d no supplication voted
to him. Sylla as imperator revenged the victory of Cinna, still no
supplication was decreed by the senate. I ask you yourself, O Publius
Servilius, did your colleague send you any letters concerning that
most lamentable battle of Pharsalia? Did he wish you to make any
motion about a supplication? Certainly not. But he did afterwards when
he took Alexandria; when he defeated Pharnaces; but for the battle of
Pharsalia he did not even celebrate a triumph. For that battle had
destroyed those citizens whose, I will not say lives, but even
whose victory might have been quite compatible with the safety and
prosperity of the state. And the same thing had happened in the
previous civil wars. For though a supplication was decreed in my
honour when I was consul, though no arms had been had recourse to at
all, still that was voted by a new and wholly unprecedented kind of
decree, not for the slaughter of enemies, but for the preservation of
the citizens. Wherefore, a supplication on account of the affairs of
the republic having been successfully conducted must, O conscript
fathers, be refused by you even though your generals demand it; a
stigma which has never been affixed on any one except Gabinius; or
else, by the mere fact of decreeing a supplication, it is quite
inevitable that you must pronounce those men, for whose defeat you do
decree it, enemies of the state.

IX. What then Servilius did in effect, I do in express terms, when I
style those men imperators. By using this name, I pronounce those who
have been already defeated, and those who still remain, enemies
in calling their conquerors imperators. For what title can I more
suitably bestow on Pansa? Though he has, indeed, the title of the
highest honour in the republic. What, too, shall I call Hirtius? He,
indeed, is consul; but this latter title is indicative of the kindness
of the Roman people; the other of valour and victory. What? Shall I
hesitate to call Caesar imperator, a man born for the republic by the
express kindness of the gods? He who was the first man who turned
aside the savage and disgraceful cruelty of Antonius, not only from
our throats, but from our limbs and bowels? What numerous and what
important virtues, O ye immortal gods, were displayed on that single
day. For Pansa was the leader of all in engaging in battle and in
combating with Antonius; O general worthy of the martial legion,
legion worthy of its general! Indeed, if he h