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THE SIXTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS. CALLED ALSO THE SIXTH PHILIPPIC. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
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As, then, there is in seeds the cause which produces trees and plants, so of
this most lamentable war you were the seed. Do you, O conscript fathers, grieve
that these armies of the Roman people have been slain? It is Antonius who slew
them. Do you regret your most illustrious citizens? It is Antonius, again, who
has deprived you of them. The authority of this order is overthrown; it is
Antonius who has overthrown it. Everything, in short, which we have seen since
that time (and what misfortune is there that we have not seen?) we shall, if we
argue rightly, attribute wholly to Antonius. As Helen was to the Trojans, so has
that man been to this republic,—the cause of war the cause of mischief
the cause of ruin The rest of his tribuneship was like the beginning. He did
every thing which the senate had labored to prevent, as being impossible to be
done consistently with the safety of the republic. And see, now, how
gratuitously wicked he was even in accomplishing his wickedness.
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