lease. All the Caphons,[40]
all the Saxas, and the other plagues which attend Antonius, are
marking out for themselves in their own minds most beautiful houses,
and gardens, and villas, at Tusculum and Alba; and those clownish
men--if indeed they are men, and not rather brute beasts--are borne on
in their empty hopes as far as the waters and Puteoli. So Antonius
has something to promise to his followers. What can we do? Have we
anything of the sort? May the gods grant us a better fate! for our
express object is to prevent any one at all from hereafter making
similar promises. I say this against my will, still I must say
it;--the auction sanctioned by Caesar, O conscript fathers, gives
many wicked men both hope and audacity. For they saw some men become
suddenly rich from having been beggars. Therefore, those men who are
hanging over our property, and to whom Antonius promises everything,
are always longing to see an auction. What can we do? What do we
promise our soldiers? Things much better and more honourable. For
promises to be earned by wicked actions are pernicious both to those
who expect them, and to those who promise them. We promise to our
soldiers freedom, rights, laws, justice, the empire of the world,
dignity, peace, tranquillity. The promises then of Antonius are
bloody, polluted, wicked, odious to gods and men, neither lasting nor
salutary; ours, on the other hand, are honourable, upright, glorious,
full of happiness, and full of piety.

IV. Here also Quintus Fufius, a brave and energetic man, and a friend
of mine, reminds me of the advantages of peace. As if, if it were
necessary to praise peace, I could not do it myself quite as well as
he. For is it once only that I have defended peace? Have I not at all
times laboured for tranquillity? which is desirable for all good
men, but especially for me. For what course could my industry pursue
without forensic causes, without laws, without courts of justice? and
these things can have no existence when civil peace is taken away. But
I want to know what you mean, O Calenus? Do you call slavery peace?
Our ancestors used to take up arms not merely to secure their freedom,
but also to acquire empire; you think that we ought to throw away our
arms, in order to become slaves. What juster cause is there for waging
war than the wish to repel slavery? in which, even if one's master be
not tyrannical, yet it is a most miserable thing that he should be
able to be so if he