thought advisable to keep Antony away from the Senate-
house while the deed was being done, for, armed as he was
with consular authority, his presence might in some way have
embarrassed the execution of the plan, or at all events have
endangered the safety of the conspirators. Trebonius there-
fore went out to meet him on his way and engage him in
conversation before he entered the chamber where the Senate
was assembled. In his second Philippic Cicero distinctly
declares that Antony was an accomplice, and that Trebonius
and he met by a preconcerted arrangement. By this time
Caesar had reached the door, and it is affecting to read in the
ancient writers the way in which the last moments of the
doomed dictator were spent. The senators seem to have
been lounging in the portico when his litter came up ; and
as he got out of it Popilius Laenas approached him, and
kept him for some time engaged outside the door in close
conversation, in a low tone. This alarmed the conspirators,
JET. 63. THE ASSASSINATION. 4*9
for they knew from what Popilius had said to Brutus and
Cassius a short time before that he was in the secret, but
were by no means sure how far they might trust him. We
are told that they were ready to destroy themselves if they
were prematurely discovered, and had their daggers in readi-
ness for the purpose while Popilius was talking to Caesar.
It is strange that they did not rather rush upon their victim
and make sure work at once. But Popilius kissed Caesar's
hand the kiss of Judas and left him, and as Caesar turned
to enter the Senate-house they felt that so far they were safe.
In the meantime the great body of the senators had gone
in and taken their seats. As Caesar entered they all rose in
a body to receive him, and the conspirators kept close to him
as he walked up to his chair, talking familiarly with him as
was usual, for he was the most affable of men. As he sat
down some say just under the statue of Pompey which
now stands in the Palazzo Spada at Rome Tullius Cimber
began to petition him to recall his banished brother, and the
others joined in the entreaty, pressing close upon him as if
for the purpose of urging more eagerly their request. Their
importunity at last became disagreeable, and Caesar, to get
rid of it, rose rather abruptly from his seat. As he did so
Tullius snatched at his robe, and pulled it from his shoulders.
In an instant a dagger glittered in the air, and Casca stabbed
him in the shoulder. The wound was slight, for Casca was
too nervous to send the blow home, and Caesar, seizing the
handle of the weapon, cried out, " Casca, you villain, what
are you about ?" But dagger after dagger was now plunged
into his body, and when he saw the hand of Brutus, whom
he had loved with a warm affection, uplifted to strike, he let
go Casca's arm, which he had grasped, and folding his robe
around him submitted without a struggle to his inevitable
fate. 1 So eager were the assassins to kill him, that in the
blind confusion of the moment some of them were themselves
wounded, and Brutus was cut in the hand, while the clothes
of most of them were besmeared with blood.
1 According to Dio Cassius he cried tion, for scandal declared that Brutus
out, " You, too, Brutus, my son ?" If was his son the fruit of an amour be-
he did use the expression it may have tween his mother Servilia and Caesar,
meant more than a mere term of affec-
420 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
It is certain that Cicero was present at the murder. In
one of his letters to Atticus he expresses the joy he felt at
witnessing the deed of blood. In his eyes regicide was no
crime, and he exulted in the act as one of the most glorious
in the annals of fame. The terms in which he speaks of it
show that all pity for the man was lost in detestation of
the tyrant. He believed that the interests of his country
required the sacrifice, and he felt no more for the victim
than Charlotte Corday did when she plunged her dagger in
the breast of Marat.
We can imagine the stupified horror with which the great
body of the senators who were not in the secret gazed upon
the scene. They rushed out of the building when it was
over, and fled in wild alarm along the streets. When Antony
heard what had happened, he threw off his consular robe in
fear of being recognised, and putting on the dress of a slave,
who was in attendance or happened to be near, he hurried
home and hid himself in a place of concealment. Plutarch
says that at first all places were filled with cries and shouts,
and the wild running to and fro occasioned by the sudden
surprise and passion that everybody was in, increased the
tumult in the city. The assassins placed a cap, as the
symbol of liberty, on the point of a sword, and carrying it
aloft, marched up to the Capitol followed by the gladiators
of Decimus, upon whom they relied for protection in case
they were attacked. But at first they had no fears of the
populace turning against them, and expected that there
would be a general rising in their favour when it became
known that the tyrant, as they called Caesar, was no more.
