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22“Tell me now, you whose writings and whose deeds are such as I have described, what a good man ought to say in addressing the people and to do in action; for you are better at advising others about any matter in the world than at doing your duty yourself, and better at rebuking others than at reforming yourself. 2Yet how much better it would be for you, instead of reproaching Antony with cowardice, yourself to lay aside your effeminacy both of spirit and of body; instead of bringing a charge of disloyalty against him, yourself to cease from doing anything disloyal against him and playing the deserter; and instead of accusing him of ingratitude, yourself to cease from wronging your benefactors ! 3For this, I must tell you, is one of Cicero’s inherent defects, that he hates above all others those who have done him any kindness, and that while he is always fawning upon men of the other kind, yet he keeps plotting against these. At any rate (to omit other instances), after being pitied and spared by Caesar and enrolled among the patricians, he then killed him, not with his own hand, of course—how could he, cowardly and effeminate as he is?—but by persuading and bribing those who did it. 4That I am speaking the truth in this matter was made plain by the murderers themselves; at any rate, when they ran out into the Forum with their naked blades, they called for him by name, crying ‘Cicero!’ repeatedly, as you, no doubt, all heard them. 5Therefore, I say, he slew Caesar, his benefactor, and as for Antony, the very man from whom he had obtained not only his priesthood but also his life, when he was in danger of perishing at the hands of the soldiers in Brundisium, he repays him with this sort of thanks, accusing him of deeds with which neither he himself nor any one else ever found any fault and hounding him for conduct which he praises in others. 6At all events, when he sees that this young Caesar, who, although he has not attained the age yet to hold office or take any part in politics and has not been elected by you to office, has nevertheless equipped himself with an armed force and has undertaken a war which we have neither voted nor committed to his hands, he not only has no blame to bestow, but actually eulogizes him. 7Thus, you will perceive, he estimates neither justice by the standard of the laws nor expediency by the standard of the public weal, but manages everything simply to suit his own will, and what he extols in some he censures in others, spreading false reports against you and slandering you besides.
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