Brutus

At this time, however, when the war was begun and he had in his hands the conduct of a life and death struggle, and was anxiously forecasting the future, he would first doze a little in the evening after eating, and then would spend the rest of the night on urgent business.

But whenever he had fully met the demands of such business in shorter time, he would read a book until the third watch, at which hour the centurions and tribunes usually came to him.

Once, accordingly, when he was about to take his army across from Asia, it was very late at night, his tent was dimly lighted, and all the camp was wrapped in silence.

Then, as he was meditating and reflecting, he thought he heard some one coming into the tent. He turned his eyes towards the entrance and beheld a strange and dreadful apparition, a monstrous and fearful shape standing silently by his side.

Plucking up courage to question it, Who art thou, said he, of gods or men, and what is thine errand with me? Then the phantom answered: I am thy evil genius, Brutus, and thou shalt see me at Philippi. And Brutus, undisturbed, said: I shall see thee.[*](Cf. Caesar, lxix. 5-7. )

When the shape had disappeared, Brutus called his servants; but they declared that they had neither heard any words nor seen any apparition, and so he watched the night out. As soon as it was day, however, he sought out Cassius and told him of the apparition.

Cassius, who belonged to the school of Epicurus, and was in the habit of taking issue on such topics with Brutus, said: This is our doctrine, Brutus, that we do not really feel or see everything, but perception by the senses is a pliant and deceitful thing, and besides, the intelligence is very keen to change and transform the thing perceived into any and every shape from one which has no real existence.

An impression on the senses is like wax, and the soul of man, in which the plastic material and the plastic power alike exist, can very easily shape and embellish it at pleasure.