Civil Wars

While Cæsar was being borne to the Senate one of his intimates, who had learned of the conspiracy, ran to his house to tell what he knew. When he arrived there and found only Calpurnia he merely said that he wanted to speak to Cæsar about urgent business, and then waited for him to come back from the Senate, because he did not know all the particulars of the affair. Meantime Artemidorus, whose hospitality Cæsar had enjoyed at Cnidus, ran to the Senate and found him already murdered. A tablet informing him of the conspiracy was put into Cæsar's hand by another person while he was sacrificing in front of the curia, but he went in immediately and it was found in his hand after his death. Directly after he stepped out of the litter Popillius Læna, who a little before had joined his prayers with the party of Cassius, accosted Cæsar and engaged him aside in earnest conversation. The sight of this proceeding and especially the length of the conversation struck terror into the hearts of the conspirators, and they made signs to each other that they would kill themselves rather than be captured. As the conversation was prolonged they saw that Læna did not seem to be revealing anything to Cæsar, but rather to be urging some petition. They recovered themselves and when they saw him return thanks to Cæsar after the conversation they took new courage. It was the custom of the magistrates, when about to enter the Senate, to take the auspices at the entrance. Here again Cæsar's first victim was without a heart, or, as some say, the beginning of the entrails was wanting. A soothsayer said that this was a sign of death. Cæsar, laughing, said that the same thing had happened to him when he was beginning his campaign against Pompeius in Spain. The soothsayer replied that he had been in very great danger then and that now the omen was still more entitled to credence.[*](e)/ti piqanw/teron: here we encounter a curiosity in the text. In Sec. 153 infra the author says: "As Cæsar was entering the Senate for the last time, as I have shortly before related, the same omens were observed, but he said jestingly that the same thing happened to him in Spain. The soothsayer replied that he was in danger then and that the omen was now more deadly, e)piqanatw/teron. The close resemblance of the text of the two phrases suggested to Musgrave the query whether Appian had not written the same in both places. Schweighäuser thought that it was altogether probable, but as all the codices agreed he did not venture to change the text. Mendelssohn has changed it in the Teubner edition, while the Didot edition adheres to the original.) So Cæsar ordered him to sacrifice again. None of the victims were more propitious; but being ashamed to keep the Senate waiting, and being urged by his enemies in the guise of friends, he went in disregarding the omens. For it was fated that Cæsar should meet his doom.

The conspirators had left Trebonius, one of their number, to engage Antony in conversation at the door. The others, with concealed daggers, stood around Cæsar like friends as he sat in his chair. Then one of them, Tillius Cimber, came up in front of him and petitioned him for the recall of his brother, who had been banished. When Cæsar answered that the matter must be deferred, Cimber seized hold of his purple robe as though still urging his petition, and pulled it away so as to expose his neck, exclaiming, "Friends, what are you waiting for?" Then first Casca, who was standing over Cæsar's head, drove his dagger at his throat, but missed his aim and wounded him in the breast. Cæsar snatched his toga from Cimber, seized Casca's hand, sprang from his chair, turned around, and hurled Casca with great violence. While he was in this position another one stabbed him with a dagger in the side, which was exposed by his turning around,[*](w(s e)pi\ sustrofh=| tetame/non. Literally, "which was in a state of tension by reason of his turning and twisting.") Cassius wounded him in the face, Brutus smote him in the thigh, and Bucolianus between the shoulder-blades. With rage and outcries Cæsar turned now upon one and now upon another like a wild animal, but after receiving the wound from Brutus he despaired and, veiling himself with his robe, he fell in a decent position at the foot of Pompey's statue. They continued their attack after he had fallen until he had received twenty-three wounds. Several of them while thrusting with their swords wounded each other.[*](The account of the assassination given by Suetonius (Jul. 82) is as follows: "The conspirators stood around him as he was seated, pretending to pay their respects, and directly Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the initiative, advanced nearer as if to ask some favor, and when Cæsar made a motion with his head to signify that the matter must be deferred he seized his toga at both shoulders. Cæsar exclaimed 'this is violence,' and then another of Casca's party wounded him in the back a little below the neck. Cæsar seized Casca's arm and pierced it with a stylus, and while trying to rush forward was hindered by another wound. When he saw himself assailed on all sides with drawn daggers he drew his toga around his head and at the same time with his left hand arranged the fold over his lower limbs so that he might fall more decently, with the lower part of his body covered. In this way he was stabbed with twenty-three wounds, having uttered no cry but only a single groan at the first blow, although some say that when Marcus Brutus attacked him he exclaimed kai\ su\ te/knon, (and you, my son). He lay there dead for some time, all having fled, until three of his slaves placed him on a litter with his arm hanging down, and carried him home. Among so many wounds, according to the physician Antistius, there was only one that was mortal, and that was the second one, which he had received in the breast.")

