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2These were the charges they made against each other and were in a way their justification of their conduct, and they communicated them to each other partly by private letters and partly by public speeches on the part of Caesar and public messages on the part of Antony. On this pretext also they were constantly sending envoys back and forth, wishing to appear as far as possible justified in the complaints they made and at the same time to reconnoitre each other’s position. 2Meanwhile they were collecting funds, ostensibly for a different purpose, and were making all other preparations for war as if against other persons, until the time that Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Sosius, both belonging to Antony’s party, became consuls. Then they made no further concealment, but became openly hostile. It happened in the following way.
3Domitius did not openly attempt any revolutionary measures, since he had experienced many disasters. Sosius, however, had had no experience with misfortunes, and so on the very first day of the year he said much in praise of Antony and inveighed much against Caesar. Indeed, he would have introduced measures immediately against the latter, had not Nonius Balbus, a tribune, prevented it. 4Caesar, it seems, had suspected what he was going to do and wished neither to ignore it nor by offering opposition to appear to be beginning the war; hence he did not enter the senate at this time nor even live in the city at all, but invented some excuse which kept him out of town, not only for the reasons given, but also in order that he might deliberate at his leisure according to the reports brought to him and then act, after mature reflection, as necessity dictated. 5But afterwards he returned and convened the senate, surrounding himself with a guard of soldiers and friends who carried concealed daggers; and sitting with the consuls upon his chair of state, he spoke from there at length and with moderation in defence of himself, and brought many accusations against Sosius and Antony. 6And when neither of the consuls themselves nor anyone else ventured to utter a word, he bade the senators come together again on a specified day, giving them to understand that he would prove by certain documents that Antony was in the wrong. The consuls, accordingly, as they did not dare to reply to him and could not endure to be silent, left the city secretly before the day appointed and later made their way to Antony, followed by not a few of the other senators. 7And when Caesar learned this he declared that he had sent them away voluntarily, hoping thus that it might not be thought that they had abandoned him because of some wrong-doing on his part, and added that he granted the rest who so wished permission to depart unmolested to Antony.
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