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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
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Can I, then, appear as cautious and as prudent as I ought to be if I commit
myself to a journey so full of enemies and dangers to me? Those men who are
concerned in the government of the republic ought at their death to leave behind
them glory, and not reproaches for their fault, or grounds for blaming their
folly. What good man is there who does not mourn for the death of Trebonius? Who
is there who does not grieve for the loss of such a citizen and such a man? But
there are men who say (hastily indeed, but still they do say so), that he
deserves to be grieved for less because he did not take precautions against a
desperately wicked man. In truth, a man who professes to be himself a defender
of many men, wise men say, ought in the first place to show himself able to
protect his own life. I say, that when one is fenced round by the laws and by
the fear of justice, a man is not bound to be afraid of everything, or to take
precautions against all imaginable designs; for who would dare to attack a man
in daylight, on a military road, or a man who was well attended, or an
illustrious man?
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