20 December 44 BCE: The Third Philippic

Cicero starts to convince the Senate to move against Antony

Salvete, patres subscripti.

Again, this isn’t a letter; it’s the third of Cicero’s Philippic orations. As always, I’ve chosen to include these in e-pistulae for several reasons: they provide political context for most of the rest of Cicero’s letters; they are Cicero’s other ‘serialised’ work from this period; and the Second Philippic was published rather than being delivered… and then passed around in A Letter-like Manner.

The translation is by W.C.A. Ker, taken from Attalus, with a few minor edits, and the footnotes (marked ‘**’) link to Ker’s footnotes on Attalus. Thankfully this one fits in an email. Thanks, Cicero!

The context (as you will find out from today’s letter to Decimus Brutus): On December 20th the Tribunes of the Plebs called a meeting of the Senate to discuss some form of protection for Hirtius and Pansa, who would take office as the new consuls on January 1st. Cicero was not going to attend, but on the same day an edict of Decimus Brutus reached Rome, in which he stated that he would not hand over governorship of his province to Antony, who was on his way there. Cicero took this as an opportunity to defend Decimus’ (and Octavian’s) actions, as well as to attack Antony. Cicero refers to Octavian as ‘Gaius Caesar’ throughout the speech.

Cicero ends the speech by moving that Decimus Brutus’ actions in Gaul, as well as Octavian’s in and around Rome, be retroactively authorised; that the current provincial governors should retain their provinces until the Senate appointed their successors (thus nullifying Antony’s reallocation of provinces on November 28th); and that Octavian and his army of veterans should be honoured for defending the Republic from Antony. The Senate passed this motion, almost unanimously. 

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This meeting, conscript fathers, is altogether later than the public emergency demanded, yet at length we have been called together; a step I for my part urged daily, seeing as I did that an iniquitous war against our altars and hearths, against our lives and fortunes, was no longer being prepared, but was already being waged by a profligate and abandoned man. We are waiting for the Kalends of January; but Antonius does not wait for them; he is attempting with an army to attack the province of that eminent and remarkable man Decimus Brutus; and from it, when he has completed his equipment and preparation, he threatens a descent upon the city. What then means this waiting and delay even for the shortest time? For though the Kalends of January are at hand, yet a short time is long if men be unprepared; for a day, or rather an hour, unless there has been forethought, often brings great disasters; and an appointed day is not, as a rule, waited for in the taking of counsel as it is in sacrifices.

But if either the Kalends of January had fallen on the day when Antonius first fled from the city, or we had not waited for it, we should not now be having any war, for by the authority of the Senate and the unanimous support of the Roman people we should easily have broken the audacity of a madman. This I indeed trust the consuls elect, as soon as they enter upon their office, will do; for they are men of the best intentions, of the highest judgement, and of remarkable agreement. But my eagerness covets, not merely victory, but also speedy decision. For how long will a war, so serious, so cruel, so nefarious, be averted by private initiatives? ** why are they not supported at the earliest possible moment by the authority of the State?

Gaius Caesar, a young man, or rather almost a boy, but one of incredible, and, as it were, god-like intelligence and courage, at the very time when Antonius' frenzy was at its greatest heat, and when his cruel and deadly return from Brundisium was dreaded, while we were not asking for, or thinking of, assistance, nor even hoping for it, for it seemed impossible, collected a very stout army of the invincible class of veterans, and lavished his patrimony - though I have not used the proper phrase; for he did not lavish it, he invested it in the salvation of the Republic. And although we cannot recompense him to the extent our debt to him requires, yet we should feel a gratitude the greatest our hearts can conceive.

For who is so blind to events, so thoughtless for the Republic, as not to understand this, that, if Marcus Antonius had been able to reach Rome, as he threatened, with the forces he had thought to have, he would have omitted no kind of cruelty, seeing that, under his host's roof at Brundisium, he commanded the butchery of the bravest of men and the best of citizens, with whose blood, as they were dying at his feet, it was well known his wife's face was besprinkled? Steeped as he was in such cruelty, since he was becoming much more enraged against us all than he had been against those whom he had murdered, which of us, I ask, or what honest man whatever, would he have spared?

