" I forgot to mention that Caerellia, who has a wonderful passion for philo-
sophy, is copying some of my works from those in your possession. She has the
treatise De Fiuibns. But I can assure you (although I may be mistaken, for to
err is human) that she has not any of my copies, for they have never been out of
my sight. So far from my having two copies made, hardly one was completed.
However, I do not think that it was from any fault of your copyists, and I wish
you to understand this. For I omitted to mention to you that I did not wish
them to be published yet."
According to Dio Cassius, the tribune Fufius Calenus, in
an abusive speech against Cicero, to which I shall hereafter
more particularly allude, charged him with putting away his
second wife Publilia in order that he might carry on undis-
turbed an intrigue with Caerellia, and he mentioned some
letters of an amatory nature which had appeared written by
Cicero to her, and which contained expressions offensive to
delicacy. The best answer to this scandal is to state the
ages of the respective parties at the time when the alleged
intrigue was going on. Cicero was sixty-two and the seduc-
tive dame was seventy ! If Fufius made the speech he must
have been laughed at by his audience, for he mentioned the
age of the frail lady. There can, I think, be little doubt
that the letters were spurious. Very probably there was a
correspondence, just as there was between Chateaubriand
and Madame Recamier ; but it is ridiculous to suppose that
it was of the nature that malevolence attributed to it. We
must never forget the unbridled licence of invective in which
the ancients indulged when they wished to damage an oppo-
nent ; and this applies to many of the attacks made upon
others by Cicero himself. The good offices of Caerellia were
employed by Publilia's family, if not by Publilia herself, to
408 DISLIKE OF C^SAR. CHAP. xix.
induce him to take that lady back again after their divorce,
but he would not listen to the proposal.
In one of his letters about this time he declares that his
property gave him much more trouble than pleasure, for he
felt more distress at having no one to whom he could leave
it than gratification in the enjoyment of it. He alludes here
to the twice-widowed state to which he was reduced by his
two divorces, and to the loss of his daughter. But the ex-
pression is remarkable, considering that his son was still
living. Perhaps he meant that he had little satisfaction in
looking upon him as his heir, as he felt uncertain how the
young man would turn out, for his conduct at Athens at first
caused his father some uneasiness. Cicero was still on indif-
ferent terms with his brother, and his nephew, young Quintus,
continued as hostile as ever, spreading all kinds of calumnious
reports as, for instance, that his cousin Marcus was harshly
treated by his father, and that his uncle was utterly estranged
from Caesar, who ought to be on his guard against him.
Upon which Cicero remarks, with some bitterness, that this
might be a formidable charge if he was not assured that King
Caesar knew very well that he had nothing to fear from a
man of such little determination as himself. That he was
thoroughly discontented with Caesar, however much prudent
policy made him conceal his real sentiments, is plain from
many passages in his letters. In one of them written in
September, when he was at his Tusculan villa, he expresses
his joy that the people had refused to applaud the statue
of Victory when it was carried in a procession with an image
of Caesar close beside it. The reason was, he said, because
Victory had a bad neighbour.
At the end of August or beginning of September he wrote
and sent a letter to Caesar, which is not extant ; but he
describes it as written without flattery, and in a tone which
one equal might address to another, but yet such as Caesar
would read with pleasure. No one could do this with more
skill and adroitness than himself.
JULIUS C^SAR.
CHAPTER XX.
DEATH OF C^SAR.
yEt. 63. B.C. 44. '
C^SAR returned to Rome in October from his victorious
campaign in Spain. There Cneius and Sextus, the sons of
Pompey, had, amongst the mountain fastnesses of what was
afterwards called Granada, taxed his resources as a general
to the utmost, and fought with a courage and determination
such as had not elsewhere been displayed during the contest.
