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24“Has he, then, shown himself to be this sort of man only in these affairs, while managing the rest rightly? When or how? Though ordered to search out and produce the public moneys left behind by Caesar, has he not seized them, paying a part to his creditors and spending a part on high living, so that he no longer has any left even of this? 2Though you hated the name of dictator on account of Caesar’s sovereignty and rejected it entirely from the state, has not Antony, even though he has avoided adopting it,—as if the name in itself could do any harm,—nevertheless exhibited a dictator’s behaviour and his greed for gain under the title of the consulship? 3Though you assigned to him the duty of promoting harmony, has he not on his own responsibility begun this great war, neither necessary nor sanctioned, against Caesar and Decimus, whom you approve? 4Indeed, innumerable cases might be mentioned, if one wished to go into details, in which you have entrusted business to him to transact as consul, not a bit of which he has performed as the circumstances demanded, but has done quite the opposite, using against you the authority that you granted. 5Will you, then, take upon yourselves also these base acts that he has committed and say that you yourselves are responsible for all that has happened, because you assigned to him the management and investigation of the matters in question? How absurd ! 6Why, if any one who had been chosen general or envoy should fail in every way to do his duty, you who sent him would not incur the blame for this. Indeed it would be a sorry state of affairs, if all who are elected to perform some task should themselves receive the advantages and the honours, but lay upon you the complaints and the blame.
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