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31Perchance he was imitating the famous Horatius of old or Cloelia of bygone days; yet the latter swam across the river with all her clothing on, and the former cast himself with his armour into the flood. It would be fitting, would it not, to set up a statue of Antony also, so that as the one man is seen armed even in the Tiber so the other might be seen naked even in the Forum. 2It was by such conduct as has been cited that those heroes of yore were wont to preserve us and give us liberty, while he took away all our liberty from us, so far as was in his power, destroyed the whole republic, and set up a despot in place of a consul, a tyrant in place of a dictator over us. For you recall the nature of his language when he approached the rostra, and the manner of his behaviour when he had mounted it. 3And yet, when a man who is a Roman and a consul has dared to name any one king of the Romans in the Roman Forum, beside the rostra of liberty, in the presence of the whole people and the whole senate, and straightway to set the diadem upon his head 4and further to affirm falsely in the hearing of us all that we ourselves bade him say and do this, what outrageous deed will that man not dare, and from what terrible act will he refrain?
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