The battle of Munda on the 1 7th of March terminated the
war, but Caesar gained it with great difficulty. Cneius fell
in the engagement, but Sextus escaped. Caesar returned to
Rome, and celebrated his last triumph with great pomp and
magnificence, amusing the people with gladiatorial combats
and sham fights, and entertaining them at public tables for
several days. He brought home enormous treasures. We
are told that they amounted to more than six hundred mil-
410 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
lion sesterces that is, upwards of five millions sterling and
he gave each of the soldiers a donation of about a hundred
and seventy pounds. He proclaimed an amnesty for the
past, and laying down the consulship which he had assumed
without a colleague when he gave up the dictatorship, he
appointed as consuls for the remainder of the year Q. Fabius
and C. Trebonius. Fabius died on the last day of the year,
and Caninius Rabilius was nominated in his place for the few
remaining hours, which gave rise to one of Cicero's jokes, who
said that he was a consul of such surprising vigilance that he
never slept once during his consulship. For it terminated at
midnight, and next day, on the 1st of January, Caesar and
Antony succeeded to the office.
Cicero now undertook the last cause which he ever pleaded.
The occasion was this. We may remember that when he
was proconsul of Cilicia he sent his son and nephew with
their tutor Dionysius to pursue their studies at the court of
Deiotarus, who was originally tetrarch of Galatia, and had
been created by the Senate king of Armenia. During the
civil war he had espoused the side of Pompey, and Caesar,
after his victory over Pharnaces, had deposed him and
deprived him of his kingdom of Armenia, but allowed him
to retain the royal title conferred upon him by the Senate.
The conqueror was hospitably entertained by Deiotarus,
and received from him, notwithstanding the loss of his
dominions in Armenia, some magnificent presents. After
Caesar's departure, Castor, a grandson of Deiotarus, con-
ceived the idea of supplanting his grandfather, and suborned
Philippus, a medical attendant of the court, to accuse Deio-
tarus of having practised against the life of his guest during
his stay in Armenia. Castor sent Philippus to Rome to
prosecute the charge against Deiotarus, who was there
represented by ambassadors, and they entreated Cicero to
undertake their master's defence. He consented, and the
cause was heard before Caesar himself sitting at his own
house.
When the case was over, the Dictator postponed judgment,
intimating his intention, when he undertook the Parthian
campaign, to pursue the inquiry on the spot. But before
that the dagger of Brutus struck him down.
JET. 63. CAESAR CICERO'S GUEST. 411
On the 20th of December Cassar became Cicero's guest
at his villa near Puteoli, and a letter to Atticus gives an
interesting account of the visit. It is worth quoting at
length :
" What a troublesome guest," he says, " I have had ! But I have no cause
to regret what happened, for all passed off pleasantly enough. But when he had
arrived at the house of Philippus in the evening of the second day of the
Saturnalia the villa was so filled with soldiers that there was scarcely room at a
dining-table for Caesar himself to sup. There were a thousand men. I was
truly puzzled to know what I could do the next day, but Barba Cassius came to
my rescue, and he gave me a body of guards. A camp was pitched in the fields,
and the villa was protected. Caesar stayed with Philippus on the third day of
the Saturnalia until nearly one o'clock in the afternoon, and admitted no one to
his presence. I imagine he was going over accounts with Balbus. He after-
wards took a walk on the shore, and at two o'clock had a bath. He then
listened to an epigram on Mamurra without changing a muscle of his countenance,
and next was rubbed with oil, and took his place reclining at the banquet,
intending to have an emetic afterwards. 1 He therefore both ate and drank
without scruple, and enjoyed himself. It was a capital dinner, and well served,
and not only that, but
' Seasoned with well-digested good discourse.'
Besides, his. retinue was liberally entertained at three tables. His inferior
freedmen and slaves had all they could want. The better class were treated
sumptuously. Not to make a long story, I acquitted myself like a man. How-
ever he is not the kind of guest to whom you would say, ' Pray, my good friend,
pay me another visit on your return.' One was enough. There was no conver-
sation on serious topics, but a good deal of literary talk. Why are you so
anxious ? He was delighted, and showed that he enjoyed himself. He said he
would spend one day at Baite and the next at Puteoli. I have now given you an
account of the visit ; or shall I call it billeting ? But it was, as I have said,
not disagreeable to me. I shall stay here a little while, and then go to my
Tusculanum. As he was passing by Dolabella's villa the whole body of his
guards closed up on the right and left of his horse, and this they did nowhere else.
So I heard from Nicias."
