Lepidus was soon to go with
the winning side, and became one of the second triumvirate with Antony
and Octavian.

Cicero's eloquence was on this occasion futile. At this sitting the
Senate came to no decision, but on the third day afterward they decreed
that the Senators, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius Piso, and Lucius Philippus,
should be sent to Antony. The honors which he had demanded for Lepidus
and the others were granted, but he was outvoted in regard to the
ambassadors. On the 4th of January Cicero again addressed the people in
the Forum. His task was very difficult. He wished to give no offence to
the Senate, and yet was anxious to stir the citizens and to excite them
to a desire for immediate war. The Senate, he told them, had not behaved
disgracefully, but had--temporized. The war, unfortunately, must be
delayed for those twenty days necessary for the going and coming of the
ambassadors. The ambassadors could do nothing. But still they must wait.
In the mean time he will not be idle. For them, the Roman people, he
will work and watch with all his experience, with diligence almost above
his strength, to repay them for their faith in him. When Caesar was with
them they had had no choice but obedience--so much the times were out of
joint. If they submit themselves to be slaves now, it will be their own
fault. Then in general language he pronounces an opinion--which was the
general Roman feeling of the day: "It is not permitted to the Roman
people to become slaves--that people whom the immortal gods have willed
to rule all nations of the earth."[211] So he ended the sixth Philippic,
which, like the fourth, was addressed to the people. All the others were
spoken in the Senate.

He writes to Decimus at Mutina about this time a letter full of hope--of
hope which we can see to be genuine. "Recruits are being raised in all
Italy--if that can be called recruiting which is in truth a spontaneous
rushing into arms of the entire population."[212] He expects letters
telling him what "our Hirtius" is doing, and what "my young Caesar."
Hirtius and Pansa, the Consuls of the year, though they had been Caesar's
party, and made Consuls by Caesar, were forced to fight for the Republic.
They had been on friendly terms with Cicero, and they doubted Antony.
Hirtius had now followed the army, and Pansa was about to do so. They
both fell in the battle that was fought at Mutina, and no one can now
accuse them of want of loyalty. But "my Ca