Civil Wars

But after Dolabella,[*](Dolabella had married Cicero's daughter Tullia. He was a great scoundrel and turncoat.) a young man of noble family who had been chosen by Cæsar as consul for the remainder of his own year when he was about to leave the city, and who had put on the consular garb and taken the other insignia of the office, came forward next and railed against the man who had advanced him to this dignity and pretended to have been privy to the conspiracy against him, and that his hand alone was unwillingly absent -- some say that he even proposed a decree that this day should be consecrated as the birthday of the republic -- then the hirelings took new courage, seeing that they had both a prætor and a consul on their side, and demanded that Cassius and his friends be summoned from the Capitol. They were delighted with Dolabella and thought that now they had a young optimate, who was also consul, to oppose against Antony. Only Cassius and Marcus Brutus came down, the latter with his hand still bleeding from the wound he had received when he and Cassius were dealing blows at Cæsar. When they reached the forum neither of them said anything which betokened humility. On the contrary they praised each other as for something confessedly admirable. They considered the city fortunate and bore special testimony to the merits of Decimus Brutus because he had furnished them gladiators at a critical moment. They exhorted the people to be like their ancestors, who had expelled the kings, although the latter were exercising the government not by violence like Cæsar, but had been chosen according to law. They advised the recall of Sextus Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great, the defender of the republic against Cæsar), who was still warring against Cæsar's lieutenants in Spain. They also recommended that the tribunes, Cæsetius and Marullus, who had been deposed by Cæsar, should be recalled from exile.

After they had thus spoken Cassius and Brutus returned directly to the Capitol, because they had not yet entire confidence in the present posture of affairs. Having first enabled their friends and relatives to come to them in the temple, they chose from among them messengers to treat on their behalf with Lepidus and Antony for conciliation and the preservation of liberty, and for warding off the evils that would befall the country if they should not come to an agreement. This the messengers asked, not extolling the deed that had been done, however, for they did not dare to do this in the presence of Cæsar's friends. They asked that it be tolerated now that it was done, out of pity for the perpetrators (who had been actuated, not by hatred toward Cæsar, but by love of country), and out of compassion for the city exhausted by long-continued civil strife, and which a new sedition might deprive of the good men still remaining. "If enmity were entertained against certain persons," they said, "it would be an act of impiety to gratify it in a time of public danger. It would be far preferable to sink private animosity in the public weal, or, if anybody were irreconcilable, at least to postpone his private grievances for the present."

Antony and Lepidus wished to avenge Cæsar, as I have already said, either on the score of friendship, or of the oaths they had sworn, or because they were aiming at the supreme power themselves and thought that their course would be easier if so many men of such rank were put out of the way at once. But they feared the friends and relatives of these men and the leaning of the rest of the Senate toward them, and especially they feared Decimus Brutus, who had been chosen by Cæsar governor of Cisalpine Gaul, which had a large army. So they decided to watch a future opportunity and to try if possible to draw over to themselves the army of Decimus, which was already disheartened by its protracted labors. Having come to this decision, Antony replied to the messengers, "We shall do nothing from private enmity, yet in consequence of the crime and of the oaths we have all sworn to Cæsar, that we would either protect his person or avenge his death, a solemn regard for our oath requires us to drive out the guilty and to live with a smaller number of innocent men rather than that all should be liable to the divine curse. Yet for our own part, although this seems to us the proper course, we will consider the matter with you in the Senate and we will agree to whatever may be decided in common to be propitious for the city."

Thus did Antony make a safe answer. The messengers returned their thanks and went away full of hope, for they had entire confidence that the Senate would cooperate with them. Antony ordered the magistrates to have the city watched by night, stationing guards at intervals as in the daytime, and he had fires lighted throughout the city. By this means the friends of the murderers were enabled to traverse the city the whole night, going to the houses of the senators and beseeching them in behalf of these men and of the republic. On the other hand, the leaders of the colonized soldiers ran about uttering threats lest they should fail to hold the lands set apart, either already assigned or proclaimed to them. And now the more honest citizens began to recover courage when they learned how small was the number of the conspirators, and when they remembered Cæsar's merits they became much divided in opinion. That same night Cæsar's money and his official papers were transferred to Antony's house, either because Calpurnia thought that they would be safer there or because Antony ordered it.

