mass of the senators rushed in confused terror to the doors; and when
Brutus turned to address his peers in defence of the deed, the hall was
well-nigh empty. Cicero, who had been present, answered not, though he
was called by name; Antony had hurried away to exchange his consular
robes for the garb of a slave. Disappointed of obtaining the sanction of
the senate, the conspirators sallied out into the Forum to win the ear
of the people. But here, too, they were disappointed. Not knowing what
massacre might be in store, every man had fled to his own house; and in
vain the conspirators paraded the Forum, holding up their blood-stained
weapons and proclaiming themselves the liberators of Rome.
Disappointment was not their only feeling: they were not without fear.
They knew that Lepidus, being on the eve of departure for his province
of Narbonnese Gaul, had a legion encamped on the island of the Tiber:
and if he were to unite with Antony against them, Cæsar would quickly be
avenged. In all haste, therefore, they retired to the Capitol. Meanwhile
three of Cæsar's slaves placed their master's body upon a stretcher and
carried it to his house on the south side of the Forum, with one arm
dangling from the unsupported corner. In this condition the widowed
Calpurnia received the lifeless clay of him who had lately been
sovereign of the world.
Lepidus moved his troops to the Campus Martius. But Antony had no
thoughts of using force; for in that case probably Lepidus would have
become master of Rome. During the night he took possession of the
treasure which Cæsar had collected to defray the expenses of his
Parthian campaign, and persuaded Calpurnia to put into his hands all the
dictator's papers. Possessed of these securities, he barricaded his
house on the Carinae, and determined to watch the course of events.
In the evening Cicero, with other senators, visited the self-styled
liberators in the Capitol. They had not communicated their plot to the
orator, through fear (they said) of his irresolute counsels; but now
that the deed was done, he extolled it as a godlike act. Next morning,
Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, whom Cæsar had promised should be his
successor in the consulship, assumed the consular fasces and joined the
liberators; while Cinna, son of the old Marian leader and therefore
brother-in-law to Cæsar, threw aside his praetorian robes, declaring he
would no longer wear the tyrant's livery. Dec. Brutus, a good soldier,
had taken a band of gladiators into pay, to serve as a bodyguard of the
liberators. Thus strengthened, they ventured again to descend into the
Forum. Brutus mounted the tribune, and addressed the people in a
dispassionate speech, which produced little effect. But when Cinna
assailed the memory of the dictator, the crowd broke out into menacing
cries, and the liberators again retired to the Capitol.
That same night they entered into negotiations with Antony, and the
result appeared next morning, the second after the murder. The senate,
summoned to meet, obeyed the call in large numbers. Antony and Dolabella
attended in their consular robes, and Cinna resumed his praetorian garb.
It was soon apparent that a reconciliation had been effected: for Antony
moved that a general amnesty should be granted, and Cicero seconded the
motion in an animated speech. It was carried; and Antony next moved that
all the acts of the dictator should be recognized as law. He had his own
purposes here; but the liberators also saw in the motion an advantage to
themselves; for they were actually in possession of some of the chief
magistracies, and had received appointments to some of the richest
provinces of the empire. This proposal, therefore, was favorably
received; but it was adjourned to the next day, together with the
important question of Cæsar's funeral.
On the next day Cæsar's acts were formally confirmed, and among them his
will was declared valid, though its provisions were yet unknown. After
this, it was difficult to reject the proposal that the dictator should
have a public burial. Old senators remembered the riots that attended
the funeral of Clodius and shook their heads. Cassius opposed it. But
Brutus, with imprudent magnanimity, decided in favor of allowing it. To
seal the reconciliation, Lepidus entertained Brutus at dinner and
Cassius was feasted by Mark Antony.
The will was immediately made public. Cleopatra was still in Rome, and
entertained hopes that the boy Cæsarion would be declared the dictator's
heir; for though he had been married thrice, there was no one of his
lineage surviving. But Cæsar was too much a Roman, and knew the Romans
too well, to be guilty of this folly. Young C. Octavius, his sister's
son, was declared his heir. Legacies were left to all his supposed
friends, among whom were several of those who had assassinated him. His
noble gardens beyond the Tiber were devised to the use of the public,
and every Roman citizen was to receive a donation of three hundred
sesterces--between ten and fifteen dollars. The effect of this recital
was electric. Devotion to the memory of the dictator and hatred for his
murderers at once filled every breast.
