Y.R. 712 Of which contained in all nineteen legions of infantry. these Brutus had eight and Cassius nine, not full, but among them were two legions that were nearly full, so that they mustered about 80,000 foot-soldiers. Brutus had 4000 Gallic and Lusitanian horse, 3000 Thracian and Illyrian,' and 2000 Parthian and Thessalian. Cassius had 2000 Spanish and Gallic horse and 4000 mounted bowmen, Arabs, Medes, and Parthians. The allied kings and tetrarchs of the Galatians in Asia followed him, leading a large additional force of foot-soldiers and about 5000 horse. CHAPTER XII Brutus and Cassius arrive at the Gulf of Melas - Speech of Cassius to the Republican Army- After which they move against the Enemy 89. Such was the size of the army reviewed by Brutus and Cassius at the gulf of Melas, and with it they advanced to battle, leaving the remainder of their forces on duty elsewhere. After performing a lustration for the army, they completed the payment of the promised donative still due to the soldiers. They had provided themselves with an abundant supply of money in order to propitiate them with gifts, especially the large number who had served under Gaius Cæsar, lest at the sight or the name of the younger Cæsar, who was advancing, they should change their minds. For which reason also it was deemed best to address the soldiers publicly. A large platform was built, upon which the generals took their places, accompanied by the senators only. The soldiers, both their own and their allies, stood around it below, filled with joy at the sight of their vast number, the most powerful they had ever beheld. To both the generals this was an immediate source of the greatest hope and courage. This more than anything else confirmed the fidelity of the army to the generals, for common hopes generate good feeling. There was a great deal of noise, as is usual on such occasions. The heralds and trumpeters Lysimacheia and Cardia. These he has placed correctly at the neck of the Thracian Chersonesus. 1 The number of Thracian and Illyrian horse is not given in the text. The number is inferred from the second enumeration found in Sec. 108 infra. B.C. 42 B.C. Y.R. 712 proclaimed silence, and, when this was obtained, Cassius, 42 who was the elder of the two, advanced a little in front of his companions and spoke as follows: 90. "A common peril, fellow-soldiers, is the first thing that binds us in a common fidelity to each other. The second is, that we have given you all that we have promised, and this is the surest guarantee for what we have promised you in the future. All our hopes rest in bravery - the bravery of you, fellow-soldiers, and of us whom you see on this platform, this large and noble body of senators. We have, as you see, the most abundant munitions of war, supplies, arms, money, ships, and auxiliaries both from Roman provinces and the allied kings. Why is it needful, then, to exhort you with words to zeal and unanimity — you whom a common purpose and common interests have brought together? As to the slanders that those two men, our enemies, have brought against us, you understand them perfectly, and it is for that reason that you were ready to take up arms with us. Yet it seems fitting to explain our reasons once more. These will prove to you that we have the most honorable and righteous cause for war. 91. "We raised Cæsar to his high place, serving him in war in conjunction with you and holding commands under him. We continued his friends so long that no one could imagine that we conspired against him on account of any private grudge. It was in time of peace that he sinned, not against us, his friends (for we were honored before others by him), but against the laws, against the order of the commonwealth. There was no longer any law supreme, either aristocratic or plebeian, nor any of the institutions that our fathers established when they expelled the kings and swore never to tolerate royal government again. We, descendants of the men who thus swore, sustained that oath and warded off the curse from ourselves. We could no longer endure that one man, although he was our friend and benefactor, should take from the people and vest in himself the control of the public money, the armies, and the elections, and from the Senate the appointment of governors of the provinces; that his will should take the place of the laws, his rule should supplant that of the people, and his supremacy that of the Senate in everything. Y.R. 712 B.C. 92. "Perhaps you did not understand these matters par- 42 ticularly, but saw only his bravery in war. Yet you may easily learn about them now by observing only the part that concerns yourselves. You, of the common people, when you go to the wars, obey your generals as masters in everything. But in time of peace you resume the mastery over us. The Senate deliberates first, in order that you may not make a slip, but you decide for yourselves; you give your votes by tribes, or by centuries; you choose the consuls, the tribunes, the prætors. In the comitia you pass judgment on the weightiest questions, and you decide rewards and punishments when we have deserved rewards or punishments at your hands. This balance of powers, O citizens, has raised the empire to the summit of fortune and conferred honors upon those worthy of them, and the men thus honored have returned thanks to you. By virtue of this power you made Scipio consul when you bore testimony to his deeds in Africa, and you elected whom you pleased each year as tribunes, to oppose us in your interest if necessary. But why should I repeat so many things. that you already know? Most 93. "From the time when Cæsar's domination began you no longer elected any magistrate, either prætor, or consul, or tribune. Nor did you bear testimony to anybody's deeds, nor, if you had done so, could you have rewarded them. In a word, nobody owed you any thanks either for a magistracy or a governorship, either for approving his accounts or acquitting him on a trial. lamentable of all, you could not defend your tribunes against insult, whom you had constituted your own peculiar and perpetual magistracy, and had made sacred and inviolable. Yet you saw these inviolable men despoiled with contumely of this inviolable office, and of their sacred vestments, without trial, at the order of one man, because in your behalf they saw fit to proceed against certain persons who wished to proclaim him as king. The senators were deeply grieved at this on your account, for the office of tribune is yours, not theirs. But they were not able to censure this man openly or to bring him to trial by reason of the strength of the armies, which, although heretofore belonging to the republic, he had made his own. So they VOL. II-2 A |