Does it appear a trifling matter, that he confesses himself a partner with Dolabella in all his atrocities?  Do you not see that all these crimes flow from one source?  He himself confesses, shrewdly and correctly enough, that those who have pronounced Dolabella a public enemy for a most righteous action (for so it appears to Antonius), cannot possibly spare him who agrees with Dolabella in opinion.

XVIII.  What can you do with a man who puts on paper and records the fact, that his agreement with Dolabella is so complete, that he would kill Trebonius, and, if he could, Brutus and Cassius too, with every circumstance of torture; and inflict the same punishment on us also?  Certainly, a man who makes so pious and fair a treaty is a citizen to be taken care of!  He, also, complains that the conditions which he offered, those reasonable and modest conditions, were rejected; namely, that he was to have the further Gaul,—­the province the most suitable of all for renewing and carrying on the war; that the legionaries of the Alauda should be judges in the third decury; that is to say, that there shall be an asylum for all crimes, to the indelible disgrace of the republic; that his own acts should be ratified, his,—­when not one trace of his consulship has been allowed to remain!  He showed his regard also for the interests of Lucius Antonius, who had been a most equitable surveyor of private and public domains, with Nucula and Lento for his colleagues.

“Consider then, both of you, whether it is more becoming and more advantageous for your party, for you to seek to avenge the death of Trebonius, or that of Caesar; and whether it is more reasonable for you and me to meet in battle, in order that the cause of the Pompeians, which has so frequently had its throat cut, may the more easily revive; or to agree together, so as not to be a laughing-stock to our enemies.”

If its throat had been cut, it never could revive.  “Which,” says he, “is more becoming.”  In this war he talks of what is becoming!  “And more advantageous for your party.”—­“Parties,” you senseless man, is a suitable expression for the forum, or the senate house.  You have declared a wicked war against your country; you are attacking Mutina; you are besieging the consul elect; two consuls are carrying on war against you; and with them, Caesar, the propraetor; all Italy is armed against you; and then do you call yours “a party,” instead of a revolt from the republic?  “To seek to avenge the death of Trebonius, or that of Caesar.”  We have avenged Trebonius sufficiently by pronouncing Dolabella a public enemy.  The death of Caesar is best defended by oblivion and silence.  But take notice what his object is.—­When he thinks that the death of Caesar ought to be revenged, he is threatening with death, not those only who perpetrated that action, but those also who were not indignant at it.

XIX.  “Men who will count the destruction of either you or me gain to them.  A spectacle which as yet Fortune herself has taken care to avoid, unwilling to see two armies which belong to one body fighting, with Cicero acting as master of the show; a fellow who is so far happy that he has cajoled you both with the same compliments as those with which he boasted that he had deceived Caesar.”