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[87]
And, moreover, he caused it to be
recorded in the annals, under the head of Lupercalia, “That Marcus
Antonius, the consul, by command of the people, had offered the kingdom to Caius
Caesar, perpetual dictator; and that Caesar had refused to accept it.”
I now am not much surprised at your seeking to disturb the general tranquillity;
at your hating not only the city but the light of day; and at your living with a
pack of abandoned robbers, disregarding the day, and yet regarding nothing
beyond the day.1 For where can
you be safe in peace? What place can there be for you where laws and courts of
justice have sway, both of which you, as far as in you lay, destroyed by the
substitution of kingly power? Was it for this that Lucius Tarquinius was driven
out; that Spurius Cassius, and Spurius Maelius, and Marcus Manlius were slain;
that many years afterwards a king might be established at Rome by Marcus Antonius though the bare idea
was impiety? How ever, let us return to the auspices.
1 The Latin is, “non solum de die, sed etiam in diem vivere;” which the commentators explain “De die is to feast every day and all day. Banquets de die are those which begin before the regular hour.” (Like Horace's Partem solido demere de die.) “To live in diem is to live as so as to have no thought for the future.”—Graevius.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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