Civil Wars

"In God's name then,[*](a)gaqh=| tu/xh| toi/nun: an exclamation of a religious sort equivalent to the Latin quod felix faustumque sit. It has no exact equivalent in English.) let no one harbor any one of those whose names are hereto appended, or conceal them, or send them away, or be corrupted by their money. Whoever shall be detected in saving, or aiding, or conniving with them we will put on the list of the proscribed without allowing any excuse or pardon. Those who kill the proscribed and bring us their heads shall receive the following rewards: to a free man 25,000 Attic drachmas per head; to a slave his freedom and 10,000 Attic drachmas and his master's right of citizenship. Informers shall receive the same rewards. In order that they may remain unknown [*](Y.R. 711) the names of those who receive the rewards shall not be inscribed in our registers." Such was the language of the proscription of the triumvirate as nearly as it can be rendered from Latin into Greek.[*](This is the only copy of this hideous instrument that has come down to us. The text corresponds with all that we glean from other authorities concerning it.)

Lepidus was the first to begin the work of proscription, and his brother Paulus was the first on the list of the proscribed. Antony came next, and the second name on the list was that of his uncle, Lucius Cæsar.[*](Both Dion and Appian say that Lucius Cæsar and Lucius Paulus were allowed to escape. See Sec. 37 infra.) These two men had been the first to vote Lepidus and Antony public enemies. The third and fourth victims were relatives of the consuls-elect for the coming year, namely, Plotius, the brother of Plancus, and Quintus, the father-in-law of Asinnius. These four were placed at the head of the list, not so much on account of their dignity as to produce terror and despair, so that none of the proscribed might hope to escape. Among the proscribed was Thoranius, who was said by some to have been a tutor of Octavius. When the lists were published, the gates and all the other exits from the city, the harbor, the marshes, the pools, and every other place that was suspected as adapted to flight or concealment, were occupied by soldiers; the centurions were charged to scour the surrounding country. All these things took place simultaneously.

Straightway, throughout city and country, wherever each one happened to be found, there were sudden arrests and murder in various forms, and decapitations for the sake of the rewards when the head should be shown; also undignified flights in strange costumes, of persons hitherto well dressed. Some descended into wells, others into filthy sewers. Some took refuge in chimneys. Others crouched in the deepest silence under the thick-set tiles of their roofs. Some were not less fearful of their wives and ill-disposed children than of the murderers. Others feared their freedmen and their slaves; creditors feared their debtors and neighbors feared neighbors who coveted their lands. There was a sudden outburst of previously smouldering hates and a shocking change in the condition of senators, consulars, prætors, tribunes (men who were about to enter upon those offices, or who had already held them), who threw themselves with lamentations at the feet of their own slaves, giving to the servant the character of savior and master. It was most lamentable that even after submitting to this humiliation they did not obtain pity.

Every kind of calamity was rife, but not as in ordinary sedition or military occupation, for in those cases the people had to fear only the members of the opposite faction, or the enemy, and could rely on their own domestics. But now they were more afraid of them than of the assassins, for as the former had nothing to fear on their own account, as in ordinary seditions or wars, they were suddenly transformed from domestics into enemies, either from some concealed hatred, or in order to obtain the published rewards, or to possess themselves of the gold and silver in their masters' houses. For these reasons each one became treacherous to the household, preferring his own gain to compassion for the home. Those who were faithful and well-disposed feared to aid, or conceal, or connive at the escape of the victims, because such acts made them liable to the very same punishments. This was quite different from the peril that befell the seventeen men first condemned. Then there was no proscription, but certain persons were arrested unexpectedly, and as all feared similar treatment all sheltered each other. After the proscriptions some immediately became the betrayers of all. Others, being free from danger themselves and eager for gain, became hunting dogs for the murderers for the sake of the rewards. Of the remainder, some plundered the houses of the slain, and their private gains turned their thoughts away from the public calamities; others, more prudent and upright, were palsied with consternation. It seemed most astounding to them, when they reflected upon it, that while other states afflicted by civil strife had been rescued by harmonizing the factions, in this case the dissensions of the leaders had wrought ruin in the first instance and their agreement with each other had had like consequences afterwards.

Some died defending themselves against their slayers. Others made no resistance, considering the assailants not to blame. Some starved, or hanged, or drowned themselves, or flung themselves from their roofs or into the fire. Some offered themselves to the murderers or sent for them when they delayed. Others concealed themselves and made abject entreaties, or dodged, or tried to buy themselves off. Some were killed by mistake, or by private malice, contrary to the intention of the triumvirs. It was evident that a corpse was not one of the proscribed if the head was still attached to it, for the heads of the proscribed were displayed on the rostra in the forum, where it was necessary to bring them in order to get the rewards. Equally conspicuous were the fidelity and courage of others -- of wives, of children, of brothers, of slaves, who rescued the proscribed or planned for them in various ways, and died with them when they did not succeed in their designs. Some even killed themselves on the bodies of the slain. Of those who made their escape some perished by shipwreck, ill luck pursuing them to the last. Others were preserved, contrary to expectation, to become city magistrates, commanders in war, and even to enjoy the honors of a triumph. Such a display of paradoxes did this time afford.