Two or three days after this followed the funeral. The body was to be
burned, and the ashes deposited in the Campus Martius, near the tomb of
his daughter Julia. But it was first brought into the Forum upon a bier
inlaid with ivory and covered with rich tapestries, which was carried by
men high in rank and office. There Antony, as consul, rose to pronounce
the funeral oration. He ran through the chief acts of Cæsar's life,
recited his will, and then spoke of the death which had rewarded him. To
make this more vividly present to the excitable Italians he displayed a
waxen image marked with the three-and-twenty wounds, and produced the
very robe which he had worn, all rent and blood-stained. Soul-stirring
dirges added to the solemn horror of the scene. But to us the memorable
speech which Shakespeare puts into Antony's mouth will give the
liveliest notion of the art used and the impression produced. That
impression was instantaneous. The senator friends of the liberators who
had attended the ceremony looked on in moody silence. Soon the menacing
gestures of the crowd made them look to their safety. They fled; and the
multitude insisted on burning the body, as they had burned the body of
Clodius, in the sacred precincts of the Forum. Some of the veterans who
attended the funeral set fire to the bier; benches and firewood heaped
round it soon made a sufficient pile.
From the blazing pyre the crowd rushed, eager for vengeance, to the
houses of the conspirators. But all had fled betimes. One poor wretch
fell a victim to the fury of the mob--Helvius Cinna, a poet who had
devoted his art to the service of the dictator. He was mistaken for L.
Cornelius Cinna the prætor, and was torn to pieces before the mistake
could be explained.[79]
[Footnote 79: This story is, however, rendered somewhat doubtful by the
manner in which Cinna is mentioned in Vergil's ninth _Eclogue_, which
was certainly written in or after the year B.C. 40.]
Antony was now the real master of Rome. The treasure which he had seized
gave him the means of purchasing good will, and of securing the
attachment of the veterans stationed in various parts of Italy. He did
not, however, proceed in the course which, from the tone of his funeral
harangue, might have been expected. He renewed friendly intercourse with
Brutus and Cassius, who were encouraged to visit Rome once at least, if
not oftener, after that day; and Dec. Brutus, with his gladiators, was
suffered to remain in the city. Antony went still further. He gratified
the senate by passing a law to abolish the dictatorship forever. He then
left Rome to win the favor of the Italian communities and try the temper
of the veterans.
Meanwhile another actor appeared upon the scene. This was young
Octavius. He had been but six months in the camp at Apollonia; but in
that short time he had formed a close friendship with M. Vipsanius
Agrippa, a young man of his own age, who possessed great abilities for
active life, but could not boast of any distinguished ancestry. As soon
as the news of his uncle's assassination reached the camp, his friend
Agrippa recommended him to appeal to the troops and march upon Rome. But
the youth, with a wariness above his years, resisted these bold
counsels. Landing near Brundusium almost alone, he there first heard
that Cæsar's will had been published and that he was declared Cæsar's
heir. He at once accepted the dangerous honor. As he travelled slowly
toward the city he stayed some days at Puteoli with his mother, Atia,
who was now married to L. Philippus. Both mother and stepfather
attempted to dissuade him from the perilous business of claiming his
inheritance. At the same place he had an interview with Cicero, who had
quitted Rome in despair after the funeral, and left the orator under the
impression that he might be won to what was deemed the patriotic party.
He arrived at Rome about the beginning of May, and demanded from Antony,
who had now returned from his Italian tour, an account of the moneys of
which the consul had taken possession, in order that he might discharge
the obligations laid upon him by his uncle's will. But Antony had
already spent great part of the money in bribing Dolabella and other
influential persons; nor was he willing to give up any portion of his
spoil. Octavius therefore sold what remained of his uncle's property,
raised money on his own credit, and paid all legacies with great
exactness. This act earned him much popularity. Antony began to fear
this boy of eighteen, whom he had hitherto despised, and the senate
learned to look on him as a person to be conciliated.
