... No conqueror in a
civil war was ever so mild as you have been. To-day you have surpassed
yourself. You have overcome victory in giving back the spoils to the
conquered. By the laws of war we were under your feet, to be destroyed, if
you so willed. We live by your goodness.... Observe, conscript fathers,
how comprehensive is Caesar's sentence. We were in arms against him, how
impelled I know not. He cannot acquit us of mistake, but he holds us
innocent of crime, for he has given us back Marcellus at your entreaty.
Me, of his own free will, he has restored to myself and to my country. He
has brought back the most illustrious survivors of the war. You see them
gathered here in this full assembly. He has not regarded them as enemies.
He has concluded that you entered into the conflict with him rather in
ignorance and unfounded fear than from any motives of ambition or
hostility.
"For me, I was always for peace. Caesar was for peace, so was Marcellus.
There were violent men among you, whose success Marcellus dreaded. Each
party had a cause. I will not compare them. I will compare rather the
victory of the one with the possible victory of the other. Caesar's wars
ended with the last battle. The sword is now sheathed. Those whom we have
lost fell in the fury of the fight, not one by the resentment of the
conqueror.
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