HIS ORATION OVER THE DEAD BODY OF
CÆSAR[1]
(44 B.C.)
Born about 83 B.C.; died in 30; Questor in 52; Tribune in 50; acted with Cæsar in the Civil War, commanding his left wing at Pharsalia; Consul in 44; fled from Rome after Cæsar's death; formed with Octavian and Lepidus the Second Triumvirate in 43; defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in 42; followed Cleopatra to Asia in 41; again Triumvir in 40 and 37; unsuccessful in an expedition to Parthia; defeated by Octavian at Actium in 31; fled to Egypt and committed suicide.
If this man had died as a private citizen, Quirites, and I had happened to be a privite citizen, I should not have needed many words nor have rehearsed all his achievements, but after making a few remarks about his family, his education, and his character, and possibly mentioning some of his services to the State, I should have been satisfied and should have refrained from becoming wearisome to those not related to him. But since this man has perished while
- ↑ Delivered in the Roman forum, 44 B.C. Reported by Dion Cassius in his "History of Rome," translated by the late Herbert Baldwin Porter, Professor of Greek in Lehigh University (Troy, N. Y., Pafraets Book Company, 1905), and here printed by permission. As to the authenticity of this speech, it may be noted that Froude, in his "Cæsar," prints a long passage from it, with a foot-note saying Dion Cassius "can hardly have himself composed the version which he gives, for he calls the speech as ill-timed as it was brilliant."
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