On the first day of the new year Caesar assumed the
consulship, with Antony as his colleague. He intended to
leave Rome in a few weeks in order to carry on a campaign
against the Parthians, the constant and troublesome enemies
of Rome on her eastern frontier. Like Napoleon, he felt
that a succession of victories was necessary to his position ;
and having vanquished every opponent at home, he wished
agebat.
412 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
to gain fresh laurels by carrying his victorious eagles to the
banks of the Euphrates. The Senate met as usual on the
1st of January, and Cicero, with the rest, was present when
Caesar announced his intention of nominating Dolabella to
succeed him as consul when he himself set out on his Par-
thian expedition. This was strongly opposed by Antony,
and he went so far as to declare that when the time came,
he would use his power and influence as augur to invalidate
the election. I use the word election, for it appears that
the form of voting by the people in their centuries was still
kept up, although, in point of fact, Caesar's wish was law,
and whoever was nominated by him was certain to be chosen
by the people. It shows some spirit in Antony that he
ventured to oppose the declared intention of Rome's mighty
master, and it shows also magnanimity in Caesar that he was
not offended at the opposition. But he took upon himself
to dispose absolutely of the praetorships. Amongst these the
highest office indeed the only one of any real importance
was that of prcetor nrbamis, the rest being subordinate
both in dignity and power, and both Marcus Brutus and
Cassius, who were brothers-in-law (Cassius having married
Junia, the sister of Brutus), were anxious to hold it. The
decision rested with Caesar, who, according to Plutarch, after
deliberating with his friends, determined in favour of Brutus,
saying, " Cassius has the stronger claim, but we must let
Brutus be first praetor." And he gave Cassius one of the
other praetorships, in hopes that it would satisfy him ; but
his pride was wounded, and it is supposed that it was in
consequence of this slight that he determined to engage in
the conspiracy against Caesar's life. Caesar was not without
suspicions of him, and had also misgivings about Brutus
himself if the story is true that when he was told that
Antony and Dolabella were meditating mischief he said,
" It is not the fat and long-haired men that I fear, but the
pale and the lean," alluding to the spare figures of Brutus
and Cassius
Let me have men about me that are fat ;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights :
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look :
He thinks too much : such men are dangerous.
B.C. 44. CROWN OFFERED TO CAESAR. 413
But his generous nature showed itself in the answer he
gave when some one, who perhaps had a vague idea of
approaching danger, advised him to be on his guard. The
reply of the lion-hearted man was, " I had rather die than be
the subject of fear."
He had reached the highest pinnacle of power, and in all
but the name was king of the Roman world. Rome was
now changing from the position of an imperial city domi-
nating over Italy and the world, to that of a capital in which
Italy and the world had part. But Caesar's ambition was
not satisfied unless he could gain the title which for so
many centuries had been dormant at Rome. He wished to
be Rex not only in reality but in name ; and an ingenious
mode was hit upon to feel the pulse of the people and see
how far they were disposed to bear it. There was a wild
festival at Rome called Lupercalia, which was celebrated in
the month of February, when young men of good family
used to run more than half-naked through the streets, and
strike with thongs of leather every one they met. While
this carnival was going on Caesar took his seat above the
rostra in the Forum, and, dressed in his triumphal robes,
amused himself with looking on at the sport. Antony,
though consul, was not ashamed to appear amongst the run-
ners, and twisting a garland of bay-leaves round a diadem
or coronet, he approached the rostra, where, being lifted up
by his riotous companions, he tried to place it on Caesar's
head. He drew back to prevent it, but the spectators were
shrewd enough to observe that the action was rather that of
a coy than indignant refusal. The people thundered applause
when they saw Cassar put away the crown. Again Antony
made the attempt, and again it was unsuccessful. The
shouts became louder, and Caesar saw that there could be no
mistake as to the real feelings of the populace. The offer
of the crown was at least premature. He rose hastily from
his seat, and pretending to misconstrue the clamour, laid
bare his neck, crying out that he was ready to receive the
blow if any one there desired to strike. He showed, how-
ever, how little he was pleased that the ruse had failed, for
when the garland was afterwards placed upon the head of
414 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
one of his statues, and removed by order of some of the
tribunes, he deprived them of their offices on the pretence
that they were trying to stir up sedition against him.
