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42The contest took place as follows. Although no arrangement had been made as to when they should begin the battle, yet as if by some compact they all armed themselves at dawn, advanced into the space between the two camps leisurely, as though they were competitors in a game, and then quietly drew themselves up in battle order. 2When they had taken their stand facing each other, exhortations were addressed to each side, partly to the armies collectively and partly to the separate bodies of troops, according as the speakers were the generals or the lieutenants or the lesser officers; and much that was said consisted of the necessary advice called for by the immediate danger and also of sentiments that bore upon the consequences of the battle,—words such as men would speak who were to encounter danger at the moment and were looking forward with anxiety to the future. 3For the most part the speeches were very similar, inasmuch as on both sides alike they were Romans with their allies. Still, there was a difference. The officers of Brutus set before their men the prizes of liberty and democracy, of freedom from tyrants and freedom from masters; 4they cited the benefits of equality and the excesses of monarchy, appealing to what they themselves had suffered or had heard related about other peoples; and giving instances of the working of each system separately, they besought them to strive for the one and to avoid the other, to conceive a passion for the former and to take care that they should not suffer the latter. 5The opposing leaders, on the other hand, urged their army to take vengeance on the assassins of Caesar, to get the property of their antagonists, to be filled with a desire to rule all the men of their own race, and—the thing which heartened them most—they promised to give them twenty thousand sesterces apiece.
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