among us; and especially in the
case of those among us who deliver our sentiments at length in this
place, they are anxious to know what those sentiments are; and in that
way they judge of each one of us, as they think that he deserves. They
recollect that on the nineteenth of December I was the main cause of
recovering our freedom; that from the first of January to this hour I
have never ceased watching over the republic; that day and night my
house and my ears have been open to the instruction and admonition of
every one; that it has been by my letters, and my messengers, and
my exhortations, that all men in every part of the empire have been
roused to the protection of our country; that it is owing to the open
declaration of my opinion ever since the first of January, that no
ambassadors have been ever sent to Antonius; that I have always called
him a public enemy, and this a war; so that I, who on every occasion
have been the adviser of genuine peace have been a determined enemy to
this pretence of fatal peace.

Have not I also at all times pronounced Ventidius an enemy, when
others wished to call him a tribune of the people? If the consuls had
chosen to divide the senate on my opinion, their arms would long since
have been wrested from the hands of all those robbers by the positive
authority of the senate.

VIII. But what could not be done then, O conscript fathers, at present
not only can be, but even must be done. I mean, those men who are in
reality enemies must be branded in plain language, must be declared
enemies by our formal resolution. Formerly, when I used the words War
or Enemy, men more than once objected to record my proposition among
the other propositions. But that cannot be done on the present
occasion. For in consequence of the letters of Caius Pansa and Aulus
Hirtius, the consuls, and of Caius Caesar, propraetor, we have all
voted that honours be paid to the immortal gods. The very man who
lately proposed and carried a vote for a supplication, without
intending it pronounced those men enemies; for a supplication has
never been decreed for success in civil war. Decreed, do I say? It has
never even been asked for in the letters of the conqueror. Sylla as
consul carried on a civil war; he led his legions into the city and
expelled whomsoever he chose; he slew those whom he had in his power:
there was no mention made of any supplication. The violent war with
Octavius followed. Cinna the conqueror ha