Lepidus

My fellow senators let us not judge any Roman too hastily. I believe that we were right in removing Lepidus from an office which no longer had any grounds to exist. I also believe that we are right in being wary of Lepidus and his men. None of us wish for him to turn Roman against Roman and take the city by force but before simply turning our thoughts against him we should discover his true intentions. Perhaps it is simply that in his view we have treated him unfairly and so he has escaped from the city in order to escape from the shame that we thrust upon him when we did not treat him with the honor that his status and his actions have accorded him. We cast him aside without a second thought instead of remembering all that he has done for our great city. He had devoted himself to the life of a soldier and general so that he might protect us and all that we hold dear and yet we turned our backs to him.
Now is our chance to make right our error; let us not allow it to slip past or our country to slip into war. I believe that we should send out messengers to Lepidus and prepare for him a position here in Rome as a general to protect the city. Let us use his knowledge for the good of the people and make it known to him that we have not forgotten that his is a great man. Yes, he acted rashly when he took his men and left us defenseless but it was in response to being rashly cast aside. Allow him the chance to redeem himself and his legion's honor. If he still would not set aside his own pride then we shall take further action against him.
I do not say that we should not prepare should he decide to turn against us, I merely suggest that we give him the opportunity to return to Rome with honor and not shackles. Even if he will not see reason then we should at least let the men who follow him know that they have officially been commanded to return to the city. Surely then some of these great Roman soldiers would heed the call of their people.
If all reason evades Lepidus and he still will not return to us then we should focus on protecting the city of Rome and its interests abroad. We cannot allow him to march on the city or to cut off our valuable supplies. We must fortify our allegiances with our legions in order to protect our food supply and our people. It grieves me to think on it but if we are truly threatened by him then our only option would be to wipe him out. If he will not see our reason then he must see our sword. This is why we must do everything in our power to resolve this issue before we begin turning countrymen against each other.
Put pride aside, put aside your politics. Let us unite to confront this challenge and not bicker and whine like so many children turning meetings of the senate into a laughingstock. No matter what actions we decide to take against Lepidus we need to be quick and concise. If we keep tearing the senate apart from the inside then Lepidus has naught to do but to be at ease and enjoy himself while we do his work for him.