In answer to all this, it was urged, that "his filial piety, and the
unhappy situation of the Republic, were pure pretences; but the ardent
lust of reigning, his true and only motive: with this spirit he had
solicited into his service, by bribery, a body of veteran soldiers: and
though a private youth, without post or magistracy, but, in defiance of
law, levied an army: with this spirit he had debauched and bought the
Roman legions under the Consuls, while he was falsely feigning a coalition
with Pompey's republican party: that soon after, when he had procured from
the Senate, or rather usurped the honours and authority of the
Praetorship; and when Hirtius and Pansa, the two Consuls, were slain, he
seized both their armies: that it was doubted whether the Consuls fell by
the enemy, or whether Pansa was not killed by pouring poison into his
wounds; and Hirtius slain by his own soldiers; and whether the young
Caesar was not the black contriver of this bloody treason: that by terror
he had extorted the Consulship in spite of the Senate; and turned against
the Commonwealth the very arms with which the Commonwealth had trusted him
for her defence against Anthony.
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