Kitap 2
The conspirators had left Trebonius, one of their number, to engage Antony in conversation at the door. The others, with concealed daggers, stood around Caesar 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 Caesar 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 Caesar’s head, drove his dagger at his throat, but missed his aim and wounded him in the breast. Caesar 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,ὡς ἐπὶ συστροφῇ τεταμένον. 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 Caesar 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 Caesar made a motion with his head to signify that the matter must be deferred he seized his toga at both shoulders. Caesar exclaimed this is violence, and then another of Casca’s party wounded him in the back a little below the neck. Caesar 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 καὶ σὺ τέκνον, (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,Caesar’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 JULIUS CAeSAR AS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS In the Vatican Museum, Rome
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 Caesar. 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 Caesar and also as consul. While pondering over the matter they were strongly moved to avenge the death of Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar’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 Caesar 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 Caesar’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: παρεκάλουν (τέχνασμα τοῦτό ἐστι τῶν ἀνδροφονῶν) σοτηρίαν ἐπινοοῦντες; 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 ἐστι to ἐς τὴν 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 praetor Cinna, a relative of Caesar by marriage, made his appearance, advanced unexpectedly into the middle of the forum, laid aside his praetorian robe, as if disdaining the gift of a tyrant, and called Caesar 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 Caesar 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 praetor 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 Caesar. 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar), who was still warring against Caesar’s lieutenants in Spain. They also recommended that the tribunes, Caesetius and Marullus, who had been deposed by Caesar, 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 Caesar’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 Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar’s merits they became much divided in opinion. That same night Caesar’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.
While these things were taking place Antony, by means of a notice sent around by night, called the Senate to meet before daybreak at the temple of Tellus, which was very near his own house, because he did not dare to go to the senate-house situated just below the Capitol, where the gladiators were aiding the conspirators, nor did he wish to disturb the city by bringing in the army. Lepidus, however, did that. As daylight was approaching the senators assembled at the temple of Tellus, including the praetor Cinna, clothed again in the robe of office which he had cast off the previous day as the gift of a tyrant. Some of the unbribed people and some of Caesar’s veterans, when they saw him, were indignant that he, although a relative of Caesar, should have been the first to slander him in a public speech, threw stones at him, pursued him, and when he had taken refuge in a house brought fagots and were about to set it on fire when Lepidus came up with his soldiers and stopped them. This was the first decided expression of opinion in favor of Caesar. The hirelings, and the murderers themselves, were alarmed by it.
In the Senate only a small number were free from sympathy with the act of violence and indignant at the murder. Most of them sought to aid the murderers in various ways. They proposed first to invite them to be present under a pledge of safety and sit in council with them, thus changing them from criminals to judges. Antony did not oppose this because he knew they would not come; and they did not come. Then, in order to test the feeling of the Senate, some of them extolled the deed openly and without disguise, called the men tyrannicides, and proposed that they should be rewarded. Others were opposed to giving rewards, saying that the men did not want them and had not done the deed for the sake of reward, but thought that they should merely be thanked as public benefactors. Still others were opposed to thanking them and thought that it would be sufficient to grant them impunity. Such were the devices to which they resorted, and were trying to discover which of these courses the Senate would be inclined to accept first, hoping that after a little that body would be more easily led on by them to the other measures. The honester portion revolted at the murder as impious, but out of respect for the great families of the murderers would not oppose the granting of impunity, yet they were indignant at the proposal to honor them as public benefactors. Others argued that if impunity were granted it would not be fitting to refuse the most ample means of safety. When one speaker said that honoring them would be dishonoring Caesar, it was answered that it was not permissible to prefer the interests of the dead to those of the living. Another having said plainly that one of two things must be decided beforehand — either that Caesar was a tyrant or that his murderers were to be pardoned as an act of clemency — the others [Caesar’s enemies] seized upon this simple proposition and asked that an opportunity be given them of expressing themselves by vote concerning the character of Caesar, under the solemn pledge that, if they voluntarily should give their unbiased judgment, the penalty of the oath should not befall them for having previously voted Caesar’s decrees under compulsion — never willingly and never until they were in fear for their own lives, after the killing of Pompey and of numberless others besides Pompey.
When Antony, who had been looking on and waiting, saw that sufficient material for discussion had been introduced which was not open to dispute, he resolved to balk their scheme by exciting fear and anxiety for themselves. Seeing a great number of these senators themselves who had been designated by Caesar for city magistracies, priestly offices, and the command of provinces and armies (for, as he was going on a long expedition, he had appointed them for five years), Antony proclaimed silence as consul and said: Those who are asking for a vote on the character of Caesar ought to consider in the first place that all the things done and decreed under his government and while he was the chosen ruler of the state remain in full force. If it is decided that he usurped the government by violence, his body should be cast out unburied and all his acts annulled. These acts, to speak briefly, embrace the whole earth and sea, and most of them will stand whether we like them or not, as I shall presently show. Those things which alone belong to us to decide, because they concern us alone, I will propose to you first, so that you may gain a conception of the more difficult questions from a consideration of the easier ones. Almost all of us have held office under Caesar; or do so still, having been chosen thereto by him; or will do so soon, having been designated in advance by him; for, as you know, he had disposed of the city offices, the yearly magistracies, and the command of provinces and armies for five years. If you are willing to resign these offices (for this is entirely in your power), I will put that question to you first and then I will take up the remaining ones.