From this calamity Caesar on his own initiative - it could not be otherwise - has freed the Republic. Had he not been born in this commonwealth, we should, by the crime of Antonius, now possess no commonwealth at all. For this is my belief, this my judgement: had not a single youth withstood that madman's attack and most cruel attempts, the commonwealth would have utterly perished. On him indeed to-day, conscript fathers, - for we are now for the first time assembled with power, thanks to him, freely to utter our sentiments - we must confer authority to enable him to defend the commonwealth, as a charge not merely undertaken by him, but entrusted to him by us.

And indeed, now we are permitted, after a long interval, to speak on the affairs of the Republic, we cannot be silent regarding the Martian legion. For what single person has ever been braver, who more friendly to the Republic than the whole of the Martian legion? Having decided, as it did, that Marcus Antonius was an enemy of the Roman people, it refused to be an ally of his madness; it abandoned a consul - it certainly would not have done that had it judged him to be a real consul - whom it saw to be aiming at, and striving for nothing but the slaughter of citizens and the destruction of the State. And then that legion took up its station at Alba. What city could it have chosen either more conveniently placed for action, or more loyal, or consisting of braver men, or of citizens more friendly to the Republic?

Copying the courage of this legion, the fourth legion, under the command of Lucius Egnatuleius the quaestor, a most loyal and brave citizen, attached itself to the command and army of Gaius Caesar. We therefore, conscript fathers, must see that what a most noble young man has of his own motion done and is doing should be ratified by our authority; and that the wonderful unanimity of the heroic veterans, and especially of the Martian and of the fourth legion, for the re-establishment of the Republic may be sanctioned by our praise and warrant; and we must engage to-day that when the consuls elect enter upon their office, their interests, honours, and rewards shall be our care.

And what I have said of Caesar and of his army has long been known to us. For by Caesar's admirable courage, and the staunchness of the veteran soldiers, and of those legions which with the finest judgement have come to the aid of your authority, of the liberty of the Roman people, and of Caesar's courageous action, Antonius has been cast off from our necks. These things however are, as I have said, earlier; but the recent edict ** of Decimus Brutus issued a short time since certainly cannot be passed over in silence. For he promises to keep the province of Gaul within the jurisdiction of the Senate and Roman people. Truly a citizen born to serve the Republic, mindful of the name he bears, and an imitator of his ancestors! For our ancestors' longing for liberty when Tarquin was expelled was not so great as ours should be to retain it now Antonius has been driven off; they had learned ever since the foundation of the city to obey kings; we after the eviction of the kings had forgotten our servitude. And that Tarquin whom our ancestors would not brook was not considered and called cruel, not impious, but ‘The Proud,’ a fault which we have often brooked in private individuals, but which our ancestors could not brook even in a king.

Lucius Brutus did not brook a proud king; shall Decimus Brutus endure the reign of the accursed and impious Antonius? What single act did Tarquin do of the innumerable acts Antonius is both doing and has done? Even the kings had a Senate; and yet no armed barbarians were present in the king's council as when Antonius holds a Senate. The kings observed the auspices, which this consul and augur has neglected, not only by proposing laws in defiance of the auspices, but also with that very colleague joining in the proposal whose election he had annulled by falsifying the auspices. Again, what king was so signally shameless as to regard all the interests, the grants, the laws of the kingdom as objects of sale? what exemption, what citizenship, what reward, has not this man sold, either to individuals, or to States, or to whole provinces?

We have heard of Tarquin nothing mean, nothing sordid; but at this man's house amid the women's work-baskets gold used to be weighed, moneys counted; in one man's house all those whose concern it was used to traffic with the whole empire of the Roman people. We certainly have heard of no punishments inflicted by Tarquin on Roman citizens; but this man both at Suessa butchered those he had captured, and at Brundisium murdered as many as three hundred of the bravest men and best of citizens. Lastly, Tarquin was carrying on war on behalf of the Roman people at the time he was expelled; Antonius was leading an army against the Roman people at the time when, deserted by his legions, he quailed at the name of Caesar and his army, and, neglecting the usual sacrifices, uttered before daylight those solemn vows ** he was never fated to fulfil; and at this time he is trying to invade a province of the Roman people. Greater then is the benefit the Roman people both has and expects from Decimus Brutus than our ancestors received from Lucius Brutus, the founder of a race and name that should be, above everything, preserved.

