Brutus

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.

There fell on his side eight thousand men, including the camp servants whom Brutus called Briges;[*](The name of a Thracian tribe (Herodotus, vii. 73).) but the enemy, in the opinion of Messala, lost more than twice as many.

They were therefore the more dejected of the two, until an attendant of Cassius, named Demetrius, came to Antony in the evening, bringing the robes and the sword which he had taken at once from the dead body. This encouraged them so much that at break of day they led their forces out arrayed for battle.

But both the camps over which Brutus had command were in dangerous straits. His own was filled with prisoners of war and required a heavy guard; while that of Cassius was dissatisfied with the change of commanders, and besides, as vanquished men, they were full of hatred and jealousy towards those who had been victorious Brutus therefore decided to put his army in array, but to refrain from battle.