a fortnight or more spent in preparation, assisted, we are told,
by a professional teacher of eloquence, Antony came down to the Senate
and delivered a savage invective against Cicero. The object of his
attack was again absent. He had wished to attend the meeting, but his
friends hindered him, fearing, not without reason, actual violence from
the armed attendants whom Antony was accustomed to bring into the
senate-house.

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 king