Having lighted this kind of a firebrand among them, not in reference to Caesar, but to themselves, Antony relapsed into silence. They rose immediately en masse, and with loud clamor protested against new elections or submitting their claims to the people. They preferred to keep a firm hold on what they possessed. Some were opposed to new elections because they were not of lawful age, or for some other unavowed reason, and among these was the consul Dolabella himself, who could not legally stand for an election to that office as he was only twenty-five years old. Although he had pretended yesterday that he had a share in the conspiracy, a sudden change came over him, and now he reviled the majority for seeking to confer honor on murderers and dishonoring their own magistrates under the pretext of securing the safety of the former. Some encouraged Dolabella himself and the other magistrates to believe that they would obtain for them the same positions from the people’s gratitude without any change of officers, but simply by the more legal method of election in place of monarchical appointment, and that it would be an additional honor to them to hold the same places under the monarchy and the republic. While these speakers were still talking some of the praetors, in order to ensnare the opposing faction, laid aside their robes of office as if they were about to exchange them for a more legal title to their places, in common with the others; but the others did not fall into the trap. They knew that these men could not control the future election.
While affairs were proceeding thus, Antony and Lepidus went out of the Senate, having been called for by a crowd that had been assembling for some time. When they were perceived in an elevated place, and the shouters had been with difficulty silenced, one of their number, either of his own volition or because he was prompted, called out, Have a care lest you suffer a like fate. Antony loosened his tunic and showed him a coat-of-mail inside, thus exciting the beholders, as though it were impossible even for consuls to be safe without arms. Some cried out that the deed must be avenged, but a greater number demanded peace. To those who called for peace Antony said, That is what we are striving for, that it may come and be permanent, but it is hard to get security for it when so many oaths and solemnities were of no avail in the case of Caesar. Then, turning to those who demanded vengeance, he praised them as more observant of the obligations of oaths and religion, and added, I myself would join you and would be the first to call for vengeance if I were not the consul, who must care for what is called expedient rather than for what is just. So these people who are inside tell us. So Caesar himself perhaps thought when, for the good of the country, he spared those citizens whom he captured in war, and was slain by them.
When Antony had in this way worked upon both parties by turns, those who wanted to have vengeance on the murderers asked Lepidus to execute it. As Lepidus was about to speak those who were standing at a distance asked him to go down to the forum where all could hear him equally well. So he went directly there, thinking that the crowd was now changing its mind, and when he had taken his place on the rostra he groaned and wept in plain sight for some time. Then recovering himself, he said, Yesterday I stood with Caesar here, where now I am com- pelled to ask what you wish me to do about his murder. Many cried out Avenge Caesar. The hirelings shouted on the other side, Peace for the republic. To the latter he replied, Agreed, but what kind of a peace do you mean? By what sort of oaths shall it be confirmed? We all swore the national oaths to Caesar and we have trampled on them — we who are considered the most distinguished of the oath-takers. Then, turning to those who called for vengeance, he said, Caesar, that truly sacred and revered man, has gone from us, but we hesitate to deprive the republic of those who still remain. Our conscript fathers, he added, are considering these matters, and this is the opinion of most of them. They shouted again, Avenge him yourself. I would like to, he replied, and it is right that I should do it even alone, but it is not fitting that you and I should wish to do it alone, or alone set ourselves up against them.
While Lepidus was employing such devices the hirelings, who knew that he was ambitious, praised him and offered him Caesar’s place as pontifex maximus. He was delighted. Mention this to me later, he said, if you consider me worthy of it, whereupon the mercenaries, encouraged by their offer of the priesthood, insisted still more strongly on peace. Although it is contrary to religion and law, he said, I will do what you wish. So saying he returned to the Senate, where Dolabella had consumed all the intervening time in unseemly talk about his own office. Antony, who was waiting to see what the people would do, looked at Dolabella with derision, for the two were at variance with each other. After enjoying the spectacle sufficiently and perceiving that the people would not do anything rashly, he decided, under compulsion, to extend protection to the murderers (concealing the necessity, however, and pretending to act in this way as a matter of the greatest favor), and at the same time to have Caesar’s acts ratified and his plans carried into effect by common agreement. Accordingly he commanded silence again and spoke as follows:—
Fellow-citizens, while you have been considering the case of the offenders I have not joined in the debate. When you called for a vote on Caesar instead of on them, I had brought forward, until this moment, only one of Caesar’s acts. This one threw you into these many present controversies, and not without reason, for if we resign our offices we shall confess that we (so many and of such high rank as we are) came by them undeservedly. Consider the matters that cannot be easily controlled by us. Reckon them up by cities and provinces, by kings and princes. Almost all of these, from the rising to the setting sun, Caesar either subdued for us by force and arms, or organized by his laws, or confirmed in their allegiance by his favors and kindness. Which of these powers do you think will consent to be deprived of what they have received, unless you mean to fill the world with new wars — you who propose to spare these wretches for the sake of your exhausted country? But, omitting the more distant dangers and apprehensions, we have others not only near at hand, but even of our own household throughout Italy itself,— men who are here after receiving the rewards of victory, many of them with arms in their hands and in the same organization in which they fought, men assigned to colonies by Caesar (many thousands of whom are still in the city), — what think you they will do if they are deprived of what they have received, or expect to receive, in town and country? The past night showed you a sample. They were coursing the streets with threats against you who were supplicating in behalf of the murderers.