As Brutus went along, with his bloody dagger in his hand,
he shouted the name of Cicero, calling upon him, as the
representative of the cause of the republic, and congratu-
lating him on the restoration of liberty. 1 Several of the
senators, amongst whom were Cicero himself, and Le/itulus
1 In the second Philippic Cicero cause, when he had performed an ex-
assumes that this was done because ploit similar to mine, he called on me
Brutus thought that the only parallel to bear witness that he had become a
achievement was his own glorious con- rival of my renown." That consulship
sulship. " Perhaps," he says, " the was never out of his thoughts for a
cause of his appealing to me was be- moment.
B.C. 44. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSASSINS. 421
Spinther, Favonius, Aquinus, Dolabella, and Pasticus, fol-
lowed them up to the Capitol, where a crowd of people,
attracted by curiosity, soon assembled, and Brutus addressed
them in a speech which was loudly applauded. The chief
cause of anxiety to the conspirators at this moment was the
presence of a large body of Caesar's veteran troops in the
island of the Tiber, not far from the spot where the murder
was committed, who were under the command of Lepidus,
the master of horse ; and it was impossible not to fear that
they might, in a sudden impulse of fury, rush forward to
avenge the death of their former general. No movement,
however, of the kind appeared ; and, reassured by the accla-
mations of the crowd on the Capitol, the assassins ventured
down into the Forum, where Brutus ascended the rostra and
again addressed the multitude. He was well received, and
all seemed to be going on favourably until Cinna, who was
one of the praetors, rose to speak. He attacked the memory
of Caesar in language which so exasperated the mob that
the whole body of conspirators, afraid of some violent out-
break, thought it prudent to retire and take up again their
quarters in the Capitol.
Cicero advised that Brutus and Cassius should, as praetors,
take upon themselves to summon a meeting of the Senate in
the Capitol for the following day. The proper officers to
convoke the Senate were the consuls ; but one was lying a
corpse on the floor, and the other, Antony, had fled, and was
nowhere to be found. This was no time to stand on strict
legal formalities, and the praetors had sufficient authority to
act in such an emergency. Cicero's idea was, that if the
Senate could be got together, measures might be taken to
establish a strong government, and prevent the deplorable
consequences which were likely to ensue by allowing the
vessel of the state to drift in so stormy a sea without chart
or pilot. He always afterwards regretted that his advice
had not been followed, and it seems to have been the wisest
course which under the circumstances could have been
adopted. It was of the last importance to get the machinery
of regular government into play before a reaction should
take place, and time be given to the partisans of Caesar to
422 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
recover from the terror into which they were thrown by his
destruction. He was, however, overruled. Perhaps it was
feared that the Senate might show itself hostile, or perhaps
there was an unwillingness to take any step which might
show distrust of Antony, whom they yet hoped to win over
to their side. It is said, indeed, by Plutarch, that he had
been sounded by Trebonius to see whether he would join in
the conspiracy, and " very well understood him, but did not
encourage it ; however, he said nothing of it to Caesar, but
kept the secret faithfully." Perhaps so ambitious a man
was not sorry to have Caesar removed, well knowing that
when the stage was left clear no one had so good a chance
of climbing into the vacant seat as himself. He played his
part with admirable skill, and by his profound dissimulation
he for some time deceived everybody but Cicero, who, what-
ever he might think it politic to say in public, always dis-
trusted him, and felt from the first that as long as Antony
lived all that would be gained by Caesar's murder was a
change of masters.
Antony soon recovered his presence of mind when he
found that his life was safe, and the first step he took was to
secure Lepidus, who, in the night that followed the assassi-
nation, had occupied the Forum with his troops. For this
purpose he hastily concluded an engagement, by which he
promised to give his daughter in marriage to Lepidus's son,
and to confer upon Lepidus himself the high office of Pontifex
Maximus, which was vacant by Caesar's death. It had been
proposed by the conspirators, when they took refuge in the
Capitol, that Cicero should go to Antony and endeavour to
persuade him to come forward and defend the republic.