When the murderers had perpetrated their crime, in a sacred place, on one whose person was sacred and inviolable,[*](Cæsar's person was sacred and inviolable under Roman law both as pontifex maximus and as dictator.) there was an immediate flight from the curia and throughout the whole city. Some senators were wounded in the tumult and others killed. Many other citizens and strangers were murdered also, not designedly, but as such things happen in public commotions, by the mistakes of

those into whose hands they fell. Gladiators, who had been armed early in the morning for that day's spectacles, ran out of the theatre into the balcony of the Senate. The theatre itself was emptied in haste and panic-terror, and the markets were plundered. All citizens closed their front doors and put themselves in a posture of defence on their roofs. Antony fortified his house, apprehending that the conspiracy was against him as well as Cæsar. Lepidus, the master of horse, being in the forum at the time, learned what had been done and ran to the island in the river where he had a legion of soldiers, which he transferred to the plain in order to be in greater readiness to execute Antony's orders; for he yielded to Antony as a closer friend of Cæsar and also as consul. While pondering over the matter they were strongly moved to avenge the death of Cæsar, but they feared lest the Senate should espouse the side of the murderers and so they concluded to await events. There had been no military guard around Cæsar, for he did not like guards except the usual attendants of the magistracy. Many civilian officers and a large crowd of citizens and strangers, of slaves and freedmen, had accompanied him from his house to the Senate, but had fled en masse, all except three slaves, who placed the body in a litter and, with uneven step (being an uneven number), bore him homeward who, a little before, had been master of the earth and sea.

The murderers wished to make a speech in the Senate, but as nobody remained there they wrapped their togas around their left arms to serve as shields, and, with swords still reeking with blood, ran, crying out that they had slain a king and tyrant. One of them bore a cap on the end of a spear as a symbol of freedom and exhorted the people to restore the government of their fathers and recall the memory of the elder Brutus and of those who took the oath together against the ancient kings. With them ran some with drawn swords who had not participated in the deed, but wanted to share the glory, among whom were Lentulus Spinther, Favonius, Aquinus, Dolabella, Murcus, and Patiscus. These did not share the glory, but they suffered punishment with the guilty. As the people did not flock to them they were disconcerted and alarmed. Although the Senate had at first fled through ignorance and alarm, they had confidence in it nevertheless as being their own relatives and friends, and oppressed equally with themselves by the tyranny. They had apprehensions of the plebeians and of Cæsar's soldiers, many of whom were then present in the city, some lately dismissed from the service and to whom lands had been allotted; others who had been already settled, but had come in to serve as an escort for Cæsar on his departure from the city. The assassins had fears of Lepidus, too, and of the army under him in the city, and also of Antony in his character as consul, lest he should consult the people alone, instead of the Senate, and bring some fearful punishment upon them.

In this frame of mind they hastened up to the Capitol with their gladiators. There they took counsel and decided to bribe the populace, hoping that if some would begin to praise the deed others would join in from love of liberty and longing for the republic. They thought that the Roman people were still exactly the same as they had heard that they were at the time when the elder Brutus expelled the kings. They did not perceive that they were counting on two incompatible things, namely, that people could be lovers of liberty and bribe-takers at the same time. The latter class were much easier to find of the two, because the government had been corrupt for a long time. The plebeians were now much mixed with foreign blood, freedmen had equal rights of citizenship with them, and slaves were dressed in the same fashion as their masters. Except in the case of the senatorial rank the same costume was common to slaves and to free citizens. Moreover the distribution of corn to the poor, which took place in Rome only, drew thither the lazy, the beggars, the vagrants of all Italy. The multitude of discharged soldiers no longer returned one by one to their native places as formerly, fearing that some of them might be accused of having engaged in iniquitous wars,[*](The text here is very obscure.) but were sent in groups to unjust allotments of lands and houses belonging to others. These were now encamped in temples and sacred enclosures under one standard, and one person appointed to lead them to their colony, and as they had already sold their own be longings preparatory to their departure they were in readiness to be bought for any purpose.[*](This is a very strong picture of the corruption of Roman society at that time and of its incapacity for self-government.)

From so many men of this kind a considerable crowd was drawn speedily and without difficulty to the party of Cassius in the forum. These, although bought, did not dare to praise the murder, because they feared Cæsar's reputation and doubted what course the rest of the people might take. So they shouted for peace as being for the public advantage, and with one accord recommended this policy to the magistrates, intending by this device to secure the safety of the murderers;[*](The text of all the codices except the Vatican reads: pareka/loun (te/xnasma tou=to/ e)sti tw=n a)ndrofonw=n) sothri/an e)pinoou=ntes; which means that this shouting for peace "was a device of the murderers themselves," which is not unlikely, but it presents grammatical difficulties which led Schweighäuser to change the word e)sti to e)s th\n and to reject the parenthesis, as Geslen had done before him. The Vatican codex has this very reading, as Mendelssohn points out.) for there could be no peace without amnesty to them. While they were thus engaged the prætor Cinna, a relative of Cæsar by marriage, made his appearance, advanced unexpectedly into the middle of the forum, laid aside his prætorian robe, as if disdaining the gift of a tyrant, and called Cæsar a tyrant and his murderers tyrannicides. He extolled their deed as exactly like that of their ancestors, and ordered that the men themselves should be called from the Capitol as benefactors and rewarded with public honors. So spake Cinna, but when the hirelings saw that the unbought portion of the crowd did not agree with them they did not call for the men in the Capitol, nor did they do anything else but continually demand peace.

