But why need I say more?  Decimus Brutus is attacked.  Is not that war?  Mutina is besieged.  Is not even that war?  Gaul is laid waste.  What peace can be more assured than this?  Who can think of calling that war?  We have sent forth a consul, a most gallant man, with an army, who, though he was in a weak state from a long and serious illness, still thought he ought not to make any excuse when he was summoned to the protection of the republic.  Caius Caesar, indeed, did not wait for our decrees; especially as that conduct of his was not unsuited to his age.  He undertook war against Antonius of his own accord; for there was not yet time to pass a decree; and he saw that, if he let slip the opportunity of waging war, when the republic was crushed it would be impossible to pass any decrees at all.  They and their arms, then, are now at peace.  He is not an enemy whose garrison Hirtius has driven from Claterna; he is not an enemy who is in arms resisting a consul, and attacking a consul elect; and those are not the words of an enemy, nor is that warlike language, which Pansa read just now out of his colleague’s letters:  “I drove out the garrison.”  “I got possession of Claterna.”  “The cavalry were routed.”  “A battle was fought.”  “A good many men were slain.”  What peace can be greater than this?  Levies of troops are ordered throughout all Italy; all exemptions from service are suspended; the robe of war is to be assumed to-morrow, the consul has said that he shall come down to the senate house with an armed guard.

Is not this war?  Ay, it is such a war as has never been.  For in all other wars, and most especially in civil wars, it was a difference as to the political state of the republic which gave rise to the contest.  Sylla contended against Sulpicius about the force of laws which Sylla said had been passed by violence.  Cinna warred against Octavius because of the votes of the new citizens.  Again, Sylla was at variance with Cinna and Marius, in order to prevent unworthy men from attaining power, and to avenge the cruel death of most illustrious men.  The causes of all these wars arose from the zeal of different parties, for what they considered the interest of the republic.  Of the last civil war I cannot bear to speak.  I do not understand the cause of it, I detest the result.

III.  This is the fifth civil war, (and all of them have fallen upon our times,) the first which has not only not brought dissensions and discord among the citizens, but which has been signalised by extraordinary unanimity and incredible concord.  All of them have the same wish, all defend the same objects, all are inspired with the same sentiments.  When I say all, I except those whom no one thinks worthy of being citizens at all.  What, then, is the cause of war, and what is the object aimed at?  We are defending the temples of the immortal gods, we are defending the walls of the city, we are defending the homes and habitations of the Roman people, the household