Philippiques Passage 20

cum is dies quo me adesse iusserat, venisset, tum vero agmine quadrato in aedem Concordiae venit atque in me absentem orationem ex ore impurissimo evomuit. quo die, si per amicos mihi cupienti in senatum venire licuisset, caedis initium fecisset a me; sic enim statuerat; cum autem semel gladium scelere imbuisset, nulla res ei finem caedendi nisi defetigatio et satietas attulisset. etenim aderat Lucius frater, gladiator Asiaticus, qui myrmillo Mylasis depugnarat; sanguinem nostrum sitiebat, suum in illa gladiatoria pugna multum profuderat. hic pecunias vestras aestimabat; possessiones notabat et urbanas et rusticas; huius mendicitas aviditate coniuncta in fortunas nostras imminebat; dividebat agros quibus et quos volebat; nullus aditus erat privato, nulla aequitatis deprecatio. tantum quisque habebat possessor quantum reliquerat divisor Antonius.

When the day on which he had ordered me to attend arrived, he came to the temple of Concord in a compact armed column and vomited from his most filthy mouth a speech against me in my absence. On that day, if my friends had allowed me to come to the Senate as I wished, he would have begun the slaughter with me, for so he had determined. Once he had stained his sword with crime, nothing but weariness and satiety would have ended his killing. His brother Lucius was there, the Asiatic gladiator who had fought as a murmillo at Mylasa. He thirsted for our blood, having shed much of his own in that gladiatorial combat. He valued your properties, marked out urban and rural possessions, and with beggary joined to greed threatened our fortunes. He divided lands among whom he wished and belonging to whom he wished. No private citizen had access to him, and no appeal to fairness was heard. Each possessor retained only as much as Antonius the distributor left him.

Lorsque arriva le jour où il m’avait ordonné d’être présent, il se rendit au temple de la Concorde en colonne compacte et vomit contre moi, absent, un discours sorti de sa bouche très impure. Ce jour-là, si mes amis m’avaient permis de satisfaire mon désir de venir au Sénat, il aurait commencé le massacre par moi; telle était sa décision. Une fois son épée trempée dans le crime, rien n’aurait mis fin à ses tueries, sinon la fatigue et la satiété. Son frère Lucius était là, ce gladiateur d’Asie qui avait combattu comme mirmillon à Mylasa. Il avait soif de notre sang, après avoir abondamment versé le sien dans ce combat de gladiateurs. Il évaluait vos patrimoines, marquait les propriétés urbaines et rurales; sa pauvreté jointe à son avidité menaçait nos fortunes. Il partageait les terres entre ceux qu’il voulait et distribuait celles qu’il voulait; nul particulier ne pouvait l’approcher ni invoquer l’équité. Chaque propriétaire ne conservait que ce que le partageur Antoine lui avait laissé.