ten declared, that the
whole result of this entire war depends on the life of one most brave
and excellent man.

II. For the purpose of effecting the liberation of Decimus Brutus, the
chief men of the state were sent as ambassadors, to give notice to
that enemy and parricidal traitor to retire from Mutina; for the sake
of preserving that same Decimus Brutus, Aulus Hirtius, the consul,
went by lot to conduct the war, a man the weakness of whose bodily
health was made up for by the strength of his courage, and encouraged
by the hope of victory. Caesar, too, after he, with an army levied by
his own resources and on his own authority, had delivered the republic
from the first dangers that assailed it, in order to prevent any
subsequent wicked attempts from being originated, departed to assist
in the deliverance of the same Brutus, and subdued some family
vexation which he may have felt by his attachment to his country. What
other object had Caius Pansa in holding the levies which he did, and
in collecting money, and in carrying the most severe resolutions of
the senate against Antonius, and in exhorting us, and in inviting the
Roman people to embrace the cause of liberty, except to ensure the
deliverance of Decimus Brutus? For the Roman people in crowds demanded
at his hands the safety of Decimus Brutus with such unanimous
outcries, that he was compelled to prefer it not only to any
consideration of his own personal advantage, but even to his own
necessities. And that end we now, O conscript fathers, are entitled to
hope is either at the point of being achieved, or is actually gained,
but it is right for the reward of our hopes to be reserved for the
issue and event of the business, lest we should appear either to have
anticipated the kindness of the gods by our over precipitation, or to
have despised the bounty of fortune through our own folly.

But since the manner of your behaviour shows plainly enough what you
think of this matter, I will come to the letters which have arrived
from the consuls and the propraetor, after I have said a few words
relating to the letters themselves.

III. The swords, O conscript fathers, of our legions and armies have
been stained with, or rather, I should say, dipped deep in blood in
two battles which have taken place under the consuls, and a third,
which has been fought under the command of Caesar. If it was the
blood of enemies, then great is the piety of the soldiers; but it is
nefar