former speeches of yours, at all events
I cannot pass over in silence this which excites my most especial
wonder. What war is there between you and the Bruti? Why do you alone
attack those men whom we are all bound almost to worship? Why are you
not indignant at one of them being besieged, and why do you--as far
as your vote goes--strip the other of those troops which by his own
exertions and by his own danger he has got together by himself,
without any one to assist him, for the protection of the republic, not
for himself? What is your meaning in this? What are your intentions?
Is it possible that you should not approve of the Bruti, and should
approve of Antonius? that you should hate those men whom every one
else considers most dear? and that you should love with the greatest
constancy those whom every one else hates most bitterly? You have a
most ample fortune, you are in the highest rank of honour, your son,
as I both hear and hope is born to glory,--a youth whom I favour not
only for the sake of the republic, but for your sake also. I ask,
therefore, would you rather have him like Brutus or like Antonius? and
I will let you choose whichever of the three Antonii you please. God
forbid! you will say. Why, then, do you not favour those men and
praise those men whom you wish your own son to resemble? For by so
doing you will be both consulting the interests of the republic, and
proposing him an example for his imitation.

But in this instance, I hope, O Quintus Fufius, to be allowed to
expostulate with you, as a senator who greatly differs from you,
without any prejudice to our friendship. For you spoke in this matter,
and that too from a written paper, for I should think you had made
a slip from want of some appropriate expression, if I were not
acquainted with your ability in speaking. You said "that the letters
of Brutus appeared properly and regularly expressed." What else is
this than praising Brutus's secretary, not Brutus? You both ought to
have great experience in the affairs of the republic, and you have.
When did you ever see a decree framed in this manner? or in what
resolution of the senate passed on such occasions, (and they are
innumerable,) did you ever hear of its being decreed that the letters
had been well drawn up? And that expression did not--as is often the
case with other men--fall from you by chance, but you brought it with
you written down, deliberated on, and carefully meditated on.

III. I