simam semper habuisti; et, si ille dies tibi gloriosissimus, populo Romano gratissimus fuit, noli, obsecro, dubitare, C. Caesar, similem illi gloriae laudem quam saepissime quaerere. Nihil est tam populare quam bonitas, nulla de 5 virtutibus tuis plurimis nec admirabilior nec gratior misericordia est. Homines enim ad deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando. Nihil habet nec fortuna tua maius quam ut possis, nec natura melius quam ut velis servare quam plurimos. Longiorem orationem 10 causa forsitan postulet, tua certe natura breviorem. Qua re, cum utilius esse arbitrer te ipsum quam me aut quemquam loqui tecum, finem iam faciam; tantum te admonebo, si illi absenti salutem dederis, praesentibus his omnibus daturum.

THE FOURTEENTH PHILIPPIC

DELIVERED BEFORE THE SENATE, IN THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER, ON THE TWENTY-FIRST OF APRIL, 43 B.C.

INTRODUCTION

CAESAR was assassinated on the fifteenth of March, in the year 44 B.C. Mark Antony, his colleague in the consulship, at once sought safety in concealment, while the conspirators, but feebly supported by the people, fled to the Capitol for shelter. For a time, general consternation prevailed, but a compromise was speedily effected. On the seventeenth of March the senate decreed a general amnesty, appointed a public funeral for Caesar, and confirmed all his acts. Quiet was happily restored, but it was destined to be of short duration. The funeral oration pronounced by Antony over the body of Caesar so wrought upon the feelings of the people that, refusing to allow the remains to be removed to the Campus Martius, they proceeded to burn them with funeral honors in the Forum itself. The wildest excitement prevailed; party spirit was again aroused. Antony, not yet prepared to defy the senate, adopted conciliatory measures, and even proposed the abolition of the dictatorship. In the meantime he was carefully maturing his ambitious designs. He was already in possession of Caesar's papers, and, professing to carry out the measures which he found in them, he began to remit taxes, distribute honors, and recall exiles. In all this he was supported by his colleague, P. Cornelius Dolabella, who had succeeded to the consulship made vacant by the death of Caesar.

In the meantime Cicero, in deep despondency, had left Rome. The bright visions of the restored republic which gladdened his heart on the Ides of March had forever vanished. For the next few months he remained comparatively inactive, and at length embarked for Greece by way of Syracuse; but having been driven back by unfavorable winds to Leucopetra, on the southern coast of Italy, he was informed that favorable tidings had recently been received from Rome, that there was a

prospect of a complete reconciliation of parties, and that the state needed his presence and counsel. Accordingly, abandoning his contemplated visit to Greece, he hastened to Rome, where he arrived on the thirty-first of August. But his expectations were again disappointed. Antony, whose power was still unchecked, had summoned the senate to meet on the following day, to decree new honors to Caesar's memory. Cicero excused himself from attending, on the ground of fatigue and ill health; but Antony rose in his place and assailed the absent senator with a tirade of abuse. On the following day the senate was again in session, but Antony found it convenient to be absent. Cicero was present, and, in the course of debate, delivered his First Philippic. It was a masterly effort. With calm dignity and perfect self-possession, he explained his own course, stated his views of the duties of the hour, and exposed the ambitious designs of Antony.

Cicero delivered fourteen Philippics against Antony. Of these, four were delivered during the last four months of the year 44 B.C. and the other ten during the first four months of 43 B.C.

At the opening of the year 43 B.C. Antony was at the head of his legions in Cisalpine Gaul, which he hoped to wrest from Decimus Brutus, to whom that province had been assigned by Caesar and the senate, but about the twentieth of April the glad tidings reached Rome that he had been defeated in a bloody battle by the consul Pansa. The next day the senate met in the Temple of Jupiter, and Cicero rose in his place and delivered the Fourteenth Philippic. A motion was before the house that a thanksgiving should be decreed to the immortal gods for their gracious intervention at this crisis in the history of the republic. He seconded the motion with the amendment that the number of days should be increased to fifty, that the title of imperator should be conferred upon the two consuls and upon Octavianus, who had espoused the cause of the senate, and that a magnificent monument should be erected to those who had fallen in the battle.

EXORDIUM, I

It has been proposed that we should return to the garb of peace; but until Brutus is relieved, the war is not over.

1. Si, ut ex litteris quae recitatae sunt, patres conscripti, sceleratissimorum hostium exercitum caesum fusumque cognovi, sic id quod et omnes maxime optamus et ex ea victoria quae parta est consecutum arbitramur, D. Brutum egressum iam Mutina esse cognovissem, propter cuius 5 periculum ad saga issemus, propter eiusdem salutem redeundum ad pristinum vestitum sine ulla dubitatione censerem. Ante vero quam sit ea res, quam avidissime civitas exspectat, adlata, laetitia frui satis est maximae praeclarissimaeque pugnae; reditum ad vestitum confectae victo- 10 riae reservate. Confectio autem huius belli est D. Bruti

salus.

Quae autem est ista sententia, ut in hodiernum diem vestitus mutetur, deinde cras sagati prodeamus? Nos vero cum semel ad eum quem cupimus optamusque vesti- 15 tum redierimus, id agamus, ut eum in perpetuum retineamus. Nam hoc quidem cum turpe est tum ne dis quidem immortalibus gratum, ab eorum aris, ad quas togati adierimus, ad saga sumenda discedere. Atque animadverto, patres conscripti, quosdam huic favere sententiae; quorum 20 ea mens idque consilium est, ut cum videant gloriosissimum illum D. Bruto futurum diem, quo die propter eius salutem redierimus ad vestitum, hunc ei fructum eripere cupiant, ne memoriae posteritatique prodatur propter unius civis periculum populum Romanum ad saga isse, propter 25 eiusdem salutem redisse ad togas. Tollite hanc; nullam tam pravae sententiae causam reperietis. Vos vero, patres

conscripti, conservate auctoritatem vestram, manete in sententia, tenete vestra memoria, quod saepe ostendistis, huius totius belli in unius viri fortissimi et maximi vita positum esse discrimen.

NARRATIO, 2

Our armies have taken the field for the sole purpose of raising the siege, and we must not tempt Fortune by premature rejoicing.

2. Ad D. Brutum liberandum legati missi principes civitatis, qui illi hosti ac parricidae denuntiarent ut a

OCTAVIANUS

Subsequently Augustus Caesar

Mutina discederet; eiusdem D. Bruti conservandi gratia consul sortitu ad bellum profectus A. Hirtius, cuius imbecillitatem valetudinis animi virtus et spes victoriae confirmavit; Caesar cum exercitu per se comparato, cum prius pestibus rem publicam liberasset, ne quid postea sceleris oriretur, profectus est ad eundem Brutum liberandum vicitque dolorem aliquem domesticum patriae caritate.

Quid C. Pansa egit

aliud dilectibus habendis, pecuniis comparandis, senatus consultis faciendis gravissimis in Antonium, nobis cohor