Still Antony remained in possession of all actual power. Cicero, not
remarkable for political firmness, in this crisis displayed a vigor
worthy of his earlier days. He had at one moment made up his mind to
retire from public life and end his days at Athens in learned leisure.
In the course of this summer he continued to employ himself on some of
his most elaborate treatises. His works on the _Nature of the Gods_ and
on _Divination_, his _Offices_, his _Dialogue on Old Age_, and several
other essays belong to this period and mark the restless activity of his
mind. But though he twice set sail from Italy, he was driven back to
port at Velia, where he found Brutus and Cassius. Here he received
letters from Au. Hirtius and other friends of Cæsar, which gave him
hopes that, in the name of Octavius, they might successfully oppose
Antony and restore constitutional government. He determined to return,
and announced his purpose to Brutus and Cassius, who commended him and
took leave of him. They went their way to the east to raise armies
against Antony; he repaired to Rome to fight the battles of his party in
the senate house.
Meanwhile Antony had been running riot. In possession of Cæsar's papers,
with no one to check him, he produced ready warrant for every measure
which he wished to carry, and pleaded the vote of the senate which
confirmed all the acts of Cæsar. When he could not produce a genuine
paper, he interpolated or forged what was needful.
On the day after Cicero's return (September 1st) there was a meeting of
the senate. But the orator did not attend, and Antony threatened to send
men to drag him from his house. Next day Cicero was in his place, but
now Antony was absent. The orator arose and addressed the senate in what
is called his _First Philippic_. This was a measured attack upon the
government and policy of Antony, but personalities were carefully
eschewed: the tone of the whole speech, indeed, is such as might be
delivered by a leader of opposition in parliament at the present day.
But Antony, enraged at his boldness, summoned a meeting for the 19th of
September, which Cicero did not think it prudent to attend. He then
attacked the absent orator in the strongest language of personal abuse
and menace. Cicero sat down and composed his famous _Second Philippic_,
which is written as if it were delivered on the same day, in reply to
Antony's invective. At present, however, he contented himself with
sending a copy of it to Atticus, enjoining secrecy.
Matters quickly drew to a head between Antony and Octavius. The latter
had succeeded in securing a thousand men of his uncle's veterans who had
settled in Campania; and by great exertions in the different towns of
Italy had levied a considerable force. Meantime four of the Epirote
legions had just landed at Brundusium, and Antony hastened to attach
them to his cause. But the largess which he offered them was only a
hundred _denaries_ a man, and the soldiers laughed in his face. Antony,
enraged at their conduct, seized the ringleaders and decimated them. But
this severity only served to change their open insolence into sullen
anger, and emissaries from Octavius were ready to draw them over to the
side of their young master. They had so far obeyed Antony as to march
northward to Ariminum, while he repaired to Rome. But as he entered the
senate house he heard that two of the four legions had deserted to his
rival, and in great alarm he hastened to the camp just in time to keep
the remainder of the troops under his standard by distributing to every
man five hundred denaries.
The persons to hold the consulship for the next year had been designated
by Cæsar. They were both old officers of the Gallic army, C. Vibius
Pansa and Au. Hirtius, the reputed author of the Eighth Book of the
_History of the Gallic War_. Cicero was ready to believe that they had
become patriots, because, disgusted with the arrogance of Antony, they
had declared for Octavius and the senate. Antony began to fear that all
parties might combine to crush him. He determined, therefore, no longer
to remain inactive; and about the end of November, having now collected
all his troops at Ariminum, he marched along the Æmilian road to drive
Dec. Brutus out of Cisalpine Gaul. Decimus was obliged to throw himself
into Mutina (Modena), and Antony blockaded the place. As soon as his
back was turned, Cicero published the famous _Second Philippic_, in
which he lashed the consul with the most unsparing hand, going through
the history of his past life, exaggerating the debaucheries, which were
common to Antony with great part of the Roman youth, and painting in the
strongest colors the profligate use he had made of Cæsar's papers. Its
effect was great, and Cicero followed up the blow by the following
twelve _Philippics_, which were speeches delivered in the senate house
and Forum, at intervals from December (44) to April in the next year.
