Rise Above, Honored Senators

Honored senators, I must confess that I am torn on the subject of Caesar’s acta. I respected and admired the man, and, whatever things may have been said, I believe he was a wise and ultimately just leader. Therefore, as an ally of Caesar and as one of his former generals, I feel as though I must abide by his acta, since I believe that they were written with the best of intentions and with careful consideration. As a proud Caesarian, there could be no desire further from my heart than to dishonor his name and invalidate his works by denouncing the acta.

At the same time, my desire to honor a leader I admired so much places me in a difficult situation. Although I have given up my claim to the next year’s consulship in order to serve the Republic in its current string of crises as consul suffectus, it is undeniably true that I have benefited from Caesar’s acta even more now than I benefited from Caesar’s favor as one of his generals. This being true, I fear it may seem tremendously partisan and self-serving of me to remain in support of the acta, yet I am hopeful, conscript fathers, that you will see past this shallow interpretation in order to hear the truth of my words.

The state, while it has been set on its way towards recovery due to the courageous acts of its citizens and senators, remains in a state of instability and danger. At this time, Marcus Antonius still runs about the countryside attempting to gather aid for his final and, I think we would all agree nearly inevitable, assault on Rome. Thus we must sensibly retain, rather than foolishly and hastily discard, the available and, more importantly, stable governmental plan that has been left for us.

I dearly wish that I could state this unequivocally, but such is not the case. As it stands now, the staunchest and most powerful proponents of Gaius Julius Caesar have all betrayed the Republic. Indeed, all but one of these men is dead. Thus those men whom I would ordinarily hope would be the most viable advocates for the worth of the acta have done nothing more than besmirch the names of Caesar and all who associated with him. In this current climate of mistrust and betrayal, I cannot allow myself to believe for even a moment that I am free from all suspicion, despite the fact that I have always tried to stand only for what I believed to be right and beneficial to the state.

Further issues have arisen in the form of Brutus’ demise. Between the death of the consul designate for 41 and the fact that I have renounced my claim to the consulship for next year, a great many holes have begun to appear in the acta. What shall be done for next year? Will elections be held for only one consul? And it is unlikely that these problems will be the only ones to emerge. As we move further and further into the future, it is inevitable that more and more problems will become apparent.

And so you see, gentlemen, that I have found myself in a difficult situation. The acta are now incomplete with regard to their appointments, and yet I am loath to discard them completely due to the implications it will have for the memory of a man I respected. In addition, it is only Caesar’s appointments that have demonstrated the problems thus far; his provisions for foreign policy, internal affairs, and legislation remain unchanged and undamaged. While it may be impossible for us to simply pick and choose which aspects of the acta we wish to utilize, neither should we abandon the entire body of work because of a few surmountable problems related to only one aspect. Thus, I urge you to renounce what partisanship you might feel toward the acta and well and truly look at the provisions within it. Study them. Let your hearts and minds undertstand that the acta is less the legacy of Ceasar than it is the course which will lead Rome into its glorious future.