Searching for “=+Caesar -Cicero”

Antony, however, because he was thoroughly acquainted with Caesar’s intentions and perfectly aware of all he was preparing to do, by great good judgment succeeded in turning him aside from his course and dissuaded him.

The proof is that Caesar afterwards no longer behaved in any way like a monarch, but mingled publicly and unprotected with us all; and for this reason more than for any other it became possible that he should meet the fate he did.

“I propose, now, to leave this subject and to return to the point where I started. Well then, when Antony, against whom he has inveighed, saw that Caesar was becoming exalted above our government, caused him, by means of the very proposals which were supposed to gratify him, not to put into effect any of the projects he had in mind.

And he fabricated the commands from the populace, in order that Caesar, hearing them, might reflect, not on all that Antony was saying at the time, but on all that the Roman people would order a man to say. For how could he have believed that this injunction had been laid upon any one, when he neither knew of the people’s having voted anything of the kind nor heard them shouting their applause?

“Here, then, you have the deeds of Antony; he did not break a leg in a vain attempt to make his own escape, nor burn off a hand in order to frighten Porsenna, but by his cleverness and consummate skill, which were of more avail than the spear of Decius or the sword of Brutus, he put an end to the tyranny of Caesar.

Therefore, I say, he slew Caesar, his benefactor, and as for Antony, the very man from whom he had obtained not only his priesthood but also his life, when he was in danger of perishing at the hands of the soldiers in Brundisium, he repays him with this sort of thanks, accusing him of deeds with which neither he himself nor any one else ever found any fault and hounding him for conduct which he praises in others.

At all events, when he sees that this young Caesar, who, although he has not attained the age yet to hold office or take any part in politics and has not been elected by you to office, has nevertheless equipped himself with an armed force and has undertaken a war which we have neither voted nor committed to his hands, he not only has no blame to bestow, but actually eulogizes him.

But as to Antony’s other acts, if he committed these villainies as openly and shamelessly as you allege, if he seized upon all Crete on the pretext that in Caesar’s papers it had been left free after the governorship of Brutus,—although it was only later that Brutus was given charge of it by us—how could you have kept silent, and how could any one else have tolerated such acts?

For since the legions had been sent ahead and united, and there was fear that when they heard of Caesar’s assassination they might revolt and, putting some worthless man at their head, go to war once more, you decided, rightly and properly, to place in command of them Antony, the consul, who had brought about harmony and had banished the dictatorship entirely from our system of government.

“Since all this is so, which of the two seems to be in the wrong—Antony, who is directing the forces granted him by us, or Caesar, who has surrounded himself with so large a band of his own? Antony, who has departed to assume the office committed to him by us, or Brutus, who is trying to prevent him from setting foot in the country?

Antony, who keeps our soldiers together, or the soldiers, who have abandoned their commander? Antony, who has not brought into the city a single one of the soldiers who were granted him by us, or Caesar, who has bribed to come here the veterans who were long ago discharged from service?

These were the measures ratified at that time; and not long afterwards, even before learning his decision, they voted that a state of disorder existed, laid aside their senatorial garb, entrusted the war against Antony to the consuls and to Caesar, granting the latter the authority of a praetor,

In this way they themselves provided Antony with his excuse for hostility, although he was eager to make war in any case. He was glad to seize upon the pretext of the decrees, and straightway reproached the envoys with not treating him rightly or fairly as compared with the lad (meaning Caesar).

And in order to place the blame for the war upon the senators, he sent an embassy in his turn, and made some counter-propositions which saved his face but were impossible of performance either by Caesar or by his supporters.

For he said he would abandon Gaul and disband his legions, if they would grant these soldiers the same rewards as they had voted to Caesar’s and would elect Cassius and Marcus Brutus consuls. His purpose in making this last demand was to win over these two men, so that they should not harbour any resentment against him for his operations against their fellow-conspirator Decimus.