.

IX. And Antonius, on hearing of this news, after he had summoned the
senate, and provided a man of consular rank to declare his opinion
that Caius Caesar was an enemy of his country, immediately fainted
away. And afterwards, without either performing the usual sacrifices,
or offering the customary vows, he, I will not say went forth, but
took to flight in his robe as a general. But which way did he flee? To
the province of our most resolute and bravest citizens; men who could
never have endured him if he had not come bringing war in his train,
an intemperate, passionate, insolent, proud man, always making
demands, always plundering, always drunk. But he, whose worthlessness
even when quiet was more than any one could endure, has declared war
upon the province of Gaul; he is besieging Mutina, a valiant and
splendid colony of the Roman people; he is blockading Decimus Brutus,
the general, the consul elect, a citizen born not for himself, but for
us and the republic. Was then Hannibal an enemy, and is Antonius a
citizen? What did the one do like an enemy, that the other has not
done, or is not doing, or planning, and thinking of? What was there
in the whole of the journey of the Antonii; except depopulation,
devastation, slaughter, and rapine? Actions which Hannibal never did,
because he was reserving many things for his own use, these men do,
as men who live merely for the present hour; they never have given a
thought not only to the fortunes and welfare of the citizens, but not
even to their own advantage.

Are we then, O ye good gods, to resolve to send ambassadors to this
man? Are those men who propose this acquainted with the constitution
of the republic, with the laws of war, with the precedents of our
ancestors? Do they give a thought to what the majesty of the Roman
people and the severity of the senate requires? Do you resolve to send
ambassadors? If to beg his mercy, he will despise you; if to declare
your commands he will not listen to them; and last of all, however
severe the message may be which we give the ambassadors, the very name
of ambassadors will extinguish this ardour of the Roman people which
we see at present, and break the spirit of the municipal towns and of
Italy. To say nothing of these arguments, though they are weighty, at
all events that sending of an embassy will cause delay and slowness to
the war. Although those who propose it should say, as I hear that some
intend to say,--"Let the am