Think you that Caesar’s fellow-soldiers will allow his body to be dragged through the streets, dishonored, and cast away unburied — for our laws prescribe such treatment for tyrants? Will they consider the rewards they have received for their victories in Gaul and Britain secure, when he who gave them is treated with contumely? What will the Roman people themselves do? What the Italians? What ill-will of gods and men will attend you if you put ignominy upon one who advanced your dominion to shores of the ocean hitherto unknown? Will not such fickleness on our part be held in greater reprobation and condemnation if we vote to confer honor on those who have slain a consul in the senate-house, an inviolable man in a sacred place, in full senate, under the eyes of the gods, and if we dishonor one whom even our enemies honor for his bravery? I warn you to abstain from these proceedings as being sacrilegious in themselves and not in our power. I move that all the acts and intentions of Caesar be ratified and that the authors of the crime be by no means applauded (for that would be neither pious, nor just, nor consistent with the ratification of Caesar’s acts). Let them be spared, if you please, as an act of clemency only, for the sake of their families and friends, if the latter will accept it in this sense in behalf of the murderers and acknowledge it in the light of a favor.
When Antony had said these things with intense feeling and impetuosity, all the others remaining silent and agreeing, the following decree was passed: There shall be no prosecution for the murder of Caesar, but all of his acts and decrees are confirmed, because this policy is deemed advantageous to the commonwealth. The friends of the murderers insisted that those last words should be added for their security, implying that Caesar’s acts were confirmed as a measure of utility and not of justice; and in this matter Antony yielded to them. When this decree had been voted the leaders of the colonists who were present asked for another act special to themselves, in addition to the general one, in order to confirm their colonies. Antony did not oppose this, but rather intimidated the Senate to pass it. So this was adopted, and another like it concerning the colonists who had been already sent out. The Senate was thereupon dismissed, and a number of senators collected around Lucius Piso, whom Caesar had made the custodian of his willSuetonius says that Caesar deposited his will with the eldest of the Vestal virgins. His account is as follows: At the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, Caesar’s will was opened and read in the house of Antony, which will he had made on the preceding ides of September, in his Lavican villa, and had deposited with the eldest of the Vestal virgins. Quintus Tubero relates that Pompey had been constantly made his heir in the wills written by him from his first consulship to the beginning of the civil war, and that this fact was publicly made known to the army. In his latest will he made the three grandsons of his sisters his heirs, giving to Gaius Octavius three-fourths and to Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius the remaining fourth. (Jul. 83.) The epitome of Livy (cxvi.) says that the will gave Octavius one-half. and urged him not to make the will public, and not to give the body a public funeral, lest some new disturbance should arise therefrom. As he would not yield they threatened him with a public prosecution for defrauding the people of such an amount of wealth which ought to go into the public treasury; thus giving new signs that they were suspicious of a tyranny.
Then Piso called out with a loud voice and demanded that the consuls should reconvene the senators, who were still present, which was done, and then he said: These men who talk of having killed a tyrant are already so many tyrants over us in place of one. They forbid the burying of a Pontifex Maximus and they threaten me when I produce his will. Moreover, they intend to confiscate his property as that of a tyrant. They have ratified Caesar’s acts as regards themselves, but they annul those which relate to him. It is no longer Brutus or Cassius who do this, but those who instigated them to the murder.ἀλλ’ οἱ κἀκείνους ἐς τόνδε τὸν ὄλεθρον ἐκριπίσαντες. Combes-Dounous translates these words: Those who have hurled Brutus and Cassius into the abyss, an error due perhaps to a hasty reading of the last word and deriving it from ἐκρίπτω, to cast away, instead of ἐκριπίζω, to instigate. Of his burial you are the masters. Of his will I am, and never will I betray what has been intrusted to me unless somebody kills me also. This speech excited clamor and indignation on all sides, and especially among those who hoped that they should obtain something from the will. It was decreed that the will should be read in public and that Caesar should have a public funeral. Thereupon the Senate adjourned.
