And, indeed, you have both of you had many judgments delivered respecting you by
 the Roman people, by which I am greatly concerned that you are not sufficiently
 influenced. For what was the meaning of the shouts of the innumerable crowd of
 citizens collected at the gladiatorial games? or of the verses made by the
 people? or of the extraordinary applause at the sight of the statue of Pompeius?
 and at that sight of the two tribunes of the people who are opposed to you? Are
 these things a feeble indication of the incredible unanimity of the entire Roman
 people? What more? Did the applause at the games of Apollo, or, I should rather
 say, testimony and judgment there given by the Roman people, appear to you of
 small importance? Oh! happy are those men who, though they themselves were
 unable to be present on account of the violence of arms, still were present in
 spirit. and had a place in the breasts and hearts of the Roman
 people. Unless, perhaps, you think that it was Accius who was applauded on that
 occasion, and who bore off the palm sixty years after his first appearance, and
 not Brutus, who was absent from the games which he himself was exhibiting, while
 at that most splendid spectacle the Roman people showed their zeal in his favour
 though he was absent, and soothed their own regret for their deliverer by
 uninterrupted applause and clamour. 
 I myself, indeed, am a man who have at all times despised that applause which is
 bestowed by the vulgar crowd, but at the same time, when it is bestowed by those
 of the highest, and of the middle, and of the lowest rank, and, in short, by all
 ranks together, and when those men who were previously accustomed to aim at
 nothing but the favour of the people keep aloof, I then think that, not mere
 applause, but a deliberate verdict. If this appears to you unimportant, which is
 in reality most significant, do you also despise the fact of which you have had
 experience,—namely, that the life of Aulus Hirtius is so dear to the
 Roman people? For it was sufficient for him to be esteemed by the Roman people
 as he is; to be popular among his friends, in which respect he surpasses
 everybody; to be beloved by his own kinsmen, who love him beyond measure; but in
 whose case before do we ever recollect such anxiety and such fear being
 manifested? Certainly in no one's. 
 What then, are we to do? In the name of the immortal gods, can you interpret
 these facts, and see what is their purport? What do you think that those men
 think of your lives, to whom the lives of those men who they hope will consult
 the welfare of the republic are so dear? I have reaped, O conscript fathers, the
 reward of my return, since I have said enough to bear testimony of my
 consistency whatever event may befall me, and since I have been kindly and
 attentively listened to by you. And if I have such opportunities frequently
 without exposing both myself and you to danger, I shall avail myself of them. If
 not, as far as I can I shall reserve myself not for myself, but rather for the
 republic. I have lived long enough for the course of human life, or for my own
 glory. If any additional life is granted to me, it shall be bestowed not so much
 on myself as on you and on the republic. THE SECOND SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SECOND PHILIPPIC. THE ARGUMENT. This second speech was not actually spoken at all. Antonius was greatly
 enraged at the first speech, and summoned another meeting of the senate for
 the nineteenth day of the month, giving Cicero especial notice to be
 present, and he employed the interval in preparing an invective against
 Cicero, and a reply to the first Philippic. The senate met in the temple of
 Concord, but Cicero himself was persuaded not to attend by his friends, who
 were afraid of Antonius proceeding to actual violence against him, (and
 indeed he brought a strong guard of armed men with him to the senate.) He
 spoke with the greatest fury against Cicero, charging him with having been
 the principal author and contriver of Caesar's murder, hoping by this to
 inflame the soldiers, whom he had posted within hearing of his harangue. Soon after this, Cicero removed to a villa near Naples for greater safety, and here he composed this second
 Philippic, which he did not publish immediately, but contented himself at
 first with sending a copy to Brutus 
 and Cassius, who were much pleased with it. To what destiny of mine, O conscript fathers, shall I say that it is owing, that
 none for the last twenty years has been an enemy to the republic without at the
 same time declaring war against me? Nor is there any necessity for naming any
 particular person; you yourselves recollect instances in proof of my statement.
 They have all hitherto suffered severer punishments than I could have wished for
 them; but I marvel that you, O Antonius, do not fear the end of these men whose
 conduct you are imitating. And in others I was less surprised at this. None of
 those men of former times was a voluntary enemy to me; all of them were attacked
 by me for the sake of the republic. But you, who have never been injured by me,
 not even by a word, in order to appear more audacious than Catiline, more
 frantic than Clodius, have of your own accord attacked me with
 abuse, and have considered that your alienation from me would be a
 recommendation of you to impious citizens. What am I to think? that I have been despised? 
