Does he dare to make mention of the Luperci?  Does he not shudder at the recollection of that day on which, smelling of wine, reeking with perfumes, and naked, he dared to exhort the indignant Roman people to embrace slavery?

“You, by a resolution of the senate, have removed the colonies of the veterans which had been legally settled”.

Have we removed them, or have we rather ratified a law which was passed in the comitia centunata?  See, rather, whether it is not you who have ruined these veterans (those at least who are ruined,) and settled them in a place from which they themselves now feel that they shall never be able to make their escape.

“You are promising to restore to the people of Marseilles what has been taken from them by the laws of war.”

I am not going to discuss the laws of war.  It is a discussion far more easy to begin than necessary.  But take notice of this, O conscript fathers, what a born enemy to the republic Antonius is, who is so violent in his hatred of that city which he knows to have been at all times most firmly attached to this republic.

XVI. “[Do you not know] that no one of the party of Pompeius, who is still alive, can, by the Hirtian law, possess any rank?”

What, I should like to know, is the object of now making mention of the Hirtian law?—­a law of which I believe the framer himself repents no less than those against whom it was passed.  According to my opinion, it is utterly wrong to call it a law at all; and, even if it be a law, we ought not to think it a law of Hirtius.

“You have furnished Brutus with money belonging to Apuleius.”

Well?  Suppose the republic had furnished that excellent man with all its treasures and resources, what good man would have disapproved of it?  For without money he could not have supported an army, nor without an army could he have taken your brother prisoner.

“You have praised the execution of Paetus and Menedemus, men who had been presented with the freedom of the city, and who were united by ties of hospitality to Caesar.”

We do not praise what we have never even heard of; we were very likely, in such a state of confusion, and such a critical period of the republic, to busy our minds about two worthless Greeklings!

“You took no notice of Theopompus having been stripped, and driven out by Trebonius, and compelled to flee to Alexandria.”

The senate has indeed been very guilty!  We have taken no notice of that great man Theopompus!  Why, who on earth knows or cares where he is, or what he is doing; or, indeed, whether he is alive or dead?  “You endure the sight of Sergius Galba in your camp, armed with the same dagger with which he slew Caesar.”

I shall make you no reply at all about Galba; a most gallant and courageous citizen.  He will meet you face to face; and he being present, and that dagger which you reproach him with, shall give you your answer.