When Brutus and Cassius learned what had been done they sent messengers to the plebeians, whom they invited to come up to them at the Capitol. Presently a large number came together and Brutus addressed them as follows: Here, citizens, we meet you, we who yesterday met together with you in the forum. We have come hither, not as taking refuge in a sanctuary (for we have done nothing wrong), nor in a citadel (for as regards our own affairs we intrust ourselves to you), but the sudden and unexpected attack made upon Cinna compelled us to do so. I know that our enemies accuse us of perjury and say that we render a lasting peace difficult. What we have to reply to these accusations we will say in your presence, citizens, with whose help we shall do what remains to be done for the restoration of democratic government. After Gaius Caesar advanced from Gaul with hostile arms against his country, and Pompey, the most popular man among you, suffered as he did, and after him a great number of other good citizens, who had been driven into Africa and Spain, had perished, Caesar was naturally apprehensive, although his power was firmly intrenched, and we granted him amnesty at his request and confirmed it by oath. If he had required us to swear not only to condone the past, but to be willing slaves for the future, what would our present accusers have done? For my part I think that, being Romans, they would have chosen to die many times rather than take an oath of voluntary servitude.
If Caesar did no more against your liberty then are we perjured. But if he restored to you neither the magistracies of the city nor those of the provinces, neither the command of armies, the priestly offices, the leadership of colonies, nor any other posts of honor; if he neither consulted the Senate about anything nor asked the authority of the people, but if Caesar’s command was all in all; if he was not even ever satiated with our misfortunes as Sulla was (for Sulla, when he had destroyed his enemies restored to you the government of the commonwealth, but Caesar, as he was going away for another long military expedition, anticipated by his appointments your elections for five years), what sort of freedom was this in which not a ray of hope could be any longer discerned? What shall I say of the defenders of the people, Caesetius and Marullus? Were not the incumbents of a sacred and inviolable office ignominiously banished? Although the law and the oath prescribed by our ancestors forbid calling the tribunes to account during their term of office, Caesar banished them even without a trial. Have we then, or has he, done violence to inviolable persons — unless you say that Caesar was sacred and inviolable, upon whom we conferred that distinction not of our own free will, but by compulsion, and not until he had invaded his country with arms and killed a great number of our noblest and best citizens? Did not our fathers in a democracy and without compulsion take an oath that the office of tribune should be sacred and inviolable, and declare with maledictions that it should remain so forever? What has become of the public tribute? What of the public accounts? Who opened the public treasury without our consent? Who removed part of the consecrated money? Who threatened with death another tribune who opposed him?
But what kind of an oath after this will be a guarantee of peace? they ask. If there is no tyrant there will be no need of oaths. Our fathers never needed any. If anybody else seeks to establish tyranny, no faith, no oath, will ever bind Romans to the tyrant. This we said before, while we were still in danger; this we will continue to say forever for our country’s sake. We, who held places of honor securely at the hands of Caesar, had a higher regard for our country than for our offices. They slander us about the colonies and so excite you against us. If there are any present who have been settled in colonies, or are about to be settled, you will gratify me by making yourselves known.
A large number did so, whereupon Brutus continued, Bravo, my men, you have done well to come here with the others. You ought, since you receive due honors and bounties from your country, to give her equal honor in return as she sends you forth. The Roman people gave you to Caesar to fight against the Gauls and Britons, and your valiant deeds call for recognition and recompense. But Caesar, taking advantage of your military oath, led you against your country much against your will. He led you against our best citizens in Africa, in like manner against your will. If this were all that you had done you would perhaps be ashamed to ask reward for such exploits, but since neither envy, nor time, nor the forgetfulness of men can extinguish the glory of your deeds in Gaul and Britain, you shall have the rewards due to them, such as the people gave to those who served in the army of old, yet not by taking land from your unoffending fellow-citizens, nor by dividing other people’s property with new-comers, nor by considering it proper to requite your services by means of acts of injustice. When our ancestors overcame their enemies they did not take from them all their land. They shared it with them and colonized a portion of it with Roman soldiers, who were to serve as guards over the vanquished. If the conquered territory was not sufficient for the colonies, they added some of the public domain or bought other land with the public money. In this way the people colonized you without harm to anybody. But Sulla and Caesar, who invaded their country like a foreign land and needed guards and garrisons against their own country, did not dismiss you to your homes, nor buy land for you, nor divide among you the property of citizens which they confiscated, nor did they make compensation for the relief of those who were despoiled, although those who despoiled them had plenty of money from the treasury and plenty from confiscated estates. They took, by the law of war, — nay, by the practice of robbery, — from Italians who had committed no offence, who had done no wrong, their land and houses, tombs and temples, which we do not take away even from foreign enemies, except a mere tenth of their produce by way of tax.
