Brutus

A meeting of the senate having been called, to which it was expected that Caesar would come, they determined to make their attempt there; for they could then gather together in numbers without exciting suspicion, and would have all the best and foremost men in one place, who, once the great deed was done, would straightway espouse the cause of liberty.

It was thought, too, that the place of meeting was providentially in their favour; for it was one of the porticoes about the theatre, containing a session-room in which stood a statue of Pompey.

This statue the city had erected in his honour when he adorned that place with the porticoes and the theatre.[*](Cf. Pompey, xl. 5. ) Hither, then, the senate was summoned about the middle of March[*](March 15, 44 B.C.) (the Romans call the day the Ides of March), so that some heavenly power seemed to be conducting Caesar to Pompey’s vengeance.

When the day came, Brutus girt on a dagger, to the knowledge of his wife alone, and went forth, while the rest assembled at the house of Cassius and conducted his son, who was about to assume what was called the toga virilis, down to the forum.

Thence they all hastened to the portico of Pompey and waited there, expecting that Caesar would straight-way come to the meeting of the senate.

There any one who knew what was about to happen would have been above all things astonished at the indifference and composure of the men on the brink of this terrible crisis. Many of them were praetors and therefore obliged to perform the duties of their office, wherein they not only listened calmly to those who had petitions to offer or quarrels to compose, as if they had ample time, but also took pains to give their verdicts in every case with accuracy and judgment.

And when a certain man who was unwilling to submit to the verdict of Brutus appealed to Caesar with loud cries and attestations, Brutus turned his gaze upon the bystanders and said: Caesar does not prevent me from acting according to the laws, nor will he prevent me.