On the Matters at Hand

Fellow senators, I see that we are acting with some caution when it comes to what we should do about the young Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Some were calling to send an embassy to him, telling him to come back to Rome. Conscript fathers, have we not already done this? Have we not already sent a friendly embassy to this young man telling him to come back to Rome? Enough time has passed now to allow Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus to come back, and yet, has he? Has he not openly defied the orders of this very Senate? Yes, fellow senators, this is exactly what he has done. I do not think we should take this action, or rather, inaction, lightly. I do not believe that he can be planning any good thing as he runs around with nine legions. After all, he is merely a boy! He was angry with us, angry with the Senate because he felt that we were doing his father a disservice after his death, whether we believe this was true or not. At this point, sirs, it does not matter. What matters is that this child is angry and will act rashly, as we have seen him do before. Was it not a rash action to leave Rome in the first place? We cannot let him sit outside of Rome for any significant amount of time, senators. We must find a way to stop him before he carry out what I believe to be his ultimate plan, and that is that Gaius Julius Caesar will eventually attempt to march on Rome.
As far as what action to take, we do not have many options before us. Unfortunately, we are beginning to wear ourselves quite thin in the area of Rome’s armies. I do not believe that we should name Gaius Julius Caesar an enemy of the state without first handling the situation with Marcus Lepidus. We should send legions out to help Dolabella, now that he has finally closed in on Lepidus’ whereabouts, as he has only one legion compared to the five Lepidus is in control of. We must send help to Dolabella, for I fear that Lepidus will not want to talk when he is confronted. It is possible, after the legions we raise reach Dolabella and are prepared for battle if it is needed, to send a messenger out to the camp of Lepidus and give him one more chance to turn his troops over without a fight. If he takes this offer, which I see as an unlikely outcome, then Dolabella could take control of the legions he possesses and we could finally focus our full attention on Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. We will need the legions that Lepidus holds under his command if we are to even approach the boy and his nine legions. We must go into all of this prepared and knowing how angry Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is, and also what rash actions he is capable of. Do not brush off this total disregard of our Senate as a small thing, fellow senators. We must get to Lepidus before this young man can, as I fear that the two may meet and join forces if we let this situation go for too long. If they meet and join together, Rome could be lost. Do not let this happen! We must do our duty to Rome and take care of this matter, quickly!