 I see nothing either in my life, or in my influence in the city, or in my
 exploits, or even in the moderate abilities with which I am endowed, which
 Antonius can despise. Did he think that it was easiest to disparage me in the
 senate? a body which has borne its testimony in favour of many most illustrious
 Citizens that they governed the republic well, but in favour of me alone, of all
 men, that I preserved it. Or did he wish to contend with me in a rivalry of
 eloquence? This, indeed, is an act of generosity; for what could be a more
 fertile or richer subject for me, than to have to speak in defence of myself and
 against Antonius? This, in fact, is the truth. He thought it impossible to prove
 to the satisfaction of those men who resembled himself, that he was an enemy to
 his country, if he was not also an enemy to me. And before I make him any reply on the other topics of his speech, I will say
 a few words respecting the friendship formerly subsisting between us, which he
 has accused me of violating,—for that I consider a most serious
 charge. 
 He has complained that I pleaded once against his interest. Was I not to plead
 against one with whom I was quite unconnected, in behalf of an intimate
 acquaintance, of a dear friend? Was I not to plead against interest acquired not
 by hopes of virtue, but by the disgrace of youth? Was I not to react against an
 injustice which that man procured to be done by the obsequiousness of a most
 iniquitous interposer of his veto, not by any law regulating the privileges of
 the praetor? But I imagine that this was mentioned by you, in order that you
 might recommend yourself to the citizens, if they all recollected that you were
 the son-in-law of a freedman, and that your children were the grandsons of
 Quintus Fadius a freedman. But you had entirely devoted yourself to my principles; (for this is what you
 said;) you had been in the habit of coming to my house. In truth, if you had
 done so, you would more have consulted your own character and your reputation
 for chastity. But you did not do so, nor, if you had wished it, would Caius
 Curio have ever suffered you to do so. You
 have said, that you retired in my favour from the contest for the
 augurship. Oh the incredible audacity! oh the monstrous impudence of such an
 assertion! For, at the time when Cnaeus Pompeius and Quintus Hortensius named me
 as augur, after I had been wished for as such by the whole college, (for it was
 not lawful for me to be put in nomination by more than two members of the
 college,) you were notoriously insolvent, nor did you think it possible for your
 safety to be secured by any other means than by the destruction of the republic.
 But was it possible for you to stand for the augurship at a time when Curio was
 not in Italy ? or even at the time when
 you were elected, could you have got the votes of one single tribe without the
 aid of Curio? whose intimate friends even were convicted of violence for having
 been too zealous in your favour. But I availed myself of your friendly assistance. Of what assistance? Although
 the instance which you cite I have myself at all times openly admitted. I
 preferred confessing that I was under obligations to you, to letting myself
 appear to any foolish person not sufficiently grateful. However, what was the
 kindness that you did me? not killing me at Brundusium ? Would you then have slain the man whom the
 conqueror himself who conferred on you, as you used to boast, the chief rank
 among all his robbers, had desired to be safe, and had enjoined to go to
 Italy ? Grant that you could have
 slain him, is not this, O conscript fathers, such a kindness as is done by
 banditti, who are contented with being able to boast that they have granted
 their lives to all those men whose lives they have not taken? and if that were
 really a kindness, then those who slew that man by whom they themselves had been
 saved, and whom you yourself are in the habit of styling most illustrious men,
 would never have acquired such immortal glory. But what sort of kindness is it,
 to have abstained from committing nefarious wickedness? It is a case in which it
 ought not to appear so delightful to me not to have been killed by you, as
 miserable, that it should have been in your power to do such a thing with
 impunity. I, however, grant that it was a
 kindness, since no greater kindness could be received from a robber, still in
 what point can you call me ungrateful? Ought I not to complain of the ruin of
 the republic, lest I should appear ungrateful towards you? But in
 that complaint, mournful indeed and miserable, but still unavoidable for a man
 of that rank in which the senate and people of Rome have placed me, what did I say that was insulting? that
 was otherwise than moderate? that was otherwise than friendly? and what instance
 was it not of moderation to complain of the conduct of Marcus Antonius, and yet
 to abstain from any abusive expressions? especially when you had scattered
 abroad all relics of the republic; when everything was on sale at your house by
 the most infamous traffic; when you confessed that those laws which had never
 been promulgated, had been passed with reference to you, and by you; when you,
 being augur, had abolished the auspices, being consul, had taken away the power
 of interposing the veto; when you were escorted in the most shameful manner by
 armed guards; when, worn out with drunkenness and debauchery, you were every day
 performing all sorts of obscenities in that chaste house of yours. But I, as if I had to contend against Marcus Crassus,
 with whom I have had many severe struggles, and not with a most worthless
 gladiator, while complaining in dignified language of the state of the republic
 did not say one word which could be called personal. Therefore, today I will
 make him understand with what great kindness he was then treated by me.