They divided among you the property of your own people, the very ones who sent you with Caesar to the Gallic war, and who offered up their prayers at your festival of victory. They colonized you in that way collectively, under your standards and in your military organization, so that you could neither enjoy peace nor be free from fear of those whom you displaced. The man who is driven out and deprived of his goods will always be watching his opportunity to ensnare you. This was the very thing that the tyrants sought to accomplish, — not to provide you with land, which they could have obtained for you elsewhere; but that you, because always beset by lurking enemies, might be the firm bulwark of a government that was committing wrongs in common with you. A common interest between tyrants and their satellites grows out of common crimes and common fears. And this, ye gods, they call colonization, in which are common the lamentations of a kindred people and the expulsion of innocent men from their homes. They purposely made you enemies to your countrymen for their own advantage. We, the defenders of the republic, to whom our opponents say they grant safety out of pity, confirm this very same land to you and will confirm it forever; and to this promise we call to witness the god of this temple.The temple of the Capitoline Jove. You have and shall keep what you have received. None of us will take it from you, neither Brutus, nor Cassius, nor any of us who have incurred danger for your freedom. The one thing wanting in this business we will supply — a reconciliation with your fellow-countrymen most agreeable to them now, as they hear that we shall at once pay them out of the public money the price of this land of which they have been deprived; so that not only shall your colony be secure, but it shall not even be exposed to hatred.
While Brutus was still speaking in this sort, and after the assembly was dissolved, his discourse was approved by all as being entirely just. He and his associates were admired as men of intrepidity, and as peculiarly the friends of the people. The latter were favorably inclined toward them, and promised to coöperate with them on the following day. At daybreak the consuls called the people to an assembly and communicated to them the decisions of the Senate, and Cicero pronounced a long encomium on the decree of amnesty. The people were delighted with it and invited Cassius and his friends to come down from the Capitol. The latter asked that hostages be sent to them in the meantime, and, accordingly, the sons of Antony and Lepidus were sent. When Brutus and his associates made their appearance they were received with shouts of applause, and when the consuls desired to say something the people would not allow them to do so, but demanded that they should first shake hands with these men and make peace with them, which was done. The minds of the consuls were much disturbed by fear and envy lest the conspirators should get the upper hand of them in other political matters.
Caesar’s will was now produced and the people ordered that it be read at once. In it Octavius, the grandson of his sister, was adopted by Caesar. His gardens were given to the people as a place of recreation, and to every Roman still living in the city he gave seventy-five Attic drachmas.About $14. The people were again stirred to anger when they saw the will of this lover of his country, whom they had before heard accused of tyranny. Most of all did it seem pitiful to them that Decimus Brutus, one of the murderers, should have been named by him for adoption in the second degree; for it was customary for the Romans to name alternate heirs in case of the failure of the first. Whereupon there was still greater disturbance among the people, who considered it shocking and sacrilegious that Decimus should have conspired against Caesar when he had been adopted as his son. When Piso brought Caesar’s body into the forum a countless multitude ran together with arms to guard it, and with acclamations and magnificent display placed it on the rostra. Wailing and lamentation were renewed for a long time, the armed men clashed their shields, and gradually they began to repent themselves of the amnesty. Antony, seeing how things were going, did not abandon his purpose, but, having been chosen to deliver the funeral oration, as a consul for a consul, a friend for a friend, a relative for a relative (for he was related to Caesar on his mother’s side), resumed his artful design and spoke as follows:—
It is not fitting, citizens, that the funeral oration of so great a man should be pronounced by me alone, but rather by his whole country. The decrees which all of us, in equal admiration of his merit, voted to him while he was alive — the Senate and the people acting together — I will read, so that I may voice your sentiments rather than my own. Then he began to read with a severe and gloomy countenance, pronouncing each sentence distinctly and dwelling especially on those decrees which declared Caesar to be superhuman, sacred, and inviolable, and which named him the father of his country, or the benefactor, or the chieftain without a peer. With each decree Antony turned his face and his hand toward Caesar’s corpse, illustrating his discourse by his action, and at each appellation he added some brief remark full of grief and indignation; as, for example, where the decree spoke of Caesar as the father of his country he added that this was a testimonial of his clemency; and again, where he was made sacred and inviolable and everybody else was to be held unharmed who should find refuge with him,— Nobody, said Antony, who found refuge with him was harmed, but he, whom you declared sacred and inviolable, was killed, although he did not extort these honors from you as a tyrant, and did not even ask for them. Most servile are we if we give such honors to the unworthy who do not ask for them. But you, faithful citizens, vindicate us from this charge of servility by paying such honors as you now pay to the dead.
Antony resumed his reading and recited the oaths by which all were pledged to guard Caesar and Caesar’s body with all their strength, and all were devoted to perdition who should not avenge him against any conspiracy. Here, lifting up his voice and extending his hand toward the Capitol, he exclaimed, Jupiter, guardian of this city, and ye other gods, I stand ready to avenge him as I have sworn and vowed, but since those who are of equal rank with me have considered the decree of amnesty beneficial, I pray that it may prove so. A commotion arose among the senators in consequence of this exclamation, which seemed to have special reference to them. So Antony quieted them again and recanted, saying, It seems to me, fellow-citizens, that this deed is not the work of human beings, but of some evil spirit. It becomes us to consider the present rather than the past, since the greatest danger approaches, if it is not already here, lest we be drawn into our former civil commotions and lose whatever remains of noble birth in the city. Let us then conduct this sacred one to the abode of the blest, chanting our accustomed hymn of lamentation for him.
