The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 | Page 3

of the republic the Dictatorship, which
had by this time attained to the authority of regal power. And that
measure was not even offered to us for discussion. He brought with
him a decree of the senate, ready drawn up, ordering what he chose to
have done: and when it had been read, we all submitted to his authority
in the matter with the greatest eagerness; and, by another resolution of
the senate, we returned him thanks in the most honourable and
complimentary language.
II. A new light, as it were, seemed to be brought over us, now that not
only the kingly power which we had endured, but all fear of such
power for the future, was taken away from us; and a great pledge
appeared to have been given by him to the republic that he did wish the
city to be free, when he utterly abolished out of the republic the name
of dictator, which had often been a legitimate title, on account of our
late recollection of a perpetual dictatorship. A few days afterwards the
senate was delivered from the danger of bloodshed, and a hook[5] was
fixed into that runaway slave who had usurped the name of Caius
Marius. And all these things he did in concert with his colleague. Some
other things that were done were the acts of Dolabella alone; but, if his
colleague had not been absent, would, I believe, have been done by
both of them in concert.
For when enormous evil was insinuating itself into the republic, and
was gaining more strength day by day; and when the same men were
erecting a tomb[6] in the forum, who had performed that irregular
funeral; and when abandoned men, with slaves like themselves, were
every day threatening with more and more vehemence all the houses
and temples of the city; so severe was the rigour of Dolabella, not only
towards the audacious and wicked slaves, but also towards the
profligate and unprincipled freemen, and so prompt was his overthrow
of that accursed pillar, that it seems marvellous to me that the
subsequent time has been so different from that one day.
For behold, on the first of June, on which day they had given notice

that we were all to attend the senate, everything was changed. Nothing
was done by the senate, but many and important measures were
transacted by the agency of the people, though that people was both
absent and disapproving. The consuls elect said, that they did not dare
to come into the senate. The liberators of their country were absent
from that city from the neck of which they had removed the yoke of
slavery; though the very consuls themselves professed to praise them in
their public harangues and in all their conversation. Those who were
called Veterans, men of whose safety this order had been most
particularly careful, were instigated not to the preservation of those
things which they had, but to cherish hopes of new booty. And as I
preferred hearing of those things to seeing them, and as I had an
honorary commission as lieutenant, I went away, intending to be
present on the first of January, which appeared likely to be the first day
of assembling the senate.
III. I have now explained to you, O conscript fathers, my design in
leaving the city. Now I will briefly set before you, also, my intention in
returning, which may perhaps appear more unaccountable. As I had
avoided Brundusium, and the ordinary route into Greece, not without
good reason, on the first of August I arrived at Syracuse, because the
passage from that city into Greece was said to be a good one. And that
city, with which I had so intimate a connexion, could not, though it was
very eager to do so, detain me more than one night. I was afraid that my
sudden arrival among my friends might cause some suspicion if I
remained there at all. But after the winds had driven me, on my
departure from Sicily, to Leucopetra, which is a promontory of the
Rhegian district, I went up the gulf from that point, with the view of
crossing over. And I had not advanced far before I was driven back by
a foul wind to the very place which I had just quitted. And as the night
was stormy, and as I had lodged that night in the villa of Publius
Valerius, my companion and intimate friend, and as I remained all the
nest day at his house waiting for a fair wind, many of the citizens of the
municipality of Rhegium came to me. And of them there were some
who had lately arrived from Rome; from them I first heard of the
harangue of Marcus Antonius, with which