[-30-] "Even this result did not sober him, but when he was consul he came naked, naked, Conscript Fathers, and anointed into the Forum, taking the Lupercalia as an excuse, then proceeded in company with his lictors to the rostra, and there harangued us from the elevation. From the day the city was founded no one can point to any one else, even a praetor or tribune or aedile, let alone a consul, who has done such a thing. To be sure it was the festival of the Lupercalia, and the Lupercalia had been put in charge of the Julian College10; yes, and Sextus Clodius had trained him to conduct himself so, upon receipt of two thousand plethra of the land of Leontini11. But you were consul, respected sir (for I will address you as though you were present), and it was neither proper nor permissible for you as such to speak in such a way in the Forum, hard by the rostra, with all of us present, and to cause us both to behold your remarkable body, so corpulent and detestable, and to hear your accursed voice, choked with unguent, speaking those outrageous words; for I will preferably confine my comment to this point about your mouth. The Lupercalia would not have missed its proper reverence, but you disgraced the whole city at once,—not to speak a word yet about your remarks on that occasion. Who is unaware that the consulship is public, the property of the whole people, that its dignity must be preserved everywhere, and that its holder must nowhere strip naked or behave wantonly? [-31-] Did he perchance imitate the famous Horatius of old or Cloelia of bygone days? But the latter swam across the river with all her clothing, and the former cast himself with his armor into the flood. It would be fitting—would it not?—to set up also a statue of this consul, so that people might contrast the one man armed in the Tiber and the other naked in the Forum. It was by such conduct as has been cited that those heroes of yore were wont to preserve us and give us liberty, while he took away all our liberty from us, so far as was in his power, destroyed the whole democracy, set up a despot in place of a consul, a tyrant in place of a dictator over us. You remember the nature of his language when he approached the rostra, and the style of his behavior when he had ascended it. But when a man who is a Roman and a consul has dared to name any one King of the Romans in the Roman Forum, close to the rostra of liberty, in the presence of the entire people and the entire senate, and straightway to set the diadem upon his head and further to affirm falsely in the hearing of us all that we ourselves bade him say and do this, what most outrageous deed will that man not dare, and from what action, however revolting, will he refrain? [-32-] Did we lay this injunction upon you, Antony, we who expelled the Tarquins, who cherished Brutus, who hurled Capitolinus headlong, who put to death the Spurii?12 Did we order you to salute any one as king, when we have laid a curse upon the very name of monarch and furthermore upon that of dictator as the most similar? Did we command you to appoint any one tyrant, we who repulsed Pyrrhus from Italy, who drove back Antiochus beyond the Taurus, who put an end to the tyranny even in Macedonia? No, by the rods of Valerius and the law of Porcius, no, by the leg of Horatius and the hand of Mucius, no, by the spear of Decius and the sword of Brutus! But you, unspeakable villain, begged and pleaded to be made a slave as Postumius pleaded to be delivered to the Samnites, as Regulus to be given back to the Carthaginians, as Curtius to be thrown into the chasm. And where did you find this recorded? In the same place where you discovered that the Cretans had been made free after Brutus was their governor, when we voted after Caesar's death that he should govern them.
[-33-] "So then, seeing that you have detected his baneful disposition in so many and so great enterprises, will you not take vengeance on him instead of waiting to learn by experience what the man who caused so much trouble naked will do to you when he is armed? Do you think that he is not eager for the tyrant's power, that he does not pray to obtain it some day, or that he will put the pursuit of it out of his thoughts, when he has once allowed it a resting-place in his mind, and that he will ever abandon the hope of sole rulership for which he has spoken and acted so impudently without punishment! What human being who, while master of his own voice, would undertake to help some one else secure an honor, would not appropriate it himself when he became powerful? Who that has dared to nominate another as tyrant over his country and himself at once would himself refuse to be monarch? [-34-] Hence, even if you spared him formerly, you must hate him now for these acts. Do not desire to learn what he will do when his success equals his wishes, but on the basis of his previous ventures plan beforehand to suffer no further outrages. What defence could any one make of what took place? That Caesar acted rightly at that time in accepting neither the name of king nor the diadem? If so, this man did wrong to offer something which pleased not even Caesar. Or, on the other hand, that the latter erred in enduring at all to look on at and listen to such proceedings? If so, and Caesar justly suffered death for this error, does not this man, admitted in a certain way that he desired a tyranny, most richly deserve to perish? That this is so is evident from what I have previously said, but is proved most clearly by what he did after that. What other end than supremacy had he in mind that he has undertaken to cause agitation and to meddle in private business, when he might have enjoyed quiet with safety? What other end, that he has entered upon campaigns and warfare, when it was in his power to remain at home without danger? For what reason, when many have disliked to go out and take charge even of the offices that belonged to them, does he not only lay claim to Gaul, which pertains to him in not the slightest degree, but use force upon it because of its unwillingness? For what reason, when Decimus Brutus is ready to surrender to us himself and his soldiers and the cities, has this man not imitated him, instead of besieging and shutting him up? The only interpretation to be put upon it is that he is strengthening himself in this and every other way against us, and to no other end.
[-35-] "Seeing this, do we delay and give way to weakness and train up so monstrous a tyrant against our own selves? Is it not disgraceful that our forefathers, brought up in slavery, felt the desire for liberty, but we who have lived under an independent government become slaves of our own free will? Or again, that we were glad to rid ourselves of the dominion of Caesar, though we had first received many favors from his hands, and accept in his stead this man, a self-elected despot, who is far worse than he; this allegation is proved by the fact that Caesar spared many after his victories in war, but this follower of his before attaining any power has slaughtered three hundred soldiers, among them some centurions, guilty of no wrong, at home, in his own quarters, before the face and eyes of his wife, so that she too was defiled with blood. What do you think that the man who treated them so cruelly, when he owed them care, will refrain from doing to all of you,—aye, down to the utmost outrage,—if he shall conquer? And how can you believe that the man who has lived so licentiously even to the present time will not proceed to all extremes of wantonness, if he shall further secure the authority given by arms?