VIII.  But what is it that he has done himself?  When he had published all these edicts, he issued another, that the senate was to meet in a full house on the twenty-fourth of November.  On that day he himself was not present.  But what were the terms of his edict?  These, I believe, are the exact words of the end of it:  “If any one fails to attend, all men will be at liberty to think him the adviser of my destruction and of most ruinous counsels”.  What are ruinous counsels? those which relate to the recovery of the liberty of the Roman people?  Of those counsels I confess that I have been and still am an adviser and prompter to Caesar.  Although he did not stand in need of any one’s advice, but still I spurned on the willing horse, as it is said.  For what good man would not have advised putting you to death, when on your death depended the safety and life of every good man, and the liberty and dignity of the Roman people?

But when he had summoned us all by so severe an edict, why did he not attend himself?  Do you suppose that he was detained by any melancholy or important occasion?  He was detained drinking and feasting.  If, indeed, it deserves to be called a feast, and not rather gluttony.  He neglected to attend on the day mentioned in his edict, and he adjourned the meeting to the twenty-eighth.  He then summoned us to attend in the Capitol, and at that temple he did arrive himself, coming up through some mine left by the Gauls.  Men came, having been summoned, some of them indeed men of high distinction, but forgetful of what was due to their dignity.  For the day was such, the report of the object of the meeting such, such too the man who had convened the senate, that it was discreditable for a senate to feel no fear for the result.  And yet to those men who had assembled he did not dare to say a single word about Caesar, though he had made up his mind[28] to submit a motion respecting him to the senate.  There was a man of consular rank who had brought a resolution ready drawn up.  Is it not now admitting that he is himself an enemy, when he does not dare to make a motion respecting a man who is leading an army against him while he is consul?  For it is perfectly plain that one of the two must be an enemy, nor is it possible to come to a different decision respecting adverse generals.  If then Caius Caesar be an enemy, why does the consul submit no motion to the senate?  If he does not deserve to be branded by the senate, then what can the consul say, who, by his silence respecting him, has confessed that he himself is an enemy?  In his edicts he styles him Spartacus, while in the senate he does not venture to call him even a bad citizen.