Having spoken thus,, he gathered up his garments like one inspired, girded himself so that he might have the free use of his hands, took his position in front of the bier as in a play, bending down to it and rising again, and sang first as to a celestial deity. In order to testify to Caesar’s godlike origin, he raised his hands to heaven and with rapid speech recited his wars, his battles, his victories, the nations he had brought under his country’s sway, and the spoils he had sent home, extolling each exploit as miraculous, and all the time exclaiming, Thou alone hast come forth unvanquished from all the battles thou hast fought. Thou alone hast avenged thy country of the out-rage put upon it 300 years ago, bringing to their knees those savage tribes, the only ones that ever broke into and burned the city of Rome. Many other things Antony said in a kind of divine frenzy, and then lowered his voice from its high pitch to a sorrowful tone, and mourned and wept as for a friend who had suffered unjustly, and prayed that his own life might be given in exchange for Caesar’s. Carried away by extreme passion he uncovered the body of Caesar, lifted his robe on the point of a spear and shook it aloft, pierced with dagger-thrusts and red with the dictator’s blood. Whereupon the people, like a chorus, mourned with him in the most lugubrious manner, and from sorrow became again filled with anger. After the discourse other lamentations were chanted with funeral music according to the national custom, by the people in chorus, to the dead; and his deeds and his sad fate were again recited. Somewhere from the midst of these lamentations Caesar himself was supposed to speak, recounting the benefits he had conferred on his enemies by name, and speaking of the murderers themselves, exclaiming, as it were, Oh that I should have spared these men to slay me.A quotation from the Latin poet Pacuvius. The original is given in Suetonius: Men’ servasse, ut essent qui me perderent! The people could endure it no longer. It seemed to them monstrous that all the murderers who, with the single exception of Decimus Brutus, had been made prisoners while belonging to the faction of Pompey, and who, instead of being punished, had been advanced by Caesar to the magistracies of Rome and to the command of provinces and armies, should have conspired against him; and that Decimus should have been deemed by him worthy of adoption as his son.
While they were in this temper and were already near to violence, somebody raised above the bier an image of Caesar himself made of wax.Waxen images of the deceased were common in the funerals of distinguished persons in Rome. The body itself, as it lay on its back on the couch, could not be seen. The image was turned round and round by a mechanical device, showing the twenty-three wounds in all parts of the body and on the face, which gave him a shocking appearance. The people could no longer bear the pitiful sight presented to them. They groaned, and, girding themselves, they burned the senate-chamber where Caesar was slain, and ran hither and thither searching for the murderers, who had fled some time previously. They were so mad with rage and grief that like wild beasts they tore in pieces the tribune Cinna on account of his similarity of name to the praetor Cinna who had made a speech against Caesar, not waiting to hear any explanation about the simhilarity of name, so that no part of him was ever found for burial.Suetonius (Jul. 85) and Valerius Maximus (ix. 9) agreed with Appian that this victim of error was the tribune Cinna, whose surname was Helvius. Plutarch says that he was a poet, or rather a man of a poetical turn. They carried fire to the houses of the other murderers, but the domestics valiantly fought them off and the neighbors besought them to desist. So the people abstained from the use of fire, but they threatened to come back with arms on the following day.Merivale (Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ii. 84) considers this report of Antony’s funeral oration no rhetorical fiction, but a fair representation both in manner and substance of the actual harangue. Cicero bore testimony to the effectiveness of Antony’s discourse when he spoke of it in the second Philippic (36) as that beautiful encomium, that mournful dirge, that appeal to passion. adding: thou, thou I say, didst light the fire that half consumed his body and burned down the house of L. Bellienus. Thou didst precipitate upon our homes that mob of abandoned men, mostly slaves, whom we drove back by force and violence.
The murderers fled from the city secretly. The people returned to Caesar’s bier and bore it as a consecrated thing to the Capitol in order to bury it in the temple and place it among the gods. Being prevented from doing so by the priests, they placed it again in the forum where in the olden time stood the palace of the kings of Rome. There they collected together sticks of wood and benches, of which there were many in the forum, and anything else they could find of that sort, for a funeral pile, throwing on it the adornments of the procession, some of which were very costly. Some of them cast their own crowns upon it and many military gifts. Then they set fire to it, and the entire people remained by the funeral pile throughout the night. There an altar was first erected,Suetonius gives a similar account of Caesar’s funeral, and adds: They afterward placed in the forum a solid column of Numidian marble nearly twenty feet high and inscribed on it the words To the Father of his Country, at which they continued for a long time to offer sacrifice, to take vows, and to adjust controversies in which the oath was taken in the name of Caesar. (Jul. 85.) This column was demolished by the consul Dolabella, who flung over the Tarpeian rock the free persons who participated in these ceremonies, crucified the slaves, and caused the ground to be repaved. This must have taken place shortly before the first of May, as Cicero, then at Puteoli, wrote a letter to Atticus on that day in which he mentioned it as news just received by him. Oh, my admirable Dolabella, he says, I now call him mine, for believe me, I had some little doubt of him before. The affair presents a great outlook. Over the rock! On the cross! The column demolished, the place itself under contract to be paved. Is it not heroic? He seems to me to have put an end to that appearance of regret for Caesar which was hitherto spreading from day to day, and becoming chronic, so that I feared lest it should prove dangerous to our tyrant-killers. (Ad Att. xiv. 15.) but now there stands the temple of Caesar himself, as he was deemed worthy of divine honors; for Octavius, his son by adoption, who took the name of Caesar, and, following in the footsteps of the latter in political matters, greatly strengthened the government founded by Caesar, and which remains to this day, decreed divine honors to his father. From this example the Romans now pay like honors to each emperor at his death if he has not reigned in a tyrannical manner or made himself odious, although at first they could not bear to call them kings while living.