Cicero was anxious to break with Antony at once, by declaring him a
public enemy. But the latter was still regarded by many senators as the
head of the Cæsarean party, and it was resolved to treat with him. But
the demands of Antony were so extravagant that negotiations were at once
broken off, and nothing remained but to try the fortune of arms. The
consuls proceeded to levy troops; but so exhausted was the treasury that
now for the first time since the triumph of Æmilius Paullus it was found
necessary to levy a property tax on the citizens of Rome.
Octavius and the consuls assembled their forces at Alba. On the first
day of the new year (43) Hirtius marched for Mutina, with Octavius under
his command. The other consul, Pansa, remained at Rome to raise new
levies; but by the end of March he also marched to form a junction with
Hirtius. Both parties pretended to be acting in Cæsar's name.
Antony left his brother Lucius in the trenches before Mutina, and took
the field against Hirtius and Octavius. For three months the opponents
lay watching each other. But when Antony learned that Pansa was coming
up, he made a rapid movement southward with two of his veteran legions
and attacked him. A sharp conflict followed, in which Pansa's troops
were defeated, and the consul himself was carried, mortally wounded, off
the field. But Hirtius was on the alert, and assaulted Antony's wearied
troops on their way back to their camp, with some advantage. This was on
the 15th of April, and on the 27th Hirtius drew Antony from his
intrenchments before Mutina. A fierce battle followed, which ended in
the troops of Antony being driven back into their lines. Hirtius
followed close upon the flying enemy; the camp was carried by storm, and
a complete victory would have been won had not Hirtius himself fallen.
Upon this disaster Octavius drew off the troops. The news of the first
battle had been reported at Rome as a victory, and gave rise to
extravagant rejoicings. The second battle was really a victory, but all
rejoicing was damped by the news that one consul was dead and the other
dying. No such fatal mischance had happened since the Second Punic War,
when Marcellus and Crispinus fell in one day.
After his defeat Antony felt it impossible to maintain the siege of
Mutina. With Dec. Brutus in the town behind him, and the victorious
legions of Octavius before him, his position was critical. He therefore
prepared to retreat, and effected this purpose like a good soldier. His
destination was the province of Narbonnese Gaul, where Lepidus had
assumed the government and had promised him support. But the senate also
had hopes in the same quarter. L. Munatius Plancus commanded in Northern
Gaul, and C. Asinius Pollio in Southern Spain. Sext. Pompeius had made
good his ground in the latter country, and had almost expelled Pollio
from Bætica. Plancus and Pollio, both friends and favorites of Cæsar,
had as yet declared neither for Antony nor Octavius. If they would
declare for the senate, Lepidus, a feeble and fickle man, might desert
Antony; or if Octavius would join with Dec. Brutus, and pursue him,
Antony might not be able to escape from Italy at all. But these
political combinations failed. Plancus and Pollio stood aloof, waiting
for the course of events. Dec. Brutus was not strong enough to pursue
Antony by himself, and Octavius was unwilling, perhaps unable, to unite
the veterans of Cæsar with troops commanded by one of Cæsar's murderers.
And so it happened that Antony effected his retreat across the Alps, but
not without extreme hardships, which he bore in common with the meanest
soldier. It was at such times that his good qualities always showed
themselves, and his gallant endurance of misery endeared him to every
man under his command. On his arrival in Narbonnese Gaul he met Lepidus
at Forum Julii (Frejus), and here the two commanders agreed on a plan of
operations.
