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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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When the day arrived on which he had ordered me to attend,
then he came with a regular army in battle array to the temple of Concord, and
out of his impure mouth vomited forth an oration against me in my absence. On
which day, if my friends had not prevented me from attending the senate as I was
anxious to do, he would have begun a massacre by the slaughter of me. For that
was what he had resolved to do. And when once he had dyed his sword in blood,
nothing would have made him leave off but pure fatigue and satiety. In truth,
his brother, Lucius. Antonius, was present, an Asiatic gladiator, who had fought
as a mirmillo,1 at Mylasa; he was thirsting for my blood, and
had shed much of his own in that gladiatorial combat. He was now valuing our
property in his mind, taking notice of our possessions in the city and in the
country; his indigence united with his covetousness was threatening all our
fortunes; he was distributing our lands to whomsoever and in whatever shares he
pleased; no private individual could get access to him, or find any means to
propitiate him, and induce him to act with justice. Every former propraetor had
just so much property as Antonius left him after the division of his estate.
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