17. ALBINUS, No. 22], whence he is
called Brutus Albinus; and this adoption is commemorated on a coin of D. Brutus figured on p.
93. (Ant. 11;
ad Fam. 8.7.) On the breaking out
of the civil war in the following year (49), he was recalled to active service, and was placed
by Caesar over the fleet which was to besiege Massilia. D. Brutus, though inferior in the
number of his ships, gained a victory over the enemy, and at length obtained possession of
Massilia. (
After Caesar's death (44), D. Brutus went into his province of Cisalpine Gaul, and when
Antony obtained from the people a grant of this province, Brutus refused to surrender it to
him. His conduct was warmly praised by Cicero and the senatorial party; but so little was he
prepared to resist Antony, that when the latter crossed the Rubicon towards the close of the
year, D. Brutus dared not meet him in the field, but threw himself into Mutina, which was
forthwith besieged by Antony. In this town he continued till April in the following year (43),
when the siege was raised by the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, who were accompanied by
Octavianus. Antony was defeated, and fled across the Alps; and as Hirtius and Pansa had fallen
in the battle, the command devolved upon D. Brutus, since the senate was unwilling to entrust
Octavianus with any further power. He was not, however, in a condition to follow up his
victory against Antony, who meantime had collected a large army north of the Alps, and was
preparing to march again into Italy. Octavianus also had obtained the consulship,
not-withstanding the ill-will of the senate, and had procured the enactment of the lex Pedia,
by which the murderers of Caesar were outlawed, and the execution of the sentence entrusted to
himself. D. Brutus was now in a dangerous position. Antony was marching against him from the
north, Octavianus from the south; his own troops could not be depended upon, and L. Plancus
had already deserted him and gone over to Antony with three legions. He therefore determined
to cross over to M. Brutus in Macedonia; but his soldiers deserted him on the march, and he
was betrayed by Camillus, a Gaulish chief, upon whom he had formerly conferred some favours,
and put to death, by order of Antony, by one Capenus, a Sequanan, Letters and Philippics;