But while all slavery is wretched, it is especially intolerable to be slaves of a man debauched, immodest, effeminate, even when in fear never sober. He then who debars this man from the province of Gaul, especially when he does so on his individual judgement, decides, and most truly decides, that he is no consul. We must see then, conscript fathers, that we ratify by our general authority the individual judgement of Decimus Brutus. And of a truth you ought not to have thought Marcus Antonius a consul after the Lupercalia. For on the day when, before the eyes of the Roman people, he harangued while naked, anointed, and drunk, and aimed at placing a diadem on his colleague's head - on that day he abdicated, not his consulship only, but also his freedom; for he himself would certainly have been at once a slave had Caesar been willing to accept the tokens of royalty. Am I then to consider this man a consul, this man a Roman citizen, this man a free man, in a word, this man a human being, who on that foul and iniquitous day showed what he could endure while Gaius Caesar was alive, and what he himself wished to gain for himself when he was dead?

Nor indeed can the courage, the staunchness, the constancy of the province of Gaul be passed over in silence. For that is the flower of Italy, that the mainstay of the empire of the Roman people, that the ornament of its dignity. And so great is the unanimity of the boroughs and colonies of the province of Gaul, that all seem to have united to defend the authority of this our order and the majesty of the Roman people. Wherefore, tribunes of the plebs, though you moved merely for a guard that the consuls might on the Kalends of January be able in safety to hold a Senate, yet you appear to me to have, with great judgement and with the best design, enabled us to speak generally on the affairs of the Republic; for when you decided that a Senate could not safely be held without a guard, you then determined that even within the walls the villainy and audacity of Antonius were at work.

Wherefore I shall summarise the whole question by recording my vote - not, I perceive, against your wishes - that authority be given by us to most eminent generals, and hope of reward held out to most gallant soldiers, and that Antonius, not by words, but by deeds, may be adjudged to be not merely no consul, but also a public enemy. For if that man is a consul the legions that have deserted the consul have deserved death by the cudgel, Caesar is a criminal, Brutus is a villain, who of their own motion have levied armies to oppose a consul. But if new honours for the soldiers are to be devised to requite their god-like and immortal service, and if it be not even possible adequately to requite our generals, who is there but must count him an enemy when those who are in arms against him are adjudged saviours of the Republic?

But how insulting he is in his edicts! how boorish! how ignorant! First of all he has heaped on Caesar abuse culled from the recollection of his own indecency and licentiousness. For who is chaster than this young man? who more modest? What brighter example among youth have we of old-world purity? Who, on the contrary, is more unchaste than the calumniator? He taunts the son of Gaius Caesar with the meanness of his birth, though his actual father too would have been a consul ** had his life lasted. ‘His mother was from Aricia’ - you might think he was speaking of a woman from Tralles or Ephesus!

Mark how all of us who come from municipia are looked down upon - I mean absolutely all; for how few of us do not so come? And what municipium does he not despise when he so utterly looks down upon the borough of Aricia, one in antiquity the most ancient, by treaty allied to us, in situation almost our neighbour, in the high repute of its burghers most honourable? Hence were derived the Voconian, hence the Atinian laws; ** hence came many curule magistrates within the memory of our fathers and our own; hence have sprung Roman knights of great wealth, and many in number. But if you disapprove of a wife from Aricia, why do you approve of one from Tusculum? And yet the one was a most pure and excellent woman, whose father Marcus Atius Balbus, ** an especially worthy man, was an ex-praetor; your wife, a good enough woman, at any rate a rich one, had for father a certain Bambalio, a person of no account. He was the most contemptible fellow in the world, who, by the hesitancy of his speech, and the dullness of his mind, got a name by way of a jibe. **

