n let us rejoice
that an opportunity of fighting them is put in our power. For so,
either (these men being conquered) we shall enjoy the republic
victorious, or, if we be defeated (but may Jupiter avert that
disaster), we shall live, if not with an actual breath, at all events
in the renown of our valour.

IV. But Marcus Lepidus, having been a second time styled Imperator,
Pontifex Maximus, a man who deserved excellently well of the republic
in the last civil war, exhorts us to peace. No one, O conscript
fathers, has greater weight with me than Marcus Lepidus, both on
account of his personal virtues and by reason of the dignity of his
family. There are also private reasons which influence me, such as
great services he has done me, and some kindnesses which I have done
him. But the greatest of his services I consider to be his being of
such a disposition as he is towards the republic, which has at all
times been dearer to me than my life. For when by his influence he
inclined Magnus Pompeius, a most admirable young man, the son of
one of the greatest of men, to peace, and without arms released the
republic from imminent danger of civil war, by so doing he laid me
under as great obligations as it was in the power of any man to do.
Therefore I proposed to decree to him the most ample honours that were
in my power, in which you agreed with me, nor have I ceased both to
think and speak in the highest terms of him. The republic has Marcus
Lepidus bound to it by many pledges. He is a man of the highest rank,
of the greatest honours, he has the most honourable priesthood, and
has received numberless distinctions in the city. There are monuments
of himself, and of his brother, and of his ancestors; he has a most
excellent wife, children such as any man might desire, an ample family
estate, untainted with the blood of his fellow-citizens. No citizen
has been injured by him; many have been delivered from misery by his
kindness and pity. Such a man and such a citizen may indeed err in
his opinion, but it is quite impossible for him in inclination to be
unfriendly to the republic.

Marcus Lepidus is desirous of peace. He does well especially if he can
make such a peace as he made lately, owing to which the republic will
behold the son of Cnaeus Pompeius, and will receive him in her bosom
and embrace; and will think, that not he alone, but that she also is
restored to herself with him. This was the reason why you decreed to
him a