Why should I mention the threats and insults with which he inveighed against the people of Teanum Sidicinum, with which he harassed the men of Puteoli, because they had adopted Caius Cassius and the Bruti as their patrons? a choice dictated, in truth, by great wisdom, and great zeal, benevolence, and affection for them; not by violence and force of arms, by which men have been compelled to choose you, and Basilus, and others like you both,—­men whom no one would choose to have for his own clients, much less to be their client himself.

XLII.  In the mean time, while you yourself were absent, what a day was that for your colleague when he overturned that tomb in the forum, which you were accustomed to regard with veneration!  And when that action was announced to you, you—­as is agreed upon by all who were with you at the time—­fainted away.  What happened afterwards I know not.  I imagine that terror and arms got the mastery.  At all events, you dragged your colleague down from his heaven; and you rendered him, not even now like yourself, but at all events very unlike his own former self.

After that what a return was that of yours to Rome!  How great was the agitation of the whole city!  We recollected Cinna being too powerful; after him we had seen Sylla with absolute authority, and we had lately beheld Caesar acting as king.  There were perhaps swords, but they were sheathed, and they were not very numerous.  But how great and how barbaric a procession is yours!  Men follow you in battle array with drawn swords; we see whole litters full of shields borne along.  And yet by custom, O conscript fathers, we have become inured and callous to these things.  When on the first of June we wished to come to the senate, as it had been ordained, we were suddenly frightened and forced to flee.  But he, as having no need of a senate, did not miss any of us, and rather rejoiced at our departure, and immediately proceeded to those marvellous exploits of his.  He who had defended the memoranda of Caesar for the sake of his own profit, overturned the laws of Caesar—­and good laws too—­for the sake of being able to agitate the republic.  He increased the number of years that magistrates were to enjoy their provinces; moreover, though he was bound to be the defender of the acts of Caesar, he rescinded them both with reference to public and private transactions.

In public transactions nothing is more authoritative than law; in private affairs the most valid of all deeds is a will.  Of the laws, some he abolished without giving the least notice; others he gave notice of bills to abolish.  Wills he annulled; though they have been at all times held sacred even in the case of the very meanest of the citizens.  As for the statues and pictures which Caesar bequeathed to the people, together with his gardens, those he carried away, some to the house which belonged to Pompeius, and some to Scipio’s villa.