Address to the Legions

Noble Legions,

Men! You all know the place our great general died. Word must have reached you of how Marcus Junius Brutus and his gang of senators bit into our commander so many times with their betrayal and daggers in the senate house. How they accepted his clemency and prosperity, then turned on him in frenzy. I, so woefully waylaid by the betrayer’s own cousin, Decimus Junius Brutus could not reach them in time. I felt the bitterness most severe of losing him so close, falling just short of arriving to his aid.

After his death the assassins regrouped with their allies to celebrate their vile victory. I feared even for my own life at the time, but soon found them seemingly sated with one man, for the time being. Betrayed though I was, though you were, though all of Rome was from the murder of Caesar; I thought it best to wait and eventually bring the senate to bear against his killers rather than strike prematurely and fail. I foolishly fought by the rules of the city rather than the field, with litigations and legislation in stead of spears and swords. I sought carefully to maintain order and dignity in that city. I remained at least to ensure Caesar’s funeral games. I waited there to bring the country slowly back to the course of Caesar’s act and spirit. I waited in fain, the day never came that I could further his administration and will.

Though the people remained loyal to Caesar in the streets the senator’s malevolence spread in the senate. This began with their refusal to persecute M.J. Brutus. The enfeebled senators cravenly craved only to escape a bloody fate, caring nothing for Rome nor virtue. They chose to hide their vengeance in shame. I wrestled still with the doddering old men, but with time their fatigue disease spread among the senate and through conniving wickedness the republicans furthered their insidious corruption of the state. With such an epidemic of insolence little progress dragged on.

They blocked my movements, threw up filibusters and stretched issues before the floor. Many of you felt the effects of this as well - the lands owed to you for your service still wait unclaimed and undesignated. You waited to rot in idleness while old men sharpened their tongues and whispered slant lies to further their desires. When finally you received commanders again some of you received a man who merely waited for the time to stretch away, others a mere boy, both failed against me when I marshaled the senate’s armies. Though the situation grew ever darker, my allies still remained, and I protected the city for them and right. Even after I defended the city, the city betrayed me. The corruption in the senate reached a new height in my own betrayal, by none other than my own brother. The venom dripping from the liars’ fangs dripped down into his ear and he lied and betrayed me for his own advancement.

It was I finally saw that the senate is diseased beyond healing. Like a limb beyond it must be severed lest it infect all of Rome. There are a few senators who still remain loyal to the strength of Rome, embodied in her lands, her glory, her armies! They who helped me escape an unjust imprisonment, they who finally retaliated against M.J. Brutus, they who refuse to accept those deceivers and manipulators who have seized the senate. These men are worthy of running Rome, but our enemies have stolen the magistrate’s authority. All these worthy men are allies against those who win authority through womanish tricks. The thieves of power now accuse me of manly pleasures, manly actions, manly ways. They know that I partake in the same joys of a soldier’s life, the men I have fought beside in so many campaigns. I have fought with from Hispania to Macedonia, from Egypt to Gaul, all across the empire for Caesar, for glory, for my due.

Now Caesar is dead at the hand of those men he offered friendship, those men I tried to govern. I his closest general and you his veterans and troops lack the man who drove us across the land in brilliant victory. So close to securing a country, he was struck by deception in his own city. I will not make the same error as Caesar, I survived my dealings with those vipers and their betrayal through the foolishness of my assailants and the strength of my allies. I have grown wise those men’s their treachery. I now offer to take up your contract where Caesar left off. Fight for me and we can reclaim Rome. There is much land in the hands of fools and cowards - follow me and we can take back our city, take back our land, take back our country!