‘But his grandfather was noble.’ That Tuditanus you mean, of course, who in tragic robe and buskins used from the rostra to scatter coins among the people. I wish he had bequeathed his family such scorn of money! You possess a nobility of race quite glorious! But how does it happen that one descended from a Julia ** seems ignoble to you, when you are wont to exult in your descent from the same maternal stock? Moreover, what madness it is that a man should allude to the ignoble birth of wives, when his father had to wife Numitoria of Fregellae, the daughter of a traitor, and he himself has recognised his children by the daughter of a freedman! But let this matter be settled by such eminent men as Lucius Philippus who has a wife from Aricia, and Gaius Marcellus who married the daughter of one from Aricia; they, I know well, are not dissatisfied with the rank of these excellent women.

He also abuses Quintus Cicero, my brother's son, in his edict, and the madman does not perceive that his naming him is a recommendation. For what more desirable thing could happen to this young man than to be recognised by all as the partner of Caesar's counsels and the enemy of Antonius' frenzy? But the gladiator has even dared to say in writing that Quintus had plotted the murder of his father and his uncle. What marvellous impudence, audacity, and recklessness! to dare to make the charge in writing against a young man who, by the sweetness and excellence of his character, and eminent abilities, arouses in me and my brother a rivalry of affection, and whom with eyes and ears and enfolding arms we cherish every hour! For, as to myself, he does not know whether he is wounding or praising me by these same edicts. When he threatens the most loyal citizens with the same punishment as I exacted from the greatest and vilest criminals he appears to be praising me, as though he wished to imitate me; but when he evokes afresh the memory of that most glorious deed, ** then he imagines that some odium is shifted from persons like himself on to my shoulders.

But what did he do himself? When he had issued all these edicts he gave notice that there should be a full meeting of the Senate on the 24th of November. On that day he himself was absent. But what was the character of his notice? These are, I think, the words at the end: ‘If anyone is not present, all men will be able to regard him as one who advocates both my destruction and the most abandoned counsels.’

What are ‘abandoned counsels’? are they such as aim at the recovery of the liberty of the Roman people? of which counsels I confess I am and have been to Caesar the supporter and the advocate. He, however, did not need any man's counsel: I urged, as the saying is, a willing horse, For of your destruction what loyal citizen would not be the advocate, seeing that in that consisted the safety and the life of every loyal man and the liberty and dignity of the Roman people?

But, after calling us together by so violent an edict, why was he himself not present? Do you think it was because of some sad and serious matter? He was detained by a drinking-bout and a feast - if that should be called a feast rather than a tavern blow-out - and failed to come up to the appointed day; he postponed the Senate till the 28th of November. He ordered us to meet in the Capitol; and came up to the Temple by some underground passage of the Gauls. ** Thus summoned, the assembly was held, and some indeed were men of note, but unmindful of their dignity; for, considering the day, the common talk, and who it was convened the Senate, the Senator was dishonoured who was without fear, ** Yet to that assembly, such as it was, he did not venture to say even a word concerning Caesar, ** although he had determined to make a motion about him in the Senate; a certain consular had brought the terms of the motion in draft. When he does not venture to make a motion about the man who was marching against him with an army, though he was consul, what else is this than to adjudge himself a public enemy? For necessarily one or the other was an enemy: no other judgement on the opposing leaders was possible. If then Caesar was an enemy, why was the consul not to move the Senate? but if Caesar was not so to be stigmatised by the Senate, what can Antonius say but that, in keeping silence about Caesar, he confessed himself to be an enemy? the man whom in his edicts he calls Spartacus ** in the Senate he does not dare even to call dishonest.

But on the saddest topics what laughter does he excite! I have committed to memory some pretty phrases of a certain edict; these he apparently thinks very acute; but I have so far not found anyone that understood what he meant.

‘No insult is that which the worthy makes.’ First of all, what is ‘worthy’? for many are worthy of misfortune, like himself. Is it the insult ‘made’ by a man of worth? But what greater insult can there be? Again, what is the meaning of ‘to make insult’? Who talks like that? **

Secondly: ‘Nor is a charge of 'fear' made by an adversary anything.’ What then? is a charge of fear usually made by a friend? Similar expressions follow. Would it not be better to be dumb than to say what no one understands? Mark the reason why his master ** has abandoned tirades for tillage, and possesses of public land two thousand iugera of Leontine territory free from taxes: it was to make a fool more fatuous still, and at the public cost.

