XII.  But recollect, I pray you, how that clever man convicted me of being an accomplice in the business.  When Caesar was slain, says he, Marcus Brutus immediately lifted up on high his bloody dagger, and called on Cicero by name; and congratulated him on liberty being recovered.  Why on me above all men?  Because I knew of it beforehand?  Consider rather whether this was not his reason for calling on me, that, when he had performed an action very like those which I myself had done, he called me above all men to witness that he had been an imitator of my exploits.  But you, O stupidest of all men, do not you perceive, that if it is a crime to have wished that Caesar should be slain—­which you accuse me of having wished—­it is a crime also to have rejoiced at his death?  For what is the difference between a man who has advised an action, and one who has approved of it? or what does it signify whether I wished it to be done, or rejoice that it has been done?  Is there any one then, except you yourself and those men who wished him to become a king, who was unwilling that that deed should be done, or who disapproved of it after it was done?  All men, therefore, are guilty as far as this goes.  In truth, all good men, as far as it depended on them, bore a part in the slaying of Caesar.  Some did not know how to contrive it, some had not courage for it, some had no opportunity,—­every one had the inclination.

However, remark the stupidity of this fellow,—­I should rather say, of this brute beast.  For thus he spoke:—­“Marcus Brutus, whom I name to do him honour, holding aloft his bloody dagger, called upon Cicero, from which it must be understood that he was privy to the action.”  Am I then called wicked by you because you suspect that I suspected something; and is he who openly displayed his reeking dagger, named by you that you may do him honour?  Be it so.  Let this stupidity exist in your language:  how much greater is it in your actions and opinions!  Arrange matters in this way at last, O consul; pronounce the cause of the Bruti, of Caius Cassius, of Cnaeus Domitius, of Caius Trebonius and the rest to be whatever you please to call it:  sleep off that intoxication of yours, sleep it off and take breath.  Must one apply a torch to you to waken you while you are sleeping over such an important affair?  Will you never understand that you have to decide whether those men who performed that action are homicides or assertors of freedom?

XIII.  For just consider a little; and for a moment think of the business like a sober man.  I who, as I myself confess, am an intimate friend of those men, and, as you accuse me, an accomplice of theirs, deny that there is any medium between these alternatives.  I confess that they, if they be not deliverers of the Roman people and saviours of the republic, are worse than assassins, worse than homicides, worse even than parricides:  since it is a more atrocious thing to murder the father of one’s country,