Brutus

Then, after clasping each by the hand, with a very cheerful countenance he said he rejoiced with exceeding joy that not one of his friends had proved false to him, and as for Fortune, he blamed her only for his country’s sake;

himself he regarded as more to be envied than his conquerors, not yesterday and the day before merely, but even now, since he was leaving behind him a reputation for virtue, which those who surpassed in arms or wealth would not do; since the world would believe that base and unjust men who put to death the good and just were unfit to rule.

Then, after earnestly entreating them to save themselves, he withdrew a little way in the company of two or three friends, among whom was Strato, who had been his intimate since they studied rhetoric together.

This man he placed nearest to himself, and then, grasping with both hands the hilt of his naked sword, he fell upon it and died.

Some, however, say that it was not Brutus himself, but Strato, who at his very urgent request, and with averted eyes, held the sword in front of him, upon which he fell with such force that it passed quite through his breast and brought him instant death.[*](The battles at Philippi occurred in 42 B.C., and Brutus was forty-three years of age when he died.)

As for this Strato, Messala, the comrade of Brutus, after a reconciliation with Octavius, once found occasion to introduce him to his new master, and said, with a burst of tears: This is the man, O Caesar, who did the last kind office for my dear Brutus.

Accordingly, Strato was kindly received by Octavius, who, in his subsequent labours, and especially at the battle of Actium, found him, as well as other Greeks, a brave partisan.

And it is said that Messala himself was once praised by Octavius because, though at Philippi he had been most hostile to him and Antony for the sake of Brutus, at Actium he had been a most zealous adherent of his; whereupon Messala said: Indeed, O Caesar, I have ever been on the better and juster side.

When Antony found Brutus lying dead, he ordered the body to be wrapped in the most costly of his own robes, and afterwards, on hearing that the robe had been stolen, put the thief to death. The ashes of Brutus he sent home to his mother Servilia.[*](Suetonius (Divus Augustus, 13) says that the head of Brutus was sent to Rome to be thrown at the feet of Caesar’s statue.)