ion! For his vices
were unknown to one who did not inquire into such things nor perhaps
should I now be alienated from him if he had not been discovered to
be an enemy to you, to the walls of his country, to this city, to our
household gods, to the altars and hearths of all of us,--in short, to
human nature and to common humanity. But now, having received this
lesson from him, let us be the more diligent and vigilant in being on
our guard against Antonius.

V. Indeed, Dolabella had not with him any great number of notorious
and conspicuous robbers. But you see there are with Antonius, and in
what numbers. In the first place, there is his brother Lucius--what
a firebrand, O ye immortal gods! what an incarnation of crime and
wickedness! what a gulf, what a whirlpool of a man! What do you think
that man incapable of swallowing up in his mind, or gulping down
in his thoughts! Who do you imagine there is whose blood he is not
thirsting for? who, on whose possessions and fortunes he is not fixing
his most impudent eyes, his hopes, and his whole heart? What shall we
say of Censorinus? who, as far as words go, said indeed that he wished
to be the city praetor, but who, in fact, was unwilling to be so? What
of Bestia, who professes that he is a candidate for the consulship in
the place of Brutus? May Jupiter avert from us this most detestable
omen! But how absurd is it for a man to stand for the consulship who
cannot be elected praetor! unless, indeed, he thinks his conviction may
be taken as an equivalent to the praetorship. Let this second Caesar,
this great Vopiscus[46], a man of consummate genius, of the highest
influence, who seeks the consulship immediately after having been
aedile, be excused from obedience to the laws. Although, indeed, the
laws do not bind him, on account, I suppose, of his exceeding dignity.
But this man has been acquitted five times when I have defended him.
To win a sixth city victory is difficult, even in the case of a
gladiator. However, this is the fault of the judges, not mine. I
defended him with perfect good faith, they were bound to retain a most
illustrious and excellent citizen in the republic, who now, however,
appears to have no other object except to make us understand that
those men whose judicial decisions we annulled, decided rightly and in
a manner advantageous to the republic.

Nor is this the case with respect to this man alone; there are other
men in the same camp honestly condem