minutely into every detail; for I feel ashamed for you, that knowing him
to be such a man you appointed him tribune and master of the horse and
subsequently consul. I will at present recite only his drunken insolence
and abuses in these very positions.

[-27-] "Well, then, when he was tribune he first of all prevented you
from settling suitably the work you then had in hand by shouting and
bawling and alone of all the people opposing the public peace of the
State, until you became vexed and because of his conduct passed the vote
that you did. Then, though by law he was not permitted to be absent from
town a single night, he escaped from the city, abandoning the duties of
his office, and, having gone as a deserter to Caesar's camp, guided the
latter back as a foe to his country, drove you out of Rome and all the
rest of Italy, and, in short, became the prime cause of all the civil
disorders that have since taken place among you. Had he not at that time
acted contrary to your wishes, Caesar would never have found an excuse for
the war and could not, in spite of all his shamelessness, have gathered a
competent force in defiance of your resolutions; but he would have
either voluntarily laid down his arms, or been brought to his senses
unwillingly. As it is, this fellow is the man who furnished him with the
excuses, who destroyed the prestige of the senate, who increased the
audacity of the soldiers. He it is who planted the seeds of evils which
sprang up afterward: he it is who has proved the common bane not only of
us, but also of practically the whole world, as, indeed, Heaven rather
plainly indicated. When, that is to say, he proposed those astonishing
laws, the whole air was filled with thunder and lightning. Yet this
accursed wretch paid no attention to them, though he claims to be a
soothsayer, but filled not only the city but the whole world with the
evils and wars which I mentioned.