The Pardon of Marcellus. ( Pro M. Marcello ) B.C. 46.
Argument
Chap. 1 . Cicero's long silence broken. Caesar's pardon of Marcellus the earnest of a restored republic. 2 . This is the greatest of Caesar's deeds. 3 . Conquest is a natural and frequent thing: self-conquest is a divine attribute. Other praises are drowned by the noise of war: this wins love and gratitude. 4 . This glory none can claim to share. Victory itself is conquered when its rights are renounced. 5 , 6 . This pardon reaches far beyond Caesar's other acts. Cicero had feared the violence of his own side if victorious: Caesar's spirit was the nobler. 7 . Caesar has nothing to fear from Marcellus: the state itself will defend its savior. 8 . The wounds of the Civil War must be healed: he must live to restore the republic. 9 . This glory must ever remain: unless the state is restored, his other glories will have no abiding place. 10 . The Civil War is finished. 11 . Cicero is the mouthpiece of all in rendering thanks to Caesar.Commentary on The Pardon of Marcellus. James Bradstreet Greenough. ed. James Bradstreet Greenough, ed. George Lyman Kittredge. Boston. 1897.
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