erseus, Antiochus, who uprooted the Numantini and the Carthaginians, who
cut down the Cimbri and the Ambrones; it is unworthy also of ourselves
who have subjugated the Gauls, have subdued the Pannonians, have advanced
as far as the Ister, have crossed the Rhine, have gone over into Britain.
How could all those who have had a hand in the exploits mentioned fail
to grieve vehemently, if they should learn that we had succumbed to an
accursed woman? Should we not be guilty of a gross deviation from right
conduct, if, after surpassing all men everywhere in valor, we should then
bear humbly the insults of this throng, who, O Hercules, are Alexandrians
and Egyptians (what worse or what truer name could one apply to them?),
who serve reptiles and other creatures as gods, who embalm their bodies
to secure a reputation for immortality, who are most reckless in
braggadocio but most deficient in bravery, and worst of all are slaves
to a woman instead of a man? Yet these have dared to lay claim to our
possessions and to acquire them through us, evidently expecting that we
will give up the prosperity which we possess for them. [-25-] Who can
help lamenting to see Roman soldiers acting as body-guards of their
queen? Who can help groaning when he hears Roman knights and senators
flattering her like eunuchs? Who can help weeping when he both hears and
sees Antony himself, the man twice consul, often imperator, to whom was
committed in common with me the superintendence of the public business,
who was entrusted with so many cities, so many legions,--when he sees
that this man has now abandoned all his ancestors' habits of life, has
emulated all alien and barbaric customs, that he pays no honor to us or
to the laws or to his fathers' gods, but worships that wench as if she
were some Isis or Selene, calling her children Sun and Moon, and finally
himself bearing the title of Osiris and Dionysus, in consequence of which
he has bestowed entire islands and some of the continents, as though he
were master of the whole earth and the whole sea? I am sure that this
appears marvelous and incredible to you, fellow-soldiers: therefore you
ought to be the more indignant. For if that is actually so which you do
not even believe on hearing it, and if that man in his voluptuary career
commits acts at which any one who learns of them must grieve, would you
not properly become exceedingly enraged?

[-26-] "Yet at the start I was so devoted to him that I gave