empire; you think that we ought to throw away our arms, in order to become slaves.  What juster cause is there for waging war than the wish to repel slavery? in which, even if one’s master be not tyrannical, yet it is a most miserable thing that he should be able to be so if he chooses.  In truth, other causes are just, this is a necessary one.  Unless, perhaps, you think that this does not apply to you, because you expect that you will be a partner in the dominion of Antonius.  And there you make a two-fold mistake:  first of all, in preferring your own to the general interest; and in the next place, in thinking that there is anything either stable or pleasant in kingly power.  Even if it has before now been advantageous to you, it will not always be so.  Moreover, you used to complain of that former master, who was a man; what do you think you will do when your master is a beast?  And you say that you are a man who have always been desirous of peace, and have always wished for the preservation of all the citizens.  Very honest language; that is, if you mean all citizens who are virtuous, and useful, and serviceable to the republic; but if you wish those who are by nature citizens, but by inclination enemies, to be saved, what difference is there between you and them?  Your father, indeed, with whom I as a youth was acquainted, when he was an old man, —­a man of rigid virtue and wisdom,—­used to give the greatest praise of all citizens who had ever lived to Publius Nasica, who slew Tiberius Gracchus.  By his valour, and wisdom, and magnanimity he thought that the republic had been saved.  What am I to say?  Have we received any other doctrine from our fathers?  Therefore, that citizen—­if you had lived in those times—­would not have been approved of by you, because he did not wish all the citizens to be safe.  “Because Lucius Opimius the consul has made a speech concerning the republic, the senators have thus decided on that matter, that Opimius the consul shall defend the republic.”  The senate adopted these measures in words, Opimius followed them up by his arms.  Should you then, if you had lived in those times, have thought him a hasty or a cruel citizen? or should you have thought Quintus Metellus one, whose four sons were all men of consular rank? or Publius Lentulus the chief of the senate, and many other admirable men, who, with Lucius Opimius the consul, took arms, and pursued Gracchus to the Aventine? and in the battle which ensued, Lentulus received a severe wound, Gracchus was plain, and so was Marcus Fulvius, a man of consular rank, and his two youthful sons.  Those men, therefore, are to be blamed; for they did not wish all the citizens to be safe.