Part 9

A meeting of the senate having been appointed for the fifteenth of March, there was a report that the motion was then to be brought forward to give Cæsar the crown. Cassius who both hated Cæsar of old, and also wished to revenge himself upon him for not having got the _prætura urbana_, made the first advances to Brutus, and sounded him as to whether he would conspire against Cæsar: in the night, inscriptions were left on Brutus’ tribunal and house, which bade him remember that he was a Brutus. Brutus at once held out his hand, and agreed to be reconciled. They enlisted several others, Cæsarians as well as Pompeians, a complete fusion of parties having taken place. Two of the chief conspirators were old generals of Cæsar, Decimus Brutus and C. Trebonius, both of whom he had raised to high honours: they had served in the Gallic war, and had been jointly commissioned to crush the noble town of Massilia. The number of accomplices is unknown; but the conspiracy indiscriminately comprehended people who had fought against each other at Pharsalus (704). No proposals were made to Cicero; but it is a pitiful calumny to say that his courage was mistrusted: to slander a great man in such a way, is really shameful.[17] They might have been quite sure of his courage; what they feared were his objections. Brutus had as fine a soul as any one could have, but he was passionate; Cicero, on the other hand, had arrived at mature age, and had become a sadder and a wiser man: his feelings moreover were of such extraordinary delicacy that he would never have betrayed his benefactor to whom he owed his life, a man who had always behaved towards him in the handsomest and noblest manner, and who had particularly distinguished him before the world as his friend. Nor could the conspirators conceal from themselves, that the undertaking which they were plotting could not but displease a wise man. Goethe has branded the murder of Cæsar as the greatest folly which the Romans ever committed; and never was a truer word spoken.[18] Hirtius and Pansa, two generous and wise men who were well aware that the republic needed to become settled, and not to be stirred up again, had advised Cæsar to look to himself, and to keep a body guard; but he disdained to do this, saying, that he would not wish to live, if he had always to think of preserving his life. He knew well that Brutus might entertain such a thought against him, and he spoke of it to his friends; but he would add, that his health had indeed been too much impaired, and Brutus would surely wait until that frail body of his had gone to decay. And it was the general belief that Cæsar would soon transfer his power to Brutus, as the most worthy to succeed him. It was while these things were going on, that Porcia, when she saw that Brutus was harbouring an important secret, and that he did not make her his confidante, inflicted upon herself a deep wound with a knife. The wound brought on a fever, the cause of which she hid from her husband; and it was only when he repeatedly pressed her, that she at last disclosed it, thus giving him a proof of her discretion. Cæsar went to the curia, although his own forebodings, the dreams of his wife, and the prophecies of the Haruspex had warned him of his death: Dec. Brutus basely enticed him thither. The conspirators were at first seized with fear, lest their plot should have been betrayed. Plutarch now beautifully tells us, how C. Tillius Cimber forced his way up to Cæsar, and worried him with his importunity, until he got angry; how Casca struck the first blow; and how Cæsar was murdered by twenty-three stabs. He lost his life in his fifty-sixth year, or after its completion.—I am not yet quite clear as to this point; but the latter seems to me more likely, judging from the time of his first consulship.—He was born on the eleventh of July, and died on the fifteenth of March, between eleven and twelve o’clock.

STATE OF ROME AFTER THE MURDER OF CÆSAR. TRIUMVIRATE OF ANTONY, OCTAVIAN, AND LEPIDUS. DEATH OF CICERO.

The conspirators were so far from having formed a deliberate plan, that they were not even agreed as to what was to be done next. In the first moment, Cassius demanded that Antony should die; but Brutus was against it, declaring that it was enough that one man should have died. In this Brutus was evidently wrong, as many besides ought to have been slain, to set everything right: at all events, Antony should have been killed, if even a shadow of the republic was still to be kept up; for indeed it was he, and men like him, who had made Cæsar’s rule hateful. He had been his chief instigator to take the diadem, and it is generally acknowledged that, if left to himself, Cæsar would have done nothing but good. In the height of the tumult, most of the senators took to flight, a few openly declared for Brutus and his companions, as tyrannicides. Cicero was one of these, which shows no small courage on his part. On neither side were people at all aware of what was next to follow. One might have believed that the people would have been full of exultation after Cæsar’s murder, as public opinion was against him, ever since he had aspired to the diadem; yet there is nothing more changeable than man: now that the thing which they had wanted was done, the same people who a few days before had wished for Cæsar’s death, were bewailing and lamenting him. The tumult lasted for some days. Cæsar had been murdered on the fifteenth of March; on the seventeenth, the senate met to deliberate on the steps which were to be taken in a time of such great excitement. In this meeting, Antony behaved quite differently from what had been expected, holding out his hand for a reconciliation: people indeed did not trust him; yet they believed that he was forced by circumstances to