The next plan resorted to by his friends was to make the
Sibylline books play a part subservient to their purpose. It
was only necessary to bribe the guardians, and they could
make their oracles speak as they pleased. They spread a
report that in their mystic leaves was contained a prophecy
that the Parthians could only be conquered by a king.
With a people so superstitious as the Romans, it is impos-
sible to say what effect this stratagem might have had, if a
few bold men had not been thereby warned that the time for
them was come to put in execution a design which they had
for some weeks harboured of taking Caesar's life.
Of the particular details of the great conspiracy we know
little. It was of course formed in secret and shrouded in
mystery. Cassius seems to have been the first who con-
ceived the plan of assassination, and he was extremely
anxious to engage Marcus Brutus in the plot, whose char-
acter stood perhaps higher than that of any man at Rome,
and whose name would be a tower of strength on which to
rely in the attempt to carry out so desperate an enterprise.
Several, we are told, to whom Cassius ventured to communi-
cate his design made it a condition that Brutus should join
them. He was cautiously sounded, and at last consented to
take part in the conspiracy. The act of heroism by which his
wife Porcia, a daughter of Cato and his own cousin, forced
him to confide the secret to her is well known. No less than
sixty persons are said to have been privy to the plot, of whom
the best known, besides Marcus Brutus and Cassius, are
Decimus Brutus, Trebonius, Casca, Tullius Cimber, Cnasus
Domitius, and Servilius.
That Cicero was not in the number is certain. Antony
afterwards, when the tide of popular feeling had turned
against the murderers, accused him of being one of the con-
spirators, but Cicero strongly denied it. And this we may
well believe, not because he would have shrunk from the
deed as wrong, for, as we shall hereafter see, he extolled it to
the skies, but because he was not the kind of man who would
JET. 63. MEETING OF THE SENATE. 415
be likely to be taken into the counsels of those who were
engaged in an enterprise that was full of danger, and which
required nothing so much as nerve and resolution. Plutarch
tells us expressly that the plot was concealed from Cicero,
" lest to his own disposition, which was naturally timorous,
adding now the wariness and caution of old age, and by his
weighing as he would every particular that he might not
make one step without the greatest security, he should blunt
the edge of their forwardness and resolution in a business
which required all the despatch possible." 1
A meeting of the Senate was summoned for the I 5th
the Ides of March, and it was currently believed that on
that day a proposal would be made to declare Caesar king,
in conformity with what was said to be contained in the
Sibylline books. The conspirators saw that there was no
time for delay, and the blow must be struck at once. The
place where the Senate was to meet was the Curia Pompeii,
a building adjoining the portico which formed part of the
splendid theatre erected by Pompey on the west of the
Capitol, not far from the southern extremity of the Campus
Martius. Plutarch seems to confound the curia with the
portico. His words are " The very place, too, where the
Senate was to meet seemed to be by divine appointment
favourable to their purpose. It was a portico, one of those
joining the theatre, with a large exhedra or recess, in which
there stood a statue of Pompey, erected to him by the com-
monwealth when he adorned that part of the city with the
porticoes and the theatre." But there certainly was a building
called Curia Pompeii distinct from the portico, and it was in
this that the deed of violence was done.
When the fatal morning came the great body of the con-
spirators assembled at the house of Cassius, and accompanied
his son, who was on that day to assume the toga virilis,
to the Forum, from which they afterwards hastened to the
Senate-house with daggers concealed between their robes.
Decimus Brutus was about to exhibit some games, and,
availing himself of this pretext, he assembled a large body
of gladiators, and had them in readiness in case a rescue was
1 Plutarch in Brut.
4i .6 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
attempted. In order to disarm suspicion, Brutus, and some
of the other conspirators who were praetors, seated them-
selves early on their tribunals in the Forum, and proceeded
to dispose of cases, as if nothing unusual was going to
happen. We are told that when Marcus Brutus decided one
of the causes that came that morning before him, the party
against whom he had given judgment declared with some
violence that he would appeal to Caesar, upon which Brutus
calmly said, " Caesar does not hinder me, nor shall he hinder
me, from deciding according to law." He then left and went
to the Senate-house.
