sword of Brutus! But you, unspeakable villain,
begged and pleaded to be made a slave as Postumius pleaded to be
delivered to the Samnites, as Regulus to be given back to the
Carthaginians, as Curtius to be thrown into the chasm. And where did
you find this recorded? In the same place where you discovered that the
Cretans had been made free after Brutus was their governor, when we voted
after Caesar's death that he should govern them.

[-33-] "So then, seeing that you have detected his baneful disposition
in so many and so great enterprises, will you not take vengeance on him
instead of waiting to learn by experience what the man who caused so much
trouble naked will do to you when he is armed? Do you think that he is
not eager for the tyrant's power, that he does not pray to obtain it some
day, or that he will put the pursuit of it out of his thoughts, when he
has once allowed it a resting-place in his mind, and that he will ever
abandon the hope of sole rulership for which he has spoken and acted so
impudently without punishment! What human being who, while master of his
own voice, would undertake to help some one else secure an honor, would
not appropriate it himself when he became powerful? Who that has dared
to nominate another as tyrant over his country and himself at once would
himself refuse to be monarch? [-34-] Hence, even if you spared him
formerly, you must hate him now for these acts. Do not desire to learn
what he will do when his success equals his wishes, but on the basis of
his previous ventures plan beforehand to suffer no further outrages. What
defence could any one make of what took place? That Caesar acted rightly
at that time in accepting neither the name of king nor the diadem? If so,
this man did wrong to offer something which pleased not even Caesar. Or,
on the other hand, that the latter erred in enduring at all to look on at
and listen to such proceedings? If so, and Caesar justly suffered death
for this error, does not this man, admitted in a certain way that he
desired a tyranny, most richly deserve to perish? That this is so is
evident from what I have previously said, but is proved most clearly by
what he did after that. What other end than supremacy had he in mind that
he has undertaken to cause agitation and to meddle in private business,
when he might have enjoyed quiet with safety? What other end, that he has
entered upon campaigns and warfare, when it was in his power to remain at
home