no such commission. . . . I fear lest I may seem to be casting a slight on the glorious action of our great champions, but anger moves me, and I must speak. I say that it is foul shame that the man who set on the crown should be permitted to live, when all agree that the man who set it aside was righteously put to death." In reverting at the end of his speech to the same note of warning, Cicero takes occasion to eulogise by way of contrast the great qualities of the Dictator. The passage[1] may well find a place here as Cicero's last word respecting Cæsar.
"Is that a life worth living, to be in fear day and night of your associates? Do you suppose that you have bound your satellites by any claims stronger than those which he had on some of the men who slew him, or do you presume to mate yourself with him? In Cæsar there was genius, reasoning, memory, culture, perseverance, reflection, and energy. His achievements in war had been disastrous indeed to the commonwealth, but they had been great. After pondering for many years how to win the throne, at the cost of much toil and much peril he had accomplished his design; he had allured the ignorant multitude by his shows, his buildings, his largesses; he had bound his followers to him by great rewards, and his adversaries by fair-seeming clemency. In a word, he had brought a State, free till then, to acquiesce, partly through fear, partly through torpor, in the practice of subjection. I may liken you to him in your lust for dominion, but
- ↑ Phil., ii., 45, 116.