While these things were taking place Antony, by means of a notice sent around by night, called the Senate to meet before daybreak at the temple of Tellus, which was very near his own house, because he did not dare to go to the senate-house situated just below the Capitol, where the gladiators were aiding the conspirators, nor did he wish to disturb the city by bringing in the army. Lepidus, however, did that. As daylight was approaching the senators assembled at the temple of Tellus, including the prætor Cinna, clothed again in the robe of office which he had cast off the previous day as the gift of a tyrant. Some of the unbribed people and some of Cæsar's veterans, when they saw him, were indignant that he, although a relative of Cæsar, should have been the first to slander him in a public speech, threw stones at him, pursued him, and when he had taken refuge in a house brought fagots and were about to set it on fire when Lepidus came up with his soldiers and stopped them. This was the first decided expression of opinion in favor of Cæsar. The hirelings, and the murderers themselves, were alarmed by it.

In the Senate only a small number were free from sympathy with the act of violence and indignant at the murder. Most of them sought to aid the murderers in various ways. They proposed first to invite them to be present under a pledge of safety and sit in council with them, thus changing them from criminals to judges. Antony did not oppose this because he knew they would not come; and they did not come. Then, in order to test the feeling of the Senate, some of them extolled the deed openly and without disguise, called the men tyrannicides, and proposed that they should be rewarded. Others were opposed to giving rewards, saying that the men did not want them and had not done the deed for the sake of reward, but thought that they should merely be thanked as public benefactors. Still others were opposed to thanking them and thought that it would be sufficient to grant them impunity. Such were the devices to which they resorted, and were trying to discover which of these courses the Senate would be inclined to accept first, hoping that after a little that body would be more easily led on by them to the other measures. The honester portion revolted at the murder as impious, but out of respect for the great families of the murderers would not oppose the granting of impunity, yet they were indignant at the proposal to honor them as public benefactors. Others argued that if impunity were granted it would not be fitting to refuse the most ample means of safety. When one speaker said that honoring them would be dishonoring Cæsar, it was answered that it was not permissible to prefer the interests of the dead to those of the living. Another having said plainly that one of two things must be decided beforehand -- either that Cæsar was a tyrant or that his murderers were to be pardoned as an act of clemency -- the others [Cæsar's enemies] seized upon this simple proposition and asked that an opportunity be given them of expressing themselves by vote concerning the character of Cæsar, under the solemn pledge that, if they voluntarily should give their unbiased judgment, the penalty of the oath should not befall them for having previously voted Cæsar's decrees under compulsion -- never willingly and never until they were in fear for their own lives, after the killing of Pompey and of numberless others besides Pompey.

When Antony, who had been looking on and waiting, saw that sufficient material for discussion had been introduced which was not open to dispute, he resolved to balk their scheme by exciting fear and anxiety for themselves. Seeing a great number of these senators themselves who had been designated by Cæsar for city magistracies, priestly offices, and the command of provinces and armies (for, as he was going on a long expedition, he had appointed them for five years), Antony proclaimed silence as consul and said: "Those who are asking for a vote on the character of Cæsar ought to consider in the first place that all the things done and decreed under his government and while he was the chosen ruler of the state remain in full force. If it is decided that he usurped the government by violence, his body should be cast out unburied and all his acts annulled. These acts, to speak briefly, embrace the whole earth and sea, and most of them will stand whether we like them or not, as I shall presently show. Those things which alone belong to us to decide, because they concern us alone, I will propose to you first, so that you may gain a conception of the more difficult questions from a consideration of the easier ones. Almost all of us have held office under Cæsar; or do so still, having been chosen thereto by him; or will do so soon, having been designated in advance by him; for, as you know, he had disposed of the city offices, the yearly magistracies, and the command of provinces and armies for five years. If you are willing to resign these offices (for this is entirely in your power), I will put that question to you first and then I will take up the remaining ones."