But Cicero declined the errand, saying that he knew Antony
too well, and that he would promise everything while under
the influence of fear, but when the danger was over would
show himself in his true colours. Next day Antony left his
house, and negotiations took place between him and the
party in the Capitol, but without any immediate result. In
the meantime three of Caesar's slaves had removed the dead
body of their master from the spot where it lay, and carried
it to his usual residence.
JET. 63. PROCEEDINGS OF ANTONY. 423
Antony next took an important step. He seized the
whole of Caesar's papers, and made himself master of his
treasure, which had been deposited for safe custody in the
temple of Ops, and amounted to the sum of seven hundred
million sesterces, about six millions sterling. He summoned
the Senate to meet him in the temple of Tellus on the fol-
lowing day, the I /th of March, and took care to guard all
the avenues of approach by a strong body of soldiers : but
none of the actual conspirators ventured to attend. Cicero
was there, and made a long speech, pleading earnestly for a
general amnesty, and advising that all the appointments made
and directions given by the deceased Dictator should be rati-
fied and carried into execution, as the best mode of preserving
peace. Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, proposed that the contents
of his will, which was in the custody of the Vestal Virgins,
should be made known, and that he should have a public
funeral. To both these resolutions the Senate agreed.
On the same day Brutus and Cassius invited the people
to meet them on the Capitol, and declared to the assembled
crowd that they would hold sacred the promise made by
Caesar to his soldiers that he would make a distribution of
lands amongst them.
In the meantime Dolabella, who, as I have mentioned, had
previously been nominated consul by Caesar, to succeed him
when he left Italy to conduct the war against the Parthians,
assumed, much to the disgust of Antony, the consular office ;
and the two consuls summoned a meeting of the people in
the Forum for the following morning, the 1 8th of March.
Cicero, attended and spoke again in favour of an amnesty,
for which the Senate had voted on the previous day. The
conspirators were invited to come down from their stronghold
on the Capitol, but declined to do so until both Antony and
Lepidus each sent a son to them, to be kept there as hostages
for their safety. They then ventured to descend into the
streets, and in token that a reconciliation was affected and
the past buried in oblivion, Brutus supped that evening with
Lepidus at his house, and Cassius with Antony. A meeting
of the Senate was next held, and the allotment of provinces,
as they had been already designated, was formally confirmed.
424 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
Macedonia was given to Brutus, and Syria to Cassius. The
will of Caesar was read out publicly in the Forum, and its
liberality to the populace produced a marked effect. This
feeling was increased to a state of uncontrollable excitement
when the funeral procession set out along the streets. The
dead body was carried on a bier covered with a pall, 1 and
when it reached the Forum Antony mounted the rostra,
and, throwing off the cloak, showed the blood-smeared corpse
to the people, with its gaping wounds all exposed to view.
He then addressed the horror-stricken crowd in that memor-
able speech which has been embalmed for us by Shakespear
in lines in which, as in the whole of his drama of Julius
Caesar, the imagination of the poet has observed faithfully
the accuracy of the historian. It had been intended to burn
the corpse on a funeral pile in the Campus Martius, but the
people in a transport of fury collected hastily a heap of wood
in the Forum by pulling down some of the neighbouring
shops, and placing the body upon it set it on fire. 2 They
then snatched the burning brands in their hands, and rushed
along the streets to set fire to the building where the murder
was committed, and also the houses of the principal conspi-
rators. On their way they happened to meet an unhappy
man, Helvius Cinna, one of the tribunes, and, mistaking him
for his namesake Cinna the praetor, who had distinguished
himself by his intemperate speech against the memory of
Caesar, they tore him to pieces on the spot.
This was the turning-point of the crisis. Hitherto it had
been uncertain which side the populace would take. Even
Lepidus, at the head of a body of veteran troops who were
attached by every tie to Caesar, had maintained a cautious
neutrality, and declared that he would abide by the decision
of the Senate. It was, however, now clear that the current
of public opinion was setting in strongly against the con-
spirators, and their position became critical in the extreme.
But Antony proceeded with wary caution. His great object
was not to commit himself decidedly on either side, but as
1 According to one account a wax 2 Augustus afterwards built a temple
effigy of the murdered Dictator was on the spot dedicated to the memory
carried on the bier. of Julius Caesar. See App. Bell. Civ.
ii. 148.
