ho that
was really harming the city have you indicted, and who that was really
plotting against us have you brought to light? To neglect the other
cases,--these very charges which you now bring against Antony are of such
a nature and so many that no one could ever suffer any adequate penalty
for them. Why, then, if you saw us being wronged by him at the start, as
you assert, did you never attack or accuse him at the time, instead of
telling us now all the transgressions he committed when tribune, all his
irregularities when master of horse, all his villanies when consul? You
might at once, at the time, in each specific instance, have inflicted the
appropriate penalty upon him, if you had wanted to show yourself in very
deed a patriot, and we could have imposed the punishment in security
and safety during the course of the offences themselves. One of two
conclusions is inevitable,--either that you believed this to be so at the
time and renounced the idea of a struggle in our behalf, or else that you
could not prove any of your charges and are now engaged in a reckless
course of blackmail.

[-11-] "That this is so I will show you clearly, Conscript Fathers, by
going over each point in detail. Antony did say some words during his
tribuneship in Caesar's behalf: Cicero and some others spoke in behalf of
Pompey. Why now does he accuse him of preferring one man's friendship,
but acquit himself and the rest who warmly embraced the opposite cause?
Antony, to be sure, hindered at that time some measures adverse to Caesar
from being passed: and Cicero hindered practically everything that was
known to be favorable to Caesar. 'But Antony obstructed,' he replies, 'the
public judgment of the senate.' Well, now, in the first place, how could
one man have had so much power? Second, if he had been condemned for
this, as is said, how could he have escaped punishment? 'Oh, he fled, he
fled to Caesar and got out of the way.' Of course you, Cicero, did not
'leave town' just now, but you fled, as in your former exile.[16] Don't
be so ready to apply your own shame to all of us. To flee is what you
did, in fear of the court, and pronouncing condemnation on yourself
beforehand. Yes, to be sure, an ordinance was passed for your recall; how
and for what reasons I do not say, but at any rate it was passed, and you
did not set foot in Italy before the recall was granted. But Antony both
went away to Caesar to inform him what had been done and return