men in the course of those days took one side or the other in their speeches and advice, and among the deliverances was the following, of Cicero:—­[-18-] “You have heard recently, Conscript Fathers, when I made a statement to you about the matter, why I made preparations for my departure as if I were going to be absent from the city a very long time and then returned rapidly with the idea that I could benefit you greatly.  I would not endure an existence under a sovereignty or a tyranny, since under such forms of government I can not enjoy the rights of free[8] citizenship nor speak my mind safely nor die in a way that is of service to you; and again, if opportunity is afforded to obey any of duty’s calls, I would not shrink from action, though it involved danger.  I deem it the task of an upright man equally to keep watch over himself for his country’s interests (guarding himself that he may not perish uselessly), and in this course of action not to fail to say or do whatever is requisite, even if it be necessary to suffer some harm in preserving his native land.

[-19-] “These assumptions granted, a large degree of safety was afforded by Caesar both to you and to me for the discussion of pressing questions.  And since you have further voted to assemble under guard, we must frame all our words and behavior this day in such a fashion as to establish the present state of affairs and provide for the future, that we may not again be compelled to decide in a similar way about it.  That our condition is difficult and dangerous and requires much care and attention you yourselves have made evident, if in no other way, at least by this measure.  For you would not have voted to keep the senate-house under guard, if it had been possible for you to deliberate at all with your accustomed orderliness, and in quiet, free from fear.  It is necessary for us even on account of the presence of the soldiers to accomplish some measure of importance, that we may not incur the disgrace that would certainly follow from asking for them as if we feared somebody, and then neglecting affairs as if we were liable to no danger.  We shall appear to have acquired them only nominally in behalf of the city against Antony, but to have given them in reality to him against our own selves, and it will look as if in addition to the other legions which he gathers against his country he needed to acquire these very men and so prevent your passing any vote against him even to-day.

[-20-] “Yet some have attained such a height of shamelessness as to dare to say that he is not warring against the State and have credited you with so great folly as to think that they will persuade you to attend to their words rather than to his acts.  But who would choose to desist from regarding his performances and the campaign which he has made against our allies without any orders from the senate or the people, the countries which he is overrunning, the cities which he is besieging, and the hopes upon which he is building in his entire course,—­who would distrust, I say, the evidence of his own eyes, and to his ruin yield credence to the words of these men and their false statements, by which they put you off with pretexts and excuses?