These things took place not in an ordinary city, not in a weak and petty kingdom; but the deity thus smote the most powerful mistress of so many nations and of land and sea, and so brought about, after a long period of time, the present well-ordered condition. Other like events had taken place in the time of Sulla and even before him in that of Gaius Marius. The most notable of these calamities I have narrated in my history of those times, in which was the added horror that the dead were cast away unburied. The matters we are now considering are the more remarkable by reason of the dignity of the triumvirs and especially of one of them, who, by means of his character and good fortune, established the government on a firm foundation, and left his lineage and name to those who now rule after him. I shall now run over the most remarkable as well as the most shocking of these events, which are all the more worthy to be remembered because they were the last of the kind. I shall not speak of all, however, because the mere killing, or flight, or subsequent return of those who were pardoned by the triumvirs at a later period and passed undistinguished lives at home, is not worthy of mention. I shall refer only to those which are calculated to astonish by their extraordinary nature or to confirm what has already been said. These events are many, and they have been written in numerous books by many Roman historians successively. By way of summary, and to shorten my narrative, I shall record a few of each kind in order to confirm the truth of each and to illustrate the happiness of the present time.

The massacre began, as it happened, among those who were still in office, and the first one slain was the tribune Salvius. His was, according to the laws, a sacred and inviolable office, endowed with the greatest powers, even that of imprisoning the consuls in certain circumstances. Salvius was the tribune who had at first prevented the Senate from declaring Antony a public enemy, but later he had coöperated with Cicero in everything. When he heard of the agreement of the triumvirs, and of their hastening to the city, he gave a banquet to his friends, believing that he should not have many more opportunities for doing so. Soldiers burst in while the feast was going on. Some of the guests started up in tumultuous alarm, but the centurion in command ordered them to resume their places and remain quiet. Then, seizing Salvius by the hair, just as he was, the centurion drew him as far as need be across the table, cut off his head, and ordered the guests to stay where they were and make no disturbance unless they wished to suffer a like fate. So they remained after the centurion's departure, stupefied and speechless, till the most silent watches of the night, reclining by the side of the tribune's body. The second one slain was the prætor Minucius, who was holding the comitia in the forum. Learning that the soldiers were seeking him, he fled, and while he was still running about looking for a hiding-place he changed his clothes, and then darted into a shop, sending away his attendants and the insignia of his office. The attendants, moved by shame and pity, lingered near the place, and thus unintentionally made the discovery of the prætor more easy to his slayers.

Annalis, another prætor, was going around with his son, who was a candidate for the quæstorship, and soliciting votes for him. Some friends who accompanied him, and those who bore his insignia of office, when they heard that he was on the list of the proscribed, ran away from him. Annalis took refuge with one of his clients, who had in the suburbs a small, mean apartment in every way despicable, where he remained safely concealed until his son, suspecting that he had fled to this client, guided the murderers to the place. The triumvirs gave him his father's fortune and raised him to the ædileship. As he was returning home drunk he fell into a quarrel about something, and was killed by the same soldiers who had killed his father. Thoranius, who was not then prætor but had been such, and who was the father of a young man who was a scapegrace generally, but had great influence with Antony, asked the centurions to postpone his death for a short time, till his son could appeal to Antony for him. They laughed at him, and said, "He has already appealed, but on the other side." When the old man knew this he asked for another very short interval until he could see his daughter, and when he saw her he told her not to claim her share of the inheritance lest her brother should ask for her death also from Antony. It happened in the son's case that, after squandering his fortune in disgraceful ways, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to banishment.

Cicero, who had held supreme power after Cæsar's death, as much as a public speaker could, was proscribed, together with his son, his brother, and his brother's son and all of his household, his faction, and his friends. He fled in a small boat, but as he could not endure the seasickness, he landed and went to a country place of his own near Caieta,[*](All the codices say Capua, but Schweighäuser gives two excellent reasons for considering this a copyist's mistake for Caieta, which Livy tells us was the place. A third reason for so thinking is that Caieta was on the sea-shore, whereas Capua was a considerable distance inland. If Appian had written the word Capua he could hardly have said immediately afterward that one of the two parties conveying the news to Antony took ship for that purpose.) a town of Italy, which I visited to gain knowledge of this lamentable affair, and here he remained quiet. While the searchers were approaching (for of all others Antony sought for him most eagerly and the rest did so for Antony's sake), crows flew into his chamber and awakened him from sleep by their croaking, and pulled off his bed-covering until his servants, perceiving that this was a warning from one of the gods, put him in a litter and again conveyed him toward the sea, going cautiously through a dense thicket. Many soldiers were hurrying around in squads inquiring if Cicero had been seen anywhere. Some people, moved by good-will and pity, said that he had already put to sea; but a shoemaker, a client of Clodius, who had been a most bitter enemy of Cicero, pointed out the path to Læna, the centurion, who was pursuing with a small force. The latter ran after him, and seeing slaves mustering for the defence in much larger number than the force under his own command, he called out by way of stratagem, "Come on, you centurions in the rear, this is the place;" whereupon the slaves, thinking that more soldiers were coming, were terror-stricken.

