Conscript Fathers, shall we vote ourselves freemen or slaves?
What more can I add to the words of the consul?
I vote to ratify the proposition of Lucius Lentulus, that Caesar either disband his army on a fixed day, or be declared a public enemy!" "And what is your opinion, Lucius Domitius ?" demanded Lentulus, while never a voice was raised to oppose Scipio.
"Let the Senate remember," replied Domitius, "that Caesar will justify the meaning of his name--the 'hard-hitter,' and let us strike the first and telling blow." A ripple of applause swept down the Senate.

The anti-Caesarians had completely recovered from their first discomfiture, and were carrying all sentiment before them.

Already there were cries of "A vote! a vote! Divide the Senate! A vote!" "Conscript Fathers," said Lentulus, "in days of great emergency like this, when your minds seem so happily united in favour of doing that which is for the manifest safety of the Republic, I will not ask for the opinions of each senator in turn.

Let the Senate divide; let all who favour the recall of the proconsul of the Gauls pass to the right, those against to the left.

And so may it be well and prosperous for the Commonwealth." But Antonius was again on his feet; and at his side stood Quintus Cassius.
"Lucius Lentulus," he thundered, "I forbid the division.