But these matters are perhaps too trivial; what I ask is this - why he was so tame in the Senate, although in his edicts he had been so wild. For what occasion was there to threaten with death, if he came into the Senate, Lucius Cassius, tribune of the plebs, a very brave and steadfast citizen? to drive out of the Senate by violence and threats of death Decimus Carfulenus, a man well-affected towards the Republic? to debar, not only from the Temple, but also from the approaches to the Capitol, Tiberius Cannutius, by whom he had been often and rightly assailed with the most honest arguments? On what decree of the Senate did he fear they would put their veto? On that, I suppose, concerning public thanks to that most illustrious man, Marcus Lepidus. But what risk was there that, while we were every day thinking how we could confer upon him some extraordinary honour, he might be prevented from receiving that which was customary?

And that he might not appear to have given notice of a meeting of the Senate without cause, he was about to make a motion on the affairs of the Republic, when, on receiving the news about the fourth legion, ** he was dumbfounded, and, in his haste to fly, caused the Senate's decree on the public thanksgiving to be passed by a division, ** although that had been done before on no single occasion.

But what a setting-out there was afterwards! what a journey, and made in military cloak! ** what an avoidance of men's eyes, of the light of day, of the city, of the forum! how sorry was his flight, how scandalous, how disgraceful! Yet splendid were the decrees of the Senate made on that very day after nightfall **; scrupulously exact was the allotment of the provinces; truly Heaven-directed the fitness whereby what suited each individual should come to that individual! You do splendidly therefore, tribunes of the plebs, in moving the question of the protection of the consuls and Senate, and for your service all of us ought to express and to feel the greatest gratitude to you. Tor how can we be free from danger amid such cupidity and audacity of men? and where does that ruined and abandoned man expect heavier judgments on himself than from his own friends? His closest intimate, a friend of mine, Lucius Lentulus, and Publius Naso, a man devoid of all covetousness, have decided that they have no province, that the allotment made by Marcus Antonius was invalid. Lucius Philippus, a man eminently worthy of his father, his grandfather, and his ancestors, has done the same thing; of the same opinion was Gaius Turranius, a man of the greatest integrity and purity of life; Spurius Oppius has done the same; the very men too who, out of regard to their friendship with Marcus Antonius, have paid him more respect than perhaps they wished, Marcus Piso, my connexion, excellent as a man and as a citizen, and Marcus Vehilius, one of equal probity, have stated they will bow to the authority of the Senate. What shall I say of Lucius Cinna? whose singular integrity, proved in many important affairs, has made the glory won by this most honourable action less a matter of wonder. He has altogether disregarded his province; and Gaius Cestius also has with great spirit and firmness repudiated his.

Who then are left for the Heaven-sent allotment to delight? Lucius Annius and Marcus Antonius! A happy pair! nothing they wished more. Gaius Antonius gets Macedonia. He also is happy; for this province he had always in his eye. Gaius Calvisius gets Africa, Nothing could be happier; for he had just returned from Africa, and divining, as it were, his return, had left two legates at Utica. Next to Marcus Cusinius belongs Sicily, to Quintus Cassius Spain. I have no ground for suspicion; I fancy the allotment of these two provinces was less the work of Heaven. **

O Gaius Caesar! - I call on the young man - what safety have you brought the Republic! safety how unlooked for! how sudden! For if the man did these things as a fugitive, what would he do if he were in pursuit? For he had declared in an harangue that he would be the city's guardian, and would keep his army by the city till the Kalends of May. What an excellent guardian of sheep, say they, is a wolf! ** Would Antonius be the guardian of the city, or rather its plunderer and harasser? And he said indeed that he would enter and go out of the city when he chose. ** And what of this too? Did he not, in the hearing of the people, say, while sitting in front of the temple of Castor, that, except of the victors, no man should be left alive?

