On Lepidus

This Senate has accomplished very little in the last handful of days, and in the meantime, who knows what plots and schemes have been laid out in every corner of the city and, indeed, the Mediterranean world? Rather than harp on the failures of the past, however, and place blame on poor leadership and useless incessant squabbling from every side of this house, I’d think our time now is best spent focusing on the tasks immediately at hand, the most pressing matters, detrimental to the members of the Senate themselves as well as the city and the citizens and the colonies as a whole. While I for one certainly cannot stand the presence of murderers and agitators here in this sacred house, I have to admit that issues more important than these stand before us, namely the whereabouts and movements of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. I’ll not have anyone think that I approve of murderers voicing their opinions on any matters such as these, but it is impossible, I think, to pretend that the trial of the assassins of Caesar would not bog us down further into turmoil, rendering the future of peace all but hopeless anytime in the near future.
We know that Lepidus, having been declared an enemy of the state, left the city last week with his men while the pyre of Caesar’s cremation still burning. We squabbled momentarily about whether or not to send out scouts, and even if this matter was resolved (the topic was so quickly pushed aside, I hardly remember if we voted on more than one issue regarding Lepidus), a handful of men gathering information, easily bribed and even more easily killed, would hardly suffice when a third round of this civil war is so surely and imminently on our horizon. Did we even decide to raise a legion, or were we stopped at the details of leadership? Even if some of us weren’t convinced of the importance of this man’s actions a few days ago, for now the truth is evident: we must act quickly and we must act strongly. Raise at least as many legions as he has, send out scouts to every corner of Italy, and as soon as we find him, begin allying with the locals in every direction around him. As long as we keep him alone and isolated, with as few political friends as possible, and as long as we march quickly, he cannot do much apart from surrender the lives of his own men.
I’d like to be brief on this matter, conscript fathers, and simply emphasize the importance of acting as a unit and as a united front against this man who, while he may have not antagonized most of us personally, does represent the threat of a dictator in much the same vein as Caesar, something I’m sure the vast majority of us are not looking to live through again in our lifetimes or even in our children’s. We are unaware of the depth of his motivations, and we don’t know what his exact intentions are. I’d guess that, considering the rashness of the events of late, he may not even know what his next plans are. I’m certainly not advocating any more bloodshed or another war, but as we approach this man and this situation with caution, I find it important that our caution err on the side of careful protection rather than unorganized apathy. Nothing good can come of sitting still, arguing more about games, and allowing Lepidus to plot and bribe his way into a threatening position of power, which is what we’ve been doing for a week. Now is the time to come together with one front, conquer this enemy, and consider it a task necessary for the future, necessary for peace.