant and
splendid colony of the Roman people; he is blockading Decimus Brutus,
the general, the consul elect, a citizen born not for himself, but for
us and the republic. Was then Hannibal an enemy, and is Antonius a
citizen? What did the one do like an enemy, that the other has not
done, or is not doing, or planning, and thinking of? What was there
in the whole of the journey of the Antonii; except depopulation,
devastation, slaughter, and rapine? Actions which Hannibal never did,
because he was reserving many things for his own use, these men do,
as men who live merely for the present hour; they never have given a
thought not only to the fortunes and welfare of the citizens, but not
even to their own advantage.

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