The attack was answered in the famous oration which is called the second Philippic[13].  If I could transcribe this speech (which, for other reasons besides its length, I cannot do) it would give us a strange picture of “Roman Life.”  It is almost incredible that a man so shameless and so vile should have been the greatest power in a state still nominally free.  I shall give one extract from it.  Cicero has been speaking of Antony’s purchase of Pompey’s confiscated property.  “He was wild with joy, like a character in a farce; a beggar one day, a millionaire the next.  But, as some writer says, ‘Ill gotten, ill kept.’  It is beyond belief, it is an absolute miracle, how he squandered this vast property—­in a few months do I say?—­no, in a few days.  There was a great cellar of wine, a very great quantity of excellent plate, costly stuffs, plenty of elegant and even splendid furniture, just as one might expect in a man who was affluent without being luxurious.  And of all this within a few days there was left nothing.  Was there ever a Charybdis so devouring?  A Charybdis, do I say? no—­if there ever was such a thing, it was but a single animal.  Good heavens!  I can scarcely believe that the whole ocean could have swallowed up so quickly possessions so numerous, so scattered, and lying at places so distant.  Nothing was locked up, nothing sealed, nothing catalogued.  Whole store-rooms were made a present of to the vilest creatures.  Actors and actresses of burlesque were busy each with plunder of their own.  The mansion was full of dice players and drunkards.  There was drinking from morning to night, and that in many places.  His losses at dice (for even he is not always lucky) kept mounting up.  In the chambers of slaves you might see on the beds the purple coverlets which had belonged to the great Pompey.  No wonder that all this wealth was spent so quickly.  Reckless men so abandoned might well have speedily devoured, not only the patrimony of a single citizen, however ample—­and ample it was—­but whole cities and kingdoms.”

[Footnote 13:  The orations against Antony—­there are fourteen of them—­are called “Philippics,” a name transferred to them from, the great speeches in which Demosthenes attacked Philip of Macedon.  The name seems to have been in common use in Juvenal’s time (circa 110 A.D.)]

The speech was never delivered but circulated in writing.  Toward the end of 44, Antony, who found the army deserting him for the young Octavius, left Rome, and hastened into northern Italy, to attack Decimus Brutus.  Brutus was not strong enough to venture on a battle with him, and shut himself up in Mutina.  Cicero continued to take the leading part in affairs at Rome, delivering the third and fourth Philippics in December, 44, and the ten others during the five months of the following year.  The fourteenth was spoken in the Senate, when the fortunes of the falling republic seem to have revived.  A great battle had been fought at Mutina, in which Antony had been completely defeated; and Cicero proposed thanks to the commanders and troops, and honors to those who had fallen.