and begin to rue it, but guard yourselves before you are molested. It is
out of the question to allow dangers to come upon you and then repent of
it, when you might have anticipated them. And do not choose to neglect
the seriousness of the present situation and then ask again for another
Cassius or some more Brutuses. It is ridiculous, when we have the power
of aiding ourselves in time, to seek later on men to set us free. Perhaps
we should not even find them, especially if we handle in such a way
the present situation. Who would privately choose to run risks for the
democracy, when he sees that we are publicly resigned to slavery? It must
be evident to every man that Antony will not rest contented with what
he is now doing, but that in far off and small concerns even he is
strengthening himself against us. He is warring against Decimus and
besieging Mutina for no other purpose than to provide himself, by
conquering and capturing them, with resources against us. He has not been
wronged by them that he can appear to be defending himself, nor does he
merely desire the property that they possess and with this in mind endure
toils and dangers, while ready and willing to relinquish that belonging
to us, who own their property and much beside. Shall we wait for him to
secure the prize and still more, and so become a dangerous foe? Shall we
trust his deception when he says that he is not warring against the City?
[-37-] Who is so silly as to decide whether a man is making war on us or
not by his words rather than by his deeds? I do not say that now for the
first time is he unfriendly to us, when he has abandoned the City and
made a campaign against allies and is assailing Brutus and besieging the
cities; but on the basis of his former evil and licentious behavior, not
only after Caesar's death but even in the latter's lifetime, I decide that
he has shown himself an enemy of our government and liberty and a plotter
against them. Who that loved his country or hated tyranny would have
committed a single one of the many and manifold offences laid to this
man's charge? From every point of view he is proved to have long been an