Brutus

However, on the following day the senate met in the temple of Tellus, and Antony, Plancus, and Cicero spoke in favour of amnesty and concord. It was then voted not only that the conspirators should have immunity, but also that the consuls should lay before the people a measure to pay them honours. After passing these votes, the senate broke up.

Then, when Antony had sent his son to the Capitol as a hostage, Brutus and his associates came down, and there were salutations and greetings for all without discrimination.

Cassius was taken home and entertained by Antony, Brutus by Lepidus, and the rest by their several comrades or friends. Early next morning the senate assembled again

In the first place, they gave a vote of thanks to Antony for having stopped an incipient civil war; next, they passed a vote of commendation for the followers of Brutus who were present; and finally, they distributed the provinces.

It was voted that Brutus should have Crete, Cassius Africa, Trebonius Asia, Cimber Bithynia, and the other Brutus Cisalpine Gaul.

After this, the subjects of Caesar’s will and of his burial came up for discussion. Antony demanded that the will should be read publicly, and that the body should be carried forth to burial, not secretly, nor without honours, lest this also should exasperate the people. Cassius, indeed, vehemently opposed these measures, but Brutus yielded and agreed to them, thus making a second mistake, as it was thought.

For by sparing Antony’s life as he had done he incurred the charge of raising up against the conspirators a bitter and formidable foe; and now, in allowing Caesar’s funeral rites to be conducted as Antony demanded, he committed a fatal error.

For, in the first place, when it was found that the will of Caesar gave to every single Roman seventy-five drachmas, and left to the people his gardens beyond the Tiber, where now stands a temple of Fortune, an astonishing kindliness and yearning for Caesar seized the citizens;

and in the second place, after Caesar’s body had been brought to the forum, Antony pronounced the customary eulogy, and when he saw that the multitude were moved by his words, changed his tone to one of compassion, and taking the robe of Caesar, all bloody as it was, unfolded it to view, pointing out the many places in which it had been pierced and Caesar wounded.

All further orderly procedure was at an end, of course; some cried out to kill the murderers, and others, as formerly in the case of Clodius the demagogue,[*](Clodius was killed in a street-brawl with Milo, 52 B.C. Cf. Cicero, xxv. 1. ) dragged from the shops the benches and tables, piled them upon one another, and thus erected a huge pyre;

on this they placed Caesar’s body, and in the midst of many sanctuaries, asylums, and holy places, burned it.

Moreover, when the fire blazed up, people rushed up from all sides, snatched up half-burnt brands, and ran round to the houses of Caesar’s slayers to set them on fire. These men, indeed, having previously barricaded themselves well, repelled the danger;

but there was a certain Cinna, a poet, who had no share in the crime, but was actually a friend of Caesar’s.

This man dreamed that he was invited to supper by Caesar and declined to go, but that Caesar besought and constrained him, and finally took him by the hand and led him into a yawning and darksome place, whither he followed unwilling and bewildered.