So died Gaius Caesar on the so-called Ides of March, which correspond nearly with the middle of the Greek month Anthesterion, which day the soothsayer predicted that he should not survive. Caesar jokingly said to him early in the morning, Well, the Ides have come, and the latter, nothing daunted, answered, But they are not past. Despising such prophecies, uttered with so much confidence by the soothsayer, and other prodigies that I have previously mentioned, Caesar went on his way and was killed, being fifty-six years of age.Mommsen maintains, contrary to the testimony of Suetonius, Plutarch, and Appian, that Caesar was fifty-eight instead of fifty-six years old at the time of his death. He reasons that Caesar must have been born as early as the year 652 in order to hold the offices of aedile, praetor, and consul at the time when he was first elected to them, supposing that he was elected to each as early as he could be legally. Although the age limit was relaxed in special cases, we find no mention of exception in favor of Caesar, and it is hardly possible that three exceptions could have been made in favor of so illustrious a man without any mention of it occurring in ancient writings. There are other facts which tend to corroborate Mommsen’s view, which is now generally accepted by scholars. He was a man most fortunate in all things, superhuman, of grand designs, and fit to be compared with Alexander. Both were men of the greatest ambition, both were most skilled in the art of war, most rapid in executing their decisions, most reckless of danger, least sparing of themselves, and relying as much on audacity and luck as on military skill. Alexander made a long journey through the desert in the hot season to visit the oracle of Ammon and crossed the Gulf of Pamphylia against a head sea successfully. A god restrained the waves for him until he had passed over, and sent him rain on his journey by land. In India he ventured upon an unknown sea. Once he was the first to ascend the scaling ladders and leaped over the wall among his enemies alone, and in this condition received thirteen wounds. Yet he was never defeated, and he finished almost every war in one or two battles. He conquered many barbarians in Europe and made himself master of Greece, a people hard to control, fond of freedom, who boasted that they had never obeyed anybody before him, except Philip for a little while under the guise of his leadership in war. He overran almost the whole of Asia. To sum up Alexander’s fortune and power in a word, he acquired as much of the earth as he saw, and died while he was devising means to capture the rest.
The Adriatic Sea yielded to Caesar, becoming navigable and quiet in mid-winter. He also crossed the western ocean to Britain, which had never been attempted before, and he ordered his pilots to break their ships in pieces by running them on the rocks of the British coast.This is nonsense. Caesar himself says (Gallic War, v. 10) that while he was advancing into the interior of Britain, word was brought to him that a great storm had arisen in the night and dashed almost all of his ships in pieces on the shore, so that he was obliged to abandon his expedition temporarily. He was exposed to the violence of another tempest when alone in a small boat by night, and he ordered the pilot to spread his sails and to keep in mind Caesar’s fortune rather than the waves of the sea. He often dashed against the enemy single-handed when all others were afraid. He fought thirty pitched battles in Gaul alone, where he conquered forty nations so formidable to the Romans previously that in the law which exempted priests and old men from military enrolment an exception was made of a Gallic war, in case of which priests and old men were required to serve in the army. Once in the course of the Alexandrian war, when he was left alone on a bridge in extreme peril, he threw off his purple garment, leaped into the sea, and, being sought by the enemy, swam under water a long distance, coming to the surface only at intervals to take breath, until he came near a friendly ship, when he made himself known by raising his hands, and was saved. In these civil wars, in which he engaged either through apprehension, as he says, or ambition, he was brought in conflict with the first generals of the age and with many large armies, not now of barbarians, but of Romans in the highest state of efficiency and good fortune, and, like Alexander, he overcame them all by one or two engagements with each. His forces were not, like Alexander’s, always victorious, for they were defeated by the Gauls most disastrously under the command of his lieutenants, Cotta and Titurius; and in Spain Petreius and Afranius shut them up like an army besieged. At Dyrrachium and in Africa they were put to flight, and in Spain they were terrified by young Pompey. But Caesar himself was always undaunted and was victorious at the end of every war. He grasped, partly by force, partly by good-will, the Roman power which ruled the earth and sea from the setting sun to the river Euphrates, and held it much more firmly and strongly than Sulla had done, and he showed himself to be a king in spite of opposition, even though he did not accept the title. And, like Alexander, he expired while planning new wars.
