call that a conscription, where everyone comes forward of his own accord; men's minds are all ablaze with a craving for liberty and with hatred of the slavery we have borne so long." The legions of recruits thus raised find constant mention during the course of the war around Mutina. The consul Pansa had four of them under his command,[1] and Decimus Brutus at least as many more. Cicero himself placed only too much confidence in them.[2] "For my own part, Senators, if I may speak my mind, I think that instead of looking only to the veterans, we should rather ask, what will the young soldiers, the flower of Italy, the newly levied legions who have come forward so readily to defend the State, what will the whole of Italy think of the firmness of your action? For nothing remains forever at its best; one generation succeeds another. For many years the legions of Cæsar were in their prime; now the same is true of the legions of Pansa, of Hirtius, of Octavian, and of Plancus. They are superior to the others in numbers, they are superior by reason of their time of life, and above all superior in the goodness of their cause." Cicero's reliance on the new levies proved to be ill-placed, but their forwardness is a sure token of the depth of republican feeling which had survived Cæsar's victory. The hypocritical utterances of Pollio, show clearly enough what were the thoughts of honest and loyal citizens whose language he strives