Læna, although he had been once saved by Cicero when under trial, drew his head out of the litter and cut it off, striking it three times, or rather sawing it off by reason

of his inexperience. He also cut off the hand with which Cicero had written the speeches against the tyranny of Antony and which he had entitled Philippics in imitation of those of Demosthenes. Then some of the soldiers hastened on horseback and others on shipboard to convey the good news quickly to Antony. The latter was sitting in front of the tribunal in the forum when Læna, a long distance off, showed him the head and hand by lifting them up and shaking them. Antony was delighted beyond measure. He crowned the centurion and gave him 250,000 Attic drachmas in addition to the stipulated reward for killing the man who had been his greatest and most bitter enemy. The head and hand of Cicero were suspended for a long time from the rostra in the forum where formerly he had been accustomed to make public speeches, and more people came together to behold this spectacle than had previously come to listen to him. It is said that even at his meals Antony placed the head of Cicero before his table, until he became satiated with the horrid sight. Thus was Cicero, a man famous even yet for his eloquence, and one who had rendered the greatest service to his country when he held the office of consul, slain, and insulted after his death. His son had been sent in advance to Brutus in Greece. Cicero's brother, Quintus, was captured, together with his son. He begged the murderers to kill him before his son, and the son prayed that he might be killed before his father. The murderers said that they would grant both requests, and, dividing themselves into two parties, each taking one, killed them at the same time according to agreement.[*](A fragment of Livy, preserved for us in the writings of Seneca Rhetor (Suasoriœ, i. 7) gives us that historian's account of the death of Cicero. It is placed in the Appendix to Book IV, together with other extracts from ancient writers touching the same event.)

The Egnatii, father and son, while embracing each other, died by the same blow, and their heads were cut off while the remainder of their bodies were still locked together. Balbus sent his son in advance of himself in flight toward the sea in order that they might not be too conspicuous travelling together, and he followed at a short interval. Somebody told him, either by design or by mistake, that his son had been captured. He went back and delivered himself to the murderers. It happened, too, that his son perished by shipwreck. Thus did ill luck add to the calamities of the time. Aruntius had a son who was not willing to fly without his father. The latter with difficulty persuaded him to seek his safety because he was young. His mother accompanied him to the city gates and returned only to bury her slain husband. When she learned that her son also had perished at sea she starved herself to death. Such examples were there of good and bad sons.

Two brothers of the name of Ligarius, being proscribed together, hid themselves in an oven till their slaves found them, when one of them was killed and the other fled. When the latter learned that his brother had perished he threw himself from a bridge into the Tiber. Some fishermen seized him thinking that he had fallen into the water instead of leaping in. He resisted rescue and tried to throw himself into the river again. When he was overcome by the fishermen he exclaimed, "You are not saving me, but ruining yourselves by helping one who is proscribed." Nevertheless they had pity on him and saved him until some soldiers who were guarding the bridge saw him, ran to him, and cut off his head. One of two brothers threw himself into the river and one of his slaves searched for the body five days. At last he found it, and as it was still possible to recognize it, he cut off the head for the sake of the reward. The other brother had concealed himself in a dung-heap and another slave betrayed him. The murderers disdained to go into the heap, but thrust their spears into him and dragged him out. They then cut off his head, just as he was, without washing it. Another one seeing his brother arrested ran up to him, not knowing that he was himself proscribed also, and said, "Kill me instead of him."[*](e)me\ ktei/nate pro\ tou/tou. This may mean, "kill me before him," or "kill me instead of him." The latter was the meaning intended, but the centurion interpreted it the other way for the sake of the jest.) The centurion, having the proscription list at hand, said, "Your request is a proper one, for your name comes before his." And so saying, he killed both of them in due order. Let these serve as examples in the case of brothers.

Ligarius was concealed by his wife, who communicated the secret to only one female slave. Having been betrayed by the latter, she followed her husband's head as it was carried away, crying out, "I sheltered him; those who give shelter are to share the punishment." As nobody killed her or informed of her, she came to the triumvirs and accused herself before them. Being moved by her love for her husband they pretended not to see her. So she starved herself to death. I have mentioned her in this place because she failed to save her husband and would not survive him. I shall refer to those who were successful in their devotion to their husbands when I speak of the men who escaped. Other women betrayed their husbands infamously. Among these was the wife of Septimius, who had an amour with a certain friend of Antony. Being impatient to exchange this illicit connection for matrimony, she besought Antony through her paramour[*](e)deh/qh tou= moixeu/ontos au)th\n )*antwni/ou. This sentence is probably corrupt. The translation is conjectural.) to rid her of her husband. Septimius was at once put on the list of the proscribed. He learned this fact from his wife, and in ignorance of his domestic ills prepared for flight. She, as though with loving anxiety, closed the doors, and kept him until the murderers came. The same day that her husband was killed she celebrated her new nuptials.