to support the ambassador sent by Antonius.  For they said that he ought not to be prevented from returning to Antonius, and they proposed an amendment to my proposition of not receiving him.  Well, I will submit to them.  Let Varius return to his general, but on condition that he never returns to Rome.  And as to the others, if they abandon their errors and return to their duty to the republic, I think they may be pardoned and left unpunished.

Therefore, I give my vote, “That of those men who are with Marcus Antonius, those who abandon his army, and come over either to Caius Pansa or Aulus Hirtius the consuls; or to Decimus Brutus, imperator and consul elect, or to Caius Caesar, propraetor, before the first of March next, shall not be liable to prosecution for having been with Antonius.  That, if any one of those men who are now with Antonius shall do anything which appears entitled to honour or to reward, Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius the consuls, one or both of them, shall, if they think fit, make a motion to the senate respecting that man’s honour or reward, at the earliest opportunity.  That, if, after this resolution of the senate, any one shall go to Antonius except Lucius Varius, the senate will consider that that man has acted as an enemy to the republic.”

* * * * *

THE NINTH ORATION OF M.T.  CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS.  CALLED ALSO THE NINTH PHILIPPIO.

THE ARGUMENT.

Servius Sulpicius, as has been already said, had died on his embassy to Marcus Antonius, before Mutina; and the day after the delivery of the preceding speech, Pansa again called the senate together to deliberate on the honours to be paid to his memory.  He himself proposed a public funeral, a sepulchre, and a statue.  Servilius opposed the statue, as due only to those who had been slain by violence while in discharge of their duties as ambassadors.  Cicero delivered the following oration in support of Pansa’s proposition, which was carried.[42]

I. I wish, O conscript fathers, that the immortal gods had granted to us to return thanks to Servius Sulpicius while alive, rather than thus to devise honours for him now that he is dead.  Nor have I any doubt, but that if that man had been able himself to give us his report of the proceedings of his embassy, his return would have been acceptable to you and salutary to the republic.  Not that either Lucius Piso or Lucius Philippus have been deficient in either zeal or care in the performance of so important a duty and so grave a commission; but, as Servius Sulpicius was superior in age to them, and in wisdom to every one, he, being suddenly taken from the business, left the whole embassy crippled and enfeebled.