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In Rome, at the beginning of the new year, the consuls, Hirtius and Pansa,
convened the Senate on the subject of Antony immediately after the
sacrifices had been
performed and in the very temple.
Cicero and his friends urged that Antony be now declared a public enemy,
since he had seized Cisalpine Gaul with an armed force against the will of
the Senate and made of it a point of attack on the republic, and had brought
into Italy an army given to him to operate against the Thracians. They spoke
also of his seeking the supreme power as Cæsar's successor,
because he publicly surrounded himself in the city with such a large body of
armed centurions, and converted his house into a fortress with arms and
countersigns, and had borne himself more haughtily in other respects than
was befitting a yearly magistrate. Lucius Piso, who had charge of Antony's
interests in his absence, a man among the most illustrious in Rome, and
others who sided with him on his own account, or on Antony's, or because of
their own opinion, contended that Antony ought to have a trial, that it was
not the custom of their ancestors to condemn a man unheard, that it was not
decent to declare a man an enemy to-day who was a consul yesterday, and
especially one whom Cicero himself as well as the rest had so often lavishly
praised. The Senate, which was about equally divided in opinion, remained in
session till night. Early the next morning it reassembled to consider the
same question and then the party of Cicero was in the majority and Antony
would have been voted a public enemy had not the tribune Salvius adjourned
the sitting to the following day; for among the magistrates the one who has
the veto power always prevails.