Their armies were equally zealous and devoted to both, and in battles they fought with the greatest ferocity, but were often disobedient and mutinous on account of the severity of their tasks. Yet they mourned and longed for their commanders when they were dead, and paid them divine honors. Both were well-formed and handsome in person, and both were descended from Jupiter, Alexander through Aeacus and Hercules, Caesar through Anchises and Venus. Both were as prompt to fight their adversaries as they were ready to make peace and grant pardon to the vanquished, and after pardon to confer benefits; for they desired only to conquer. Thus far let the parallel hold good, although they did not both start toward empire from the same footing; Alexander from the monarchy founded by Philip, Caesar from a private station, well born and illustrious indeed, but very short of money.
Both of them despised the prodigies relating to themselves, but they did not deal harshly with the sooth-sayers who predicted their death; for more than once the very same prodigies confronted both, pointing to the same end. Twice in the case of each the victims were without a liver, and the first time it indicated a doubtful danger. It happened to Alexander when he was among the Oxydracae and while he was leading his Macedonians in scaling the enemy’s wall. The ladder broke, leaving him alone on the top. Taking counsel of his courage, he leaped inside the town against his enemies, and was struck severely in the breast and on the neck by a very heavy club, so that he fell down, and was rescued with difficulty by the Macedonians, who broke down the gates in their alarm for him. It happened to Caesar in Spain while his army was in great fear of young Pompey, and hesitated to join battle. Caesar dashed in advance of all into the space between the armies, and received 200 darts on his shield until his army, moved by shame and fear for his safety, rushed forward and rescued him. Thus in the case of each the first victims without livers presaged danger of death; the second presaged death itself. As Peithagoras, the soothsayer, was inspecting the entrails, he told Apollodorus, who was in fear of Alexander and Hephestion, not to be afraid of them, because they would both be out of the way very soon. Hephestion died immediately, and Apollodorus, being apprehensive lest some conspiracy might exist against Alexander, communicated the prophecy to him. Alexander smiled, and asked Peithagoras himself what the prodigy meant. When the latter replied that it meant fatality, he smiled again. Nevertheless, he commended Apollodorus for his good-will and the soothsayer for his freedom of speech.
As Caesar 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 had happened to him in Spain. When the soothsayer replied that he was in danger then too, and that the omen was now more deadly, he yielded somewhat to the warning and sacrificed again, and continued to do so until he became vexed with the priests for delaying him, and went in and was killed. The same kind of thing happened to Alexander. As he was returning from India to Babylon with his army, and was nearing the latter place, the Chaldeans urged him to postpone his entrance for the present. He replied with the iambic verse, He who guesses right is the best prophet.This is a line from Euripides, which had passed into a proverb in both Greek and Latin. Schweighäuser cites several authors who used it — among them Arrian (Expeditio Alex. vii. 16), who also gives us a more detailed account of this affair of Alexander and the Chaldeans. Again, the Chaldeans urged him not to march his army into the city while looking toward the setting sun, but to go around and enter facing the east. It is said that he yielded to this suggestion and started to go around, but being bothered by a lake and marshy ground, he disregarded this second prophecy also, and entered the city looking toward the west. Not long after entering he went down the Euphrates in a boat to the river Pallacotta, which takes its water from the Euphrates and carries it away in marshes and ponds and thus hinders the irrigation and navigation of the Assyrian country. While he was considering how he should dyke this stream and while he was sailing out to it for this purpose, it is said that he jeered at the Chaldeans because he had gone into Babylon and sailed out of it safely. But scarcely had he returned back to it when he died. Caesar jeered at the prophecies in like manner, for the soothsayer predicted the day of his death, saying that he should not survive the Ides of March, and when the day came Caesar mocked him saying, The Ides have come; and the same day he died. Thus both alike made light of the prophecies concerning themselves, and were not angry at the soothsayers who uttered them, yet they became the inevitable victims of the prophecies.
Both were students of the science and artsἐπιστήμην τῆς ἀρετῆς: literally, the science of excellence, which is by no means clear. Nauck marks the last word doubtful. of their own country, of Greece, and of foreign nations. As to those of India, Alexander interrogated the Brahmins who seem to be the astronomers and learned men of that country, like the Magi among the Persians. Caesar likewise interrogated the Egyptians while he was there restoring Cleopatra to the throne, by which means he made many improvements among the peaceful arts for the Romans. He changed the calendar, which was still in disorder by reason of the intercalary months till then in use, for the Romans reckoned the year by the moon. Caesar changed it to the sun’s course, as the Egyptians reckoned it.Caesar also, at this time, changed the beginning of the year from the first of March to the first of January, because the latter was the date for changing the supreme magistrates. Both changes came into effect on the first January 709 of the city (45 B.C.), and along with them the use of the Julian Calendar, so named after its author, which, long after the fall of the monarchy of Caesar, remained the regulative standard of the civilized world, and in the main is so still. (Mommsen.) It happened in his case that not one of the conspirators against him escaped, but all were brought to condign punishment by his adopted son, just as the murderers of Philip were by Alexander. How they were punished the succeeding books will show. MARK ANTONY In the Vatican Museum, Rome