Antony

Besides, he called the senate together and spoke in favour of amnesty and a distribution of provinces among Brutus and Cassius and their partisans, and the senate ratified this proposal, and voted that no change should be made in what Caesar had done.[*](Cf. the Caesar, lxvii. 4; the Brutus, xix. 3. ) So Antony went out of the senate the most illustrious of men; for he was thought to have put an end to civil war, and to have handled matters involving great difficulty and extraordinary confusion in a most prudent and statesmanlike manner.

From such considerations as these, however, he was soon shaken by the repute in which he stood with the multitude, and he had hopes that he would surely be first in the state if Brutus were overthrown. Now, it happened that when Caesar’s body was carried forth for burial, Antony pronounced the customary eulogy over it in the forum. And when he saw that the people were mightily swayed and charmed by his words, he mingled with his praises sorrow and indignation over the dreadful deed, and at the close of his speech shook on high the garments of the dead, all bloody and tattered by the swords as they were,

called those who had wrought such work villains and murderers, and inspired his hearers with such rage that they heaped together benches and tables and burned Caesar’s body in the forum, and then, snatching the blazing faggots from the pyre, ran to the houses of the assassins and assaulted them.[*](Cf. the Cicero, xlii. 2 ff.; the Brutus, xx. 3. )

On account of these things Brutus and his associates left the city, the friends of Caesar united in support of Antony, and Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, putting confidence in Antony, took most of the treasure from Caesar’s house and put it in his charge; it amounted in all to four thousand talents.

Antony received also the papers of Caesar, in which there were written memoranda of his decisions and decrees; and making insertions in these, he appointed many magistrates and many senators according to his own wishes. He also brought some men back from exile, and released others from prison, as though Caesar had decided upon all this.

Wherefore the Romans in mockery called all such men Charonitae;[*](In Latin, Orcini, from Orcus, the god of the lower world, to whom the Greek Charon is made to correspond.) for when put to the test they appealed to the memoranda of the dead. And Antony managed everything else in autocratic fashion, being consul himself, and having his brothers in office at the same time, Caius as praetor, and Lucius as tribune of the people.