Philippics, 3.14

Cicero  translated by C. D. Yonge

« Cic. Phil. 3.13 | Cic. Phil. 3.14 | Cic. Phil. 3.15 | About This Work »

14VI. Wherefore, I will embrace every consideration in my opinion which I am now going to deliver, a course to which you, I feel sure, have no objection; in order that authority may be conferred by us on admirable generals, and that hope of reward may be held out by us to gallant soldiers, and that a formal decision may be come to, not by words only, but also by actions, that Antonius is not only not a consul, but is even an enemy. For if he be consul, then the legions which have deserted the consul deserve beating to death. Cæsar is wicked, Brutus is impious, since they of their own heads have levied an army against the consul. But if new honours are to be sought out for the soldiers on account of their divine and immortal merits, and if it is quite impossible to show gratitude enough to the generals, who is there who must not think that man a public enemy, whose conduct is such that those who are in arms against him are considered the saviours of the republic?

« Cic. Phil. 3.13 | Cic. Phil. 3.14 | Cic. Phil. 3.15 | About This Work »