[
24]
And you should take the more care of this
point, because your colleague, a most illustrious man, can not fall under the
same suspicion. He knows nothing of all that is going on here; he suspects
nothing; he is conducting the war; he is standing in battle array; he is
fighting for his blood and for his life; he will hear of the province being
decreed to him before he could imagine that there had been time for such a
proceeding. I am afraid that our armies too, which have devoted themselves to
the republic, not from any compulsory levy, but of their own voluntary zeal,
will be checked in their ardor, if they suppose that we are thinking of any
thing but instant war.
But if provinces appear to the consuls as things to be desired, as they often
have been desired by many illustrious men; first restore us Brutus, the light
and glory of the state; whom we ought to preserve like that statue which fell
from heaven, and is guarded by the protection of Vesta: which, as long as it is
safe, insures our safety also. Then we will raise you, if it be possible, even
to heaven on our shoulders; unquestionably we will select for you the most
worthy provinces. But at present let us apply ourselves to the business before
us. And the question is, whether we will live as freemen, or die; for death is
certainly to be preferred to slavery.