Today for the first time, conscript fathers, after a long interval we set our feet in possession of liberty; of which I, so far as I could, have been, not the mere defender, but even the saviour. When I could not do that, I remained quiet, and - not abjectly or without a measure of dignity - bore those chances of the times and my own sorrow. But this most savage beast - who can bear him, and how? What is there in Antonius save lust, cruelty, insolence, audacity? Of these qualities he is wholly compacted; nothing shows in him of good feeling, of moderation, of modesty, of chastity. Wherefore, since matters have been brought to the point that we must decide whether he should pay penalties to the Republic, or we be slaves, by Heaven! conscript fathers, let us at length put on our fathers' spirit and courage, so that either we may recover the native liberty of the Roman race and name, or prefer death to slavery. Many things unendurable in a free community we have borne and endured, some of us perhaps in the hope of recovering liberty, others through excessive desire of life; but if we have borne the things which necessity, which a force, almost that of fate, has compelled us to bear - and yet bear them we did not - shall we also bear the most savage and cruel tyranny of this foul brigand?

What will this man do, if he once be able, in his anger, when, with no ability to show wrath against anyone, he has become the enemy of all good men? what will he not dare to do as a victor when, without gaining any victory, he, after Caesar's death, has committed such crimes? He has gutted Caesar's well-furnished house; pillaged his gardens; from them transferred to himself all their appointments; sought in his funeral an excuse for massacre and arson; after passing two or three good decrees of the Senate in the interests of the Republic has reduced everything else to a question of profit and plunder; sold exemptions; freed communities from tribute; taken whole provinces out of the jurisdiction of the empire of the Roman people; recalled exiles; caused false laws and false decrees in the name of Gaius Caesar ** to be engraved on brass and posted in the Capitol, and of all those things has constituted a market in his house; imposed laws on the Roman people; with armed guards shut the people and the magistrates out of the forum; surrounded the Senate with armed men; shut armed men in the shrine of Concord when he held a Senate; run off to Brundisium to the legions; of their number butchered most loyal centurions; attempted to march on Rome with an army to destroy us and portion out the city.

And though he has been dragged off from this assault by Caesar's skill and forces, by the unanimity of the veterans, and the courage of the legions, even: in his broken fortunes he does not abate his audacity or cease his mad rush and frenzy. He is leading a mutilated army into Gaul; with a single legion, and that wavering, he is waiting for his brother Lucius, the closest match to himself he can find. That man - once a matador, now a commander - once a gladiator, now a general - what havoc has he caused wherever he has planted his foot! He empties wine-cellars, slaughters herds of cattle and of other beasts whatever he got hold of; his soldiers banquet; and he himself, in imitation of his brother, drowns himself in wine; fields are devastated; villas plundered; mothers of families, virgins, boys of good birth are carried off and given to the soldiers. These same things, wherever he led his army, were done by Marcus Antonius.

Is it to these most noisome brothers that you will open your gates? these that you will at any time admit into the city? Shall we not, now the occasion is offered, our leaders ready, the spirit of the soldiers stirred, the Roman people one in spirit, all Italy roused for the recovery of liberty, avail ourselves of the bounty of the immortal Gods? There will be no opportunity if you lose this. In rear, in front, on his flanks he will be held if he come into Gaul. Nor is it by arms only that he must be harassed, but also by decrees, Great is the force, great the divine majesty of a Senate with one and the same mind. Do you not see the packed forum, and how the Roman people is encouraged to hope for the recovery of their liberty? for now that after a long interval it has seen us assembled here in numbers, it hopes we have also met together as free men.

It was for this day I was waiting when I avoided the accursed arms of Marcus Antonius, when, inveighing against me in my absence, he did not understand the occasion for which I was reserving myself and my strength. For if I had been willing then to reply to him when he was looking for me as the first-fruit of a massacre, I should not now have been able to espouse the cause of the Republic. But, now I have gained this opportunity, I will let no moment pass, by day or night, without thought for the liberty of the Roman people and your dignity where thought is required; where action and deeds, I will not only not refuse, I will even seek and demand to act and do. This I did while I was allowed; I desisted so long as I was not allowed. Now not only is it allowed, but it is also imperative, unless we prefer to be slaves rather than to strive with weapon and spirit against slavery. The immortal Gods have given us these safeguards - for the city, Caesar, Brutus for Gaul; for if that man had been able to overpower the city, then at once, or, if he had been able to hold Gaul, soon after, every loyal citizen would have perished, and the rest been slaves.

