20.5
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;
20.6
on this they placed Caesar’s body, and in the midst of many sanctuaries, asylums, and holy places, burned it.
20.7
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;
20.8
but there was a certain Cinna, a poet, who had no share in the crime, but was actually a friend of Caesar’s.
20.9
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.
20.10
After having this vision, he fell into a fever which lasted all night; but in the morning, nevertheless, when the funeral rites were held over Caesar’s body, he was ashamed not to be present, and went out into the crowd when it was already becoming savage.
20.11
He was seen, however, and being thought to be, not the Cinna that he really was, but the one who had recently reviled Caesar before the assembled people, he was torn in pieces.
