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47But if it were a contest between parties, the name of which is utterly extinct, then would Antonius and Ventidius be the proper persons to uphold the party of Cæsar, rather than in the first place, Cæsar, a young man full of the greatest piety and the most affectionate recollection of his parent? and next to him Pansa and Hirtius, who held, (if I may use such an expression,) the two horns of Cæsar, at the time when that deserved to be called a party. But what parties are these, when the one proposes to itself to uphold the authority of the senate, the liberty of the Roman people, and the safety of the republic, while the other fixes its eyes on the slaughter of all good men, and on the partition of the city and of Italy.
XXI. Let us come at last to the end.
“I do not believe that ambassadors are coming—”
He knows me well.
“To a place where war exists.”
Especially with the example of Dolabella before our eyes. Ambassadors, I should think, will have privileges more respected than two consuls against whom he is bearing arms; or than Cæsar, whose father’s priest he is; or than the consul elect, whom he is attacking; or than Mutina, which he is besieging; or than his country, which he is threatening with fire and sword.
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