B.C. 44. APPROVAL OF CAESAR'S MURDER. 425
far as possible keep well with the partisans of Brutus and
Cassius, until the time came when he could safely throw off
the mask and act as he pleased. For some time he affected to
desire nothing so much as moderate and conciliatory mea-
sures, and gained some popularity by voluntarily proposing
in the Senate that the office of Dictator should be for ever
abolished.
It does not fall within the scope of this biography to give
anything like a minute detail of events with which Cicero
was not immediately concerned ; and our business is to
follow his fortunes, and to see how they were affected by
the sudden catastrophe which had changed the destinies of
the Roman world. That there may be no mistake as to
his hearty approbation of Caesar's murder, I will quote a
few passages from his subsequent letters, to show the terms
in which he spoke of it. In one of them he says :
" Though everything goes wrong, the Ides of March con-
sole me. But our heroes have done gloriously and nobly
what depended on themselves to do. What remains re-
quires money and resources, of both of which we are desti-
tute." In another " Hitherto nothing pleases me except
the Ides of March." In another " Whatever perils they
may endure, our heroes have one great consolation the
consciousness of their grand and glorious deed." In an-
other " Our saviours will always be illustrious, blessed in
the consciousness of their act." Writing to Cassius, he
exclaims " O that you had invited me to the feast of the
Ides of March : there wotild have been no remains T^ In
other words, he would have advised that Antony should be
killed. And he uses precisely the same expression in a
letter to Trebonius.
But he deeply deplored the want of plan and foresight
shown by the leaders of the enterprise. They trusted very
much to the chapter of accidents, and thought that it was
enough to kill Caesar to establish the republic on its old
foundations. They forgot that the body politic was corrupt
to its heart's core, and that a century of struggles and
1 Vellem Idibus Martiis me ad ccenam invitasses ; reliquiarum nihil fuisset.
Ad Div. xii. 4.
426 DEATH OF C^ESAR. CHAP. xx.
disorder had made the people careless as to the fate of the
constitution, provided they were fed and amused. Accus-
tomed to largesses and bribes on a gigantic scale, they
regarded political power chiefly as the means of securing
benefits to themselves in the shape of corn, money, and
theatrical shows, and the highest bidder was the man who
generally obtained their votes. To Caesar's rule they bowed
their necks without a murmur so long as the old names were
kept, under which they fancied that Roman freedom was
preserved ; and Plutarch remarks, with reference to the
attempt of Antony to place the kingly diadem on Caesar's
brow, that it was " a curious thing enough that they should
submit with patience to the fact, and yet at the same time
dread the name as the destruction of their liberty." Not so
curious, however, as the Greek imagined, for men cling to
shadows long after the substance has departed, and adhere
obstinately to the forms of effete institutions, though no
longer instinct with energy and life. It is impossible not to
wonder that men like Brutus and Cassius should have shown
themselves so incapable of guiding the enterprise on which
they had staked their lives. Their hope was that the people
would rise en masse, and hail them as the saviours of Rome.
But when they heard the execrations of the mob, and saw
from the Capitol their houses in flames, they became as it
were paralysed with fear, and thought of nothing" but pro-
viding for their personal safety. They hastily quitted Rome,
and retired to the neighbourhood of Antium to wait the
course of events, intending to leave Italy if the news from
the city continued to be unfavourable. It was contrary to
law for them, as praetors, to absent themselves from the city
for more than ten days, and they therefore obtained a dis-
pensation from the Senate for that purpose. So careful
were they to observe legal forms even at such a crisis of
terror and confusion.
