More letters? Lay them down here. Antony, Curio, Cicero--even Atticus-- Well, what does Antony say, “Strike quick and hard! March your picked Gauls on Rome!” H’m? “All the city Is gone stark mad against you.” Oh, of course! “At the next meeting of the Senate”? Ah! “I will suggest both you and Pompey lay Aside your several commands.” All hangs On that one offer--If they should refuse, I strike at last!... Well, Curio, “Dare you not Give up the provinces? All would be well. It is the one thing Pompey now demands-- Impossible of course--” Gods, Curio! “Give up the provinces”! For twenty years I have toiled up this hill--and now at last Stand here, proconsul of a barren land, A swarming, seething pot of plots and lies, Where every day brings forth a fresh revolt. Others had rich lands in the peaceful East, They fought with armies, I a people. Now, After nine years these Gauls are not subdued. I stand alone against a forest fire ... But even this they will not suffer, no, Not even that I waste my life in vain In these vast woods. They call me to return, “A private citizen as Pompey did.” No, to return disgraced, shut out forever From all great deeds.... What say you, Cicero? “I know you do not want a civil war.” H’m. “Rome mistaken--.” H’m. “Why should you care For all these dogs that bark at great men’s heels? You say your foes are wrong--It may be so, At least they act with one thought in their minds, That you wish civil war for your own ends. Why not disprove them, strike them dumb, resign Your provinces!” and let them cut my throat! “Return to Rome a citizen. That one act Would make you just--immortal, and they, they, Would shrink back to their holes, never again To dare the splendor of the day and truth. Pompey is not against you. Him I know. And he would be as generous a friend As you could wish--resign his legions too--” Ah, Cicero!--What’s this, here at the end? “Remember the Republic! Caesar, Caesar! Gaze not in that Medusa’s face. Your soul Stands here at stake, you hold the fate of Rome In your two hands. Gaze not in that dread face!”