[91]
And are there men, then, who complain of
what took place in the Appian road, and say nothing of what happened in the
senate-house? and who think that the forum could have been defended from him
when alive, whose very corpse the senate-house was unable to resist? Arouse
the man himself; resuscitate him, if you can, from the shades below. Will
you be able to check his violence when alive, when you were hardly able to
support his fury while he lies unburied? unless, indeed, you did support the
sight of those men who ran with firebrands to the senate-house, with scythes
to the temple of Castor, and who ranged over the whole forum sword in hand.
You saw the Roman people slaughtered, you saw the assembly disturbed by the
drawn swords, while Marcus Caelius, a tribune of the people, was listened to
in silence, a man of the greatest courage in the affairs of state, of the
greatest firmness in any cause which he undertook, wholly devoted to the
service of the virtuous part of the citizens, and to the authority of the
senate, and in this—shall I say unpopularity, or misfortune of
Milo's? behaving with singular, and god-like, and incredible good faith.
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