Brutus

This is clear from the transformations which occur in dreams, where slight initial material is transformed by the imagination into all sorts of emotions and shapes.

The imagination is by nature in perpetual motion, and this motion which it has is fancy, or thought. In thy case, too, the body is worn with hardships and this condition naturally excites and perverts the intelligence.

As for genii, it is incredible either that they exist, or, if they do exist, that they have the appearance or the speech of men, or a power that extends to us. For my part, I could wish it were so, in order that not only our men-at-arms, and horses, and ships, which are so numerous, but also the assistance of the gods might give us courage, conducting as we do the fairest and holiest enterprises. With such discourse did Cassius seek to calm Brutus.

Furthermore, as the soldiers were embarking, two eagles perched upon the foremost standards and were borne along with them, and they kept the army company, being fed by the soldiers, as far as Philippi. There, only one day before the battle, they flew away.

Most of the peoples encountered on the march Brutus had already brought into subjection; and now, whatever city or potentate had been omitted, they won them all over, and advanced as far as the Thasian sea.

There Norbanus and his army were encamped, at what were called The Narrows, and near Symbolum; but they surrounded him and compelled him to withdraw and abandon his positions.

They almost captured his forces, too, since Octavius was delayed by sickness; and they would have done so had not Antony come to his aid with such astonishing swiftness that Brutus could not believe in it.

Octavius came, however, ten days later, and encamped over against Brutus, while Antony faced Cassius. The plains between the armies the Romans call Campi Philippi,

and Roman forces of such size had never before encountered one another. In numbers the army of Brutus was much inferior to that of Octavius, but in the splendid decoration of its arms it presented a wonderful sight.

For most of their armour was covered with gold and silver, with which Brutus had lavishly supplied them, although in other matters he accustomed his officers to adopt a temperate and restricted regimen.

But he thought that the wealth which they held in their hands and wore upon their persons gave additional spirit to the more ambitious, and made the covetous even more warlike, since they clung to their armour as so much treasure.