The conduct of Octavius gave rise to grave suspicions. It was even said
that the consuls had been killed by his agents. Cicero, who had hitherto
maintained his cause, was silent. He had delivered his _Fourteenth_ and
last _Philippic_ on the news of the first victory gained by Hirtius. But
now he talked in private of "removing" the boy of whom he had hoped to
make a tool. Octavius, however, had taken his part, and was not to be
removed. Secretly he entered into negotiations with Antony. After some
vain efforts on the part of the senate to thwart him, he appeared in the
Campus Martius with his legions. Cicero and most of the senators
disappeared, and the fickle populace greeted the young heir of Cæsar
with applause. Though he was not yet twenty he demanded the consulship,
having been previously relieved from the provisions of the _Lex Annalis_
by a decree of the senate, and he was elected to the first office in the
State, with his cousin, Q. Pedius.[80]
[Footnote 80: Pedius was son of Cæsar's second sister, Julia minor, and
therefore first cousin (once removed) to Octavius.]
A curiate law passed, by which Octavius was adopted into the patrician
gens of the Julii, and was put into legal possession of the name which
he had already assumed--C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus. We shall henceforth
call him Octavian.
The change in his policy was soon indicated by a law in which he
formally separated himself from the senate. Pedius brought it forward.
By its provisions all Cæsar's murderers were summoned to take their
trial. Of course none of them appeared and they were condemned by
default. By the end of September Octavian was again in Cisalpine Gaul
and in close negotiation with Antony and Lepidus. The fruits of his
conduct soon appeared. Plancus and Pollio declared against Cæsar's
murderers. Dec. Brutus, deserted by his soldiery, attempted to escape
into Macedonia through Illyricum; but he was overtaken near Aquileia and
slain by order of Antony.
Italy and Gaul being now clear of the senatorial party, Lepidus, as
mediator, arranged a meeting between Octavian and Antony, upon an island
in a small river near Bononia (Bologna). Here the three potentates
agreed that they should assume a joint and coordinate authority, under
the name of "Triumvirs for settling the affairs of the Commonwealth."
Antony was to have the two Gauls, except the Narbonnese district, which,
with Spain, was assigned to Lepidus; Octavian received Sicily, Sardinia,
and Africa. Italy was for the present to be left to the consuls of the
year, and for the ensuing year Lepidus, with Plancus, received promise
of this high office. In return, Lepidus gave up his military force,
while Octavian and Antony, each at the head of ten legions, prepared to
conquer the Eastern part of the empire, which could not yet be divided
like the Western provinces, because it was in possession of Brutus and
Cassius.
But before they began war, the triumvirs agreed to follow the example
set by Sylla--to extirpate their opponents by a proscription, and to
raise money by confiscation. They framed a list of all men's names whose
death could be regarded as advantageous to any of the three, and on this
list each in turn pricked a name. Antony had made many personal enemies
by his proceedings at Rome, and was at no loss for victims. Octavian had
few direct enemies; but the boy-despot discerned with precocious
sagacity those who were likely to impede his ambitious projects, and
chose his victims with little hesitation. Lepidus would not be left
behind in the bloody work. The author of the _Philippics_ was one of
Antony's first victims; Octavian gave him up, and took as an equivalent
for his late friend the life of L. Cæsar, uncle of Antony. Lepidus
surrendered his brother Paullus for some similar favor. So the work went
on. Not fewer than three hundred senators and two thousand knights were
on the list. Q. Pedius, an honest and upright man, died in his
consulship, overcome by vexation and shame at being implicated in these
transactions.
As soon as their secret business was ended, the triumvirs determined to
enter Rome publicly. Hitherto they had not published more than seventeen
names of the proscribed. They made their entrance severally on three
successive days, each attended by a legion. A law was immediately
brought in to invest them formally with the supreme authority, which
they had assumed. This was followed by the promulgation of successive
lists, each larger than its predecessor.
Among the victims, far the most conspicuous was Cicero. With his brother
Quintus, the old orator had retired to his Tusculan villa after the
battle of Mutina; and now they endeavored to escape in the hope of
joining Brutus in Macedonia; for the orator's only son was serving as a
tribune in the liberator's army. After many changes of domicile they
reached Astura, a little island near Antium, where they found themselves
short of money, and Quintus ventured to Rome to procure the necessary
supply. Here he was recognized and seized, together with his son. Each
desired to die first, and the mournful claim to precedence was settled
by the soldiers killing both at the same moment.