ero with the danger which they
were made to incur in fighting his battles.[218] To be rid of Cicero was
their desire and their difficulty. He had agreed to go on this
embassy--who can say for what motives? To him it would be a mission of
especial peril. It was one from which he could hardly hope ever to come
back alive. It may be that he had agreed to go with his life in his
hand, and to let them know that he at any rate had been willing to die
for the Republic. It may be that he had heard of some altered
circumstances. But he changed his mind and resolved that he would not
go, unless driven forth by the Senate. There seems to have been a
manifest attempt to get him out of Rome and send him where he might have
his throat cut. But he declined; and this is the speech in which he did
so. "It is impossible," says the French critic, speaking of the twelfth
Philippic, "to surround the word 'I fear' with more imposing oratorical
arguments." It has not occurred to him that Cicero may have thought
that he might even yet do something better with the lees and dregs of
his life than throw them away by thus falling into a trap. Nothing is so
common to men as to fear to die--and nothing more necessary, or men
would soon cease to live. To fear death more than ignominy is the
disgrace--a truth which the French critic does not seem to have
recognized when he twits the memory of Cicero with his scornful sneer.
"J'ai peur." Did it occur to the French critic to ask himself for what
purpose should Cicero go to Antony's camp, where he would probably be
murdered, and by so doing favor the views of his own enemies in Rome?
The deputation was not sent; but in lieu of the deputation Pansa, the
remaining Consul, led his legions out of Rome at the beginning of April.

[Sidenote: B.C. 43, aetat. 64.]

Lepidus, who was Proconsul in Gaul and Northern Spain, wrote a letter at
this time to the Senate recommending them to make peace with Antony.
Cicero in his thirteenth Philippic shows how futile such a peace would
be. That Lepidus was a vain, inconstant man, looking simply to his own
advantage in the side which he might choose, is now understood; but when
this letter was received he was supposed to have much weight in Rome. He
had, however, given some offence to the Senate, not having acknowledged
all the honors which had been paid to him. The advice had been rejected,
and Cicero shows how unfit the man was to give it. This, however, he
still does wit