But after Dolabella,[*](Dolabella had married Cicero's daughter Tullia. He was a great scoundrel and turncoat.) a young man of noble family who had been chosen by Cæsar as consul for the remainder of his own year when he was about to leave the city, and who had put on the consular garb and taken the other insignia of the office, came forward next and railed against the man who had advanced him to this dignity and pretended to have been privy to the conspiracy against him, and that his hand alone was unwillingly absent -- some say that he even proposed a decree that this day should be consecrated as the birthday of the republic -- then the hirelings took new courage, seeing that they had both a prætor and a consul on their side, and demanded that Cassius and his friends be summoned from the Capitol. They were delighted with Dolabella and thought that now they had a young optimate, who was also consul, to oppose against Antony. Only Cassius and Marcus Brutus came down, the latter with his hand still bleeding from the wound he had received when he and Cassius were dealing blows at Cæsar. When they reached the forum neither of them said anything which betokened humility. On the contrary they praised each other as for something confessedly admirable. They considered the city fortunate and bore special testimony to the merits of Decimus Brutus because he had furnished them gladiators at a critical moment. They exhorted the people to be like their ancestors, who had expelled the kings, although the latter were exercising the government not by violence like Cæsar, but had been chosen according to law. They advised the recall of Sextus Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great, the defender of the republic against Cæsar), who was still warring against Cæsar's lieutenants in Spain. They also recommended that the tribunes, Cæsetius and Marullus, who had been deposed by Cæsar, should be recalled from exile.

After they had thus spoken Cassius and Brutus returned directly to the Capitol, because they had not yet entire confidence in the present posture of affairs. Having first enabled their friends and relatives to come to them in the temple, they chose from among them messengers to treat on their behalf with Lepidus and Antony for conciliation and the preservation of liberty, and for warding off the evils that would befall the country if they should not come to an agreement. This the messengers asked, not extolling the deed that had been done, however, for they did not dare to do this in the presence of Cæsar's friends. They asked that it be tolerated now that it was done, out of pity for the perpetrators (who had been actuated, not by hatred toward Cæsar, but by love of country), and out of compassion for the city exhausted by long-continued civil strife, and which a new sedition might deprive of the good men still remaining. "If enmity were entertained against certain persons," they said, "it would be an act of impiety to gratify it in a time of public danger. It would be far preferable to sink private animosity in the public weal, or, if anybody were irreconcilable, at least to postpone his private grievances for the present."

Antony and Lepidus wished to avenge Cæsar, as I have already said, either on the score of friendship, or of the oaths they had sworn, or because they were aiming at the supreme power themselves and thought that their course would be easier if so many men of such rank were put out of the way at once. But they feared the friends and relatives of these men and the leaning of the rest of the Senate toward them, and especially they feared Decimus Brutus, who had been chosen by Cæsar governor of Cisalpine Gaul, which had a large army. So they decided to watch a future opportunity and to try if possible to draw over to themselves the army of Decimus, which was already disheartened by its protracted labors. Having come to this decision, Antony replied to the messengers, "We shall do nothing from private enmity, yet in consequence of the crime and of the oaths we have all sworn to Cæsar, that we would either protect his person or avenge his death, a solemn regard for our oath requires us to drive out the guilty and to live with a smaller number of innocent men rather than that all should be liable to the divine curse. Yet for our own part, although this seems to us the proper course, we will consider the matter with you in the Senate and we will agree to whatever may be decided in common to be propitious for the city."

Thus did Antony make a safe answer. The messengers returned their thanks and went away full of hope, for they had entire confidence that the Senate would cooperate with them. Antony ordered the magistrates to have the city watched by night, stationing guards at intervals as in the daytime, and he had fires lighted throughout the city. By this means the friends of the murderers were enabled to traverse the city the whole night, going to the houses of the senators and beseeching them in behalf of these men and of the republic. On the other hand, the leaders of the colonized soldiers ran about uttering threats lest they should fail to hold the lands set apart, either already assigned or proclaimed to them. And now the more honest citizens began to recover courage when they learned how small was the number of the conspirators, and when they remembered Cæsar's merits they became much divided in opinion. That same night Cæsar's money and his official papers were transferred to Antony's house, either because Calpurnia thought that they would be safer there or because Antony ordered it.