On the Acta
My fellow senators, we have been through many a trying issue lately. First with Lepidus, Dolabella, and young Caesar marching on Rome, and now with Marcus Antonius trying to convince me to lead troops against Rome before he was exposed as an enemy to the Republic and fled the city. Despite their horrible actions do not let the deeds of these men cloud your judgment about what needs to be done with Caesar’s acta. It is regrettable that these men decided to claim they were acting in Caesar’s interests when Caesar’s first love and duty was always to the Republic and the Roman people, while those men were obviously only out to strengthen their own power. Perhaps at first they meant well, but power had corrupted them beyond sense when they decided to march on Rome. Any man who truly believed as Caesar did would have never started events that could have torn Rome asunder.
The facts are that many Senators hold the positions they do now because they were appointed by Caesar. If we deny the entirety of the acta then all of his appointments will be called into question which would simply cause more chaos. Even Brutus was given his position by Caesar, which was arguably a mistake, but that is now in the past. In fact some senators would not be alive or in Rome if it was not for Caesar’s clemency. Denying Caesar’s acta because you did not agree with all of his actions in the field, or the actions of his minions such as Marcus Antonius is no reason to declare his actions null and void. One of his actions was to give Aulus Hirtius as consul designate, as we have seen by his fair actions since we ratified him as consul this was not a bad choice. Some of his other intentions for Rome were the building of public works that would benefit the people that he cared for so much.
Should we not restore temples, build and repair aqueducts and roads across the city and improve life for the people? Most importantly we now have the money to being these projects with the property confiscated from the traitors. If see no more fitting revenge than to use their property to build up the Republic which they would have seen torn down. If the fact that Octavianus intended his property to be distributed amongst the people of Rome is found out then the people will not react well. If we preemptively use the money for the people they are less likely to be angry with the senate. I do not suggest this out of fear, but wish only to present the facts as they have occurred in the past. After so recently making moves to protect and unify the city I do not wish to see the people angry with this wise body.
It is undeniable that there are now holes in the acta with the death of Brutus and Hirtius relinquishing his appointment for next year. Still there are many valid points in the acta. We are finally making progress as a senate in unifying our actions and moving back to the Republic that Caesar held so dear and those of us who would truly honor his memory wish to return to.