Cicero in Defense of the Liberators

O Romans, I still hear a wailing and a gnashing of teeth in the streets. I hear some passionate followers of Caesar cry out for the destruction of those men who killed their king. Yes, their king for that is what the common man thinks of him. They have not, like many of you, managed to obscure the truth from themselves. His supporters in the senate would claim that he was a powerful man trying to restore the senate, but those who are being honest with themselves realize that he was trying to become king.
Did you think, O Caesar, that we should allow you to maintain the power you claimed, as long as we still had any real power as a senate? No, I suspect you did not, for why else would you fill this legislative body with your supporters, having no regards for the law of the republic, which clearly states that offices of those who will later join the senate must be filled b election? You must have known that a real senate would react poorly to your tyranny, and so you only allowed people to become part of the senate who you knew owed you and could say nothing against you. You did not allow for our freedom, and therefore it is right that the liberators removed you from your place of corrupt power. O Caesar, it was not anyone’s desire to see your blood spilt in a holy place. But it is the desire of all good men to preserve the republic, and so the liberators acted in the name of the good men who still reside here.
I have heard many say that Caesar would have restored the republic. Yes, he hid behind that guise, didn’t he? But when a man, upon gaining one position of power does not cede it after making reforms and instead takes another position of power and then actually moves on to an unlawful position of power, then it should be obvious that he does not mean to give his power up. It should be obvious to anyone who has examined his actions that he meant to gain all power and hold it for himself and his supporters. Caesar was a power hungry man who used lies and deceit to gain support of the senate and advance him to kingship and gave his followers gifts which they did not earn. Under his rule we were forced to silence our objections and I myself was even given the odious task of praising him. I did so in order to keep my position, so that one day I might have the opportunity to serve as a senator should again. Now I have that opportunity, now we all have that opportunity to speak out against the powerful tyrant who ruled over us as surely as ruled over the territories he conquered in battle. We all are capable of saying that, while Caesar was a brilliant man who brought good to Rome, his cleverness was dangerous to our republic. His way of deceit and subjugation was so strong and opposition crushed greatly that many were so fooled that they thought the republic was actually healthy. As if it could be under a rule of a king. The man had to be taken from power, and while it is regrettable that it had to be with his death, that was the only way a man so potent and harmful could be handled.
Therefore, do not punish those who removed him from office. Honor them. Celebrate that there are still men in this republic willing to do their duty to the state and act out against tyranny. Celebrate the potential for a return to the old ways, the ways in which the senate spoke for the people not for the interests of a few men. Celebrate that a demagogue should not be allowed to rise to power again, that no one shall be fooled into believing that the wolf who would devour us is our protector. Uphold the liberators, do not crush them. They did what everyone here was too cowardly, too stupid, or too weak to do. I am an old man and am so weak that I could not have done anything against this tyrant, and it is the downtrodden that are similarly weakened that we now try to protect. Those who still live in fear that Caesar’s heir will become king and keep them suppressed should fear no longer; I trust that the senate shall do its duty to the republic and protect them.
The liberators should under no circumstances be punished. They did right by the republic, and should be upheld as heroes. They were able to accomplish what no one else here was, the elimination of a tyrant from power. They are the men who destroyed your king, a king you should not have had, and catalyzed the return of the republic to its days of glory. Do not let their efforts be in vain. Make the men who fought for your liberation your heroes, not the tyrant who so “honorably” sought your subjugation. Do your duty and allow the liberators to remain in the senate, where they should be, as they are those who uphold the true values of the senate. Please put your faith in the virtues of Rome, the virtues of the republic and allow no one man the honor that belongs to the senate.
Allow the liberators to remain among us and vote with us as we fight to fulfill their legacy: the promise of freedom, that same promise which the ancestor of our Brutus made to the Roman people. As by rights Rome should not have a king, likewise those who liberated us from our potential king should be given the honors of heroes. We should praise these liberators if we are Romans, Roman who continue on in the great tradition of our republic. We should praise them, and, following their example, we should fight any who, following in the legacy of Caesar, would claim kingship over the unwitting public. Be aware of the threat which faces us, and be prepared to fight the evils of would-be tyrants. Uphold you honor Romans, and, returning the favor granted to you, save those who first liberated you from the hands of the tyrant Caesar.