advantage of the republic. And that most excellent
service done by Decimus Brutus to the republic, is and always will be
grateful to the senate and people of Rome. Therefore, the senate and
the Roman people is of opinion that the exertions, and prudence,
and virtue of Decimus Brutus, imperator and consul elect, and the
incredible zeal and unanimity of the province of Gaul, have been a
great assistance to the republic, at a most critical time."

What honour, O conscript fathers, can be too great to be due to such a
mighty service as this of Brutus, and to such important aid as he
has afforded the republic? For if Gaul had been open to Marcus
Antonius--if after having overwhelmed the municipal towns and colonies
unprepared to resist him, he had been able to penetrate into that
further Gaul--what great danger would have hung over the republic!
That most insane of men, that man so headlong and furious in all his
courses, would have been likely, I suppose, to hesitate at waging war
against us, not only with his own army, but with all the savage troops
of barbarism, so that even the wall of the Alps would not have enabled
us to check his frenzy. These thanks then will be deservedly paid
to Decimus Brutus, who, before any authority of yours had been
interposed, acting on his own judgment and responsibility, refused to
receive him as consul, but repelled him from Gaul as an enemy, and
preferred to be besieged himself rather than to allow this city to be
so. Let him therefore have, by your decree, an everlasting testimony
to this most important and glorious action, and let Gaul,[35] which
always is and has been a protection to this empire and to the general
liberty, be deservedly and truly praised for not having surrendered
herself and her power to Antonius, but for having opposed him with
them.

XIV. And, furthermore, I give my vote that the most ample honours be
decreed to Marcus Lepidus, as a reward for his eminent services to the
republic. He has at all times wished the Roman people to be free, and
he gave the greatest proof of his inclination and opinion on that day,
when, while Antonius was placing the diadem on Caesar's head, he turned
his face away, and by his groans and sorrow showed plainly what a
hatred of slavery he had, how desirous he was for the Roman people to
be free, and how he had endured those things which he had endured more
because of the necessity of the times, than because they harmonised
with his sent