Cicero was not the man for an emergency like this. He
hastened away from Rome, where he felt that he was power-
less, and for the next few months wandered from one villa
to another, at Tusculum, Formiae, Sinuessa, Puteoli, Pompeii,
and Naples, pouring out his complaints in letters to Atticus,
JET. 63. ANXIETY OF CICERO. 427
and seeking distraction from politics in philosophy and
literature. In April we find him in the neighbourhood of
Rome, where he paid a visit to Matius, an intimate friend of
Caesar, who was a shrewd observer of passing events, and
saw clearly that the game which the conspirators had played
was lost. He told Cicero that nothing could be worse than
the present state of things, and there was no getting out of
the difficulty. " For if Caesar," he said, " who was gifted
with so powerful an intellect, could not extricate the state
from its perils, who can do so ? All is ruined." Upon
which Cicero remarks, " Perhaps he is right." Matius told
him that Caesar had said of Brutus, " It is of great import-
ance what he wishes : whatever he wishes he wills strongly ;"
and he mentioned that once, when Cicero called on Caesar
at his house, and sat down to wait until he was summoned
to his presence, Caesar had observed, " How can I doubt
that I am unpopular ? how can I be such a fool as to be-
lieve that this man is my friend, when he sits so long to wait
my convenience ? I do not doubt that he hates me heartily ;"
meaning that so much ceremony would not be used by his
visitor if they had been on terms of friendly intimacy together.
Cicero was pleased to hear that the populace had applauded
in the theatre at the Megalesian Games when the actor Pub-
lius had repeated some lines which were caught at as com-
plimentary to Brutus and Cassius. After staying only a
day at his Tusculan villa, he proceeded to Lanuvium, from
which place he wrote to Atticus, regretting that he had not
applied to the Senate for an honorary legation (legatio libera],
which would have given him an excuse for leaving Italy, but
he had been deterred, from an unwillingness to appear afraid
at the unsettled aspect of affairs. He saw that everything
looked gloomy. The satellites of the tyrant were, he said,
in power in command of armies, and attended by Caesar's
veteran soldiers as body-guards ; while the conspirators, who
ought to have been protected by the whole world, and not
only applauded, but exalted to high office, were compelled
to shut themselves for safety in their houses. The towns-
people in the provinces were, he said, enthusiastic in their
joy at the death of Caesar, and flocked to him in numbers,
428 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
anxious to hear all he had to tell them on that thrilling
theme.
On the 1 6th of April he reached Puteoli, and stayed
several days at his villa in the neighbourhood. He was
here gratified by receiving satisfactory letters from his son
at Athens, written in a style which showed learning and
scholarship. This, Cicero remarked, was a proof that he
was making progress in his studies, whether the sentiments
he expressed were genuine or not. Most probably they were
written in Greek. He begged Atticus, who generally managed
his pecuniary affairs during his absence from Rome, to see
that the young man was liberally provided with money. Just
about this time a friend named Cluvitis left him some pro-
perty at Puteoli, part of which consisted of shops. Two of
these, he said, had tumbled down, and the rest showed
ominous cracks in the walls, " therefore not only the tenants
but the mice have emigrated." " Others," he continued,
" call this a misfortune ; I do not call it even an inconveni-
ence. Good Heavens ! Now I care nothing for such things.
It were better to have died a thousand times than
endure this state of things, which seems likely to be perma-
nent." It was here that a copy was sent him of Antony's
speech at Caesar's funeral, and he declared that he had hardly
patience to read it. Here also he met Balbus, Lentulus,
Hirtius, and Pansa, the last two of whom had, as we may
remember, taken lessons in declamation under him, and he
sometimes in jest calls them his pupils. Their position as
consuls-elect for the next year gave them some importance,
and made Cicero anxious to ascertain what were their political
views, and how far they might be relied upon. But another
person, w r ho was destined to play a far more conspicuous
part in the coming contest, was in the immediate neighbour-
hood, and had frequent interviews with Cicero. This was
the young Octavius, then only eighteen years of age, who
was staying at the residence of his step-father, Philippus,
near Puteoli, and treated the veteran statesman with the
most deferential attention and respect. He had been sent
by Caesar, who was his great-uncle, to Apollonia in Epirus,
to finish his education there, and was to have accompanied
B.C. 44. MEETING WITH OCTA VIAN. 429
him to the East when he set out on the Parthian campaign.
He there heard the news of the murder, and also that his
uncle had adopted him by will as his heir, and bequeathed
to him three-fourths of his property. He immediately quitted
Apollonia, and reached Naples on the i8th of April, declar-
ing that he came to take possession of his inheritance. His
immediate retainers already saluted him with the name of
Caesar, but Cicero observed that his step-father, Philippus,
did not, and he therefore himself abstained from giving him