Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/460

408 conversation, I say that they think too little of their dignity and too much of their danger. But what is this danger after all? If the greatest hazard must be run, it is but liberty that awaits us if we win and death if we lose; the one is to be welcomed, the other is that which we can no one of us avoid."

The position of "princeps," or prime minister, to which Cicero justly lays claim, implied in this hour of peril not only the duties of a parliamentary leader, but other labours which belong rather to the functions of a diplomatist. While the armies of the Republic under Decimus Brutus, Hirtius, Pansa, and Octavian stood face to face with Antony beneath the walls of Mutina, the ring was kept by the legions of Spain and Gaul under the command of Pollio, Lepidus, and Plancus. It was obvious that these armies might come to have a deciding vote in the conflict, and their attitude and that of their generals was dubious and alarming. The despatches which passed between these commanders and Cicero as the virtual head of the government in Rome form the best comment on the progress of events. Cicero's letters to these almost independent powers are admirable in their force and dignity. Not even in the Philippics is the tone more sturdy and uncompromising. "You recommend peace," he writes to Plancus, "while your colleague is besieged by a gang of rebels. If they want peace, they should lay down their arms and beg for it; if they demand it by force of arms, then we must win our way to peace through victory, not through negotiation. . . . Show yourself worthy; sever yourself from an ill-