[-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.