Seize then, by the immortal Gods, this occasion offered you, conscript fathers, and at length remember you are the leaders of the proudest council in the world; give the Roman people a sign that your counsel does not fail the Republic, for that people declares that its courage will not fail. There is no need for my warning you. No man is so foolish as not to understand that, if we sleep on this crisis, we must bear a tyranny, not merely cruel and arrogant, but also ignominious and infamous. You know Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole household. Slavery under men lustful, wanton, foul, unchaste, gamblers and drunkards, this is the utmost misery allied with the utmost disgrace.

But if already - may the Gods avert the omen! - the Republic has been brought to its latest pass, let us, the leaders of the world and of all nations, do what stout gladiators do to die with honour, let us fall with dignity rather than serve with ignominy. Nothing is more detestable than disgrace, nothing fouler than servitude. It is to glory and to liberty we were born; let us either hold fast to these or die with dignity. Too long have we veiled our feelings; now the matter is clear; all make plain on either side what they feel and what they wish. Disloyal citizens there are, gauged by our love of our Republic too many, yet, as against a multitude of the well-disposed, very few; to crush them the immortal Gods have given the Republic a marvellous power and opportunity. For to the safeguards we have will presently be added consuls of the highest judgement, courage, and unanimity, men that have these many months taken thought and consideration for the liberty of the Roman people. With these as our counsellors and leaders, with the help of the Gods, with ourselves alert and exercising full forethought for the future, with the Roman people in agreement, we shall surely be free in a short time; and our remembrance of servitude will lend an added charm to liberty.

On these accounts, as the tribunes of the plebs have spoken to ensure the Senate's assembling in safety in the Kalends of January, and the free expression of opinion on the highest matters of State, on that matter I move:

That Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls elect, see to it that the Senate can be held in safety on the Kalends of January. And, whereas an edict of Decimus Brutus, general and consul elect, has been issued, the Senate is of opinion that Decimus Brutus, general and consul elect, has deserved excellently of the republic in defending the authority of the Senate and the liberty and empire of the Roman people; and whereas he is keeping the province of Hither Gaul, one inhabited by citizens of the greatest loyalty and courage and friendliness to the Republic, and his army in allegiance to the Senate, that he and his army, and the municipia and colonies of the province of Gaul have acted and are acting rightly and in order and in the interests of the Republic. That the Senate is of opinion it vitally concerns the Republic that their provinces should be held by Decimus Brutus and Lucius Plancus, generals and consuls elect, ** and also by the others who hold provinces, according to the Julian law, until a successor to each of these be appointed by senatorial decree; and that they should see to it that those provinces and armies be under the authority of the Senate and Roman people, and a protection of the Republic.

And whereas, by the help, courage, and judgement of Gaius Caesar, and by the supreme harmony of the veteran soldiers, who, by following his leadership, guard, and have guarded the Republic, the Roman people has been defended, and is at the present time being defended, from the gravest perils; and whereas the Martian legion has stationed itself at Alba, in a borough of the greatest fidelity and courage, and has devoted itself to safeguard the authority of the Senate and the liberty of the Roman people; and whereas, with equal judgement and the same courage, the fourth legion under the command of Lucius Egnatuleius, an eminent citizen, is defending and has defended the authority of the Senate and the liberty of the Roman people: that the Senate does and shall take care that, in return for such services on their part to the Republic, honours be conferred upon them, and thanks be returned. That the Senate resolves that Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, consuls elect, when they have entered upon their office, should, if it seem good to them, on the earliest occasion refer these matters to this body as it shall appear to them consonant with the interest of the Republic and their own loyalty.

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Read the Third Philippic in Latin here | Check the glossary here | Watch an overview of events from the Ides of March onwards here