Ceoncerning Lepidus

Conscript fathers, we are every day faced with new challenges which threaten the safety of the republic. A very few days ago, our dictator, my uncle, was slain in the very Senate House. At the next meeting, his Magister Equitum was claimed illegitimate and thrown out of office by our Consul, Marcus Antonius. During the same meeting we could not agree as one to grant to Caesar a state funeral; so Lepidus, a close friend of Caesar’s, felt compelled to take it upon himself to bury Caesar privately. Shortly thereafter he fled Rome with his legions, having been disgraced in the Sanate. At our next meeting, we all voted in Dolabella as consul with Antonius, a conclusion which was reached more quickly than any other that we have come to in this Senate. Following Dolabella’s appointment, we again broke into our factions when the issue of Lepidus was brought forward, arguing constantly, not letting one another speak. Though we have met more than four times since the assassination of Caesar, now we are split into factions over the fate of Junius Brutus, my fellow senators have given their counsel to the consul over two senate meetings, while a vote is still yet to be taken. Let us decide on the matter at hand, which surely must be close to a conclusion, for only a few senators are remaining who have not given their opinion. While I agree with my fellow senators that Lepidus is a force to be reckoned with, and that while we do not know his intentions we should not be able to rest easy here in Rome. But while we are unsure of the location of Lepidus and the actual level of threat that he presents, we cannot forget that those proven to be murderers are in our presence every day in the Senate House. It is true that Lepidus has enough legions to present himself as a formidable enemy of the Republic, there are those in our midst who have already proven themselves as such! So let us finish our discussion of the matter of Junius Brutus and the other conspirators, which surely will not take long, and then move on to the matter of Lepidus.