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[11]
What a storm, O ye
immortal gods! what a conflagration! what a devastation! what a pestilence to
Greece would that man have been, if
incredible and godlike virtue had not checked the enterprise and audacity of
that frantic man. What promptness was there in Brutus's conduct! what prudence!
what valor! Although the rapidity of the movement of Caius Antonius also is not
despicable; for if some vacant inheritances had not delayed him on his march,
you might have said that he had flown rather than traveled. When we desire other
men to go forth to undertake any public business, we are scarcely able to get
them out of the city; but we have driven this man out by the mere fact of our
desiring to retain him. But what business had he with Apollonia? what business had he with
Dyrrachium? or with Illyricum? What had he to do with the army of
Publius Vatinius, our general? He, as he said himself, was the successor of
Hortensius. The boundaries of Macedonia
are well defined; the condition of the proconsul is well known; the amount of
his army, if he has any at all, is fixed. But what had Antonius to do at all
with Illyricum and with the legions of
Vatinius?
But Brutus had nothing to do with them either. For that, perhaps, is what some
worthless man may say.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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