Cicero Against the Burial of Caesar

I appear before the senate today, as I have not in many years, because we stand, dear fellows, at a crossroads. We have been given an opportunity to restore liberty to the Roman people and I say that we take it. Too long have we floundered under tyranny, too long has one man fought to rule us all. And now we, the senate, are able to again take the power which rightfully belongs to us. Today, we have an opportunity to restore the republic.

I see some among you weeping and wailing, bemoaning the death of Caesar. I say to you that the elimination of Caesar from power was absolutely essential to the restoration of the republic. Oh, in the early days of the republic, the senate, speaking for the Roman people, was able to decide the affairs of state. However, in our modern day, a small group of men are allowed access to power, one of them Gaius Julius Caesar, who has now very rightly met his end. Today, conscript fathers, we have gathered to discuss what to do with the body of the man who stole our freedom. The man recently made himself a king in direct opposition to the Republican principles of Rome, so, therefore we should be jubilant to discover that he has been eliminated from our midst.

Our republic was designed so that no one man might achieve too much power over the Roman people. The principles of this republic are those of a people who made their choices out of patriotism, out of their duty to the good of Rome. In these days we see men achieve power for their own ends, we see men accrue power rapidly and without limits, we see men who wish to become tyrants. Caesar was one of these men, and while he is gone from our midst I would warn you to beware of other men who would be tyrants among you. Know that if any man is of the kind that wishes to seize power over the Roman people, he should be prevented from doing so by any means. True leaders do not go against Republican principles. For example among your ranks is one Marcus Aemelius Lepidus. He is a true man, unlike some of the slave-loving cross-dressing drunkards who today make bids for power. Do not allow the power hungry to take hold of this senate, instead follow strong leaders who will uphold the good of the Republic and the will of the Senate.

Caesar rose to power as the senate began to neglect its duty, as some among you sold your principles for a high place in his government, if indeed you had any principles to begin with. Now that the liberators have dispatched Caesar, I cannot allow this senate to be neglectful again without my warning. If you want to support tyranny, if you want to allow others like Caesar to defeat what is left of this republic, then by all means give your tyrant an honorable burial. But if you believe, as I do, in the values of the Roman Republic, know that we do not praise a tyrant as a hero. We must disgrace the memory of Caesar, so that all shall know that one man cannot be allowed to have so much power over our people. His statue should be removed and statues should be erected of the men who so boldly liberated Rome from his rule.

Therefore, it is necessary that we throw Caesar’s body into the Tiber River. We should not allow others to see this man as a proper citizen: the people should know that he was a shameful member of society, a criminal who robbed Rome of liberty. We should honor the liberators of Rome and restore the republic. It is your duty, conscript fathers, to see that no man should attain as much power as Caesar did. That is why he had to be killed in the senate building, so that the senate could be free of the man who had for so long kept the republic in chains. Do not honor this tyrant. Give to him every disgrace, and throw his carcass into the river. He deserves no better and Rome deserves to see the man who would have become our king made low. Rome shall have no king, as was decided by our ancestor Brutus years ago, and we should hold to this promise. Marcus Junius Brutus and the liberators were following his example when they disposed of Caesar the king, and thus the highest praise should be given to them. Rome shall have no king, and those who try to claim the title should be destroyed and their names disgraced. Conscript fathers, throw the body of the tyrant into the Tiber, if you are dutiful citizens who honor the great Roman Republic.