so in the highest degree: but when have we known the anxiety of good men, and the concern of all, so great as they have been for him? never surely. How then, immortal gods! are you at a loss what construction to put upon this? What do you imagine they think of your lives, to whom the lives of those are so dear, who, they flatter themselves, will consult the interests of their country? I have now, conscript fathers, reaped the full fruit of my return; as I have now said what must in all events be a proof of my constancy, and have been favourably and attentively heard by you; an indulgence which I shall often use if I can do it with safety to myself and you; if not, I shall reserve myself as well as I can, not so much for my own sake, as for that of the republic. I have lived almost enough, either for nature or for glory; if any addition is made to either, the advantage shall not be so much mine, as yours and my country's.

ORATIO XVI.

IN M. ANTONIUM PHILIPPICARUM*.

PHILIPPICA SECUNDA.

I-QUONAM meo fato, P. C. fieri dicam, (1) ut neme his annis viginti reipublicæ hostis fuerit, qui non bellum eodem tempore mihi quoque indixerit? Nec vero necesse est à mé quenquam nominari vobis, cum ipsi recordamini ; mifi pœnarum illi plus, quàm optarem, dederunt. Te miror, Antoni, quorum facta imitere, eorum exitus non perhorrescere. Atque hoc in aliis minùs mirabar: nemo illorum inimicus mihi fuit voluntarius: omnes à me reipublicæ causâ lacessiti; tu, ne verbo quidem violatus, ut audacior quàm L. Catilina, furiosior quàm P. Clodius viderere, ultro maledictis me lacessisti ; tuamque à me alienationem commendationem tibi ad cives impios fore putavisti. Quid putem ? contemptum-ne me? non video nec in vitâ, nec in gratia, nec in rebus gestis, nec in hâc mea mediocritate ingenii, quid despicere possit Antonius. An în senatu facillimè de me detrahi posse credidit? qui ordo clarissimis civibus bene gestæ reipublicae testimonium multis, mihi uni conservatæ dedit. An decertare mecum voluit contentione -dicendi? hoc quidem beneficium est; quid enim plenius, quid uberius, quàm mihi et pro me, et contra Antonium dicere?

Antony, being highly exafperated at the preceding speech, fummoned another meeting of the fenate, where he again required Cicero's attendance, being refolved to anfwer him in perfon, and juftify his own conduct. The fenate met on the appointed day, in the temple of Concord, whither Antony came with a strong guard, and in great expectation of meeting Cicero, whom he had endeavoured by artifice to draw thither; but though Cicero himself was ready, and defirous to go, yet his friends over-ruled, and kept him at home, being apprehenfive of fome defign intended against his life. Antony's speech confirmed their apprehensions, in which he poured out the overflowings of his fpleen with fuch fury against him, that Cicero alluding to what he had done a little before in public, fays, that he seemed once more rather to fp--w, than to fpeak. As a breach with Antony was now inevitable, Cicero thought it neceffary, for his fecurity, to remove to some of his villas near Naples; where he composed this oration, by way of reply to Antony; not delivered in the fenate, as the tenour of it seems to imply, but finished in the country; nor intended to be published till things were actu

ORATION XVI.

THE SECOND AGAINST M. ANTONY.

SECT. I. BY what singular fate of mine, conscript fathers, shall I say it comes to pass, that for these twenty years there has not been an enemy to the public, who has not at the same time declared war also against me? It is unnecessary for me to mention their names, since you yourselves can so easily recollect them: their punishment has been more grievous than I could have wished. I am surprised, Antony, that you do not dread their fate, as you imitate their conduct. This, in others, however, I less wondered at; for not one of them chose to be my enemy; all of them were attacked by me, for the sake of the state. But you, without even the provocation of words, that you may appear more audacious than Catiline, and more furious than Clodious, have, of your own accord, fallen upon me with you calumnies, and thought a breaking with me would be a recommendation to profligate citizens. What am I to think of this? that I am despised? I see nothing in my life, nor in my reputation, nor in my actions, nor in my capacity, small as it is, that Antony can despise. Did he imagine the senate was the properest place for making a successful attack upon my character? an assembly which has conferred on many illustrious citizens the praise of having done great things for the state, but on me alone that of having saved it. Had he a mind to contend with me in eloquence? this is, indeed, doing me a kindness; for what more copious, what more fertile subject can I have

ally come to an extrémity, and the occafions of the republic made it neceffary to render Antony's character and defigns as odious as poffible to the people. It is a most bitter invective on his whole life, describing it as a perpetual scene of lewdness, faction, violence, and rapine, heightened with all the colours of wit and eloquence; and fhows, that in the decline of life, Cicero had lost no fhare of that fire and fpirit with which his earlier productions are animated.

(1) Ut nemo bis annis viginti.) viz. Ever fince his confulship during all which time he had been continually harassed with the Clodian and Catilinarian factions.

Y 3

Illud profectò est; non existimavit sui similibus probari posse, se esse hostem patriæ, nisi mihi esset inimicus. Cui priusquam de cæteris rebus respondeo, de amicitia, quam à me violatam esse criminatus est, quod ego gravissimum crimen judico, payca dicam.

