A Matter for the Courts

Conscript fathers, as has so often happened during this time of turbulence, there has come before the Senate a choice which is really no choice at all. For while some of you may state either from pride, anger, or other strong emotion that the conspirators who took Gaius Julius Caesar’s life must either be killed or venerated, if you allow your reason to overtake your spirit, you must see the only true and worthy course of action. So that we might firmly reestablish order in our state, we must allow the matter of Marcus Junius Brutus and his co-conspirators to be prosecuted in the court system. You may ask what purpose such a move might serve, as the jury will necessarily be overrun by the men you see around you in this room, and, at first glance, it may appear that there would be no difference between the results of a trial and the decision that would be made should we put it to a vote here and now. I would say that you are mistaken, but only history will be able to assess the truth or fallacy of my words. Thus, instead of the results, we must consider the appearance of this august body and the implications it may hold for the stability of the state as a whole.

In our last meeting, Marcus Tullius spoke of Caesar as a man, and in this he spoke the truth. Gaius Julius Caesar was a man, but are there not divisions among men? Do not natural distinctions exist between the virtuous and the vile, the heroic and the base? Are we not required to honor these varying forms of men with appropriate rites and tributes?

Yes, Caesar was a man, but he was also a hero, a triumphant general, and a beloved statesman. Even if you should choose not to honor him as our dictator, are you not still required, if not by the customs of our ancestors then by the very laws of the gods, to mark him for his great works among the barbarians of Gaul, not to mention his many other great services to the state? Indeed, had decisive action not already been taken by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, we would have had no option other than to give Caesar the funeral his accomplishments required.

And if we were obligated to honor Caesar with a funeral befitting to his station and his person, how may we escape the idea that his murderers must be brought to trial? For, if Caesar was a man, and I assure you that he was, regardless of the slanderous and licentious accusations of some of the members of this Senate, then his needless, violent slaughter must be avenged by the state in the same fashion that the murder of any man would be. To do any more, either by sending the conspirators into exile far from Rome or by ordering their outright execution, would be reactionary, and, at the very least, would do little more than brand this body with the same accusations that followed Marcus Tullius after the deaths of the Clodian conspirators. Indeed, we would hardly be able to blame our accusers if they were to refer to our actions as an extension of those taken by Sulla. By the same token, to do any less would insult the memories and mores of our ancestors and disregard the divine mandates that those customs represent.

If you wish to continue this journey to return the state to its former glory as a republic with all speed, as you signaled so clearly in our previous meeting, we must work, not only to reestablish the founding principles of our state such as the rule of two consuls, but also to hold onto those institutions which so often may be thrown by the wayside in turbulent times in favor of more direct action. Honorable senators, in order to maintain the stability of our nation and retain the integrity of the Senate’s image as the advisory body of this republic, we must prosecute these conspirators through the mechanism of a court of law.