## act in this way. Cicero came forward as an adviser, and it was decreed

that an amnesty should be granted for all that was past; just as they did at Athens after the time of the thirty tyrants. There was much consultation about what was to be done. Brutus and Cassius, as public opinion was against them, had betaken themselves to the Capitol to escape from the storm; and from thence they began to negotiate: there were many of Cæsar’s soldiers in the city, others thronged in, and the commotion was very great. The resolutions which were come to, aimed at reconciliation; but they were full of contradictions to each other. Whilst, on the one hand, there was a strong feeling of admiration for the murderers, the decrees of the senate took quite the opposite turn. The proposal that Cæsar should be declared a tyrant, and all his acts be repealed, was not only rejected by the senate, through fear of the veterans, but divine honours were even conferred upon him, and the validity of all his ordinances expressly acknowledged. The motion had been made that his will should be annulled; but his father-in-law, L. Calpurnius Piso, with persevering impudence, carried that it should be ratified, publicly read, and executed. Cæsar had bequeathed to the soldiers, and to every single individual of the Roman people, great sums from his immense treasures; with this one would be sure to rekindle the enthusiasm of the soldiers and of the populace for him who was dead. Some had wisely requested that the burial should be quite private; yet this also was overruled, owing to the boldness of the faction and the cowardice of the senate, and it was ordered that he should have a stately funeral in the _Campus Martius_. The corpse in an open bier, according to the Italian custom, as is still the case at this day, was set down in the Forum before the _rostra_; and there his nearest kinsman Antony, who was allied to him by his mother Julia, delivered the oration, thus working powerfully on the minds of the fickle and capricious people: he not only recounted Cæsar’s great achievements, but he afterwards showed the wounds, and held aloft the bloody toga pierced by the daggers. At this sight, the people became so frantic and enraged, that instead of bearing the dead body to the _Campus Martius_, they at once built up a funeral pile of the benches and whatever wood besides chanced to be at hand, and there they burnt it: they then tore a man to pieces, whom they had groundlessly mistaken for one of the conspirators, and they stormed the houses of Brutus and Cassius. These had already come down from the Capitol on a promise which Antony and Lepidus had made on oath; and now they betook themselves to Antium, whilst others went down to the provinces of which they were governors. Dec. Brutus withdrew to Cisalpine Gaul which had been promised him by Cæsar; there he meant to take the oaths of the legions, and to make sure of them: M. Brutus was to have had Macedon; Cassius, Syria.

The events of this year (708) are so complicated and various, that it is quite impossible to relate them in order. Fr. Fabricius gives a detailed account of them in his life of Cicero: the knowledge of them is of importance for the Philippic orations.

