erable violence which they offered to them; most unholy lust,
such as the whole life of the Antonii is polluted with.

IV. Is there then any one who is afraid to call those men enemies,
whose wickedness he admits to have surpassed even the inhumanity of
the Carthaginians? For in what city, when taken by storm, did Hannibal
even behave with such ferocity as Antonius did in Parma, which he
filched by surprise? Unless, mayhap, Antonius is not to be considered
the enemy of this colony, and of the others towards which he is
animated with the same feelings. But if he is beyond all question the
enemy of the colonies and municipal towns, then what do you consider
him with respect to this city which he is so eager for, to satiate the
indigence of his band of robbers? which that skilful and experienced
surveyor of his, Saxa, has already marked out with his rule.
Recollect, I entreat you, in the name of the immortal gods, O
conscript fathers, what we have been fearing for the last two days,
in consequence of infamous rumours carefully disseminated by enemies
within the walls. Who has been able to look upon his children or upon
his wife without weeping? who has been able to bear the sight of his
home, of his house, and his household gods? Already all of us were
expecting a most ignominious death, or meditating a miserable flight.
And shall we hesitate to call the men at whose hands we feared
all these things enemies? If any one should propose a more severe
designation I will willingly agree to it; I am hardly content with
this ordinary one, and will certainly not employ a more moderate one.

Therefore, as we are bound to vote, and as Servilius has already
proposed a most just supplication for those letters which have been
read to you; I will propose altogether to increase the number of the
days which it is to last, especially as it is to be decreed in honour
of three generals conjointly. But first of all I will insist on
styling those men imperator by whose valour, and wisdom, and good
fortune we have been released from the most imminent danger of slavery
and death. Indeed, who is there within the last twenty years who
has had a supplication decreed to him without being himself styled
imperator, though he may have performed the most insignificant
exploits, or even almost none at all. Wherefore, the senator who spoke
before me ought either not to have moved for a supplication at all, or
he ought to have paid the usual and establish