Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/449

44 B.C.] veto as tribune was, he says, the occasion of the Civil War; Antony was the only man who could be found base enough to bid for the confiscated property of Pompey the Great, and insolent enough to occupy his house. "Alas! alas! for the fate of those walls and that roof-tree. What had that house ever witnessed but actions pure and excellent and of good report? Its old master, as you, Senators, know full well, was alike great in the field and admirable at home, worthy of praise for his exploits abroad, and no less worthy for his habits in private life. It is in that man's house that the chambers are turned into stews, and the halls into taverns." But the inexpiable sin of Antony was that he had attempted to set up a King in Rome by the offer of the diadem to Cæsar at the Lupercalia. "You set the diadem on his head, and the people groaned; he put it aside, and they shouted applause. You then, villain, were the only man to give your voice for Kingship, to declare that you wished to take for your master the man who by law was your fellow-consul, and to make experiment of how much the Roman People could tolerate or suffer. Aye, and you would entreat his pity; you flung yourself at his feet in supplication. What was your petition? That you might be permitted to be a slave? Nay, you should have begged the boon for yourself alone, you who have submitted to all indignities from your boyhood, so that slavery comes easy to you; from us and from the Roman People you had