Men have been recalled from banishment by a dead man; the freedom of the city has
 been conferred not only on individuals, but on entire nations and provinces by a
 dead man; our revenues have been diminished by the granting of 
 countless exemptions by a dead man. Therefore, do we defend these measures which
 have been brought from his house on the authority of a single, but, I admit, a
 very excellent individual; and as for the laws which he, in your presence, read,
 and declared, and passed,—in the passing of which he gloried, and on
 which he believed that the safety of the republic depended, especially those
 concerning provinces and concerning judicial proceedings,—can we, I
 say, we who defend the acts of Caesar, think that those laws deserve to be
 upset? 
 And yet concerning those laws which were proposed, we have, at all events, the
 power of complaining; but concerning those which are actually passed we have not
 even had that privilege. For they, without any proposal of them to the people,
 were passed before they were framed. Men ask, what is the reason why I, or why
 any one of you, O conscript fathers, should be afraid of bad laws while we have
 virtuous tribunes of the people? We have men ready to interpose their veto;
 ready to defend the republic with the sanctions of religion. We ought to be
 strangers to fear. What do you mean by interposing the veto? says he; what are
 all these sanctions of religion which you are talking about? Those, forsooth, on
 which the safety of the republic depends. We are neglecting those things, and
 thinking them too old-fashioned and foolish. The forum will be surrounded, every
 entrance of it will be blocked up; armed men will be placed in garrison, as it
 were, at many points. What
 then?—whatever is accomplished by those means will be law. And you
 will order, I suppose, all those regularly passed decrees to be engraved on
 brazen tablets. “The consuls consulted the people in regular
 form,” (Is this the way of consulting the people that we have received
 from our ancestors?) “and the people voted it with due
 regularity.” What people? that which was excluded from the forum?
 Under what law did they do so? under that which has been wholly abrogated by
 violence and arms? But I am saying all this with reference to the future;
 because it is the part of a friend to point out evils which may be avoided: and
 if they never ensue, that will be the best refutation of my speech. I am
 speaking of laws which have been proposed; concerning which you have still full
 power to decide either way. I am pointing out the defects; away with them I am
 denouncing violence and arms; away with them too! 
 You and your colleague, O Dolabella, ought not, indeed, to be angry with me for
 speaking in defence of the republic. Although I do not think that you yourself
 will be; I know your willingness to listen to reason. They say that your
 colleague, in this fortune of his, which he himself thinks so good, but which
 would seem to me more favourable if (not to use any harsh language) he were to
 imitate the example set him by the consulship of his grandfathers and of his
 uncle,—they say that he has been exceedingly offended. And I see what
 a formidable thing it is to have the same man angry with me and also armed;
 especially at a time when men can use their swords with such impunity. But I
 will propose a condition which I myself think reasonable, and which I do not
 imagine Marcus Antonius will reject. If I have said anything insulting against
 his way of life or against his morals, I will not object to his being my
 bitterest enemy. But if I have maintained the same habits that I have already
 adopted in the republic,—that is, if I have spoken my opinions
 concerning the affairs of the republic with freedom,—in the first
 place, I beg that he will not be angry with me for that; but, in the next place,
 if I cannot obtain my first request, I beg at least that he will show his anger
 only as he legitimately may show it to a fellow-citizen. Let him employ arms, if it is necessary, as he says it is, for his own defence:
 only let not those arms injure those men who have declared their honest
 sentiments in the affairs of the republic. Now, what can be more reasonable than
 this demand? But if, as has been said to me
 by some of his intimate friends, every speech which is at all contrary to his
 inclination is violently offensive, to him, even if there be no insult in it
 whatever; then we will bear with the natural disposition of our friend. But
 those men, at the same time, say to me, “You will not have the same
 licence granted to you who are the adversary of Caesar as might be claimed by
 Piso his father-in-law.”
