nothing else than planning how you may be dilatory and the body of your
allies become as a consequence more feeble and dispirited; while he, on
the other hand, will be doing whatever he pleases, will destroy Decimus,
storm Mutina, and capture all of Gaul: the result will be that we can no
longer find means to deal with him, but shall be under the necessity of
trembling before him, paying court to him, worshiping him. This one thing
more about the embassy and I am done:--that Antony also gave you no
account of what business he had in hand, because he intended that you
should do this.

"I, therefore, for these and all other reasons advise you not to delay
nor to lose time, but to make war upon him as quickly as possible. You
must reflect that the majority of enterprises owe their success rather to
an opportune occasion than to their strength; and you should by all means
feel perfectly sure that I would never give up peace if it were really
peace, in the midst of which I have most influence and have acquired
wealth and reputation, nor have urged you to make war, did I not think it
to your advantage.

[-46-] And I advise you, Calenus, and the rest who are of the same mind
as you, to be quiet and allow the senate to vote the requisite measures
and not for the sake of your private good-will toward Antony recklessly
betray the common interests of all of us. Indeed, I am of the opinion,
Conscript Fathers, that if you heed my counsel I may enjoy in your
company and with thorough satisfaction freedom and preservation, but that
if you vote anything different, I shall choose to die rather than to
live. I have, in general, never been afraid of death as a consequence of
my outspokenness, and now I fear it least of all. That accounts, indeed,
for my overwhelming success, the proof of which lies in the fact that
you decreed a sacrifice and festival in memory of the deeds done in my