[56] "But it is said that Antony put certain soldiers to death. Being commander-in-chief he was empowered to do so by you. No commander has ever rendered an account of such matters. The laws do not consider it expedient that the general should be answerable to his soldiers. There is nothing worse in an army than disobedience, on account of which some soldiers have been put to death even after a victory, and no one called to account those who killed them. None of their relatives complain now, but Cicero complains and while accusing Antony of murder stigmatizes him as a public enemy, instead of calling for the punishment prescribed for murderers. The desertion of two of his legions shows how insubordinate and arrogant Antony's army was--which legions you had voted that he should command, and who deserted, in violation of military law, not to you, but to Octavius. Nevertheless Cicero praised them and yesterday proposed that they be paid out of the public treasury. Heaven grant that this example may not plague you hereafter. Hatred has betrayed Cicero into inconsistency, for he accused Antony of aiming at supreme power and yet punishing his soldiers, whereas such conspirators are always lenient, not severe, toward the men serving under them. As Cicero does not hesitate to arraign as tyrannical all the rest of Antony's administration since Cæsar's death, come, let me examine his acts one by one.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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