conditions
proposed by him. This was exactly what they had been told not to do.
They had carried the orders of the Senate to their rebellious officer,
and then admitted the authority of that rebel by bringing back his
propositions. They were not even allowed to go into Mutina so as to see
Decimus; but they were, in truth, only too well in accord with the
majority of the Senate, whose hearts were with Antony. Anything to those
lovers of their fish-ponds was more desirable than a return to the
loyalty of the Republic. The Deputies were received by the Senate, who
discussed their embassy, and on the next day they met again, when Cicero
pronounced his eighth Philippic. Why he did not speak on the previous
day I do not know. Middleton is somewhat confused in his account.
Morabin says that Cicero was not able to obtain a hearing when the
Deputies were received. The Senate did on that occasion come to a
decision; against which act of pusillanimity Cicero on the following day
expressed himself very vehemently. They had decided that this was not to
be called a war, but rather a tumult, and seem to have hesitated in
denouncing Antony as a public enemy. The Senate was convoked on the next
day to decide the terms of the amnesty to be accorded to the soldiers
who had followed Antony, when Cicero, again throwing aside the minor
matter, burst upon them in his wrath. He had hitherto inveighed against
Antony; now his anger is addressed to the Senate. "Lucius Caesar," he
said, "has told us that he is Antony's uncle, and must vote as such. Are
you all uncles to Antony?" Then he goes on to show that war is the only
name by which this rebellion can be described. "Has not Hirtius, who has
gone away, sick as he is, called it a war? Has not young Caesar, young as
he is, prompted to it by no one, undertaken it as a war?" He repeats the
words of a letter from Hirtius which could only have been used in war:
"I have taken Claterna. Their cavalry has been put to flight. A battle
has been fought. So many men have been killed. This is what you call
peace!" Then he speaks of other civil wars, which he says have grown
from difference of opinion--"except that last between Pompey and Caesar,
as to which I will not speak. I have been ignorant of its cause, and
have hated its ending." But in this war all men are of one opinion who
are worthy of the name of Romans. "We are fighting for the temples of
our gods, for our walls, our homes, for the abode of the R