Brutus

For Cassius thought that Titinius was actually taken by the enemy, and with the words My love of life has brought me to the pass of seeing a friend seized by the enemy, he withdrew into an empty tent, forcing along with him one of his freedmen, Pindarus, whom, after the disaster which befell Crassus,[*](Cassius had been quaestor for Crassus on the disastrous Parthian expedition in 53 B.C. (Crassus, xviii. 5).) he used to keep in readiness for this emergency.

From the Parthians, indeed, he had made his escape; but now, drawing his robes up over his face and laying bare his neck, he offered it to the sword. For his head was found severed from his body. Pindarus, however, no man saw after the bloody deed, and therefore some have thought that he slew his master unbidden.

A little later it became evident who the horsemen were, and Titinius, whom they had crowned with garlands, came up to report to Cassius. But when the lamentable cries of his distressed and weeping friends made known to him the grievous fate of his general and his error, he drew his sword, reproached himself bitterly for his slowness, and slew himself.

When Brutus learned of the defeat of Cassius, he rode towards him, but heard of his death when he was already near his camp.

He mourned over the body, and called Cassius the last of the Romans, implying that such an exalted spirit could no longer arise in the city. Then he decked the body for burial and sent it to Thasos, in order that the funeral rites might not disturb the camp.

He himself, however, assembled the soldiers of Cassius and comforted them; and seeing that they were deprived of all the necessaries of life, he promised them two thousand drachmas the man, to make good what they had lost.

They were encouraged by his words and amazed at the largeness of his gift; and they sent him on his way with shouts, exalting him as the only one of the four commanders who had not been defeated in the battle.

And the results bore witness that his confidence in a victory in the battle was well grounded; for with a few legions he routed all those opposed to him.

And if he had employed them all in fighting, and if the most of them had not passed by the enemy and set upon the enemy’s possessions, it would seem that his victors’ must have been complete.