II. Contra rem suam me, nescio quando, venisse questus est. (2) An ego non venirem contra alienum pro familiari et necessario meo? non venirem contra gratiam, non virtutis spe, sed ætatis flore collectam ? non venirem contra injuriam, quam iste intercessoris nequissimi beneficio obtinuit, non jure prætorio? Sed hoc idcirco commemoratum à te puto, ut te infimo ordini commendares ; cùm omnes te recordarentur libertini generum, et liberos tuos, nepotes Q- Fadii, libertini hominis, fuisse. At enim te in disciplinam meam tradideras, (nam ita dixisti); domum meam ventitaras: ne tu, si id fecisses, meliùs famæ, me- . liùs pudicitiæ tuæ consuluisses: sed nec fecisti, nec si cuperes, tibi id (3) per C. Curionem facere licuisset. Auguratus petitionem mihi te concessisse dixisti. O incredibilem audaciam ! o impudentiam prædicandam ! Quo enim tempore me augurem, (4) à toto collegio expetitum, Cn. Pompeius et Q. Hortensius nominaverunt (neque enim licebat à pluribus nominari), nec tu solvendo eras, nec te ullo modo, nisi eversâ republicà, incolamem fore putabas. Poteras autem eo tempore auguratum petere, cum in Italia Curio non esset? aut tum, cum es factus, unam tribum sine Curione ferre potuisses? cujus etiam familiares de vi condemnati sunt, quòd tui nimis studiosi fuissent.

III. At beneficio sum usus tuo ; quo ? quanquam illud ipsum, quod commemoras, semper præ me tuli. Malui me tibi debere confiteri, quàm cuiquam minùs prudenti non satis gratus

(2) An ego non venirem contra alienum pro familiari et necessario meo ?] Who this friend was. does not appear; but the stranger hinted at, was Q. Fadius Bombalio, the freed-man, whose daughter Antony had married.

(3) Per G. Curionem.] Curio was a young robleman of shining parts; admirably formed by nature to adorn that character, in which his father and grandfather had flourished before him, of one of the principal orators of Rome; but a natural propenfity to pleasure. ftimulated by the example and counfels of his perpetual companion Antony, hurried him into all the extravagance of expenfe and debauchery. When his father, by Cicero's advice, obliged him to quit the familiarity of Antony, he reformed his conduct. and adhering to the inftructions and maxims of Cicero. became the favourite of the city; the leader of the young nobility; and a warm afferter of the authority of the fenate, againft the power of the triumvirate. After his father's death, upon his first taste of public honours, and admiffion into the senate, his ambition and thirft of popularity engaged him in fo immenfe a prodigality, that, to supply the magnificence of his fhows and plays, with which he entertained the city, he was foon driven to the neceffity of felling himself to Cæfar, and hell the firft victim in the civil

war.

(+) A toto collegio expetitum, Cn. Pompeius et Q Hortenfius nominaverunt.] The priests of all kinds were originally chosen at Rome by their colleges, till Domitius, a tribune, transferred the choice of then. to the people, whofe authority was held to be supreme

than that of speaking for myself, and against Antony? This is certainly his design; he thought, that to men of his own stamp, he could not approve himself a foe to his country, unless he became my enemy. Before I reply to other matters, I shall touch briefly on our friendship, which he charges me with violating; an accusation, in my opinion, of the blackest nature.

SECT. II. He complaints that I appeared, I know not when, against his interest. Ought I not to have appeared against a stranger, in favour of my friend and kinsman? ought I not to have appeared against a power acquired, not by any hopes of virtue, but at the expense of youthful bloom? ought I not to have appeared against an injury committed through the partiality of an infamous tribune, and not the decision of the prætor? But this, I fancy, you mentioned in order to recommend yourself to the lowest rank of the people; it being well known to all, that you yourself are son-in-law to a man who had been a slave, and that your children are the grandchildren of Q. Fadius, who had been a slave. But you had put yourself under my direction, (for that was your expression;) you frequented my house. Had you done that, indeed, your reputation and your morals had been more free from blemish. But you neither did it, nor, had you been inclined, would Curio have permitted you. You alledged that you quitted your pretentions to the augurship, in my favour. Incredible assurance! astonishing impudence! At the time when Cn. Pompey and Q. Hortensius nominated me augur, (for two only could do it,) at the request of the whole college, you was not able to pay your debts, nor had you any hopes of safety but in the subversion of the commonwealth. But could you stand for the augurship when Curio was not in Italy? or when created augur, could you have carried a single tribe, had it not been for Curio? and even his friends were convicted of violence, because they were too zealous in your cause.

SECT. III. But I have been obliged to you; how obliged to you? though I have been always ready to acknowledge that very circumstance which you mention as an obligation, choosing rather to confess myself obliged to you, than appear ungrateful

in facred, as well as civil affairs. This act was reversed by Sylla, and the ancient right restored to the colleges: but Labienus, when tribune, in Cicero's confulfhip, recalled the law of Domitius, to facilitate Cæfar's advancement to the high-priell hood: it was neceffary, however, that every candidate should be nominated to the people by two augurs, who gave a folemn teftimony upon oath of his dignity and fitnefs for the office : this was done in Cicero's cafe by Pompey and Hortenfius, the two most eminent members of the college: and after the election, he was installed with all the usual formals ities by Hortenfius.