enemy of ours, and the case stands as follows. If we now take measures
against him with all speed, we shall get back all that has been lost:
but if, neglecting to do this, we wait till he himself admits that he is
plotting against us, we shall lose everything. This he will never do, not
even if he should actually march upon the City, any more than Marius or
Cinna or Sulla did. But if he gets control of affairs, he will not fail
to act precisely as they did, or still worse. Men who are anxious to
accomplish an object are wont to say one thing, and those who have
succeeded in accomplishing it are wont to do quite a different thing. To
gain their end they pretend anything, but having obtained it they deny
themselves the gratification of no desire. Furthermore, the last born
always desire to surpass what their predecessors have ventured: they
think it a small thing to behave like them and do something that has been
effected before, but determine that something original is the only thing
worthy of them, because unexpected.

[-38-] "Seeing this, then, Conscript Fathers, let us no longer delay nor
fall a prey to the indolence that the moment inspires, but let us take
thought for the safety that concerns the future. Surely it is a shame
when Caesar, who has just emerged from boyhood and was recently registered
among those having attained years of discretion, shows such great
interest in the State as to spend his money and gather soldiers for
its preservation that we should neither ourselves perform our duty
nor coöperate with him even after obtaining a tangible proof of his
good-will. Who is unaware that if he had not reached here with the
soldiers from Campania, Antony would certainly have come rushing from
Brundusium instanter, just as he was, and would have burst into our city
with all his armies like a winter torrent?[13] There is, moreover, a
striking inconsistency in our conduct. Men who have long been campaigning
voluntarily have put themselves at your service for the present crisis,