Civil Wars

The massacre began, as it happened, among those who were still in office, and the first one slain was the tribune Salvius. His was, according to the laws, a sacred and inviolable office, endowed with the greatest powers, even that of imprisoning the consuls in certain circumstances. Salvius was the tribune who had at first prevented the Senate from declaring Antony a public enemy, but later he had coöperated with Cicero in everything. When he heard of the agreement of the triumvirs, and of their hastening to the city, he gave a banquet to his friends, believing that he should not have many more opportunities for doing so. Soldiers burst in while the feast was going on. Some of the guests started up in tumultuous alarm, but the centurion in command ordered them to resume their places and remain quiet. Then, seizing Salvius by the hair, just as he was, the centurion drew him as far as need be across the table, cut off his head, and ordered the guests to stay where they were and make no disturbance unless they wished to suffer a like fate. So they remained after the centurion's departure, stupefied and speechless, till the most silent watches of the night, reclining by the side of the tribune's body. The second one slain was the prætor Minucius, who was holding the comitia in the forum. Learning that the soldiers were seeking him, he fled, and while he was still running about looking for a hiding-place he changed his clothes, and then darted into a shop, sending away his attendants and the insignia of his office. The attendants, moved by shame and pity, lingered near the place, and thus unintentionally made the discovery of the prætor more easy to his slayers.

Annalis, another prætor, was going around with his son, who was a candidate for the quæstorship, and soliciting votes for him. Some friends who accompanied him, and those who bore his insignia of office, when they heard that he was on the list of the proscribed, ran away from him. Annalis took refuge with one of his clients, who had in the suburbs a small, mean apartment in every way despicable, where he remained safely concealed until his son, suspecting that he had fled to this client, guided the murderers to the place. The triumvirs gave him his father's fortune and raised him to the ædileship. As he was returning home drunk he fell into a quarrel about something, and was killed by the same soldiers who had killed his father. Thoranius, who was not then prætor but had been such, and who was the father of a young man who was a scapegrace generally, but had great influence with Antony, asked the centurions to postpone his death for a short time, till his son could appeal to Antony for him. They laughed at him, and said, "He has already appealed, but on the other side." When the old man knew this he asked for another very short interval until he could see his daughter, and when he saw her he told her not to claim her share of the inheritance lest her brother should ask for her death also from Antony. It happened in the son's case that, after squandering his fortune in disgraceful ways, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to banishment.

Cicero, who had held supreme power after Cæsar's death, as much as a public speaker could, was proscribed, together with his son, his brother, and his brother's son and all of his household, his faction, and his friends. He fled in a small boat, but as he could not endure the seasickness, he landed and went to a country place of his own near Caieta,[*](All the codices say Capua, but Schweighäuser gives two excellent reasons for considering this a copyist's mistake for Caieta, which Livy tells us was the place. A third reason for so thinking is that Caieta was on the sea-shore, whereas Capua was a considerable distance inland. If Appian had written the word Capua he could hardly have said immediately afterward that one of the two parties conveying the news to Antony took ship for that purpose.) a town of Italy, which I visited to gain knowledge of this lamentable affair, and here he remained quiet. While the searchers were approaching (for of all others Antony sought for him most eagerly and the rest did so for Antony's sake), crows flew into his chamber and awakened him from sleep by their croaking, and pulled off his bed-covering until his servants, perceiving that this was a warning from one of the gods, put him in a litter and again conveyed him toward the sea, going cautiously through a dense thicket. Many soldiers were hurrying around in squads inquiring if Cicero had been seen anywhere. Some people, moved by good-will and pity, said that he had already put to sea; but a shoemaker, a client of Clodius, who had been a most bitter enemy of Cicero, pointed out the path to Læna, the centurion, who was pursuing with a small force. The latter ran after him, and seeing slaves mustering for the defence in much larger number than the force under his own command, he called out by way of stratagem, "Come on, you centurions in the rear, this is the place;" whereupon the slaves, thinking that more soldiers were coming, were terror-stricken.

Læna, although he had been once saved by Cicero when under trial, drew his head out of the litter and cut it off, striking it three times, or rather sawing it off by reason

of his inexperience. He also cut off the hand with which Cicero had written the speeches against the tyranny of Antony and which he had entitled Philippics in imitation of those of Demosthenes. Then some of the soldiers hastened on horseback and others on shipboard to convey the good news quickly to Antony. The latter was sitting in front of the tribunal in the forum when Læna, a long distance off, showed him the head and hand by lifting them up and shaking them. Antony was delighted beyond measure. He crowned the centurion and gave him 250,000 Attic drachmas in addition to the stipulated reward for killing the man who had been his greatest and most bitter enemy. The head and hand of Cicero were suspended for a long time from the rostra in the forum where formerly he had been accustomed to make public speeches, and more people came together to behold this spectacle than had previously come to listen to him. It is said that even at his meals Antony placed the head of Cicero before his table, until he became satiated with the horrid sight. Thus was Cicero, a man famous even yet for his eloquence, and one who had rendered the greatest service to his country when he held the office of consul, slain, and insulted after his death. His son had been sent in advance to Brutus in Greece. Cicero's brother, Quintus, was captured, together with his son. He begged the murderers to kill him before his son, and the son prayed that he might be killed before his father. The murderers said that they would grant both requests, and, dividing themselves into two parties, each taking one, killed them at the same time according to agreement.[*](A fragment of Livy, preserved for us in the writings of Seneca Rhetor (Suasoriœ, i. 7) gives us that historian's account of the death of Cicero. It is placed in the Appendix to Book IV, together with other extracts from ancient writers touching the same event.)

The Egnatii, father and son, while embracing each other, died by the same blow, and their heads were cut off while the remainder of their bodies were still locked together. Balbus sent his son in advance of himself in flight toward the sea in order that they might not be too conspicuous travelling together, and he followed at a short interval. Somebody told him, either by design or by mistake, that his son had been captured. He went back and delivered himself to the murderers. It happened, too, that his son perished by shipwreck. Thus did ill luck add to the calamities of the time. Aruntius had a son who was not willing to fly without his father. The latter with difficulty persuaded him to seek his safety because he was young. His mother accompanied him to the city gates and returned only to bury her slain husband. When she learned that her son also had perished at sea she starved herself to death. Such examples were there of good and bad sons.