Patricide!

Patricide, Patricide! Do you not hear it? The cry of Rome? There is one among us who even now thirsts for blood. That one yet seeks to thrust his blade even deeper into Rome’s heart. Listen! Can you not hear her screaming? Can you not see the chaos? Do you not all taste the fear that any among us might be next? And all this madness falls not at the feet of some barbarian army, nor even some wanton renegade, but one who sits among us still. One who after bearing iron against Rome on the consecrated grounds of the senate assembly sits still in her senate to murmur malicious advice in our ears. What do you advise next? Should you slice into me next? Into Lepidus? Into Cicero? What sick scheme now conspires within your damaged brain? No, I think your methods far to slow, if we continue to allow you to run rampant let us rather simply lock the doors and set fire to this building. Surely it would kill us no faster than the course you have set us on now. Perhaps the gods would look favorably on such a sacrifice and spare the rebellious tragedy you try to pull down on all our heads. Or maybe even all our blood can not avert the looming storm. No, I say the blood of only one other needs now to spill. Indeed, were it within my authority then You! Murderer! Would already be begging Caesar’s forgiveness at his feet in Hades’ house.

Brutus! You deem to call yourself liberator after this vile act of violence. Liberator of Rome? You have liberated us from nothing but peace, nothing but clemency, nothing but order. You liberated us from that greatest of men, father of the people, once father of Rome, and once a father to us both. The true liberator is the man now lying dead, he liberated us from that civil war, from the threat of Gauls, from banishment and tyranny. So many of us received his clemency, aid, prosperity, and status under his direction. So many of us received so much, and for your paranoia you liberated all of us from his coming age of prosperity. Hail, Hail to the liberator.

Let me count the ways you continue to threaten Rome. Her people now wail, lost, angry, and leaderless. Her people panic because their beloved champion can conquer no more foes. Her people rove yearning to say goodnight and goodbye to their hero. Her senate toils like an upturned anthill. Her senate quakes for fear of another bloodbath. Her senate stumbles without that noblest leader. Her senate now needs to unify in these things we must do for the people, and to appease the people to secure ourselves.

We must clean this bloody mess, must sanctify what you’ve corrupted. So we shall settle the both people and our mourning hearts. We shall publicly commission Caesar into the earth. We must honor our fallen leader lest you wish the finely chained chaos lurking in the mind of the mob unleashed. Not only can we begin working towards a safer Rome this way, but Caesar deserves the burial he earned, and his people deserve the opportunity to bury him. All of Rome lost her lord and all of Rome will see him interred.

Once that most important task lies buried, then we must immediately turn our attention to the conspirator. And Oh! How I wish that duty would be mine, but alas, I will not contribute to this madness and bloodshed you incited with more careless killing. A court of just Roman law shares that duty with its jurors. As a citizen we will afford you the right to trial you so carelessly denied Caesar. You will have the chance to defend yourself that Caesar did not. And when you stand facing your fate it will be before many considerate men of a jury, not before many thoughtless men bearing daggers, maliciousness, and foolishness.

Marcus Antonius