Cæsar had in his will made the grandson of his sister Julia, C. Octavius, his heir _ex dodrante_ after the payment of all legacies; the remaining quarter he had bequeathed to his wife’s relations: Antony and L. Piso, were not among the heirs. Cæsar’s aunt Julia, had been married to Marius; his sister Julia, the wife of M. Atius Balbus, had a daughter Atia, who was married to C. Octavius, the son of C. Octavius: this last was a worthy man, and but for his early death, would have risen to the consulship. Whether these Octavii belonged to those who in former days had acted a part in history, especially the colleague of Tib. Gracchus, is a point which I do not clearly know. I am, however, inclined to deny it, as they are spoken of too positively as having been _ordinis equestris_. At the time of Cæsar’s murder, C. Octavius was in his nineteenth year, having been born on the 23d of September, 689. Cæsar had taken an interest in this young man after his return from Spain; for hitherto he does not seem to have bestowed any attention upon him. He had settled that he was to accompany him in the Parthian war, and thenceforth remain with him to finish his education: until then, he had sent him to Apollonia in Illyricum, to get Grecian learning there. The Greek language was at that time quite common among the Romans: Cassius and Messalla spoke it to each other;[19] and in Cicero’s letters there are long passages in Greek, without the writers being themselves aware of it: Cicero’s Greek, however, has sometimes a peculiarly foreign air about it; it would be interesting to make this at once the subject of an accurate research. When Octavius had heard the sad news, he came up to Rome, and presented himself to Antony as Cæsar’s heir, ready to enter upon his inheritance. This was a most unpleasant arrival for Antony, who had the most urgent reasons not to let the property go out of his hands: for as he was answerable for it, he had to look sharp that no mistake should be made, and that it should be most faithfully administered; just as was the case with those with whom Napoleon had deposited the five millions. Octavius is the first example which I know of in history of an adoption by will; afterwards, this was very often done. Antony now tried to deter Octavius: he as well as others represented to him that he had better give it up, telling him that he was still too young: his mother and his stepfather had allowed themselves to be intimidated. But he already had Agrippa for his adviser, a man of whom, at a later period, there is a great deal of good to be said, but whose conduct at this crisis brought sad consequences upon the republic. But for Agrippa, Octavius would have played quite a different part: he would have let himself be intimidated; or else would have been overpowered, and Brutus would at last have been obliged to take upon himself the dictatorship, though perhaps under a different name, as the _dictatura_ had been abolished for ever by a decree of the senate. Octavius now attached himself to those by whom he hoped to strengthen himself against Antony; and as, of course, he could not league himself with the murderers of Cæsar, he made particular advances to Cicero, whose hands were clean in that affair, and who allowed himself to be entrapped by the deep cunning of the young man: for he deemed it impossible that one so young should be false; and he always tried to see what he wished, to find in Octavius a disposition to consult the good of the commonwealth. Thus arose this connexion.—Octavius carried his point, and Antony had to give up to him the will and the inheritance, that is to say, as much of the latter as was still left; for Antony had already made away with the greatest part of the sums which Cæsar had deposited with him. The ill-feeling between Octavius and Antony now ran very high: each suspected the other, and perhaps with good reason, of trying to murder him. To so great a height had the excitement risen, that Cicero resolved to go away to Athens, until the first of January of the following year, when Hirtius and Pansa were to be consuls: the former of these was a very worthy and able man, and really his friend, whilst Pansa was much less eminent, being only a commonplace soldier.

This summer Cicero displayed the greatest intellectual activity. He began the books _de Officiis_; he wrote the ones _De Divinatione_, _De Fato_, _De Gloria_, the _Topica_, and also that huge quantity of letters, many of which are no longer extant. I do not know of any person, who was so intensely laborious as Cicero, was at that time. A common man will under such circumstances be stunned; he only thinks with terror of what is before him: Cicero, on the contrary, was aware of everything that was going on; but instead of letting himself be made the slave of events which he could not check, he turned all his thoughts to the intellectual world. This activity was the recreation which he found in this grief; it shows the wonderful strength of his soul. Contrary winds obliged him to stop at Rhegium.

Antony had, by means of decrees which he had wrung from the senate, given Macedonia to his brother Caius, and Syria to Dolabella, who, after Cæsar’s death, was consul with him: for himself, he had chosen Cisalpine Gaul. All at once, he turned round, and seemed to be quite another man: he showed himself friendly to the _optimates_, and most ready to conciliate men’s minds; and he enacted laws which aimed at peace. When Cicero was told that Antony was doing everything that one could wish, his friends earnestly begged him to return, and to reconcile himself with Antony. Had Cicero, on his arrival, ventured to appear in the senate, notwithstanding the risk there was of his being murdered in it; and had he brought himself to speak there to Antony, as if he could trust him; he might have prevented a great deal of mischief. Antony was embittered against him, and hated him; but he would perhaps after all have consented to make friends with him. On the whole, Cicero was guilty of a blunder in so loudly expressing his too just abhorrence of Antony’s utter profligacy. Antony, though a bad man, might still to some extent be gained over; he was at least an open character. Octavian, on the other hand, was a thorough hypocrite; and there was much truth in his last words at Nola, when he asked, whether he had well acted the comedy of his life: for it was all a part which he had got up most carefully and deliberately, and which he played with uncommon skill. Dissimulation was the master faculty of his mind. Antony, profligate as his life was, still did some good-natured, and even generous actions: Cicero could not have made a worse choice between the two. He may likewise have uttered things, which gave deep offence to Antony, and very often have made him the butt of his wit. However this may be, when Cicero did not show himself in the senate, Antony broke out against him in the most unseemly manner; and this called forth the second Philippic, which was never spoken, but written, and being immediately circulated, was devoured with the greatest admiration. As Cicero no longer deemed himself to be safe at Rome, he now went into the country.