At the last moment the secret was on the point of being
betrayed, and Caesar might have been warned in time. A
person came up to Casca, as he stood in the group waiting
for the arrival of their victim, and, taking him by the hand,
whispered into his ear " You concealed the secret from us,
but Brutus has told me all." Casca naturally supposed that
the stranger was privy to the plot, and his countenance
showed how much he was surprised. A word might have
escaped him which would have been fatal to the plan, when
the other relieved him from his anxiety by saying, in a
laughing tone, " How came you to be so rich of a sudden
that you could stand an election for the aedileship ?" It was
obvious that the secret to which the man alluded was not
the terrible one of which all their minds were full, and we
can imagine how Casca must have rejoiced that he had not
betrayed himself by an imprudent answer. Another incident
occurred, which showed that the plot was known more widely
than the conspirators imagined. A senator named Popilius
Lasnas came up to Brutus and Cassius, and, saluting them
with more than usual earnestness, whispered to them " My
wishes are with you, and I hope you may accomplish your
design. But I advise you to make haste, for the thing is
now no secret !" It was evident that not a moment was to
be lost.
But where in the meantime was Caesar ? The day was
wearing on, and he had not appeared. What was the cause
of the unusual delay ?
If we may believe the concurrent testimony of many
B.C. 44- SINISTER OMENS. 417
ancient writers, several omens of sinister import happened in
the night and morning before his assassination, which seemed
sent by Providence to warn him of his impending doom.
We need not too curiously inquire whether the account is
true, or whether they owed their origin to the superstitious
imagination of the Romans, excited to the utmost as it would
be by dwelling upon the circumstances of the terrible event
after it had taken place. It is a fact established beyond the
possibility of doubt, that in some mysterious way a presenti-
ment does often exist of approaching evil, and the very
reverse often happens of that which Shakespear declares to
be the rule, when he says
Against ill chances men are ever merry ;
But heaviness' foreruns the good event.
His wife Calpurnia dreamed that the house in which they
slept had fallen, and that her husband was wounded and fled
to her arms for refuge. The armour dedicated to Mars,
which as Pontifex Maximus .he kept in his dwelling, rattled
during the night, and the door of his bed-chamber opened of
its own accord. In the morning when he attempted a divina-
tion, by feeding poultry according to the old Roman custom,
the omens were unfavourable ; and it is said that he deter-
mined not to leave his house that day. The impatient con-
spirators sent a message to tell him that the Senate was
assembled, but still he did not come ; and at last Decimus
Brutus went off to see him personally and say that his pre-
sence was urgently required. After such a summons his
lofty soul disdained to be deterred by the paltry omens that
might have frightened a weaker mind, and, accompanied by
Brutus, he left his home and got into a litter to be carried
to the Senate-house. As he passed the threshold his statue,
which stood there, fell to the ground and was broken to
pieces. Even yet he might have been saved if he had taken
the trouble to read a paper which as he passed along was
thrust into his hand by some one in the street. It contained
a revelation of the plot ; but Caesar, thinking probably that
it was merely a petition such as he was constantly in the
habit of receiving, and which was of no pressing importance,
2 E
4i 8 DEATH OF CsESAR. CHAP. xx.
thrust it unopened into the folds of his robe. And we are
told that he said gaily to a soothsayer whom he met, and
who had warned him to beware of the Ides of March, " You
see the day you feared has come, and I am still alive."
" Yes," answered the other, " it has come, but it has not yet
passed." If this story is true we must suppose that the man
had some inkling of the design of the conspirators, or perhaps
was actually in the plot, and hoped to get credit for the gift
of prophecy, and so enhance the reputation of the science in
which he was an adept.
It had been seriously debated amongst the conspirators
whether Antony should not be murdered at the same time
as Caesar, and the majority wished to kill him. But Brutus
would not consent, thinking that it would give an unfavour-
able complexion to the character of their design, which ought
to be limited solely to the removal of the one man who had
destroyed the liberties of Rome. Plutarch says that he in-
sisted that an action undertaken in defence of right and law
must be kept unsullied and pure from injustice. There can
be no doubt that in this he made in point of policy a capital
mistake, and no one was more fully impressed with the con-
viction afterwards than Cicero himself. It was, however,