 And then they warn me of something which I must guard against; and certainly,
 the excuse which sickness supplies me with, for not coming to the senate, will
 not be a more valid one than that which is furnished by death. But, in the name of the immortal gods! for while I look upon you, O Dolabella,
 who are most dear to me, it is impossible for me to keep silence respecting the
 error into which you are both falling; for I believe that you,
 being both, men of high birth, entertaining lofty views, have been eager to
 acquire, not money, as some too credulous people suspect, a thing which has at
 all times been scorned by every honourable and illustrious man, nor power
 procured by violence and authority such as never ought to be endured by the
 Roman people, but the affection of your fellow-citizens, and glory. But glory is
 praise for deeds which have been done, and the fame earned by great services to
 the republic; which is approved of by the testimony borne in its favour, not
 only by every virtuous man, but also by the multitude. I would tell you, O Dolabella, what the fruit of good
 actions is, if I did not see that you have already learnt it by experience
 beyond all other men. What day can you recollect in your whole life, as ever having beamed on you with
 a more joyful light than the one on which, having purified the forum, having
 routed the throng of wicked men, having inflicted due punishment on the
 ringleaders in wickedness, and having delivered the city from conflagration and
 from fear of massacre, you returned to your house? What order of society, what
 class of people, what rank, of nobles even was there who did not then show their
 zeal in praising and congratulating you? Even I, too, because men thought that
 you had been acting by my advice in those transactions, received the thanks and
 congratulations of good men in your name. Remember, I pray you, O Dolabella, the
 unanimity displayed on that day in the theatre, when every one, forgetful of the
 causes on account of which they had been previously offended with you, showed
 that in consequence of your recent service they had banished all recollection of
 their former indignation. Could you, O
 Dolabella, (it is with great concern that I speak,)—could you, I say,
 forfeit this dignity with equanimity? 
 And you, O Marcus Antonius, (I address myself to you, though in your absence,) do
 you not prefer that day on which the senate was assembled in the temple of
 Tellus, to all those months during which some who differ greatly in opinion from
 me think that you have been happy? What a noble speech was that of yours about
 unanimity! From what apprehensions were the veterans, and from what anxiety was
 the whole state relieved by you on that occasion! when, having laid aside your enmity against him, you on that day first consented that your
 present colleague should be your colleague, forgetting that the auspices had
 been announced by yourself as augur of the Roman people; and when your little
 son was sent by you to the Capitol to be a hostage for peace. On what day was the senate ever more joyful than on that
 day? or when was the Roman people more delighted? which had never met in greater
 numbers in any assembly whatever. Then, at last, we did appear to have been
 really delivered by brave men, because, as they had willed it to be, peace was
 following liberty. On the next day, on the day after that, on the third day, and
 on all the following days, you were on without intermission, giving every day,
 as it were, some fresh present to the republic; but the greatest of all presents
 was that, when you abolished the name of the dictatorship. This was in effect
 branding the name of the dead Caesar with everlasting ignominy, and it was your
 doing,—yours, I say. For as, on account of the wickedness of one
 Marcus Manlius , by a resolution of the
 Manlian family it is unlawful that any patrician should be called Manlius, so
 you, on account of the hatred excited by one dictator, have utterly abolished
 the name of dictator. 
 When you had done these mighty exploits for the safety of the republic, did you
 repent of your fortune, or of the dignity and renown and glory which you had
 acquired? Whence then is this sudden change? I cannot be induced to suspect that
 you have been caught by the desire of acquiring money; every one may say what he
 pleases, but we are not bound to believe such a thing; for I never saw anything
 sordid or anything mean in you. Although a man's intimate friends do sometimes
 corrupt his natural disposition, still I know your firmness; and I only wish
 that as you avoid that fault, you had been able also to escape all suspicion of
 it. 
 What I am more afraid of is lest, being ignorant of the true path to glory, you,
 should think it glorious for you to have more power by yourself than all the
 rest of the people put together, and lest you should prefer being feared by your
 fellow-citizens to being loved by them. And if you do think so, you are ignorant
 of the road to glory. For a citizen to be dear to his fellow-citizens, to
 deserve well of the republic, to be praised, to be respected, to be loved, is
 glorious; but to be feared, and to be an object of hatred, is odious,
 detestable; and moreover, pregnant with weakness and decay.
 And we see that, even in the play, the
 very man who said, “What care I though all men should hate my name, So long as fear accompanies their hate?” found that it was a mischievous principle to act upon. I wish, O Antonius, that you could recollect your grandfather, of whom, however,
 you have repeatedly heard me speak. Do you think that he would have been willing
 to deserve even immortality, at the price of being feared in consequence of his
 licentious use of arms? What he considered life, what he considered prosperity,
 was the being equal to the rest of the citizens in freedom, and chief of them
 all in worth. Therefore, to say no more of the prosperity of your grandfather, I
 should prefer that most bitter day of his death to the domination of Lucius
 Cinna, by whom he was most barbarously slain. 
 But why should I seek to make an impression on you by my speech? For, if the end
 of Caius Caesar cannot influence you to prefer being loved to being feared, no
 speech of any one will do any good or have any influence with you; and those who
 think him happy are themselves miserable. No one is happy who lives on such
 terms that he may be put to death not merely with impunity, but even to the
 great glory of his slayer. Wherefore, change your mind, I entreat you, and look
 hack upon your ancestors, and govern the republic in such a way that your
 fellow-citizens may rejoice that you were born without which no one can be happy
 nor illustrious.