Towards the end of the year, Antony betook himself to Cisalpine Gaul: Gallia Transpadana likewise had already received the franchise from Cæsar. During the whole of the summer, he went on in the most outrageous manner: on the strength of the senate having confirmed the _acta Cæsaris_, he did what he listed, pretending that he was acting according to commands which he had found among Cæsar’s papers. He granted to colonies immunity; gave others the franchise, and to some the _jus Latii_; chose his creatures into the senate; and all for money. In the same way, he had distributed the provinces.—In Spain, there was Asinius Pollio; in Gaul, M. Lepidus and L. Munatius Plancus. Antony betook himself to his province, where he tried to tamper with the legions of Dec. Brutus, but without success. The Transalpine and Illyrian towns showed themselves at first very friendly towards him; but his debaucheries and extortions estranged them from him. In the beginning of the year 709, the two consuls whom Cæsar had still nominated, Hirtius and Pansa, entered upon their office,—so far did Cæsar’s power reach even now!—and the senate assigned them the provinces of Gaul and Italy, to carry on, in common with Dec. Brutus, the struggle against Antony. Octavius had beguiled Cicero to get him the power and insignia of a prætor. Antony having, on the other hand, recalled the legions from Macedonia, whither they had been sent by Cæsar to be employed against the Parthians, two of them went over to Octavian; and they formed the nucleus of his force against Antony, and afforded protection to Cicero and the other patriots, although there was no one whom they hated so much. In the meanwhile, Brutus and Cassius had gone to Greece.

To the last year of Cicero’s life (709), belong the last Philippics, which come down to the end of April, besides several of the letters _ad diversos_, and also those to Brutus. This collection of epistles, as is well known, consists of two portions: an older one, which was very likely found in the same manuscript with those _ad Quintum fratrem_; and another, which has first appeared in the _Cratandrina_, and is stated to have been found in Germany. With regard to these last letters, there is a difficulty which cannot be cleared up. Whether they were forged in the sixteenth century, or, whether they are really old, I am not able to decide: if they are forged, he who did it has produced an incomparable masterpiece. And as for the other letters to Brutus in the first part, there is likewise a great dispute whether they be genuine or not. That they are very old, even as old as the first century, there can be no doubt; yet for all that they may very easily have been fabricated, even as early as the reign of Augustus, or at least in that of Tiberius: they are written by an ingenious man who had a very good knowledge of that age. It is nearly a hundred years since the question of their genuineness was first mooted by an English editor. Wolf was fully convinced that they were spurious; but I would not assert it so positively. I should however be glad if they were not genuine, of which I am morally convinced, as I am also with regard to the oration _pro Marcello_; yet there are still great doubts on the subject. These letters show some misunderstanding between Brutus and Cicero; and although we must not implicitly rely on them, yet they date so near the time itself, and are written so much from contemporary sources, that they may be looked upon as authorities.

While the first months were passing, Antony was besieging Dec. Brutus in Mutina. All in those parts had now declared against Antony. Modena must at that time have been of very great extent, since Brutus with all his army lay in it. Antony however, who was very much superior to him in numbers, having nine or ten legions, could have starved him out; and he was going to compel him to surrender, when Hirtius and Pansa, and C. Octavius as prætor, came up with three armies to his relief. Hirtius and Octavius first posted themselves in the neighbourhood of Bologna, whither Pansa followed with reinforcements: Octavian only had veterans; the rest were newly raised legions inferior to those of Antony. The latter having marched against the enemy to prevent the junction with Pansa, the troops of Pansa and especially the _legio Martia_ which had been sent forward to his aid, heedlessly let themselves be drawn into a sort of irregular fight in which Antony at first had the worst of it, and then the better. When he was on the point of turning this advantage into a decided victory, Hirtius came up with reinforcements, and won the day. We have still extant an official bulletin of this battle, which was sent to Rome, and of which perhaps something must be abated. Pansa was severely wounded. As Antony did not stir from his lines, and the position of Dec. Brutus was by no means improved; the armies united, and ten or fourteen days afterwards Hirtius undertook an attack upon the camp of Antony: he broke through the upper lines, and took the camp; but he himself was killed in the battle. Dec. Brutus, however, had in the meanwhile made a furious sally, and joined the troops of the senate; so that Antony was obliged to give up the siege. He might still have kept his ground; but he entirely lost his head, and resolved upon leaving Italy.