After Caesar had pardoned him for his adherence to Pompey in the civil war Cicero confined his oratory to speeches to support of the petitions of banished friends for rehabilitation. Upon Caesar's murder the hope that the republican constitution might be restored fired him to renewed activity, and it was under his leadership that the senate decreed amnesty for the murderers but confirmation for Caesar's acts. But Antony soon made his intention to succeed to Caesar's position plain, and war broke out in northern Italy. Cicero hoped that Antony could still be checked, but a conciliatory speech he delivered in the senate on September 2 so offended Antony that he delivered a furious attack upon Cicero on September 19. The Second Philippic, not delivered but published as a pamphlet, is Cicero's reply.
- Moses Hadas, The Basic Works of Cicero, 1951, Random House Limited, Toronto, p. 337.
IN M. ANTONIVM ORATIO PHILIPPICA SECVNDA
Excerpts from Sections 116 through 118
Fuit in illo (J. Caesar)
ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia: res bello gesserat,
quamvis rei publicae
calamatosas, sed tamen
magnas
multos annos regnare
meditatus magno labore, magnis periculis quod cogitarat effecerat muneribus, monumentis,
congiariis, epulis, multitudinem imperitam
delenierat
suos praemiis, suos praemiis, adversarios clementiae specie
devinxerat. Quid multa? Attulerat iam
liberae civitati
partim metu, partim patientia
consuetudinem serviendi. Cum illo ego te
dominandi cupiditate
conferre possum ceteris vero rebus nullo modo
comparandus es.
Respice, quaeso, aliquando rem publicam, M. Antoni quibus ortus sis, non quibuscum vivas,
considera mecum,
ut voles, redi cum re publica in gratiam. Sed
de te tu videris ego de me ipse confitetebor. Defendi rempublicam adulescens, non
deseram senex
contempsi Catilinae gladios, non
pertimescam tuos. Quin etiam corpus libenter
obtulerim, si repraesentari morte mea libertas civitatis potest.
Etenim si abhinc annos prope viginti hoc ipso in templo negavi
posse mortem immaturam esse
consulari,
quanto
verius nunc negabo seni! Mihi vero, patres conscripti, iam etiam mors optanda est
perfuncto rebus eis quas
adeptas sum quasque gessi. Duo modo haec opto, unum ut moriens populam Romanum liberum relinquam (hoc mihi maius ab dis immortalibus dari nihil potest), alterum ut ita cuique
eveniat ut de re publica
quisque mereatur.
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