gods have all united together to
preserve this republic. For if the immortal gods foreshow us the future,
by means of portents and prodigies, then it has been openly revealed to
us that punishment is near at hand to him, and liberty to us. Or if it
was impossible for such unanimity on the part of all men to exist
without the inspiration of the gods, in either case how can we doubt as
to the inclination of the heavenly deities?

I will act therefore as commanders are in the habit of doing when their
army is ready for battle, who although they see their soldiers ready to
engage, still address an exhortation to them; and in like manner I will
exhort you who are already eager and burning to recover your liberty.
You have not to war against an enemy with whom it is possible to make
peace on any terms whatever. For he does not now desire your slavery, as
he did before, but he is angry now and thirsts for your blood. No sport
appears more delightful to him than bloodshed and slaughter and the
massacre of citizens before his eyes. You have not, O Romans, to deal
with a wicked and profligate man, but with an unnatural, and savage
beast. And since he has fallen into a well let him be buried in it. For
if he escapes out of it there will be no inhumanity of torture which it
will be possible to avoid. But he is at present hemmed in, pressed, and
besieged by those troops which we already have, and will soon be still
more so by those which in a few days the new consuls will levy. Apply
yourselves then to this business, as you are doing. Never have you shown
greater unanimity in any cause, never have you been so cordially united
with the Senate. And no wonder: for the question now is not in what
condition we are to live, but whether we are to live at all, or to
perish with torture and ignominy.

FOOTNOTE:

[27] Taken from the Fourth Philippic, delivered in the Forum at Rome.

III. SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

I. UNDUE LAMENTATIONS OVER THE DEAD

I am ashamed and blush to see unbecoming groups of women pass along the
mart, tearing their hair, cutting their arms and cheeks, and all this
under the eyes of the Greeks. For what will they not say? What will they
not utter concerning us? Are these the men who philosophize about a
resurrection? How poorly their actions agree with their opinions! In
words they philosophize about a resurrection, but they act just like
those who do not acknowledge a resurrection. If they fully believed i